People of Hope, Faith and Love
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From the very young Thessalonian church we learn that faith can flourish even when faced with great challenges and strong opposition.
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People of Hope, Faith and Love
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- 2. SUNDAY 5 November 2017 PEOPLE OF FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE 1 THESSALONIANS 1:1-10
- 3. 1 THES 1:1-4 NLT This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May God give you grace and peace. We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be His own people.
- 4. 1 THES 1:8-10 NLT For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece— throughout both Macedonia and Achaia.
- 5. 1 THES 1:5-7 NLT And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don't need to tell them about it, for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God's Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the One who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment.
- 6. Work of Faith Labor of Love Enduring Hope PAUL’S THANKFULNESS
- 7. THREE THINGS WILL LAST FOREVER - FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE - AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE. 1 COR 13:13 NLT
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Editor's Notes
- Information from the preaching series on First Thessaloninans produced by the London Institute of Centemporary Christianity. (https://www.licc.org.uk/resources/preaching/) Thessalonica was the second-largest city in Greece, named after Alexander the Great’s half sister, Thessaloniki. It was a natural port, and was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia in northern Greece, about 120 miles southwest of Philippi. Philippi and Thessalonica were connected by the Via Egnatia, a road built by the Romans in the 2nd century bc. Over 700 miles long, it stretched from Byzantium in the east to Dyrrachium in the west. Thessalonica was a free city with an independent government, and was a centre for the Roman imperial cult. It was also a site of many temples which were dedicated to the service of many deities. Intro Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians helps us with questions like these. It’s likely the first letter Paul wrote to a church, and so it provides one of the earliest windows we have on the early Christian movement. It also brims over with Paul’s affection for the young converts, and his delight that they are ‘standing firm in the Lord’ (3:8). He writes to strengthen their faith in Jesus and reaffirm the instruction he had passed on to them. Socialised in a pagan cultural environment, Paul helps them to learn the very different way of life that flows from leaving idols ‘to serve the living and true God’ (1:10) – where holiness is not withdrawal from the world but involvement in it in a new way, marked by faith, love, and hope. The ‘What seems to be the case is that the Thessalonian believers not only believed but also embodied and shared the gospel. They did so not merely in their tight-knit community, but in their world: among their friends, relatives, associates, and so on... It seems highly likely, then, that the Thessalonian believers bore public witness to their faith, love, and hope – by what they did and did not do, and how they interpreted what they did and did not do – in various venues.’ Seen this way, according to Gorman, ‘holiness... is not withdrawal from the world, as some might think. Rather, it is a kind of participation in the world in a radically new and different way’. So, the exhortation for a countercultural sexual and work ethic (in 4:1-12) is not just a call to be different for the sake of difference, but a plea for a life that pleases God, with an eye on the missional effect of a God centred approach to sex and work, within the context of love for fellow believers and involvement in the wider world.
- Acts 17:1-10 1Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. 3 He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” 4 Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women. 5 But some of the Jews were jealous, so they gathered some troublemakers from the marketplace to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd. 6 Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers instead and took them before the city council. “Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted, “and now they are here disturbing our city, too. 7And Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to another king, named Jesus.” 8 The people of the city, as well as the city council, were thrown into turmoil by these reports. 9 So the officials forced Jason and the other believers to post bond, and then they released them. 10 That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea.
- Why were these Thessalonians flourishing while they were going through such testing? Paul was hearing reports of the Church’s strength, the faith of the Thessalonians hade become famous, but these were not just stories of a collective but also of individuals. Stories were being told of individuals that were standing strong and flourishing in their faith. Stories were told of individuals that were sharing their faith with others and bearing fruit. This is why Paul was giving thanks for the Thessalonians. He expresses His thankfulness for this community of faith that is living the Gospel both as a gathered church but also as a scattered church. Not only is the evidence of their faith seen when they are together as a community but the shaping that happens in community is lived out when they are scattered and busy with their daily lives. What was it that was causing them to be flourishing? Paul highlights three actions that was found among them. Note the action in these words. These are not merely states of being but actions that is the fruit of something going on inside of the Thessalonians. Work of Faith: Their steadfast toil and perseverance in the conviction of the faith you have placed in Christ. They have turned away from idols and the Roman cult at great cost. Have become isolated, ridiculed and even persecuted but have remained faithful and are sharing their faith. Loving Deeds But not only are they persevering they are living the life that God wants of them. They are expressing Agape love to each other and also to those around them. Their hope has been set on Christ’s return that He will come and rule and make all things come under His rule. But that is not a hope for one day merely, it is a hope so certain that they live now as if that day has already come. For them Christ is the King.
- They are a living example of being Sons and daughters of God, living with eternity in their hearts. Because Paul can see the fruit on their lives He knows God loves them and has chosen them. He is thankful that the Gospel is having the effect it should. These three things must be our eternal reality also. Faith for Every day. We hold fast to our faith even in opposition. The world around is becoming more and more opposed to what we believe. Our courts have recently decided that the rights of a child is more important than the right to freedom of religion. It is completely understandable that child abuse must be dealt with and also that spanking is not the only option available for discipline but more and more of our Biblical values are being moved into the wrong side of the law. Being a Bible believing Christian is becoming more challenging. Can we do the work of Faith? Can we live in a way that shows our faith every day? Can we also have a famous faith? Hope for Every day. Our hope is secure, we know Jesus is on the throne and that He will return and that all things will bow before Him. But that is so real to us that we live like it now already. Our hope is eternal. We see and feel the suffering of this world but as GK Chesterton said: “Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian.” For a Christian, joy is central to life and sorrow is only peripheral, but for the non-Christian it is the reverse. And when it comes to hope, Gorman says: ‘[H]ow they grieved and how they hoped – specifically how they hoped in the midst of grief – was a form of bearing witness to family members, friends, associates, and so on. The church’s hope was, and is, missional – again, not first of all by virtue of an intention to convert but simply by the virtue of the countercultural nature of the hope of the gospel’ (101). Right now in the struggles of our young democracy are you a person of hope. Do you disperse hope every day? Are you always ready to provide a reason for the hope you have, that reason being Jesus? (1 Peter 3:15). Our hope is not some escapist or pie in the sky hope “it doesn’t matter what happens here one day Jesus will come and get us out of here.” Our hope is that the Jesus that didn’t leave us to get what we deserved but that came and lived among us here on earth and that died so that we can be saved, that Jesus is coming back some day and will rule and we will live the way live is supposed to be. Because that is real to me I can now already do things that makes that real. When I am faced with injustice, poverty, racism, sexism, disease or whatever we know experience as part of a fallen broken world, we have a fixed hope that one day it will all stop and that now I can live that future reality here already. In our world Jesus is on the throne so therefore I can live in justice, respect, I can pray for the sick but also find a better way to provide health care (if that’s my calling) or be a teacher that gives with every day hope. Love for Every day We are filled and overflow with Agape love. Not only are we standing holding out against attacks but we respond with love. Our first response is not to fight, to stand for our rights to shout slogans that divide. We draw nearer to Christ and as a community seek to filled with His love, we allow Him to fill our hearts with love for those that oppose us. We grow in compassion for a dying world. We hold out forgiveness and find ways to share the message of God’s love to all. Whether it is to the perpetrator or the victim we speak the truth in love. We know that it only the Love of God that will change the world. We serve a Jesus that did not come to overpower evil with brute force but with the force of pure love. So we love one another. We may be different, have different convictions, different loyalties and sensitivities but we love one another. Can we and can I Labour in Love? John Calvin puts forward a very simple reason why love is the greatest gift: “Because faith and hope are our own: love is diffused among others.” In other words, faith and hope benefit the possessor, but love always benefits another. In John 13:34–35 Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Love always requires an “other” as an object; love cannot remain within itself, and that is part of what makes love the greatest gift. You and I are people of Faith, Hope and Love that everyday live the big three of Christianity. We are in this world but not of this world. We live with Faith Hope and Love. You live faith hope and love in your workplace, family, neighbourhood, everywhere. We want Paul to be thankful to God for the Church in Pretoria both the gathered church that may be entitled Hatfield or whatever but also for every one of us living life on a mission to reflect the Gospel that ha shaped us. You can live Every day Holiness (not withdrawing from this world but involvement in a new way. 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.