Greetings to the church

Hey, good morning friends. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions This is where every day you and I we get together. We have a little bit of coffee We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together and this year 2022 will make it from the book of Acts Through second Thessalonians. I'm so glad to be with you today. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll start first Thessalonians Let's pray Father, we thank you so much for this day. A day to praise you, a day to rejoice in you, a day to remember that you are our God. Father, we pray for your Holy Spirit to be working in our hearts this morning, that you would teach us that we might have faith.
In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, so we're at 1 Thessalonians 1, 1 Thessalonians 1, and we're going to read verses one through the end of the chapter. It's only 10 verses, so we can get through this together. Here we go. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power. and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of our Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything, for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to 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, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come.
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in our lives in response to this? So A, what is this about? Well, we have a greeting and a prayer. So two things this morning, a greeting and a prayer.
The greeting is Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church in Thessalonica. Now, when we went through the book of Acts, we read about the church in Thessalonica. in Macedonia, and they received the gospel there, and they turned from their idols, and they worshiped God. And it was Paul and Silas, Silvanus is another word, another name, another way you can say Silas, same person, but Paul and Silas had ministered to them, and they received the gospel and believed it. And then in Acts chapter 17, verse seven, or sorry, verse 14, Paul left. Silvanus and Timothy and went down to Greece and then to Corinth and now while he's in Corinth he's writing to them. And so he's writing to them having received them back and he's telling about the good news that he's heard about their faith. So he wants to greet them.
He tells them to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that the church doesn't exist on its own, but notice that the church exists in God. The saints exist as an assembly within their identity as the people of God.
And what is the greeting he gives to them? The apostolic greeting is the summary of the gospel. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God's unmerited favor is upon them. And he has made a way of peace between himself and men.
And so it starts off with this gospel message, grace and peace to you. And then, so this is the greeting. So we know who it's from. We know who it's to. And he's greeted them with the apostolic greeting of grace and peace. Now we get into his prayer. This is a very typical, what's called Pauline. So anything that's written by Paul is a Pauline message.
So he goes and he talks about his thanks for them. We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers. So he's telling them I pray for you and I thank God for you. And now here is the substance after this of what he thanks God for them. that he remembers, or they remember, without ceasing, your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God our Father. So a few things here. What are the things that they remember as they pray for?
First, without ceasing your work of faith.
Their faith is actually living out in their lives. It's not a dead faith. It's not just an intellectual faith, but it changes the way they live. It changes the way they love. It changes the things they do. So ceasing your work of faith. He also remembers their labor of love.
The work that they are doing is motivated by love. The things that they are doing is motivated by love of God and love for others. and they're patients of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. So they have patience. He remembers them in his prayers because their hope is not fleeting, it's not fickle, it's not small, it's not transient, it's there and it's patient. They're waiting for the Lord. They're waiting for God's will to happen and they're finding contentment in that.
And so he says, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. He's sure that they are the chosen ones of God. He's sure that God has decided that they would be those whom he would pour out his grace upon. And so he says that he knows their election by God. How does he know that they are the elect of God? Well, the things that he had just said. But he also describes that in verse 5.
So it didn't just come out of Paul and Silas' mouths to tell them the gospel. But they also saw the apostolic signs of the Holy Spirit. It came with power to them. And their hearts were changed. And there was much assurance that they had. And they knew. They knew what type of men Paul and Silas were.
As they were there in Thessalonica, they weren't peddling the gospel, they weren't being cheap philosophy shows, but they were working. And so there was this trust that, hey, these men are telling us the truth. These men are doing what is right. These men are doing what they ought to do. And so we can believe them. We can trust them. And so as they were doing this work, the church in Thessalonica was believing, was trusting them. And they were doing these works in love. And then how else did he know for certain that they were the elect of God?
And you became imitators of us. The New King James Version there says followers, but the better Greek translation would be imitators. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit. So they started to imitate Paul. They started to imitate Silas. They didn't just hear these things, but they started to do them. It wasn't just an intellectual absorption of facts, but it actually changed the way they lived.
And so they said, okay, he's living this way, we ought to also follow him. He says he's of Christ and he lives this way because we ought also to now live our lives, walk our lives in the pattern of holiness. And so he says that they also received this word with much affliction.
See, their affliction could have been You used to dissuade them. You used to persuade them to go another way. Oh, you know, this isn't really worth it. Ever since I received Jesus, it's just, ah, my life is horrible. People persecute me. They might've lost their jobs. They might've been forced out of their homes. They might've been physically harmed.
And instead of giving up their hope, they continue to hope. And this gives Paul assurance of their salvation. so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. So all those different people, Berea just south of that, Athens just south of that, down in Corinth, as people were hearing about the Thessalonians' faith, about how they suffered affliction, it encouraged the rest of the saints. I gotta tell you, I meet with pastors over Skype, and I talk with them, and a lot of them are in different countries. And as I talk with them, they tell me about the persecution they're suffering.
And it grieves my heart as I hear about the suffering that they have, while I seem to live in a lap of luxury. God is very, very gracious to us. I don't have people telling me that they're going to break my legs or throw me in jail or threaten to kill me. I have people who don't like me. But it encourages me. It encourages me to pray for my brothers who are persecuted. It encourages my heart when I heard a man say that some radical Hindus had threatened to kill him.
And the next word out of his mouth was, but the Lord has told me to take up my cross and follow him. I thought that's a man of faith right there. affliction and the faith of the Thessalonians, that reputation is going throughout Macedonia in the north and Achaia in the south, these two different provinces. It is encouraging the brothers, it's encouraging the Christians in their faith.
Your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything. Their reputation precedes them. For they themselves declare concerning us what matter of entry we had to you and how you turned from idols to serve the living and true God. So the reputation goes out. Paul and Silas and Timothy don't have to go out and defend the faith of the Thessalonians because everybody's able to see, hey, you know what, they once worshiped this whole pantheon of gods. Instead of just taking Jesus and attacking him on to their whole list of gods, they abandoned all of them and they worshiped the one true living God. They turned from the worship of idols and they worship the God of the universe. the Lord revealed in the Scriptures and shown in the flesh in Jesus Christ. So that reputation is going out.
And so he's thanking God for them. And he says in verse 10, And await for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. See, their hope is patient. And they're hoping in that day of Jesus's return. At the heart of Christianity, the very core of Christianity is the cross, yes, but also the resurrection, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and he's coming again to judge the living and the dead. And so they have patient hope that Jesus is going to return. We're gonna come back to that in a little bit as some of them are questioning and wondering things because some people have died and Jesus hasn't returned. And we'll answer that question later in the book. But for now, he's thanking them. He's thanking God for the faith that is on display in their lives. And he's thanking God that they're continuing to walk in that faith and in that hope.
Well, what are the best verses to underline in this? Well, I would say, well, verse one is one verse. I would underline, you know, maybe grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the heart of the apostolic message. But there's three parts to that, and it's kind of hard to break that up, so I'll let you tell me if you would break up verse one. I probably wouldn't.
And then verse two through 10, I would underline verse Two, we give thanks to God our Father for you, always for you, making mention of you in our prayers. The rest of that portion, three through 10, is him saying what the contents of his thanks were. The contents of his thanks can be summarized in, we thank God for the reality of your true faith.
So what would this call us to do? Why would the Holy Spirit give us these words and how would it change our lives? I think why the Lord gave this to us is that we might see what faith looks like. See, God has given us a similar faith, the same faith. A faith that can be patient in its hope. A faith that can be lived out. A faith that puts away the idols in our lives, all the worldliness, all the fleshliness, all the things that we might turn to instead of God, and it shows us what we ought to cling to, to Jesus Christ. And that likewise, our reputation should proceed us, that people might know who we were, but now who we are. But also I would say, it also shows us that we can thank God and tell others that we thank God for them.
Let me ask you, when you see somebody in the church who's living out their faith, do you say it to them? Do you tell them, I thank God for you? I thank God for the way he's working in your heart and in your life. You're such an encouragement to me. Thank you. Do you do that for others? That's one of my favorite things to do. I used to be this curmudgeon who would think, you know, oh, I don't want to puff people up and stuff.
But it is one of the most biblical things you can do to encourage others in their faith to thank them for their faithfulness. So tell the saints, you know, I see how you receive the gospel and I see how it works out in your life and I'm so thankful for it. I'm so thankful for the way it works out in your marriage. You know, a great way to do this is on birthdays and anniversaries to write people cards and just let them know a little note of how you see their faith working in their life. You might be surprised what an encouragement it is to others.
Well, let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you for the grace and peace that you show us in Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that you have given us a faith like the Thessalonians. Lord, many of us do not face the tribulation or persecution that they did, but we do hope in that return of Jesus Christ that you will someday come to judge the wicked. Father, we pray that we would be encouragers that we would give thanks for your faithfulness and for the faithfulness of your people. Lord, we confess to you that we are often not faithful.
We're fickle people. And so when we see people walking by faith and they're encouraging to us, Lord, we pray that you would let us open our mouths to be an encouragement to them. Father, please teach us to walk by faith. Teach us to walk in your ways. May your Holy Spirit work powerfully in our lives. Conform us to the image of your Son, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, may the hope and peace of Jesus Christ abide in you richly. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.