Paul's Ministry to Thessalonica Essay

Paul wrote letters meant to be shared with all new churches, but while Paul was writing the letter to the Church of Ephesus, Romans incarcerated him restricting him to a jail cell for the spreading the word of the Gospel.

Paul’s distinctive contribution to Christianity is his heresy- the doctrine of salvation by faith. A salvation available not just to the descendants of Abraham, but to the pagan, non-Jewish world as well. When he was writing to those in the Roman capital, Paul makes the declaration that proved to be the cornerstone of all his writings Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live

Paul was writing the letter to the churches of Thessalonica which is the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia. His purpose of writing was to praise them on their “faith and love” that Timothy had brought and to focus on the instruction on how to live their Christian lives. Paul was writing this letter while he was on his mission in Corinthian where he was farther south in the province of Achaia. He wants the letter to be read aloud “to all his brothers” which means all his believers in Thessalonica. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 it is confirmed of the conclusion that the churches of Thessalonica was mostly composed of gentile

Therefore, Paul, employing the Lords wisdom, ensured the church to be viable and Godly in a city mentioned of similar importance as Rome, Corinth, Antioch, and Alexandria. In his ministry, Paul makes multiple journeys to Ephesus to ensure that the Word was growing in such a keystone city to much of eastern Asia. On his first missionary journey, he diverted to Macedonia at the Lord’s prompting, prohibiting him from travelling to the region. However, Paul leaves behind Aquilla and Pricilla (Acts 18:18-21), on his second journey, as more of an advance party to begin establishing the church. This was a necessary move, as a full effort by Paul to minister in Ephesus would have not gone successfully. The Ephesian economy aligned itself with pagan religion, as well as Judaism, and relied heavily upon trades, such as idol making, which related to the worship of pagan gods. For example, the temple of Artemis sustained an industry of silversmiths and idol makers. During Paul’s second third journey, due to his effective ministry in Ephesus, caused such a disruption in pagan commerce, merchants incited a mob to eliminate him from the city. The church remained despite his hasty departure. Paul centered his basis of ministry in this keystone city during his third missionary journey. As a result, this allowed him to

Christianity was still quite young at the time Paul wrote to Philemon and was faced with much opposition. The Church existed as local bodies of believers, meeting primarily in homes because there were no church buildings for worship. Persecution of the Church was prevalent and their survival depended heavily on dependence on one another and unity. Many misconceptions and even blatant lies

The Acts of Paul and Thecla, a second century Christian document, relates the story of how St.

Paul arrived in Berea after escaping from Thessalonica. Luke tells us that the Bereans had a more opened mind than the Thessalonians. They gladly listened to the message from Paul. They studied the Scriptures every day to weigh the truth of they heard. As a result, many of them believed, including many important Greek women and men. However, Paul’s successful mission in Berea would not last long. The jealous Jews in Thessalonica heard that Paul was in Berea

Paul is remembered as a missionary and church planter. He undertook three extensive missionary journeys, estimated to have taken place in A.D. 44, 49 and 53. He spent much

Three of Paul’s most important journeys in his lifetime took place in 44, 48 and 55 CE. Geographically, this spread Christianity across the Mediterranean into modern day countries such as Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and Italy. He travelled tens of thousands of

Paul’s plan for evangelism led him to what was considered the “civilized world” of the Roman Empire, leaving to others the centers of Judaism – Palestine, Alexandria, and Babylon. Paul’s movement westward was from Antioch to Cilicia, Galatia and Pamphylia, Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece, Italy, and Spain. Paul’s strategic plan was to stretch churches and the gospel from Antioch throughout the entire region. Paul’s strategy was to take his teachings to the metropolis areas instead of the smaller cities and towns. His thought was that his influence in these large areas would bring others that could carry on his teachings into these regions. As past history shows, Paul’s timeframe for teaching is limited due to being driven out of the cities by force before his work was completed. There were 2 cities where he was able to spend considerable time, Corinth and Ephesus. These cities were of utmost importance to him and were

The apostle Paul foresaw at the end of his life a great tsunami of attacks coming against the church of God. He responded with three letters. We call them the Pastoral Epistles: 1, 2 Timothy and Titus. After Paul’s first imprisonment, he visited different places including the Island of Crete, an Island only 160 miles long south of Greece and Turkey in the Mediterranean Sea. He wrote this letter to Titus around 62 A.D. from somewhere in Macedonia. Paul’s main objective is to encourage Titus and give instructions about Godly living as a young pastor. The churches in the Island of Crete needed leadership, correction and order thus Paul could not be everywhere. Paul at some time had visited the island of Crete for he says in Titus 1:5 “I left you

God gave Paul a mission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. They traveled from city to city spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, the message was not always being received. It is really no confirmed certainty on why John Mark eventually left Paul and Barnabas to return to Jerusalem. The Jews went on record as being in opposition to the Gospel, but Paul kept preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles. Paul saw that the Gentiles were very receptive to the Gospel.

Paul visited Ephesus on his first missionary journey, on the way from Greece to Syria. After his third missionary journey, he stayed there and pastored the Ephesian church for 3 years (Easton, np). “Though Paul was not the first to bring Christianity to Ephesus, for Jews had long lived there, he was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana” (Orr, np). Because of his strong ties to the church, Paul cared deeply about the faith of the believers there (Macarthur, np).

Is thought that the recipient of the letter were people from a province in central Asia Minor and Paul preached them during his first mission. The authors of the letter to the Galatians was Paul and Jesus Spirit. One of the main purpose of the letter or theme was to address the relationship from the Gentile Christians towards Judaism. The main points of the letter are to be truthful to God and commit to Him, in order to gain the Kingdom of heaven. In verse Gal 1:7 Paul clarifies that there is no other Gospel than the one that Jesus proclaimed. Paul explains that there is people that try to confuse Christians and pervert the gospel of Christ but he is warning us not to fall into that. It repeats over and over to not follow the law of the world but the teachings of Jesus Christ. We all are the church. The ones who believe on God are the church. To be the church in this letter means to believe in Jesus Christ and only worship God because He gave us freedom from sin and He is the only one that can lead us to the Kingdom of God. It also means to live by the fruit of the Spirit which is in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). It means to die to the sin, to reject the sin of, fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing (Gal 5:19-21), and anything that looks like

Martyrs tells us that the earliest persecution came under the rule of Nero in the year 67