SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
3/10/2014 12:20 PM
Introduction to 1st
Thessalonians
We are about to embark upon a new study, the book of
First Thessalonians and as I mentioned in our last Spiritual Diary we will be
looking at this book once a month until we are done with it, and then, God
willing, we will go right into the book of Second Thessalonians. I am not sure if we will be able to take the
time to do one chapter each month along with doing the regular Spiritual
Diaries that we are doing, at this time we are in the book of Jeremiah and will
continue in Jeremiah when we are done with the section of First Thessalonians
that I chose to do. I do believe that we
will be able to look at the entire first chapter of 1st
Thessalonians this month, but next month we may not be able to get through the
2nd chapter.
When many people think about the books that Paul wrote to
the Thessalonians they think only about the prophetic things that he wrote
about in the two letters, but there are many more things to look at as we study
this book. There is a lot of eschatology
in both of these letters, and that perhaps is the theme of the two letters, but
there are many other things we will look at.
I remember the first time that my wife and I went to Moody Bible
Institute’s Founder’s Week, which is a weeklong time of preaching and studying
the Word of God. I believe it was 1978,
and I was still a new believer of about four years, and I had not yet joined a
Bible Believing Church before going there.
The theme of that week’s messages was the Second Coming of Christ, which
is what the Lord used to draw me to Himself in January of 1974. One of the Pastors was teaching through the
letters of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and he mentioned
that the second coming of Christ is mentioned in every chapter of these two
letters. As I read through these letters
or listen to them I try to find the place where Paul mentions the second coming
of Christ.
I want to include in this introduction how it was that
Paul ended up teaching those in Thessalonica as we read in the book of
Acts: “6 They passed through the
Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak
the word in Asia; 7 and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into
Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; 8 and passing by Mysia,
they came down to Troas. 9 A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of
Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, "Come over to
Macedonia and help us." 10 When he had seen the vision, immediately we
sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the
gospel to them (Acts 16:6-10).” Paul
then went to the city of Philippi and began to preach to the people there. He did not go into the Synagogue because
there was not one there. Paul and Silas
were thrown into prison for preaching the Gospel there and while they were
there the Lord caused an earthquake to happen in the prison and the result of
that earthquake they lead the jailer and his entire family to the Lord. Paul was asked to leave the city but he told
the authorities that he and Silas were Roman citizens and were beaten without a
trial, which frightened the authorities and they were even more eager to have
them leave. “1 Now when they had
traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where
there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to
them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3
explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again
from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the
Christ." 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas,
along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading
women. 5 But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from
the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the
house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. 6 When they
did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city
authorities, shouting, "These men who have upset the world have come here
also; 7 and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees
of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus." 8 They stirred up
the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things. 9 And when they had
received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them. 10 The brethren immediately sent Paul and
Silas away by night to Berea (Acts 17:1-10a).”
The journey from Philippi to Thessalonica is about 100 miles and this
usually to five days to walk there, but both Paul and Silas were injured from
the beatings and the fact they were put into stocks, so it probably took longer
for them to get there. Notice that they
passed through two other cities and did not preach to the people there as it
seems that God was leading them to preach to the Thessalonians.
John MacArthur writes the following from his commentary
on 1st and 2nd Thessalonians “The Thessalonians epistles
catalog the marks of a healthy, growing church.
They give the responsibilities of the leaders to the congregation
(1Thess. 5:12, 14-15); the congregation to the leaders (1 Thess. 5:13, 25-28; 2
Thess. 3:1-2); of believers to grow spiritually (1 Thess. 5:16-22), stand firm
in the midst of persecution (1 Thess. 2:14-16), and live orderly lives (2
Thess. 3:6-13); and the church’s responsibility to discipline sinning members
(2 Thess. 3:6, 14-15). They also emphasize
the church’s responsibility to reach the lost world with the saving truth of
the gospel (1 Thess. 1:8-10).”
The City of Thessalonica
It would be good to look at the city’s history before we
jump into looking at the writings of the letters. The city still exists today
and is called Thessaloniki, and is a thriving city of around 300,000
people. During the Roman times it was
the most important city of the Roman province of Macedonia which is the
northern part of modern Greece.
MacArthur writes “Perhaps Thessalonica’s greatest asset
was its location astride the Egnatian Way, the major east-west highway of the
Roman Empire, which ran from what is now Albania to Byzantium (Constantinople;
Istanbul). Thessalonica’s main street
was part of the great highway linking Rome with the eastern regions of the
empire. Noting the importance of Thessalonica’s strategic location on the
Egnatian Way to the spread of the gospel, William Barclay writes:
‘It is impossible to overstress the importance of the
arrival of Christianity in Thessalonica.
If Christianity was settled there, it was bound to spread East along the
Egnatian Road until all Asia (Minor) was conquered and West until it stormed
even the city of Rome. The coming of
Christianity to Thessalonica was crucial in the making of it into a world
religion. (The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. Rev.
ed.’”
The city of Thessalonica was founded in 315 B.C. by one
of Alexander’s Generals, Cassander who married Alexander’s half sister whose
name was Thessalonica. Cassander became
the king of Macedonian after the death of Alexander. The city was built on the ancient city of a
town named Therme and this was probably named after hot springs that were in
the area. The Romans conquered the area
in 168 B.C and it was divided into four republics, which later became a Roman
province in 148 B.C. Thessalonica became
the capital of the province. The city actually became free in 48 B.C and was
that way when Paul went there around 49 A.D.
One more thing about the city and that is that there were
around 60,000 Jews there when Hitler captured the city during WWII and he
killed all of them.
It is not sure how long Paul was there in the city, but
we know that it was not too long before he had to leave after persecution came
to him and Silas. He had to leave to go
to Berea and then went to Athens after being kicked out of Berea due to more
persecution. He wanted to know how the
little church was doing and so he sent Timothy to see and the news came back to
him that all was well with the church.
We will begin to look at the first chapter of 1st
Thessalonians in our next SD, and because there are only ten verses in it we
should finish the first chapter without a problem.
3/10/2014 1:36 PM
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