Turn with me, if you would, to
Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15. Someone pointed out something
to me this last week in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Brought my attention to that
letter and it made me go and read the book, read the letter. And I believe the Lord has really
blessed it to my heart. I would love if he is willing
for us to maybe go through 1 Thessalonians. And I started working on a message
for tonight. I had it in my mind that we might
go through 1 Thessalonians on Sunday nights, if the Lord's
willing. And I was working on the first
three verses. And I saw a message and had some
things that I felt led to say about it, but I wanted to, I
also got interested through what John Gill had to say and what
some of these other men had to say. I became interested in the
history of what led up to Paul writing this letter. So I wanted
to tell you that too. And it got too long. And I didn't
want to cut anything out. I want to tell you all of these
things. So I've decided to cut it in half. And we're going to
give an intro to the book of First Thessalonians in this Bible
study. And then we're going to, after
we see that history that led up, we're going to look at verse
one. First Thessalonians 1.1 this morning. And then if the
Lord is willing, we're going to look at verses two and three
tonight. All right. Acts 15, this is where
everything begins, okay? Just bear with me through a little
bit of this and I believe you'll really get a blessing from this
and see why we're looking at this. Paul and Barnabas, two
dear men who dearly loved each other, dear brethren, we went
through Acts And we saw their relationship. Barnabas was the
one who went and got Paul and brought him into the fellowship.
And they loved each other. Dear, dear brethren, fellow preachers
of the gospel. Paul and Barnabas had a falling
out. So sad. So, so sad. They didn't want to travel with
each other anymore. Wasn't over the gospel. They both went with
the same message. But it was over a difference
of opinions. It was a difference in the flesh. And that happens. And it's so
sad when it happens. And the good news is their flesh
meant it for evil. They were mad at each other.
God still meant it for good. He made good come from both of
their travels. But it happens. It's a sad thing
that happens and we need to guard against it.
We really do. I think about my fellow brethren
preachers, these other pastors that pastor these churches. or
the men that God has raised up to preach the gospel, or no preacher
at all, any brother or sister. Lord, please don't let us have
a fallen out over the flesh. Restrain this flesh. Restrain
me. Restrain me. Because it's so
sad, but it does happen. And in chapter 15, Acts 15, verse
39 says, the contention was so sharp between them, that they
departed asunder one from another. And so Barnabas took Mark and
sailed unto Cyprus. And Paul chose Silas and departed,
being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he
went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. Then
came he to Derbe and Lystra, And behold, a certain disciple
was there named Timotheus, Timothy." All right, so Paul, Silas, and
Timothy. Timothy was the son of a certain
woman which was a Jewess and believed, but his father was
a Greek. Timothy was well reported of
by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. He was a
young man, and everybody could tell the Lord had his hand on
him. The Lord blessed him with the
word and blessed him with a heart for the word. He was well reported
up by the brethren. Verse three, him would Paul have
to go forth with him. Paul said, I want you to come
and travel with me and Silas. Verse six, now when they had
gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden
of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were
come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit
suffered them not. They were trying to go preach
the gospel here, trying to go preach the gospel there, and
the Spirit wouldn't let them. The Spirit had them on a direct
course. Verse 8, And they, passing by
Mysia, came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul
in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia,
and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help
us. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
them." We believe that God has opened a door to preach the gospel
there, closed all these other doors. and opened it to go there. Therefore, verse 11, loosing
from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracea, and the
next day to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is
the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony And we
were in that city abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath, we
went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made.
And we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither."
And then verse 14 begins the story of Lydia. That wonderful
story, that precious woman and her whole house. It says in verse
14, she was a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira. She
worshiped God and she heard us whose heart the Lord opened. And oh my goodness. That's the
goal. That's the goal that we preach
the word of God. We preach the word of God. This
word declared is the power of God unto salvation. And I love
that. Preach the word. You just stand
there and preach the word. And when God is pleased, he will
open the heart. He pierces the heart, opens the
heart. And it says in verse 15, she
was baptized and her household, all of them. And then on down
in verse 23, it starts the story of the Philippian jailer. I love
that story. I love that precious man. He
was beating Paul and Silas with everything he had. And God opened
his heart and his family. And those two groups of people
started the church in Philippi. All right, all that revolved
around Paul and Silas. Timothy was not laid hold of,
but Paul and Silas were laid hold of and beaten and thrown
in prison. And I did think of the Lord's
mercy to this young man, this young preacher. He gave him a
moment. He wasn't ready for that kind
of persecution that Paul and Silas were ready for. But anyway, God delivered him
out of prison. Now look at chapter 17, verse 1 says, Now when they
had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica,
where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner
was, went in unto them in three Sabbath days. the span of three
Sabbath days, reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. He opened
the Word of God to them. Verse 3, opening and alleging
that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead,
and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you, Christ, why must he
needs suffer and rise from the dead? It's because he told them
all of that ceremonial law that you all are doing, you're reading
all that stuff in the Word, trying to obey the Bible, and trying
to obey the Bible, and trying to obey the Bible. It's not good
enough. It's not going to remit sin. Christ must needs suffer
and die. That's the only way that sin
is going to be put away. Has to. He told him that for three
weeks, the death, the burial, the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the only hope of eternal
life. The only hope. He preached the
works of the law to be the sentence of death. That's what he preached
to them, and the blood of Christ to be freedom from that sin.
Verse 4 says, And some of them believed, and consorted with
Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and
of the chief women not a few, Jews and Greeks, And that started
the church in Thessalonica. He preached to them for three
weeks and some of them believed. Now verse five says, but the
Jews which believed not, those who heard the message, did not
believe the message, hated the message. The Jews which believed
not moved with envy. took unto them certain lewd fellows
of the baser sort they went down to the other side of the tracks
and they found them some lewd fellows of the baser sort verse
five goes on to say and gathered a company and set all the city
in an uproar that's lanika and assaulted the house of jason
this believer in the congregation and sought to bring them out,
that's Paul, Silas, and Timothy. And when these lewd fellows found
them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers
of the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside
down, our come hither also. And I love that. That's what
happens when the gospel is clearly preached. It turns everything
upside down. It turns a life upside down.
It stops everything you were going after in a miraculous way. Great things from what people
believe is great men and women. shuts it down, turns everything
over. Verse 7, Whom Jason hath received,
they brought him saying, This man received those three men.
And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying,
There is another king, one Jesus. They're preaching Jesus Christ
the King. And they troubled the people
and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And
when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, They
let them go. And the brethren immediately
sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea. They said, you guys
have to get out of here. There's great persecution in
the city. So they sent them away to Berea. And the ones who started trouble
in Thessalonica followed them to Berea and started trouble
in Berea. Verse 13 says, but when the Jews
of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached
of Paul at Berea, They came thither also, and stirred up the people.
And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were
to the sea, but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. So Paul went,
Timothy and Silas stayed. Verse 15, And they that conducted
Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto
Silas and Timotheus, for to come to him with all speed, They departed. Paul got there and the Lord moved
him to call them and say, you all come as fast as you can,
you get here. All right, now watch this, verse
16. Now while Paul waited for them
at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him. He started thinking about
everything that happened in Thessalonica, how the whole city became in
an uproar. The whole city was in an uproar
over this message, over this gospel. These brand new believers,
it brought so much persecution on this brand new congregation
of young believers, these babes in Christ. And Paul, waiting
there in Athens for Silas and Timothy to come to him, he's
sitting there and his heart is stirred within him. And he thought,
I'm going to write this new congregation a letter. And I'm going to encourage
them in what they believe. I'm going to tell them you believe
the truth. God has been good to you. He's been kind to you. I'm going to confirm it in their
hearts. All right, now turn with me if you would to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. First Thessalonians 5, look at
the footnote after verse 28, the footnote at the end of the
whole letter. The first epistle unto the Thessalonians was written
from Athens. Right there in Athens, Paul is
sitting there in Athens, his heart is stirred within him.
And he's about to prepare a message to preach on Mars Hill. Have
we read down just a little bit farther? He was about to go on
Mars Hill and they had all those idols out there that they were
worshiping. One said to the unknown God. He was about to preach a
message called to the unknown God. And his heart is stirred
within him. So he wrote out a message and
he wrote a letter to the Thessalonians. All right, now let's look at
chapter one, verse one. First Thessalonians 1. Verse 1 says, Paul and Silas
and Timothy. Silvanus is Silas. Timotheus
is Timothy. Unto the church of the Thessalonians,
which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. What
a glorious statement to begin with. That's what he wrote to
them. That is salvation. That is salvation. Being in God
the Father. It doesn't matter what's going
on out. being in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ
that is eternal. First thing he said to them is
you have eternal salvation. Hold your place and look with
me at John 17. This is our Lord praying to his
father. John 17 verse 21. That they all may be one as thou
father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in
us. That the world may believe that
thou hast sent me and the glory which thou gavest me, I have
given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Salvation is being in God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. All the fullness
of that Godhead is in Christ. It's all bound up in Christ.
Salvation is being in His love that thou, that they may know
that you love them just like you love me. Salvation is being
in His love. Salvation is being in His choice. Don't you love that song when
he reached down his hand for me? Not just that he reached
down his hand, but he reached down his hand for me. You mean
me? You know, you mean you're grabbing
me? Salvation is being in his blood. Salvation is being in his favor. You know, he told Mary, that
sinful woman, you're highly favored with God. Salvation is being in His grace. All the blessings of God's salvation
are in Him. All of them in Him. Of God are
you in Him. That's what Paul told the Corinthians.
Of God are you in Him. Go with me back to 1 Thessalonians
1. Verse one says, Paul and Silvanus
and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is
in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the glory of the gospel. And I can tell you from experience,
that's the glory of being able to declare the gospel. That's
the reward. that a preacher gets to receive,
declaring that, I know, this is what Paul's telling them,
I know that the whole city is in an uproar. I know that. I know that you are surrounded
by turmoil and persecution, I know that. You can just listen to
this, I was gonna have you turn, but I can read it to you. It's
2 Corinthians 7, four and five, it says, 2nd Corinthians 7, 4 and 5 says,
Great is my boldness of speech towards you. Great is my glorying
of you. I'm filled with comfort. I'm
exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. For when we were come into Macedonia,
that's where Thessalonian Thessalonica was Macedonian. When we were
coming to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest. We were troubled
on every side. Without were fightings, within
were fears. That was our experience in Thessalonica. And Paul is writing to them,
telling them, I know that your flesh has no... I'm so stirred
for you, you're sitting over there in the middle of it. And
I know that there's no rest in your flesh. I know that you're
troubled on every side. I know that without our fightings
and within our fears, but he said in God the Father and in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The same God that granted
grace and peace to you will create grace and peace in you. I want to repeat that 99 more
times. Okay, I did one. Let's go for
a hundred. I'm going to say it again. This
is good news. And this is so true. The same
God that granted grace and peace to you. You just hang in there. You wait on the Lord. You look
to the Lord. You just trust the Lord. That
same God will create grace and peace in you. How will He do
that? By changing what's going on on
the outside? Nope. He'll turn the light on. on the
inside. The turmoil on the outside may
never stop. It may never stop. They may want
to take your life from you. This is what Paul is telling
them. They may want to take your life from you, but he gave his
life to you. They may want to take yours from
you. He gave his to you. They may be out for blood, but
you're under the blood. They can try to do what they
will, but what God has done cannot be undone. Cannot be undone. You have peace with God in the
blood of Christ, and that peace cannot be taken away from you.
Cannot. Now, I want to say the same thing
to us. I want to say the same thing
to us. I'm done. But I want to say the
same thing. You may never find peace and
rest in this world. You may not ever find it. But
if God chose to put you in Christ, if God chose to make Christ your
substitute, what a glorious thing that is. If God chose to give
his grace to you, by making peace for you. Peace with Him. Peace
from sin. There may not be peace from this
world ever in your cards. There may not be. But if you
have that peace from sin, you have nothing to worry about.
You have nothing to worry. You have nothing to fear. I mean,
you have nothing to fear. I know that there are troubles
on every side. I know without our fighting and
within our fears. But this is what our Lord said.
And I'll read this to you. This is John 16 verse 33. He
said, These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. If you need a moment of
peace, I can tell you where you can get it. You just, in heart,
mind, soul, spirit, enter into Him. Walk into Him. He said, these things have I
spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. Every time
you need peace, enter into Him. He said, in the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. If you want a little break from
it, enter into me. Enter into me. Paul thought,
I want them to know that. I want them to know that. I'm
going to write this letter to these precious believers, and
I'm going to encourage them in that. I'm going to strengthen
them. I'm going to confirm their faith
in that. And if the Lord will allow us
to go through 1 Thessalonians, I pray that's what happens for
us in a real way. In a real way. I pray that we
become more confirmed and more strengthened in the fact that
in Christ, we have peace. We have peace. And if the Lord
tarries, if it's His will, if He doesn't come back this afternoon,
if we have service tonight, I'm really looking forward to telling
you what He, the next thing He had to say in verses two and
three. And I pray the Lord will bless
it to us. All right, you're dismissed.