I'd like for you to turn to two passages of Scripture. 1 Thessalonians 1, which is a new series that we're going to be beginning today on 1 and 2 Thessalonians. You'll see the reason for that here in just a few minutes. But I also want you to turn to Acts 17 as we give you some background on the church at Thessalonica. 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse number 1 We'll begin there, then Acts 17, and we'll be taking a look here in just a moment at verses 1-14. We see in verse number 1 of 1 Thessalonians, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus and to the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thessalonica was a Roman colony and it was very important in the life of the Roman Empire. It was a major port city and it was on the route from Athens down to Egypt. It was located 100 miles west of Philippi and about 50 miles north of Athens, Greece. It was the chief city of Macedonia. Cicero is recorded saying Thessalonica is in the bosom of the empire. Now, this letter is believed to be the very first letter, the very first epistle that Paul wrote of his inspired writings. It and the subsequent letter to this church were written from Corinth on Paul's second missionary journey. And the Apostle Paul along with Silas, which is Silvanus. Silas and Silvanus are one and the same person. And the young preacher Timothy called Timotheus here. They are one and the same as well. But those three had helped found and establish this church in Thessalonica. And I want us to read the circumstances of the founding of this church as recorded in Acts 17. I think you'll come to understand the reason for singing about the storms, because they were really going through some storms there in the founding of the church in Thessalonica. Acts 17 verse 1. And it says, now when they, and so they is talking about Paul and Silas. When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica. Notice it says where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Now we know, if you read the book of Acts and you see Paul's missionary journeys, you will understand that was his custom. When he would go to a new town, he would go first to the Jews. He preached as much of that to the Roman church in Romans 1.16, the gospel of Christ and the power of God and salvation, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Well, that's what he practiced. He'd go to the Jews first. and preach, and here we see, it says in verse number 2, And Paul, as his manner was, and that was his habit. He had a thing that he did when he would get in town when this was his manner. He went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ's most needs have suffered and risen again from the dead. And that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ." When he says He's Christ, he's talking about He's Messiah. He's the promised one. He's the anointed one that was promised in the Old Testament. It says in verse number 4, And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason." The reason why they assaulted the house of Jason, that's where Paul was staying at the time. And they sought to bring them out to the people. Verse number 6. And when they found them not, They drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the cities, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." Now, Paul did turn the world upside down when he was preaching these messages along on his missionary journey. This was something that They weren't used to hearing. They were used to cold, dead religion. He was preaching the gospel of Christ as the power of God and the salvation. And people were getting saved. And people's lives were being changed. And the idea behind this is that the world was getting turned upside down, but the world for those people was getting righted. This world is upside down. And when folks get saved and come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, yes, things change. They turn around. But they are turned the right side up. Amen? Not turned upside down. Look at verse 7. Whom Jason hath received. That tells us that Paul and Silas and Timothy were there with him. And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar. Now that was a lie. They weren't doing the contrary to the decrees of Caesar necessarily. But they did say there was another king, one Jesus, but his was a spiritual kingdom. Not an earthly kingdom at this time. Now we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have an earthly kingdom. A literal reign. And during the millennial reign, a literal 1,000 year reign. He will reign here on the earth. But right now, His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. And we see that He was called King Jesus. And we know that was one of the things that was on the cross. Him being the King of the Jews. Look at verse number 8. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go. And what it is, it's like you need to get rid of these guys. You need to get rid of them out of your house fast. I mean, that's basically what they're doing. And they took security that they were going to be doing that. I don't know if it doesn't tell us what kind of security they had to give, but anyway, they had to be on this. And verse number 10 says, And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea. who coming thither went unto the synagogue of the Jews." There he is again, right? First time in town in Berea. And he goes to the synagogue of the Jews. Notice verse 11. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so. You know, that's another one of the reasons why I give you handouts. It's a hope that you'll go and you'll study further what I have given you and make sure those things are right. Amen? You don't need to just take what I say. You need to study for yourself. And I try to give you what I have given out so that you are able to do that very thing. And we see here that these folks in Berea were of that persuasion to search the Scriptures to make sure that the preaching of Paul was right. Verse number 12, Therefore many of them believed, also of honorable women, which were of Greeks, and of men, not a few, but when the Jews, notice this, when the Jews of Thessalonica, the ones that ran him out of town, when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the Word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, understand Berea was only about 25 miles at the most, away from where Thessalonica was at. It was traveling west of there. And he says that the Word of God was preached to Paul at Berea that they came thither also and stirred up the people. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea. But Silas and Timotheus abode there still. They that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, receiving a commandment unto Silas and to Motheus to come to him with all speed, and they departed. So we see the beginning of the church at Thessalonica. It was full of trouble. These folks, though, we will come to understand as we study and look through and preach through this book in 1 Thessalonians, come to understand that these were some great believers. They truly believed. They were going through some tough times. yet they still believed. We really don't know how long Paul and Silas were at Thessalonica before being run out of town. Some suggested less than a month based on verse 2 that we just read there. But we don't know for sure. It is believed that Paul had had been gone from there for about one year when he wrote this first letter to them. And as we move through this letter, we will notice that this church was very familiar with Christian doctrine. And the doctrines that we know and we love and that we hold to, they had been taught well. Ever how long that Paul and Silas and Timotheus were able to be there to ground them in Scripture, they must have been hungry for the Word, because they got grounded pretty quick. As we move through this letter, we'll note the things that they were familiar with, even though they had been saved just a relatively short time. One thing that stands out is that Paul mentions the second coming. That's one reason for doing these two books. He mentions the second coming in each chapter of this first book. We'll see it when we get to it. But we're looking for the Lord to come back. At least I hope you're looking. I'm looking. Amen. We ought to be looking for the Lord to come back. Paul was looking in his day. And I think that we can know, looking around us, understand that we're getting close to the time. We're closer than we were. So why was this letter written? I've given you there five reasons why Paul wrote this letter. Paul wrote that his first purpose in writing this letter was to express his thankfulness for this church and the work of the gospel that was evident in their lives. We're going to see that next week when we get into verses 2 and 3. First right off, he thanks them for being faithful to the Lord and the work that he could tell by the way they were living, by what they were doing, that they knew the Lord. That's always an encouragement to a man of God. Second purpose was to defend himself against the Jewish opponents of the gospel who had defamed Paul and slandered Paul in their attempts to quash Christianity in the city. They didn't want Christianity. It just amazes me how folks are okay with any kind of religion that you want to put in there, but when it comes to Christianity, somehow they want to stand opposed to Christianity, and that's the way it was there in Thessalonica. for Paul writing this was to encourage these new converts to stand fast. They were standing fast, but he wanted to give them more encouragement to stand fast in the face of the persecutions, the storms, the spiritual storms that they were facing, the pressures they were under, to get them to forsake Christianity and to forget about this one called Christ. Paul's fourth purpose was to address a doctrinal question concerning the fate of believers who had died before Christ's return. Now we know, though you should know, if you've studied the Bible at any length, that the coming of Christ, His return, His coming again the next time for His church, is an important doctrine and is one that we know, nobody knows the time of. We just don't. It is imminent. That's the word that we use to describe it. It could happen at any time. And we see that Paul's fifth purpose was to address some other matters surrounding their church life that needed to be dealt with. And it didn't take a lot of space for Paul to say the things that he wanted to say. When we get to the final chapter, he dealt with a lot of things in a short period of time. I think he knew that they had been grounded enough in Scripture that he did not have a problem spending so little time on some of those things. Now, as we begin the book, let's consider the salutation here of the letter. First of all, we see the senders, who the letter is from. Paul, Silvanus, which I said is the same as Silas, and Timotheus, or Timothy. These three men had worked together in founding this church as they were busy in the missionary work of fulfilling the Great Commission. Understand that this church was founded on Paul's second missionary journey. The second missionary journey. Now according to what we read in Acts 17 verse number 4, they had been able to reach some Jews with the gospel, a multitude of the devout Greeks, and quite a few of the chief women. However, there were a greater number of the Jews in the area which did not believe the gospel. And these had caused quite a stir and quite an uproar, accusing them of treason and had run them out of town. After that, those Jews attempted to undo what Paul, Silas, and Timothy had done by bringing persecution against the church. Pressure. A lot of times, folks, when pressure comes, they'll say, well, I don't want the pressure, so I'm going to change. I'm going to do something different. But they weren't that way. They were clinging to Christ. So here we see these three men are still together and concerned about this church. We see the recipients of the church of the Thessalonians there. It's mentioned there in verse number 1 as well. These men of God did not single out certain members to address. They didn't single out the pastor of the church to address. They addressed the church, the corporate body. Their concern was for this church as a whole and for each member in particular. This parallels with what we're talking about tonight. You know, in our message, I didn't plan it that way. It just happens sometimes. The Lord does that. He coordinates those things. We're talking about, and we began really talking about it last week, the church being a local body of members. We're members individually, but we also are to be Christ's church as a body coming together. And as we are as members, So we're going to be as a church. That make sense to you? The majority of how folks are in a church is going to tell how we are as a local church. So this church was a unit, a local body of believers that included those that they had reached at the beginning, talking about Paul and Silas and Timotheus. They had reached the new members there that maybe Some more after that initial folks that got saved during those three weekend sessions, the Sabbath day, that they were in the synagogue. They had some others that got saved after them, after they left. And maybe they didn't know Paul and Silas and Timotheus as well, but this church was an autonomous body. It was a local church in Thessalonica. Paul's not exerting any control over this other than what is given to him as an apostle. And he is trying to help establish them and the doctrines that they need to. We see the position of this church. Now we know their position locally was in Thessalonica. That's in the Macedonia area there of the world. And their position spiritually was in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ there in the latter part of verse number 1. That's how he mentions. And some might well ask, well, why not in the Holy Spirit too? Because positionally speaking, the Holy Spirit was in them. The Holy Spirit was in them from the time they got saved. The Spirit takes up residence inside of them. This church was grounded and existed in the sphere and power of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now understand that every true church is built on the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is not the foundation, it's not a true church. It's got to be the gospel of Christ is the foundation upon which it is built upon and the Lord Jesus Christ in His person. It exists. Every true church is built on that foundation and exists in the power of God the Father and dwelt by His Holy Spirit. The church exists in the power of God that it might have the power to do the work for which it was established. Why were we established as a church? Why was any church ever established as a church? To fulfill the Great Commission. We are to be about seeing folks come to know the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see their position circumstantially was in persecution. But because of their position spiritually, understand that the gates of hell would not ultimately prevail against this church. Now, what does that phrase even mean? We can get confused sometimes using things that we maybe don't fully understand. When I talk about the gates of hell not prevailing against the church, the true church of God is safe and they're secure in Christ. Nothing is going to change that. The gates of hell cannot prevail against our salvation in Christ Jesus. We've used some verses recently. Romans chapter 8. About the last 4 or 5 verses there. The things that cannot take away the love of Christ from us. Amen. And Paul lists those things and ends up with nothing else either. Nothing can separate us from the love that we find in Christ. Now, this church was in a state of persecution, but that nor anything else could change its position in Christ. They were in Christ. It's like what we're seeing on Sunday evenings. Some of the churches were in pretty bad shape. They just were. Can I tell you there's a lot of churches that are in pretty bad shape even in our day and time? There really are. But nevertheless, if we have Christ, if Christ is our Savior, it doesn't change our position in Him at all. Now let's consider Paul's title for Jesus. He calls Him the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that. He says, and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the title Lord refers to Christ's Lordship. In other words, His control over believers, number one. Christ is in control. In fact, Jesus said when He walked the earth, remember there was a group that was following Him And he rebuked him a little bit. And in Luke 6, verse 46 he said, Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? If you call him Lord, and I hope that you do, you ought to treat him like he is Lord. Because he is. He has the right to control your life. He has the right to control my life. He has the right to call the shots. But we have to look to Him to call the shots. Does that make sense to you? We should treat Him as Lord. Paul had acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord on the Damascus road at the very time of his salvation. If you remember in Acts 9, verse 6, it says he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will Thou have me to do? We know Christ remained Paul's Lord for the rest of his life. That was just the beginning there as he turned from a persecutor to being the persecuted. As he changed and became what Christ would have him to be. And listen, every individual believer is called to submit to the Lordship of Christ. If you believe in Christ, you ought to recognize Him as Lord in your life. And you don't do that for salvation, but because of salvation. Does that make sense? It should. Listen, the Lord wants to be a Lord over your mind. Things that you think about. What are you thinking about this morning? He knows. You can fool the preacher. You can fool people that are around a lot of times, but you can't fool the Lord. The Lord knows what's on our mind. He wants to have the board over our bodies. He said as much. Paul mentioned this in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 and 20. He said our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which you have with God and you are not your own for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit with your gods. He's supposed to be Lord over our bodies. Lord over our time. Our time. How we use our time ought to be governed by the Lord. Lord over our finances. I'm not just talking about the giving of our tithes and offerings. I'm talking about how we spend all of what we have. He gave you what you have. You say, well, I'll work for what I have. Well, He gave you the job. He allowed you to have the ability to earn what you earn. Every time you want to look at it, He can take that away from you that quickly. He just could. He ought to be Lord of your finances. Lord, help me to take and spend the money that you've allowed me to earn in a way that is pleasing to You. He wants to be Lord over our ambitions and goals. Amen? When you take a look at your life, what you're going to do with your life, does the Lord have control? Is He the one calling the shots or are you the one calling the shots? I tell you, if you're trying to call the shots of what you're going to do with your life, you're in a sad state of affairs. You just really are. The Lord wants to guide us. He wants to direct us. He wants to live for Him, not live for ourselves and our own foolish ambitions. He wants to be Lord over our personal preferences. Amen? We ought to prefer being with one another. The Bible says as much. We ought to prefer the brethren. Y'all prefer being here in the Lord's house with those that love the Lord? That ought to be a personal preference because we're called to do that by the Lord. In other words, what I'm saying is that Christ wants to be Lord over every aspect of our lives. Every aspect. We should look to Him as Lord. Every church. And every member of every church are called to submit to the Lordship of Christ. Lord also refers to His Lordship over all things. Now, whether folks recognize it or not, Christ is in control. He is in control. We all submit to His control in our lives. But can I tell you, He's in control. This storm that's out there in the Atlantic, the weather guys think they know what that thing's going to do, and they may have a good idea, but God can give that thing direction that they've got nothing to do with. Because He's the One that controls those things. So that's the title, Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. The second is the name, the Jesus name. Jesus refers to His being Savior. We find that in Matthew 1.21 where it says, She shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. The names Joshua, Joshua, Jehoshua, are all forms of this common name Jesus, which means Jehovah is salvation. That's what it means. And His name points to that salvation. We see Christ. The name Christ refers to His being the prophesied Messiah. Gloria mentioned that briefly. He's the anointed one that the prophets preached about. Amen? They pointed to Him. Christ is the fulfillment of the promises of God. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 20 says, For all the promises of God in Him, in Christ, are yea, and in Him, amen, unto the glory of God by us. Listen, this whole book is about Jesus. Y'all look for Jesus, no matter whether you're in Old Testament or New Testament. Y'all look for Jesus. Because it's all about Him. It's about His first coming and His second coming. It's about His gospel. It's all about Him. Now let's consider for just a moment the greetings here that were given. Grace and peace. Common greetings that you will find as you read the books of the Apostle Paul and others. The church is sent a greeting of grace first. Grace, which is akin to the word for joy, is that which causes joy. Grace in a Christian sense means unmerited favor. It's the undeserved favor of God toward the sinner in providing the free gifts of salvation through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what grace is. We don't deserve it. But thank God we have it. Amen? Thank God that He provided it. He provided grace for us. Grace is God's love and mercy in action. God saves men by His grace. God keeps men saved by His grace. God gives His grace to sustain us in the times of trial and temptation that come our way. And I think that this is what He was pointing to when He was greeting them with that grace. He knew that they were going through difficult times. And true grace comes only from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The church has also said a greeting of peace. And the Old Testament peace meant harmony between man and God and the resultant wholeness and prosperity of the soul. Now these folks had made peace with God at the time of their salvation. The only way that you can make peace with God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him. Romans 5 verse 1 says, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way it comes. By grace through faith. Peace with God comes when one stops fighting God. Are you at war with God right now in your life? If so, you need to stop fighting God and embrace Him. Amen. Embrace His Son. Peace with God can only come when one stops fighting God. Peace with God comes when Christ enters one's heart. Peace with God is yours, the believer, of being a child of God, of being an heir of God, of having eternal life, of being sealed by the Holy Spirit. All of these things come with that peace with God. Having made peace with God, this church could now also have the peace of God. And that's what he's wanting them to understand too. And that was their great need at this time. They were going through persecution. And he wanted them to understand that they could have peace even in the midst of the storm. Philippians 4 verse 6 and 7, Paul told the Philippian church, be careful for nothing. But in everything, my prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, Let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." So, the peace of God is the assurance that comes from knowing God is in control of all things. If I didn't know God was in control of all things, man, what a miserable life that would be. It would be full of worry, full of fear. And when I see folks that profess Christ that are full of worry, full of fear, I wonder why. When you know that the Lord is in control of all things. Peace of God comes from that assurance that knowing that He's in control and that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. That is Romans 8.28. That's not on your list there, but you can write it there. Romans 8.28. The peace of God comes with our total commitment to Christ. If you will commit your life to Christ and understand that everything is in His control, your life will go a whole lot better. So this church at Thessalonica was being persecuted, yet they had infinitely more than what the world had to offer. Why don't you think about their previous lives? The nature of Thessalonica was full of idols. It just was. And what they had, the idols that they formerly served could not give them anything of what Christ was able to give them. What they had, no amount of alcohol or drugs could give them what they now had in Christ. What they had, money could not buy. What they had, all the pleasures of sin could not produce. Yes, there's pleasure in sin, but it's only for a season. They had peace with God. They had joy in the Holy Ghost. And they had satisfaction in the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the peace that they had comes from knowing and receiving God's free gift of grace. I wonder, have you done that this morning? when you receive God's salvation, His free gift of grace through faith in the provision of Christ's Gospel. That's the only way that anyone can be saved. There's no salvation in anything else other than Jesus and His Gospel. None. I'm sorry, but Jesus said it Himself. And we're just being biblical here. That same gift of grace and peace that comes with it is available to all who need it and want it. I wonder, do you need grace and peace in your life this morning? Do you have Christ? If not, come to know the Lord Jesus Christ today. And yield yourself to the Lord's control and to what He has for your life. Allow Him to be the center focus of your life. Let's pray. Father, we thank You so much for all we have in Christ. Lord, the things that we've talked about, the things that are just in this very first verse that Paul was just beginning his encouragement of this church, which needed great encouragement at this time. Lord, those things can be an encouragement to us. Lord, I pray if there's one here today that doesn't know Christ as their Savior, that they will come to a saving knowledge of You. And Lord, those of us that are saved, Lord, I pray that we will see the need, knowing that You are in control of our lives, that we will look to You and submit to Your control over our lives so that we will be in harmony with Your will for us. Lord, bless the time of invitation we're about to have. May You have Your will and Your way in each life here today. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.