1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Paul, 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, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, October 22, comes from First Thessalonians chapter one, verses one through 10. It reads, Paul Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, and God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Grace to You, and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith, and labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in Word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, for you receive the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in a Kea, for not only as the word of the Lord sounded forth from you, and Macedonia and new Kea, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Here ends the reading. Paul and the others Silvanus. And Timothy, begin this letter, the way they normally begin letters, it begins with the people who are writing it. So we know Paul Silvanus, and Timothy are writing it. And then it mentions the the addresses the people that are hearing the letter, the church of the Thessalonians. And it's it mentions they are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul continues on where he says, We give thanks to God always for you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers. This is another regular facet of Paul's letters is that he begins by telling them how he gives thanks to God for them in in their prayers. And it reveals individual things for each individual letter. And I think for Paul, he's looking at the at what's coming up to show something about the Thessalonians. He says, remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, for so he's pointing to their steadfastness, we'll get to that in just a little bit. Now, he continues, for you know, brothers loved by God that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in Word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. Now, this forces us to go back and say, Well, what do we know about Paul's visit a visit to the town of Thessalonica. Well, we can go to Acts chapter 17, and see it, Paul, and others go to Thessalonica. And they begin doing their thing. It says, and Paul went in as was his custom and on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying, this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. Now, what happens then is some are persuaded and some are not.
But the Jews get jealous. And what they do is they start a raffle and they form a mob, and they start trying to go after Paul and Silas and all of the people who are there, now they sneak away. But the Thessalonian Christians who have only had Paul and Silas there for three weeks, get the worst of it. And they find this man named Jason that Paul and Silas had been staying with, and they beat him up and arrest him and do all sorts of bad things to him. And then Paul and Silas, scoot out and head off to the town of Berea after that. Now, what I want you to think about as we consider this letter, then, is that Paul and Silas had gone to Thessalonica for only three weeks before they were forced out. And so they've got all of these brand new Christians. Like super brand new Christians, and yet somehow, the power of God was at work among them to withstand this kind of immediate and powerful persecution. And I really think that's what it means when it says the Holy Spirit, in power, and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Now very often coming in the Holy Spirit and power means that there were miracles accompanying it. And I think that that may have been the case Paul and Silas certainly were known to have bring miracles along with them. But what greater miracle could there be than Baby Christian brand new to the faith, with standing this kind of torment and persecution, when their leaders are gone? Praise God for their amazing faithfulness. And Paul continues to say things like that, he says, and you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you receive the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in a Kea. So, he says that they proved to be a certain kind of person. And then that is associated then with the other, the people of Thessalonica, receiving affliction as well. And so I think this, this idea is we proved to be people who are willing to suffer for the faith. And then you became imitators of us, you Thessalonians that, and then, by imitating us imitated the sufferings of our Savior. And that's really what Christian aspires to, when we face suffering for the sake of Christ, is what we see is meaning in that is that we are living in the wounds of Jesus, living the affliction of Jesus. And so, with their their young faith, they became examples for everyone. And because of their bravery, because of their steadfastness, even in the face of not knowing anything about the gospel, only a few weeks, they became an example for everyone in Macedonia, and a Kea. And what a joy that is right, to see how it is not knowledge alone, that makes a Christian a lesson. Paul and Silas and Timothy and all those people who are out and about doing their thing they could preach they could teach. But the powerful lesson that came out of Thessalonica was not the word of God or the the miracles or a doctrinal treatise. It was the fact that when God came by the power of the gospel to these people, they stood up to persecution right off the bat, and remain faithful to Christ, even to torture and death. And what an example that can be for us, as we wait as St. Paul says, To for the true the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to the calm and the Thessalonians. They turned from their false idols to serve the true and living God who will save us on the last day. And we do the same. We turn to the true and living God, who is coming Jesus Christ, who will come with the clouds in great power and might raise us from the dead and deliver all the wicked unfaithful into eternal condemnation. That's the end of our reading. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai