1 Thessalonians – Lesson 1
If you remember there is something to be learned from the themes of the first 6 books of the Old Testament. The themes themselves teach an important lesson on life and how we are to live.
First – Gen – Man is a sinner. To get anywhere with God you must start here. A person must realize that they are a sinner and therefore need saved. Every person mentioned sins except Joseph who is a type of Christ.
Second – Exodus – The theme of Exodus is Redemption. In faith they applied the blood of the Lamb and they were redeemed.
Third – Lev – The theme of Lev is worship.
So the first 3 themes are you are a sinner, then you are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and then the natural next thing is you worship.
Great now what? You have to make a choice on how close you want to walk with God and how much do you want to listen to Him and obey Him.
You are saved, you are His. Numbering shows ownership. You are saved and you are His, however you still have a free will. Love is not love unless it is freely given. God will not force you to walk close to Him.
In Numbers they failed. They were still His. He still fed them for 40 years. The cloud did not depart and their shoes never wore out. But they refused to do what God said over and over and over and so they had no victories.
In Due. they succeeded. The new generation chose to obey and walk with God and they entered into the Promised Land.
And finally Joshua. Joshua is a picture of the victorious Christian life. The life where you show up in faith and where God provides and God fights the battles and gives you the victory.
And in Joshua we learn that the victorious Christian life needs to be maintained. When they sinned they lost that battle. Get right with God and you have victories again.
The pattern is shown with the first 6 books and so this principal does not keep going. The first 6 cover it. There is still a lot more books in the Old Testament and they are all important. But the themes of the books teaching a lesson stops at book 6.
Realize you are a sinner, get redeemed, start worshipping, and then make a choice on walking with God in this life, if you chose right, then enter the victorious Christian life and then maintain that.
God did a similar thing with the order in which He gave the New Testament books.
First was Matthew. Matthew was finished a few short years after Jesus ascended. Matthew has the life of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, His work on the cross, and His commands on how you should live and what you should be working on, and that of course is the great commission.
So after you have implemented that in your life then what?
Galatians. The theme of Galatians is stand. Stay strong in the truth. Do not deviate and have zero tolerance for false teaching and false teachers.
So now you have the truth and focus – Matthew. And you are standing for that and sticking with that – Galatians. Now what?
James is next and that is about being real. Be doers of the word and not hearers only.
So now what? 1st and 2nd Thessalonians are the next books written. And those are the next two books we are going to look at. And these two will complete the pattern that teaches how we are supposed to live. After 1st and 2nd Thessalonians there will a break in time before God gives the next New Testament books.
1THESS 1:1 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 the Lord Jesus Christ.
1THESS 1:2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
1THESS 1:3 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;
Last week we looked in Acts at Paul meeting the Thessalonians for the 1st time. He was not there long, the unbelieving Jews ran him out of town, Paul went to the next town and they heard about it and went to that town.
Not only did they not want to hear the truth of the Gospel but they did not want anyone else to hear it.
Paul had to leave in haste and went to Athens and got separated from Silas.
Paul goes back to see just them at the beginning of the 3rd missionary Journey for a short time.
Not too long later Paul writes 1st Thess. to them. So they have not had very much teaching. They would have been organized into a local church and one of the men would have accepted the role of leadership.
But he has had no training, no Bible College, no Homiletics preaching classes. He is just a man who answered the call and took responsibility to do a job that was needed to preach and lead this small local church.
The job is needed. And God does call men. And Paul will give God’s instructions to preachers in Titus and 1 and 2nd Timothy to feed the church.
But please don’t freak out and just dismiss the shocking thing that I am about to say.
The need for the preacher to feed the flock and the need for him to teach is secondary. Something, actually I should say someone’s feeding and teaching should be primary.
The Thessalonians it seems understood this. Look at how they were doing without what modern Christianity thinks is necessary and primary. Look at how they are doing without a formally trained preacher.
1THESS 1:3 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;
They were being doers of the Word and not hearers only. They are doing really good.
We learn in verse 3 what type of believers they were. Paul says that they had the work of faith. They had a working faith. That means that they rolled up their sleeves and did something. An example would be that if you had faith that God would honor passing out tracts, then you would get tracts out.
If you had faith that God would see and be happy with your labor of love they you would do it. The same goes for trust and faith and patience.
They did not have a dead faith, they had a working faith. Next we see that they had a labor of love. They had the right kind of heart behind their labor.
They also had patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Some people get so wrapped up in Jesus coming back that they lose sight of the work that He has left us to do. As Christians we have the sure 100% positive hope that Jesus is coming back. He is coming, but don’t be impatient about it. Work for Him in patience.
Hope in Jesus should bring patience in all areas of our work for Him.
Verse 3 also says, “in the sight of God and our Father” They realized that everything they did God was watching and they labored accordingly.
How we all need to constantly keep in mind that God is watching everything we do. Just think how things would change if Christians realized the truths in just verse 3 and acted accordingly.
And they did all of this growing in the Christian walk without a trained preacher who follows a fairly strict method of preaching called Homiletics.
How do I explain this? They were primarily letting God the Spirit who indwells every believer guide, direct, and illuminate the scriptures.
The primary source of teaching needs to be God. The author of the scriptures is the first and primary one to listen to.
O’ it is so sad to me. I have seen this misunderstood and gotten messed up and wrong time and time again thru the decades. People in churches often end up following the man behind the pulpit and put the man first.
The preacher will get off track and grieve the Holy Spirit of God in some way. He is given time to repent. God will send chastisement to try to get his attention. But I have seen some refuse and just dig in on what they are grieving the Spirit on.
Since the preacher is dependent upon the Spirit to illuminate the scriptures and since he is grieving the Spirit what happens next is his preaching gets off.
If he does not change course it gets worse and worse. Finally he ends up teaching things that are actually against the Bible. And then what happens.
The few who put the teaching of God, who is the author of the Bible and who indwells them, over the teaching of man leave. They will often witness to the preacher first and make sure that he will not listen before they leave. When it finally comes to a choice between God’s Word or mans they choose God.
Those that put the man over the Bible stay. In my experience the number who put man first outnumber the few who put the teaching of God first.
Christians in a local church should always put God’s teaching primary. They should listen to and follow the preaching and teaching of the Pastor as long as what he is teaching lines up with God’s Word.
And I believe that the growth of these Thessalonians without trained preachers shows that they were letting the Spirit guide and illuminate the N.T. Scriptures that they had. Which at that point would only have been Matthew, and Galatians. James is so new at this point they most likely do not have a copy of that yet.
1THESS 1:4 Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.
1THESS 1:5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
1THESS 1:6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.
The gospel came to them not in word only, but also in power. Men had to go and tell them the great news of a Savior who died for their sins. But along with those words must be something else. Without which, nothing will happen for God.
What must accompany the telling of the gospel? The power of the Holy Ghost. He must bear witness to the words you say. He opens the eyes; He brings the conviction, and without this souls will not get saved.
One of the big fallacies of the so called modern Christian groups is that they are looking the wrong place for help in getting people saved. They try new programs, and they try softening the message, they try using the same music that the lost use on Friday night to party.
Our music was never intended to be used to win the lost. Our music is to be different than the worlds. It is for praising a Holy God.
What we need to do is simply listen to what the Bible clearly says. It is the preaching of the Word of God accompanied by the convicting power of the Holy Ghost that saves souls. What we need to do is humble ourselves and pray for God’s power to accompany the word of God as it goes forth.
I will not get into it here, but the Bible does teach that election is done out of foreknowledge. God does not choose who goes to heaven and forces them to go and God does not choose who goes to hell and then gives them zero chance.
God knows who will choose Him and who will not and God acts with that foreknowledge. And all of those who choose are elected to be conformed into the image of His dear Son. This ultimately happens in full when we get to Heaven.
And after the Thessalonians got saved they became followers of Paul and those working with Paul and of the Lord.
1THESS 1:6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.
I mean real followers of the Lord. Not pretenders and not those that just give it some lip service. But real dedicated working followers of the Lord.
1THESS 1:7 So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
1THESS 1:8 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.
The Thessalonians were idol worshippers who heard the Gospel and accepted it and became new creatures in Christ. They were saved, born again, adopted into God’s family. And what happened next to them is what is supposed to happen. They changed!
They stopped what they did before and became followers of Jesus. They now had a work of faith and labor of love and they sounded out the word of the Lord in Macedonia and Achaia. In other words they got seriously involved in telling others.
And other Christians took notice and talked about the faith and work of the Thessalonians and thus the news of what they were doing in faith and in love for Jesus was spread to other Christians. They because a great example and no doubt an encouragement to other Christians to do likewise.
And they were doing this in a town that was hostile to the Gospel. It should be obvious by this point that God the Holy Spirit was working in and moving in the hearts of these believers.
They actually teach you in Homiletics classes to manipulate the emotions of your audience, and use entertainment, and to work to build conviction thru your message and bring it to a climax at the end. They teach all of that and more and that is all the wrong focus. It is the complete wrong way to go about it.
They already were living the theme of James. Be doers of the Word and not hearers only.
And now here comes the main theme of 1 Thessalonians. Which is Jesus is returning.
They understood how to properly wait for Jesus to return.
1THESS 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
You do not wait for Jesus to return by sitting on the couch! You properly wait for Jesus to come on your feet doing a work of faith and love to please Him.
Jesus is coming back and so we are to live that way. He might not come back for 50 more years, when He comes is not the point. How we live is exactly the point.
And Christians are to live like Jesus is coming back at any time.
1THESS 1:9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
Salvation is based on belief and grace and not of works. The question then arises, what kind of belief saves. The answer is a repentant belief. You have to believe with a repentant heart. You have to be sorry for your sin and turn from it.
Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Luk 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Repentance is a change of mind. A real change of mind that will result in a change of direction. It is a repentant belief that saves. We see an example of it here in verse 9.
how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
These people turned from their idols and turned to God. They stopped serving idols and started serving the true and living God. The serving God did not save them. The serving God is a natural result of their believing with a true repentant belief.
Someone who says that they are saved and yet has a Hindu god altar in their home that they also worship is not saved. You cannot add Jesus to your idols. When someone truly gets saved they will leave serving their idols.
And then they should do what the Thessalonians did. Start serving the Lord and live to please Him like He is coming back soon.
1Th 1:9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
1Th 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Please catch it. They turned from idols to serve the true God and to wait for his Son from heaven.
This is what they were currently doing. They are serving watching for the return of Jesus.
This is not Paul telling them to change and start doing this. This is Paul acknowledging that they were already serving with an eye towards Jesus coming back.
Where did they learn this?
They had the book of Matthew and the teachings of Jesus. Go to Matt. Chapter 24.
The context is Jesus is teaching about His return.
Mat 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Mat 24:39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Mat 24:41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Mat 24:42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
There it is. Jesus taught that Christians are to watch for His return. And every day. You do not know when He is returning so live and watch like it could be today.
The result of this is that what you do and how you serve Him changes.
Mat 24:43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Mat 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Mat 24:45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Mat 24:46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Mat 24:47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
The Thessalonians had this teaching of Jesus. And they had the Holy Spirit bearing witness to this truth and opening their eyes and working in hearts. The Holy Spirit will never teach you anything contrary to God’s Word.
When God is the one who works in the heart and when God is the one who brings the conviction and when God is the one who prompts and teaches and burdens, then changes in a life happen.
And it is real like what we see with the Thessalonians.
I have seen it far too many times, a preacher works someone up into an emotional thing and they come forward and kneel down and make a decision and pray. And then they get up and a week later… nothing.
Emotional manipulation does not work. What works is when a man simply stands up and preaches and teaches God’s Word and then the Holy Spirit bears witness to it and then He does the work in the heart and mind of people.
They learned Jesus said Mat 24:46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
And so they believed it and they wanted to please Jesus and Jesus taught He is pleased with them if they are busy for the Lord all the time like He is coming back today. And that is what they did.
Jesus also taught what He thinks of Christians who do the opposite.
Mat 24:48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
Mat 24:49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
Mat 24:50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
Mat 24:51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Already in Chapter 1 we see the theme of 1st Thessalonians which is live like Jesus is coming back.
This is how Christians are supposed to live.
First comes the Gospel, you have to start by getting saved, then comes the teachings of Jesus and the great commission. The book of Matthew.
Then do not stray, stand for the truth, zero tolerance for false teaching. Galatians.
Be doers of the Word not hearers only. James.
And then serve and live like Jesus is coming. Live with the heart that you want Him to be pleased with what you are doing and that if He came today or tomorrow that He would find you busy for Him.
This is the way that we are supposed to live the Christian life.
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