Participants: Jon Paulien & Jon Ciccarelli
Series Code: TBOTB
Program Code: TBOTB000004A
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00:21 Welcome to Books of the Book, and in this particular
00:25 series we are studying the letters to the 00:28 Thessalonians by Paul. 00:30 I'm Jon Paulien and with me as my Pastor, Jon Ciccarelli. 00:34 Jon it is good to be with you again, as we now really start 00:38 getting into this study, we have looked at the 00:40 context so forth and the journeys that Paul has been on. 00:43 Now we are going to look at the letters that he actually 00:46 wrote the Thessalonians. 00:47 So today we are going to look specifically at verses 00:51 1 to 10 in Chapter 1 where Paul is writing to them and 00:54 telling them how joyful he is and thankful he is for them. 00:57 And the fruit of what God has been doing in their life 01:00 through God's Word in them. 01:02 Very good, so there is about 10 verses long and I should 01:07 mention that the translations of Thessalonians are my own. 01:12 The reason that I'm using this personal translation is 01:16 because I want to bring out some things that you can't 01:20 bring out in a normal Bible translation, the grammar of 01:24 the Greek, the meanings of words that might be missing 01:28 in a smoother type of English. 01:30 So sometimes the translation may be even a little bit 01:33 awkward, but we are giving that so that you can get 01:36 a little bit of the flavor of the Greek. 01:38 For example, verses 2 through 10 of 1 Thessalonians 1 01:42 is a single sentence in the Greek, 01:45 with only one main verb. 01:47 Now most translations don't show you that because it would 01:50 be too hard to read, but Paul seems to be able to string 01:54 a sentence together with all kinds of subordinate clauses 01:57 and we will try to break it down for you today. 01:59 Alright, great! - so Jon, why don't you, if you notice 02:06 here this text that Paul is very, very thankful, but how 02:12 does he expressed his thankfulness? 02:13 Will he expresses thankfulness to them in his prayers. 02:17 But he especially thankful because they have remained 02:20 faithful to God in spite of the things they have gone 02:24 through, they are remaining faithful. 02:26 They continue to trust God and they have had massive life 02:30 change due to the Gospel. 02:32 He sees the fruit in their life of what God is doing 02:34 through the Gospel in their life. 02:36 It's out all over about their faith, they are sharing 02:40 their faith and Paul is hearing about it in other places. 02:43 So it is exciting for him to hear that the word he spoke 02:46 is now being told through them. 02:49 Isn't it a strange thing to pray through your letter to 02:54 somebody? - it's a little strange, yeah! 02:56 It feels that way, you know. 02:59 But it is a neat thing for them also because they are 03:03 living with such great hope of the second coming. 03:07 Well one thing we discovered in a previous program, 03:11 is that Paul is way more emotional than you might 03:15 realize in reading Romans or Galatians. 03:17 He takes things very, very deeply and we see that Paul 03:22 brings all those emotions into his prayers. 03:25 It is in his prayers where he reviews his life and his 03:28 experiences with other people, it is pretty neat. 03:30 You have a way of praying that is a bit unusual. 03:33 Unusual huh? - Tell us about it. 03:36 It's one of the things I like to do from time to time. 03:39 I call it praying with a notepad. 03:42 You know often times we are with hands together and eyes 03:46 closed, but I think God also wants us to interact with 03:49 Him and so sometimes when I'm praying, I just start 03:53 writing down my prayers to God, and in that also when 03:56 we pray we feel impressions from God about maybe caring 04:00 for somebody, don't forget to check on so-and-so. 04:03 Maybe even just write a note, a phone call, send an 04:06 e- mail, things about my children maybe that I could 04:09 become more sensitive to, so I pray with a notepad 04:11 and write down things that I sense that God is inviting 04:15 me into with Him in someone's life and to go and share 04:18 His love with them in some particular way 04:20 that day or that week. 04:21 Alright! Well why don't we get into Paul's prayer? 04:24 - Alright! - Verse by verse and see what we can learn. 04:26 Let's look at 1 Thessalonians 1:1-3 05:00 - There is a number of things that jump out 05:02 to me in this text. 05:03 First of all while Paul is writing the letter you notice 05:07 he shares the credit. - Huh hmmm! 05:09 He says, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. Now it is clear 05:12 that later all Paul's writing because he talks about 05:17 Timothy and sending Timothy and Silas, so Paul is 05:21 including his colleagues in the letter and it strikes me 05:25 there is no celebrities at the foot of the cross. 05:29 When you realize how God has saved us and what He has 05:33 brought us out of, there is no reason for any of us to 05:36 feel higher than somebody else, smarter than somebody 05:39 else, better than somebody else. 05:40 And Paul, as great of a man as he was, was eager to 05:45 share credit with others, and that is a model I have been 05:48 struggling to follow in my life. 05:50 Spread the credit wherever you can, take the blame when 05:54 necessary. Ha! Ha! Ha! - That is a struggle. 05:57 Because we are so tempted to take the credit, you know! 06:00 People may wonder about who is this Silvanus - Yeah! 06:02 Well he actually appears in the book of Acts. 06:04 But in the book of Acts Silas, you see now Silas is the 06:09 Jewish form of his name. Silvanus is the Latin, you see. 06:14 So what the Jews often did when they would move away from 06:18 Jerusalem, or move away from Israel and go out into other 06:23 parts, they would adopt names that would fit with the 06:27 society, for example my name is Pauline from the German. 06:31 But I have changed that a little bit to make it more 06:35 comfortable for people in the United States it is Paulien, 06:38 and my brothers even says, Paulúein. 06:40 So you see you're trying to make the name to fit in with 06:43 the society in which you are, and we see that happening 06:47 in the New Testament quite a bit. 06:49 Silas or Silvanus was actually a leader in the Jerusalem 06:53 church, so Paul was keeping the church close. 06:56 Paul was a bit of a maverick and he would do some 06:59 different things that troubled some of the brother. 07:03 But he kept some of the leaders of the church with him 07:07 when ever he went so they could assure that what he was 07:12 teaching was really solid. 07:14 Of course these folks would remember the sayings of Jesus, 07:17 Silas was probably one of the 70, Jesus had 12 disciples, 07:21 and 70, so he knew Jesus and could talk with authority 07:25 about what Jesus believed, etc. 07:28 Grace and peace, Grace is a typical Greek greeting, peace 07:33 or shalom is a typical Hebrew greeting, so Paul brings the 07:39 two together here, which is a nice little touch. 07:41 Finally of course we are familiar with faith, hope and 07:45 love, and in verse three he says remembering your work 07:49 of faith and your labor of love, your patience of hope. 07:53 Whenever Paul uses these three together, the last one 07:57 is the most important. - Hmmm! 07:59 You may remember 1 Corinthians 13. - Right! 08:01 Where faith, hope and charity, faith, hope and love. 08:05 Love is the most important thing in Corinthians. 08:09 But in Thessalonians it's hope. 08:11 He has a focus on second coming of Jesus and he wants 08:15 to keep them looking at that. - Yeah! 08:18 So he's thankful, in this passage, for a lot of things. 08:21 Yeah, definitely that is his theme here, that is the 08:24 great theme and I think it is a great example to us too 08:28 in this world. 08:30 We can get bogged down with so many things. 08:32 Just in a day, I like what Jesus said, don't worry about 08:36 tomorrow, just worry about what happens today. 08:38 But today with the economy we live in, with relationships, 08:42 so many crisis, it is so important to give thanks. 08:45 When we give thanks, things begin to fall in line in the 08:51 way things really ought to be. 08:52 I love, one of the things we do in our prayer meeting in 08:56 our church, is often times I'll pray and then we say Amen, 08:59 and then we all go home. 09:01 One of the things I like to do is ask the church members to 09:03 spend some time, let's reflect on our time of prayer. 09:06 What do we hear in our prayers today? 09:08 I remember one prayer meeting in particular where the 09:11 theme of gratitude was clearly heard, and I thought it was 09:15 like this chorus of Thanksgiving from God's people to God. 09:19 People walked away more at peace, a little more light and 09:23 not as heavy just say there is so much to be 09:26 thankful for of God. 09:28 And there is a verse that I really enjoy from 09:30 2 Corinthians 4:15 and this is 09:32 an unusual the NTW (translation), 09:35 It may puzzle people but it is a book that just came out a few 09:37 weeks ago. - A new translation of the New Testament. 09:40 And it says this. "As Grace abounds through the 09:44 "Thanksgiving of more and more people, it will overflow 09:48 "to God's glory." I love that picture of this overflowing 09:52 to God's glory through thanks giving, instigated by His grace. 09:56 The author of that translation is NT Wright, a well-known 10:00 New Testament scholar. - Right! 10:01 - People may be interested, I think it is called the New 10:04 Kingdom Translation and you might want to look at that. 10:07 It's contemporary but it is also solidly grounded in 10:10 scholarship as well. - Right! 10:13 Alright, what about verse four? 10:15 In verse four Paul goes on and he says, 10:25 Hmmm, that's a big word. - That's interesting. 10:27 You're the scholar is going going to have 10:28 to help us with this one. 10:29 Well first of all I want to point now that he says, 10:33 brethren, okay? That means he is calling them brothers. 10:37 The early church did this a lot. 10:40 It was a family of choice kind of thing, you remember 10:43 in a previous program we talked about how the typical 10:47 house church might have as few as 15 or 20 members. 10:50 It was like an extended family, the typical church 10:53 in New Testament times, so they thought of it as 10:56 a family and they would be some relatives there, 10:59 but there would be a lot of strangers and others. 11:02 And being together in church is like a like a family. 11:06 How is that help us when we look at church 11:08 to think in those terms? 11:09 I wish we would do that more, I can remember growing up, 11:13 as a kid, I grew up in a church where everybody was 11:17 brother Jon, or Sister Ruth and would always remind you 11:21 that you are part of the family of God. 11:23 Today you don't hear that it's much, but it is so 11:27 important to remember. 11:28 I guess we have our biological families, but the most 11:31 important thing is to remember that we are part of the 11:33 family of God. -Uh Hmmm! - He is our true Father. 11:35 Well you are wondering about the selection thing? 11:38 - Yeah! - They were chosen and so on and that bothers 11:41 people, predestination and stuff like that. 11:44 But I think what Paul is saying here, he says, 11:47 God had a plan for you before I ever came here. 11:51 We talked last time about the footprints of God. 11:54 The God is there before the missionaries gets there. 11:58 God is there before the preacher gets there and 12:00 I think if we went out with that in mind, that would 12:03 encourage us as we realize that God is touching people 12:07 hearts even before we get there. 12:09 - Right, right, I love how Grace initiates. 12:11 - Um hmmm, now you can go to extremes with this, you 12:15 know if a person is chosen then they have no choices. 12:18 I like to look at that whole idea this way, 12:22 I think when we look at the past we can tell that 12:26 God has been working in our lives. 12:28 We would not be where we are if it were not for God 12:31 choosing us, opening the way, providing information just 12:36 when we need it, when we look to the future. 12:38 I think it is pretty clear there are choices yet to be 12:42 made, we can choose the wrong, or we can choose the right 12:46 and God is encouraging us always to do the best, 12:49 not just the right but the best. - Right! 12:51 - That we can possibly do. 12:53 So there is a bit of tension there between God's chosen us 12:59 on the one hand and our ability to choose. 13:02 But above all else I think that Paul is encouraging us 13:05 with the idea that where ever you are now, 13:08 if you are walking with God, He was there. 13:11 He's brought you on that path. 13:15 It is encouraging to us to know that for all the troubles 13:18 we are going through right now, we are on the path that 13:21 God has chosen for us and He can make even our messes 13:24 something beautiful down the line. - Right! 13:28 He is that kind of God. - Yeah, yeah! 13:30 Well anyway it's time for a break and we are thankful that 13:33 you have been sharing with us thus far and when we get 13:36 back we will finish this long sentence of 13:40 1 Thessalonians Chapter 1. |
Revised 2023-01-25