Paul closes his first letter to the Thessalonian Christians with some encouragement. He prays for their sanctification and preservation, invites them to share in his ministry through prayer, and encourages them to show loving fellowship with each other.

We’ll look back on Paul’s major themes in this letter and then ask what there is in the Thessalonian experience that we should desire in ours today.

You cannot separate the Christian life from life in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit regenerates, indwells, gifts, baptizes, and empowers the Christian. In his closing counsel to the young Thessalonian believers he cautions them about not doing anything that would limit what the Holy Spirit wanted to do in their lives. They must not quench or stifle the Holy Spirit in their life, the lives of other believers, or the church as a whole. They must also be open to the encouragement and exhortation of other believers who may be using their Spirit-given gift of prophecy. Yet they must be cautious, too. They are responsible to examine what others say and retain only what is good. Paul wants these believers to be alive in the Spirit but also alert in the Spirit.

To continue to be model believers, there are three habits each of us needs to develop. Paul lists these in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. We’ll learn what they are and why they are positively helpful habits that are well worth developing.

A model church needs to model good church relationships. In this message we’ll begin to learn how Paul would like the young Thessalonian Christians to relate to each other. He’ll give a general rule for getting along in God’s family, and then single out three sorts of people in the church who need special care, explaining how other members are to relate to and help them. In this passage we’ll get some help to become a model church through modeling good member relationships.

A model church must have a model relationship between its pastors/leaders and the congregation. Paul addresses this concern as he begins to close out his first letter to the Thessalonian Christians. He gives three key responsibilities for pastors/leaders and two main ways the congregation should respond to their leaders. Churches cannot be model churches without modeling the right relationship between members and leaders.

How is a Christian to live while waiting for Jesus to return? That’s the question Paul seeks to answer in this week’s passage in 1 Thessalonians 5. To do this he contrasts how believers will experience Jesus’ return compared to how unbelievers will. Because of the change that has occurred to believers when they are saved, how they live until Jesus returns contrasts with how unbelievers will live during that same time. We’ll see the main characteristics of “life in the meantime” for believers in this passage.

Christians have a glorious future. Jesus is going to return and they are going to meet him and live with him forever. Even death cannot interfere with the believer’s joyous participation in Jesus’ triumphant return. Those who’ve died are with him and will come back with him when he returns. Paul shared these truths to encourage those in Thessalonica who wondered if those who died before Jesus came back would somehow miss out on his return. These truths encourage believers today to live with unshakable hope in the future. They will always be with Jesus.

The young Christians at Thessalonica were doing an amazing job at loving each other and loving believers throughout their region. Paul writes to encourage more of the same among them, and to direct them to practice three things that will help them keep a good witness with unbelievers in this week’s passage in 1 Thessalonians 4. While believers cannot compromise so as to be fully acceptable to those who don’t believe, there are some things they can do that are acceptable to God and to unbelievers, and they can be sure they are practicing those things.

Sex is a beautiful thing created by God to bring fulfilment within the bounds of marriage. In this message we’ll hear Paul exhort the young Thessalonian Christians to model sexual purity in their lives, so sex is a blessing rather than a stumbling block. We need this same instruction today. Sexual temptation, and non-Christian sexual morals surround us. We’ll examine exactly what Paul commanded these believers and we’ll look at the larger picture of what the Bible sys about human sexuality and moral purity before we are done.

The heart of a Christian worker – pastor, missionary, small group leader, Sunday School teacher, and many more – is wrapped up in the spiritual growth and well-being of those he/she serves. Paul reveals this to be true in his experience with the Thessalonian Christians among whom he’d been able to spend way too little time. He reveals his anxious concern for these young believers and the relief he felt when Timothy traveled to and returned from Thessalonica and reported the Thessalonians were standing firm in the faith.

There are lessons in Paul’s experience about how we impact those who labor in the Lord for our benefit. We end with the question of whether we are encouraging or discouraging their efforts.