Summary: This section of Paul's letter is an exhortation towards Christian living. Our aim in life is to live in a way that is pleasing to God. And a clear aspect of our living in ways that please the Lord is abstaining from sexual immorality. Paul draws a clear distinction between the way Christians are to live and the way that the ordinary gentiles of Thessalonica are living. The Christian sexual ethic has always been counter cultural. Paul urges this young church to pursue purity and and considers sexual immorality as a way of wronging our brother's in Christ. Ultimately this is all grounded in our ultimate call as Christians to be people marked by love for one another. 

Study:
Pray for God to open our hearts to his word.
One person reads 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 out loud
Move through the below questions as a group
1. What is the will of God ? Hint: vs 3.
2. Why is a disregarding of sexual morality a disregarding of God?
3. Why the continued exhortation towards love for one another?
4. How can we aspire to quiet livers? Does Paul do that?

I Thessalonians 4:1-12
Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Th 4:1–12.

Summary: Paul so wants to know how the church in Thessalonica is doing that he decides to send his beloved Timothy to encourage the Thessalonians and send back a report. He is concerned because he knows the Thessalonians are facing many afflictions because of their faith, and he does not want them to be so worn out that they fall away. The report he receives back from Timothy is extremely encouraging! They are living in faith and love, and just as Paul had remembered them so they too had remembered Paul.

This passage teaches us to expect suffering, but not to write it off. We need the encouragement of one another in our suffering for the gospel. We are in this together with Christ as our model and savior.

Study:
Pray for God to open our hearts to his word.
One person reads 1 Thessalonians 3 out loud
Move through the below questions as a group

1. What type of suffering should we expect for our faith? How has this changed in our context over time?
2. How can we encourage one another amidst suffering?
3. What is the importance of being physically present and hearing one another's stories? 

1 Thessalonians 3:1-13
(ESV): Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.
Timothy’s Encouraging Report
6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

4.23

Study:
Pray for God to open our hearts to his word.
One person reads 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16 out loud
Move through the below questions as a group

What is Paul communicating to this young church?
What opposition did the church face?
How did Paul approach the opposition to the gospel? What qualities did he demonstrate?
What qualities should we seek to demonstrate to those who oppose the gospel?

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. 11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Th 2:1–16.

Parish in the Word
One of the purposes of our Parish gatherings is to build community. But a community is not just a group of people gathered together. That is a crowd. Nor is a community simply a group of people gathered together around something. That is an audience. A community is a group of people gathered around something which they also share with one another.

It is in this context of gathering around the word and sharing with one another that God forms us into a body, distinct members knit together by his spirit, with Christ as our head. This is the pattern in which we’ll seek to know God as his church. And you know what, it is actually quite simple to do. Gather around his word and seek to hear from him and share what he has for us together.

1 Thessalonians
Over the course of this year in our parishes we’ll move through Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. This is one of Paul’s earliest letters, written around AD 50-51, to a young church he planted. This church is remaining steadfast amidst persecution and has been an encouragement to Christians in the whole region of Macedonia.

Paul writes to this church to give thanks for them, encourage their continued faithfulness, and bring clarity to a few questions they had concerning death and Christ’s second coming.

Our series taught by Jacob Carr on Bible Study has given us some tools to look at scripture and understand what we are reading. Let’s use these together to look at the word of God.

Study:

1. Pray for God to open our hearts to his word.
2. One person reads 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 out loud
3. Move through the below questions as a group

• What is Paul communicating to this young church?
• What did Paul do for this church and what did the church do for others?
• What is in this letter for our church today?

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.

² We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, ³ remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, ⁵ because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. ⁶ And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, _⁷ so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸ For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. ⁹ For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and 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 delivers us from the wrath to come.

In Denver we’re surrounded by inspiration. The mountains are in our backyard, the microbreweries are in our neighborhoods, and weekends are full of adventure. And we live at a time when the best preaching in the world came be streamed on our drive in to work. Isn’t God’s glory all around us? So why go to church?
At Redemption we believe our faith is best expressed in a real tangible gathering of believers. We’re not just clinging to a traditional relic, but together pursuing the God who made it all.
There are at least three reasons we go to church.

1.  Gospel is Relational2.  The Gospel is Transformative3. The Gospel is Dynamic