Joining the Brotherhood

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

November 1, 2026

Click here to join our Meeting for Worship

Click to read in Swahili

Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

1 Thessalonians 2:9–13 (ESV)

⁹ For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. ¹⁰ You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. ¹¹ For you know how, like a father with his children, ¹² we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. ¹³ And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

A few weeks ago we began this journey with the “Brothers Loved by God”. I mentioned how these believers were required to make a stand almost immediately after they first believed. I was a little bit hyperbolic when I said that they had to make a stand mere hours after believing, but the reality is that it was very early in their journey of faith.

We do not know exactly how long Paul worked in Thessaloniki. If we were to read the book of Acts, it suggests that he was there at least three weeks, but the church in Philippi was sending financial support to him during this time and they sent support more than once which would suggest that he was there longer than three weeks. Some believe that he stayed for up to a year, maybe even a year and a half. All we know is he was there long enough for people to listen to his teaching, and to get annoyed enough to start a riot. From my personal experience that could have been thirty minutes.

Paul was there, and he worked diligently with this church. He poured his life into them, not only teaching but showing them what a life with God should look like. In the beginning of the second chapter he said that he came not with words of flattery, not with a pretext for greed, nor did he seek glory from people. Instead he was gentle with them like a nurse caring for a child.

I want you to take a moment to consider that image. We have had children in our church, we will have some more soon enough. Many of us remember what is required to raise a child. So often when we consider the curse given to Eve, the increased pain in bearing children, we think of only the labor of giving birth. I think it extends well beyond that. The pain and the struggle is the same as the curse given to Adam, by the sweat of his brow the earth will bear its fruit, through the thorns and thistles. To raise a child takes work. It take pain staking constant labor, that so often goes unappreciated. We wake up multiple times during the night to feed them, we change diapers, we teach them only for the them to do the exact opposite thing. We give them a bath, turn around for a moment, and turn back to find that they have sharpie all over their face. There is pain in raising a child.

But then there is more pain. They grow up. They go to school and they no longer laugh at your jokes. They want you to sit in the back where no one can see you. They do not want their friends to know you exist. Then they become adolescents and they defy everything you have tried to teach them for the past ten or so years. There is pain in bearing children. Why do we do it?

We go through the pain because it is not good for man to be alone. We need a community. No person no matter how brilliant they are, no matter how strong they may be, can survive on their own. We need a rescuer. Which is what helper truly means. Eve was not lower than Adam, she was not his assistant, but she was his helper, his rescuer. She was there to provide what Adam could not do alone, and together they become humanity. Together they become humanity, and the fruit of that union multiplies. Relationships, no matter what type, multiply. At times this is reproductive, at other times it is merely a gathering of others to do a common task. No matter how we look at it, our existence requires community. And community is work, it can be thankless labor being done in the background, only to see glimpses of grace and beauty.

Think again about the child we once held while they drank milk at three in the morning, now think of that same child as they stand on the stage receiving their high school diploma, as they eagerly search for the perfect prom dress, as they fret over who they might ask to the homecoming dance and if that person will say yes. Think of that child as they laugh getting dressed for a night of Halloween festivities, or as they sing in the school play. Think of them while they stand before the church expressing their love and devotion to their spouse. We forget the labor, we forget the pain and heartbreak, and all we remember is the love.

“For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil; we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.”

Those feelings you have for your child are the feelings that Paul has for this group of people. And that is also the depth of love every community of believers should have for one another. Last Sunday, we discussed the Discipline of Celebration, I do not know if I did the topic any justice, but the discipline is to live joy. To make a real effort to find joy and live in that reality. To remember the past, remember who we once were, and to share with others while saying that is no longer who we are because we have something greater.

The church in Thessaloniki faced trails shortly after their beginning. A riot started, and Jason of Thessaloniki was brought before the city officials because he refused to release Paul to the mob. Jason stood in Paul’s place, he stood in judgment. He stood in that place because Paul came to their town and spoke about a different kind of life and lifestyle. He came preaching about the son of God that came to live among humanity, not to be served but instead laid down his own life for the sake of others. Paul came to this town proclaiming that that king lived, suffered, died, was buried and rose again on the third day, and he did this all to reverse the curse that was brought about by our own rebellion.

Why would such a message start a riot? The answers are in these few short verses.

“Remember,” Paul says, “Remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden…” This community was a port city. It was a city devoted to commerce and trade, and along with this comes various social struggles. With a great deal of money, there is crime. With a large amount of sailors that were forced to abstain from the luxuries of life, there were temples devoted to gluttony and lust. With the potential risk of commerce there were temples devoted to the deities of the sea, weather, along with harvest, and war. But these temples were not places of praise and thanksgiving as much as insurance brokers. The entire city was built on revelry and protection, and these things come at a price.

Paul comes to this town, promoting a God. They are a cosmopolitan community, they are open to the idea of a new god, even interested in learning more about that god. Maybe this god might provide better protection than the ones they had previously followed. But Paul do not take payment. Instead he works. This is not what the people expect. This is not how the world works. We must appease the gods or terrible things will happen. I as a ship owner must give Poseidon offerings or he will swallow my ship.

In this city the religious preyed upon the community. They required payment. The religious community within Thessaloniki devoured their devotees, and burdened them with ever increasing offerings or rule adherence. And Paul looked out at the city, filled with image bearers of God, and he did not see a means to his own end, instead he saw children. And he worked to provide for them instead of making them gain his favor.

The concept of the word choice here does not only mean that he worked, it implies that he became like a slave. This implies that Paul did not take any stock in his own position, but did whatever was necessary to provide whatever was needed for his family. He willingly took the lowest, most demeaning job so that the people within this city could hear about the one true God.

Does this mean that Paul became an actual slave? No. If we were to read his other letters we would find that he was a skilled tradesman. We are told that he was a tentmaker in other places, and to make a tent requires a multitude of skills. Most tents at that time were made of leather, so he had to have knowledge of how to work with leather. Tents also must be raised, lowered, and easily stored so that those that use them can quickly make their dwelling and tear it down while they travel across the countryside. And sometimes the tent will become the shop for the merchant so it must have some aesthetic appeal. Paul made himself like a slave, he was willing to take on the lowest job, for the sake of this community.

He worked during the day and then met with the believers, like Jason, in the evenings. He did the lowest job, meaning he may have gone so low as to tan the leather of which he worked with to make his tents, which would have been something someone in his position as a Pharisee would never stoop to. He labored and toiled.

The early believers of this church saw what he was doing. They saw this man out working, and then he would come into the places of meeting to teach. He would go labor during the week and then he would enter the synagogue to expand on scripture. They heard the word, they saw his life and his lifestyle. They watched as this righteous man did everything backwards. And it impressed them.

He did do everything backwards. In the ancient world the priests within the temples were regarded as high class people. They sat in their places of honor while the devotees brought in their sacrifices. They would take their portion, perform the rituals and send the people out with their blessing. But they took their portion first. Religion in the world is a business. It was a source of financial security. People brought in their offerings, and the priests and priestesses would use that income to both provide for the temple and their lavish lifestyles. And in a port city such as this, the money flowed.

Every ship’s captain would enter a temple to seek a blessing for their voyage. Ever sailor would enter the temple wishing to honor the deity of lust. Every meal was devoted to their patron deity with the hope that their offering would be enough to keep the anger of their god at bay. This happened even within the Synagogue. No they did not worship some foreign god, but they participated in the lifestyle.

We still participate in that lifestyle. There are those that will encourage financial giving out of a desire for blessing instead of a desire to bless. There are those that will claim that it is God’s will that all people are healed, seeking out a large group of hopeful devotees, but what is it that they are claiming? They are attempting to manipulate God. They have turned the church into a pagan temple practicing magic.

Does God bless us, yes. Does God heal, absolutely. But we do not control God, we join with God in the work that He is already doing. And if a blessing furthers God’s mission that is what God will do. If a healing is what is needed for a community to more fully embrace the Kingdom, God will heal. We do not know exactly what God will do, all we can do is live life with him.

Paul entered Thessaloniki, working and toiling. He entered that community not wishing to be a burden to them but to be a blessing. He looked out at the people of that community and he did not see pagans living in debauchery, he saw errant children needing encouragement.

Paul came to this community, just as a father comes to his child. He goes out during the day to labor in the sun. Then when the day ends he comes home with bread to share with the family. He carries that loaf to the table along with whatever else he picked up as he walked home and they gather together talking about their day. And within that conversation Paul would lift up and encourage those believers.

And how would he encourage? He challenged them to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

The verb, walk, here is more than moving forward one step at a time. It points to how we live. As the year begins to draw to a close, we begin to enter the holidays. I mentioned this last week as well. Today in church history is All Saints day. Tomorrow is all Souls Day. For most of us we do not understand what these days are. Basically it is memorial day. It is a time to remember all the people in your life that have encouraged you in faith. In our society we have replaced this with our secular holiday of Memorial day, which largely focuses on those that have given their life for our country. There is nothing wrong with remembering, I just prefer to remember more.

In November we celebrate Thanksgiving. When I was in Ukraine, this holiday was the one that I was asked about the most. To us it is so common we almost forget its importance, yet to people outside our culture they do not have this holiday. We are thankful, and that thankfulness ushers in the anticipation or advent. The entire latter part of the year is devoted to holidays, or holy days. We remember, we are thankful, we year for hope, we celebrate hope, and this goes on through the end of winter. And then we celebrate renewed life, as we prepare for Easter.

We need to celebrate because it reminds us how to walk and live. We need to remember how to live so that we can celebrate in the proper manner. It all cycles and revolves around each other in a glorious dance we call life. And that is the entire point. Jesus did not merely come down from his throne in heaven to die and give us a way to heaven. He came from heaven to show us how to live. How to truly live.

He made it his custom to worship with his community. He showed us that loving God was important, and we should worship together with the community. Can we follow Christ without the church? Theoretically the answer is yes, but I say that with caution. We can believe, we can read scripture, we can listen and sing along with praise radio, but there is more to faith than this. We need each other. We need to worship together, to be gathered in meeting. We were not created to be alone, and we cannot fully worship without a community of some sort. The community encourages us, they pray with us, they bring us food when we are sick, and at times they can call us out when we are going to far in the wrong direction. The past few years I have found the importance of this community more strongly.

I have been working for my mom now for around five years. She provides supportive care for those that cannot fully take care of themselves. And the greatest challenge I have faced while working for her is finding people to do the work. This challenge has caused my mom to decide to close after over thirty years of business, so yes I am going to be looking for another job. Every business has trouble finding employees, but this is different. People are alone. No friends, no family, no one that is willing or able to help them. I have asked several of our clients if they have a church that we could reach out to, and every one of the people that we struggle to find help for has the same answer. I do not have a church. We need the community. We need to community to help us raise our children, we need the community to encourage us during our rough patches in life, we need the community to help when we get old. And we need to be the community to each other. We practice that life when we worship, where we come together from various background and focus on the same thing, loving God.

Jesus made it his custom to worship, and he withdrew often to isolated place to pray. There is a place for personal devotion. We have to actually live our life, no one else can live it for us. If we do not prepare ourselves and devote ourselves to God in personal prayer and other spiritual disciplines, we are not opening our lives up for the Spirit of God to call us into service. If we were to read through the various Gospel accounts, you would see that Jesus would go pray, and then he would change the direction of ministry. After he healed Peter’s mother in law, the entire community was bringing the sick to him to heal, and in the morning they could not find him. They could not find him because he had gone out to pray, and then when he came back they left that town and began work in a different place.

So often we take the results we are seeing as a sign from God. They might be, but is it where we should be? We will never know unless we are in prayerful communion with God. I have been here now for nearly seventeen years. We have faced struggles, and still face trials. I have had opportunities to go to other places, and I have turned them down. I have had wonderful opportunities offered, and yet when I pray I have been reassured that this is where I need to be. We do not get that assurance without developing the discipline of prayer, and we cannot fully embrace the Holy Spirit without prayer.

The last thing of Jesus’s lifestyle was that he ministered to the needs of the people. When Jesus was asked what the greatest command was, he said that the first and greatest commandment is to love God with everything available to us, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To love God is to love our neighbor. Shortly after Jesus said those words the teachers of the law asked who our neighbor is. Jesus answered by telling a story. We know that story as the parable of the Good Samaritan. This story is one that I think we all need to spend some time praying with as every aspect of it has something that will convict us. What I am going to say is there was a priest, a leader within the community, and a person that should not have been there.

The Samaritans were not merely foreigners, they were the enemies. They would kill the people of Judah as they would cross through their land to Jerusalem, and Judah would often return the favor. The point that Jesus was making is that it do not matter who a person is or why they are there, we should encourage that person where they are.

And Jesus did this. Jesus’s greatest challengers were not the greatest sinners in Jerusalem, his biggest challengers were the religious leaders. Yet Jesus still spoke with them. Nicodemus was a leader within the Sanhedrin and some of our favorite passages within the gospels come from the conversation that Jesus had with him. Jesus raised the daughter of a synagogue ruler from the dead. Jesus also healed the Roman Centurion’s servant. Jesus did not only heal those that deserved it. He did not only teach those from his own country. Jesus interacted with them where they were and encouraged them to move forward, from that point, in their faith.

This is the type of life and lifestyle Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to live. He came to them laboring day and night, showing them the true life with God. A life and lifestyle that was contrary to the lifestyle of the surrounding community. And he encourages the Brothers loved by God to continue in that life.

That is what a community of faith truly is. It is like a family, but it is more than that. Each of us has a place, and we should encourage one another to find and live into that place to our fullest. And there should always be an open spot at the table so that someone else can join in the fellowship.

Are we willing to live as Paul did. Casting off what society says we should expect in our position and become willing to do the highest or lowest task for the sake of the Gospel. Are we willing to bring whatever we have available to us to the table of the community so that we can encourage one another to walk in a manner worthy of God? Are we willing? We call ourselves Friends, because we believe that God can reveal to us what it is we need to do. I exhort you as a Friend, as a pastor, as a member of this community to examine our lives not according to the world around us, but in Christ. Will we walk with him? Will we love him with all that we have, and will we love our neighbor as ourselves. Will we become like the Brothers Loved by God.

Previous Messages:

The Discipline of Celebration

By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church October 25, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Matthew 18:1–6 (ESV) 1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them…

by jwquaker October 25, 2026

Brothers Loved by God

By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church October 18, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Thessalonians 1:1–10 (ESV) 1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and…

by jwquaker October 18, 2026

Misplaced Confidence

By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church October 04, 2026 Click Here to Join our meeting for Worship Philippians 3:4–14 (ESV) If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of…

by jwquaker October 4, 2026

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