Calvary Road Baptist Church
THE APOSTLE PAUL’S NEW CONVERTS TRAINING MANUAL
First Thessalonians
Lesson #2
by
John S. Waldrip
Classical Baptist Press
319 West Olive Avenue
Monrovia, CA 91016
January 2024
NEW CHRISTIANS LESSON #2
INTRODUCTION:
This series of studies has been designed to guide you through examining that book of the Bible written explicitly for new Christians. So, if you have recently trusted Christ as your personal Savior, one of our Church’s members, together with this series of lessons, will lead you through a study of the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonian Church.
If you have not yet done so, to obtain some background information on Paul’s first Thessalonian letter, read Acts 17.1-10. From verses 2-10, understand that Paul was in Thessalonica for over three weeks before persecution drove him out of town. In that brief period, however, Paul and his missionary companions had established a Church of Jesus Christ. It was this fledgling congregation that Paul wrote back to, only weeks old in their Christian faith, when he had been forced to leave in what has been preserved through the centuries as First Thessalonians.
First Thessalonians 1.1:
“Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
As you reflect on this first verse, consider several important questions that will help to lay a foundation for later studies.
1A. WHO WROTE THIS LETTER?
1B. Paul
1C. This is the famous apostle of Jesus Christ, perhaps the most remarkable example of God’s grace in a person’s life that the world has ever seen.
2C. The sinfulness of Paul (then called Saul) is seen in Acts 7.58-8.1 and 9.1-2. Paul’s salvation (then known as Saul) is recorded in Acts 9.3-16. The separation of Paul from his missionary ministry some years after serving God as a pastor is seen in Acts 13.1-3.
2B. Silvanus & Timotheus
1C. These men (and others) partnered with Paul on his missionary journeys. Others would include Luke and Demas.
2C. Paul often left men like these behind in the young Churches he had established to bring new believers to maturity. After a time when leaders were trained and installed as pastors, they would rejoin him in another city to help establish another congregation.
2A. TO WHOM WAS THIS LETTER WRITTEN?
“... unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
1B. This letter from Paul was explicitly written to a Church, a congregation with members, not to an individual or unchurched Christians.1 It is conservatively dated to 50-52 A.D.[2]
2B. This does not mean First Thessalonians cannot be applied to individual Christians’ lives in our day. It certainly can be. However, this letter must be understood to apply most specifically to believers who are Church members within the context of a local congregation.[3]
3B. A thorough study of the New Testament will find the concept of believers existing and/or functioning outside the context of local congregations to be nonexistent. God wants all His children to be involved in congregational life as Church members (Hebrews 10.25; 13.7, 17; Matthew 18.15ff).
4B. This should not surprise us because the Lord Jesus Christ loved the Church so much that He gave Himself for it, according to Ephesians 5.25.
3A. HOW DOES ONE BECOME A PART OF A CHURCH LIKE THE THESSALONIAN CHURCH?
1B. Though no specific declarations are prescribed in Scripture, there are examples of believers becoming a part of a Church. Notice what happened in Acts 2.1-47.
2B. In Acts 2.1-37, we read about the day of Pentecost, Simon Peter’s great evangelistic sermon in which he confronts the predominantly Jewish men in his audience with their responsibility in Christ’s death and the conviction that overtakes those who listened to him.
3B. In Acts 2.37-41, we read of their response to Peter’s call to repentance and their glad reception of his Gospel presentation, followed by their baptism and addition to the Church. Throughout the New Testament, you will note that faith in Christ followed by baptism is a sequence that is never reversed!
4B. Finally, in Acts 2.42-47, we see those who were saved and baptized participating in the body life of the congregation in Jerusalem. This is not the norm in Western Christianity, where it is common for large Churches to have many more members than those regularly attending, with an even smaller percentage engaged in ongoing ministry.
5B. Two distinct events must occur to become a part of the Calvary Road Baptist Church or to become a member of the Thessalonian Church. First, a sinner must trust Jesus Christ to save his soul and forgive his sins. When converted, the sinner is said to be “in God” and “in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Then, and only then, the newly converted Christian becomes a Scripturally qualified candidate for believer baptism and becomes a Church member when baptized.
CONCLUSION:
1. What do we learn from the opening verse of First Thessalonians and the verses that we have examined? There are three things I want to point out.
2. First, we have seen Paul wrote his letter to a Church whose members were new Christians. Therefore, to be in the place where God would have you to be, a Christian needs to become a member of a good Church, as Paul led the Thessalonian Christians to do.
3. Second, we have seen the example of the new believers in Jerusalem. The way they became involved in the Church at Jerusalem was to obey the Lord in believer baptism after they had responded to the Gospel presentation of Simon Peter. Have you submitted to believer baptism yet? Matthew 28.19-20 shows this step to be integral to becoming a disciple of Christ.
4. Finally, whether in Thessalonica or Jerusalem, those Christians who joined a Church through baptism committed their lives. In Jerusalem, the Jewish Christians faced excommunication from the synagogues where their friends and loved ones attended. In Thessalonica, believers faced ostracism for being what the pagans called “atheists” for worshiping only one God. Those believers were convinced that God wanted them to serve, learn, and grow in and through their Church. Their conviction led to their commitment. That same commitment is called for here at Calvary Road Baptist Church. Are you saved? Are you baptized? Are you committed?
5. These things done, we are now ready to tackle First Thessalonians. It would be good for yu to read the letter to the Thessalonians to prepare for next week’s study. And if you can manage it, please read it out loud.
6. After reading First Thessalonians, read the first chapter once a day for two or three days.
7. In subsequent Bible studies, we will study the rest of chapter one.
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HOMEWORK:
- Read First Thessalonians once each day of the week. It is recommended that parents, dads, if in the home, read one chapter each day to their younger children at the dinner table.
- Read the passages referred to in this lesson:
Matthew 18.15-22; 28.18-20; Acts 2.1-47; 7.58-8.1; 9.1-16; 13.1-3; Hebrews 10.25; 13.7, 17
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End Notes:
1 An excellent analysis of the neglected topic of Church membership is Peter Masters,Church Membership In The Bible, (London: The Wakeman Trust, 2008).
2 Donald Guthrie,New Testament Introduction, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990), pages 587-588 and F. F. Bruce,1&2 Thessalonians - Word Biblical Commentary, (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1982), page xxxiv.
3 Christians usually become members of a Church when they submit to believer baptism by that Church after conversion to Christ, thereby by becoming Church members.
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.
Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church