Up, Up And Away - [1 Thessalonians 1:1-4]

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Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians tonight, a shorter message before our communion time. We're embarking on a great adventure.
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I almost feel like Dwight Eisenhower except on a greater scale. A great adventure in the book of Thessalonians.
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1 Thessalonians, I probably am going to say sometime tonight or sometime in the series,
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Paul said to the church of Corinth or Paul said to the church at Ephesus, it is going to be hard to remember to say
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Thessalonica, but I think you're going to be very, very encouraged as we go through this book that is really the antithesis of Corinthians.
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Paul wrote 29 chapters to the church of Corinth between 1
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Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and basically he tried to get them to grow up in the faith and they were immature.
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This book on the other hand is a great book because the church is excelling and he is commending them.
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And so I almost feel like a sense of relief has come over me because for three years now preaching
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Corinthians, I don't think we're a carnal church. Sometimes, yes, we act carnally, but overall
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I don't think we're a carnal church. And so how do you preach a corrective epistle to a church that's not carnal?
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So I'm very happy. So let me give you some reasons tonight in our introduction why
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I'm excited about studying 1 Thessalonians. Why I'm excited about 1 Thessalonians and studying it.
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Number one, I have not studied this book in depth before and I can't wait to see what's in it.
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You know, the Bible is rich and living and active and it works in Christians. And the more you look at the
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Word of God, the more you're transformed into who Jesus is. Everyone wants to look more like Christ.
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Look at verse 13 of chapter 2, if you would, with me. Tonight, again, it's going to be a little bit different introduction, but I want to whet your appetite.
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I want you to say, I've got to go home and read 1 Thessalonians. I need to be there on Sunday nights because I don't want to miss a sermon.
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1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 tells us just how great God's Word is.
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And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the
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Word of men, but as what it really is, the Word of God, comma, which is at work in you believers.
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I think the NAS says it performs its work in those who believe.
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And so the Word of God does things to people. And it is going to do something in our hearts as well.
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And so that's the first reason I'm excited. Number 2, the second reason why
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I'm excited, is I've already alluded to this, but I'll show you the verses. This is a church that's excelling, but even an excelling church, he says,
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I want you to excel still what? More. Take a look at that in chapter 4 with me. I'd like to be encouraged.
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Sometimes I need to be chastened and disciplined, but this is a way to get a church to excel for Christ by encouragement.
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And we all need encouragement. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 1.
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Just listen to Paul, how he talks to this dear church. Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the
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Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.
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What does the NAS say? Excel still more. Okay, I probably like that better, but I just grew up thinking with the
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NAS. Now down to verse 9. Now concerning, same chapter, brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout
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Macedonia. You're a loving church. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, to excel still more.
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So no matter how loving a church is, she can always be more loving.
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And so I'm excited to be encouraged by the words of the Spirit of God here in 1 Thessalonians.
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Number 3. By the way, this is hard to say, Thessalonicans, Thessalonians. I know how
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I pronounce it, Harry, but how do you pronounce the modern -day city of Thessaloniki? Oh, yes.
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It's been called all kinds of things throughout the ages, and Alexander the Great conquers it and renames it and this, that, and the other.
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And so Thessalonicans, Thessalonians. Let me give you another reason why I really am looking forward to studying this passage.
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I want to see how much Paul loved Christians because this passage exudes
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Paul's love for other Christians. Take a look at chapter 2, if you would, for a moment.
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And again, tonight, we will get into verse by verse in just a minute, but I'm trying to give you the bird's eye view so that you'll go,
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I want to know that book. I want that book to know me. God threw the book to know me.
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1 Thessalonians 2. Paul had a huge heart for the Thessalonians, quite a change from a persecutor to now an edifier and a lover.
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He really was a lover. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 8. So, being affectionately desirous of you,
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I mean, when Paul had to get the wood out in Galatians, he could get it out, but he knows how to treat these dear people.
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We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
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For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil.
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We work night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God.
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Another reason I like this book. What am I up to now? Number four? It's super... All right, I'm just going to make it up.
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Number four. Fourth reason I want to study this book. It's super practical. Now, do you think every book of the
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Bible is relevant? Well, yes, because God's word is a reflection of himself, and God is always relevant.
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Can you imagine? What's the most relevant... Who is the most relevant being in the universe? God. He's the most relevant by definition.
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And so the book is relevant, but it also is very practical. Chapter four talks about sexual immorality and how to combat that.
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Chapter two talks about hard work, working hard for your employer.
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A lot of talk about the second coming, which I'll talk about in a minute. Very practical. I mean, just how practical is sexual purity, working hard for your boss, and having saving faith?
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It's pretty practical. This is not esoteric doctrine. Number five. I'm excited about this book and wanted to study it because it teaches us about spiritual leadership.
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It teaches us about spiritual leadership. Look at how Paul deals with the church in 2nd chapter, verse 12 of 1
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Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 2 .12. Here is leadership from Paul.
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Well, let's go to verse 11, actually. Here's a dad leading, For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted you, each one of you, and encouraged you, and charged you.
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That's what dads should do with children. Exhort and encourage and charge you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
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Yet, not just a very masculine leadership. Look at how tender it comes across in verse 7 of the same chapter.
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Now we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
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Just how gentle is a nursing mother. We have some nursing mothers in our congregation. And so Paul, he was exhorting, but he was also tenderly encouraging.
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Let's see, what else? This book I want to study, because I need to remind myself more and more that Jesus could come back any day.
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The soon return of Christ affects how we live. And I want you to just see how often Paul talks about that.
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I wonder if today is the day. How soon would it be before the Lord would return?
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Honestly. Now, it's a small congregation. It's family hour and all that. Who today, honestly, who today thought
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Jesus could come back any day and maybe it could be today? Who thought that any time throughout the day today?
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One, two, three. Good. But this book is going to force us almost every
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Sunday night to think Jesus is coming back. By the way, this is going to be really good news.
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If you're freaked out about the November election, you ought not to be. If you're freaked out about some health issue, finance issue, this is going to be right thinking.
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Let me just show you how often in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, the return of Christ is found all over.
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This is everywhere we go. So get your Bibles ready and follow along with me. All right, ready? Chapter 1, verse 10.
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We're going to do some Bible drills. Who knows Bible drills here? You go to the verse and then you read it. I'm going to read it fast.
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Ready? 1 Thessalonians, verse 10. And to wait for His Son from heaven whom
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He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Chapter 2, verse 19.
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For what is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming?
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Is it not You? Chapter 3, verse 13. So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our
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God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.
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Chapter 4, verse 15. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the
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Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. Chapter 5, verse 23.
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Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 1 of 2 Thessalonians.
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It continues. This church that was getting persecuted needed to be reminded of the blessed hope
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Christ is coming back. Chapter 1 of 2 Thessalonians, verse 7.
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And to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
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God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the
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Lord and from the glory of His might. When He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who believe because our testimony to you was believed.
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Chapter 2, verse 1. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers,
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Paul knew that this church needed a healthy dose of Jesus is going to come back.
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And I think our church needs that. Our church needs a healthy dose of living in light of the soon return of Christ.
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Jesus is coming back soon. And what would the world say? Look busy.
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Jesus is coming back soon. Not let's get some huge dispensational chart out so every future event found in the
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New York Times we can place up there. But it is... Do you know what? This world is going to come to an end.
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Remember Harry reading this morning 2 Peter chapter 3? What does the world say?
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Same old, same old. Uniformitarianism. Everything just continues the way it was.
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Well, one day there is going to be a cataclysmic change. And that is Christ is going to return.
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One of the reasons why I love 1 Thessalonians is because it's all about Jesus Christ and His eminent return.
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Let me just give you a couple more reasons why I like it and we'll get into the book. I like it because 1
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Thessalonians shows us that God can use anyone for His work. These weren't super duper people in Thessalonica.
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They lived in a port city. They lived in sin city. They lived in a sea port.
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And pretty soon you're going to see in the 67th book of your Bible, the book of maps, really where Thessalonica is.
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And Thessalonica is right in the heart of the Ignatius Way.
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It's right there by the sea. And this was a bad town. This was a shipping town.
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And here God plucks people out of this and makes them Christians. And they do His work and they excel for Christ.
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I like that. I was listening to S. Lewis Johnson today before the bee almost took my life.
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And he said, The Lord has a special way of showing
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His greatness by saving pastors. Saving people and making them pastors.
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Because He has to pluck those people out of pretty much the dregs of society to show people
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God can even save them. I thought, that's probably true. Lastly, I love this book because Paul knows it is all about God and the
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Gospel, not about gimmicks. How do you grow a church? How do you get people to mature?
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How do you get people to say no to sin and yes to righteousness? How do you get people to do godly things?
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Pressure? Gimmicks? For Paul, it was all the Word of God. Don't you like that? It is just the
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Word of God straight up and the Spirit of God applying it to our lives. This makes me want to study the book.
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If you have your Bible, turn to the very back. I don't know where your book of maps are, but I think it would be helpful and it will help your mind to just settle this.
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Thinking about the background of this city, why don't you find the map that says, Missionary Journeys of Paul.
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First missionary journey, second missionary journey, third missionary journey. I don't know what particular Bible you have. If you go to the very last page, if it's my
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ESV Bible, it says, Missionary Journeys of Paul. I want you to just look at this and see if you can find
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Thessalonica. It is in an area called Macedonia.
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Macedonia isn't a city. It's a geographic region that would contain cities like Berea, Philippi, and Thessalonica.
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If you find Crete, in the very center you should see the
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Mediterranean Sea, you find Crete. Remember Crete? A lot of liars in Crete, a lot of gluttons, a lot of evil beasts there.
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This testimony is true. Matter of fact, if you go with us to Greece, this April, Lord willing, we'll be able to go and we have a stop at Crete.
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I can't wait to see if there are liars and gluttons and evil beasts there. I just can't wait. If I lived at Crete, I would probably have, not a place called
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Fairhaven's Inn, but I would have probably a little restaurant called
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Liars, Gluttons, and Evil Beasts. And I think it would be a popular hit. But by the way, the man who came up with that saying that Paul quoted was from Crete, so was he lying about that quote?
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That's another story. Okay, so find
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Crete and go straight north through the Aegean Sea and you're going to find
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Thessalonica, pretty close. Or if you want to find Delphi or Athens and work your way up the right hand side of Greece and over, you're going to see
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Thessalonica and it's right there. It's a port city. It's a sin city.
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It's like Vegas. All kinds of sin going on there. And there's persecution of Christians and so Paul is going to try to encourage them to live a holy life.
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What a good message for us too. It's a good message for us to say, you know what, this is a bad world and it's only getting worse and so how do
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Christians live under persecution? I don't think we're really persecuted that much now. Maybe some people at work don't like us.
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Maybe we don't get that particular promotion. But we'll probably live to see the day where there's going to be persecution that will cost you money or it'll cost the leaders of this church freedom.
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And what do we do? The day we have to give an accounting,
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I guess our prison ministry will increase because by the grace of God we are not going to back down.
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So when you take a look at the map there, you see Thessalonica and hopefully you see in a larger font there
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Macedonia because in just a minute we're going to read in Acts 16 and 17 and you're going to need to know that in Macedonia is
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Thessalonica. Originally its name was Therma. Anybody know why it was named
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Therma? Pardon me? Okay, hot springs in the surrounding area.
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And in 315 BC it was renamed Thessalonica after the half -sister of Alexander the
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Great. During the New Testament times it had about as many people as it does now.
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Two to three hundred thousand people depending on the different commentaries. Quite a few people there.
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And so it is a key spot for a church that God uses Paul to plant.
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Now let's go to Acts chapter 16 just for a minute. And one of the things you do when you study the
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Bible, especially epistles, is you're saying, all right, what's the background of the book? I think Acts is going to help me.
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To know 1 Corinthians you've got to know Acts 18. And to know 1 Thessalonians and 2
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Thessalonians you have to know Acts 16, part of it, Acts 17, part of it. And so we're going to just look at a few of those verses right now.
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Acts chapter 16. You say, we haven't even got to the first word of the first verse yet. That's true.
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I guess we're ahead of the curve for next Sunday night. But we're going to just get into it a little bit.
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Here's what we're going to do on Sunday night. Sunday morning is kind of, I don't want to say it's more formal, but it's more formal on Sunday morning.
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I'm just kind of working through passages. And Sunday night's just not quite as formal. It's just a little more
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I'll ask you questions, it'll be give and take. And so if I don't have three points on a poem on Sunday night, it's going to be okay.
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Acts 16, verse 6. I just want you to know right what was happening in Macedonia and then
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Thessalonica. Acts 16, verse 6. And they passed through Phrygian, the
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Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
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That's interesting. And when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the
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Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. And passing by Mysia, they came to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
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A certain man of Macedonia, see now we know where that is, was standing and appealing to him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us.
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And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
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To go to Macedonia where Philippi was, where Thessalonica was, where Berea was. Chapter 17, verse 1.
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Now when they had traveled through Amphilopolis, you know they have a self -pronouncing
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Bible online, don't you? I should have looked at that today. In Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the
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Jews. Par for the course. Paul wanted to know where two things were in every city he went to, because he was going to go to both. Where's the synagogue and where's the prison?
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That's right, because he'd soon be in both. And so he shows up at the synagogue. Verse 2. And according to Paul's custom, he went to them and for three
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Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining, giving evidence that the
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Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead. Doesn't that so sound like this morning? Right?
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Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and he was buried and then Christ was raised according to the
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Scriptures. Right from the Old Testament, Paul begins of first importance.
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Verse 4. Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas along with a great multitude of God -fearing
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Greeks and a number of leading women. Remember, God -fearing just means they're monotheists. They're not believers.
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But some of these God -fearing Greeks became believers and a number of the leading women. But the Jews, being jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar.
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And coming upon the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging
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Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting. This is a great shout, by the way, because this is exactly what the
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Gospel does. Their motives weren't great, of course. These men who have upset the world have come here also.
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This Jewish carpenter has upset the world. And Jason has welcomed them and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,
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Jesus. Verse 8, And they stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.
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And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released him. Verse 10, Okay, back to our geography lesson.
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And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the
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Jews. Chapter 17, verse 11, The ESV says,
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Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the
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Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, and with great understatement, with not a few
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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.
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Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea. But Silas and Timothy remained there.
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Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens and after receiving a command from Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
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So Paul goes to Athens, then to Corinth, and he writes the letter to the
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Thessalonians. Paul instructs the returning Bereans to have
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Silas and Timothy join him at Athens. Paul sends Timothy back to Macedonia to strengthen the
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Thessalonians. So let's go to chapter 1 verse 1 of 1
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Thessalonians and start working through our passage. Just a little background there. First verse of 1
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Thessalonians chapter 1. We'll talk maybe a little more background as time goes on, but I don't want to overdo it.
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1 Thessalonians 1 .1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the
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Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace.
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So Paul's got two co -workers, Silvanus and Timothy. They, the
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Thessalonians, know them. And so Paul says Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.
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He doesn't say who Timothy was, who Silvanus was. He doesn't even say he's an apostle by the will of God because nobody at Thessalonica is saying that guy's not an apostle.
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And so this is the shortest intro of Paul's letters, the shortest superscription.
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It's just small. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. And in our letters, we wait to the end and sign it.
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Mike Abendroth at the beginning, though, these people and this time and era and age started off by saying
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Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. These are the co -missionaries of Paul. And it's written to the church of the
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Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's talk about this intro just a little bit.
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First, let me say this. Notice how God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are put together.
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First thing I'd like to talk to you about is everywhere you look in the New Testament, the triune
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God is assumed. Who is able to be on par with God the Father if there's only one
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God? This is not two gods. The Jews would never stand for it. Paul would never stand for it.
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God the Father would never stand for it. But we believe in a triune God. And there aren't many places in the
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New Testament that just lay out the Trinity. But everywhere in the New Testament, Jesus is put alongside of the
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Father as equal, co -equal, co -eternal. And so when I look at this passage, in God the
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Father, now let's just say there's one God and He's not triune. Let's just say there's one
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God, the Father. Do you put anyone next to this God and say, and?
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If there's one God who made everything and He's not triune, He's modalistic. God the
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Father alone. To add any and would be blasphemous. To add anything to God the
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Father would be blasphemous if there was one God, one person, a Unitarian kind of God.
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But we know, don't we, very clearly, that Jesus is God. The Spirit is God. The Father is
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God. And so everywhere you look in the New Testament, it just rolls off the proverbial pen and tongue of Paul and Peter and John.
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God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, the
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Trinity must be true because how do we then call Jesus Lord if God the
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Father is the only God? He says God the Father and the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Everywhere you go in the Bible, the Trinity is assumed, especially the
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New Testament. You say, well, what if I had to explain the
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Trinity to someone? What would I say? Eric Johanson, what would you say? He had to just hand a paper.
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What was your paper? Just for fun, what was the paper's title? Let's close in prayer.
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I mean, that's easy. Super hard to say I need to know all the details of the
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Trinity because finite sinful minds can't comprehend infinite. But super easy to say
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I do know what the Bible says about the Trinity. And here's what you have to believe about the Trinity. Super easy.
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There's one God. Deuteronomy 6. Point two.
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The Father is God. The Son is God. And the Spirit is God. Point three.
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The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit's not the Father. When Jesus was getting baptized,
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He wasn't throwing His voice. Right? We have the Father, and we have the
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Son, and the Spirit all together. When you think about being baptized in the singular name,
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Matthew 28, 18 and following, in the singular name, not of God the
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Father, the Son, the Spirit, but in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Spirit.
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One God. Three Persons. And so I just love this, that early on, Paul just puts them together because Jesus is
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God. The Father is God. The Spirit is God. The Thessalonians were in God the
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The source of the church's life and vitality was
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God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, tell me,
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I should make Eric do it because he's a hot shot seminary student. What's the... This is weird.
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Let's not say that. This is out of place compared to Paul's other introductions.
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Something about it is not the same. To the church of the Thessalonians in God the
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Father and the Lord Jesus. I should probably have visitors and pastors like John tell me, what is the difference?
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Why is this... It doesn't sound the same. Let me read you 1
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Corinthians 1 to the church of God that is in Corinth. The church of God in Corinth.
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Let me read to you 2 Corinthians 1 to the church of God that is in Corinth.
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Let me read to you Philippians chapter 1 to the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi.
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Let me read to you Colossians 1 to the saints, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ at Colossae.
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So we've got in Corinth, in Corinth, in Philippi, at Colossae. What's this one say?
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Why am I shouting? I don't know. We're all friends. This is different though.
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And why is it different? Does it matter? To the church of the Thessalonians in God. This isn't in Philippi, in Corinth, in Colossae.
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This is in God. This is completely different than these other superscriptions. 2
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Thessalonians it does the same thing. To the church of the Thessalonians in God.
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Why do you think Paul is doing that? In Corinth, in Corinth, in Philippi, at Colossae, and now
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Thessalonians. He doesn't say at Thessalonica. He says you're in God.
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Why does he do that? Who can tell me? Bruce.
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That is absolutely true and I like that shot. The sights were just a little off.
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It's a great answer though. Who else wants to give it a shot now that I've just slain Bruce? Just kidding.
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That is really close. When you think about even Paul in Ephesians, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, the vital union that we have in Christ.
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Remember that's basically the theme of Ephesians. Here's this great church in Christ, in Christ. The Thessalonians, they're not really a super mature church age -wise.
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They're getting persecuted. They're in sin city. Now some people say let's not say in Thessalonica because that would be like saying you're the
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Bible church in Las Vegas. And you go to the pastors' conferences and show up.
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Hi, what's your name? My name's Mike. What's your home church? I pastor the Bible church of Las Vegas. Oh, sorry to hear that.
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Now some people think it's that. But I think it's more Paul is trying to let the
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Thessalonians know early on you have union with Christ. You are in God.
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You think about some of the language in Scripture. I am the vine, you are the branches, the one who remains in me and bears much fruit.
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I in him bears much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing. These saints needed a good deal of encouragement and so Paul instead of saying like he does every place else, this is the church at this particular place,
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I want to remind you from the get -go to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the
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Lord Jesus Christ. You are in God. You are unified with Him. You and the Father and the
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Son are together. You are in Christ. Union with Christ.
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And for those kind of folks who live in a bad part of town and who are being persecuted, that's good news.
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And then what does he say? Grace and peace to you. Probably going to have to wrap it up at this little section but let me talk about it for a minute.
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Grace and peace to you. How do you greet people? When you go greet someone and you see them on the street and you see an old friend, you go to a reunion, how do you greet someone?
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Say you haven't seen somebody in California for a long time, you go back for the summer and the lady looks at Kim and she says,
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Dude, I saw it with my own eyes. I heard it with my own ears. Another lady looks at Kim, she's 25 years younger than Kim and she looks at Kim for the greeting and she says,
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Dude, hey, what's up?
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How are you? Long time no see. We have all kinds of greetings. But what's really neat in the
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New Testament, Paul takes the Greek greeting which would be greetings, kind of the root word where we get grace, and he takes the
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Jewish greeting. What's the Jewish greeting? Shalom. And he puts them together and he makes a unique Christian greeting.
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It's like agape was rescued out of the vocabulary of the secular use and Christianized and now it's got something completely different attached to it.
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Same thing. Grace to you and peace. Grace is a great word that summarizes all of Christianity.
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It summarizes the saving work of God through Christ Jesus, the risen
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Savior. Romans 3, Romans 5, Ephesians 2,
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By grace you have been saved. It summarizes our Christian salvation. Now when we think of peace though, what happens when we think of peace?
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What does a Westerner think of when they think of peace? Define peace as a Westerner.
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It would be the absence of what? War or conflict. But what does a
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Jew think about when he thinks about peace? Or she thinks about peace? It's not just the absence of war, but it's the what?
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Presence of all kinds of good that come directly from God. And so peace is filled with well -being, prosperity from spiritual to physical, favor.
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Now if I'm not careful, I just see this greeting, really, when do you just set, when do you read a greeting and say,
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I better say, Selah at the end of that greeting. I just better stop and let that settle in.
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Grace to you and peace. But it is really good to hear up front, grace to you and peace. I don't want to start a trend and I don't want to start wristbands or anything like that, but I think that would be a good way to start greeting one another.
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Grace to you and peace. Wouldn't that be good? That's so much better. Even when people leave, grace to you.
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I try to say God bless you because I know that we deserve curses and I want God to bless you and I don't say it just to say it.
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I really mean it. God bless you. Combining the Greek and Hebrew forms, grace to you and peace.
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And we are very, very blessed people because when you think about all that the world does to try to get peace, and they can't get it.
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It's never enough. From alcohol to fame. I mean, think about it. To have peace in your heart.
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You can be the best Hollywood director and producer and you walk over to the San Pedro Bridge and you don't even look to the left or to the right and you just jump.
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And so Paul says, because of what Christ has done and who you are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, flowing from that you get grace and you get peace.
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Sadly, there's no peace for the wicked, but for the Christian, there's peace.
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Biblical blessings. Shalom, wholeness, soundness.
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There is no greater blessing than peace and grace. Free undeserved favor through Christ Jesus which then grants us peace.
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So I don't know. I think we should just start saying to people, grace to you and peace, but then you might say to me, Mike, the next thing you'll do is we'll start greeting one another with a holy kiss.
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Maybe. But I don't want to rush past the beginning and the end of books because there's grace at the end, there's grace at the beginning.
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Sometimes Paul says things like even Maranatha. 1 Corinthians 16, it ends with Maranatha. Lord come.
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That would be a good way to say things to people. Maranatha. It reminds me of the true story of Leman Strauss.
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He went to a conference. I think I told you the story. Leman Strauss goes to a Bible conference and he was saying, maybe instead of saying grace and peace to each other, we should say
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Maranatha. Lord come. Lord's coming back, living in the light of the soon return of Christ.
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That would be perfect for the Thessalonians. So they're at the conference center and some of the older folks said, you know what, we're going to take
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Mr. Strauss up on the offer because when the pastor gives us an injunction, we should probably try to do that if it's biblical.
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So they got all ready and everything and they saw Leman coming down the next day from the cafeteria before he was going to preach at the conference center.
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They got all their courage up. We're going to obey him. True story according to S. Smith Johnson.
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And they said Marijuana. They were so nervous they couldn't get it out.
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So let's not start that one. Let's start grace to you and peace.
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Honestly, what a great greeting. We've been graced. We're horrible wretches. We're sinful people.
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And God based on the free grace of his own sovereign will gave his son to die on our behalf, raised him from the dead the third day to confirm that justification was true and right.
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And now we've been given peace. And we're heirs with Christ. That's a pretty great blessing.
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Well, we'll get into the rest of the passage next week. We're going to get ready for our Lord's Supper. And I have a few things
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I'd like to tell you about then as well. And so let's pray. We're going to sing a song. And then we'll go to the Lord's Supper.
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Father in heaven, thank you for our time tonight when we come to Thessalonians. I just pray that you would increase our desire to be like the
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Thessalonians because we want to honor you. Not to keep our salvation, Father, but because you've saved us to help us to be a people who are full of grace and full of peace.
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And thank you for what you've done. Father, we would like to be a church that would be commended like Paul commended the
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Thessalonians. That Paul might say of our church that we would be his hope and his joy and crown of boasting.