PAUL THE APOSTLE ( PART 29 ) | THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY | LESSON FROM THESSALONICA ( PART 2)

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3129

PAUL THE APOSTLE ( PART 29 )


THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY
LESSON FROM THESSALONICA ( PART 2)

Paul only spent 3 short weeks in Thessalonica before he and his team were hounded out by threatening Jews to nearby Berea undercover by night ( Acts 17:1-9 ).

Yet Paul's kept in constant touch with the church he founded there to encourage them to grow and mature in faith despite persecution. His subsequent two letters to the Thessalonian believers show how committed he was to their spiritual and physical well-being.

As a result, the church at Thessalonica became one of the healthier churches we find in the New Testament.

We can trace and do a survey of what Paul did in the very short time (3 weeks) that he was there and - more importantly -what he did subsequently to fan into flame the church established there.

1. Paul went to Thessalonica with Silas and Timothy (Acts 17:1-9) leaving Luke behind at Philippi.

2. He preached mainly on the resurrection of Jesus for three weeks and saw positive responses to the gospel among the men and women from three groupings: Jews, God-fearing Greeks and pagans (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

3. They then encountered persecution from the Jews and departed to Berea. They left Jason and other local believers behind to tend the church.

4. Paul travelled further south from Thessalonica, but he stationed Silas and Timothy nearby in Berea to keep a watchful eye on the believers in Thessalonica. 

5.  Paul wanted to re-visit them but when he tried, Satan stopped him (1 Thes 2:18). So he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica in his place.  ( 1Thessalonians 3:1).

6. Timothy reported back regarding the spiritual health of the church.

7. Paul then wrote 1 Thessalonians shortly after his arrival in Corinth from Athens.

8. Night and day he prayed earnest prayers in the hope of revisiting the Thessalonian believers.

9. He wrote  2nd  Thessalonians at the end of his one year's stay at Corinth.

10. Paul discipled Aristarchus from Thessalonica in Ephesus and took him on his ministry travels. (Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24).

11. A few years after writing his two letters, he re-visited Thessalonica probably at least twice (Acts 20:1-6, Philippians 4:16) on his way to Greece (Acts 20:1) and again on to Jerusalem (Acts 20:3).

12. He arranged for Thessalonian leaders Aristarchus and Secundus to meet him for a leadership training session in Troas. (Acts 20:6).

13. Aristarchus from Thessalonica was handpicked to accompany Paul to Rome (Acts 27:2) and became his fellow worker and prisoner.

Abba Father, what Paul did as a non-resident of Thessalonica is more important than his three weeks' stay there. Though expelled from the city, the seed of the gospel he sowed had a sustaining power of its own so that the church he planted there would grow and flourish despite persecution from the unbelieving Jews and Romans. But it was Paul's nurturing that helped the church to bear fruit. Indeed his ministerial partnership in God's gospel is highly commendable and truly exemplary.

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