Thessalonians, Part 2

A few weeks back, we started an introduction to the book of Thessalonians by giving a brief history of Paul's early life. We saw that he was a devout believer following the Jewish customs of the time. In his devotion, he actually persecuted Christians. Obviously, there is a clear indication that Judaism, as it was in the early New Testament time, was not like early Christianity. There were two different things. He then became converted. Because of his past history of persecuting the saints, particularly around the area of Jerusalem, he was not well accepted by the brethren in that area. However, he was ideally educated. God set up circumstances for him to be well-educated in the Greek knowledge as well as in Jewish knowledge and later, as we saw, by Jesus Christ himself. We then looked at his first missionary trip, which was mainly to the area of which today we call Southern Turkey, which is the area of Galatia. He continuously preached the message of the kingdom of God and that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and that he had died and resurrected as the Messiah, that Jesus was the Christ. So today, brethren, we want to continue from there to show you how you went to Thessalonika and what issues existed in the area of Thessalonika. And then, from there, we'll start with Thessalonians. We'll see how you went into Corinth and from Corinthians, you wrote 1 Thessalonians. So we'll start with 1 Thessalonians and I hope today to finish chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians. So let's see. The intent of this study, brethren, is based on what Paul says in his scriptures. The intent is that we look for some principles that we can apply in our lives, principles that we can learn that we can apply in our daily lives.

So let's take up from where we left last time. And basically, what I asked is, what is the big issue amongst the Jews at that time that triggered the Jerusalem Conference? Because we stopped run about the area of the Jerusalem Conference. So the question is, what was the big issue amongst the Jews that triggered the Jerusalem Conference? Now, as I mentioned to you, I'm posing as questions to allow you to think about it. Then I go and address that section.

And if any of you would like to make a comment, because it's a Bible study, you're welcome to put your hand up. And I would listen to your comment if you'd like to do, because it's not a one-way sermon, as typically we would do. It's a Bible study and to allow you to comment if you'd like to do. However, I will not stop for a long period, because we are recording, and therefore those that are of you that are not here today and tomorrow you may want to to listen to it, you'll be able to get it from the web to listen to it. So I will not have big breaks stopping. But you're welcome to ask a question or to make a comment. So the question was, what was the big issue amongst the Jews? And I've got two sections of Scripture just that highlight that, that answer that. And let's read the first one, which is Acts 13, Acts the 13th chapter.

Am I talking too loud? Can you hear me at the back? Is that okay? Or is it too soft? Okay. All right.

Acts 13 verse 38. 13, 38 through 39, and then 42, and then 44 and 45. 38 says, Therefore, let it be known to you brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. So this was what Paul was telling them. And he says, Through this man, that's through Christ, preached to you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, everyone that believes, and again, as I keep emphasizing, always remember when you see the word believes in the Bible, always see behind it action to prove that you believe. In other words, an example I always give is a simple example. A child, you put a child on top of a counter, and you say to the child, Jump to my arms. And if the child believes, the child will jump to your arms. So believing means you will do what people say. And so if we believe in Christ, we'll do what God says what Christ says.

So he says, Everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now, this really was the whole issue in the early Christianity, particularly as it affected with the Jewish people, the Jewish nation. Let's put it another way with Judaism at that time, because it was very difficult for those people that had been trained for many, many, many years about the ceremonial law. And the ceremonial law was a big issue to them to make the sacrifices, either the daily sacrifices or the sacrifices on the Sabbath or on the beginnings of the month or during the Holy Days, whatever sacrifices they had to do, it became ingrained to them a big thing about sacrifices. And so the law of Moses taught them very clearly about these sacrifices that they had to apply, ceremonial ritual sacrifices. What we know and understand now, which is very clear, is that these sacrifices pointed to Christ.

In other words, all the killing of bulls and goats and lamb and sheep, none of that forgave one's sins. That's why they had to keep doing it time and time again, and as we read in Hebrews 10.

But what the sacrifices did pointed to the real sacrifice, which was Christ's sacrifice of his body instead of a bull or a goat or whatever, and that's what forgives our sins through his blood.

So, but for the Jewish, because they had been trained in that environment, it was very difficult for them to change their thinking. Now imagine if somebody had come today, changing some thinking about the church would have been very difficult for us to to grasp, and therefore it was difficult for them to understand that they were justified by the sacrifice of Christ. So I'm not just giving them an excuse, I'm trying to help you understand the difficulty that they encountered. And so in verse 42, so when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles bet that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. So we see Paul observed the Sabbath. So it was not doing away with God's law, doing away with the Sabbath, because it was on the next Sabbath. The Gentiles, not the Jews, the Gentiles. So the Gentiles were observing the Sabbath as well. And then we see that in verse 44, on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city. So we see a lot of people, I mean imagine a whole city, imagine we're doing this thing in Louisville, and almost the whole city is there. I mean that is a big group of people, you know. So okay, the cities at that time were not as big as Louisville, in total population, but it was a lot of people. So it was a real big thing.

I came together to hear the Word of God. Now this is the issue, yeah. Now when the Jews saw the multitudes, when the Jewish people saw how the Gentiles were taken to this, think about it, it's like you've got a cross that has gone dry, and you throw a flame of fire onto that cross, and it just sparks a fire like this. In other words, like Christ was saying, the harvest is ready, look at it, how the fields are ready, and that just lifted up people to say, wow, we want to hear this.

So when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. They were envy because justification through the sacrifices was a Jewish thing. So it's a national thing, and now they're saying, other people having access to this, you become jealous. They became jealous, so they became envious, and therefore they became contradicting and blaspheming. They opposed the things spoken by Paul. So you can see our wrong spirit immediately came into them. So that was the big issue affecting the Jews, was the understanding about justification, not by ceremonial sacrifices, but by the real eternal sacrifice that only needed to be done once, which is Christ's sacrifice. I'll give you another example of that. So that's a good one to keep in mind to highlight the difference. Another example is on Acts 15 verses 1 and 2, and many other sections in Acts 15, but just giving you to remind you what really the issue was there. Acts 15, verse 1 and 2, and certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses. Now, a key word there is custom. You see, it was not just what the law was, but what was the custom. In other words, was the law plus the oral traditions they had, and therefore it became a custom, the way so they were additions. So that's why Judaism was not the true religion as it was of Moses. It had, quote-unquote, changed or deviated because of certain customs. But anyway, according to the custom of Moses, that you cannot be saved.

Look at this again. Unless you're circumcised, you cannot be saved. In other words, salvation, part of a step towards salvation, must be, according to the Jews, according to what they understood that you had to be circumcised to be saved. And therefore it became a big problem. Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute, it really became a big issue. And when they determined that Paul and Barnas and certain others of them should go to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this issue. It became a big issue, and then they had to resolve it. And as you and I know, the resolution was we need to understand that we are made just with God through Christ. We are not made just with God through the sacrifices of goats and of bulls and of sheep and things like that. So that became the big issue with the Jewish people, and that's what triggered the conference. And there, at the end of the conference, that conference of Jerusalem in 1949, I keep saying 1949, I don't like it, in 1949, that conference highlighted a few other issues because out of that conference they wrote a letter. Now, they didn't just send Paul and say, Paul, go back and tell the people. They actually wrote a letter and sent some other lead man with Paul.

When you read back, right at the end of Acts 15, it says, they wrote a letter and they sent other lead man with Paul. Why? Because there was this thing that some of the people did not trust Paul. Because he was teaching these things, therefore they needed, let's call it, other people to give credential support to the message, particularly when they went to the Jews in those areas of the dispersion, in other words, in Galatia and in other areas. So we really have, and this is where I left our last time when we did the Bible study. We had some lessons that we learned which are applicable to the church today. And I mentioned there were two lessons that we derive from this, how Satan attacks the church. And it's always around these two points. Think about it. It's always two issues that Satan attacks the church. One is doctrinal, and you saw the doctrine in the the ceremonial laws. It's related to doctrine. One is doctrinal, and the other one is about men, about men. Because you either follow or not follow in man, and the eye is the case that they were concerned with them listening to what Paul was saying. The solution is, brethren, as we know always, very simple. As far as doctrine, stick to the trunk of the tree.

You know, when you go onto twigs and you hang onto twigs, sooner or later those twigs are going to break and you're going to be out on the floor, out away from the tree, with your nose broken and really badly injured. So stick to the trunk of the tree. That's as far as doctrine. In other words, stick to direct statements of the Bible. Direct implications. Things that are from the Bible that are correct that say clearly, for instance, thy word is truth. It's clear. It's God's word. It's the truth. Stick to that. Don't get into twigs, because once you get into twigs, into probabilities, once you get into possibilities, well, this could possibly be that. Okay, it's fine to talk, but that's not doctrine. It's fine to talk amongst friends about things, but to doctrine, stick to the trunk of the tree. Don't go about feelings. Well, I feel that this could mean that. Hey, that's a twig. Don't go about dreams. Oh, I had a dream and therefore this may mean that. Don't go with that. Don't go with speculation. Stick to the trunk of the tree. So as far as doctrine, that is, in a sense, a simple solution, but it's not that simple.

But it is. It really, that's what it is. And as far as man is follow Christ. We are to follow Christ. Well, Paul said imitate me as I imitate Christ, but follow Christ. Follow man as they imitate Christ. Follow the example as they imitate Christ, but that's what we need to follow. So Satan usually causes problems in the church because of these two areas. And there's many variations of this. I mean, variations of doctrine, variations of issues with man, like, look how he treated us, look how he did not treat us, look he did this and he didn't do that and whatever it is. We're following Christ. We've got to remember that man are imperfect. I'm imperfect. We're all imperfect. So we've got to follow Christ. Okay, so that's where we start lost time. So let's move forwards.

So after going back to Antioch coming from Jerusalem, God inspired then Paul to go in visit the brethren again in Galatia. So that initiated the second missionary trip. So he had the first missionary trip that basically went to the Turkish southern Turkey area, which is the Galatian area. Then he came back to ended up in Jerusalem where they had a conference. Then he went back to Antioch, which was like his space. And then from there God inspired, well, it's time to go and see how the brethren are doing going to another trip. So it started the second trip. In the second trip, let's just take a few points of the second trip so that because what we want to do is we want to see what happened in Thessalonika and then how he ended up elsewhere. And then when he wrote the letter to the Thessalonians, because we talked about Thessalonians. So during the second trip, he ended up in Thessalonika. So let's see how he actually tracked to get to Thessalonika. What happened in Thessalonika? And then how he further down, he went to Corinth and then he wrote to the Thessalonians from there. So we'll see that and then that brings a nice setting to then go into the first chapter of First Thessalonians. So let's look in Acts 16, the first chapter. I think about it, Acts 16, the first verse, Acts 16.1. And then he came to Derby. So this is part of his second missionary trip. So it had just started in Lystra. That's in the Galatia area. And beyond a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed that his father was Greek. So there's Timothy. He was of, let's call it mixed race, Greek and Jewish.

And this is an interesting point. He met Timothy in the area of Galatia. So he was from that Galatian region, that southern Turkey region. And then from there he went through Galatian, as you can see in verse 6. And when they had gone through Thurgia and the region of Galatian, so he went through that region through different areas, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in ancient. In other words, God's Spirit guided them to go elsewhere. He says, now don't go there. I want you to go elsewhere. And as we can see in verse 9, it says, And a vision appeared to Paul in the night, saying, a man of Macedonian stood and pleaded with him, saying, come over to Macedonian and help us. In other words, come to Macedonian. Macedonian is the northern part of Greece. So it's a Greek area. When we look at today, the northern part is Macedonian. Further south, it's Greece. So come to the Grecian area, Macedonian and Greece.

And so God, through the Spirit, moved them to go to that area. And he went to the northern area, where is Greece today. So he went like across the top of Turkey. And then from there, he went across to the first city that it makes mention here, is to in verse 12, 16-12, that says, and from there to Philippi, to Neapol is in there to Philippi, verse 12, which is a foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we're staying in that city for some days. And verse 13, and on the Sabbath, etc. So he was there. He stayed there. He then baptized Lydia from Thyataria in Galatia. It was a lady from Galatia, but actually was maybe doing business in Macedonia. And there's the story of the Philippian jailer. You can read that in the next few verses. I'm not going to read that, because what I want to concentrate is that he then got to Thessalonia, which is in Acts 17, verses 1-4. Let's look at that. Acts 17, verses 1-4.

So if you happen to have a map at the back of the Bible, you will see there on the map, there is actually coming at the top of Macedonia, at the top of Greece, and he's coming down. He's coming down along the coast. He's coming south into the area of Greece. And so he gets to Thessalonica, and there was a synagogue of the Jews. And then Paul, as his custom was.

You see, it doesn't do a white with the Sabbath. As his custom was, and he went into them, and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. So he went first to the Jews, he reasoned with them to Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.

Now, this is very important, a couple of points here that I want to emphasize in this section here. And let's start with verse 4. And some of them were persuaded, bigger part, that some of the Jews were persuaded, and a great multitude of the Vought Greeks.

So not only the Jews were persuaded, but a great multitude of the Vought Greeks, and not a few of the leading women. So they also had women that were leading in the congregation areas. They were real go-getters, and they did things. And they joined Paul and Silas, which is Sylvanas in the letter to Thessalonik calls in Sylvanas. That's the Greek term for Silas.

But the point here is there was a great conversion in Thessalonik. There were many people that believed there was an area there that God started a big church area. A great conversion, a big church area says there's a great multitude of the Vought Greeks. So there was a big church area started there. Now the question I have is, what was Paul's crux of his teaching? What was Paul's crux of the teaching? Because we know when we read in Acts 15, he says, you know, he sent a letter, and then he says, the rest you can get every Sabbath when you, the rest of the law of Moses, you get every Sabbath when you go to the synagogue, you get the rest. But what was it? Paul's crux was the nutshell of his teaching. Now obviously, it was about the kingdom of God, right? But he was emphasizing three points that led to the kingdom of God.

Can you think of those three points?

Well, look at verse 3 of the same chapter, Acts 17 verse 3. Yeah, or the three points of Paul's teaching that he was doing there. Explaining and demonstrating. And as you can see from the previous verse, this was from the scriptures. It says, from the scriptures. The reason of them from the scriptures. So he was explaining and demonstrating what.

What was he proving to them? Number one, that the Christ had to suffer. In other words, the first thing he was teaching them is that the Messiah had to suffer. And basically means part of that suffering meant death, had to die. You see, this is a thing that was different to the Jews because the Jews were expecting a Messiah to come. But what did they expect? A Messiah to come and rule and save the Jewish nation and make them back a nation in society because they were under subjugation under the Romans. So to make them a nation in society and to basically make them a great nation like it was under the days of Solomon. So they said, well, that's what the Messiah... Now when Christ came, that's what we did. Instead of coming in as a king and establishing a new kingdom of the Jewish nation and make them a big nation again, he died. And the people were saying, what a king! What a joke! We expect him to be the king and he's wiped out. He's gone. I mean, look at him. He's... nobody. He's dying. You see, so that was the conflict in the Jewish mind. They were expecting a Messiah to come and rule and quote-unquote change the world. In other words, they were looking for Christ's second coming. And what did they get? They got the first coming.

And they went expecting that. And so Paul was reasoning them from the Scriptures that Christ, before his second coming, he had to come a first time to suffer and die. So he was proving that from the Bible or rather from the Old Testament. The Scriptures at that time was the Old Testament. Explaining and demonstrating that Christ, it was the Messiah, had to first suffer and obviously die. Point number one. Point number two. And rise. He had to explain to them that the Messiah had to resurrect. Therefore, he was living and he could give them witnesses. They had seen him alive and they had various brethren that had witnessed Christ's resurrected. They had a lot of witnesses. Christ, a lot of people saw Christ on those first 40 days after he was resurrected.

So there was a lot of witnesses, a lot of proof of the resurrection. He says, and rise again from the dead. So these were two of the points that was the crux of his message. Number one, that the Messiah had to suffer and die. Number two, the Messiah would rise again from the dead. And number three, and number three, he was saying that this Jesus, this person that we call Jesus, he was the Messiah. He says, and that this Jesus whom I preached to you is the Christ. It was the word Christ in Greek is the word Messiah in Hebrew. It's the same word. So it's basically, it's the Greek version of the word Messiah. So, in other words, the anointed one. So I got a, this Jesus who I preached to you is the Messiah. So those are the three things that Paul was teaching. He was preaching about the kingdom of God, about the role of the Messiah to come, but they were expecting the Messiah to have come. And he says, no, he had to first do this, and then you'll come again as the Messiah and the kingdom of God. So that's why, for Jesus, quite often we talk about we got to preach the kingdom of God, the gospel of the kingdom of God, and also the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not that they are two different gospels. They're the same, but it is an important point to part of the gospel, the kingdom of God, that Christ is the king of the kingdom of God, and that needs to be emphasized. And the Jews could not understand that. Now, my question here is the following. Paul was doing this from the scriptures.

It was from the Old Testament. He was proving these three points.

That Christ had to suffer, the Messiah had to suffer, the Messiah had to rise, and that Jesus was the Christ. The question I have is, can we prove that from the scriptures? Could we now say, all right, I can prove from the Old Testament that Christ had to do that. Now, we've got a very good booklet that goes through that material and guides you through that study called Jesus Christ the True Story. It's a good book to use as a Bible study to get some of those points. And it's just a point for maybe a Bible study for you to do, just to help you. Sometimes we think, well, what is my next project in Bible study? Well, he has a potential project that we could have for a Bible study to prove that Christ is the Messiah. And to prove, now we all know, but can we prove it from the scriptures? Can we prove that he had to suffer? Can we prove that he had to rise? So it's just a point. Now, what else happened in Thessaloniki? Now, I've seen there was a great conversion where many people got converted, a big church started. We saw that Paul taught about Christ being the Messiah, and therefore that he has to come back, that he's going to come back, to really fulfill the role of the Messiah that we've all been thinking. So they were thinking, well, he's coming back. So this whole thing about his coming back was very much in the mind of the Thessalonikas. He's coming back. Christ came, he had to do the first time, this has happened, now he's going to come back. When is he coming back? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? So it became a big thing in Thessaloniki. When is he coming back now to fulfill that second coming? Understand, they did not have the book of Revelation yet. See, the book of Revelation was only 90 odd AD. This was about 50, 52 or so, 51, 52 AD. Soon after the Jerusalem Conference, which was 49 AD. So the book of Revelation wasn't there. So they didn't have some of the understanding we have today. So the Thessalonikas were saying, well, when is Christ coming? But my question is, what else happened in Thessalonika? And the answer is in verse 5 and 6.

But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace. Now, look at it. The Jews, so these were surely devout people as far as Jewish religion. They were devout. They became envious. Why? Because there's this whole church. This whole, in their mind, was just a new sect coming out and really was going like wildfire. So they became envious. And what they did? They took evil men from the marketplace. They went and organized people of not very good reputation and character. And gathering a mob, they created a riot.

They created a mob. I mean, there was a major riot. Set all the city in an uproar. The whole city was in chaos. I mean, nowadays we see on TV some of these riots. It looks like the whole city is in uproar. You look at some of these things happening in the Middle East where you see that collapse even governments. I mean, there's the whole city in uproar. Can you imagine those meeting places just full of people going and shouting and screaming, going mad? You know, that's what it says.

And attacked the house of Jason. And they went to one of the Christians' homes. And so to bring them out of the beat to the people. I mean, they went in to think about it. They went into your prophet's home. And they went there. They opened the door. They didn't have authority from the Lord. I think they just went and forced the door open. They went in there and wanted to take the people out and lynched them. Basically, they were just going wild. But when they did not find them, so they were looking for Paul and them there, and they do not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city.

So they didn't find the leaders, but they found other people, so they grabbed them. And crying out, these who have turned the world upside down have come here too. So these also are turning everything upside down, the world upside down. So what do we have? We had a riot. And therefore, what do we see in Thessalonica is a couple of things. We see there was a big conversion.

It was a big church start today. But it was in a mixture of certain trials, certain afflictions, not just to Paul, but to the brethren that the whole city was in uproar. So the people in Thessalonica were under certain difficulties. And so you can think that when Paul left that area, he was concerned about them. When he left that area, he was very concerned and says, well, there are problems in that area.

And therefore, a little later, not much later, he starts writing to them because you will see, well, he sends to them. You will see, well, he sends Timothy there. And then when Timothy comes back and gives them news of what happened there, then he writes the letters, which we'll go into in a moment. So let's continue. You can see in verse 10, then Paul left that area. He went to Berea. We're not going to read there, but I'm just showing you plotting where he went. And then in verse 15, he went to Athens.

And then in Athens, you talk, there's an interesting story there about how he spoke in Athens and the message in the reopagus, in the, in other words, in Moz Hill. So there's that all interesting point. I'm not part of the purpose of the study today, but just showing you where he went. And then in verse 33, in verse 33, it sees, so Paul departed from among them. In other words, Paul left Timothy and Silas and continued without the others. Paul left Timothy and Silas. And we learn later that Timothy went back to Thessalonica, because Paul was concerned about the well-being of the brethren in Thessalonica.

They had gone there. They had started a church. There was a big church that had been started, and they had just left. And now they were going, and they had gone to to Berea, and they had gone to Athens. And now they're going further south. He was moving further south to Corinth, and he was concerned how the Thessalonians were doing. So he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica. And so after that, chapter 18, verse 1, and after these things, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. So Paul went to Corinth. So, and there, in verse 5, you can see, x18, verse 5.

And when Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, so then Sylvanas and Timothy came back. And they gave them news. So maybe Silas, maybe he went to to another area, maybe he went to Berea, and maybe Timothy went to Thessalonica, and then they came back. But Timothy definitely went to Thessalonica, that we do know. And so they came back.

So when Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Again, the message that he was emphasizing, Jesus is the Messiah.

He was emphasizing that in verse 5. So that's the message. So what was Paul's focus in his message is that the Messiah did come, but came in a way that you do not expect.

And Jesus is the Messiah, is coming back again. So the Kingdom of God is coming, but the Kingdom of the Kingdom of God had to die so that we could be saved because we justified by his death. So he had to explain that from the Scriptures.

So in verse 11, he's still in Corinth, and you can see in verse 11, Acts 18, how long did he stay in Corinth? Well, it says, yeah, he continued there a year and six months. So he stayed in Corinth for about a year and a half, about 18 months, teaching the Word of God amongst them. And it's from there that he writes Thessalonians. It's from there that he writes the pistol of the Thessalonians to the Thessalonians. You can see Silas and Timothy had come back.

You see, he had sent them when he was leaving Athens.

Timothy went back to Thessalonians, and then he came back with news about how the brethren in Thessalonians were doing. And based on those news, he writes the letter to the Thessalonians from Corinth because he stayed in Corinth for about 18 months. So let's go into Thessalonians.

Let's start 1st chapter, chapter 3. So we're not starting in chapter 1. No, we are starting in chapter 1, but I just want to show you something in chapter 3. 1st Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 1 and 2. He says, yeah, therefore, 1st Thessalonians 3, verse 1 and 2, Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone.

In other words, Paul thought it was good for him to stay in Athens alone and sent Timothy to go and visit him, and sent Timothy, our bride and minister of God and our fellow library in the Gospel of Christ, to establish you, you know, with the Thessalonians, and encourage you concerning your faith. So Paul sent Timothy from Athens back to Thessalonians, as we saw. And if you read in verse 6, in verse 6, 1st Thessalonians 3, verse 6. But now that Timothy has come to us from you. So Timothy had returned, as we saw there in Acts 18, verse 5. We saw in Acts 18, verse 5, that Timothy and Silas had returned. But now I'm reading 1st Thessalonians 3, verse 6. But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and brought us good news of your faith and hope, and that you always have good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us, as we also to see you. So Timothy came with good news about how they're doing. And based on their information, that's how Paul starts the letter to the Thessalonians. So let's now, therefore, start the letter by reading 1st Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 1. And we're just going to read the first part of verse 1. And then we're going to have a break. We're going to have announcements and then a song. But I just want to highlight one or two things, yeah, on this first part of verse 1. It's a good place to break. So it says in Paul, Silvanus, which is Silas, and Timothy, to the church in Thessalonica. You can see the three are back together. You can see Timothy and Silas had gone. They have come back. And now the three, Paul, Silas, or Silvanus, as in Greek, and Timothy, we're writing to you this letter. So you can see it was in this timing. And you can see the situation or basically the background of the situation in Thessalonica. A big church had started there, and there was a big riot. There was big troubles, a lot of afflictions with the brethren in Thessalonica. And therefore, when Paul sent Timothy to encourage them, Timothy came back with good news about they doing well, but they're having trials, they're having difficulties. Yeah, from all these other people there, they're saying, the world is turned upside down, they're having difficulties. So he now writes this letter of Thessalonians with a number of objectives. And one of them is to encourage them and to strengthen them, but also to coach them or correct them in certain misunderstandings and teach them thereby. So we're going to stop here, and then we're going to have a song, and then we'll continue with announcements and then with the rest of the Bible study. All right, so we were starting into first Thessalonians, giving you a little bit of background and basically giving you the purpose for the reason why the letter to the Thessalonians was written.

It was first and foremost, there basically are five reasons, in more detail than ones I mentioned a moment ago, there are basically five reasons. One is to encourage the brethren, two is to strengthen them under the different afflictions they were having, the persecution they were having, and thirdly was to correct them on someone's understandings, mainly regarding the coming of the Messiah. It was Christ's second coming. You see, because they were expecting Christ's second coming to come like tomorrow, next week, next month, or whatever, so they're expecting that. And what had happened, some people had died, and because some people were died without seeing Christ's return, they were worried about those people that are not partaken of the joy of seeing Christ's return. And so Paul is saying, wait, wait, you know, you're misunderstanding about Christ's second coming. So he gives them some understandings about that. Now, it's interesting that in his intent to correct him about some misunderstandings about Christ's coming, he creates more misunderstandings, and that's why it's going to write second Thessalonians later on. So it's interesting. He's now correcting them on the first letter about some misunderstandings about Christ's second coming, and then he has to even correct it a second time because they misunderstood him with his first letter. So we'll see that. The fourth point, or purpose of the letter, is the fourth and first are basically towards the letter, and one is related to laziness. The fourth point is laziness. You see, because Christ is coming, and there's some wealthy people amongst us, and Christ's coming tomorrow, next week, whatever it is, so we might as well live off somebody else's, and we don't have to work. So it's this whole thing of laziness because, well, Christ is about coming, so why work? You know, let's share what we have and just wait for Christ's coming. So you've got to correct him on that. And then, lastly, understand a lot of people came. The church grew, but there were a lot of people from Greek backgrounds. And you know what? You had all this basic understandings. You imagine, you have a small couple of lead men, and there's many people are coming into the church, and they all have different ideas from pagan religions and idols and things like that. And now you've got to correct them on some of those pagan practices, because old abbots are hard to get rid of, so you have to correct them on that. So those are the five purposes of first Thessalonians, but the main one is to encourage, to strengthen them, and to correct them about Christ's second coming. So let's look at that by continuing reading in verse 1. So in verse 1, we see, to the church of Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So this is the point that many times has been mentioned in the church, that it says He's addressing to the church, which is in God and the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. No mention of a third person. There's no third person, no mention. And this again is a point that I don't have to belabor. We've seen that many times, but in every letter of Paul, in the introduction, he mentions about God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. No mention about a third person. There's no such thing as a Trinity. So Yah, he explains that. God is our Father. He emphasizes that God is the Father, He is our Father. In other words, again, a family. It's open to us and think about as a dad. And there's a big importance about us being good, good fathers. Because for our children to understand a father, we have to be an exemplary father to our children. And when we are a good parent, good parents, a good mother, a good father, we give good spiritual examples of what we should get. As a father, we give an example of, sure, a much smaller, but an example of what God the Father is to us. And so if we are a loving dad to our children, our children can barely relate to God the Father because they see a good example in us. Likewise, when a mother is a loving mother caring for the children, the children understand what the role of the church should be. So it's very important for us to be a proper family and set proper examples in a family. So God is our Father. And the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our Lord. The word Lord in Greek is kourios. Kourios means is the master, is the chief, is the owner, is the main one, is the principal, is the main controller, is the master, is who we belong to, is our Lord, is our chief, is the owner, is the man. So we belong to Christ. He bought us with His life for us. He redeemed us. We belong to Him. And then he goes on to the common greeting, says, grace to you and peace. Why always, quite often, in Paul's letters, except on the pastoral letters, he emphasizes grace and peace. Why not, for instance, health? Well, I hope in good health. He emphasizes grace and peace. Well, grace comes from the Greek word charis, like charity, charis, gracias, which means gift. There's a similar word that comes from that in English, like gratus, gratus, similar word to charis, which basically means we are justified freely by God's grace. It's a free gift. But God's grace is more than just justified. God's grace is not just that He's justified as freely. God's grace goes into many other facets of our life. He's gracious to us in many other ways. Why? Because He's a giving God. Grace is basically it's giving. It's an attitude of giving. It's an attitude of free gift, an attitude of gratus. In other words, it's a free gift. So it's an attitude of God's outgoing concern. Mr Armstrong always used to emphasize outgoing concern. It's love, that outgoing love, it's the desire to give. As parents, we desire to give to our children.

But again, we need to learn tough love as parents. We have. We can't just give to our children everything because they'll be spoiled. So there is a balance. We want a gift, but we want a response. And when the response is right and it pleases us, we want to give more. That's a normal thing of a dad or of a mom of parents. We want to give, but we know we've got to be careful. There's a tricky balance because if we over give without the right response, we're spoiling the children.

But if we give the right way and there's a right response, which is what God wants from us, then He can give us more. And so that's what He's looking for. He's looking for that grace. May the grace from God be with you, which means a lot of things. It means, amongst others, that yes, they're also responding. They're also responding so that God can give them more Christ, can be more gracious to them. So there is that sound relationship that God as a giving, giver is giving. The brethren are responding the right way, and because of that godly response, it's just growing. So it's an attitude that you and I need to develop.

But it's not only grace from God our Father, but it's also from the Lord Jesus Christ. So same thing. Christ has the same grace to us. So God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, they both are gracious beings. The attitude is the nature of God, and that's the nature that we need to develop, the same natural giving attitude. We are to grow in grace.

Turn with me to 2 Peter 2, verse 18. 2 Peter 2, verse 18.

At the end of this letter, Peter says, But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the grace. We ought to grow in the grace and knowledge.

Not of men, not of men, but of Jesus Christ. We ought to grow in knowledge of man, man's knowledge. Yes, sure, we could be educated and all that, but what he's saying is, growing the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, but not just in the knowledge, in the grace as well. You see, if it's just knowledge, you know, knowledge puffs up and becomes unbalanced.

And we've got to have the balance with grace, and grace is first. You see, we've got to have the knowledge of Christ, but we also have to have the same grace of Christ. We ought to grow in those two. You see, knowledge is like wisdom, wisdom of God, wisdom of Christ, which is that meekness of wisdom that we need to grow, but we need to grow in grace as well. So let's go back to 1 Thessalonians. Grace to you and peace. The next one is peace. What is peace? It's that tranquility and that peace of mind, peace in the church. There's just calmness. There's a peace.

There's peace in the church. There's unity. There's peace. There's calmness. And there's peace of mind as we grow in that peace. That is the peace of God, of the Father, and of Jesus Christ. That's why we need to grow. Now, I think of an area which just talks about peace, and it's the Beatitudes. You think about the Beatitudes. I'm not going to go there because the Beatitudes by themselves are all sermon. But if you think about the Beatitudes, one of the last Beatitudes says, blessed are the peacemakers because they shall be called what? The sons of God. They'll be called like God because God is a God of peace. But it's peacemakers. It's not peace lovers. There's a difference between loving peace and being a peacemaker. There are big differences, and that's a whole subject there. So, may God's peace be with you, but it's not just loving peace, it's being a peacemaker. Now, the Beatitudes are interesting. Think about the Beatitudes because the Beatitudes, the way I understand it, is they are cumulative. You start from one, and then with that it builds up and builds up, and the peacemaker is kind of the loss of that. It's kind of, it's based on all the others. The others have to be first. So, think about when you study the Beatitudes, how they're interrelated and one builds upon the other. So, there's another interesting study that you could have, just another idea there. But anyway, peace is what is asking for the Church, grace and peace. It was graciousness, and nature of God, which is the nature of peace and of outgoing concern, love for one another. And then it goes on in verse 2. It says, we give thanks to God, always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. So Paul cared, enmeshioned about the people in prayers. And the question I have is, do we pray for each other? We do. But for instance, we do have a Church's prayer list. When is the last time we gone there and just pulled it out and prayed for some of those people? Yes, it's on the website. Do you know where it is on the website? Do you know how to pull it out? Do you know the password? Because remember, it has to be of a password, and it says why? Well, there is in this country a thing called HIPAA law, right? And HIPAA law, every time you go to a doctor, you gotta sign all these HIPAA work for the HIPAA law, which means you can't just tell everybody the whole world what's your health issues. So the prayer list is on the web, but it's under password. So obviously, I'm not going to tell you the password now on the recording, but if you don't know, please feel free to come back to me and I'll mention to you what the password is. But obviously, it's a thing that it's good for you to go and look on the members website and look at the prayer list and pray for one another. Right, verse 3.

Remember without seizing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father. Can you see three things that he mentions here? Faith, hope, and love.

Can you remember elsewhere in the Bible, when we talk about they are three and the greatest ease?

And what are those three? Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. Remember? 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. So again, he brings those three. Faith, hope, and love.

Now, love, outgoing, concerning. Are we talking about a Gopi love? It's a gift. It's a gift of the Holy Spirit. And why gifts? These are actually gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Why God gives us gifts through His Holy Spirit?

Okay, let's look at it in 1 Corinthians 14. So, right after he talks about, think about these three. 1 Corinthians 13, at the end of 1 Corinthians 13.

13 13. 1 Corinthians 13 13. Now, by faith, hope, and love. These three, but the greatest of these is love. So, he talks about love. And we're going to talk a little bit more about love, but I'm not going to go through 1 Corinthians 13, because that itself is another study.

And it would be good to go through it. But let's look at gifts. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 1. And desire spiritual gifts. These are gifts, spiritual gifts. But especially that you may prophesy. Especially that you may prophesy. Why? Verse 4. He will speak in the tongue, edifies himself, but he will prophesy that he defies the church. In other words, especially that you may speak in a way that may be edifying in the church. Why gifts to edify, to build, to help one another? The gifts of God that he gives us through his Holy Spirit are for us to serve, to edify, to help one another. So that's why gifts, to edify. All right, so let's go back to 5. One of them that's talking about is 5. Now 5, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 3, it says, Remembering without seizing your work of 5. So the first one is talking about work of 5.

That's interesting because people usually say it's either 5 or works. Well, there you are. It's the work of 5. So 5 involves works. Again, back to the principle that if you believe, if you trust, you're going to do something about it. You're going to follow what the person tells you to do.

So 5, belief in God, involves, leads to works. So your work of 5, you can read that says, 5 without works is dead. You can read that in James. 5 without works is dead.

5 must have works. So think about any law of God, any of God's laws.

It really, obedience demonstrates 5. In other words, obedience demonstrates that you believe what that law says. That's what it is. So obedience demonstrates 5. So it's a library of 5. Let's go on to the next one, love. And love says labor, work of 5, and labor of love.

Love is also labor. So it's talking about agape, agape love, which is outgoing concern for one another. But it also involves labor. That involves work. Why? Because agape love, which is outgoing concern. When you have outgoing concern for others, it means you do things for others. And doing things for others involves sacrifice, involves labor. And God shows us various principles about what love is in 1 Corinthians 13, particularly in verses 4 to 8.

It's a point to go into there and study. But let's move on, otherwise we'll never finish with Thessalonians. So let's go on to the next one, and patience of hope. Patience of hope.

Now hope is having confidence that God will really do something. And therefore you hope in confidence that will be resolved, that certain things will happen. You have that hope. You hope that it will happen, but you more than hope, because you have patience in that hope.

So God has a solution for our world problems, for instance. You know, you look at world politics today. You look like yesterday there was that big bombing in Norway. I mean, enormous. It was sad, so sad. If you saw that picture, it's sad. And then not only that, at the same time, they went into an island, when there's a youth camp, and somebody dressed up as a policeman, just shot shooting young people there by themselves. I don't know how many people died, but some of them were just running away by running into the water and trying to run away. I mean, it's terrible that you get minds like that just completely. Disasters now, yes, the police and the government will try and do things and etc., but brethren, things are just getting worse and worse around the world. It's not in Norway, it's in Greece, it's not in Greece, it's in the UK, it's in Ireland, it's whatever it is. It's everywhere. I mean, and then you and I say, what can man do? In the end, mankind is not going to resolve our problems. We only have one hope. It's the return of Christ.

Only Christ is going to solve. And so, we have that patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, because He is the only one that is going to come back and is going to solve these problems.

And that's our real hope, and we have patience in that hope. Now, the word patience is an interesting one. It comes from a Greek word called hupamone. Now, hupamone is a very interesting word because it actually means perseverance, means stick-to-wittiveness.

Just that patient, stick-to-wittiveness, just persevering. It's like a dog biting something and holding fast. In South Africa, the in Afrikaans people, they have a word called faspite, means bite hard. But it's an expression, faspite. It's actually spelled V-A-S, because the V, they read it as an F, and bite is B-Y-T, V-A-S-B-I-T, one word, faspite, which basically means bite hard. It basically means stick to it, hold on, and don't let go. Think about like a bulldog when it bites and it locks in. You know, if you get those, I don't know if you know those, like a talk wrench that you go and you lock it in, and when it locks, you have to kind of unlock it because it just bites hard and it stays there. And that's what it means. It just kind of bite hard and don't let go. It just stick to it, bite hard. It's that cupramoni. It's that patient perseverance. And so that patient's perseverance of hope, because it's the hope that Christ's going to come back, and we know that he's come back, and it's not a vain hope. It's not a kind of, well, a hope that it may happen, but it might not happen. We know it's going to happen. It's hope mixed with absolute trust and faith that it's going to happen. And so we're hoping for that, but it's assured hope. And that assured hope gives us that perseverance, as they say, phosphate, biting hard, that we can just hold on and don't let go. Just hold on, and you know, you're shaking and just holding on. You know, it just holds on. That really is an exciting word there. Just hold on.

So look at in Romans chapter 5 verse 3, where it uses the same Greek word, hupamoni. And you can do a search of that word, for instance, with a concordance, and find many other places where it appears. But I'm just going to give you one example where it appears in Romans 5 verse 3. It says, now hope, and he says, not only that, but we also have glory in tribulations, knowing that the tribulation, in other words, the difficulties, the trials, and the fiscal earnings were having afflictions. You see, the brethren were being persecuted, as we saw a little earlier on, so they had trials and difficulties. And because of those afflictions they had, he says, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. This word perseverance is the same word, hupamoni, is the same word as patience in hope, as we read in Thessalonians. So it's that perseverance, which is that patience, which is that stick to it-iveness. And knowing that perseverance, verse 4 produces character, in other words, triad character, solid triad character, and character hope. So you can see that that that that perseverance, that stick to it-ness, builds your character, and that building your character, builds you that assured hope. It's assured hope, and hope that does not disappoint. It's a hope that does not disappoint, because we know it's a hope of Christ. It's a hope that Christ's going to come. So let's go back to 1 Thessalonians.

Where are we? Where?

Our hope is founded on Christ. So it says, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

So it's founded on Christ in the sight of our God and Father. In the sight of our God and Father. In other words, that hope can be in the scrutiny of God the Father. It can be, God can look at it, and it is a solid hope. There's no doubt about it. It will happen.

It can be entertained before God the Father. In other words, there's no doubt about it. In the sight of God the Father, it's the correct hope. So we must be patient. We must be persevere in that hope. Verse 4. Knowing beloved your election by God.

Do we recognize our election? Do we know our election?

Knowing our election. What is our election?

Why are we called? Was it an accident? No. It was not an accident. We are called for a special purpose. To be what? We are called to be the first fruits.

Why? Why does God want first fruits? Because we are going to be the very core of the kingdom of God, ruling on earth. We'll be the quote-unquote, the first fruits, which are part of a better resurrection, are going to be the elite, quote-unquote. Not that we're any better, but they're going to be tested and proven faithful. See, they're called, chosen, and faithful. They're going to be proven faithful to be in the first fruits. That's why it's a better resurrection. We're going to have a better resurrection. In other words, it's a better position, not for ourselves, not for us, but to serve, to do things for others. The kingdom of God, think about it, it's going to be the government of God on earth. So we're going to be, quote-unquote, government employees of God's government. Now, that sounds not so good when you think about government employees in this world. But you see, it's going to be God's government, not the world's government.

So we're going to be, quote-unquote, public servants, but true servants. You see, when you go to a public servant today, you kind of have to kind of wake them up to actually help you.

It'll be their way around. We'll be there wanting to help people, to serve to people, to give to people. It'll be a different government than the world's government. It'll be God's government. It'll be so different. The fathers called it for that special election. That's what we elected for. That's what we called for. It's not an accident. It's not an accident.

It's a very special purpose and reason. So we know, brethren, you're, beloved brethren, your election by God. So by God the Father, God is called us. So you know that. So we have this patient hope. We work of faith. We've got the labor of love because we know we've got a duty to perform, to serve mankind, to give to mankind. Not for our own self, but to give. And so we want to do that. And then in verse 5, for our gospel. Interesting, you use the word our gospel. It doesn't say the gospel of God. It doesn't say the gospel of Christ. It says our gospel.

Has he got a different gospel? No. But because it's the gospel that he's preaching, the gospel, the kingdom of God, it's our gospel. It's our good news. It's the good news of the kingdom of God, but it's our good news. We share the same gospel. We're preaching the same gospel.

What gospel did Paul preach? Did he preach a different gospel? Now, right at the end of the book of Acts, if you look at the end of the book of Acts, which was like 10 or 11 years after he wrote Thessalonians, right at the end of the book of Acts, look at what he is saying.

In chapter 28, the last chapter of book of Acts, verse 23, this is Paul writing from prison in Rome.

He was the one who came first and opened the way for the kingdom of God.

And look in verse, the last two verses, verse 31.

And teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus, that he was the Messiah.

With all confidence, no one forbidding him. So, we can see, his message was the same. The kingdom of God and that Christ, the Messiah, had to suffer. He had to rise, and that Jesus was the Messiah. He did that all along. So, that's why he says it's our gospel. No other different gospel. It's just the same thing, right from the beginning, right at the end, he's preaching exactly the same gospel. So, verse 5, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 5, For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, in and in much assurance, as you know, what kind of man we were among you for your sake. So, the gospel is coming to you in much assurance and in power, through Paul. God's power was coming to you. What?

It's much assurance, there's no doubt, in spirit and power. Look at the power. The word power is dynamos. Where do we get the word in English dynamite, dynamo, dynamic? That's in much power. It says, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. It says, we ought to receive the power.

In the beginning of Acts, it talks about receiving the power, the power of the Holy Spirit. God gives us that power, the power of the Holy Spirit. It's His nature. Why?

What is the power of the Holy Spirit? It wasn't with the Holy Spirit that all the earth and the walls were created. It says, through the power and Christ spoke, and through that power of the word, it was created. But He gives us that same power. Think about it, it's the power of the universe. It's the power that God uses to keep the whole universe sticking, put it that way.

It's the power of the universe. Why? Why does He give us the power of the universe?

And does He give us the same power or strength of power that He has? No, He gives us a portion of that which is to change us. He only gives the power of the Holy Spirit to us, but the portion that we need to change us. When we get resurrected and with Spirit beings, you'll give us additional portions of that power to do other things. But the power of the Holy Spirit gives us is for us to transform ourselves. It's not for me to change anybody else, and it's not for you to change anybody else. God gives us the Holy Spirit so that you have the power of the universe, that power, but to change yourself, to change me, myself and I. That's it. God gives the Holy Spirit so that we can change ourselves, and through that power we can have gifts, we can have fruits, we can do certain things, but that power is to change ourselves, transform ourselves, not to transform anybody else. In other words, it's the power to help us to overcome Satan. It's a power for us to win, to be overcomeers. And it says you've got to overcome till the end.

He that overcomes till the end. He gives us the power, and we've got to use that power to overcome.

Now, if we're not using that power to overcome, then we're not learning how to use that power. So if you're not learning how to use that power for the little bit, it gives us now, which is sufficient for us to overcome ourselves. If we're not learning to use that, how can he give us more of that power in the kingdom as spirit beings if we haven't learned how to use it? That's why it says don't quench the power of the spirit, because it's a power of the universe. It's a power that we'll have in other facets, in other areas. Currently, we have it in one facet to rule ourselves. Turn with me, please, to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1.

And we're going to see verses 2 and 4 through 4.

2 Peter chapter 1. Grace and power be multiplied to you in the knowledge of our God and Jesus Christ, our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life. God's power has given us all things that we need that pertain for us to work our own lives to actually to have eternal life. All things that pertain to overcoming so that we can overcome so that we can have eternal life and godliness. So what things are they? What does the Holy Spirit give us? It gives us different tools inside that tool bag of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, weakness, gentleness, kindness, self-control, all those nine characteristics, all the things that we need that fruit of the Holy Spirit gives us so that we can overcome to pertain to life and godliness. And what is godliness? Godliness is to faithful, fulfill our commitments and promises and duties. Faithful, fulfill our Christian duties. To be like God. God faithfully fulfills His godly duties. That's His godliness. That's what He is. He's a faithful. He's faithful. And we, to have godliness, we need to be like Him, which is faithful like He is. That's His character. His word stands true. Does our word stand true? And that's what we need to be growing in grace and knowledge, those attributes of God. So God gives us the power of the universe to win. To win the battle against Satan, to win the battle against our human nature. That's what our fight is. And He gives the power of the universe to do that. So how do we use that power? And we now are demonstrating to God how we use that power of the new universe and that He gives it now so that ultimately, by us showing Him that we're using that power correctly, ultimately as spirit beings, He'll give us other, let's call it, other tools to do other things within that power, because we know already how to use that power to overcome ourselves.

So imagine if He would give us that power of the universe to eradicate trees now. So we could go around and say, oh, I don't like this tree yet. And zap! Oh, I don't like this mountain yet. Zap!

That power can do it, but He hasn't given us that power yet. But He can do it. Imagine, oh, tomorrow we say, oh, well, I didn't like that tree there, but now I like it. Let me put it back again. What chaos we would have yet! So He's teaching us to use that power in overcoming ourselves now.

How we live today. How are we doing it? How are we controlling that power? Are we controlling how we talk to one another? Are we controlling what comes out of our mouth? Are we controlling our emotions? Are we saying things to other people? And again, if we don't ask, it says, we that lacks ask, for instance, you lack wisdom dealing with certain people. Ask, says in James 1 verse 5, and He gives it liberally, and He gives it to us. Seek, ask, seek, knock. What's that? The Holy Spirit. Give the Holy Spirit, and He'll give it to us, and He'll receive. Reverend, I think this is a good point to stop today. I think we've covered enough.