1 Thessalonians 1:1-6 - Frank Brancato 2/19/20

Tonight we are. Beginning a new book Paul's

letter to the Thessalonians and its first Thessalonians chapter

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

1 and the questions will cover verses 1 through 6.

And normally I just read the verses that cover the questions

but because it's a start of a book.

I'm going to read the whole first chapter before we get into

our questions and there's five questions.

If you need them, they're on the back table.

So first Thessalonians. After one, and I'll begin

reading there in verse 1. Paul Savannah, Saint 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 all 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.

In the sight of God, our 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 followers of us and the Lord,

having received his word, in much Affliction with joy of the

holy spirit so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and

aquella, who believe For from the word of the Lord has sounded

forth. Not only in Macedonia and

aquella, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone

out. So that 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 delivers us?

From the Wrath to come. And correctly.

Read barring any mistakes on my part reads.

The 10 verses that cover chapter one of the book of First

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

Thessalonians chapter 1, Obviously these were written

divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul writes to the first

letter to those in thessalonica. And there were many things that

they were being praised for their many things that they were

known for. Well, we're going to find later

on especially by the second letter.

That there were some things that needed to be corrected.

There's a lot of encouragement that happens.

I think in 1st Thessalonians and by second Thessalonians because

of their misunderstanding about when the Lord was going to come

back Paul had to correct some things and he does that but

backing all the way up to the very beginning.

We begin in verse 1 and it's Paul silvanus and Timothy.

Now, the question is, who was silvanus and what is meant by

the phrase in God, the father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Well, first of all, silvanus, obviously, I think we all know

this with Silas and Silas was a companion of the Apostle Paul on

his second missionary journey, as we About in Acts chapter 15

Acts 15 · chapter mention

and verse 40 when they reach lystra, they met a disciple by

the name of Timothy and Paul took him along on this journey.

In fact, Timothy was Paul's most notable disciple in Philippians

Philippians 2:17–23

chapter 2 verses 17 through 23. We find that he traveled with

Paul during his second and third missionary Journeys and stayed

near Paul during his first Roman imprisonment.

So what does it mean when he says, or why does he say in God

the father? And the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, obviously, he's writing to the church later on, he's going

to call them the elect. But in the very beginning of

this letter, he says to the Church of the Thessalonians in

God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ, a couple of ideas

about that. First of all, God and Jesus

Christ are not the same person. In fact, some would say in some

do believe that it is God himself as Jesus Christ, it's

all the same person but there are three that bear record in

heaven. We know that there's God, the

Father, there's God, the son and there's God the Holy Spirit.

And when John would say and these three are one, it doesn't

mean that they're one person. It means they're one in the same

by way of purpose, by way of agreement, and they work

together in every way. But there are three separate

percentages in the Out of here, but it's interesting because he

says God and Jesus Christ. And he makes a distinction

between the two and yet ties them together at the same time.

I think there's several reasons about that.

Well, first of all, they do work together and they for the same

purpose. But you have to remember, too

that many of the early converts that Paul dealt with came from

Judaism and they were Jewish by blood.

In fact, later on there were those that would try to reject

Jesus himself. And I think that the fact that

Paul begins this letter by saying it is God and Jesus

Christ to show that. First of all, number one, the

Assembly of the church is not a Jewish assembly.

That's number one. It's of Jesus Christ, it is a

Christian Assembly. That's number one.

Number two, I think it also proves to them.

You can't have God without Jesus Christ.

They go together now. They work together.

They're different in this regard by way of Duties.

I would say, perhaps, or roles regarding the church.

Number one, first and foremost, God is the father.

And Jesus is the ruler. In fact, Jesus would say that

all power is given unto me in heaven and in Earth God gave

Jesus the power. So all authority is given to the

Sun and that's Jesus Christ. And so what Paul is doing is

he's tying them together. You cannot have god without

Jesus Christ and to have Jesus Christ is also to have God they

work together. And when with regards to the

church, You cannot separate them at all.

Then he goes in verse 2. And he says we give thanks to

God always for you always for you all making mention of you in

our prayers. And then also, this verse

covers, this question covers verse 3 also, which I will read

remembering without ceasing your work of Faith, labor of love,

and patience of Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of

God, and of our God, and Father, First of all, giving thanks to

God always for them, making mention of them in your prayers,

you know, statements like that was very common to Paul.

I heard somebody say one time wouldn't it have been nice to

have been included in the prayer list of the Apostle Paul?

When Paul would say a number of times in his writings and he

wrote over 2/3 of the New Testament.

And many times Paul would say that he makes mention of them in

his prayers, daily mentioning them in his prayers, Paul

obviously was a man of prayer and gave a great example by his

own. Own prayer life.

He begins by saying he says to them.

I give thanks to God. Always for you, making mention

of you in our prayers. Then he says, remembering

without ceasing your work of Faith, labor of love and

patience of Hope the question is this?

What is the work of faith? And what is a labor of love?

Now obviously the threefold combination of faith.

Hope and love was a favorite of Paul.

In fact, Paul says, those very things they and the greatest of

these is love and so forth. So obviously these are tied

together and what Paul is doing is he's referring to a

fulfillment of spiritual duties that results from three

spiritual attitudes and obviously this to let's just

make mention of this in passing. We'll spend very much time on

this. We know that there's a

difference between faith and meritorious works.

We get that many believe today in the religious world that

there's we are saved by faith alone or faith only and we know

that that's not true. But there's a difference between

a meritorious work and a work of obedience and what's brilliant

about what Paul is doing here is Paul puts together, the word

work and the word faith in the same sentence.

It is a work of Faith. A couple examples about that

first of all, If we demonstrate our faith by obedient works,

it's an expression of our faith. It is an outward expression of

our inward Faith. Its faith in action in Romans,

Romans 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10. And verse 17, though Paul says

that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

So, we know that the word of God is connected to Faith.

It has to be and really, when you think about it, this way, if

you think about works that are done by By faith, a work.

Cannot be a faith in accordance with the will of God, that is

not founded on the word of God or supported by the word of God.

When the Bible talks about be ready for every good work.

You know, sometimes people can think that a work is good

because they look and they see the good that comes from it.

And they think well, that's a good work.

And if something is achieved that is good and how can it be

bad? I'm talking about from a

spiritual perspective, but a work is only good if it's in

accordance with the will of God. It has to follow suit with the

word of God, faith is the foundation based upon the word

of God. God faith comes by hearing and

hearing by the word of God. In other words, it is what God

authorizes. So, our work to be acceptable to

God must be a work of faith that is connected to the word of God

and what God has authorized. And then he says, labor of love.

Christians need to understand that.

Not only do we follow the works that we must do in obedience,

but it has to be a work of love. It's kind of like are giving,

right? Paul says, with are giving, he

says not of necessity, he said not grudgingly.

In other words, in any aspect of our Christian Life, we can't do

it just because we know we need to be obedient to the word of

God. So therefore we just do it.

And we have and maybe even resisting against it, but we

just go through the motions. You can do have a work of Faith

which is a work of obedience but if it's not a work of Love or

it's not a labor of love, it's vain.

It needs to be from the right motive, the right perspective of

the right attitude, it needs to come from the right heart, the

right spirit, and it must be a labor of love.

So, a work of faith, is a work of obedience, that demonstrates

our faith. And that's based on the word of

God, Odd a labor of love is when you do that and love is the

basis or the motivation behind it.

I didn't ask this in the question but look at look at the

phrase patience of hope. These two things really go

together because you can't really have one without the

other and they really do go together for example.

If a person doesn't have hope and I can't even imagine living

the Christian Life without hope. If all we had was this life and

there was nothing else and there was nothing after this life.

You know, Paul says, we are of all men, most miserable And if

you think about the idea of hope, hope is something that we

trust God for the future. Faith is when we trust God in

the present, but hope is what we hope for for the future.

Now, hope if we have hope it produces what it produces.

Patience in that word means perseverance.

So if we have the proper, hope it will give us the proper

patients or perseverance to make it to the end.

So they go together all these go together.

And so also to, if you flip it around, if you don't have the

proper perseverance, you don't have any right to the hope that

comes after this life. To It.

Go together for the promised reward question.

Number three, what is the phrase election by God mean?

And it covers verse for knowing beloved Brethren your election,

by God. Now, now, obviously first, let's

just Define the word election. The word election means Choice,

election, or selection. And what's interesting is is

when Peter dealt with this and second, Peter chapter 1, in

verse 10, he talks about the elect And really, it's

misunderstood a lot today, but it's very simple.

God has elected or predetermined the kind of person that's going

to be saved. It doesn't mean that he chose

one man over it. You're going to be saved.

You're not going to be saved. You're going to be save, you're

not going to be saved. What it means is, is he has made

the determination. He is predetermined the class of

person that's going to be saved and that's an obedient

Christian, okay? That is God's election, but you

become the elect of God when you obey the gospel.

Oil. So by your own obedience and

your part, that's conditional Divine election.

God's part. He said in an order man's part

your elect when you obey the gospel.

So that's what it actually means.

We are elect, we are the elect of God and it puts all the

emphasis on us to. As Peter says, make your calling

and election. Sure showing that our conduct

our obedience, our Behavior, our Works in all of that truly

matter too. Verse 5.

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.

The question is break down this verse and explain its meaning.

The first part of the verse where it says, for Our Gospel,

did not come to you in word. Only, I think what this means

is, what he's saying, is the gospel, did not just come by the

eloquent speech or the eloquent words of man, it's more than

that. It didn't just come that way.

But also in power now, It kind of makes you think, at first

that, what he's talking about is he's talking about miracles when

he says power, but not necessarily and and I don't

think that's what he means specifically.

Because if he was talking about the gospel being preached to

them, by not only the words, but Power, miraculous power.

We don't find any of those indications where the word of

God to thessalonica, actually came in that way.

I'm not saying that there were no me.

Goals in the Revelation or confirmation of the word.

What I think he's saying though, is this, the power came as the

inspired, Holy Spirit, inspired those that preach the word of

God. It's powerful.

It wasn't just in eloquence of speech.

It came also, it came by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

And in Romans 1:16. Paul said, for I am not ashamed

Romans 1:16

of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to

Salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and

also to the Greek, I did read one commentator and he thought

he this is a really good point that he made.

He said the gospel is not just an invitation.

It's not just an invitation, it is the power of the word of God

that has the power to save you. Therefore the power comes from

the word of God. It wasn't just the speech of

man, it wasn't just man's words, it came with power and the power

is the gospel and the gospel was inspired by the holy spirit.

So I think that's what he's talking about.

Vincent said, it's the power of spiritual persuasion and

conviction. Not tell you something.

It doesn't make any difference when it's been either back in

the days of the early church. Modern times in the United

States of America on foreign soil.

It doesn't matter. The power of the Gospel still is

the same. in fact, you know, so many times, people have said, to

me, oh, you go to the Philippines and, you know, you

might baptized 80 or 100 people and then you come back home and,

you know, You hold a whole meeting and your preacher heart

out, the whole meeting the preach, the same word of God,

you preach the same gospel. And you might have a number of

visitors that come and attend that gospel meeting and you'll

be lucky. If you baptize, anybody during

the course of that meeting. And sometimes people have said,

well, is it discouraging? Or is it depressing?

And the answer to that? Really is.

No because when you go places and see the word of God, and the

power of the word of God, you realize it's not the The problem

of the preaching and it's not the problem of the word of God.

The problem is the heart of the recipient.

It's the heart of the recipient. and one more thing to remember,

when Jesus gave the parable of the sower, Remember the very

first one that he said, the very first one he said the Wayside

soil. Now we understand we preach the

word of God. It's like taking seeds and

scattering it or broadcasting it.

Like they used to do in the old days and by the way, in the

Philippines, we would drive down the road.

Oh look, he's broadcasting, they do that grab, a handful and

fling it, like this. Do you remember when Jesus said

that which fell on Wayside soil? It was the hard pan.

It was the, it was the footpath that people walked, and it was

so hard that the seed could not penetrate the Earth.

Right later on. Jesus said that the birds come

and eat the seed. Later.

He find, we find in his explanation of that, he says,

who the birds represent the birds, that's the devil.

Sometimes people think, you know what?

It's my choice. It's my decision.

And if I say yes or I say no, do you not realize if somebody has

the wrong heart? And the seed of the Gospel is

spread and it lands on that hard heart, they might think that

they have the power to make all those choices and all those

decisions, but the devil takes the seed away.

I think we have a lot of that today.

I think we have a lot of that in the preaching of the Gospel.

Somebody here is the Sears, the gospel.

They don't have the right heart and before it could penetrate

their hardened heart or their heart can be prepared, properly.

The devil takes to see the way. My point is this the power of

the Gospel is as it always has been and it doesn't matter where

it's priest. It's always been and always will

be the power that will save a man.

It's the heart of man makes the difference.

It's the heart of the recipient. It's the power of spiritual

persuasion and conviction and obviously when in this verse

when it says and in the Holy Spirit it very likely is a

reference to the fact that Paul spoke by inspiration of the Holy

Spirit. I think that's what that means.

But then he says something interesting.

He says in much assurance Vincent said, this is the Sheard

persuasion of the preacher or that the preacher that the

message is divine. Now, there were a time when the

word of God was not was not completed. so, miraculously the

Holy Spirit had to reveal, The revelation of God's word to man

who could therefore Proclaim it. And so that was in the age of

Miracles that was before the word of God was revealed and

confirmed and finalized. And because of that Revelation,

they had greater assurance that what they were speaking was

true. And I think that's what he's

saying here. It was in the power of the Holy

Spirit, it was in much Assurance.

You know what really matters to someone who's listening to you.

If you are preaching the word of God with assurance that it's

true. Now we have we have something

even greater, we don't have it miraculously revealed, we have

the word of God. We have the we have the Bible,

and it has the power to save and we know it's true.

So when we preach the word of God today, we also do so with

much. Such Assurance.

No. Doubts at all.

And then he says, and you knew the manner of men among you?

You know, it's interesting about this, we can't say enough about

the kind of person that a preacher or a teacher of the

word of God needs to be. If a person is a powerful

speaker, I mean, a guy's just a great speaker.

He could lay it out like no other man.

Could if his life is not conducive to a man that a

Christian should be It's meaningless, it'll have no power

and the reason for it is it's not that the gospel doesn't have

its power. Its that the gospel loses its

influence through the speaker, that's not living as he should.

so what Paul is saying is he says, all of these things it was

In power in the Holy Spirit in much assurance.

And as, you know, the kind of men that were among you for your

sake, you know, the kind of man Godly men that preach the word

of God and all of that. Was for your sake.

It was for somebody else. Finally question number 5 and

verse 6. And you became followers of us

and of the Lord, having received the word in much Affliction with

joy in the Holy Spirit, okay? So the question is, what is

meant by the phrase with joy of the Holy Spirit?

Obviously the gospel was received by inspiration of the

Holy Spirit obviously. But there were many that had

that suffered two for the sake of the Gospel.

In fact, there was a time when the Bible talks about those

that, thank God and praise God because they counted themself

worthy to be beaten for the cause of Christ.

You know, when you think about some of the things that, that

the early men had to go through and the strength and courage

that they had to go through, with great Affliction, I think

what he's saying is he's saying the same thing with those in

thessalonica, they receive the word of God in great Affliction

as those that were being persecuted.

In fact, in much Affliction describes the external effect of

the Gospel, but the joy of the holy spirit is the internal

effect. And something else, too.

Joy is a product of the Holy Spirit.

Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

You know, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter the

circumstances of your life. You can have joy.

You can have peace, you can have the peace that surpasses all

understanding regardless of the circumstances in life.

And when you're the, when you're the kind of a person who puts

all of his faith in trust in God, you might have much

Affliction in the receiving or the preaching of the word of

God, but you can have joy. You can have joy joy of the Holy

Spirit. One scholar said, the same

Spirit who gave power to those who preach.

The gospel Was the Same Spirit that gave joy to those who

received it. So I think that's what that

means when it talks about. And with joy of the Holy Spirit,

we thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you

would like any additional information or you would like to

receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.

Please email us at info at True Church of Christ

Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays

at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. And Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.

please, make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our

honored guest