It is easy to forget that the New Testament was not written for scholars. It went instead to congregations of God's people, many of whom were uneducated and some of whom were slaves. So, it delights me when I see Christians engaging the Bible first-hand, because I know its meaning is within their grasp.

Now, the Bible is an old book, but we should never read it as an antique curiosity. We do not love it because it is old but because in it "the past is . . . charged with significance for the transformation of the present and the construction of the future," (McGrath, Reality, 176-177). Scripture has the timeless fingerprints of God all over it.

Between now and July 31, Pastor Mark Smith and I want to engage along with you the Apostle Paul's brief letter, 1 Thessalonians. One of us, usually me, will talk through an entire chapter with you. On alternate weeks, the other, usually Mark, will reflect on the theme of hope, as it appears in that chapter. In this way, you will see the letter through two personalities, two sets of experience.

If Mark and I follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, these ten sermons on 1 Thessalonians will help to transform our present and construct our future as a congregation. May it be so to the glory of Christ our Lord and to the blessing of people whom this congregation influences. Please join me in 1 Thessalonians 1:1.

1 Thessalonians was a letter. It followed the form of other letters of its time, although the content of its greeting is distinctly Christian. Paul, Silas and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.

Overflowing with Thanksgiving
This opening chapter grows out of the apostle's thanksgiving to God for what had happened in the life of the fledgling church in Thessalonica. Verses 2-4 express the apostle's gratitude. We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually 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. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you. Their faith, hope and love made him grateful as did their election by God.

Most presend-day concern with election and predestination focuses on inward soul-searching and otherwordly decisions. The evidence Paul offereed for their election by God was accessible to observers and this worldly. Verses 4-5 express this more wholesome approach to a difficult topic. For we know, brothers 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 with deep conviction.

So, how did power, the Holy Spirit, and deep conviction express themselves for all to see? The answer provided other occasions for thanksgiving. First, they had imitated the steadfastness of Paul and of Jesus in the face of severe suffering and in their Spirit-given joy. Verses 5-6: You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. Their imitation of Paul and of Jesus refers to Paul's forcible eviction from Thessalonica in Acts 17:1-9 and to Christ's suffering on the cross. Paul will return to this theme more fully in chapter two.

The joyful suffering of the Thessalonian church did not take place in a vacuum. Others were watching. A second occasion for further thanksgiving and a second evidence of God's election was that their steadfastness, joy, and deep conviction had become a model to other young congregations. Verses 7-8 say: And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia - your faith in God has become known everywhere. From one end of the Greek peninsula to the other and beyond, the story of the young Thessalonian church had made an impact on others, who had believed or were considering the Christian message.

A third occasion for further thanksgiving and a third evidence of God's election came from the content of their faith, which showed itself in unmistakable public ways. From the end of verse eight through verse ten Paul wrote: Therefore we do not need to say anything about it (about your faith), for they (people all over the Greek peninsula and beyond) 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 (that is hope), whom he raised from the dead (more hope) - Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath (hope again).

Their faith in Christ was in public, tangible, contestable, unpopular and consequential ways. They turned from idol worship to serve God, and they were awaiting Christ's return and their deliverance from the wrath to come.

The Apostle Paul had invested himself in the newborn Thessalonian church. He had suffered to bring it into existence. He cared about it after he was forced to leave it. He rejoiced in the evidence of God's hand at work in the life of that new church. Now, I would like to follow the apostle's affection and his train of thought in these ten verses and apply them to this congregation.

Gratitude for BVBC
In his greeting to the Thessalonian church Paul included the names of Silas and Timothy with his name. In what follows I speak not only for myself but also for Bill Heider, Karl Nockengost, Bill Parsons, Dianna Shatley, Mark Smith, Sam Stein, Jollie Wilcox, and Brenda Wilson. From all of us to all of you with all our heart: grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are thankful to God for you. Your faith in Christ and love for him and His people manifest themselves in hundreds of ways in our life together. Scores of you make our system of Christian education and small groups viable and vibrant. On week nights, often at the end of a long work day, musicians and technicians prepare for Sunday worship. You take the love of Christ to those in your workplace and to distant places on earth. You record and duplicate tapes and CDs of sermons, make phone calls, greet, usher, pray with each other and with strangers, and you forgive those who offend you; and you do it week in and week out for years and with remarkable cheer. We remember you before God with gratitude.

We thank God for intangibles that flow from your faith and love. We the staff are painfully aware of our deficiencies. Your acceptance of us as we are fuels our desire to serve you and Christ with greater passion and skill. We make missteps, and you know it, and you are patient with us. You give us space to try new ideas, you rejoice when they work, and you forgive us when they don't. We remember you before God with gratitude.

I have often commented on the emotional differences of the four worshipping congregations at BVBC, which is like dealing with four different people. But I always remark on the desire for godliness and the attentive ear that characterize all four. We remember you before God with gratitude.

And how shall I do justice to your endurance that is inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ? Ten days from now will mark the 29th anniversary of my arrival here as pastor of BVBC. A number of you were here then, and you are here now: Livingston, Baker, DeLong, Blansfield, Turner, Gerlach, Sharp, Poole, Walker, Jones, Hosan, Bennett, Burnett, O'Brien, Brenegan, Hill, Simon, Cosden, Yost. I cannot hear your names without emotion. You know my strengths and weaknesses, my failures and successes, and you have stayed the course, inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. We remember you before God with gratitude.

In addition, a remarkable number of you have been here 20-30 years. You have watched BVBC go through several seasons of its life. You have prayed, you have given, you have declared the gospel, you have provided leadership, you have taken risks for the kingdom of God, and week after week, year after year, you have been here to worship and fellowship. You too have stayed the course, inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. We remember you before God with gratitude.

The great majority of you are new to BVBC in the past seven years or so. You have begun here or deepened here your faith in Jesus Christ. You have been baptized here, dedicated your children here, married your sweetheart here, buried your loved ones from here, discipled, taught, and encouraged each other. You, by sheer numbers and great spiritual energy, have forced this church to become what it never planned to become and do what it never dreamed it could do. Like those who have gone before you here,may you stay the course, inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Already, we remember you before God with gratitude.

God's Elect
What I have just described offers some of the evidence, accessible to observers, that God has elected you. The evidence includes your steadfastness that I have talked about. And like the Thessalonian Christians of old, your steadfastness is permeated with joy.

You are not a congregation without tears; neither are your tears without joy. You seldom complain. That doe snot guarantee the presence of joy, but it leaves room for joy. Where the joy shows itself most clearly is in our worship together.

The Sunday after last Christmas was a vacation day for me. We had out-of-town guests, and so we stayed in Wilmington. We and our guests came to BVBC to worship that Sunday. We sat little over halfway back, and the congregational singing stole my heart all over again. People sing the praises of God like that because there is joy in their heart.

And your reputation has made its way beyond Mt. Lebanon Road. You are known as a congregation where people cherish the scriptures. You are known as a congregation that asks commitment of its people. You are known as a congregation where Christians get a second chance, if they mess up their lives. You are known as a congregation that doesn’t fit the mold. You are known as a congregation that sees itself as part of the world community of Christians and gives its sons and daughters to serve that community in many parts of the world. You are known as a generous congregation. The divine election reveals itself in this reputation and in your steadfast joy.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
The divine election of BVBC is also revealed by your faith in Jesus Christ. By that faith you have turned away from the bonfire of the vanities that burns in our Western world, and you have turned to the living God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus. You have turned your face toward the New Jerusalem, and as the gravity of God pulls you more and more into His orbit, you manifest your faith in Him in public, tangible, contestable, unpopular and consequential ways.

And you wait. We spend so much of our lives waiting, don’t we? We wait for the dawn. We wait for sleep to come. We wait in security lines. We wait for Mr. Right or the girl of our dreams. We wait in the doctor’s office and the DMV and the courtroom. And we wait for the Son of God from heaven, whom God raised from the dead.

It seems quaint to say this, now that we are 2005 years into the waiting. We don’t think about the Second Coming every day; we know that is not necessary. But when the Indian Ocean goes on a rampage, and on September 11, and when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride out to war, we remember we need a Savior, and resume our vigil.

Even when we cannot articulate what is in the center of our souls, we intuitively know that participation in this world exposes us to forces of destruction from which we need to be saved. We need a Savior. The gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus points to Him as that Savior. So, we wait for Him to act and save us from this present evil world (Gal. 1:3-4).

Also, God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising that man from the dead (Acts 17:31). As in this world, so in the world to come we wait for Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

I have retold the story Paul told in this chapter about the Thessalonian believers. It is not just their story. It is our story as well. If that notion finds a place in your heart, then you understand in a way that no sermon could ever explain what is meant by the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the communion of the saints.

Across 20 centuries, the family likeness between the Thessalonian believers and the BVBC congregation is plainly visible. In the language of the letter of Hebrews, they are among the spectators in the bleachers, who watch as we run the race that is set before us. I would like to think that they cheer us on until we, like them, pass the baton to our successors and heirs.

I cannot make too much of this family likeness, but we have no corner on it. God who chooses creates that likeness. Like everything else He does, He acts with an embarrassing generosity.

I have spoken as I have, because you are the only congregation I know. I love you as a father loves his children, and it is right that I should praise you as a father praises the achievements of his children. But it would be small-minded and full of mischief, if a father praised his children in such a way that they felt superior to the children in other families. Let the father communicate instead the hope that every other father in the neighborhood finds as much to praise in their children.

Let us hope that every other pastor in the Brandywine Valley finds as much to thank God for in their congregations as we find to thank God for in you. It would be a shock if they did not. God who has elected us all has transferred something of His likeness to us all that all might duly praise Him and serve Him and wait for his Son.