I'm going to look at the church in Thessalonica tonight.
And the reason I'm looking at this is about a year ago, just July last year,
I had three Greek colleagues at work.
So one of them was getting married, and her home city is Thessaloniki, as it's called.
So if you put the shot up, you can see this is the city of Thessaloniki, the modern city.
Now, the day before the wedding, the bride and groom had organized for us a walking tour of the city.
So we started off in the paths there, and we walked around the city.
And the guide was showing us, showed us the Roman Forum,
showed us quite a few historical old arches, old buildings in the city.
But near the end, I realized, well, she hadn't really mentioned about Paul.
And where Paul came to the city.
So I asked her, what about the Apostle Paul?
Where did he actually preach?
And she pointed out, if you look up right to the top of the hill,
you'll see that the city climbs from the sea upwards.
And she said, oh, Paul would have been right up at the top.
And it made me realize that he was actually on the periphery of the city,
and he would have been, you know, really away from the center of the city.
So when I came back, I started sort of thinking about,
it became quite interesting to Thessaloniki,
so I started doing a bit of background reading on the church.
Now, the city that Paul came to, Thessalonica,
would have had a population of about 200,000 in those days.
It was founded around 315 BC by Cassander,
who was one of the military commanders of Alexander the Great's army.
And he named the city after his sister,
no, after his wife, Thessalonica,
and she was actually Alexander's half-sister.
So this is the city that Paul came to.
Now, the population of Thessaloniki now,
well, the main city is about 300,000,
but the urban area is about 1 million people.
So the site that Paul was supposed to have spoken at,
it's not a monastery.
It's right up on the hill up the back of the city,
and that's why I started looking into this.
And seeing how the church there had come about.
So what I want to do tonight,
I want to, first of all,
look at the reading that Neil read for us in Acts 17,
verses 1 to 9.
This is when Paul went to Thessalonica to preach
and really evangelize the people there.
And then I want to move to the book of 1 Thessalonians
and look at, well, look at chapter 1,
but I'll look at some of the other aspects as well.
Now, to put it all into context,
in the book of Acts, the latter half of Acts
is all about mostly focusing on the three journeys
that Paul made with his companions,
and then the final journey to Rome.
So the first, what we call the first,
second and third missionary journey.
So the first missionary journey,
Paul went with Silas,
and they went to Cyprus,
and they went to Asia Minor,
which is modern day Turkey.
And then they went back,
obviously, to Jerusalem.
They were at a Jerusalem council.
And then Paul and Barnabas decided to set off
on another journey,
which has become known as the second missionary journey.
But they actually fell out
because on the previous journey,
John Mark had been with them,
and he went back to,
he left them.
So Paul didn't want to take Mark with them,
but Barnabas did.
So they disagreed,
and then in the end,
Paul took Silas,
and then along the way,
they met Timothy.
And it was Paul, Silas, and Timothy
who ended up going to Thessaloniki.
Now, before I look at it,
I want to sort of point out
really three very important things
that allowed the ministry,
the whole ministry in Acts,
was really providentially dictated
by three important factors.
The first one was the Roman Empire.
Now, I teach engineering,
and one of my third year courses
is on transport engineering.
And I actually start my first lecture
with a look at history of transport
and history of roads primarily.
And I show the students this slide.
And you can see here the Roman road network
from maybe starting around 300 BC
up to about 500 ADs in their calendar.
The Romans, as you know,
built one of the most comprehensive road networks
that was built for about 2,000 years.
Nobody even came close to...
When I talk into my lecture,
I talk about this,
the Roman road era,
and for about 1,500 years,
nothing really happened of significance
until probably the days of John Macadam
in the 19th century,
and then eventually the 20th century
with the German autobans
and the American interstate.
So, but the Roman road network
really allowed the people to start traveling.
And of course, the road network
was built mainly for military purposes.
Then the second thing
that allowed the gospel to spread out
was the Greek era.
And if you go to the waterfront in Thessaloniki,
you'll see the statue of Alexander the Great.
Now, Alexander the Great came along 300 years before Christ.
And as you know, he was one of the...
In this generation, he died when he was 32.
And what he packed into his 32 years is amazing
because he conquered Asia,
he conquered right across to India,
and of course, cities like Alexandria
were named after him.
But what Alexander did was he spread the Greek language,
Greek philosophy, Greek education,
Greek literature,
right across the known world as it was then.
So, by the time Paul came to Thessaloniki,
Greek was the common language.
The Bible had been...
The Old Testament had been translated into Greek
at that time as well.
So, Greek...
The Greek language was really the mechanism
by which the gospel spread.
And then the third thing that I...
That was really important was
that the Jews' dispersion.
So, the Jews had started leaving Palestine
and spreading out over the known world at that time.
They had reached many, many cities
in Greece and Turkey,
right across that area.
And the slide that I've shown there
is the via, the famous via Ignatia,
which connected the city of Byzantium
with that route across to Italy
and then onwards to Rome.
So, Thessaloniki is actually located
on the via Ignatia,
and it was actually
a very important city
because the country of Greece,
as we know it,
was divided into two provinces,
two Roman provinces,
Macedonia in the north
and Achai in the south.
And, of course,
Alexander the Great
was from Macedonia
and he had spread right across
the Greek language,
across the region.
So, Jewish people had come,
they had dispersed,
they had migrated to cities
like Thessaloniki.
They brought with them,
they came for reasons of commerce,
they came for reasons,
maybe there had been war
or persecution
had forced them out of Palestine
and, of course,
Paul himself
wasn't very much instrumental
in that persecution as well.
So, these are the three things
that really allowed the gospel to spread.
There was the Roman Empire,
the Greek language, really,
and then the Jewish dispersion as well.
Now, the reading that Neil read
in Acts 17,
if we backtrack to the previous chapter,
we saw,
we can see that
Paul had been in Philippi
before he went to Thessaloniki
and Philippi, of course,
he went,
there was no Jewish synagogue
in Philippi,
so he went to,
near the river
where there was people
made for prayer
and led to the conversion of Lydia
and then eventually
Paul was put in prison
and then the Philippian jailer
was converted as well.
So, following the ministry
in Philippi,
Paul then moved on
to Thessalonica
and if you look at
the next map
that I put out,
that's the Agnesia,
you can see
that Paul received
the famous call
to come to Macedonia
when he was in Troas
and then he goes across
the sea to Philippi
and then eventually
comes to Thessalonica.
Thessalonica
is about 100 miles
south,
west of Philippi.
So,
it would have taken
about two or three days
to make the journey.
You see from verse 1
of chapter 17,
it says,
when they had passed
through Amphipolis
and Apollonia,
they came to Thessalonica.
So,
Paul then,
of course,
the first thing he does
as he did
in a lot of places
he went to,
he would look
for the Jewish synagogue
and we see that
in verse 1 as well.
So,
in verse 2,
as is custom,
well,
he went into the synagogue
and on three Sabbath days
he reasoned with them
from the scriptures.
Now,
that,
there were,
they were obviously,
there,
there was enough Jews to,
for a synagogue to have been built
and the practice in the synagogue was
that people would go to synagogue
and even outsiders would sometimes be able
to,
to preach or give a message or,
or speak and that's what happened
with Paul.
But it doesn't necessarily mean
that Paul only spent three weeks
when he was in Thessalonica.
I think it implies that he was able to preach at the synagogue for three weeks,
but then maybe the Jews resented his message
and they no longer wanted him to speak in a synagogue.
It's probably very likely that Cole spent maybe a few months in Thessalonica.
He was a tent maker,
and there were possibilities that he worked when he was there as well.
Now, so the audience, well, we see from verse 4
that it wasn't just Jews who were present in the synagogue.
It was also God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women as well.
Now, so the synagogue at that time would have attracted a lot of Greeks
who maybe had an interest in God.
Remember that Greek culture was very much about multiple gods
and people worshipped gods and there were temples and shrines and everything.
But some people had obviously been attracted to the Jewish religion,
maybe the thought of one God,
and there was quite a lot of things about the Jewish teaching,
the Old Testament teaching that was quite attractive to them.
So there was multiple races and peoples within the synagogue at this time.
And Paul goes into the synagogue,
and we read in verse 2,
three Sabbath days,
he reasoned with them from the scriptures.
So he goes in,
he's using the scriptures,
he's explaining,
he's proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead.
So I want to stop here a minute
because if you think about this,
I like to read a little bit of background history too.
It really quite,
it gives you quite an insight into the Bible
when you read some of the background history.
Now, one of the things that frustrates historians
is that Luke,
and both Luke and Axe,
he doesn't really tell you dates about when this happened,
when this happened.
If we were writing something,
we'd probably say,
oh, in 1st of July 2018,
I went here.
But we think that Paul came to Thessalonica
around maybe the year 49,
possibly 50.
And if we track back,
there was one of the books that I read
is a guy called Paul Barnett.
He was a pastor in Australia,
but he's also a teaching fellow
at Regent College Vancouver
and also Moor College in Sydney, Australia.
He dates the death of Christ at the year 33.
So he reckons that maybe Paul was converted at the year 34.
So this is about year 49,
which is about 15 years later.
And if you look back to the last chapter of Luke,
when Jesus, after Jesus' resurrection,
and he met on the road to Emmaus
and also the disciples,
he talks to them about,
I'll turn back and quickly read that.
He explains to them the gospel,
and he talks to them,
beginning with Moses and the prophets,
verse 27 of chapter 24.
And then later on,
when he meets the disciples,
he said,
everything must be fulfilled
that is written about me
in the law of Moses,
the prophets, and the Psalms.
So obviously,
Paul, by this time,
they had developed,
Paul and also the other leaders in the church
had developed
quite a substantial Christology.
They understood who Christ was,
which is pretty amazing.
When you read that in Luke,
when Peter denied Jesus,
he didn't really understand
Jesus' role.
But beginning of Acts,
Peter is preaching
in the day of Pentecost,
and he's got a very clear understanding
of who Christ was.
And if we read through the book of Acts,
we can see there's quite a large number
of sermons there,
three from Peter,
one from Stephen,
five from Paul,
where they have a very,
very clear understanding
of who Christ was
and the role of Christ.
So although chapter 17,
and it's only really covered
in the one verse,
but I reckon Paul went into the synagogue
and he preached
from using the Old Testament.
He would have gone back
and explained to them
all about the Old Testament,
God, the creator,
the role of Christ,
and then he really reinforced
that why Christ had to die
and also his resurrection
and his coming again.
So obviously the Jews reacted badly
to the message.
Some people believed,
we saw that
some Jews believed
that a large number
of the God-fearing Greeks
and not a few prominent women.
Now, the prominent women,
I understand,
were that a lot of women
in Thessalonica
and some of the Roman provinces
would actually have had
a very significant role
in society at that time.
So that's why he mentions them
in the reading.
But then, of course,
the Jews turned against Paul.
They didn't object to his message.
They didn't want to accept
this message about Christ.
So what did they do?
They go to the marketplace.
They get together a mob
and they brought,
they went to look for Paul,
but obviously Paul had been staying
in this Jason's house.
But they found Jason
and they brought them
before the authorities.
And what they were trying to do
is they were trying to manipulate
the people to show
that Paul was preaching
an alternative to Caesar
because obviously
they were calling Jesus a king,
when you could only refer
to Caesar as a king.
And if you went against Caesar,
then it was treason
and you could be killed
for seeing that.
So that's what happened.
And so eventually Paul
had to leave Thessalonica.
And we read in verse 10,
if we continue on
to the next section,
as soon as it was night,
the brothers sent Paul
and Silas away to bury
the...
So,
if we had,
if we had only had
that section in Acts to read,
then we would probably think
that Paul's ministry
in Thessalonica
had been a bit of a disaster.
But what I want to do now
is I want to jump forward
to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.
And I'll read that,
I'll read the chapter
and then I'll just mention
a few things about that.
So, chapter 1,
1 Thessalonians,
Paul, Silas and Timothy
to the church of the Thessalonians
and God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We always thank God
for all of you,
mentioning you in our prayers.
We continually remember
before our God
and Father
your work produced by faith,
your labour prompted by love,
and your endurance
inspired by 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 simply with words,
but also with power,
with the Holy Spirit,
and with deep conviction.
You know how we lived
among you for your sake.
You became imitators of us
and of the Lord.
In spite of severe suffering,
you welcomed the message
with the joy given
by the Holy Spirit.
And so you became a model
to all the believers
in Macedonia and Achia.
The Lord's message
rang out from you,
not only in Macedonia and Achia.
Your faith in God
has become known everywhere.
Therefore, we do not need
to say anything about it,
for they themselves report
what kind of reception
you gave us.
They tell that you turn to God
from idols to serve
the living and true God
and to wait for a son
from heaven
whom you raised from the dead,
Jesus, who rescues us
from the coming wrath.
So, we reckon that,
well, we think 1 Thessalonians
could have been
the first book written,
first New Testament book
that was written,
although some historians think
that maybe Galatians
was written just slightly
before Thessalonians.
But it was one of the first books
that was written
that were written in the Bible.
But I want to,
sometimes we look at things
and we don't see
the very first verse,
it says,
he says to the church
of the Thessalonians.
Now, if we go back to Acts
and we see,
we look at what happened in Acts,
we probably think
there's no way a church
would have sprung up
in Thessalonica.
We don't know,
Paul had to leave
so that the believers there
were left to their own resources.
So, obviously,
they had got together,
they had built up
a community there
and they started meeting
as a church.
We don't know if it,
maybe they were meeting
in Jason's house,
we have no idea really.
But,
Gresham Magin says about this,
he said,
in the history of early Christianity,
the real surprising thing
is not that so much
of the Gentile churches
were founded
as that after they were founded,
they endured.
They were surrounded
by heathenism and immorality,
they were subject
to persecution.
So,
it looks surprising to us,
but it shouldn't really
be surprising to us
because we know
that God was in this
and Paul was miraculously
called in a vision
to come to preach
in Macedonia,
the first gospel preaching
that was in Europe,
as we know Europe today.
So,
after Paul left Macedonia,
he went,
Thessalonica,
he went on to Berea
and then he moved down,
I think I've got another map
showing the route
that he took.
You can see there
he went to Berea,
then he went on to Athens,
so we read about
both of these churches
in Acts 17
and then finally
he finished off
in Corinth.
Now,
he sent Timothy,
he was really concerned
about the church
back in Thessalonica,
he wasn't sure,
he didn't have any reports
about what happened to them,
so he was really concerned
about them,
so when they were in Athens,
he sent Timothy back
to Thessalonica
to find out exactly
what had happened
to the church.
And by the time
Timothy came back,
we think Paul had moved
on to Corinth
at this point,
and he wrote
this first letter
to Thessalonians
from Corinth.
Now,
you can see that
his relief,
you know,
he was in this,
and he starts off
the letter
by talking about,
we give thanks,
we always thank God
for all of the universe
to mention you
in our prayers.
So he didn't really
know what to expect,
but I guess he was hopeful,
but at this point
unsure of what
had happened to them.
But they had developed
as a church,
they had got together
as a church,
and they were actually
progressing really
quite well
under the persecution
that they were facing
in the city.
So I just want to mention
a few things.
in verse 3,
verses 4 and 5,
first of all,
he talks about,
for we know,
brothers loved by God,
that he has chosen you
because our gospel
came to you,
not simply with word,
but also with power.
So,
first thing is,
you know,
these people
had believed,
you know,
Paul had come to them,
he had preached to them,
and that they had believed.
So how did this all happen?
Well,
we see from the text
that it's obviously saying
that salvation
began with God
because he has chosen you.
So we can see
that God had chosen them,
they had,
obviously,
God had pre-planned
from all eternity
that these believers
would come
to believe in Jesus.
and also
their conversion,
there was
the miraculous conversion
because remember,
these people
were living
in a society
with multiple
gods,
multiple idols,
and they came
to believe in one God
and they came
to believe
in Jesus.
They had faith,
they trusted
in Jesus,
they repented,
they turned
from their idols
and followed
the true God.
Also,
you can see as well
that there's a bit
of a Trinitarian
thing here
because
you can see
that Jesus
is mentioned,
God the Father
is mentioned,
and the Holy Spirit
is mentioned
because
there's a Spirit
who came in power
and if we go back
to the very beginning
of Acts,
we read about
the promise
of the Holy Spirit,
when the Holy Spirit
comes,
you will receive power.
And then,
the second thing
I want to touch on
is the gospel message.
I touched on this
a little bit before
about wondering
about how exactly
did Paul
communicate
the gospel to them.
Well,
he would have,
there was no New Testament
so he would have
gone back to the
Old Testament.
He would have been
preaching Greek,
obviously.
He would have
started with God,
the Creator.
He'd have talked,
probably talked
about the fall of sin.
He'd have talked
about the prophecies,
the Old Testament prophets
and he'd have finished
off by probably
talking about
Christ,
why he came,
why he died
and the fact
that he was going
to come back.
And then we see
in the text
as well
in verse 3,
this is something
that Paul has used
previously
and especially
1 Corinthians 13
where he talks
about
the trio
faith,
love and hope.
So there,
he commends them
on
your faith,
your work
produced by faith,
your labor
prompted by love
and your endurance
inspired by hope.
That word
endurance
in the ESV
is,
the ESV uses
steadfastness
which is,
I think,
a really good word
because it shows
that they were
unwavering
despite the persecution
they were facing.
They were completely
unwavering.
They were loyal
to God
and to
Jesus
and their belief
in the church.
So,
the gospel,
well,
there's been a real focus,
not a great focus
on the gospel
in recent years.
There's been a lot of books
written about the gospel
and a lot of this
has come primarily
from some
North American sources
like,
for example,
the Nine Marks
movement
which came out of
Capitol Hill,
Baptists in Washington,
I think.
And I've read
quite a few books
but I'll quote
a pastor called
J.D. Greer.
This is what he said
in sort of a summary
of,
he's got a book
called The Gospel
and he says,
The Gospel is the
announcement that
God has reconciled
us to himself
by sending his son
Jesus to die
as a substitute
for our sin
and that all who
repent and believe
have eternal life
in him.
So,
there's another book
by Greg Gilbert,
What is the Gospel?
And again,
he says there's
a really good
comprehensive overview
of the gospel as well.
Most of these
are actually available.
If you have a Kindle,
they only cost
a few pounds
and they're
really worth a read.
One of my favorite
authors that I've been
reading quite a lot
recently just discovered
him last year.
Not very many people
have probably heard of him.
His name is
William P. Farley.
He's a pastor
in Spokane,
Washington in the U.S.
And he's written,
one book he's written
is called
Hidden in the Gospel,
Truths You Forget
to Tell Yourself Every Day.
It's a really practical book
just explaining
that he said
in his introduction
and he said
that he was
Christian for 25 years
before he actually
discovered
that somebody told him
about preaching
to yourself.
So he's written
this book in a way,
little sort of
snippets of chapters
preaching to himself
and things that he
likes to remind himself
of every day.
And he covers
all the essential
aspects of the gospel
as well.
So, let me move on
to just,
I'll mention,
I've mentioned
the persecution
and affliction
that the believers
in Thessalonica
were facing.
And we know
that, you know,
persecution
does strengthen
the church.
We think of
the famous quote
from Tertullian
who said
that persecution
often leads
to a stronger church
because the blood
of the martyrs
becomes the seed
of the church.
And also Martin Luther
once said as well,
Christ was crowned
with thorns
where you're expecting
roses.
So, you know,
we've seen that
across the world
in recent times
in different countries.
I'm still ongoing
in many countries
today
where persecution
does happen.
So, generally,
the whole letter
to the Thessalonians,
he was pretty positive
in a lot of things
but he also
picks them up on,
they weren't perfect,
he picks them up
on a few things.
For example,
later on,
he talks in chapter 1
in verse 6
about you became
imitators of us
and of the Lord.
But later on
in chapter 4,
he starts to
really challenge them
about some of
their sanctification,
their holiness,
especially on
sexual matters
that they were,
there was a few issues
that he brought out.
And also,
he then goes on
to write,
obviously,
the second letter
to the Thessalonians
and in that letter,
he,
obviously,
some people
had stopped working
and they were
depending on,
they were really
living off other people
and not pulling
their weight
and he challenges
them as well
on that.
But one of the things
that he really focuses on
between the two letters
is the future.
There was a lot of
confusion about
the return of Christ
and the future
and some,
it was obvious
that some of the
Thessalonians
had died.
We're not sure
if they had died
in the persecution
or they had died
naturally,
but they were
very unsure
about the destiny
of these individuals
who had already
died
and some people
were also confusing
and maybe Christ
had already
come back
and Paul tries
to point that
out to them
as well.
So,
as I bring it
to our conclusion,
really just,
we can learn
quite a lot
from this book,
Thessalonians,
1st and 2nd Thessalonians,
Paul's ministry
as well,
applying it
to our own situation.
We need to understand,
we saw that God
used a lot
of providential
aspects in society
to spread the gospel
throughout Asia
and Europe,
primarily through
the Roman Empire
and the Greek language
and also,
we have,
we live in a world
today,
we have to look
at the signs
of the times,
there's a lot
of things going on,
we live in a city,
a prominent city,
Edinburgh,
which Thessalonica
would have been
one of the leading
world cities
in its day,
we live in a fairly
prominent city here,
capital city,
we have four universities,
we have very
international
orientated city now,
but we also live
in a city
where maybe only,
what,
5% of people
were in church
today,
so there's a lot
of challenge for us
as a church as well,
how we reach out,
there's also challenges
throughout the world,
I mentioned my
own
trips to
Myanmar,
I spend,
I've spent a lot
of time in China,
I go to China,
I was teaching
in China for about
seven years
on and off,
just from here
of course,
and I go to
churches in China
which are packed
out,
I go to churches
in Hong Kong
which are packed
out,
but I go to,
three weeks time
I'll be going off
to the Middle East
to a place
which has got
virtually the Muslim
population,
virtually no
Christians at all,
the only churches
in the Middle East
and where I go
is usually
expats
in the English
speaking churches,
so there's a real
challenge for
countries like
Myanmar for example
which is primarily
Buddhist,
there's very few
Christians
and the little
church in
Rangin
is just a very
small number
meeting together
every Sunday
as well.
But
the letter
to Thessalonians
can give us
a lot of
encouragement
because I think
what it shows
very much is
that they were
together as a
community,
they were really
working as a
community and I
think,
I'll just finish
off by
a few weeks
ago,
James
and one of
the Wednesday
night
church evenings
he mentioned
a bit about
how we
developed
points of
contact.
Now in Paul's
day,
his point of
contact is
usually going
through the
synagogue
and that's
where he
would be
his starting
point.
For us,
it's a big
challenge because
we no longer
have people
coming through
our doors
every Sunday.
Times have
changed so
we now as
a church
have to
look at
how we
can develop
points of
contact.
It's something
that James
has been
emphasising
quite a bit.
I'll finish
off by just
pointing out
one of the
significant
things that
Paul mentions
in the
letter to
Thessalonians
and his
prayer.
He starts
off in
verse 2,
chapter 1,
verse 2.
We always
thank God
for all of
you mentioning
you in our
prayers.
And then
later on
in chapter 3,
verse 11,
he says,
Now may our
God and
Father himself
and our
Lord Jesus
clear the
way for us
to come to
you.
May the
Lord make
your love
increase and
overflow for
each other
and for
everyone else,
just as
ours does
for you.
May he
strengthen
your hearts
that you
will be
blameless and
holy in the
presence of
our God
and Father
when our
Lord Jesus
comes with
all his
holy ones.
So I
think for us
as a church
we need to
really explore
where our
points of
contact are
going to be
and how we
can reach
maybe it's
through our
work,
through our
colleagues,
through our
friends and
neighbours,
through other
means as
well.
So thank
you for
listening and
I'll finish
off there.
Thanks.