The Church in Thessalonica

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,

Acts 17:1–9

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.

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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.

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

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.