The church Paul initially wrote this letter to was not perfect, but it was healthy. Paul wanted to ensure it continued to be so. He was able to recognise this young church had been taught by God to love one another & acknowledged they were already building one another up. The challenge for us is this: Will we by our decisions & attitudes decide to be a healthy church or not. This message helps each of us in making the right choice.

Christians are neither to be cynical or gullible when it comes to spiritual fire.  We're are not to stand with a damp towel ready to throw it on the first bit of spiritual enthusiasm we see. Nor are we to gullibly go along with all that happens in the name of the Holy Spirit. Instead we are to postively discern & tend what he ignites for the common good. And if we are to ere on any side of caution it is that we "Do not quench the Spirit."

How the world will end seems to fascinate people & there always seems to be speculation & interest around it. In these verses the apostle Paul is writing to assure believers about why they are ready for the return of Christ! To do so he brings us back to the very heart of the gospel. The gospel is the antidote to the greatest fears of men & women! Truly believing it delivers us from fear of death, fear of the end of the world & fear of judgement. It is believing the gospel that places us on the right side of history!

These verses are about the return of Jesus. All that is described in these verses is describing things which will happen at "the coming of the Lord". There are two sides to this day. It is a wonderful day for those in Christ - a day of reunion with loved ones in the Lord & with the Lord himself - but as 5:3 indicates it is a day of sudden destruction for those outside of him. However ​ Paul’s focus here is to comfort & encourage Christians with a powerful & glorious vision of what will be the The Best Christian Meeting Ever when we meet the Lord in the air.

​Grief is something we all face. None of us escape the emotion & pain it brings. We rightly miss loved ones & struggle to adjust to them not being around. Life is not the same without them. However these verses give us the reason for Christian hope & point out why Christians grieve differently. We grieve with hope in our hearts. We know death does not have the last say - as Christ was raised those in him will also be raised when he comes again.

Receiving the gospel has a profound effect on every aspect of our lives! It profoundly affects our relationship with other believers. In these verses two Greek words are powerfully combined to describe the deep love believers are to have for each other. Then we are  instructed regarding our personal everyday focus & our walk before outsiders. In short we are called to live as Christian community & we are to live as Christians in the community.

This message is all about God's will & sexual purity. After introducing the idea of God's will Paul goes on to talk about one important aspect of holiness – sexual purity. The believers who first received these instruction were very new Christian's living in a culture more sexually perverse than our own. They had a lot to take in. Yet by the authority of Jesus Paul sets the bar very high from the start & our Lord's standard is no lower for Christians today. 

This message looks at what it means to be "in the Lord Jesus" & how this causes us to "abound more and more" in holiness & love. Apart from our Lord Jesus we can do nothing but in union with him the abundant life of more & more is possible. This both humbles us & fills us with confidence to live lives of increasing holiness & love.  

Paul couldn’t be with the young believers in Thessalonica but he could pray for them & write to them. In his prayer at the end of chapter 3 & the following instruction are two main ideas: Living lives abounding in love & blameless in holiness. This was Paul's prayer for these young believers & this is God's will for every Christian. 

It’s important for Christians to understand that welcoming the gospel means putting ourselves in the devil's firing line. This is what happened to Paul personally & the young church he is writing to & this is what every faithful Christian should expect. In this message we're given seven encouragements which help us deal with opposition to the gospel.

These verses give a beautiful portrait of Christian ministry. Three metaphors to are used to describe the character & ministry of Paul, Timothy & Silas: 1. Childlike humility. 2. Mother-like warmth. 3. Father-like  example & instruction. This is what the ministry of the early apostles looked like & therefore it provides beautiful & challenging template for Christian ministry today. May God give such leaders to his church that God’s children might be nourished, warmed, cherished, guided & protected for the glory of Christ.

One of the things we are to expect in the age we live in – between the first & second coming of Christ – is false teachers. We are warned throughout the NT about this – antichrists, false teachers & great deception. In the NT we are given ways of judging the true from the false. These verses are one example of this. In the first chapter Paul gives us a way of evaluating if we ourselves are the real deal & here he gives us a way of evaluating if the preacher is the real deal. In this first part of chapter 2 he shows us what Christian ministry doesn't look like.

The final phrase of chapter one of this letter reads; “Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come...” What does Paul mean by “wrath to come”? That is the all important question. What does Jesus deliver us from exactly? What is in the mind of Paul when he writes this phrase? In seeking to answer this question we find ourselves back at the very core of the gospel. 

The same powerful gospel the believers in Thessolonica welcomed into their lives also resounded from their lives. That is the powerful picture chapter one of this letter gives us. In light of this we are encouraged to depend on the solid fuel of the gospel more than anything while blowing the gospel trumpet louder than anything -- by declaring it & living lives shaped by it. For ultimately the gospel is the only thing that will not disapoint because it opens our eyes to the emptiness of everything else compared to Christ!