We hear a lot these days about the need for positive “role models” to imitate. What congregation would think of setting itself up as a “model” congregation?
And yet, what congregation does not want to strive for that?
Paul wrote two letters to a congregation in Thessalonica (located in modern-day Macedonia). He founded this congregation on his second missionary journey (Acts 17:1-9).
Paul later learned from his young co-worker, Timothy, that the Thessalonian Christians were holding on to their faith despite fierce opposition and suffering inflicted on them by the Jews in that city.
The Thessalonians were not a perfect congregation. What congregation is? But they were a good pattern of what a Christian congregation ought to be.
Paul wrote to these early believers: “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, when you welcomed the word during a time of great affliction with the joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia” (EHV).
This morning we begin a sermon series on 1 & 2 Thessalonians.
Our outline of 1 Thessalonians will be as follows:
GOD’S WORD PRODUCES…
A Model Congregation 1 Thessalonians 1
A Model Ministry 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12
Model Faithfulness 1 Thessalonians 2:13 – 3:13
Model Lives 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
Model Hope 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Model Vigilance 1 Thessalonians 5
