Participants: Jon Paulien & Jon Ciccarelli
Series Code: TBOTB
Program Code: TBOTB000001A
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00:22 Welcome to Books of the Book, I'm Jon Paulien, Dean of the
00:25 school of religion at Loma Linda University and I have 00:29 with me my Pastor, Jon Ciccarelli. 00:32 Pastor of the Calimesa Seventh-day Adventist church. 00:34 Jon it is a pleasure to be here with you. 00:36 You know one of the things I like about you? 00:39 Is that you spell your name right, there is 00:42 no H. in there. How did that come about for you? 00:44 Well in my case it is very simple, my parents named me 00:47 after a Bible character Jonathan. 00:49 When I became an adult I stopped to think, I'm probably 00:53 going to have to sign my name 100,000 times in my life, 00:56 a little bit shorter might be a good idea, 00:59 so I just shortened it. 01:01 Less is more says Ezra. 01:02 Well for me I'm the youngest of four children, 01:05 and I have three older sisters. 01:07 Oh, that sounds like trouble. - yeah, so when I was 01:11 born, my parents said God must have some special for him 01:14 and they named me after John the Baptist. 01:16 I asked my mom, But I said John the Baptist spells his name 01:19 with an H., how did you come up with just JON? 01:21 They said, well we just liked it. 01:24 So that is how I ended up with Jon. 01:26 Pretty cool, it is nice to be here with you today. 01:29 We are going to be steady the letters of first and 01:32 second Thessalonians together and so what we want to do 01:37 in this program is to set the table for it. 01:41 In other words we are going to talk about how these 01:44 letters happened and I think to kind of summarize it 01:47 there is one text and all those Thessalonians letters 01:51 that I would like to emphasize. 01:53 It would be chapter 2 verse 13. 01:54 And for the viewing audience I should just mention that 01:58 the translations of first and second Thessalonians are 02:01 translations that I made not out of disrespect to any 02:04 of the Bible translation, but to bring out the nuances 02:08 in the original language that sometimes are smoothed 02:12 over in the English. 02:13 So 1 Thessalonians 2:13 reads like this. 02:41 And Jon I think that is a game changer, you've got people 02:44 walking around in today's world, they don't know whether 02:47 that they are coming or going. 02:48 I think sometimes even as Christians, we feel that way 02:52 from time to time and to know that we can have a word 02:55 that comes from the King of the Universe, that covers 02:59 values way beyond anything we understand and can give us 03:02 guidance for everyday, I mean that changes everything. 03:05 - Right, right. 03:07 - that brings life together the way it should be. 03:09 But Jon, why should anyone really take 03:13 the Bible seriously today? 03:14 - well that's good question, I think a lot of people 03:17 probably wonder if it's just ink on a page. 03:19 One of the things we are going to emphasize on this 03:22 program is Bible prophecy. 03:24 In so many ways God said ahead of time, what was going 03:29 to come, and it happened. 03:31 You know economists today, they can't even tell you if 03:34 the economy is going up or down tomorrow, they are not 03:36 even sure if it's going up or down today. 03:38 For the Bible to talk about something happening a year 03:41 or five years or 50 years later and it comes true, 03:44 that is amazing, only God can do that. 03:47 - yeah! - not only that, the Bible is the most 03:50 thoroughly attested ancient book, famous people like 03:55 Alexandria the Great, Cicero and so on. 03:57 We may have one or five or 10 manuscripts of their 04:01 writings, the New Testament has almost 6000 handwritten 04:07 manuscripts, all attesting to its value. 04:10 You see, so to me the Bible is the most solid book 04:14 that we have. 04:16 You know one of the things for me, is just the 04:18 resurrection of Jesus. 04:20 You think about why the empty tomb? Why was the body 04:24 of Jesus never been found? 04:26 If you think of those who were enemies of Christ, 04:30 if they had stolen the body of Jesus, why wouldn't 04:34 they reveal it at some point? 04:36 When the disciples were out proclaiming the resurrection of 04:38 Jesus, and then they could pull out no, here it is, 04:42 He was not raised from the dead. 04:44 Then for the disciples, if they had stolen the body out 04:47 of the tomb, why on earth did they go through all the 04:51 suffering and the martyrdom, no one has been willing to 04:55 die for a lie. That would be foolish. 04:57 So you are seeing things right there in the Bible, 05:01 that can only be explained by a supernatural power or 05:04 influence and I personally know several major historians 05:08 that would agree 100% with you. 05:09 They say the empty tomb is a powerful evidence that 05:13 these things are real and historical, we're going to 05:16 notice in our programs here on Thessalonians, there are several 05:20 points were things that are said in the Bible intersect 05:24 with things we know from history. 05:26 They are attested by archaeologists, they are tested 05:29 by ancient literature, and the Bible just connects, it fits 05:32 with all of that and we can have confidence in it. 05:36 You know another thing Jon is, the Bible itself is self 05:40 authenticating. - what does that mean? 05:42 When you actually sit down and spend time with the Word 05:46 of God, the same Spirit that was in the authors of the 05:49 Bible inspiring them to write, is the same Holy Spirit 05:52 that speaks to our hearts and minds as we read 05:55 those very words and it meets our needs in such 05:58 deep and profound ways. 05:59 You know a church I was Pastoring in one time, there 06:03 a gentleman who was coming and proclaiming to be an atheist. 06:05 His wife was a Christian, was an Adventist when they were coming. 06:08 When he would read the Bible, he would come to church 06:11 and worship and would begin to weep. 06:13 His wife would always ask him, what are you crying for? 06:16 He would say, oh because I lost my Father couple of 06:19 years ago and I am still grieving that. 06:21 Well after a couple years of being on this journey and 06:23 coming to church and reading his Bible, he finally 06:26 confessed that he accepted Christ and those tears every 06:29 time I cried was because I could feel God's presence in 06:33 my very being when I read those words. 06:34 I can't deny it any more, and so the word of God itself 06:39 just speaks to our very deepest needs, peace, and healing. 06:43 You know what I hear Pastor Jon saying, is that if 06:47 you are not sure whether the Bible is right for you, 06:51 if it just looks like ink on a page like any other book, 06:54 he is saying, give it a try. Read it. 06:58 Just going in a corner somewhere where nobody else can see 07:02 you, open it up and give it a shot because the Bible 07:06 contains within itself words that are empowered by the 07:09 Holy Spirit, now you may not believe that at this moment. 07:13 But try it, find out, because so many people, millions 07:17 throughout history have discovered that the 07:20 Bible authenticates itself. 07:22 When you read it and take time, God speaks to you 07:25 through that book, and it is life-changing. 07:28 Jon do we really have to study the 07:31 Bible deeply, to really experience God? 07:35 Oh, in other words do you have to be a Bible scholar 07:37 in order to follow Jesus? 07:38 I'm picking on you a little bit - absolutely not, absolutely not 07:41 I want to be clear on that. 07:42 I remember a beautiful young lady that I was working 07:45 with its a young Pastor sometime ago, 07:47 and she had been baptized. 07:49 She came to me and was really distressed, she said I need 07:52 to be re-baptized again. 07:53 I said what are you talking about? She said well there 07:57 were things I didn't tell my Senior Pastor, and then 08:00 she unfolded the tale of woe and so forth. 08:03 I said let us go deal with it then. 08:05 We took a walkout by a lake and sat down on a rock and 08:09 I led her through the story of Jesus and said Jesus died 08:13 for you, all that history can be gone. 08:16 I led her through the sinner's prayer, and when that 08:21 prayer was done, thunder clapped, rain poured down, 08:26 and she turned to me with this wet sheep dog kind of look, 08:30 and she said with a big smile, I'm being baptized again. 08:34 She took that as a sign from God, now I realize that 08:38 doesn't happen for everybody, but sometimes God connects 08:42 with people at special times and opens things up. 08:46 At that moment, she knew God was real. 08:48 She didn't need a Bible to tell her that God was real. 08:51 So there are times when God will work directly with 08:54 people. - so you do you still know that beautiful, 08:57 beautiful woman? 08:58 Oh yeah, I didn't want to let that one go, I married her 09:00 and we have been together 38 happy years. 09:04 Ah, that's great. But it is so important I think too, these 09:07 experiences are great and I think all of us have probably 09:10 had some of those types of experiences of God and nature, 09:13 but it is so important for us to test these experiences 09:16 with the Bible, to make sure they line up with Scripture. 09:20 Because sometimes I think, if we are not careful, we can 09:24 rely so much on those other experiences and less of the 09:27 Bible and that is when it gets kind of scary. 09:30 We always want to be rooted in the Bible, but thank 09:32 God for those experiences. 09:34 One thing I would say in relation to what you are saying, 09:36 is we all have voices inside of our heads. 09:38 People may think the voices inside their head is 09:42 the voice of God, and it can be. 09:43 But there is an evil one out there, the Bible tells us, 09:46 that's sometimes plants thoughts in our mind. 09:49 Sometimes that voice in the middle of your ear is one of 09:53 your parents, or maybe a cruel uncle that use to beat you 09:56 up for something like that, there are all kinds of voices 10:00 in our head's and the Bible, being the authentic Word of 10:03 God, helps us to sort out some of the stuff that 10:06 is going on in our head. 10:07 Some of it is trash, it needs to be thrown out, 10:10 and some of it needs to be hung on to. 10:12 Yes God will speak to you, God can meet you where you are, 10:16 but because there are many voices out there, even many 10:20 spirits some would say, I think it is helpful that the 10:23 Bible can help us sort that out and give us something 10:27 solid to depend on. 10:28 Well Jon, let's get into the Bible because the letters of 10:32 first Thessalonians were written with a specific series 10:36 of historical events in mind. 10:38 There was an ancient city called Thessalonica, which is 10:42 where Thessalonians comes from. 10:45 The people who were the Thessalonians and the city was 10:47 Thessalonica and how did Paul get there? 10:49 Before he got to Thessalonica he went to a place called 10:54 Philippi, a colony of Rome. 10:57 You can read about it in Acts 16 it's one of my favorite 11:02 stories in the Bible, even from a kid. 11:04 Paul has this vision, and this man is calling Paul 11:09 to come to Macedonia, so Paul does go to Macedonia and 11:13 he makes his way to Philippi and that's where he goes on 11:17 and goes outside the village at the Riverside for a place of 11:21 prayer and meets Lydia, the seller of purple. 11:23 He shares the good news with her and she gets baptized. 11:29 But then it says also, later in Acts that as Paul was going 11:33 about preaching the gospel there was a certain slave girl 11:37 that had a spirit of divination and she would proclaim 11:41 that these people are here for God, and proclaiming the 11:44 Gospel and it became very annoying. 11:46 - and the short story is he ended up in jail over this, 11:49 right? - exactly, exactly, but before he got 11:52 to jail, he took quite a beating. 11:54 They brought him before, because the slave owners of the 11:59 woman didn't like that they had lost their business and 12:02 so now they bring him before the magistrates and beat them 12:06 and take him to prison and then in the middle of the night 12:10 Paul and Silas are singing hymns and praying prayers 12:13 and God brings this earthquake. 12:15 They are going to be set free, the jailor of course is 12:18 concerned and goes to them and finds they are still 12:21 there and ask them what I must do to be saved? 12:23 So his whole family becomes saved, and then the next 12:28 morning they are back in prison and the magistrates come 12:32 and say they are going to let them go and Paul of course, 12:35 as Paul does, throws a little wrench into it and says 12:38 wait a minute, we're Roman citizens you can't treat 12:40 us like this. And they go on as well. 12:43 The thing is what happened to them before they got to 12:45 Thessalonica there. 12:46 And Paul mentions this in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-2 he says, 13:14 Inner struggle he says, I can imagine Paul and his 13:18 companion Silas walking along the road, they are bruised 13:22 and beaten and they're asking why are we doing this thing? 13:25 They come to Thessalonica and the last thing on earth 13:29 they want to do is to preach the gospel again. 13:31 Everywhere they go they're getting beaten up for this thing 13:34 And he says to the Thessalonians as you know we became 13:39 bold, the original language says, we became bold. 13:43 In other words God gave them the courage to speak again 13:46 in spite of all these challenges. 13:50 They gave it another shot and the Thessalonians were 13:54 so glad that they did. 13:56 Well Jon would want to go a little bit deeper into this but 13:59 right now we need to take a break. |
Revised 2023-01-25