In this message, Pastor Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher, walked through 1 Thessalonians 1:5 to show how the gospel first came to the Thessalonians and what that means for us. He highlighted that Paul’s “our gospel” arrived “not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” The gospel is not mere religious talk or human wisdom; it is the very power of God unto salvation, carried by weak vessels but effectually working in those who believe. It came to Thessalonica through great distance, in the midst of persecution, and it overturned their thinking—turning them from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. This same message is distinct from all other words, sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and able to penetrate to the heart and conscience.

Pastor Strelecki exhorted us to remember how the gospel first came to us and to recognize what it has produced: a work of faith, a labor of love, and a patience of hope. The Thessalonians received the word “in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost,” becoming followers of Paul and of the Lord, even under pressure and opposition. We, too, have been entrusted with this powerful gospel; our task is not to dress it up with flattering speech or human technique, but to proclaim it plainly and confidently, trusting its inherent power. Rather than letting Scripture become competing “content” alongside our devices and distractions, we are called to open this book, believe what it says, and allow its power in the Holy Ghost to renew our minds, shape our relationships, and anchor us with much assurance in what God has done and will yet do in Christ.

In this introductory message to 1 Thessalonians, Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher, surveys the historical and biblical background of the church at Thessalonica. He traces Paul’s movements from Philippi to Thessalonica in Acts 16–17, highlighting the city’s strategic importance as a major Macedonian seaport and crossroads, and explaining how Paul’s customary practice was to begin in the Jewish synagogue with the Scriptures. Over three Sabbaths, Paul reasoned from the Old Testament that Jesus had to suffer and rise again, and many Jews, Greeks, and chief women believed—forming the nucleus of the Thessalonian church. Due to ensuing persecution, Paul was forced to leave quickly for Berea, then Athens, and finally Corinth, all the while burdened with concern over how these young believers were faring under affliction. He sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to establish and comfort them, and when Timothy returned with a strong report, Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians from Corinth (around Acts 18:5).

Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher, then outlines the primary purposes and themes of the letter. Paul writes to encourage the saints in their steadfastness, defend the integrity of his ministry, comfort them in suffering, exhort them in their daily walk (including diligent work), correct misunderstandings about prophetic events, and address relational tensions within the assembly. A key structural lens for the epistle is found in 1 Thessalonians 1:3—their “work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope”—which he uses to frame the letter’s flow: faith expressed in gospel reception and proclamation, love expressed in serving the living and true God and one another, and hope expressed in waiting for God’s Son from heaven. The coming of the Lord Jesus is woven throughout, not as mere prophecy charts, but as a practical motivator for holy living in light of the judgment seat of Christ. The aim, as presented, is that this “lovely epistle” would not remain a distant historical document, but actively renew our minds and shape how we walk, suffer, serve, and abound more and more until Christ’s return.

Drawing from Deuteronomy 10 and other key passages, Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher, highlights that God is utterly unique as the “God of gods and Lord of lords,” possessing incommunicable attributes such as eternity, aseity, immutability, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. These belong to God alone, showing Him to be self-existent, unchanging, beyond time and space, and limitless in power and knowledge. In contrast, communicable attributes—like wisdom, holiness, goodness, justice, and love—are reflected in humanity in a faint, dependent way and are brought into proper expression and growth in believers as they are conformed to the image of Christ.

He stresses that real spiritual change does not flow chiefly from practical instruction or behavior tweaks, but from beholding the glory of the Lord in His Word by faith. As believers gaze on Christ—the perfect image of the invisible God—the Spirit transforms them “from glory to glory,” so that ordinary spheres of life (marriage, family, work, citizenship, church) become the very places where God’s character is displayed. Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher, urges Christians to stop chasing worldly greatness and instead rest in God’s unchanging promises and eternal purpose in Christ, allowing His attributes to be formed in them and expressed through them in the seemingly small, everyday details of life.

Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher, explains that while humanity cannot discover God on its own, God has graciously revealed Himself through both creation (general revelation) and Scripture (special revelation). From Isaiah 46, he emphasizes that God alone is God—there is none else and none like Him—who declares the end from the beginning and has both the intention and the power to bring His counsel to pass. Strelecki underscores how Scripture unveils God’s eternal purpose in Christ from before the world began through eternity future, and urges believers not to take this revelation for granted but to “get into the Book,” learn God well, believe what He says, and order their lives accordingly.

Strelecki then turns to God’s existence and attributes, showing from passages like Psalms, Romans, and Isaiah that denying God is the height of folly, even as creation, human dependence, and the order of the world all testify to a first cause and sustaining Creator. He highlights God’s incommunicable attributes—His eternity (from everlasting to everlasting) and aseity (self-existence, “I AM THAT I AM”)—as realities that set God utterly apart from idols and from His creatures, and yet this high and lofty One chooses to dwell with the humble and contrite. He closes by pointing to Christ as the perfect image of the invisible God, through whom believers not only come to know God savingly, but are also transformed into His likeness in those communicable attributes that reflect the family resemblance to their Creator.

Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher, explained that God has chosen to reveal Himself, because man cannot discover God by intellect, wisdom, or research alone. He distinguished between general revelation—what we can know of God through creation—and special revelation—what God has specifically spoken about Himself, His will, and His purpose in Christ. Using Psalm 19, he showed that creation testifies to a Creator, but only in a broad, indirect way, whereas the written Word (the law, testimonies, statutes, commandments, and judgments) reaches the inner man and converts the soul. He emphasized that over time God moved from creation’s witness to inscripturated revelation: the creation account, the law, the prophets, and all that He chose to write down so that His self-disclosure would endure through history.

Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher, then traced how Hebrews 1 presents God speaking “at sundry times and in divers manners” in the past—through direct speech, visible manifestations (like the burning bush and Sinai), dreams, visions, miracles, and prophetic words that addressed both near and distant future events—culminating in His final and fullest revelation in His Son. Christ is the Word made flesh, the image of the invisible God, the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and all Scripture ultimately testifies of Him. In these last days, God has spoken by His Son, and that revelation has been inscripturated through the apostles and prophets, giving us a complete written Word that both reveals who God is and works effectually in the believer’s soul.

In this recap session of the series That Which May Be Known, Pastor-Teacher Josh Strelecki returns after a month away to bring the congregation back up to speed before pressing forward. Drawing from Hebrews 1:1–4, he outlines the three-part structure of the series — finding out God, the determinate counsel of God, and what God hath revealed — and briefly reviews the ground already covered: that man cannot by his own intellect or reason find out God, and that God has therefore revealed Himself through two kinds of revelation. General revelation, seen in creation and conscience, declares the existence of a creator universally and leaves all men without excuse, yet falls short of revealing God's plan and the need for redemption.

Special revelation fills that gap. Pastor-Teacher Strelecki traces how God moved from speaking directly to individuals — Adam, Abraham, David — through dreams, visions, and miracles, and ultimately through His Son, before having it all inscripturated in written form for every generation. He emphasizes the unparalleled treasure believers possess today: a completed, written revelation containing everything God wanted known, progressively unfolded over time and now fully available in scripture. The session closes with a preview of coming studies on the mediums and progressive nature of revelation, the existence and attributes of God, and ultimately His eternal plan and purpose in Jesus Christ.

Have you ever considered how much you can truly know about God just from the world around you—and why that still isn’t enough? In this sermon from the series “That Which May Be Known,” we explore the necessity and truthfulness of God’s revelation, then move into the foundational distinction between general and special revelation. Drawing from Romans 1, Psalm 19, Acts 14 and 17, and other key passages, the message shows how creation, conscience, and even everyday things like seeds, stars, and ants testify to God’s eternal power, wisdom, goodness, and divine nature—leaving humanity without excuse.

Yet, if general revelation powerfully displays God’s glory, why do we still grope in darkness without His Word? This sermon answers that by highlighting the limits of creation’s witness and the indispensable role of special revelation—God’s direct self-disclosure in His Word and ultimately in Jesus Christ. Listeners are urged to see Scripture not as a mere religious book, but as God personally unveiling Himself, His will, His redemptive purpose, and our true condition. The goal is not bare information, but transformation: to move from vague notions of God to a deeper, accurate, and personal knowledge that shapes our lives and fuels our gratitude and worship.