For the next five week’s we’ll be walking through a little New Testament book called 1 Thessalonians. It’s pretty small - just five chapters and only about two pages in my Bible, but it was actually written to a really important city.
Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki) is still the second largest city in Greece, but it is some 2,300 years old. Around the New Testament times, it was the capital of Macedonia - the northern half of Greece. And it was rich, very rich. It had an excellent port, comfortably nestled into the northernmost port of a gulf. It was also centrally located on the major Roman highway running east and west through the empire. All of this led to lots of importing and exporting. They worked hard, and they had lots of cash.
Thessalonians were also very religious. Like most ancient Greeks and Romans, they worshiped a wide variety of gods.
- Of course, there were the traditional gods of Greek mythology, but the most prominent in Thessalonica were Dionysius and Artemis.
- Dionysius was the god of wine and ecstasy. His followers were famous for wild drunken party-parades which “freed” everyone from all their social inhibitions.
- Artemis was worshiped both as goddess of wild animals and goddess of fertility.
- Thessalonians also adopted two Egyptian gods: Isis and Osiris.
- Isis was the goddess of motherhood, fertility, and magic. Her statues often showed her nursing a son. Also known as the Queen of Heaven, she offered salvation and eternal life to all in exchange for humility, confession, and repentance.
- Osiris was Isis’s brother and husband, and he was supposed to be the god of the afterlife and underworld. Osiris was believed to die every year and be raised from the dead by Isis’s tears.
- Cabirus was a god who was murdered by his brothers. People worshiped him with water baptism, confessing their sins, and being symbolically cleansed by his blood. His worshipers also did an intense dance celebrating the male sexual organs.
- Last but not least, the Thessalonians worshiped Caesar - the Roman Emperor. They printed coins declaring Caesar to be a god. Their down-town forum had statues of the current and past Caesars on prominent display. Caesar was said to be the son of God and divine ruler of the world, the bringer of peace for all humanity.
Thessalonians worshiped these gods at temples, at work-related banquets, at social parties, at sporting events, and at private altars in their homes. Worshiping more than one god was no problem for them. If you found another god who might be able to help you, then you just added that god to your worship mix.
So that’s Thessalonica, now let’s take a look at Paul, who wrote this letter. Paul was one of the first Christian missionaries, and he always traveled with a team. Acts 6-17 tells the story of Paul’s his second missionary journey when he took along Silas and Timothy. As they began their journey to the northern part of Turkey, it seemed like God prevented them from going northward. One night, Paul had a dream that a man from Macedonia was calling to them for help. So they changed plans and went to Macedonia - northern Greece.
First, they went to Philippi, and things went well at first - with a few converts. But before long, there were riots in the streets because of these Christian preachers. All three were arrested, “severely beaten with wooden rods,” and put into prison. God miraculously busted them out of prison, converting a prison guard along the way, and the missionaries left town.
When they arrived in Thessalonica, they first went to the Jewish synagog and started preaching. That synagog had a lot of Gentile observers - kind of like seekers, where were interested in the Jewish religion. When they heard that Jesus is the Messiah, they believed and joined in with Paul’s group. The local Jewish leaders got jealous and started a riot. They dragged some Christians downtown and appealed to the city rulers, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6). The Jews turned the crowd against them by pointing out that Christians claimed there is only one God and one Lord Jesus.
This was a dangerous and subversive belief. What about all the other gods? What about Dionysius and Cabirus? If Artemis gets angry, will she stop our women from having children? If Isis hears that our own people are denying her, will she still give us eternal life? And what about Caesar? Will Caesar crush us all because these fools reject him? The city was in uproar.
Some of the Christians posted bail for Paul and his team, and they skipped town - basically running for their lives. The same story was repeated in the next town - Berea. Paul and his team were naturally very worried about the Thessalonian believers. They knew it was going to be tough going for them. They knew that others in Thessalonica would not understand and would try to make them give up on Jesus. Would their faith withstand the struggle? Would the church of the Thessalonians survive?
Finally, when Paul couldn’t stand the waiting any longer, he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to bring him a report. (Maybe it still wasn’t safe for Paul to go.) In chapter 3 Paul says, “But now Timothy has just returned, bringing us good news about your faith and love ... So we have been greatly encouraged ... It gives us new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord” (1 Thes. 3:6-8). This encouraging news prompted Paul to write a letter of encouragement and advice to the church in Thessalonica.
Keep all of this history in mind as we move through this letter. Let’s read chapter 1 now.
1 This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
May God give you grace and peace.
2 We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. 3 As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. 5 For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. 6 So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. 7 As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece—throughout both Macedonia and Achaia.
8 And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don’t need to tell them about it, 9 for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. 10 And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment.
So we need to ask a few questions. First, why was Paul so happy? And the short answer to that question is in verse 9. The Thessalonians had “turned away from idols to serve the living and true God.” They certainly had enough idols to choose from, and remember that their normal custom would be to add on rather than to turn away. Normally, when they encountered a new and interesting god, they would add that god to the worship mix. It was outrageous and almost unthinkable to completely turn away from all their old gods in favor of one new God, and yet, that is what Christianity is about.
The false gods of Thessalonica offered lots of empty promises - forgiveness, cleansing, protection, pleasure, spiritual freedom, and eternal life. When Paul was preaching, he must have pointed out that these empty promises become full in Jesus. What the false gods promised but couldn’t deliver, Jesus gives in a way that passes understanding and outside circumstances. So when Paul here’s back from Timothy, he is delighted to the depths of his heart to hear that the Thessalonians have left all the false gods to worship Jesus as the one true God.
But then we need to ask another question. How did Paul know that the Thessalonians had really turned to Jesus and were still living in Jesus’ way? What was the evidence that they were still following Jesus? Verse 3 gives us the answer there. “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Faith, hope, and love - these are the classic traits of real Christians. But for Paul these are not passive or hidden. For Paul, faith is always active and working. Love is not a mere emotion; it expresses itself in labor. Hope is not an escapist longing for the future, but something that gives endurance in the right, steadfastness in times of struggle. For Paul the Christian life is always lived out. Faith, hope, and love can always be seen by others because they always fuel action.
We need to ask one last question about this text. How did it all happen? Paul went and preached, and the Thessalonians responded by changing their whole lives, but how did it happen? Paul has no doubts about this. It was God from start to finish.
- The church of the Thessalonians exists in God. It lives and breathes in God (1:1).
- Paul thanks God for God’s work in the Thessalonians (1:2).
- All of this started with God’s love, and God chose the Thessalonians (1:4).
- When Paul, Timothy, and Silas preached, it wasn’t with mere human words. God was working behind the scenes and in the hearts of the Thessalonians, confirming the truth of the message (1:5).
- The Thessalonians modeled their lives after Jesus, and the Holy Spirit filled them with joy despite their difficult circumstances (1:6).
- They were so faithful to God’s message that they became part of God’s message as it spread to other places (1:8).
- They recognized their true role as servants and slaves of the living God (1:9).
- They hope in Jesus as he begins their rescue even now (1:10).
The transformation of the Thessalonian Christians has one root cause - God’s amazing love. God loves them and is working in their lives. God has filled their hearts with grace and joy and strength to enable their faithful response. Yes, they must respond. Yes, they must remain steadfast in the midst of struggle. Yes, they must do the hard work of faith and love. But underneath and through it all is God. God is our only hope.
The critical factor of the Christian life is opening our hearts to God. All of the turning and repenting and working falls flat if we don’t maintain an open dependance on God. It is God who loves us. It is God who calls us. It is God who enables us to respond. It is God who fuels our faith, hope, and love. Everything we are is in God. This is the key to life.
OK, so let’s bring this home. How does this apply to us? We actually move through the same kind of process that happens here in 1 Thessalonians 1.
Like the Thessalonians, we also have idols. They aren’t as obvious because we don’t usually have religious statues or openly religious ceremonies. But we have all kinds of things that we worship. The classic trifecta of modern idolatry is power, money, and pleasure. But this plays out for us in different ways.
- Through our job, we may worship money and power. We may be addicted to success.
- We might be people-pleasers. We might never say NO to new work. We might be addicted to being cool or beautiful. Somehow deep inside we believe we will be worth more if others believe we are worth more.
- We may be pleasure-seekers. That could play out with food, adventure, entertainment, sex, porn, whatever.
- We might be living our lives for or through our kids. We might be putting all our hope in their success. We might be worshiping the college entrance exam: “If the exam goes well, then everything will be OK.”
- We might even worship rightness - which leads us toward continually seeing how others are wrong.
Oh, we have our idols, too. They are real, and they demand our loyalty like gods.
And, like the Thessalonians, the most common religious response is to add the new god to our household gods. We accept Jesus. We welcome him into our lives, but we don’t get rid of our old gods. We put the cross on the altar right next to the TV and our wallet and our fashion magazines and our inflammatory emails. Jesus becomes another of our household gods, who demands worship once a week and the occasional nod at morning or at mealtime.
This is not enough, and deep inside we know it’s not enough. But we find it hard to do anything differently. Unlike the Thessalonians, we can’t cut all of our idols out of lives. We still have to eat. We still have to work. We still have to wear clothes and study and find ways to relax. The Thessalonians could stop going to the temple, but we can’t stop going to E-mart.
So how do we give our heart’s loyalty only to Jesus in this mixed up crazy world, where idols seem to be hiding all around us? In Matthew, Jesus says, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s?” Well, what is God’s? On one hand, we are created in God’s image, so we should give God our very selves. On the other hand, everything in this world belongs to God, so we should live in this world recognizing everything as a gift from our Creator.
I think we can find a clue to all of this in Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth: “What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who use the things of the world as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:29-31). We live in the world, but we aren’t swallowed up by the world. We use things, but we don’t let the things take over. Through it all, no matter what, we keep Christ first above all.
And what is the result of this kind of living? What happens in our lives when we relentlessly pursue Christ? We have an active faith, a laboring love, and a steadfast hope. We trust Jesus so deeply that it changes the way we live. We love other so much that we get involved in their lives. Our hope in Jesus is so strong that we stand strong in the midst of life’s winds and waves.
Maybe you like the way this sounds. But maybe you think it’s impossible to live in this world without bowing down to the idols of this world. Maybe you think that compromise is an unfortunate necessity.
Or maybe you’re more like me. Maybe you see this life of faith, hope, and love, and you want it, and you decide that you’re going to get it. You decide that you’re going to buckle down and work hard and push yourself until you have the life you want, the life God calls you to.
If you think it’s impossible, or if you think it’s possible through your own hard work, you’re wrong. This life of total surrender to Jesus, this life of faith, hope, and love - all of this - is only possible through the radical work of God in our lives. Just like the Thessalonians, this can only happen if God does it. People who are overcoming addictions know how this works. First, we admit that we can’t do it. We’ve lost control, and our lives have become unmanageable. Then, we entrust our lives to God who can do what we can’t. We give our whole lives to this amazing God who can work a radical healing in us. God makes it happen, and our job is to live in radical dependence and openness to God’s active presence in our lives.
This week, I’ve been thinking about our church. Many of you are engaging this conversion process with your whole hearts. Little by little, we are being transformed. We are turning to God for help with your addictions. We are asking for miracles in our personal, and God is answering in amazing ways. We are standing against our culture of more and pleasure and power. We are developing more hunger for God and more of God’s love in our lives. It is a slow, up and down process, but it’s working. God is working among us.
When people leave here and move on to other places, many of them write back and say how significant this church has been for them. Like the Thessalonians at the crossroads of the world, your faith in God is becoming known everywhere (1:8). As you embrace the message, you are also becoming part of the message.
So today, I want to encourage you. Continue on. Hold to the faith. Keep being converted. Keep your eyes open for ways you might have embraced idols, and keep cleaning house. Live with an active faith. Love in physical tangible ways. Hope in Christ no matter what - at all times. And through it all remember that you can’t do it, but God can. All of this depends on God. Day by day, moment by moment, let’s open our hearts and lives to God, and let God turn the world upside down through us.
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