I thought we could go through the first letter from Paul to the church in Thessalonica. This letter was the first of a series of letters Paul sent to help them to lead a better life. Now let me read this letter to you.
1 Thessalonians
Paul Silas and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to you.
Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ Faith.
We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.
You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia, and Achaia.
The Lords message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Christians who were in Thessalonica found life really hard to live Gods way, so Paul wrote this letter to encourage them. There are three things from this letter I would like to go into a bit more so you can understand the whole thing better. The three things are The Holy Spirit, faith and grace.
Firstly The Holy Spirit, he is a part of the Godhead alongside The father God and Jesus Christ. After Jesus had come back to life, he told his disciples he was going back into heaven to live with his father, but he will send somebody to guide them through life. The Holy Spirit comes to live within us once we have found Jesus Christ for ourselves.
The second thing that I would like to talk about is faith. I got my support worker to look up the word ‘faith’ in the dictionary, and it said faith is to have a strong belief. especially without proof. complete confidence or trust. allegiance to a person or course.
In the Bible, Jesus said as long as we have faith as small as a mustard seed, then God will work with us. For example since I was just six I have always known that I would live with Jen at some point in my life, but I had no clue how or when it would take place. And I know Jen and I would need around the clock support, so I knew it would be difficult, but not impossible, as there is nothing: impossible for God. I knew it would happen if and when God wanted it to happen. We waited for 23 years but I had faith it would happen.
Sometimes I lost my faith. I thought I would never live with Jen, it took a long time but then God changed everything. What about grace?
Well grace is a gift from God which we do not deserve. The main example of God’s grace is when God sent his only son to earth to die on a wooden cross, and rise again. This was so that God would get back a relationship with his children, because the relationship was broken when Adam and Eve did what the devil told them to do, and took an apple from the tree of life which God had commanded them not to take from. That was the only tree that was out of bounds to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
So I hope you understand a bit more about those three things. I hope we use the Holy Spirit to guide us through life as that is what he is there for.
We can pray to the holy spirit as well as the father God and Jesus.