Sickness, many, many trials on the Oregon Trail. And yet the outcome, many states along that trail dedicate their birth, their their growth, who they are now because of the hundreds of thousands of people that traveled that trail. It opened up passages for economic growth, for railways and whatnot. Trial they were well acquainted with and yet at the end they would say triumph.
We're about to embark on a series through this book through the book of Thessalonians. And what we're going to we're going to see a number of things, but I want to draw our attention first to chapter 1 verse 1. Here's what the word of the Lord says. Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace.
It's actually a very significant verse. As we're going to try to understand what's going on here in the church in Thessalonica, it's important for us to understand a few things. Number one, who's actually writing this letter? Who is it that's penning this? And we see here it's primarily Paul with Sylvanus or Silas. This is Paul, Silas, and Timothy. And what do we we know much about that. What we're going to see through Thessalonians.
We're going to see a lot of trial and how to how to navigate trial and hardship. And this is not coming from someone who doesn't know what it means to suffer. We know Paul suffered much. And so when he pens here's how you navigate hardship and trial, he knows firsthand experience. This is what it's like. This is how you do it. Notice he's writing here to the church of the Thessalonians in God.
He's writing to people within the church. He's writing this letter to believers. That's his primary audience. His primary focus is writing to believers. He says, "Grace to you and peace." It's a general. It's like when we would write an email and we say, you know, I I trust this email finds you well. It's a a general grace and peace to you. That's what he's saying here.
We're going to see as we as we go through this book, we're going to see three kind of key critical themes that are going to weave their way not only through First Thessalonians, but also second Thessalonians as well. One of them is endurance in affliction. This is a a major key theme. And I've got some verses on the on the back, but let's go to chapter 1 6 and 7. And he says, ' And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Aaya.
We're not going to dive in a whole lot, but just I want to show us some themes. They are well acquainted with affliction. If you go to 2:2, but though we had already suffered and been p shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. We're going to see throughout this book enduring affliction, enduring trial and hardship. We'll see that.
We're also going to see Paul drive them to show evidence of their Christian faith. This is huge. As as it's already been stated, this or not already been stated, that was stated when I was chatting at the back. Sorry. What we're going to see this is a this church was planted very quickly. And so Paul hasn't had a whole lot of time to teach them and to show them here's what it means to follow Christ.
They were planted and they're faithful, but they're still somewhat immature in their faith. And so we're going to see Paul address again and again and again this evidence that of a Christian life. Take a look at verse 11 of chapter 2. He says, "For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
We charge you," he says, to walk in a manner worthy of God. Chapter 4:3 he says, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you would abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor." This is the instruction that Paul, Silas, and Timothy are giving to this church. This is what Christian life looks like.
And the third kind of key theme that is going to run through this entire book is an esquetology. You're going to see language like the day of the Lord or end times. Take a look at chapter 33. He says, "So that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Chapter 4:es 13-1 17.
As this church is burdened by the unknown of what happens to the dead, Paul has this num this discourse here from 13-1 17 about what's going to happen in the end. We're also going to see some hardship of the final day of the Lord and this judgment that's going to come on those who don't believe. The esquetology or an understanding of the end times weaves its way through first and second Thessalonians.
But I want to take our time. I think it's important for us to fully grasp what's going on in this church, this vibrant, faithful yet somewhat immature, not in a negative sense, but a a not having been discipled church. It's important that we actually go back to its birth. I want to examine for us this morning the establishing of the Thessalonian church.
Now, I'm a maps kind of guy. I like to see where things are located. So, I'm going to get David to put the map up. Oh, there it is. All right. Just so we're aware, this map. So, if you can see up at the top, it says Macedonia area and then the dot underneath, that's Thessalonica. That's where it is. Obviously, you can see it's, on the northern part of Greece. It's close to Philippi.
And important to understand, especially for our text today, is where Berea is also. Okay. So, Athens, Corinth, that's that you're talking Mediterranean Sea. That's that's the the geography of where we are. Why I say Thessalonica and Berea that's important. That is approximately 80 km give or take from Thessalonica to Berea. And I'm going to unpack for us in a moment why that's important. But just keep that in mind.
That's where we're looking when it comes to Thessalonica. But let's take a minute, go to Acts 17 with me. Let's look at how this church was established. So, I'm going to pick it up in verse one of Acts 17, and I'm going to read through verse 15 for us this morning. Now when they had passed through Amphipilus and Appalonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
And Paul went in as was his custom. And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I proclaimed to you is the Christ." And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
But the Jews were jealous. And taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. And Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there's another king, Jesus."
And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Then, or pardon me, the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea. But Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens.
And after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. This is the establishing of the Thessalonican church. And you'll notice, I trust right off, that they're established under a lot of trial. This is this is not a smooth sailing planting of this church. So take a look verse one. So Paul and Silas, they've passed through Amphipilolis, Appalonia.
They've come through Philippi. And what do they do? They end up in Thessalonica. And Paul, as was his custom according to the text, he goes to the synagogue. It's the first thing he does. And he stays there for three weeks or for three Sabbath days he would go into the synagogue and he would reason with the Jews. Now I find it fascinating he uses the scriptures with the Jews to explain what to them.
Well, verse three says that he's explaining that it that the Christ, the coming one, the one who is anointed, the coming one must die and rise again. Notice that here in verse three, he must that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. This is what he's saying. So he's imagine he's in the synagogue and there's Jews all around him and he's walking through the scripture.
He's saying, "Listen, the Christ that you are anticipating, the Christ that you are looking for, he's going to come. He's going to die and he must rise again according to the scriptures." Now the Jews would not have accepted anything New Testament, anything after Jesus. So he's using Old Testament scriptures to prove the Christ must die and rise again. We're not told which he used, but we can I think assume maybe or we can understand that he likely spent some time in what Becky read for us in Isaiah 53.
Isaiah 53, the coming of the the suffering servant. And verse 10 of Isaiah 53 tells us that it was the will of the Lord to crush him. The will of the father was to crush his son for the salvation of his people. What a mindblowing truth that is. That it wasn't the will of the Jews. It wasn't the will of the Romans. It wasn't their will to destroy Jesus.
It was the will of the father to send his son to save us from hell. What an amazing truth that everyone in this room, if you are a follower of Christ, that should be a a warm blanket to maybe a hurting soul to know that the father out of an an immeasurable amount of love sent his son to die to crush him so that we could go free. What a warm blanket to a hurting heart.
Perhaps he was using verse 16 of Psalm, pardon me, Psalm 16:10 where the psalmist says, "You will not abandon my soul to shol, nor let your holy one see corruption." Which according to Acts 13 is ultimately fulfilled in the person of Christ. So Paul here as he's reasoning with them, he's taking the Old Testament saying, "The Christ that you're looking for must come suffer, die, and rise again." And then he hits them with the climax when he says, "This Jesus that I'm telling you about, he is the Christ.
He is the one and they just love it and accept it. Right. No, no. Some verse four are persuaded. They're persuaded to to follow Paul and Silas. And I love the double negative here in verse four. He says as did in many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
In other words, a lot of the leading women, not a few but a lot of the leading women. So what's happening? Paul and Silas are there and some are persuaded, some Greeks are persuaded, the leading women are persuaded and now people are starting to follow Paul and Silas which brings up a lot of jealousy of the Jews. Take a look at verse 5. But rather than celebrating, rather than longing to to hear more of this word from the Old Testament and how it's fulfilled in Christ like the Bereans do, like those Jews do, these Jews are filled with jealousy.
They're angry. People are no longer going to come follow us. They're going to go follow this Paul and Silas. And we're they're angry. They're jealous. And they take verse 5, some wicked men of the rabble. Now, I like this transition that they they grab a bunch of rabble rousers, as they say. But I actually love the King James. This is from my friend, my good friend Richard Manning. The King James translates it this way.
The Jews grabbed several lewd fellows of the baser sort. You could say perhaps the the intellectually shallow, the those who are willing to do any sort of wickedness, any any sort of like crime, they're willing to do it. They're okay. They're lewd fellows of the baser sort. In fact, it it's if you remember back to when the Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Conucks in game seven of the Stanley Cup finals.
What a joyful day that was. But what happened? What happened afterwards? Looting, rioting, buildings were burned, cop cars were thrown over, about four to 5 million of damage was caused by the riots that ensued after Vancouver lost. Multiple people, hundreds of people were arrested and it was found that there was a large group of people who traveled across Canada not because they loved hockey, but because they wanted to stir something up.
They came for the explicit purpose of causing riots and damage. They are lewd fellows of the baser sort. But that's what they do. These Jews, they grab this crowd and they stir up all of this angst and all of this riding and they drag out a guy named Jason. We don't know much about Jason. They likely assumed that Jason was housing Paul and Silas and Timothy.
So they go to his house and they drag him out and they claim in verse 6, "These men who have turned the world upside down, they've come here also. We want to take out Paul and Silas and Timothy." And they they accuse Jason in verse 7. He's received them. They're they're with him. So we've got to get him, too. Saying that there is another king Jesus. Well, Jesus is the only king.
He is the king of kings and the lord of lords. Verse 8. And the people in the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. So now you've caused chaos. You've caused confusion. Remember this is all within about three weeks. This is not over the course of years. This is three weeks. Paul, Silas, they show up. They proclaim the gospel. People are drawn to it. The Jews are angry. And they basically run them out of town.
And they take a security deposit from Jason. Basically a deposit saying they will never come back here again. Hence why verse 10, the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away. Now, I want you to imagine for a moment, put yourself in the shoes of a Thessalonian who has maybe been persuaded.
You want to know more about this Christ. You want to know more about this gospel. And yet, you see the response of the the religious leaders around you. Man, the temptation would be to just I'm just going to keep this to myself. I'm gonna I'm gonna shrink back here and I'm just going to keep this and maybe maybe I'm not going to follow this Christ because look at the response. Look at the the Jews response to anyone who seems to want to be persuaded to talk about this Lord.
And yet we know from 1 Thessalonians 1:8 he says your faith Thessalonian faith is in God has gone forth everywhere. This church has a testimony of faithfulness in the midst of these trials. Does our faith stand against those who want to quiet us down?
Are we quick to be quiet in an anti-Christian culture? Do we shrink back? Do we do we hold it to ourselves because we know it's not going to be loved and accepted, but in fact maybe pushed against? Are we willing to lose friends, jobs, relationships for the sake of Christ? I think this is what the Thessalonian church was actually facing when they saw this. But let's keep going in our text. Paul and Silas, they they end up in Berea and the he goes, what does he do?
It doesn't stop Paul. His experience at Thessalonica does not stop him from doing what his custom was. Notice verse 10. They sent Paul away. And when they arrived, what did Paul do? Right back to the synagogue. Paul understood the gospel must go forward. Regardless of how it's re regardless of how it's accepted or not accepted, the gospel must go forward.
And I love the Berean Jews are different, but I want to zero in here on verse 13. We're going to see this incredible anger at the preaching of God's word. It's not an indifference. It's not a it's good for you but not for me. The Jews in Thessalon are showing a white hot anger for the preaching of God's word. Look at what they do. Verse 13.
But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul Epereia also, they came there too agitating and stirring up the crowds. Now remember that map that I showed you, we're talking 80 km. That's about in their time two maybe 3 days to travel on foot. So the Thessalonian Jews who kicked Paul and Silas out for proclaiming the word of God here that they went to Berea.
Well, what are we going to do? We are going to uproot for 3 days. That's 3 days there, 3 days back. What are we going to do? We're going to go to Berea and we're going to do the same thing. We hate the preaching of the word of God so much. We will travel 3 days to shut it down. This is what they do. Why?
Because Paul was proclaiming the word of God. It's what the text tells us in verse 13. We may not have people traveling from town to town or city to city to shut down the preaching of God's word. Maybe maybe it's happening. Not right now in our little neck of the woods. But make no mistake, there are concerted efforts to shut down the preaching and the teaching and the upholding of God's word.
Look no further than Bill C9. Bill C9 that is before our parliament is making a concerted effort to say parts of the scriptures are labeled as hate speech. And if you are caught doing that, it carries a fine and five years of jail time. That's the punishment for telling the world the truth of God's word.
So what are we going to do, church? What do we do when the bill inevitably passes and then we come to texts in Romans and Corinthians and we tell people that, hey, your sin is wicked? Are we willing to endure the anger and the hatred of the preaching of God's word for the sake of the glory of God because it's coming. This Thessalonian church in the midst of all of this.
Can you imagine now once again you're in Thessalonica? You are a follower of Christ in Thessalonica and you have just watched the Jews travel for a week for the sole purpose of shutting down that thing that you love and you want to know more. They had every reason, every excuse to be like, you know what? I don't think it's worth it to be like, you know what? We're going to I'm I'm just going to keep this right here to myself. But what did they do?
Once again, their faith went forth everywhere. This church stands out in Macedonia. But it's not just hard news. It's not just that. We see great triumph in the Thessalonian church. I want to take our attention here. If you're in Acts 17, flip over a few pages. I'm going to read Acts 20 3 and 4 and then I'm going to read Acts 27:2.
So, obviously the church has been established. It's been planted in the midst of duress and trial and hardship. And now we we jump ahead. And now Paul in Acts chapter 20. Take a look. There's another riot in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19. Now I love wherever Paul goes. This is an aside. Wherever Paul goes, it seems to be like riots and angst and trial. That just seems to be Paul's life.
So there's a massive riot in Ephesus. In verse 20, chapter 20:1 says, "After the uproar ceased, Paul sent four the disciples." And after encouraging them, he said farewell and he departed for Macedonia. When he had gone through those regions, and he had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. There he spent 3 months. So, we can assume as he's in Greece, he likely passed through Thessalonica again. There he spent 3 months. And when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.
Now listen to the people who are with him. Now the Berean son of Pius accompanied him and of the Thessalonians Aristarus and Secondis. He's got now guys who are joining him on his journeys from Thessalonica. They become cohorts with Paul. Jump over now to chapter 27. This is nearing the end.
Paul is sailing to Rome. He is basically on his way to plead his case before Caesar. This is not an easy journey. If you're familiar with the book of Acts. So, they've decided verse one that we should sail for Italy. They delivered Paul and some of other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustinine cohort named Julius. And embarking in a ship of Adramitium which was about to sail to ports along the coast of Asia.
We put to sea accompanied by Aristarus a Macedonian from Thessalonica. It's an amazing thing to me that though a church be planted in the midst of this trial and really a hatred for the gospel. We see a bright light, a bright beacon of faithfulness, of joy.
Men who are no doubt heard the gospel in Acts 16 and now are following in cohorts with Paul as he journeys to Rome. Trials produce endurance and ultimately trials produce triumph. Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character and character produces hope. Hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us all.
The Thessalonian church is exemplary as they long to to learn what it means to follow the Lord. As Paul in describes them, this is what it looks like to be a follower of Christ. And I have this question in my heart and in my mind. Is this what our church, Gateway Bible Church, are we exemplary in these things? How is it that we endure affliction? Do we endure affliction with hope? Will we stand like the Thessalonian church, though the Antichrist world hates it?
Do we stand firm in God's word? How is it that we're going to give evidence to our Christian lives? Are we okay sitting in the muck and the mire of our sin, though we be saved? Are we going to be sanctified and long to live as God has called us to do, pursuing holiness? And do we wait with enjoyment and cling to the hope of Christ's return? These are the things that we're going to see as we embark on this journey through the book of Thessalonians.
You know, I trust that it's going to be of great encouragement to our souls as we navigate the chapters. So, would you bow with me in a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, you alone are worthy of our praise. Lord, we see this exemplary church. Lord, I pray that we too would be a people who though the world around us hates your word.
That we would stand firm in it. That we would not shift to the left or to the right. But Lord, I pray that our gaze would be solely fixed on you and your goodness. And so God, we thank you for all you have done. Would we model Christlikkeness to a lost world? In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
