I Thessalonians 11-10
Today the art of letter writing seems to be dying. What with email, text messaging etc people no longer seem to write a letter to anyone. Now I am one of those who uses text messages and email but I love receiving a letter and I quite enjoy writing letters to people. I enjoy reading letters – especially long correspondences over many years. The NT has many letters and just like our they have a formal way of starting and ending. We have them in chapters and verses so that it is easier for us to find our way around when we are studying and reading them, especially in public. But please keep in mind that they were letters of their day. So we must first and foremost understand the situation into which Paul was writing this letter and then bring it into 2002. So let me begin by setting the background to this first letter of Paul’s to the Thessalonians.
Background
In Acts 1536 we reads of Paul beginning his second missionary journey. Paul completed three missionary journeys and then he had a missionary journey to Rome where he was eventually martyred for the Christian faith. His first missionary journey was really a local journey – he travelled through Cyprus, Syria and south Galatia. The second journey we read about in Acts 15-17 – he moved out west and was prevented from going any further, again he was prevented from going north so he decided to go north west. In Acts 16 verse 9 he has a vision of a Macedonian man calling him and he goes in that direction. He heads form Troas to Philippi and then on to Thessalonica. Thessalonica was the largest city in Macedonia and it had a very fine harbour on the Aegean sea. Thessalonica was a Greek city but it had a large number of Roman and Jewish inhabitants. It had in fact a well established synagogue and that is where Paul goes to preach the gospel. He goes into the synagogue for two reasons. Firstly that is where there would be a ready congregation of people and secondly the synagogue would have copies of the Scriptures and Paul could read from them and speak about Christ from them. The synagogue in Thessalonica, like many others, would have had a main body of Jews augmented by a number of God-fearing gentiles. Men and women who were attracted to Judaism because of its monotheism and its high morality. We read in Acts 17 that some Jews and Greek women are converted in Thessalonica and a church is established. Paul however has to quickly move on because he is opposed by some Jews in the city and out of care and concern for the new converts he moves on to Berea. He is not long in Berea when the same people make it impossible for him to stay there and he moves on again to Corinth. Paul is genuinely concerned about the well being of the Thessalonian Christians and so he sends Timothy to them to find out how they are getting on in the hostile environment of Thessalonica. Timothy brings back good news about their growth in the faith and Paul pens this first epistle or letter in response to the news. He has many things which he wishes to teach them and these we will hear and learn about over the next months. He wants to teach them about the second coming of Christ, to be holy in their living, to assure them of his love for them and to defend his character before them and in so doing to defend the gospel before them.
I Thess. 11-4 Security of the Church.
Security is a very important thing to many people. We lock away our valuables. Armed guards are posted at important buildings. Some times in the paper we read of daring robberies. We read of places which people thought were secure and they were not. We often speak about people being secure in themselves. Paul begins his letter to the Thessalonian believers assuring them of their eternal security. So let us look at this first chapter in a little more detail.
Verse 1 – Paul, Silas and Timothy – standard greeting for a letter. Note Paul does not mention his apostleship in this letter – because it was not questioned by the Thessalonians. Silas had travelled with Paul to Thessalonica on the second journey and in Acts 15 he is noted for his reliability and consistency even in the face of much opposition. Although Timothy was not with him when he first visited Thessalonica they knew him because Paul had sent him to bring word of the church there back to him.
In God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want us to stop there for a moment and I want us to read that line again. It is no accident that Paul greets them as ‘in God the Father’. Compare this beginning with those of the letter to Philippi or to Corinth. Can you see the difference? Paul immediately wants them to understand where there security is. He wants them to understand at the very beginning of the letter that they are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Geographically they are in Thessalonica but spiritually and eternally they are in God. Even though they live in a hostile environment and numerically they are not big they are secure because they are in God. Do you know that today in turkey there are only 100 known Christians in a population of 43 million. In Chad there is only one known Christian woman. Where would you find security if you were those people living in a hostile environment? The church is in God – he is the source and the sustainer of its life and therefore Paul wants them to know that security right at the very beginning.
Grace and peace to you – these two form and sustain the church. They both show that the Thessalonians have entered into a relationship with God.
Verses 2-4 Signs of the Church.
Paul thanks God constantly for them in prayer. He found much in the report which Timothy had brought about the Thessalonian church to be thankful for. Note he is thankful to God for them – not himself, not his preaching or his work amongst them but to God for them. Note to will you that he is thankful for ‘all of you.’ Even the ones who thought themselves insignificant, ineffectual and useless as believers Paul is thankful for them all. He has no desire to exclude any of them. He expresses his thanks in prayer. Note he says constantly – I do not think he meant that was all he ever did or prayed about but I believe Paul had a consistent and persistent habit of praying for the churches of his day. I think it is a good habit to cultivate – when someone comes into our minds it is easy just to let them drift out again but it takes only a moment to lift them to God in prayer.
Then Paul goes on to mention the cardinal virtues of the Christian faith – namely faith, love and hope. Note what he says about each of these:
Work produced by faith – work is the end product of faith. James says that faith without works is dead. We all know that we are not saved by works but in Ephesians 2 verses 8-9 Paul states that we are saved to do good works. Work is the essential fruit of the believing life. You see were faith is genuine it works. Paul is impressed by their active Christian lives. The worship is over the service begins – is not a bad thing to have on the back of your church notice board. You see lazy and careless Christians actually demonstrate a lack of real living faith.
Labour prompted by love - it is easy to say you love but quite another to love. Love does not stop at the ordinary effort – on the contrary it goes the extra mile and more. Because these people love God in Christ Jesus they are prompted to labour. What Paul is actually speaking about here is self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice of their time, their talents and their resources. Let me ask you a question is your love for God seen in labour, in self-sacrifice? When I look around church this morning I see many of you and I know the sacrifices you make in your daily lives for the sake of the gospel. I know the sacrifice of time, talent and resources that you give to HT. But can I ask us all do we really make sacrifices for the gospel. How about the fact that we need another Sunday School helper, we need a team of people to allow the Sunday School teachers to hear a sermon now and then. We need a home for the second housegroup to meet in. we will all be challenged in the year ahead to make financial sacrifices to build a bigger building. Labour prompted by love.
Endurance inspired by hope – not just a vague hope but hope in the second coming of Christ Jesus. When times are hard these believers kept on hoping. They did not wallow in self-pity, they did not give up when the going got tough – why? Because their hope was not in an easy comfortable life, their hope was in the risen conquering Son of God. Theirs was no earthly hope but a heavenly hope.
You see Paul expected that faith would work, that love would labour and that hope would endure. They were, and are, signs of a Christian life. You see faith without love has no integrity, faith without hope well it loses direction and love without faith slips into sloppy sentimentality. All three are productive in the life of the Christian believer. Paul is impressed by their active Christian living and for this he gives thanks to God for them.
Then in verse 4 he reminds them that God has chosen them. He is confident that God has chosen them because he sees the evidence of Christian faith in their daily living. Transformed lives are one of the undeniable evidences of election. How did this change come about in their lives?
Verse 5 the gospel came to them in words but not simply words. It came in power. They knew it was no emotional trip which they were on. No the gospel came to them not just in words but in power. Words were essential but not sufficient. Think about it for a moment. They heard the gospel, many people do, but they could not respond unless the gospel came in power to them. The plain words of the gospel came with power to their hearts, to their ears, to their eyes, to their minds and they were transformed by the gospel. It came in the power of the Holy Spirit. The word was not only divine it came to them with a deep conviction that it was the Word of God, it was the gospel of Life. Power of the gospel did not depend on the eloquence of Paul, nor on his wisdom but on the power of the Holy Spirit. God had spoken and they knew it full well. And we know that experience also. You have had that experience haven’t you? When someone spoke the gospel and you knew it was God’s Word to you there and then. You were reading your bible and you heard the Word of God speak to you and your condition, situation. The Thessalonians heard the gospel – it was transmitted by word, but it came in power with the Holy Spirit. The result of this Paul outlines in the last four verses of this chapter.
Receivers had become transmitters.
Read verses 6 and 7. They were not just listeners to the gospel. The Christian church is full of sermon tasters. Lots of people will travel miles to hear a speaker and leave the church commenting on the sermon but go straight back to their sinful and sin filled lives – sermon tasters. They are listeners but the Thessalonians were more than listeners. They became imitators first of Paul and then examples of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel had come to them and they received it with joy. They were transformed by its power and they first became imitators of the life of those who led them to faith. Let me ask you a question – are you willing to allow someone to model their lives on yours as a Christian. Paul was – he did not see anything wrong with this. Why? Because his life was one of consistency and persistence in the things of Christ. But much more than imitating Paul the Thessalonians modelled their lives on that of Christ and in so doing they became examples to those around them. Look at verse 7 and what Paul says about them – they became an example, a model to all those around them of what it meant to live as a Christian people, to be a Christian church. Would not that be a wonderful thing to have said of you and of this place. That we were an example of living Christian lives and being a Christian church in this community. I want it – don’t you? The gospel came in power and they became changed people. They changed and became imitators. Then they changed and became examples to others. Is that the process in your life and in the life of this church?
Not just believers – verses 8-10 – their example spread throughout the Greek world. Paul says that they did not need to tell people about the work in Thessalonica because everyone was talking about it. There was such a transformation in the lives of these people that people were gossiping about it constantly. They became witnesses and not just believers. There was no gap between their worship and their witness, there was no gap between their creed and their conduct and so people noticed. People noticed and spoke about the transformation from idol worship to worshipping the living God. Their consistency in holy living and their authenticity rang out across the nations. They were small in number, they liven in a hostile environment but they had a major impact on the Greek world for the sake of the gospel.
You see they welcomed the gospel, they turned from their idols, they served the living God and they now waited on the return of Christ. All of these things speak of their faith, their hope and their love. They made a clean break from their past lives. They pledged their allegiance to Christ and they were Christ centred in their living and in their hope. They had a balance in service and waiting. They were active – their faith was daily worked out, they laboured in love and they waited in hope for the second coming. They had a new purpose – to serve God and they had a new prospect – the return of Christ and eternity with him in heaven.
Can you imagine how encouraged the Thessalonians would have been to receive this letter from Paul. Paul praised God because their faith was real and active, they had become and example to all around them of persistent and consistent Christian living, even in difficult and hostile circumstances and through their witness the gospel had spread.
Applciation
Very simple application of this to us this morning:
Is my faith real?
What is the reputation of this Church?
Is my faith working? Am I labouring in love? And am I enduring in Hope?
So be encouraged this morning – a small church made a big impact on the Greek world all because their life matched their talk. Paul was thankful for them to God constantly in prayer. Can I say to you, in all humility and honesty, we are getting there. We are getting there but let us not rest on our laurels – let us press on – until people will speak of HT in the same way as in Paul’s day they spoke of Thessalonica.
Amen.
