Yes, 1 Thessalonians chapter
1. Now I just want to read a few verses at the beginning because
there are another couple of portions of scripture that I also want
to just touch upon. So 1 Thessalonians chapter 1
and just the first three verses. Paul and Silvanus, or Silas,
and Timotheus, or Timothy, 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 the Lord Jesus
Christ. We give thanks to God always
for you, I'm sorry, we give thanks to God always for you all, making
mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your
work of faith and labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. So I want to spend a few minutes
with you today on this occasion, just as it were, opening up a
little bit of introduction to this epistle to the Thessalonians. Thessalonica is an ancient city
in northern Greece. And those of you who know your
geography will know that Greece is in Europe and so this is a
significant period in the time of the expansion of the Gospel
because this was the coming of the Gospel into Europe. Hitherto it had been around the
southern edges of the Mediterranean in what we would probably still
call North Africa or Asia, Asia Minor. But now it was extending
into Europe with this visit to Thessalonica. Philippi, first
of all, and then Thessalonica. We'll come to that in a moment.
So it was visited by Paul and Silas and Timothy. And it was
visited on the second missionary journey of the Apostle. And I
think the circumstances of this visit are really quite interesting
because it seems that this was not altogether the Apostle Paul's
first intention to visit Thessalonica. or indeed the region at all,
but the Holy Spirit ordained it to be so and provided for
this visit so that we can only marvel, we can only acknowledge
the hand of the Lord in this, in the way in which the divine
will and purpose is accomplished to the saving of souls and to
the establishing of this church and in the gathering in of the
Lord's elect at his behest, at his way and in his time. So Paul had been travelling hitherto
in what is called Asia Minor. We would call it Turkey nowadays. He'd been in central Turkey,
Galatia and Phrygia, and he intended to go into the Roman province
of Asia. We were remarking at the dinner
table earlier how Asia is, there is obviously the continent of
Asia with with India and China and Japan and the Philippines,
all these countries making up the continent or the subcontinent
of Asia. But then there was Asia Minor,
which was the region around Turkey, and there was within Turkey,
a province called Asia as well. So when we speak about Asia in
the Acts of the Apostles or in the letters of the Apostle Paul,
we're really talking about Asia Minor and this Roman province
of Asia. And that's where Paul had intended
to preach. He had planned to go into this
Roman province of Asia, but for some reason, the door was closed
to him. He was not permitted by the Holy
Spirit to preach the gospel in Asia or this province. And we can only assume that it
was because there was none of the Lord's elect there at that
time. However, there were other places where the elect of God
were eagerly awaiting the coming of the gospel. And it's that
that I want to just turn with you in the book of Acts and read
a few verses in your hearing in the book of Acts. Here in
Acts chapter 16 and verse 6, you don't need to turn to it
if you don't want to, you can listen along, but in Acts chapter
16 and verse 6 we read these words. Now when they had, so this is
Paul and his associates, 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 Mycenae, they
assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them
not. So the Holy Spirit put a stop
to this plan. And they passing through Mycenae
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 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 so this
is the visit at which Paul went to Thessalonica, and here we
see how that event came about. We call this the first preaching
of the gospel in Europe, and the rest of Acts chapter 16 tells
us about Paul's arrival, first of all in Philippi, which was
the nearest town to where he was coming from in Macedonia,
it's the north end of the Aegean Sea there. And he went to Philippi
and there he stayed for a little while and he established the
Church of the Philippians following the conversion of Lydia, the
seller of purple, and the Philippian jailer. So Paul and Silas had
been beaten because they had cast an evil spirit out of a
young woman and they had been cast into prison, but there was
an earthquake and that together with the following events, the
conversion of the Philippian jailer and the discovering that
Paul had been beaten as a Roman citizen without due process,
made the city magistrates nervous of Paul and Silas. They got them
out of prison and they ushered them out of the city as quickly
as they could. But the result of the ministry
of Paul there in Philippi, the conversion of Lydia and the Philippian
jailer and his family meant that there was a little group of believers
now in Philippi. When the civil magistrates chased
them out of the city, The Apostle Paul went westward and he came
to Thessalonica. So that was a major port. It
was a major trading city and it was a cosmopolitan city. It
was a rich city because of trade. It was a decadent city and it
was idolatrous. and it was also the home of a
large community of Jews. So here the Apostle stayed in
the home of a man called Jason for several weeks and he preached
in the synagogue with powerful effect. until violence by the
Jews drove them out of the city. And if you turn over the page
in Acts again, so back to Acts, I just want to read a couple
of verses from Acts chapter 17. And here we read Acts chapter
17 verse 1. 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, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must
needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that
this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. 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."
So here was a multitude of Greek or Hellenistic Jews who were
converted and a number of the chief women as well. So there
were those in these three Sabbaths that the Apostle preached. That
doesn't mean he was just there for three weeks because at the
end of those three weeks he probably didn't get back into the synagogue.
But during those three weeks, a large number of those in attendance
believed in the message that Paul preached, that the Lord
Jesus Christ must needs have suffered, risen again from the
dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ,
or as we've been learning, Christ and the Messiah is the same person. So here amongst the Jews, the
apostle was preaching in Thessalonica. And this shows us that there
was an immediate response to the preaching of Christ amongst
these people. And there were a good number
of believers established at that time. Well, the Jews in Thessalonica
were not happy about this. they started to riot and they
started to look for opportunity to do the apostle harm. And so from Thessalonica, Paul
and Silas were sent by night to Berea, which was a smaller
city close by. But the rabble in Thessalonica
followed them because they were still looking for Paul's blood.
And When Paul got to Berea, again he went into the synagogue, that
was his practice, and again we discover that in Berea many souls
were saved, believing in this ministry, in this message that
Paul preached, that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. But
when the mob arrived from Thessalonica in Berea, the Bereans, the believers
there said, look, we've got to get Paul out of here. And they
made it appear that Paul had been spirited away or carried
away towards the coast. when in fact he was taken in
the other direction and he was conducted by the brethren there
in Berea all the way to Athens. And Silas and Timothy joined
him in Athens but the apostle was concerned for the believers
in Thessalonica because he knew that there had been these riots
and there had been this persecution as a result of his ministry.
So he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica in order to establish the young
church there, to comfort the young converts and to preach
the gospel again to them. And Paul moved on at that stage
to Corinth. After Timothy returned from Thessalonica,
he met up with Paul again, probably at Corinth, and he gave him the
good news that there had been indeed a genuine work of faith
amongst the people in Thessalonica and he also conveyed the Thessalonians
good wishes for Paul and it's that news of what was happening
in Thessalonica as a result of Timothy's visit there that motivated
this letter of 1 Thessalonians and was the occasion of Paul
writing this letter back to the church at Thessalonica. Now,
if that history, and it's general and it's fast, but if, well no,
it's specific and it's fast, but if that history is correct
and confident that it is, then that means that this is the first
of the epistles that the Apostle Paul wrote, or at least it's
the first one that we have in our scriptures. And it means
that it was likely written around about AD 52. So we're only some 20 years after
the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. when this
letter is being written. And the purpose of the epistle
is to encourage the Thessalonians, under their afflictions and under
their sufferings and under the persecution that had arisen as
a result of this group believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
purpose was to exhort them to stand firm in the faith. to abide in the truth of the
gospel that they had learned and to live honourably with purity
of life for Christ's sake amongst the Jews. Paul also, in this
letter, as we will see, puts to right some wrong notions and
wrong conclusions that the believers there in the city had drawn from
the apostles preaching amongst them. For example, there was
some concern or there was some expectation on the imminent return
of the Lord Jesus Christ and as we go through this little
epistle, God willing, in the weeks ahead we'll discover that
the Apostle had to put the believers in Thessalonica right concerning
that immediate expectation that they had that Jesus Christ was
about to come back. So with the opening of this little
epistle, we have a few verses that I just want to touch upon
so that we've, as it were, today at least entered into the book
itself. And what the Apostle does in
these opening few verses is he gives us what will become Paul's
characteristic greeting. Because this is the greeting
that he has at the beginning of all his epistles. And it's
a greeting of grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I think I always say this
when I'm entering into one of Paul's epistles, we ought not
just to take that for granted as if, oh, that was just the
the form that he used when he was writing a letter. No, not
at all. He's talking here about the essence
of the Gospel. Grace and peace are the foundation
of the Gospel. It's a delightful feature of
the Apostle's writings that he brings us immediately into the
language of the gospel, the language of grace and the language of
reconciliation. And it's grace and peace that
is the foundation of our hope and joy. So if you're writing
to someone in order to comfort and encourage them, write about
grace and write about peace because that's what will bring hope and
that's what will bring comfort and joy. And just knowing that
we can never earn God's pleasure by anything within ourselves
and having to rely upon his grace and discovering that peace and
reconciliation comes to us by the sacrifice, the sacrifice
and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of our Christian
joy. Grace and peace from God the
Father by the representation of us by the Lord Jesus Christ
and the intercession for us by the Lord Jesus Christ is at the
very heart of the good news of the gospel. So let us just make
this point with respect to Paul's opening comment here. That's
a great place to start. In verses two and three, we notice
the humility and the meekness of the apostle, a total absence
of any pretentiousness in the attitude of the apostle. He wasn't
writing to the Thessalonians as the man, the big man, the
great apostle, but he wrote to them as a fellow believer, whose
pleasure and privilege was to identify with the Lord's people
in their trials and in their needs. And I can't but imagine
it would be a real blessing to these pressed and persecuted
European believers, these saints, to be informed that the apostle
was praying for them daily and constantly. And also the fact
that Paul had employed Timothy to go back to them Having been
chased from their city, he sent Timothy back to discover what
state they were in, that his prayers might be better informed
and might be more suitable to these believers' needs. More
directed to such help as he could muster and direct towards them. But I think most of all it shows
us that the apostle knew the source of all help and comfort
for a believer. He prayed to God on their behalf. He prayed to God. Paul constantly
pointed away from himself to the Saviour, directing the gaze
of the Lord's people to their Saviour and to their Helper and
to their Friend, the Lord Jesus Christ. So once again, having
mentioned grace and peace, the apostle is leading them to look
to the Lord Jesus Christ in just these few opening verses. And note too that the apostle
prays for them all. He was a very modern apostle
in his thinking in many respects because he doesn't distinguish
between Jew and Gentile. He says, I pray for you all.
He doesn't distinguish between Jew and Gentile. He doesn't distinguish
between rich and poor, male or female, old or young. And there's
a lovely levelling in the Apostles words, not only amongst believers,
but with Paul and his fellow ministers as well. It's as if
he's saying, we're all in this together. In the Christian faith
there's no hierarchy and there ought not to be a hierarchy.
We're all servants and ministers to one another and the idea of
an Episcopalian hierarchy or a a Roman Catholic or a Presbyterian
hierarchy or a Baptist hierarchy for that case. It's a nonsense
because here the Apostle is bringing himself to the level despite
the great usefulness that had been made of him by the Lord. He's just one with these brothers
and sisters in Christ. We're all one in Christ. And that oneness, it certainly
means that we're united in Christ, but it also means that being
one, none of us are half and none of us are two. We are one
in Christ. And it's helpful, I think, as
well, just to see that the apostle notices the evidences of the
Lord's work in the saints' lives. He mentions the work of faith,
the labour of love, and the patience of hope here in verse three. And these are wonderful characteristics
to take note of, even in these young believers' lives. That's
what Timothy had told him he had seen evidenced in the lives
of the believers in Thessalonica. He saw the work of faith, he
saw the labour of love, and he saw the patience of hope. These
were characteristics being exhibited in the attitudes and in the service
of the Thessalonians. That's the work of people engaged
in the cause of Christ and in the gospel. And it shows the
motivation for that labour. It's the motivation of love. Love for Christ and love for
his people. And it shows also that there
is a persistence and a patience. That even although you don't
see immediate results for your love, or you don't see immediate
results for your labour, yet you trust the Lord that all we
do for His sake might in time be fruitful and useful according
to His will. Later on in his ministry, the
Apostle Paul would write to the Galatians in chapter 6, verse
9, and he would say, let us not be weary in well-doing, For in
due season we shall reap if we faint not. And here already in
the lives of these Thessalonians, the patience of hope was exhibited. They were demonstrating these
gifts and these graces. And that just brings me to my
closing point here today. In this little epistle, I want
to mention something that I've mentioned before, but I personally
feel it's not given sufficient weight in the thinking of many
people. Paul says to the Thessalonians,
we give thanks to God always for you all. We give thanks to
God always for you all. thanksgiving for grace and thanksgiving
for peace with God must always go to God because it's God's
gift and it's God's plan of salvation and it's God's covenant purpose,
it's his covenant of grace and peace that brings these gifts
to us. And thanksgiving for the evidences
of these gifts is not to be directed in the first instance to the
individual, but to the Lord, who introduces the gift of grace
into a person's experience, who instigates the means and the
opportunity for those graces to be employed, and who increases
those self-same graces by growing them and developing them over
time so that the introduction and the instigation and the increase
of grace in a person's life is God's work and it's God who is
to receive the praise and the glory and the gratitude for it. Now I'm not saying that we don't
thank one another when we have the opportunity to benefit from
an act of kindness or an act of goodness. And those who show
evidences of God's love and God's grace and God's goodness towards
us should be thanked. It would be churlish, it would
be rude not to do so. So I say to you, thank you. And you say to me, thank you. But I thank God for you. I thank God that he chose you. I thank God that he laid it on
your heart to fulfil these works of faith by this labour of love
and this patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. So that
all these things find their origin and first cause in God's mercy
and ought to be credited as such. And I think that even the most
ardent advocate of free will must surely balk at thanking
a sinner for becoming a Christian, or thanking a sinner for saving
himself, or thanking the sinner for making the decision to believe
in Christ. It's such a contrary concept
and idea that it would almost stumble the passing of an individual's
lips to say such a thing. We give thanks to God always
for you. So brothers and sisters, let
us with Paul always trace the evidences of God's grace, his
mercy and his peace to its proper source and thank the Lord for
his goodness towards each one of us as well as to ourselves. The psalmist says in Psalm 127,
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build
it. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh in vain. So let us trace God's blessings
to their first cause and let us give him thanks appropriately.
May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Amen.