Good Friday morning to you my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
Can you remember back a few years, before electronic mail, to the days when you checked your mailbox each day to see what postal mail you received? Can you remember the excitement when you saw an envelope with the return name & address of a dear friend who lived far away and from whom you had not received any news in quite some time? Can you remember how excitedly you opened that envelope and set everything aside to read what your friend had written to you?
By the same token, can you remember times when you sat with paper and pen, to write a long overdue letter to a friend far away? Perhaps you had heard some news about that friend which caused you to now write to them. That is exactly the situation I invite us to participate in today.
The apostle Paul was settling down in the great city of Corinth in response to a vision from God which Paul had received and which we looked at yesterday. Timothy and Silas had come from Macedonia and joined Paul in Corinth. They’d brought updated news, of course, from the Christians in Thessalonica and Berea. Paul spent 18 months in Corinth and during that time he wrote two letters to encourage the Christians in Thessalonica.
So, pull up a chair my friends, and let’s watch Paul as he probably dictates this letter while most likely Timothy does the actual scribing of Paul’s words onto the parchments.
The time is very likely late in the year 50ad, and Paul had both a deep affection for and some wonderful memories of the people of that great city of Thessalonica, even though he’d only spent three weeks there, as Luke recorded for us in Acts 17:1-10.
Timothy rolls out the parchment, dips his stylus in the ink and watches Paul as Paul leans out the open window looking out onto the busy streets of Corinth. Paul speaks: “Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and Peace to you! We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers….” (1 Thess. 1:1,2)
I’m sure Paul had a smile on his face as he dictated these opening words. He wanted his friends in Thessalonica to know Timothy and Silas had arrived safely in Corinth and all three of them were sending their greetings to the people they’d grown quickly to love in Thessalonica. Travel in those days was always uncertain, so it was welcome news to hear your friends had arrived safely at their destination.
Paul loved to use the word, ‘church‘. It’s a strange word, isn’t it? Jesus is the one who initiated the word when He said to Peter and other disciples “…on this rock I will build My CHURCH and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18) The “rock” Jesus spoke of is the TRUTH of the identity of Jesus, God the Son, and the TRUTH of His Gospel, the reason He came to earth, to become the atoning sacrifice for our sins and earn salvation for us from our sin condemnation.
The word Jesus used which is translated into English as “Church” was the Greek language word “Ekklesia”. It’s a wonderful and very intentional, even strategic word. “Ekklesia” means a group of people who are called out from or delivered FROM something that holds them in bondage and delivered TO both Freedom and Purpose together.
So, the Hebrews slaves, as they ran through the water tunnel of the Red Sea where an “ekklesia” which God had rescued from Egyptian bondage and God was bringing them TO Mount Sinai where they would be a free people, meeting with God, and would become HIS people whom He would eventually lead to occupy the Promised Land.
Now my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends, can you see the application to you and me in 2023 no matter where you live in the world? If you have trusted Jesus Christ to be your Savior, then by His power, God has broken the dark kingdom bondage hold on your life, set you free from your sin condemnation, and God the Holy Spirit is living within you, leading you each day to ‘walk with Jesus’ as you live your purpose as an ambassador of Jesus Christ in your part of the world! Now pause and celebrate that for a moment!
And if you have NOT yet trusted Jesus Christ to save you from your sin, you are still in your sin bondage, your sin condemnation and your eternal destiny will be spent far from God! Can you see the dreadful contrast between those two ways of living? And Jesus is the only One who can rescue you and me from our sin bondage, set us free, and give us purpose in this life and an eternity with Him!
That is the Gospel Paul had proclaimed for three weeks in Thessalonica and Paul wanted to begin his letter by celebrating that those who had responded to Paul’s declaring the Gospel were now part of God’s “CHURCH”, the “Ekklesia” of Jesus in Thessalonica, Macedonia!
Do you also see Paul wanted to assure these new Christians in Thessalonica that they were safe and secure IN the hands and under the protection of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who had delivered them from their sin bondage! Safe from the schemes of the devil to confuse or harm them and secure that their salvation in Jesus Christ would never be undone!
When Jesus had said, “the gates of Hades will not prevail against it” Jesus meant two very important truths that Paul was now reaffirming to those in the “Ekklesia” of Thessalonica.
First, that the dark kingdom is NOT powerful enough to hold in bondage those people who want to repent of their sin, trust in Jesus, and be delivered from their sin, and brought into God’s “Ekklesia” of freedom in Jesus Christ!
Second, Paul meant that the dark kingdom of Satan is also NOT powerful enough to undo our Jesus accomplished deliverance and re-enslave a Christian who has been set free by Jesus!
Christians are safe and secure IN Jesus Christ, we are ‘new creations in Christ’ (2 Corinthians 5:17) free from any sin condemnation (Romans 8:1)! However, it is possible, and sadly happens all too often, that a person, set free by Jesus Christ, CHOOSES to return to live in sin and actually re-enslave themselves to sin! That is why Paul wrote to the Galatian “ekklesia” these powerful words: “It is for freedom that Jesus Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of sin slavery.” (Gal. 5:1)
I think we need to pause right here my friends and take a close, honest look at ourselves…
Have you and I experienced the deliverance from our sin condemnation and sin bondage which only Jesus can accomplish?
Are you and I living FREE and joy filled as we ‘walk with Jesus’ each day, living His purpose for us?
Is there any evidence you or I have begun to re-enslave ourselves to the sin from which Jesus delivered us?
As we ponder those questions, here’s a great song to help us see it clearly, my friends…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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