Feb 16 2020 - 1 Thess Intro - Leadership is Built Around Relationship

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Bible Project – 1 Thessalonians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No7Nq6IX23c

So that is the basic introduction to the entire book – and over the next couple of months until Easter we’ll go through and take a more detailed look..

Lord, thank You! We ask that You help our hearts to focus on what You have to say to us from Your word. May we continually set aside concerns, thoughts, anxieties and distresses – that we may know Your love for us, Your kindness for us, and Your mercy toward us.

Acts 17:1 They came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. ² Paul went to the Jews in the synagogue, as he customarily did, and on three Sabbath days he addressed them from the scriptures,

When Paul would go into a city – he would first go to the Jews. It was just natural, not that He liked the Jewish people better, or like “Mom likes you better” - He was Jewish. Jesus was Jewish. Jesus came first to the Jews –So Paul would come first to those who understood the Scriptures – and many would be converted to Christ by Paul – and then he would go to the Gentiles. Paul was there a short time – maybe 2-3 months at most – and the reason that is important – this church is doing very well, considering that Paul and his partners were only there a short time. But they went through persecution and yet were thriving. This reveals the power of God and the gospel – and NOT the people proclaiming it. The gospel itself has the power to do transformation. In our world, we tend to trust in people and not God. We rely on these – and they are lifted up in so many ways, but when we do that – we trust in THAT and it causes us to not trust in God. We’ve got this and that and as Christians in America, we have so many great resources and people, that it is easy to forget God. But not the Thessalonians – they had God and the gospel and it was enough, even in a short time.

³ explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, saying, "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ."

The Jewish people could not get their heads around this Christ. They were looking for a conquering messiah to make their nation the greatest in the world. But Jesus is a poor servant who talks about peace – doesn’t talk to or about the Romans – they are irrelevant – but then He suffers on the cross and dies and raises from the dead. This just goes to show, this is not a human invention. Incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection – no one would think of that as a strategy to save the world! For the Jews also, even though it was throughout their scriptures, they never understood it and often rejected it.

⁴ Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large group of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

Some became Christians, but not many. The church in Jerusalem was mostly Jewish – and then into Galatia, a lot of Jews and a few Gentiles, but as you move toward Thessalonica, it was mostly Gentiles. You weren’t dealing as much with the Jewish problems, but the letter focuses on the struggles of becoming a Christian in the Gentile world. This was different – different backgrounds that they were coming to faith FROM – and it creates different issues.

If you were, in the late 1800s – missionaries were leaving the west into Asian and Africa – someone who came to Christ in Europe and America had wholly different issues from those who come to Christ in Asia and Africa. Like someone who comes to Christ today has wholly different issues than when I came to Christ in the 70s. There are different issues. As a church and a people, we need to be able to understand what those are so we can minister to them most effectively. The message of the gospel never changes, but the way we minister the gospel must always adapt to the people we are ministering it to.

Finally – in vs. 4 – ‘along with a large group of Greeks and quite a few prominent women” – women of the upper class – History tells us that the women were known for their independent and enterprising spirits.

Women played a key role in the founding of several churches in the book of Acts. It was women who were first to be saved in Philippi – and in the first several hundred years of the church – women outnumbered men (and that is mostly true today!)

In their world, there was no social network, so no social net to catch people in need – so the church created a social net – like for widows – to take care of them. History bears this out.

⁵ But the Jews became jealous, and gathering together some worthless men from the rabble in the marketplace, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. They attacked Jason's house, trying to find Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly. ⁶ When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, screaming, "These people who have stirred up trouble throughout the world have come here too,

The Jews were the ones who were most attacking the church. First – they were really threatened by this new movement – People were leaving (even though they didn’t really leave Judaism for a while) – but even more importantly – the Jewish people had special status in Rome. The people loved ALL religion – bring your gods in – let’s get as many gods as we can possibly have! And they wanted everyone to worship all of them. Jews had one God and wouldn’t worship any others. Palestine was the breadbasket of the world – grain came from there, and it was a hard place to keep peace, and it hasn’t changed! To keep peace, Rome allowed Jews to just worship their God. The Romans could understand this – because they had a temple to worship God.

When the Christians came in, the Romans thought they were atheists – no temple, no idols! And then they heard that they were eating and drinking this guy’s blood!

⁷ and Jason has welcomed them as guests! They are all acting against Caesar's decrees, saying there is another king named Jesus! ⁸ They caused confusion among the crowd and the city officials who heard these things. ⁹ After the city officials had received bail from Jason and the others, they released them. ¹⁰ The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea at once, during the night.

They caused all this trouble – Paul and Silas have to flee so they are not persecuted. First – accused of causing a riot – but more significantly – Treason! Because they were preaching a new king/emperor/lord – those terms were reserved for Caesar. There is a challenger to Caesar! And no one was happy with that. This was their gospel, and that is why it cause a tremendous amount of persecution in the Roman world, because Caesar believed himself to be these things.

They called him the son of god, lord and savior of the world. Jesus put Caesar in direct competition.

We have personalized our gospel – saying things like Jesus is my lord and savior – but the gospel is not THAT – it is that Jesus is LORD and SAVIOR of the world!

We might say, Jesus is king – prime minister – President. That would be weird – but that is what it was like. Like having a parking ticket and telling the Judge – Jesus is Judge! In proclaiming the gospel that Jesus is Lord and King – they would see it no other way than it is against Caesar.

The proclaiming of a different lord and savior presented many problems for the church – Rome wanted full devotion.

Today – all of the world’s systems want our full devotion -and they will always be in competition with Jesus – the Bible is clear on that.

1 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. ² We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; ³ constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, ⁴ knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you;

Just to introduce this – a couple things – the pastoral heart of Paul – v2 – Think of this – you’re involved in a church – involved in different ministries – Give thanks, always, for all of them. Not any, not most – if we are honest, there are times where all of us have relationships we are not really thankful for. ALL of them, Paul said.

What Paul demonstrates, and this world needs it – Leadership is built around relationship. It is too easy in our world to build leadership around technique, skill, gift. Yes, those are important – but leadership is built around sacrificial serving relationship. Loving relationship. It is what leadership must be built around. And we will pick up there next week!

Lord, thank You for Your word and thank You that we have a gospel that is really powerful in and of itself. We don’t need to add any of our stuff to it. Thank You that the gospel is powerful for today and the way the world is today. We may need to find different ways to present it, but the message is the same. And we need to make sure that it is in the gospel only that we trust. In Your Name we pray.