July 3, 2012
As you may
have heard, we are studying 1 Thessalonians this summer.
And each
Summer Style Tuesday is going to look something like this:
We will enjoy
a dinner together… oh it’s gonna be tasty. By the way, let’s thank the Heringer
family for providing tonight’s meal!
After
supper, we’ll have our mixer which promises to be deeply competitive and
potentially violent – Just kidding-
Then, after
some announcements we’ll gather for a 5-10 minute introduction on the passage
of the night.
Following
the introduction we will break into single gender discussion groups for the
braiding of hair and eating of steel…
But really,
these discussion groups are the focus of each Tuesday night. Our hope is that
friendships would be made in these groups, that the Scriptures would bear light
on our lives, and that we would discover God together in community throughout this
summer.
After our
Discussion Groups finish, we will gather for a recap of the night’s text and
wrap up the night with our Summer worship leaders Jason Moon and Taylor Snow
leading us through a few songs of praise and prayer.
So that’s
our usual Tuesday night.
However,
tonight is different. Tonight, I’m going to give an introduction to I Thessalonians,
that will be around 15 minutes, and then we’ll break into Discussion Groups for
some group bonding.
So first…
why I Thessalonians? Why is I Thessalonians our choice of study of all the
possibilities for this 9 week summer?
Let me
explain it this way…
At age 16…
Lebron James was the most widely anticipated high school basketball player
ever. You may remember this.
He was
viewed so highly that people began calling him King James…before even being a
professional player, let alone a champion!
King James
was drafted as the first player overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers and played
there for 7 years. In six of those years he faced bitter defeat in the playoffs, and one of these losses took place in the NBA
Finals. And as you know… Great Kings are generally known for losing when it
matters…ha.
So… King
James took his talents to South
Beach to play for the
Miami Heat with All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh…and a bunch of scrubs.
The Heat
instantly became the favorite to win the NBA Championship. Ironically, though,
they started 9-8… which is unideal if you’re the pre-season favorite to win the
title. (If you ask me…it’s unideal to be a King who can’t really win.)
But
eventually, they got hot and they never looked back en route to crushing the
76ers, the rival Celtics and the Bulls in the playoffs.
In the
finals, the Heat kept going as they went up 2-1 in the best of 7 series against
the Dallas Mavericks.
But then… King James decided not to play basketball anymore. No one really knows what he was playing as he chucked threes and 20 foot jump shots on a regular basis. It was kind of odd.
If you
have heard just one thing about Lebron James, you’ve probably heard that he
“can’t finish”. You’ve probably heard that Lebron James doesn’t close out games. He doesn’t have
the killer instinct that great players have.
You know….
if you give Lebron James a dollar, he will give you 3 quarters back (throw
quarters)
If you cut
up his steak into tiny pieces, he’ll choke
on the last one. (cough)
… He
regularly goes to sleep just a quarter
after 3 each night.
Whatever you’ve heard, it pertains to Lebron James not finishing a game.
It’s about a King without a crown because he could not finish the battle.
But why am
I talking about Lebron James? Especially after he DID win a championship just a
few weeks ago!
Because when I read I Thessalonians I started to think of Lebron James.
Here’s why.
Lebron
James was dealing with a very similar problem to the church Paul ministered to
in Thessalonica.
They didn’t
know how to finish. They didn’t know how to carry on in the face of
persecution. In the church’s case, they didn’t know how to live a full life of
right faith, right hope and right love in Jesus.
One
thing I have experienced as a Christian is that there are days that I want to
take off. There are days that I conclude, either at the beginning of the day,
or the end of the day, that I don’t know how to carry on.
Do you
ever feel this way?
Look
around. In this community, in your greater church community. There are people
who have lived this faith out for 20, 30, 60 years.
I’m always
wondering: HOW do they do it?
I don’t
know if you’ve realized…but our existence on this planet is often quite
difficult! How can somebody carry on in the way of Jesus for decades? In the
face of persecution, suffering, loss, and eventual physical death. That’s
right, we are allllll gonna die!
In I
Thessalonians 3:2 Paul says they sent ministers to the church and he writes “to
establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these
afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4
For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to
suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.
Paul is
saying that we are destined for affliction. Destined. so Paul writes this letter to encourage
this community how to stay afloat. To live a life of love, faith and hope
especially in times of trouble.
So that is
why we want to study I Thessalonians this summer.
I
Thessalonians articulates for us in a very clear way, how we should finish this
race marked out for us. How we can continue striving to be loving servants,
a faithful, holy and pleasing church, and how we can rightly perceive the
future hope we have in resurrection with Christ.
So what
does this come down to? Real quickly.
1) We
should study I Thessalonians because it encourages us to live out of LOVE.
Paul writes
in 1 Thess 2:8, which is in your hand out…
So, being
affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the
gospel of God abut also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
In other
words, Paul had the right idea of how to love this church. He didn’t just want
to share the gospel. He wanted to join them in relationship. Paul wanted them
to impact him----just as much as he wanted to impact the church body
2) We
should study I Thessalonians because it encourages us to live out of FAITH.
1 Thess 4:1
Finally, then, brothers,1 we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you
received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are
doing, that you do so more and more.
What’s he
saying? Paul exhorts us to live a life that is pleasing to God. We should trust
that God’s way is the Way. And that when we live to please God we are also
living a fully human existence. We have to believe that.
3) We
should study I Thessalonians because it encourages us to live out of HOPE.
1 Thess 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed,
brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who
have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so,
through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
What’s this
mean?
Paul
assures us that when Jesus returns believers who have passed and who are still
alive will raise up with him. For more on what that means, you’ll have to wait
for Nathan Ely to cover this in a few more weeks!
But, I’ll
give you this: being raised up, as Paul says, probably does not mean meeting
Jesus in the sky literally.
So why
should we study I Thessalonians?
Because we need what this church
needed.
The church
in Thessalonica struggled with how to finish the race marked out for them. They
looked at their current circumstances and became burdened with confusion and
loss over what was happening.
Paul wrote
this letter to tend to their needs. They needed to be encouraged to have a
right love – a love that is self sacrificial and a love that shares oneself.
They needed
a right faith – a faith that aims to please God and trust in his Way over our
own.
And they
needed a right hope- an eternal hope that rests on a future with Jesus when he
comes back.
So this is
our purpose for I Thessalonians, and I certainly hope that you will join us in
studying these topics throughout this summer!
Now, let me
offer a few more introductory ideas about the text, and then we’ll break into
our Discussion Groups (Can I call them DG’s? It sounds way cooler.)
1. Genre
What kind
of writing is I Thessalonians? Look with me to 5:27 in the hand out.
1 Thess 5:27
I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the
brothers.
So, it’s a
letter. Paul is writing a letter to his friends in Thessalonica, whom he loves
deeply, to encourage their faith and trust in Jesus.
2. Author
and Date
Scholars
are unified in believing that Paul wrote this letter around AD 50 or 51.
It’s our
oldest preserved Christian writing, and it was written after Paul’s second
visit to Thessalonica.
At this
time, Paul was a missionary on his second big journey alongside his team of
trustees Timothy and Silas.
3. Occasion
What caused
Paul to write this document as it is? This is hugely important to our
understanding of the text.
Scholars
agree that at this time, Thessalonica was a city of diverse population, with
many Gentiles openly worshiping idols and false gods.
Paul came to preach “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” and during his time in Thessalonica he attracted God-fearing Jews and Gentiles, Gentiles being non-Jews.
Paul’s
success led to persecution as he was forced to flee the city and settle in Corinth. Eventually Paul
sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to gather a report of how things were going.
Paul wrote I Thessalonians based on this report. He wrote this letter seeking
to encourage the church in Thessalonica to take up the challenge of spreading
faith in Jesus, while staying the course in its “destined affliction.”
In other
words, this church was struggling with how to live a life of right love, faith
and hope in the midst of suffering and even the death of loved ones.
So Paul
wrote a letter to offer counsel during this tough time.
4. Organization
How is I Thessalonians organized?
Simply put,
the letter has three sections, and each one concludes with prayer.
1. Greeting
and Thanksgiving –Paul thanks God for the work already done with this
church body.
2. Paul’s
Ministry Defense– Paul defends the conduct of his team- reiterating that
they came to serve and not deceive.
3. Ethical
Instruction- Paul exhorts the church to live a life pleasing to God until the
return of Jesus.
So, that’s
the structure of the letter.
Finally,
how can we as a community get the most out of I Thessalonians this summer?
Here are
three ideas:
1. Read the
entire book each week.
It’s short. It’s relatively straight
forward. And it will take 15 minutes.
2. Study I
Thessalonians against the backdrop of Paul’s other letters
Mainly Philippians, Galatians, I and II Corinthians, and
Romans. These are the letters most closely connected to the timeframe of when
Paul wrote I Thessalonians. Since they all
follow I Thessalonians, you’ll notice that they offer insight into some of
Paul’s firstborn ideas on Christian living.
3. Come to
Summer Style having read through and thought through the section of I
Thessalonians for that night.
You can
keep track by noting the schedule on your handout.
Lastly, if
you are seeking growth and challenge this summer, as well as a fulfilling time
in your DG’s, then I suggest taking the time to consider the text before hand.
I am confident that it will multiply
your study experience in your DG.
End with Discussion Groups
