WARM-UP Questions

1. Have you ever had a moment when you wondered if you were really a Christian? How can you know?
2. Why did Paul want the Thessalonians to recall their conversion story? What is your story? (It could be a precise moment or it could have been over a period of time.)

Read 1 Thessalonians 1:1-7

1. What was the city of Thessalonica like? How are there similarities to modern day Australia?
2. What was the effect of the preaching of the Gospel in Thessalonica (cf. Acts 17)?
3. How is it evident that as quickly as people were gripped by the Gospel that others were also threatened by it? What do you think was behind such opposition? Is this every true today?
4. What were the two types of concerns that Paul had for Christian community in Thessalonica?
5. What does it mean that God has chosen them? How can we know if God has chosen us?
6. How is an understanding of God’s election actually of great assurance to us?
7. How was it abundantly evident that the Thessalonians had received the Gospel?
8. In what way does the Gospel come from outside of us? Why is that important to understand?
9. What was the context in which the Thessalonians had received the Gospel? How can they maintain joy amidst affliction?  
10. In what ways had the Thessalonians embodied the Gospel? How do you see that as true in Christians that you know? In what situations, or in what ways, do you find it difficult to imitate Christ?
11. What does Paul mean by the Thessalonians imitating him (and the other missionaries)? Should we want our brothers and sisters in Christ to imitate us? Why or why not?

Read 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10

1. What does Paul mean by the word ‘sounding’ out from them? How have you witnessed the Gospel sounding out from our church or from Christians that you know?
2. What is the evidence that the Thessalonians had proclaimed the Gospel?
3. What was the extent and content of what the Thessalonians had proclaimed?
4. What are some specific opportunities this week for you to embody and proclaim the Gospel?

APPLY (this week): How can you embody and proclaim the Gospel more this week?

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Video

• Introduction to 1 Thessalonians by the Bible Project

Audio

• Tim Keller on 1 Thessalonians 1 (“How the Gospel Makes Christians”)
• Andrew Reid on 1 Thessalonians 1 (“Transformed by the Gospel”)
• Peter Adam on 1 Thessalonians 1 (“Labor and Endurance”)
• John Stott on 1 Thessalonians 1

Helpful Books and Articles

• “1 & 2 Thessalonians – Tyndale New Testament Commentary” by Leon Morris
• “First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians” by Gordon Fee
  

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