Sunday School: Introduction to 1 Thessalonians (1 Thes 1:1)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Thessalonica.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the

Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our

Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father. Knowing brothers, beloved by God, your election for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the

Holy Spirit and with full assurance. Just as you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.

You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with the joy of the

Holy Spirit, so that you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

For the word of the Lord is sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth so that we have no need to say anything.

For they themselves report about us what kind of an entrance we had with you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true

God. And to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,

Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, as we come into a new study this morning, as we begin our study of the book of 1

Thessalonians, I pray that you would encourage our hearts, just as Paul desired to encourage the hearts of the people in this church.

And we're constantly reminded, as we've even read this morning, about the coming of our Lord. And so we look toward that day with hope.

We continue in these days, serving faithfully and with holiness and steadfastness, just as Peter also said to the church.

As we just finished up 2 Peter, he said, what kind of people ought you be in these days?

So ought we to be as we look toward the coming of our Lord Christ?

May we be found faithful servants in these days, living for Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

It is in the name of Christ that we pray, and all God's people said, amen. So this is a great book, as every book in the

New Testament is. But I have to say, as I've been going through 1 Thessalonians and I've been trying to nail down an outline, this does not follow a typical structure of most letters that you're used to reading from the

Apostle Paul. I'm going through 1 Corinthians on the podcast. That's what I'm teaching through on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

And that one follows a very clear structure. We've gone through 1 and 2 Timothy several times in our expository workshops.

The women are going through 1 Timothy, and I had written a study for the Women's Bible Fellowship.

That one was easy to find an outline of the structure that Paul follows as he's giving these instructions to Timothy and therefore to the church.

1 Thessalonians just does not seem to follow that structure. It's really quite all over the place. But Paul had just the intention of writing to the

Thessalonians with encouragement. And that's what you see in the majority of this letter.

You see encouragement from the Apostle Paul to these saints. And so, may we receive that also as we go through this letter.

Now, Paul McClung, not the Apostle Paul, but Paul McClung, he sent me a document a couple of days ago and as we've been going through 1

Thessalonians with the other teachers who are going to be teaching this in our Sunday school classes as well. Unfortunately, I didn't get this early enough to be able to pass this on to the rest of the teachers.

So, you get this uniquely in this class and they don't get it in the other classes. But Paul McClung sent me this chart that he had done as he had gone through 1

Thessalonians. It was very, very helpful as you're trying to find kind of a theme of what Paul centers upon as he writes this letter.

So, Mr. McClung had arranged three columns and those three columns were labeled encouragement, day of Christ, and reminders of suffering.

And every single one of these verses, so he went through every single verse in 1 Thessalonians and he put a check mark.

This verse either has to do with encouragement or it has to do with the coming of Christ or it has to do with a reminder of suffering that we must endure in these present days.

So, there you have right there are three main themes that you will see as you go through 1

Thessalonians. You're going to be looking at passages that will either be of great encouragement, a verse that's going to remind us of the coming of our

Lord, or a verse that's going to remind us that in this world, we will go through suffering.

Last week in the sermon that I preached from 2 Peter 2, I gave a warning to the church as Peter does there about false teachers.

There will be false teachers among you. Jesus gives that warning in Matthew 7. That was where we were in the

Sermon on the Mount. And so, Pastor Tom asked if I would share in one sermon some of those things that we had gone through in this class over a span of like five weeks.

So, I took five lessons from the Sunday school class and had to condense them down into one sermon. One of the things

I wish I would have articulated better in the sermon last week, I didn't mention this as much and I wish

I had, something that you don't often hear from false teachers are reminders of suffering.

A lot of times what makes that false teaching sound so ear -ticklingly good is that everything's positive, everything's encouraging.

There's even a Christian radio network that has made that their slogan, positive and encouraging. All you will get on this radio network is positive and encouraging stuff.

So, that's the way that false teachers will try to woo you in, that gains so many followers is because I always just feel good whenever I listen to this guy speak and he even tells me that God only wants me to feel good and I won't ever have to suffer and everything is hunky -dory and that tends to be a mark of false teaching.

If you have a false teacher that speaks often of suffering, it's probably because you're in a cult and they're telling you everybody's going to hate you because you're in this cult, right?

They won't call it a cult but, you know, anyway, you get the point. Seldom though does an ear -tickler talk about suffering because we don't want to be reminded of suffering.

We know that we go through suffering. We want to have some sort of deliverance out of this. Tell me that God is not going to allow me to suffer or give me some solution to my suffering that I won't have to suffer anymore.

The Apostle Paul never tells any of the churches that he writes to that you won't have to go through suffering.

In fact, he often reminds that you will suffer and, in fact, even be persecuted and ridiculed because of this faith that you believe and because of the

Christ whom you follow. That's the case here also with the Thessalonians. So it is a very encouraging letter.

Overall, the theme that we see in this letter is encouragement. But notice that that encouragement comes because of the suffering and the persecution that the

Thessalonians go through. So he knows that they're suffering, he knows that they're going through persecution, but he rejoices and he encourages them because they're holding steadfastly to Christ, though they suffer and though they're being persecuted.

We've seen that even here in this opening chapter that we have read.

There are many that believe that this letter that Paul writes to the Thessalonians, this is

Paul's first letter. If you find any other theologian that says anything different than that, it's usually

Galatians. So some theologians will say Galatians was Paul's first letter. Others will say

Thessalonians was his first letter. I don't think either view is wrong, it's just a difference of opinion.

But Paul would have written this while he was on his second missionary journey and staying in Corinth at that particular time.

He was in Corinth for 18 months, and while there with the Corinthians, he would have written this letter toward the beginning of that 18...

Sorry, not... Yeah, 18 months, that's correct. So that 18 -month stay with the Corinthians, he would have written this at the beginning of that 18 -month stay, and then his second letter to the

Thessalonians would have come more toward the end of that 18 -month stay with the Corinthians.

So both of these letters, 1 and 2 Corinthians, were written in that span of a year and a half that Paul would have been serving there in Corinth.

Now, his coming into Thessalonica was with persecution. He was received by the

Thessalonians, he taught there with them, but then he left them suddenly and was not with them for very long.

Considering that he stayed with the Corinthians for a year and a half, he was with the

Thessalonians only for a few weeks. Let's look at that together. We'll look at sort of the background and the story behind Paul coming into Thessalonica.

Turn with me, if you will, to Acts chapter 17. Let's go to Acts 17. Acts 17 is most known for what?

When you hear Acts 17 referenced, we're usually talking about what? Does anybody know? Mars Hill, right.

You have Paul's sermon at Mars Hill in Athens or at the Areopagus. That comes about midway through the chapter.

But first, before getting to Athens and preaching that sermon, Paul goes through Thessalonica and Berea. The Bereans are also very popular in Acts 17 because of how diligent they were to search the scriptures and test the things that the apostle

Paul said. In fact, it says that the Bereans were even more faithful to test the apostle Paul, more diligent to test him, according to the scriptures, than the

Thessalonians were. Now, that's not a dog on the Thessalonians. In fact, the Thessalonians were very faithful to the scriptures and testing

Paul by what it was that he said. The Bereans were just more so. So let's read this story here of Paul coming into Thessalonica and planting this church.

Acts chapter 17, beginning in verse 1. Now, when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the

Jews. Now, let me just stop there for a moment. So Thessalonica, this particular city, was founded in 315

BC and it was a Greek city. So the Romans were not occupying Thessalonica at the time that this city was founded.

It was on the northwest coast of the Aegean Sea. If you got that map at the back of your Bible, you can see exactly its location.

And it has a natural harbor there. So it was very strategically placed, a prime location that was chosen for the founding of this city.

And it was intended, when the city was founded, that it would be big. This wasn't one of those things where somebody just kind of settled in one spot and it's like, oh, let's start a little village here.

And then that village continues to grow and it becomes a major city. The city was founded with the intention of being the capital of the region of Macedonia.

That was the whole reason for its founding. It was founded by Cassander, who was the king of Macedonia, and a former general of Alexander the

Great. And it was named for Thessaloniki, who was Alexander's half -sister.

So there's even some kind of some royal background behind that name, as far as the Greeks are concerned.

The city was conquered in 168 BC by the Romans. So by the time

Paul is writing this letter here to the Thessalonians, it's been almost 200 years that the

Romans have occupied this particular region. Their famous roadway via Ignatia went through Thessalonica.

This made the city all the wealthier, and it became a center not only for trade, but also for idolatry and philosophy.

Now, Thessalonica did not have one of those pinnacle temples that some of these cities that Paul wrote to were known for.

So, for example, in Ephesians or in Ephesus, you had the Temple Tehu. Does anybody remember?

I'm sorry? No, that was... Yeah, Artemis is Diana. Isn't that right? Artemis and Diana, the same name?

One's Greek and one's Roman. Is that right? Okay. So these cities were often known for like these key temples, these monuments to false gods, whether it was a

Roman city or in a Greek city. Now, Thessalonica didn't have that. There wasn't like one essential pinnacle temple that people would come to and were known for.

But rather, there was a lot of different false and pagan religions that were circulating around the city at that time.

Some of those religions included Egyptian religions. Now, if you read some of the history about what are called the

Roman mystery religions, they were very popular in Rome and some other Roman cities at the time of the first century.

A lot of those mystery religions would go back to ancient religions and kind of restore them and make them their own thing.

For example, some of the... Well, as I mentioned, the

Egyptian gods, there would be some of the Assyrian gods. So they would find these false gods and be like, oh, since this god is really old, then he must be more authentic than even the idols that we worship.

So they'd kind of restore these ancient pagan religions and they became known as the Roman mystery cults.

But even those ancient pagan religions didn't have any kind of traditions to them until the

Romans grabbed a hold of them and restored them and kind of made them into these new religions. That was very common among the

Thessalonians as well. So while there may not have been kind of like this central hub or everybody knows this particular god in Thessalonica and this is the temple that we come to and worship, it was a hodgepodge of all kinds of religions.

And so in the same way, it was also kind of syncretistic when it came to philosophy as well.

There was a lot of different philosophies that came into Thessalonica. And as I've shared with you before regarding these

Greek philosophers, they would come into these cities, they would kind of set up in the town square, and they would spout off their philosophy and they would attract a lot of people.

Now, these guys would even be decked out in some of the finest wear. They're like professional Joel Osteen.

So they have fantastic -looking garb on. They have that flashy, awesome, white, pearly smile, great hair, excellent delivery, fantastic oration, and friendly voices.

And people just loved what it was that the philosophers presented, how they presented themselves as well as what they said.

And everything that the philosopher said was, of course, supposed to unlock the secrets of the universe. It was the answers to life.

It was the meaning of my existence. So that was why people loved listening to these philosophers.

So the philosopher would stand there in the square. He'd do his whole spiel. He would attract a crowd. He might even do that for several days or several weeks.

And then he would get to a point where he would say, now, if you want to know more, I'm starting up my school over here.

So if you pay this money, come to my school, and you get to learn even more about the secrets of life.

Now, Paul comes to Thessalonica, and that's not the way that he was. He doesn't come, even as he says to the

Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 10 .10, he says that he was not strong in his speech.

The Corinthians were like, he writes such weighty things in his letters, but he's weak in his speech. And as Paul said to his first letter to the

Corinthians, in his first letter to the Corinthians, he said that, I came to you not in strength of word, not claiming to know anything, but Christ and him crucified.

So it was the power of the gospel that transformed wherever Paul went. It wasn't because he was some flashy, eloquent speaker.

Now, he was extremely smart and very, very knowledgeable. But it wasn't because he was some fantastic orator that people came to know the gospel.

It was the strength of the gospel itself, the power and the conviction of the Holy Spirit through the words that were being spoken.

Such is the case in Thessalonica. And as we already read here in the first chapter of 1

Thessalonians, people are amazed to hear that the Thessalonians had repented of worshiping false gods and they've come to worship the one true and living

God. That was a fantastic testimony all around Macedonia, that people were hearing this about the

Thessalonians. Really? A place as idolatrous and as philosophical as Thessalonica, and you have

Christians there. You have people who have turned from this idolatry and they're worshiping the true living

God. That's amazing. That's something only the power of the Holy Spirit could have done. Thessalonica was also an extremely rich city.

It was very, very wealthy, one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest in that area of the

Greek world, most certainly in Macedonia. And because of the level of wealth that was there, there's a lot of temptation.

A lot of people believing that this is the stuff that I need for life, all of this wealth and glory and power that you find in this particular city.

But the Thessalonian Christians came to know that there is no wealth, no power, no glory apart from Christ.

When the apostle Paul wrote his last letter to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he had said to Timothy that there was a man who was with him.

His name was Demas. We saw Demas spoken about favorably in Colossians and in Philemon.

But at the end of Paul's earthly ministry and that last prison stay that he had there in Rome before he was martyred, he told

Timothy that Demas, in love with this present world, deserted me and he went back to where?

Anybody remember? Thessalonica. So he went back to Thessalonica. He was in love with the present world.

Where does he go? The richest city in Macedonia. The place where I can get my wealth and fame and glory.

So there are a lot of temptations that were there. And to hear that these Thessalonians became

Christians and not only became Christians, but endured suffering and remained Christians.

This was a testimony to the power of God and the conviction of his spirit.

Furthermore, about this city, Thessalonica's wealth, religion, and philosophy, of course, presented many trials for the church.

For example, one problem was that some of the Christians had grown lazy and were depending on the charity of the rich.

We read about that in this letter, in chapter 4, verses 10 through 12. And in the next letter, in 2

Thessalonians 3, 6 through 15. When Demas abandoned Paul, he went back to Thessalonica.

So one of those things that we have there that kind of indicates to us the temptations that this city was full of.

Paul and Silas had visited this city during Paul's second missionary journey. And this is sometime between about 49 and 51

AD. So that's the time that we're reading here about Paul coming to Thessalonica. It is also about that same block of time, that couple of years, that Paul ends up writing to the

Thessalonians as well. So they traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia. They come to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the

Jews. And remember, this was Paul's practice. He would come into a city, he would go to the synagogue because that's where the scriptures were.

People are not traveling around with a Bible under their arm because that canon hasn't been completed yet.

It's not really easy to print Bibles and scrolls at this particular time. They didn't have smartphones where you can just click on your app.

Here's the scriptures I'm going to give them to you today. They had to go where the scriptures were kept. And that was at the local synagogue.

So Paul goes into the synagogue, it says in verse 2, that was his custom. According to Paul's custom, he went to them and for three

Sabbaths, reasoned with them from the scriptures. So how long was

Paul there? Probably about three weeks. If there was anything more than that, you could probably stretch it out and say something like six weeks, because then after he preaches to the

Jews from the synagogue that he's going to the Gentiles, if you wanted to extrapolate that a little bit more.

But from what we have here, it couldn't have been too much longer than about three weeks. For three Sabbaths, he reasons with them there in Thessalonica.

That's a really short stay, especially when you consider once again that he was with the

Corinthians for much longer. But what did Paul do when he was there for those three weeks? Verse 3, he was explaining and setting before them that the

Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, this

Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.

This is what Paul taught them. And Paul reminds them of those things as you go through this letter.

You'll see these occasions in 1 Thessalonians where Paul will say, now as we talked to you, as we spoke to you and we were with you.

So he brings back to their memory the things that were taught to them. Verse 4, and some of them were persuaded and joined

Paul and Silas along with a great multitude of the

God -fearing Greeks and not a few of the leading women. Not a few of the leading women means a lot of the leading women even became

Christians in this. And to hear it said that leading women came to believe in this meant that they gave up positions of authority that they had among the pagans there in Thessalonica to become

Christians and not be serving in those positions of leadership in the church because only men were appointed to be elders and pastors.

So it's an interesting thing to consider about how it's mentioned that these women even became Christians and humbled themselves and joined the flock of God, the family of God.

This is a big church that gets founded. We don't have any indication here that it's just some small little rabble, right?

So just a few sort of misfits and has -beens who didn't really have a place in the world and they hear the gospel and they're like, well, that sounds like a good idea.

So they come over here and they form their own little social group. This wasn't a small church.

It was big. Paul coming to Thessalonica and though he's only there for three weeks, preaches the gospel and a lot of them, a great multitude, not a few of them, become

Christians. And the church in Thessalonica is planted by the power of God.

Verse 5, but the Jews becoming jealous, taking along some wicked men from the marketplace and forming a mob, set the city in an uproar and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the assembly.

And when they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brothers before the city authorities shouting, these men who have upset the world have come here also.

And Jason has welcomed them and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying there is another king,

Jesus. Now, these people are attempting to slander

Paul and Silas and Timothy and the Christians that have started this church.

But what are they saying about them? Is it true or false? All of that's true.

That is what they're saying. They're saying there's another king. Jesus, who is even greater than Caesar.

And the Jews are trying to use that against them. They're trying to bring the Roman authorities against the

Christians by saying, look here, look what's going on here. These people are not honoring

Caesar. They don't proclaim Caesar is Lord. They're saying

Jesus is Lord. There's another king who's greater than Caesar and his name is

Jesus. Now, it's an astounding blasphemy that this

Jewish discord has tried to malign the Christians in this way.

Who should be standing before these Roman authorities and saying there is a greater king and his name is

Jesus? It should be those who have had the scriptures all along, who've been hearing the scriptures read every

Sabbath, and yet they don't come to an understanding or a knowledge of Christ. When somebody comes bringing them the gospel that Jesus is the fulfillment of these things that you have kept in your traditions for centuries, rather than hearing and listening and seeing from the scriptures themselves, that this

Jesus is the Messiah who was prophesied, they instead turn on the messengers of Christ and they join themselves with the world to try to malign the

Christians. It's almost as like the Jews are coming before the

Roman authorities and saying, we're on your side, we're with you, Caesar is

Lord. And these Christians are saying there's another Lord and his name is

Christ. Verses 8 and 9, they disturbed the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things, and when they had received the bond from Jason and the others, they released them.

So, Paul is in captivity, he's been brought before the Roman authorities. Roman authorities don't really do anything, but they figure, hey, we can get some money out of this.

So, they hold on to Paul and Silas until their bond could be paid, and they received the bond from Jason and the others and then let them go.

So, Paul was not there for very long, and then after he was let go, he leaves. Verse 10, the brothers immediately sent

Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the

Jews. So, here, Paul comes into Berea and he goes into the synagogue again and he starts preaching there, not in Thessalonica for very long.

Consider once again what Paul preached to the Thessalonians while he was with them. This is back in verse 3.

He explained and set before them that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, this

Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ. So, that was what he preached to them.

Now, consider that Paul was with them for a short time. So, there were other things that he had to preach to them that he didn't get to, or didn't get to preach more fully than he probably would have intended.

Some of those things would have likely been regarding the return of Christ. He did speak about it with them because when he writes to the

Thessalonians, he says to them, we've spoken with you about these things before. Turn with me over to 1

Thessalonians 4. So, let's go back to 1 Thessalonians. Yes, I'm sorry.

Right. So, yeah. So, the question is, if they go into the synagogue and he's preaching in the synagogue from the scriptures, what other scriptures did they have than the

Old Testament? That's correct. That's all they had. Exactly.

Yes. So, remember that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 5 .17, I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.

So, what Paul is preaching when he's there in the synagogue is he's showing from the Old Testament, Christ is the fulfillment of this.

Now, Paul would preach the gospel, and essentially what Paul preached is almost exactly, if not verbatim, what you have in the

Gospel of Luke. So, Luke was writing down what Paul preached whenever he would present the gospel.

So, Paul presents the gospel here as this fulfillment of what was said in the

Old Testament. And Christ is the one that all of this was pointing toward. And so, look at how

Jesus fulfills all these scriptures here in the Old Testament. Now, Jesus did the same thing.

Remember that in Nazareth, when Jesus came to his hometown in Nazareth, he goes into the synagogue, he opens up the scroll, and he reads from Isaiah 62, was it?

Verses 1 and 2. And he reads from Isaiah just those couple of verses, and then he sits down, and he says, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing today.

It's like the shortest sermon ever. That would have taken about a minute and a half for him to do that. And says, this has been fulfilled in your midst.

So, just the same as Jesus did that, preaching from the Old Testament and saying, he is the fulfillment of this.

So, Paul did the same thing. He would go where the scriptures were and point out that Jesus is the fulfillment of that.

So, thank you for that clarification. I appreciate that. What was your question? Exactly.

Right, yeah. So, they're preaching an eyewitness account of what was the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Now, Paul was not one of the apostles that was with Jesus during his earthly ministry.

So, how does Paul say that what he has is an eyewitness account? Anybody know the answer to that?

There's a Holy Spirit, yeah. Yeah, there is that, that what he preached was affirmed by the apostles.

But he actually did not get the gospel from the apostles. He got it from the Lord himself. If you say that again?

He was struck blind, yeah. Exactly, yep. So, Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus.

This is an actual Christophany, Christ showing himself to Paul. But it's more to it than that.

There's more to it than just Paul appearing to...or Jesus appearing to Paul on the road to Damascus. Exactly, yes, he was.

Paul was discipled by Christ himself for three years in Arabia. And Paul talks about that in Galatians chapter, is it one or two?

So, he goes into Arabia for three years and he's with the Lord, almost like Moses there in Arabia with God on Mount Sinai.

And the rest of the disciples were with Jesus for three years. So, just as they got discipled by Jesus for three years, so the same was with the apostle

Paul. But the gospel that he received was by revelation. It wasn't that somebody else gave it to him.

And then when Paul preached what he did, the rest of the apostles said, yeah, everything he's saying is exactly true.

That's exactly what we received when we were with Christ as well. That's something about Paul's origin as an apostle we don't think about very often.

But he was indeed with Christ for three years just as the rest of the disciples were. It just wasn't during that time of Jesus' earthly ministry.

So, anyway, all of that coming back to say that this was how Paul preached the gospel to the people that he went to in those cities where he visited.

And as he's writing here to the Thessalonians, he's expounding on some things that he has already said to them.

It's not that he's sharing with them anything new, but he may not have had the chance to speak as fully on the return of Christ as maybe he wanted to.

So, consider in chapter 4, if you're already there, 1 Thessalonians 4, beginning in verse 13, he says, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep so that you will not grieve as the rest who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the

Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. Okay?

So, you hear Paul saying something here to the Thessalonians by the word of God that he may not have had the chance to be terribly clear about in just the short state that he had with him.

Now, look over at chapter 5. Look at the very beginning of chapter 5. Now, concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, we have no need of anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the

Lord will come just like a thief in the night. Why will they know that full well? Because he already told them that.

So, here he's bringing back to their attention a reminder of something that he had already taught them.

So, there were some things, I just come to this section to give you kind of an example of how there were some things that because of his short stay in Thessalonica, Paul didn't have the chance to speak more fully on as he may have wanted to.

So, he talks about the return of Christ here in 1 Thessalonians, and we see him come back to it again in 2

Thessalonians. There's a possibility with that next letter, with 2 Thessalonians, I've heard some theologians kind of give a background to the second letter in this way, is that the

Thessalonians had received a letter from somebody claiming to be an apostle and claiming that the return of Christ had already happened.

So, it's why when Paul writes that next letter, he says to them, don't listen to anybody who tells you any such thing, and then reminds them of, here's what the return of Christ is going to be like, and goes through that in chapter 2.

So, again, these are things that he did share with them while he was there, but takes this opportunity in these letters to expound upon those things, especially concerning the return of Christ.

It's a very encouraging letter. We have multiple mentions to the return of the Lord, and then also a reminder that they will go through suffering and to endure that suffering to continue in faithfulness and holiness, the instructions that we get later on in chapter 5.

So, those are some of the main themes that we see as we go through this particular letter, Paul writing to the

Thessalonians. Here are a few other notable themes. Those aren't necessarily the main themes of the letter, but I just want to point this out that you'll see this come up frequently as well.

Five points. Number one, being called by God. We see that come up through the letter.

Those who are saved have been chosen by God. We read that in verse 4 of chapter 1.

Who calls you into his own kingdom and glory, chapter 2, verse 12.

Followers of Jesus have been called not only to salvation, but also to live lives of holiness.

That's chapter 4, verse 7. To obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, chapter 5, verse 9.

So, you'll see this theme of being called by God coming up in the letter as well. Number two, the wrath of God.

Not only does Paul emphasize that the saved will be delivered at the return of Christ, but those who did not believe in Jesus will perish under the wrath of God.

Chapter 2, verse 16, chapter 5, verse 3. Christians are not destined for wrath, but for salvation.

That was mentioned here that we read in verse 10. To wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,

Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come. The return of Christ is mentioned at the end of every chapter.

1, 2, 3, and 4, and then at the beginning of chapter 5. A third theme that you'll see throughout this letter is

Christ's death and resurrection. The basis for our hope is Christ, whom

God raised from the dead. We read that here in verse 10. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so will every

Christian be raised at his coming. Chapter 4, verse 14, and chapter 5, verse 10.

Number four, we'll see this theme come up in this letter as we see in a lot of Paul's letters, faith, hope, and love.

These are essential Christian virtues. They are mentioned together at the beginning and at the end of the letter.

We saw it here in chapter 1, we'll see it again in chapter 5. And the themes come up throughout.

Notice also a reference to the armor of God in chapter 5, verse 8, just as we have it in Ephesians chapter 6.

And number five, a fifth kind of a sub -theme that we see in this letter, is joy through suffering.

The Thessalonians received the gospel in much affliction and yet with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

We saw that here in verse 6. Paul had forewarned them that they would suffer, just as he had suffered, and yet we are to rejoice always.

1 Thessalonians 5 .16. So as we bring this to a conclusion here, let me give you kind of an outline of the letter.

This is what we'll see overall in the letter from beginning to end.

So we have this opening that we've looked at, that's really verse 1. We have thanksgiving and encouragement that goes from chapter 1, verse 2, to chapter 3, verse 13.

And here's kind of four sub -points to that. We have thankfulness for their faith. We have a confidence in their faith.

There's an eagerness to encourage their faith. And then this first section concludes with a prayer.

That's in chapter 3, verse 11 through 13. So kind of that first half of the letter finishes with a prayer.

And the second half of the letter finishes with a prayer as well. The second part has to do with instruction and exhortation.

That goes from chapter 4, verse 1 to the end of chapter 5. So again, as it's split into two parts, the first three chapters make up the first part, and the last two chapters make up the second part.

And then you have in that second part instructions on pleasing God, on the return of Christ, and on conduct in the church.

And then that concludes with Paul's second prayer in chapter 5, verses 23 through 27, and then he finishes with a final, the saints greet you.

So you have the opening greeting, you have the closing greeting, and then those sections separated by prayers. This is our letter to the

Thessalonians. It is not terribly complicated, and yet there are some things in there that theologians have been wrestling with for 2 ,000 years in the history of the church.

So as we go through those things together, may this draw us closer to Christ. The application of this for us is also going to be those same three themes that we see throughout this letter.

It's going to be encouragement. We are encouraged when we read this. It's going to be reminders of the return of Christ.

We saw that when we finished up 2 Peter. As Peter drew our attention to that, since Christ is going to return, here's how you should be as Christians in this world.

And so we find that same call and exhortation upon us as well. And then thirdly, we have these reminders of suffering, that suffering is real, it is a reality.

And in fact, even we as Christians will go through even greater hardships than anybody goes through who is not a

Christian. But we don't go through those things without hope. We have hope in our

Lord Christ. And so we hold fast to him to the end, even in these days, may we not be discouraged.

Yesterday, as was mentioned, was the 20th anniversary of 9 -11. And we kind of look back over 20 years of transformation that has happened in the

United States of America, and I don't think we can come to the end of this 20 years and say, we're better off than we were 20 years ago.

But as we see things change in this way, and for the worse and not for the better, we don't lose hope.

We hold fast to Christ because there is another king, a greater king, who is

King of kings and Lord of lords, and his name is Jesus Christ. He is still on his throne, he is still in control.