To Start
The end of lockdown would be a welcome piece of news right now that would change everything!
Can you think of a piece of news you once received that meant significant change for you?
Read
1 Thessalonians 1
Greeting
1 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
2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 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. 6 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. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s 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, 9 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, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What has stuck with you from the passage or the sermon on Sunday?
Discuss
Look through the passage and identify the various ways Paul describes the change the Gospel brought about in the Thessalonians.
What do all those things actually look like in the Christian life?
Sermon Extra
Is there still an idol you need to turn your back on?
Share Life
“The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith in God has become known everywhere” — 1 Thessalonians 1:8
Has our faith in God become known everywhere? Is the Lord’s message ringing out from Christ Church?
Go
Pray throughout this week that the Lord’s message would ring out from Christ Church and that our faith would become known everywhere.
To Close
The gospel is news that transforms the heart and reorients the mind.
We cannot allow this news to simply be news that washes over us like water off a duck’s back. It ought to transform us and ring out from us.
Unbelievers and believers alike ought to be challenged by this news following our reception of it.
Why not pray for the transforming power of the Gospel to be alive in our lives and in the lives of those around us who are still serving idols?
Pray
For your own turning, serving and waiting.
That you might be a model of faith to others.
For the glorious coming of Jesus who will rescue us from the coming wrath.