Jan 16
“Before we explore what a Christian does, we have to understand what a Christian is.”
As we continue in our new series in 1 Thessalonians, Ben Stuart breaks down Paul’s introduction to the letter and examines a few of the defining characteristics of Christians, and how those traits are meant to encourage us in uncertain times.
Key Takeaway
We cannot do anything to earn our salvation, but there is fruit of our salvation that we can examine through the scriptures.
Characteristics of a Follower of Jesus Christ:
God chose you as you are. He isn't surprised by your struggles or your hardship, He loves you despite it.
The gospel came to you, and you received it.
Death is coming for you, but you are ready to stand in front of our maker and face judgment.
Your life has changed. Your outward expression does not line up with what the world tells you it should look like, but with the Holy Spirit.
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"God wants to pull you out and set your feet on solid rock and put a new song in your mouth of praise to our God."
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Ben Stuart
Discussion Questions
Do you sometimes live as if God chose only the best parts of you? How do you feel knowing that God chooses you knowing every part of you?
Can you put the gospel into words in a way that a nonbeliever could understand what it means?
Have you ever come face-to-face with death? What was your initial reaction if yes?
In what moments of life are you reminded most of your mortality?
How does your life look different from when you were not a follower of Christ?
Scripture References
56.The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
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 sisters1:4 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in 2:1, 9, 14, 17; 3:7; 4:1, 10, 13; 5:1, 4, 12, 14, 25, 27. 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,
The Covenant Renewed at Shechem
1.Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
2.Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3.But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4.and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.
5.“ ‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. 6.When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen24:6 Or charioteers as far as the Red Sea.24:6 Or the Sea of Reeds 7.But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.
8.“ ‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. 9.When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. 10.But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.
11.“ ‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. 12.I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. 13.So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’
14.“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15.But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
16.Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17.It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18.And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”
19.Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20.If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
21.But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”
22.Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”
“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.
23.“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
24.And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”
25.On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. 26.And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord.
27.“See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.”
28.Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance.
Buried in the Promised Land
29.After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 30.And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah24:30 Also known as Timnath Heres (see Judges 2:9) in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
31.Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.
32.And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver24:32 Hebrew hundred kesitahs; a kesitah was a unit of money of unknown weight and value. from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.
33.And Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.
7.“You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham.
14.One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.
4.But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5.made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
8.For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9.not by works, so that no one can boast. 10.For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
28.God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29.so that no one may boast before him.
6.For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.7.The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8.But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
6.For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”4:6 Gen. 1:3 made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
2.As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
Ben Stuart
Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.