Welcome back to
Books of the Book.
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Well Jon, pick us up
again now, we are getting to the
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Thessalonica here. - okay
so now Paul and Silas arrive
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in Thessalonica and their
missionary strategy is pretty
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common is when they get
to a new city they have never
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been to before, they
look up the Jewish synagogue.
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Jewish synagogues at that
time loved to have visitors
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from abroad, especially
from Jerusalem because
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they would often bring
news of what was going on with
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Jews around the
Empire, so visitors come in and
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they almost always
invite them to come up and at
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least give a
travel log if not preach.
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Paul was invariably
invited to preach and he would
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go to the Old Testament,
what we call the Old Testament.
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That was the New Testament
Bible, so at this time there
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was no New Testament, in
fact 1 Thessalonians is the
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first book of the
New Testament written,
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and Paul has written it yet.
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So he comes in and there's
no New Testament, his Bible
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is what we call
the Old Testament.
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He will preach the Bible,
he'll preach about the Messiah.
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The Old Testament predicts
the Messiah is coming and then
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when he is done with that
he tells the story of Jesus,
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I found the Messiah, and
that was an electric message in
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those days because they
were all hungry for the Messiah,
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and he gives a convincing
biblical presentation and then
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tells the story of Jesus.
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Many, many Jews
said that makes sense,
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that puts everything together.
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Now the principle here,
is God is meeting them where
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they are, he goes into
the synagogue, he uses their
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Bible, he uses a theme
that they are all thinking about
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and talking about, he
meets them there to present
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the story of Jesus.
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You know I think
that's so important Jon,
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as you mentioned it, it
is so easy sometimes I think,
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as followers of Christ, to
think that we always have to
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go somewhere else
then where we are at.
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Paul would certainly
going somewhere else.
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He was going to his
people and he was speaking that
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language, I think it's so
important for us to remember
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that God calls us to work
within our natural environment
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as well, in the medium we see.
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Don't you think you
should be missionaries and go to
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Africa? - no I think
there are so many opportunities
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for us here in our local area,
a local town, and our jobs.
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And in our neighborhoods,
there are people need
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to hear the gospel.
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One of the things I love to do,
when I was doing youth ministry,
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is that I really put an emphasis
on local missions here in
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North America because I want
kids to have an international
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experience, but I also
wanted them to get the taste
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of what it is like
to do something at home.
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Remember that God is calling
you to be a missionary here
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at home, so we would go
often times into the inner city
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of Los Angeles because I
wanted it to be close to where
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their home was and we would
spend several days in there.
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They would begin to realize,
wow, this is so close to
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home. So when they got home with
in an hour and a half after the
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trip, when they went to
bed at night they were always
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thinking man there is so
much be done just around me
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that I really need to be
attentive to what God wants
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me to do in my own area
and my own neighborhood.
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That's pretty neat, so you
don't have to go overseas to
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be a missionary, but
wherever you are you ought to
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understand the context
and speak to the people there.
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This is what Paul
seems to have done.
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Acts 17 actually tells
the story, and in Acts 17:1-3
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it says:
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If you are thinking ancient
Greece, you have Philippi
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over here, and then they
are traveling down a road that
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is called the Agnation
highway that went from Northeast
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Greece all the
way to the northwest.
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And along that highway
is the city of Thessalonica.
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So here they arrived there:
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so he has a pattern here:
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Christ here is not a name,
they would sometimes say Jesus
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Christ and it's become a name
to us but it was 'the Christ'.
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Christ is the translation
of the Greek word for messiah.
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So he says, the Messiah
had to suffer and rise from the
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dead, and the Jesus I'm pro-
claiming to you is the Christ,
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is the Messiah.
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So he takes the Old
Testament and shows them what?
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He shows them that the Messiah
had to suffer and rise from the
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dead. In Luke 24:26, Jesus
Himself does the same thing
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Paul is doing here in Acts 17.
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In Luke 24:26 he says,
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So Jesus and Paul understood
that the Old Testament
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teaches a Messiah who
suffers and is glorified,
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but the suffering comes first.
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The Jews of that day knew
about the glorious Messiah,
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they didn't know as much
about the suffering Messiah.
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When Jesus came they
doubted that He was the Messiah
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because He was suffering,
because He was ordinary,
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because He was human.
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So the question
arises then, what text would
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Paul have used in
the Old Testament?
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- It doesn't say
in the book of Acts.
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Nowhere does Paul described
the sermon he actually gave
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in the book of Acts, you
have it summarized there.
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So as we study the Old
Testament, you discover that in
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the Old Testament the
text that point to a Messiah
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are of two flavors.
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There is a royal Messiah,
a kingly Messiah, and then
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there is a suffering Messiah,
both of those are there.
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Let's take a look at
a couple of those texts.
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One of them is Jeremiah
23:1-6, and we will show you
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1- 6 but a want to
emphasize just the few points of
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that text, verse
five in particular.
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So here you see in
Jeremiah 23, particularly verses
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5 and 6 he says the
Messiah when He comes will be a
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king like David and He
will save Israel. - right!
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So you can understand why the
Jews of that day were expecting
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a Messiah to come and be a
King, deliver them from the
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Romans and everything was
going to be the way it was
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before, but that
is not the only theme
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in the Messiahship.
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When You go to Isaiah 53, you
see a different kind of Messiah,
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a suffering
servant kind of Messiah.
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Particularly verses 1-6 and
7 of Isaiah focuses on this,
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but I want to
read particularly 3-5.
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Wow. - so you see, in
Isaiah 53 there is the picture
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of someone who
suffers in behalf of others.
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Now, people might have
gotten the impression there was
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going to be two
Messiahs, the suffering Messiah,
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and the royal Messiah,
but there are texts where the
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two are blended together
so tightly that you can't take
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them apart, it is one
person who is both King and
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sufferer. Isaiah 52:13-15 says,
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There you can clearly see
the suffering and the kingship
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are blended together, but
here's the tough question.
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The question that the New
Testament writers had to face.
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Which one comes first? Is
it the suffering or the glory?
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Jesus and Paul believed
that the Messiah suffered first
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and then would
enter into His glory.
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How do you think
they came to that Jon?
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You know it is so tough
just pastorally speaking,
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I kind of empathize with
the Jews in the sense of having
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to expect your
Messiah to suffer,
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because you are expecting
Him to come and conquer.
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I am constantly just amazed
by the passage in Hebrew 5
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where talks about Jesus,
it says though He was a Son,
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He learned
obedience through suffering.
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That just amazes me
that Christ suffered.
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But you know there is
this a pattern Jon, in the Old
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Testament, and this is how
I think they could understand
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this, in the Old Testament you
see it over and over and over
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this pattern of
suffering and then glory.
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You see it in the life of
Joseph, someone who's may be
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imprisoned for about 13
years and then goes on to be
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Prime Minister there in Egypt.
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Then there is of course
Moses, Moses is out in the
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wilderness for 40 years
chasing sheep, and he becomes
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the great deliver of the Exodus.
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Then of course King David
too, you think of how often
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he went through so many things
as a fugitive and he becomes
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this great king.
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And then again think of Daniel,
here is a prisoner of war
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whose life is even being
threatened, and yet he becomes
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prime minister of Babylon.
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So we see that pattern
over and over and that's how
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I think the New Testament
writers saw that as well.
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The great characters of
the Old Testament set a pattern
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that the Messiah
would follow when He comes.
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But you know there is
one text above all others
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I think that New
Testament writers focused on.
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That is Isaiah 53:7-12
and I encourage our viewers to
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read the entire text,
but I want to emphasize the
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process here,
Isaiah 53:7 and on.
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There is a suffering.
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Now, suffering,
suffering, suffering,
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now catch this in verse 11.
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Isaiah 53 blends the two,
but the suffering comes first
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and it is because of the
suffering that He is glorified.
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So Paul I am certain, along
with these other characters
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made Isaiah 53 the
central text of his preaching.
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So in Acts 17:4 here is
the result of that preaching.
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So in Acts Chapter 17 a
church is formed, it's a church
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made up largely of
Jews, but some Gentiles.
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But here's the
anomaly, you read Thessalonians
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you get the impression
the church is mostly Gentiles.
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So what do you do with that?
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Scholars are not too
sure. Were there two different
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congregations, one
Jewish and one gentile?
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This is possible. Or in
the time that Paul was gone
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had those few Gentiles gone
to all their family and friends
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you see, and both of
those are possibilities.
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Well Jon how would you sum
up what we have talked about
00:12:57.01\00:13:00.21
today? Well Jon, I think we
can really rely on Scripture.
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God's Word is so, so reliable,
and if we would just place
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our life and our faith and our
trust in God, we can experience
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God and I think we are
going to continue to learn this
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as we go through first
and second Thessalonians.
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So we want to thank you so
much for joining us on Books of
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the Book and we will look
forward to seeing you next time.
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God bless!
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