This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome back for day three of week three of our look through the
New Testament. We're in First Thessalonians today as we go through the Bible a
day. First Thessalonians is a book that's about refreshing and real life change.

Paul is writing to this young church in Thessalonica and they have questions.
And Paul is inspired by God's spirit as he writes to give them direction from
God. Lloyd John Ogilvie says about this book that it is a book about life, life
as it was meant to be, authentic life.

First Thessalonians is about real life. It's a book that was written only 20
years or so after Jesus's death. And Paul is telling this young church, these
young believers, how to live the real life that results from Jesus's
resurrection.

From the first couple of verses, there are three qualities of this book that you
see immediately. First of all, it's personal, it's personal. It's not like
sitting in a church listening to a sermon.

It's like sitting in Starbucks listening to a friend. Now, I love sermons in
church, by the way. I preach sermons in church sometimes, so I'm not against
those, but the book of Thessalonians has that feel of a conversation with a
friend.

And sometimes in the grandeur of what happens in worship, we lose the intimacy
of what Jesus is saying to us. Philippians 1 and 2, Paul writes and says, "Paul,
Silas and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians "and God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ, "grace and peace to you. "We always thank God for you,
"mentioning you in our prayers.

" Now, this is personal. And let me tell you a clue to how personal this book
is. Paul wrote 13 letters.

In 11 of those letters, he includes a title of some kind in the opening. Paul
the apostle, Paul the servant, Paul the prisoner. In only 1 and 2 Thessalonians,
it's just Paul.

It's just you and me. We're just friends, he's saying. He writes along with his
partners in ministry, Timothy and Silas, and there's this tone of one friend
talking to another, or a dad talking to a son or a daughter.

It's really great as you pick up the book of 1 Thessalonians to understand the
tone of this letter, because it helps to understand that God has something to
say to you. It's good when you pick up a book of the Bible to get a sense of the
tone, the feel of it, because then you know how God wants to work in your life
through it. So Romans has the tone of a courtroom, logically going through the
truth.

Proverbs has the tone of a wise man sitting down to give you sayings. Galatians
has the tone of, well, Paul was really angry. It's got the tone of a family
argument.

But this book, 1 Thessalonians, it has this unique feel. It is heart to heart in
its tone. It's gentle and caring.

It's simple and basic. It's personal and direct. There's this air of expectancy.

Jesus is going to return. God is at work in your life. God wants to do these
miracles of growth and change.

Now, when you think about this, wouldn't it be great to have someone with the
heart and the passion of the apostle Paul sit down with you at Starbucks to
share the how-to's of faith? What I'm saying to you is, he did. We have it right
here in 1 Thessalonians in his letters to the churches.

So it's personal. And then second, in these first few verses, we see that it's
practical. We have to understand every time we pick up these books, the
addresses that it was written to.

And in every case, it's written to two addresses. Let me say it a little bit
differently with this book than we've said it with the others. This letter was
written first to a city.

Thessalonica was a city of about 100,000 people. It was a coastal town on a
major Roman road, the Ignatian Way that ran eastward from Rome. It was a
seaport.

It was also very close to a rich, well-watered coastal plain. And these
advantages made Thessalonica the largest, the most important commercial and
political center in Macedonia. So in one sense, could we relate any better?

A large city, economic center, hub of transportation. So many of us live in just
that kind of place. Now we get a sense from who we talk to throughout the book
of who lived there.

And also we can look at history to see who lived there, who the people were that
he was ministering to in Thessalonica. There were barbarians that lived there,
people that were filled with superstition. There were Greeks that lived there,
people who ran their lives by philosophy whenever possible.

There were Romans who lived there who believed that power was the way to make
your way in this world. And there were Jews who lived there who believed that
religion was the secret to success. And into this world comes Paul.

And people from all of these walks of life came to know Christ in this church.
At the foot of Mount Olympus where Thessalonica stood, they came to know the
real God, not a false God. In a center of economic wealth, they came to know
true riches.

Amidst a large population of Jews, maybe up to one third in this city, they
learned who the true Messiah was. The Thessalonian letters of the apostle Paul
were written to a young church with all of these opportunities that was also
situated in an extremely dangerous world. It was a time of great change and
great questions about the future.

By the way, does that sound familiar to our lives today? I can't think of a
letter that better fits our times. They had so many questions and fears about
the future and so do we.

They were also struggling to find a moral compass in a world where there was
none. They were trying to figure out what leaders they could really trust. Does
this ring a bell in any way to our world today?

Many new believers were there that were needing the foundation of faith, just
like we do. So as Paul writes to them, he gets down to basics. He starts with
the basics.

When you watch the pros, a pro at anything, you realize that you can build on
the basics. They've got skills that they've built on the basics, but you can
never forget the basics. You always start there, and that's where he starts with
this church.

So it was written to a city, but it was also a letter that was written to a
church. Paul again gives this double address for the church, one geographical,
the other spiritual. They lived in Thessalonica, but they are also found in God
the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we've talked about this in Christ and in Thessalonica or in whatever city
we're in as we've walked through these books. As we look at this today, I'd like
to talk about what does the word in mean? What does that little word mean?

Jesus told us that as the branch is in the vine, so we are to be in Christ. Paul
told us that as the members are in the body, so we are in the body of Christ. So
what does the in mean?

It means where you live. Where do you live? Do you live in Christ or do you live
in anxiety?

Do you live in Christ or do you live in a place? Do you live in Christ or do you
live in your plans? Where do you live?

You could say in Mission Viejo or Lake Forest or RSM, but as a believer, we
should also always say in our minds, in Christ. That's where I live. One of the
keys to change is this address change in your mind.

I live in Christ. So this book, it has something to say about where we live and
who we are and who we're in. This is a letter that was written to a city, but it
was also written to a church.

It's practical at the beginning. It's personal at the beginning. And then
there's a third thing you see in the first few verses, and that is it's
powerful.

Even in the first few verses, we get the sense that this book has something
powerful to say to me. God has something powerful to say to you through the Book
of First Thessalonians. If you don't think that, you may as well not read the
book.

He wants to use this book to change your life. When you pick up the Bible to
read, how do you start reading it? Like a history book or like a great novel or
like a moral guide or like a letter from God to you about your life?

When you start to read this incredible letter in that way, you find out that
it's a book about how you can live in the right climate for your faith to grow.
God says there's a right climate that you need to be in for your faith to grow.
And this book to the Thessalonians tells us what that climate is.

It starts in the first few verses that we just read. Grace and peace, he says to
you, and I thank God for you. Grace and peace were reminders of the usual Greek
and Jewish greeting.

He puts them both together here and he says both of them to you. But grace and
peace are also the climate of growth. Grace, peace, and thanksgiving add up to
growth, lasting growth.

Some try to grow in a climate of guilt. Grace is the key, not guilt. Some try to
grow in a climate of fear.

Peace is needed, not fear. Some try to grow in a climate of pride. I can be a
better Christian than you are.

Thanksgiving to God for whatever he's done. Humility is what is needed. So this
idea of the climate for growth, it continues throughout the book of First
Thessalonians.

In chapter one, two to 10, Paul talks about the affirmation of God's choice of
you. A climate for growth is recognizing God chose you to do this. In chapter,
beginning in chapter two, all the way through chapter three, about halfway
through, he talks about love, their ministry to them, and Paul's prayers for
them.

And love is always a part of the climate of growth, the love that we have for
each other in the body of Christ. In chapter four, one to 11, he talks about how
to live, the kind of character that God wants us to live with. And living with a
godly character, allowing him to work that in your life through his spirit, is
part of the climate of growth.

In chapter four, verse 13 to five, 11, he talks about the hope of the second
coming. Hope is definitely part of the climate of growth. You cannot grow
without having hope.

And then as he ends the book, he just gives this long list of how to live the
Christian life. Being obedient to God's simple commands for how to live everyday
life, that's part of the climate of growth. And I call it his sweet 16 at the
end.

He just says, here's the 16 things you need to do. You need to respect your
leaders, and live in peace, and warn the idle, and encourage the timid. You need
to help the weak, and you need to be patient with everyone.

You need to make sure no one pays back evil for evil. Be kind to each other and
everyone else. You need to be joyful always.

You need to pray continually. You need to give thanks in all circumstances.
Don't put out the spirit's fire, he says.

Don't treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything, hold onto the truth,
avoid evil. If you live that way, if you make an attempt to the power of God's
spirit to begin to live out that kind of life, you're going to live in the climate
of growth.

Climate means everything. The climate that you put a plant in means it's going to
grow or it's going to die. And there is a climate that 1 Thessalonians talks about
that's like putting you in the rich soil of God's grace, God's peace, and the
rich soil of obedience to God, and the hope and love that only he can give.

They're going to cause you to grow in ways that only he can cause you to grow.
Let's pray for that together. And you might just say in a simple prayer to
Jesus, Jesus, I want to grow.

I want to become more like you every day in the way that I think, the things that
I do, even the things that I say. So give me wisdom to see the climate of growth
that you want me to be in, the people I need to be around, the places I need to
be, the things I need to be doing, the ways I need to be thinking. Give me
wisdom to see all of those things so that I can understand how you want to grow
me.

If I'm frustrated with my growth, help me to realize maybe the climate needs to
change. And give me wisdom for how to do that, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, tomorrow we're going to continue the theme of hope as we take a look at the
book of 2 Thessalonians.