The Story So Far

We began to look at this book together, and we said a number of things which I want to reinforce. We said, first of all, that the letter provides us with an insight into the apostle Paul in a way that doesn’t necessarily come in any of the rest of his letters. We gain an insight into Paul as a man and as a missionary.

The Focus of the Letter

Paul is often characterized, either in Scripture or certainly in those who have written of him, in terms simply of his apostolic authority. And we often think of Paul in very stentorian terms—dramatic, dynamic, dogmatic terms—as he speaks without equivocation of the great issues of biblical faith. And that, of course, is a very vital and essential element of Paul. But it is not all of Paul. And he comes to us here in 1 Thessalonians with a great gentleness and a wonderful tenderness. And it’s almost as if he just needed a context in which to let this out. He speaks of himself in 2:7 as being “gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.” What? The mighty apostle Paul describing himself in terms of motherhood, in terms of nursing, in terms of the care of little ones? Yes. And then, in verse 11, he describes the ministry of himself and his colleagues as the ministry such as would be exercised by a father who would be dealing with his own children.

There is a great challenge here for all of us who are involved in leading God’s people—certainly those of us who are given the privileges of teaching the Word of God—that we might recognize that there needs to be within us and from us this kind of nurturing and care; that we would, like Paul, have that kind of maternal and fraternal interest in those who are under our cares. John Stott says of him, we can hear the apostle’s heartbeat, and we can see his tears.[1] And so, we are going to discover that in studying 1 Thessalonians, we have a wonderful guide to the nature of pastoral ministry. And it ought to challenge and change many of us both in the exercise of leadership, in the way in which we pray for local church leadership, and the way in which we respond to those who are given the responsibilities of the same.

Also, the letter focuses and defines for us the central place of the church—the absolute, crystal-clear emphasis of the Bible upon those who have been called out and established in local communities to live out the life of Christ. The instruction in the New Testament concerning the church clearly cannot mean anything or convey anything to us unless it is earthed in an immediate local community. For example, the calls to love one another are fairly vacuous until we turn and look around us in a room like this and realize, “Oh, this is what it means. I have to love him? I’m supposed to love her? I’m supposed to do this and that?” Suddenly, it becomes concrete. The issues of evangelism and the driving impetus for ethical involvement, all is worked out and defined in the context of the local church. Now, other agencies and groups may supplement what takes place in the local church, but they are clearly never to supplant it.

The instruction in the New Testament concerning the church clearly cannot mean anything or convey anything to us unless it is earthed in an immediate local community.

And as we have begun to look at 1 Thessalonians, we’ve begun to see that when Paul speaks in terms of the local church, defining it and declaring it, he speaks about a number of things. And let me just tell you what they are.

He speaks about the local church’s involvement in continuous evangelism. Continuous evangelism. Here in chapter 1, he says in verse 5, “Our gospel came to you.” And then he says in verse 6, “You became imitators of us …. And so you became a model”—verse 7. And in verse 8: “The Lord’s message rang out from you.” The gospel came, the gospel was embraced, and the gospel “rang out”—the place of continuous evangelism amongst the people of God in the local church. It is, as we’re going to see, by the gospel that the church is established, and it is by the church that the gospel is extended.

Also, he is addressing, in terms of the focus of the church, the issues of pastoral care. For example, in verse 12 of chapter 2, he talks about “encouraging, [and] comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.” This is not the responsibility of radio preachers. This is the responsibility of local church pastors.

Thirdly, he addresses the issues of ethical standards, and in chapter 4 he says, “Brothers, we instructed you”—verse 1—“how to live in order to please God.” And in verse 3, he explicitly states, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” What does that mean? Well, “that you should avoid sexual immorality; that … you should learn to control [your] own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God.”

Also, he addresses within the framework of the local church the whole issue of public worship. This may surprise you, but I think it will become clear when we finally arrive at it. I think the emphasis at the tail end of chapter 5 is public and corporate rather than private and personal. In other words: “I want you to be joyful always. I want you to pray continually. I want you to give thanks in all circumstances. I don’t want you to put out the Spirit’s fire. I don’t want you to treat prophecies with contempt. I want you to test everything. Hold on to the good, and avoid every kind of evil.”[2] I think that all has to do with public worship rather than private responsibility. We’ll come to that, and you’ll have a chance to think that out.

And also, and finally, within the framework of the defining nature of the local church, he addresses the issue of obedient living. Verse 1 of chapter 4—I referred to this earlier, but it comes back again: “We instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.” Okay?

So, we come to this little letter which gives us an insight into the apostle’s heart. It gives us a window into the priority and primacy of the local church. And it also sets that within the wider theological framework—if you like, within the eschatological framework. “Well, what does that mean?” says somebody. Well, simply this: that 1 Thessalonians is consumed with the thought of the return of Jesus Christ. If you’ll notice something, at the end of [chapter] 1, he concludes by pointing out that we’re waiting “for [the] Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus.”[3] At the end of chapter 2, he says, “What is our hope, our joy, [our] crown in which we … glory in the presence of the Lord Jesus …? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory.”[4] And he speaks there, in that preceding little section, concerning the return of Jesus Christ. At the end of chapter 3, he says, “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes.”[5] At the end of chapter 4: “And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage [one another] with these words.”[6] Verse 23 of chapter 5: “May your whole spirit, [and] soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

So, this great emphasis on the place of the church is set clearly within the context of the fact that Jesus is going to come back again. And it is, as I’ve said to you, the truth of the gospel which shapes the church. And therefore, all that we do by way of continuous evangelism and meaningful worship and personal holiness and devoted fellowship is earthed in these basic gospel truths.

The Context of the Letter

Now, I want to come back to that in a moment. But let me now step away from the theology, if you like, to the history and the geography, by way of reminder. And here you need to turn to Acts chapter 17. As I say, I wish somehow or another we could flip to the screen and watch some of these events unfold, watch—you need to go back and read—as Paul puts his team together.

Silas was his main man from the beginning. You can read of that in Acts chapter 15. “Paul,” in verse 40, “chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.” So Silas is there as his main man. In Acts chapter 16, in Lystra, they invite Timothy to join the team.[7] And later on, in the Acts 16:11, in Troas, Luke is added: “From Troas we put out to sea.” You’ll notice that subtle little change there in verse 11. It goes from “they”—it goes from the third person—to the first-person plural. Suddenly, Luke is involved. Silas has been involved, Timothy has been included, and now Luke is part of it. From verse 11: “From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace.”[8]

And we have this wonderful, exciting story here of how they sailed across the North Aegean Sea into Europe—the same sea that’s there today, the same sea that you’ll find if you go and visit, the same sea that is there on your atlas if you look at [Southern] Europe—across the sea and into Europe, into Philippi, and from Philippi moving south to Thessalonica. And 17:1–2: “When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica.” And since we have begun this, a few of us have had the privilege of going and standing right there in Thessalonica. And what a thrill it was to go and ask, “Can you tell us where it was that the apostle Paul was?” And they said, “Right around here.” And we stood and looked out over this vast and compelling harbor and thanked God for one who would give his life in order that the news of the gospel, the glorious gospel, should be able to extend through him and beyond him.

Now, we’re dealing here within about twenty years of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those of you who’ve got the idea that some phenomenal chunk of time has elapsed before these letters were written have been sold a bill of goods. The fact of the matter is that we’re within twenty years at the most of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And by the time they reached the city of Thessalonica, it was a well-established city. Secular history records that it had been established in the fourth century BC by a chap by the name of Cassander, who was one of Alexander the Great’s army officers. And so, when you’re doing history at school, young folks, and you read of Alexander the Great, you can get some kind of picture of where you are. And this fellow Cassander was the chap who established this city. He named the city after his wife. Therefore, you know his wife’s name: Thessalonica. And he had no better name for the city, and so he called it after his wife. His wife, incidentally, was the half sister of Alexander the Great. That’s a wee bit of the history.

The geography is that it sat on a strategic position with a good natural harbor, as it does today—Thessaloniki—and it was situated also on the Via Egnatia, which was the great main thoroughfare from Rome, through Rome, and on into the Eastern world.

And it is into this well-established city, with its synagogue, that Paul and his colleagues arrive. Where did they stay? We don’t know. What were their early days like? We’re not told. But we do know that “as [was] his custom,”[9] when he said, “Well, what will we do? We’ll just do what we always do,” he said, “and that is, we’ll go to the synagogue.” And there in verse 2, we discover that “on three [successive] Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures.”

In other words, he took the Old Testament, and he read it. And then he went on, first of all, to reason with them, “explaining and proving that the [Messiah] had to suffer and rise from the dead.”[10] Okay? That was the first part of his proclamation. He said, “Now, we’re going to go back, and we’re going to read the Old Testament and see if you good Jewish folks here—as I have been—see if you agree with me that what the Old Testament Scriptures teach is that the Messiah who is to come is also the Suffering Servant and that he was both to die and to rise from the dead.” The second part of his proclamation was simply to proclaim Jesus, presumably talking about the birth of Jesus and the life of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus—definitely about the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And then he put the two pieces together.

So, he first of all says to them, “Now, look: Are you prepared to agree that from the Old Testament, the Messiah had to die and rise again?” And many of them said yes. And he said, “Now, I want to talk to you next about the life of Jesus.” And then he would show them how Jesus was born, and he would relate it to prophecy, and then he would explain how he lived and how he died, and then he would explain to them the resurrection and, doubtless, his appearance, recorded in Acts chapter 9, where he, a God-fearing Jew and a hater of the Christians, was arrested by this same Lord Jesus. And then, when they were all ears, he put the two points together, and he declared that this Jesus was that Christ.

Tremendous piece of preaching! Wonderful! ’Cause they were prepared to agree, you see, that the Messiah had to suffer, die, and rise again. They were prepared to listen to the story about Jesus. He proclaimed to them Jesus. And then he said, “Now, this Jesus is that Christ”—that the Jesus of history and the Christ of Scripture are one and the same person.

Now, for those of you who would be prepared just to pass over that sentence as an interesting sentence, write it down: “The Jesus of history and the Christ of Scripture are one and the same person.” That’s what the New Testament teaches. That is biblical theology. And if you don’t understand tonight why it’s so important, that’s okay. Don’t worry about it. But you heard it here tonight, and you began to think about it tonight, if not before. And believe me: It is very, very important. If you ever go and study in a secular university and do world religions or do any kind of theology at all, you will come up against people who want to teach you the reverse of what I’ve just said. They want you to believe that the Jesus of history and the Christ of Scripture are two separate things altogether. And as soon as you divorce them, you have moved beyond the realm of the Bible, and you have ceased to be apostolic in your doctrine and in your theology.

The Jesus of history and the Christ of Scripture are one and the same person.

So, that’s what he did. He went in there, and he did this preaching, and it’s a wonderful example of Jewish evangelism, incidentally. If you want to reach Jewish people, this is how you reach them. You have to get well-versed in the Old Testament. You have to be better in the Old Testament than they are, or at least as good—go to the Old Testament passages with them and say, “Now, look, does it not suggest that your Messiah, for whom you’re waiting, is supposed to die and rise again?” “Yes.” “Well then, let’s look at Jesus here, and let’s see that he died and rose again. And then let me suggest to you that it is actually both logical and biblical to put the two things together.”

Now, of course, that wasn’t met with a great, tremendous response. It seldom is. There were “some of the Jews … persuaded,” “a few prominent women” were persuaded, “a large number of God-fearing Greeks”[11] who were hanging around the synagogue because they had an interest in God, but they didn’t know what in the world was going on, and suddenly, this little man comes in and turns the lights on—or God turns the lights on through his ministry.

And as a result—verse 5—some of the Jews were “jealous.” “Jealous.” So “they rounded up” a bunch of thugs in the marketplace. They “formed a mob,” they “started a riot,” and they thought they would go into Jason’s house, pull out Paul and Silas, and probably be done with him. And unfortunately, they missed Paul and Silas—they had already buzzed off—and they could only deal with Jason, and it was a bit of an anticlimax, bit of a disappointment. And the thugs all rallied round the house and pulled him out, and they had their little speech prepared: “These men who have caused trouble all over the [whole] world have now come here.”[12] And the people are going, “What are you talking about? This is Jason.” It’s kind of backfired on them, you know—big hurrah, they had it all ready, they pulled him out and said, “Where are the guys?” He said, “Oh. They took off. They went to Berea.” “Oh, they went to Berea, did they? Fine. Well, we’ll go to Berea”—verse 13.

So, the Jews from Thessalonica went to Berea, and they went down there, too—not to listen to him preach but to agitate the crowds and to stir them up. And so the brothers said to Paul, “Okay. Sailing time.” He goes to the coast—[Timothy] and Silas stay at Berea—and then on to Athens, and then from Athens into Corinth. And it is from Corinth that he writes this letter to the Thessalonians. Okay?

So, that’s some of the history and the geography of it. That’s how we arrive at where we are. This is very important. Because some of us, I think, we read our Bibles as if they were a sort of glorified promise book. You know, in the old days, you used to buy these little boxes with the little pieces of paper that were all stuck end on end, and you wake up in the morning and pull one out, and it says, “Judas hanged himself,”[13] and you put it back in, and then, later in the afternoon, you pull another one out, and it says, “Go thou and do likewise.”[14] And you don’t know what to do with that kind of stuff, because it’s just silliness. Silliness.

Now, that’s not to say that God in his great, sovereign wisdom can’t use that kind of thing, but he doesn’t expect us to read our Bibles like this, you know: “I’m having a feeling now. Yes, I’m feeling… I’m feeling… Yes! First Samuel: ‘There was a … man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah.’[15] Ah, yes. Ah, well, maybe I got the feeling a little wrong. ‘Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech.’[16] I don’t dwell in Meshech. Let me see if I can find something… ‘The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes.’[17] Yeah?” You see, you can’t be doing this. That’s why the Bible got written down the way it got written down: so that we could go at it properly. The history’s important. The geography’s important. The theology’s important. And unless we have that kind of instruction and put it together in that way, we’re left with just a bunch of blessed thoughts which we can make to mean anything we jolly well choose. And so I take the time to put it together again.

Now, in Corinth, Timothy brings him information. And as a result of the information which Timothy brings, he writes the letter. What kind of information did Timothy bring him? Well, we don’t need to be in the dark concerning that. All we need to do is read the letter, and we’ll discover. For example, Timothy brought him good news. Verse 6 of chapter 3, he brought him—he says, “Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and [your] love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you.” So, he had some good news.

He also discovered that he was being criticized. They were saying that he was insincere and that he had ulterior motives. That is the explanation of the opening verses of chapter 2. He then uses the opening verses of chapter 2 to explain the fact that his appeal did not “spring from error or impure motives, nor,” he says, “were we trying to trick you. We were speaking as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We weren’t trying to please men, but we were trying to please God.”[18]

In addition, the Thessalonians needed correction and instruction. Timothy obviously came back, and he said to him, “Paul, it’s off to quite a good start. A lot of the people really love you, and they long for you. There are a bunch of people there who are criticizing the dickens out of you. They say that you’re insincere. They say that you’ve got ulterior motives. They say you’re a con man, you’re a sham. And also, the people are in such disarray when it comes to the issues of sexual immorality; they’re not sure what you’re allowed to do and what you’re not. Some of them are a bunch of lazy rascals, and they don’t realize that you’re supposed to earn your own living; they want to sit on a hill and do nothing, waiting for Jesus to come back again. A number who are interested in the fact that Jesus is coming back again are not quite sure how to prepare for it, and quite a few of them are at loggerheads with one another in the fellowship.” “Oh, well,” says Paul, “then fine. Thank you for that information. Why don’t I just sit down now, and I’ll write a letter?” And as he writes the letter, he deals with all of these issues, as we have begun to see and as we will see in these coming weeks.

The interaction throughout all of this five-chapter letter is the interaction between the church and the gospel. It is interesting that this should come across to me in my studies this past week, especially when there was such an emphasis in our study this morning on the gospel. And it comes across most clearly in some work that John Stott did some years ago on 1 Thessalonians, which was published as a little book under a title of its own, but it is essentially a series of expositions on 1 Thessalonians. And Stott gives us an analysis of 1 Thessalonians by pointing out that the whole key to it is seen in the relationship between the church and the gospel. Let me give you his analysis, for what it’s worth, for those of you who’d be interested in following it up.

He points out that in verses 1–10, or in chapter 1, we have what he refers to as “Christian Evangelism, or how the church spreads the gospel.” And then, in 2:1–3:13, he says what we have here is “Christian Ministry, or how pastors serve both the gospel and the church.” So, you’ve got the interaction between the gospel and the church in evangelism, then you’ve got the interaction between the gospel and the church in pastoral ministry. In the first twelve verses of chapter 4, we have “Christian Behaviour, or how the church must live according to the gospel.” From halfway through chapter 4—verse 13, or a little beyond that—the eleventh verse of chapter 5, we have “Christian Hope, or how the gospel should inspire the church.” And then, from verse 12 to the end of the letter, he suggests that what we have there is “Christian Community, or how to be a gospel church.”[19]

Quite wonderful analysis of the letter! I do wish that it was possible for me to see things like that. You can read the letter time and time again; I don’t see it break out like that. That’s why we have to be so thankful that God has raised up such individuals to be able to help those of us who are a little denser to understand these things. Very helpful breakout of the book!

The Story So Far

Now, what have we done so far? Just let me conclude with these comments. Well, we’ve looked, really, at sections 1 and 2 of that analysis—at least all of 1 and part of 2.

We began, may I remind you, focusing on these three statements that Paul is able to make in the opening verses concerning the Thessalonians. You remember we said that he was thanking God for all of them, mentioning them in his prayers,[20] and there were three things in particular that stood out to him concerning the church at Thessalonica. One was their “work,” which was “produced by faith.” And then there was their “labor,” which we said at that time was an arduous, wearying toil. It involved sweat and fatigue. And this great labor was “prompted by love”—the love of God for them, their love for God, and their love for one another. And thirdly: their “endurance,” which was “inspired by hope.”[21] And we said in studying it that this endurance was not some form of passive resignation, but it was an act of constancy in the face of difficulty. And on that evening when we opened this study, we concluded by saying, “I wonder: Would anyone describe Parkside Church in terms of this trilogy?” And we asked that God might make it true of us in some measure that people would look at Parkside and be able to comment on our work which springs from faith, our labor which is prompted by love, and our endurance which is inspired by hope.

We then went on from there to notice in our second study the nature of the people who comprise the church in Thessalonica, and we said that what was true of them was true of every local church. And again we noted three words.

We noted, first of all, that each member of the Church of Jesus Christ has been “chosen” according to the predetermined plan and purpose of God the Father, as verse 4: “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you”—that their salvation was as a result of divine choice and not of human effort. And on that evening, we quoted Leon Morris, who said, “Left to ourselves we do not wish to leave our state of untroubled sinfulness. It is only because God first convicts us and enables us that we can [even make] the motion of wanting to turn from our sins.”[22] And we observed the fact that the word of God had come to them “with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with” this sense of “deep conviction.”[23]

So, the believers there were chosen. We also noticed that they were changed—that they had previously been worshipping idols. They had been serving themselves, and now they had turned from idols and turned to God, and they had now determined “to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—[even] Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”[24]

And we made mention of the fact that conversion is truly conversion. Some years ago, in Scotland, as a result of the finding of great deposits of gas in the North Sea, all of the homes in Scotland were changed from the use of coal gas to natural gas. And in a great and ongoing campaign, it was made much of, and people in their homes were carrying statements in their windows which simply read, “We have been converted.” And it was a great opportunity for the gospel. And it gave us the opportunity to say, “Previously, there was a different source of power running to this mechanism. That source of power has now been negated and turned off, and another source of power has been channeled in.” And that is exactly what happens in conversion: a radical change. They once worshipped here and concerned themselves with this, and now they have been changed.

And the third thing we noticed was that they had in turn become channels of this same good news. They had become models to all the believers. And they had become sounding boards in verse 8. That is the word that is present there. And the message of the gospel was ringing out from them, and their faith in God had “become known everywhere.”[25] And I think you may recall we said that a sounding board was a very helpful picture, because a sounding board does not create sound but receives it, reinforces it, and passes it on.

And that’s what tomorrow morning’s all about. That’s what the study of today is about: that we might be edified in order that we might in turn, by God’s grace and goodness, be multiplied. God, in his amazing love, has reached down into our lives and made it possible for us to sing these hymns with great sense of assurance tonight. When we look at the way that our lives have been ordered, whether we live in a Christian home and have been brought up from infancy in the faith, we know this: that God has changed us—changed our desires and channeled our passions (otherwise, we would be, tonight, far away from here, preoccupied with all the things that others who have not been converted remain preoccupied with)—and that in his goodness he has made to us the privilege of becoming channels.

And then we went into chapter 2, and we found here this amazing picture of integrity in ministry. And we concluded our time then, and we will tonight, by realizing again a little trilogy. These little threes are very helpful in studying Thessalonians: “Your work, your labor, your endurance. You’ve been chosen, you’ve been changed, you’ve been made channels.” And here, when Paul addresses his ministry in the opening verses of chapter 2, he tells them, “Listen: My motives are pure, my methods are aboveboard, and my message is true.”[26] Very, very important! Very important. There are on television, and not only on television at the moment, men who preach regularly into your home, if you haven’t done as I do, and that is tune that jolly channel right off the TV. But every so often, somehow or another, it creeps back on, and I’m forced to look at them. And some of those men remain unexposed homosexual practicers. Some of them remain unexposed charlatans. One, who is phenomenally prosperous in Orlando, has told his vast congregation that the New Testament teaches that the tithe is to be given to the pastor of the church and that the offerings are then to be given to the church over and above that. (Not a bad deal. I’d be prepared to settle for that. Indeed, the pastoral team will go to that directly. We’ll split it between us with great joy.) It’s unbiblical. It’s wrong. It’s a nonsense. And then he moves around the country, taking these great, vast auditoriums that seat ten and twenty and thirty thousand people, and he tells them the same thing. And on average, they bring in, per head, twenty-five dollars per event. And Twenty-five times twenty-five or thirty-thousand people is a significant amount of money.

Therefore, it is very, very important that in the leadership of God’s people, we are not beyond scrutiny, and we are able to declare, as God is our Judge, and as our friends and our neighbors and our family are looking over our shoulders, and as God is looking into our lives, “Listen: Our motives are pure, our methods are aboveboard, and our message is true.”

It is very, very important that in the leadership of God’s people, we are not beyond scrutiny.

You want to pray for Parkside Church? Well, then pray that. Pray that its leadership may learn to be gentle like moms and dads; that its leadership would be marked by pure motives, aboveboard methods, and a true message. For, says Stott, “Happy are those Christian leaders today, who hate hypocrisy and love integrity, who have nothing to conceal and be ashamed of, who are well known for who and what they are, and who are able to appeal without fear to God and the public as their witnesses! We need more transparency and openness of this kind today.”[27]

Now, don’t misunderstand that. That is not a declaration that somehow or another, leaders make brilliant choices and decisions about everything that they do or somehow or another that the application of biblical truth is untrammeled and uninhibited. It’s clearly not that. But at the level of motivation, in the realm of methodology, and in terms of the content of the message, purity, integrity, humility, and reality must be not only for Paul and for the Thessalonians but for all who pastor and all who worship—the same standard by which we’re judged.

So, that’s the story so far.

Let’s pray together:

Father, I wish I could go to heaven right now and see Paul and ask him a few things and then dash back down here before I do the next verses. I can’t wait for the opportunity of hearing the firsthand reports of the way that you established the gospel at that time. But Lord, it’s so wonderful to think that at this point and in this part of your world, you have given to us the privilege of being chosen and changed and being channels. May Parkside bear evidence of this kind of work that is produced by faith and the labor that is prompted by love and the endurance which springs from hope. May our message be true to your Word, may our methods be aboveboard, and may the motives of our hearts be increasingly conformed to the standard of your Word. There’s only one way that we can ever approximate to this, and that is if you would send upon us in these days a great outpouring of your Spirit. We have, Lord, the evidences of your hand upon our lives. We have so much. But we don’t have so much that we’re unprepared to ask you for more—more of your grace, more of your mercy, more of your love, more of your tenderness, more of your truth. Come, Holy Spirit. For Jesus’ sake we ask it. Amen.

[1] John Stott, The Message of 1 and 2 Thessalonians: The Gospel and the End of Time, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1991), 9.

[2] 1 Thessalonians 5:16–22 (paraphrased).

[3] 1 Thessalonians 1:10 (NIV 1984).

[4] 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20 (NIV 1984).

[5] 1 Thessalonians 3:13 (NIV 1984).

[6] 1 Thessalonians 4:17–18 (NIV 1984).

[7] See Acts 16:1–3.

[8] Acts 16:11 (NIV 1984). Emphasis added.

[9] Acts 17:2 (NIV 1984).

[10] Acts 17:3 (NIV 1984).

[11] Acts 17:4 (NIV 1984).

[12] Acts 17:6 (NIV 1984).

[13] Matthew 27:5 (paraphrased).

[14] Luke 10:37 (paraphrased).

[15] 1 Samuel 1:1 (NIV 1984).

[16] Psalm 120:5 (NIV 1984).

[17] Jeremiah 7:30 (NIV 1984).

[18] 1 Thessalonians 2:3–4 (paraphrased).

[19] Stott, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 20.

[20] See 1 Thessalonians 1:2.

[21] 1 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV 1984).

[22] Leon Morris, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians: The English Text with Introduction, Exposition and Notes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), 55.

[23] 1 Thessalonians 1:5 (NIV 1984).

[24] 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 (NIV 1984).

[25] 1 Thessalonians 1:8 (NIV 1984).

[26] 1 Thessalonians 2:3–5 (paraphrased).

[27] Stott, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 47.