Participants: Jon Paulien & Jon Ciccarelli
Series Code: TBOTB
Program Code: TBOTB000007A
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00:23 Welcome to Books of the Book where we are studying
00:25 1 and 2 Thessalonians, we are in chapter 4 today. 00:29 Doctor Pauline it is good to be here with you again. 00:32 So why don't you pick us up now and 1 Thessalonians 4. 00:36 Well in chapter four Paul is getting to the practical 00:40 part of his counsel, he's moving from the affirmations and 00:44 now he is coming to maybe spank them a little bit. 00:47 There is a couple of areas that he is really concerned 00:51 about in our passage verses 1-12. 00:53 One is the area of sexuality and how the members relate to 00:57 each other in that way. 00:58 Second is the area of work ethic and how hard they work 01:03 and some of that. 01:04 So he, he is out to remedy the deficit in their practice. 01:09 In particular I think he is concerned here about how they 01:13 behave in relation to outsiders. 01:15 The one thing the Church cannot afford is outsiders 01:17 to look at the church and say the people are really 01:20 messed up. - Yeah! - And it's true. - Right. 01:22 So Paul is saying, these are a couple of areas, if you are 01:26 out of line on these it not only causes problems in your 01:29 life, but it even disrupts the church's witness. 01:32 Paul can't stand that. 01:34 Yeah that's huge, that's huge. 01:36 Our passage to begin with is in verses 1 and 2 01:42 of chapter 4, and Paul writes this: 02:06 Now I love again, Paul we talked about him in prayer. 02:10 Here he is expanding on his prayers, the things that he 02:14 mentions earlier in his prayers, specifically in chapter 02:17 3:11-13, we now see him starting to talk to the 02:20 Thessalonians about, share with us a little about that. 02:22 Well one thing I like here as he is talking 02:25 about more and more, where they are is good, 02:31 but he wants them to keep growing and this is a phrase 02:33 he will say over and over again, I want you to do what 02:36 you're doing more and more. 02:37 Their deficit is not so much that they are doing bad 02:41 things, their deficit is that they need to keep growing. 02:45 They have made a start, it's a good start and they need 02:48 to keep growing, and that is a major concern 02:51 that he has here. 02:53 In this verse he is kind of picking up on what he said in 02:57 chapter 3, especially the prayer at the end of chapter 3. 03:01 In the Greek language there is four major words in that prayer 03:06 of chapter 3, and that is the words abounding, holiness, 03:11 love, and then reference to the second coming, 03:16 the return of Jesus. 03:17 As you go through chapter 4 you see he is taking up each 03:21 of those issues that he mentioned in that prayer at 03:23 the end of chapter 3. 03:25 So Paul here is very structured, very organized 03:30 and we might miss it, that is why we use a variety of 03:33 translations in this program, and in Thessalonians itself 03:37 I use the translation that I made directly from the Greek 03:41 where we can pick up on some of those connections that are 03:45 there in the text. 03:46 I love again, how Paul truly his prayer life is a part 03:51 of how he processes life day to day. 03:53 Unfortunately I think sometimes, for us as Christians, 03:57 prayer is this thing that is kind of a last resort. 04:00 You know we can kind of live our life and 04:03 then we get in a bind, then we go to prayer. 04:05 Lord help me, Lord figure this out, Lord get me out of this, 04:08 but Paul wasn't that way, sure he talked to God, I'm sure 04:11 when he was in prison they prayed and sang hymns. 04:14 But he processed everything with his relationships and 04:18 it was just the way he processed life. 04:20 Prayer was his life, it wasn't a thing of last resort. 04:24 I love seeing that again here in 1 Thessalonians. 04:26 In a world that is dizzy in its distractions, it's 04:30 important to be reminded of that prayer. 04:31 It is the place where we can do the worrying, if you wish. 04:35 We all tend to worry about a lot of stuff, why don't you 04:39 take your worries right to the throne of God? 04:41 It would be embarrassing to do that, but it can help you 04:44 process them. - and He can handle them. 04:46 Yeah, He could handle it, and one other thing in verse 2 04:49 I want to mention is, he said, we gave you instructions 04:52 through the Lord Jesus. 04:55 Now as scholars have studied 1 Thessalonians carefully 04:58 they have noticed in chapters 4 and 5 of 1 Thessalonians there 05:04 are multiple references to the sayings of Jesus. 05:07 He mentions it only twice directly in 05:10 verse 1 of chapter 4 and verse 15 of chapter 4. 05:13 He mentions that it is Jesus instructions that he is 05:17 getting into here, but there is probably 20 or so 05:21 illusions, words, phrases, sentences, that echo 05:25 the sayings of Jesus. 05:27 Now this wouldn't be remarkable to us except you don't 05:29 find that normally in Paul. 05:31 This is a collection that stands out from 05:35 its absence in other places. 05:37 - Okay! - so I think when he says through the Lord Jesus, 05:40 he is saying, Paul just didn't give them his own ideas 05:43 but he was giving them the tradition that he got from 05:47 Jesus, the actual words and actions and sayings of Jesus. 05:51 And that is so crucial, it can be easy I think sometimes 05:56 to make disciples of us, if you will. 05:59 You know, but here Paul again keeping the words of Jesus 06:04 in a sense, before them. 06:06 That is so important for us to do when we think, I mean 06:09 the great commission is go make disciples. 06:11 Well make disciples of Jesus Christ. 06:14 So we constantly, as we are in relationships with people, 06:17 have to constantly bring them before the words of Christ. 06:20 Help them to grow, get grounded, sit before Jesus. 06:24 I always loved the story of Mary and Martha. 06:26 Mary sitting before Jesus, and Jesus says Mary has chosen 06:29 the one thing that is important, to sit at My feet and 06:32 listen to Me, so consequently bringing people before the 06:35 feet of Jesus to listen to Him and take their direction 06:38 from Him is so important. 06:39 Making disciples of Jesus, not of anyone else but Jesus. 06:42 It is so important, it is so important. 06:44 Well let's get into verse 3, because verse 3 gets into 06:48 the part of this text that can be challenging I think. 06:51 Then and now, it says: 06:57 Let me just mention again this is my translation here! 07:10 In other words he defines holiness, in a sense, 07:13 as keeping away from sexual immorality. 07:17 This word holiness I think a lot of people struggle to 07:19 understand what that means. 07:21 What does that mean to you Jon? 07:22 Well you know it's always tough, what does that mean to 07:25 live a holy life? Are we talking perfection? 07:28 Are we talking that you have arrived? 07:30 Does it mean that you completely avoid living around 07:33 sinful people, I mean Jesus didn't do that? 07:35 He went to the sinners, He lived amongst them. 07:38 He got a bad reputation because He did that. 07:41 But you know I think this holiness talks about being 07:47 sanctified, by being set apart for. 07:49 There is something there about being set apart for God 07:52 and for His love. You know when someone gets married 07:55 they enter into this holy matrimony. 07:59 Their love, they are set apart to each other in that love. 08:01 But it calls us to certain behaviors on how we are going to 08:04 live in the world, and I think Paul is going to get very 08:07 specific about how we live in that holiness. 08:09 Maybe you can share a little about that from this text. 08:12 Yeah, well this word sexual immorality translates 08:15 a variety of ways. 08:16 In the Greek language is Pernanai. And that is where the 08:21 English word pornography comes from. 08:24 It is often used of prostitution and other elements 08:28 of the sexual immorality, so Paul is 08:30 getting very specific here. 08:33 He says if we want to be holy we need to avoid various 08:38 forms of sexual immorality. 08:40 And in today's world those can be public, 08:43 they can also be very private. 08:44 He says something interesting in the next verse that has 08:50 puzzled scholars for a long time. 08:52 He says, I've got the solution for you, acquire a vessel. 08:56 So let's read that verse and see what 09:00 he is getting at there: 09:18 So this is interesting, acquire a vessel. 09:21 What is that all about? 09:23 We will get into that in a minute, but here's the question 09:26 Paul is talking about sexual restraint in this passage. 09:29 That is not a popular message to a lot of people today. 09:32 It wasn't popular in the ancient world. 09:34 I think it is interesting that, it's the same thing today 09:39 people want to do what you want. 09:41 But the Cicero wrote something, let me read it to you. 09:44 He was a senator of the Roman empire around the time 09:47 Paul was writing, so this is current stuff. 09:50 He says, "if there's anyone who thinks that youth should be 09:54 "forbidden affairs, even with courtesans, he is doubtless 09:58 "animatedly austere, but his view is contrary not only to 10:01 "the license of this age, but also to the customs and 10:05 "concessions of our ancestors. For one it was not a common 10:08 "practice, one wasn't blamed, one wasn't forbidden." 10:13 So in the Roman empire people were free to do whatever 10:17 they wanted sexually and there was no restraint 10:21 whatsoever and yet Paul is giving a message that is 10:26 totally out of step with that. 10:27 It's a message that says lustful passion will not 10:32 admit of restraint, you see. 10:35 For the Christian this becomes a very, very important 10:40 issue and in this text he talks about acquiring a vessel. 10:44 We are not quite sure exactly that means. 10:48 But when you get into a little different there is 10:51 2 options here, one of them is get a wife. 10:54 - there you go. - Because you see the word vessel 10:56 in some places in the New Testament is used for the female 11:01 gender, so some people think acquire a vessel he must 11:05 be saying for the Christian, one way to deal with 11:09 sexual temptation is to get married and exercise it 11:13 lawfully in that context. 11:15 But the word acquire here, it's a normal word used for shopping 11:19 and things like that, this is what causes the problem. 11:23 That word also can be used in terms of control, you see. 11:28 If vessel means your body it is also a possibility, 11:32 then what he is saying is, control your body. 11:35 Keep things under control. 11:38 If that is what he is saying here, than he is saying, 11:41 holiness is all about avoiding sexual immorality and 11:45 maintaining control over your body and the actions 11:49 that your body takes. - okay. Wow! 11:53 Well that can be a tough thing, I mean the issue of self 11:57 control, that seems to be where the battle is. 12:01 I had a summer internship once, is that related to this? 12:04 Yeah you know during the summers I did internship 12:08 for a high school and college students. 12:10 We would constantly talk about God's desire for us to 12:15 be sanctified, to be set apart. 12:17 And the process of being sanctified, that you grow in God 12:22 sanctification, is not just when you say yes to Jesus. 12:26 I like to say when I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior, 12:29 that is the big yes, and then for the rest of my journey 12:33 with Jesus I keep saying these little yeses to Him. 12:35 Yes Lord, yes Lord, more of the setting apart, 12:38 falling deeper in love with Him, which impacts greatly 12:42 how I live in this world. 12:43 You know with Paul's words, don't be conformed to the 12:47 world but be transformed in the renewing of your mind. 12:50 I'm glad you brought that up, because the word for 12:54 holiness and sanctification is not an end result word. 12:58 It's a process word, in other words his goal is 13:02 sanctifying, it is a process of growing more and more. 13:05 People can get discouraged and say you got to be there, 13:08 no, just be in the process. 13:10 So how do you handle these issues with your kids 13:14 and stuff like that? 13:16 Well that is almost a whole episode by itself, 13:18 or a series if you will on that, but you know it is 13:22 a very real thing that we live in. 13:24 We have conversations constantly as we drive down the 13:27 road, or you walk into a convenience store and you have 13:30 all those magazines right in front of you and they are 13:33 looking at them going oh my goodness, these women dress 13:36 certain ways and all these different things. 13:37 We talk about how unfortunately in this society, sexuality 13:43 is like currency, it is how you sell things. 13:45 We talk about how God did not design as for that, 13:49 but for us to love one another in a way that is 13:52 beyond just the sexual. 13:53 So we have to process that very carefully. 13:57 You see commercials all the time for cars and different 14:00 things. We are going to take a break and we will talk 14:02 about that later. - alright! |
Revised 2023-01-25