Sermon Tone Analysis

Some background:

Founded by Paul in

Acts 17:

Thessalonica was a booming city, about 200,000 pop.

It was a gentile city with a jewish population.

Capital of Macedonia.

Rome had granted it local autonomy.

Cabiri worship was the prevalent religion.

Tied to Phoenician and Greek gods.

Cabirus was considered a martyr god, meaning he had been slain and was expected to return again to deliver the Thessalonians from future powerlessness.

On one hand, those holding to belief in Cabirus would easily have rejected Christ as an imposter or counterfeit.

On the other hand, the elite class in Thessaloniki had made a special claim on Cabirus, such that he supposedly cared more for them than for ordinary people.

This may well have given some commoners a reason to shift allegiance to Christ, who not only had been wrongfully killed and risen again to bring good news to the downtrodden, but also cared for them more deeply than did Cabirus, the god of the elite.

1.

The Birth and Growth of a Church

Paul’s 2nd

Introduction

The world came through there.

Egnatian Way.

So when the gospel began to spread, it was immediately going worldwide!

Modern day Macedonia - cultural unrest.

Roma people group, gypsies, looked down on.

Greece in the news for bankruptcy.

State of the church today - engaged but unreached according to IMB

More books of the New Testament were written by the Apostle Paul than any other New Testament author.

He was certainly a man God used in special ways to minister to the church, but it is important to recognize that none of the New Testament writers wrote in a vacuum nor were their writings the product of simple dictation.

While they wrote under the inspired guidance of the Holy Spirit, they wrote from the source of their relationship with the Lord Jesus and what God was doing or had done in their hearts and to their thinking, values, goals, sources of trust, and purposes for life.

This is also the exact kind of change God wants to bring about in our lives and seeks to do so through these vibrant epistles of the New Testament.

1 Thessalonians - among the first of the NT books.

After James and Galatians.

So some of Paul’s first letters to churches.

Of course each book has its special purpose, subject matter, and theme as determined by the inspired direction of the Holy Spirit on the human author, but this was always in conjunction with the particular historical and personal circumstances and needs of the recipients.

The human authors of Scripture wrote to real people with real problems in real situations in such a way that their writings are still very much applicable with tremendous relevance in our modern world.

Man’s problems in ancient times are still man’s problems in modern times, and likewise, the solutions to man’s problems then are the same today.

Why study the church at Thessalonica?

They got it!

Paul’s affirmation and encouragement shows us they were functioning as a church should.

The Thessalonian epistles were written to the church at Thessalonica.

It was a church under persecution, but also a church that had a dynamic testimony and that had grown through the persecution.

Significantly, in every chapter of 1 Thessalonians, the Apostle sought to comfort and motivate with the truth of the Lord’s sure return.

As we study these books, therefore, we need to grapple with how the return of the Lord for the body of Christ should impact us and how it should not affect us, for as we will see, some had made a wrong application of the Lord’s imminent return.

The City and the People of Thessalonica

3 We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work of faith, labor of love, and endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,

In the face of persecution, we can stand knowing that our obedience is not in vain.

God makes sure the Gospel is furthered.

When the missionaries left, people from Th followed and stirred it up in Berea.

Thessalonica was originally named Therma because of the many hot springs in the surrounding area, but in 315 B.C. it was renamed Thessalonica after the half sister of Alexander the Great.

It later became known as Salonika and today it is called Thessaloniki.

It is one of the few cities that still exists today from New Testament times and has a booming population of 300,000.

The city was conquered by Rome in 168 B.C., and was made the capitol of the entire providence of Macedonia.

When Paul made his journey to the city, it boasted a population of 200,000 consisting mostly of Greeks though there was a large Roman population with a strong Jewish minority.

Its location also contributed to its importance.

It was probably the greatest of the cities along the entire Egnatian Road, a great military highway which connected Rome with the East and which ran through Macedonia and parallel to the Aegean Sea.

It had a sheltered harbor which was made into a naval station and equipped with docks by the Romans.

Its midway position between the Adriatic and the Hellespont makes it even today a natural outlet for traffic from all points.

How does the gospel go out from (you) FBC Elkhart? (v.8 the Lord’s message rang out from you)

This commercial activity had two important results.

First, it made Thessalonica a wealthy city.

Well-to-do Romans settled there and Jewish merchants were attracted by the commercial advantages of the city (see Acts 17:4).

However, the majority of people made their living by manual labor.

Macedonian women, though, enjoyed a higher social position and greater privileges than elsewhere in the civilized world.

Second, it brought Thessalonica a reputation for evil and licentiousness.

The strange mixtures of a seaport city and the rites of the worship of the Cabiri cult caused the Apostle to make a special exhortation for holy living (1 Thess.

4:1-8).

If there were three things we were known for, what would they be?

(faith, love, hope)

Thessalonica was a free city and enjoyed the autonomy of self-government in all its internal affairs.

Although it was the residence of the provincial governor, he exercised no civil authority because the city was ruled by politarchs (cf.

Luke’s accurate reporting in Acts 16:6).

This political privilege was jealously guarded by the people who were extremely sensitive about anything that might result in imperial disfavor.

It was because of this that the charge framed against Paul and his companions was one of treason and this was the most dangerous charge that could have been leveled against them in a city like Thessalonica (Acts 17:7).

The heritage of Macedonia does not match the current state of the church there.

How do we secure the heritage of the church here?

Today, “it is an important industrial and commercial city in modern Greece and is second to Athens in population.

It served as a important Allied base during World War I.

In World War II it was captured by the German army, and the Jewish population of about 60,000 persons was deported and exterminated.”1

The Gospel Comes to Macedonia

From Antioch to Philippi to Thessalonica (Acts 15:36–17:15)

In the book of Acts, Dr. Luke gives the historical background which describe the events that led to the formation of the church in the city of Thessalonica.

The missionary team of Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke went to Thessalonica in response to God’s leading and their deep sensitivity to the will of God.

In Antioch, Paul chose Silas as his partner for this journey after separating from Barnabas over the problem with John Mark.

Shortly after this, when in Lystra, Paul enlisted Timothy (Acts 16:1-3).

During their second missionary journey, Paul and Silas revisited and strengthened those churches in the faith they had previously founded during their first missionary work.

Having done this, it was their intention to go through the Phrygian and Galatian regions, but being forbidden to do so, they then attempted to carry the Word to Bithinia, but again the Lord had other plans.

Consequently, they passed by the town of Mysia and went down to Troas.

There in a vision Paul received the call to carry the gospel into Macedonia, one of the regions of Europe (Acts 17:6-10).

Immediately Paul, Silas, Timothy, and now also Luke who had joined them at Troas, firmly concluded God had called them to carry the message of the Savior to Macedonia.

To preach and teach the Word to a dying and lost world is never really an issue in the will of God, but exactly when and where (time and place) is an issue in keeping with God’s preparation of the soil of human hearts.

As Christians, we are all called to be a part of promoting the spread of the glorious truths of the Word, but where, when, and how are important matters that need to be discerned in the will of God for each individual believer.

Thus, the birth of the church at Thessalonica was the result of both God’s leading and the attentive ears of Paul and his missionary team.

Having arrived at Somothrace in Macedonia, the missionary team moved on through Neopolis to Philippi, a leading city of Macedonia and a Roman colony.

There Lydia, whose heart God had opened for the gospel, and her household were led to the Christ with a church being established in her home.

After some days of ministry there, Paul and Silas were arrested on false charges, beaten, and thrown into jail.

Following a miraculous deliverance by the Lord, the Philippian jailer and his household were also led to the Savior (Acts 16:19-40).

These circumstances forced the missionaries to leave Philippi.

So after encouraging the new believers, the missionary team left the city (though Luke may have stayed behind temporarily) and journeyed on through Amphipolis and Appollonia to the important city of Thessalonica.

It appears from Luke’s account that they simply passed by these two towns, but why? Did they not need the gospel also?

Certainly, but Paul’s strategy took him to the larger cities and for a very good reason.

It was not because they had no burden for these people, but because apparently it was Paul’s strategy to minister in the larger cities with a view to having those churches reach out into the smaller communities as people naturally moved in and out of the larger and busier cities (see 1 Thess.

1:7-8).

Thessalonica even contained a synagogue because the city had attracted Jewish merchants and Paul found this a natural place to begin.

It was a city of commerce with a population of 200,000.

This meant a lot of traffic with people moving in and out of the city from the surrounding regions.