• We left off 2 weeks ago with Paul encouraging the Church to live in holiness (learning to live out of their new heart).

 
LOVING AND WORKING
1 Thessalonians 4
9 About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

• Paul makes the jump from holiness to love pretty quick.
• The only way to live in holiness is being empowered by the Holy Spirit in us. Allowing Him to do it.
• If the Holy Spirit is working in and through us, then love is not a difficult jump from holiness.
• In the Greek language we have 4 common usages of the word “love”
• Eros (erotic) – Can be sinful or sensual. Not used in the New Testament. Eros the word was reduced in quality
• Storge (pronounced STOR-jay), refers to family love, the love of parents for their children. This word is also absent from our New Testament.[1]
• Philia – Brotherly love; deep affection such as in friendship or even a marriage.
• Christians share this love because we have the same Father. Our Father teaches us to “love another”
• Agape - the love God shows toward us. It is not simply a love based on feeling; it is expressed in our wills.
• It is a self-sacrificing love
• Agape love treats others as God would treat them, regardless of feelings or personal preferences.[2]
• When one is given a “new heart”, it is natural for them to love. It is a believer’s distinctive character to love. Just as a fish swims and a bird flies.
• How does God cause our love to “increase more and more”? By living… our circumstances force us to practice Christian love.
• Love is the “circulatory system” of the body of Christ, but if our spiritual muscles are not exercised, the circulation is impaired.
• The difficulties that we believers have with one another are opportunities for us to grow in our love.
• This explains why Christians who have had the most problems with each other often end up loving one another deeply, much to the amazement of the world.[3]

10 In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, 11 to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 so that you may behave properly (honestly, decently) in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.

• Unfortunately, some of the new believers in the church misunderstood the doctrine of Christ’s return and gave up their jobs in order to wait for His coming.
• This meant that they were supported by other Christians, some of whom may not have had sufficient funds for their own families.
• It also meant that these fanatical people could not pay their bills, and therefore they lost their testimony with the unsaved merchants.[4]
• Jesus is coming back so I am going to run up all my credit cards!
• I’m gonna win the lottery can I borrow some $$$
• I’m filing bankruptcy, I might as well spend as much as I can.
• The church was to live in this manner in order to “win the respect of outsiders” and “not be dependent on anybody” (v. 12).
• Thus a series of commands that begins with a concern for growing, mutual Christian love concludes with a concern for the church’s relationship to the non-Christian community.
• R. F. Hock presents another alternative to an eschatological understanding of these verses.
• He argues that the commands “to lead a quiet life” and to “mind your own business” were encouragements to political quietism.
• By avoiding political activism and working at respectable occupations, the church would gain the approval of their non-Christian neighbors.
• Some of the terms Paul used in these verses were indeed used by various Greco-Roman philosophers to encourage withdrawal from public life.
• Such encouragements would make sense in light of the apostle’s past experience in Thessalonica.
• After all, Paul was charged with causing social and political unrest in the city (Acts 17:6–7) and might have responded by advising the church to avoid political entanglements.[5]
• It should be clear from Paul’s own history, however, that living quietly did not mean the church should tone down its proclamation of the gospel.
• On the contrary, Paul consistently encouraged boldness in this regard.
• The church was not to live so quietly that they failed to function as witnesses of Christ both in word and deed. [6]
  
  

THE COMFORT OF CHRIST’S COMING
13 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

• the verb koimaō literally means “to sleep,”
• this is a euphemism for death. (an agreeable or inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that might offend or suggest unpleasantness[7])
• So when Paul uses the word “sleep,” he’s using it in this figurative sense and referring to Christians who have already died.[8]
• Paul’s focus on what Timothy has reported is that they are grieving over the return of Christ.
• Self-focused – “What happens to us?”
• The ancient Greek writer Theocritus, lived about three hundred years before Paul, but he wrote a saying which is very helpful for our question here.
• He said simply this: He said, “Hopes are for the living; without hope are the dead.”
• This is a great quote because he uses the word “hope,” and he talks about it in the context of death.
• And Theocritus is clear that living people are the only people who can have hope, and [for] anybody who’s dead, well, hope is nowhere on the scene.
• That seems to echo, exactly, Paul’s claim in his opening assertion.[9]

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

• Paul is presenting his readers with something that he assumes—and they assume—is true.
• It’s going to be a foundation for an argument that Paul makes, and that’s why some translations render this verse not as “if we believe” but “since we believe”; or sometimes they just make it into a statement: We believe that such and such is the case.[10]

15 For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

• This is a specific text that theologians associate with the “rapture”.
• I can break that down for you but we will miss the pastoral intent of Paul’s letter.
• So let me stay with the intent and I will briefly revisit this passage next week in light of the “rapture”.
• The Thessalonians are grieving over fellow Christians who have fallen asleep, who have died.
• And this is an easy trouble for us to understand because all of us, young or old, have experienced, also, the grief that comes from the death of a loved one.
• We have funerals and now they are called “Celebration of Life”.
• We can grieve and have hope at the same time.
• For instance, in Philippians 2:27 Paul refers to this helper that was sent to him from Philippi; his name was Epaphroditus. And Paul says that if Epaphroditus had died from his illness, Paul would have had “sorrow upon sorrow.” So Paul wouldn’t have felt guilty, and he expected to grieve if, indeed, Epaphroditus would die.
• In Romans 12:15 Paul has an important command; it’s simple but important. He says, “Weep with those who weep.” So Paul recognizes that some of the Christians in Rome are going to be suffering a number of trials, and that will lead to weeping.

 

• Would these family members and friends miss out on the return of Jesus?
• Paul is truly taking their focus back to the teaching of Jesus.
• The Gospels weren’t yet written but remember that Paul had the download of Jesus’ teachings back at his conversion.
• Matthew records some of Jesus teachings on His return in Matthew 24.
• Ask – “How many of you believe Jesus raised from the dead?”
• Paul is saying, “Well, as real as you believe Jesus rose from the dead, that’s how real you can believe your deceased loved ones will rise from the dead.”[11]
• Paul is reminding them to get their focus off yourself and back on Jesus.
• You will still experience grief because of death but grieve with hope. (unlike the others)

18 Therefore encourage (comfort) one another with these words.[12]

• Paul ends the passage by commanding the Christians to parakaleite;
• that is to, well, literally, to be called alongside of one another.
• And this word is the same word that the Gospel writer John uses in his Gospel to describe the Holy Spirit.
• Some older translations actually just take the noun form of the verb and they just render it “the Paraclete,” but the word and the verb refer to someone who is called to your side.
• And, what’s more, when we take seriously the notion of comfort in this closing verb, it’s yet a reminder of the point, and we’ll have to keep making it because it’s a temptation that many who fall into—and that is, to turn this into an end-time, prophecy-type discussion.
• I say to you, the primary purpose of Paul in this passage is not to predict but to pastor.
• In fact, [it’s] not just in this passage of the end times, [and] not just in the next passage, 5:1–11, but even in 2 Thessalonians.
• All three of these extended end-time discussions end with the same concern of Paul, [to comfort] his readers.
• So I know that these words of hope can be words of hope for you.
• And so as you perhaps have already been thinking, in the midst of our study of this passage, about someone you love who has already died, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit will work together with His Word in such a way that, through your tears, you’re not grieving like the rest of men, but you’re a person who grieves with hope.

May God comfort you with this hope of the gospel.[13]

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 177). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 177). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 177). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 177). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[5] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, pp. 136–137). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[6] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, p. 137). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[7] Merriam-Webster, I. (1996). Merriam-Webster’s collegiate thesaurus. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
[8] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[9] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[10] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[11] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[12] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (1 Th 4:9–18). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[13] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

• We left off last week with Paul encouraging the Church through persecution they were experiencing.

 
PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH
1 Thessalonians 3
11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you.

• At least four times Paul has told them this.
• Military reference from 2:18 – our way has been blocked (by satan/evil one)
• May the Lord clear the way/path so we can get to you.

12 And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone, just as we do for you. 13 May he make your hearts blameless (strengthen) in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Amen.[1]

• That verbal phrase “strengthen your hearts” provides a link to what Paul has said earlier in 3:2.
• There Paul talks about how he sent Timothy to the persecuted church in Thessalonica in order [to do] exactly the same thing, “to strengthen [your hearts].”
• So this is a way in which the second prayer anticipates this discussion that Paul is going to have, not love for God and/or Jesus, although that surely was part of the parcel, but here he’s concentrating about the love that the Thessalonians ought to have for one another, and that’s found in the second prayer.
• A second theme in the prayer is this concern for holiness.
• A third topic or concern in the prayer which looks ahead is a reference to what is a temporal reference to the coming of the Lord Jesus “with all his holy ones.”
• May he make your hearts blameless (strengthen) in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
• He has already made our hearts blameless through his blood.
• He is referring to us learning how to live out of the holiness.
• May we be strengthened in the understanding of our holiness and choose to live out of that strength.

 

• Well, we’re at that middle point. We’ve finished our careful study of the first half of the body of the letter, and now Paul, with the help of his transitional prayers, has nicely echoed and concluded the concerns of the first half, but he’s also prepared us well to anticipate the discussion he’s going to have now in the second half of the letter.[2]

 

• Do you believe that we live in a sex saturated world? (TV, movies, internet, etc)
• Do you think it is the worst it ever has been right now?
• Your perspective is maybe 2-4 generations old.
• This letter was written to the Gentiles. The ones who worshipped so many different gods.
• These pagan gods were sexual in their characteristics.
• Man-made gods… why wouldn’t they be sexual?
• Understand the culture during that time:
• We can see that, first of all, in marriage in that time.
• Marriage back then was not a choice but most often an arranged marriage between a man in his twenties and a girl barely in her teens.
• And given the arrangement of the marriage and given the difference in age, it was actually expected that the husband would have a sexual partner who was different than his wife;
• and evidence that that indeed happened, and happened widely, can be seen in grave inscriptions.
• Prostitution is something that you and I wouldn’t want in any way to be associated with, but in the ancient world it really wasn’t a big deal at all.
• In fact, there were many leading and important citizens, people of the upper class, who made money off of men and women in prostitution, and there was no sense of shame or embarrassment about that at all.[3]
• Cicero gave this statement in response to the habits of men who were engaging in the services of affairs with prostitutes. He wrote:

“If anyone thinks that young men should be forbidden to have affairs even with prostitutes, he is very strict indeed … for his view is contrary not only to the law of the present age but even with the habits of our ancestors and what they used to consider allowable. For when was this not a common practice? When was it blamed? When was it forbidden? When, in fact, did that which was lawful become that which was not lawful?

• Cato is a Stoic philosopher who lived a little bit before the time of Paul, and he gave this advice to men. He said, [in effect,] “Men, in order to satisfy your sexual desire, don’t do that with another man’s wife. Make use of a prostitute instead.” That was his practical advice about how men should handle their sexual desires.
• So it’s not surprising that this predominantly Gentile church, who were still relatively new in their faith, would need further instruction from Paul about, well, what [it means] to turn from idols and to serve the living and true God [and how they can] more faithfully live lives in which they do indeed serve that living and true God.
• In English we have this expression “old habits die hard.” So, again, to newbie Christians—to believers who are young in the faith; to Christians who are experiencing pushback and opposition—the apostle Paul is concerned that these Jesus followers might revert back to their former inappropriate behavior.
• And so there is a need—and Timothy informed Paul about this need—to encourage and to equip the Thessalonian Christians to [be holy] in their sexual conduct.[4]
• So the second half of the letter is going to share with the Thessalonians how they can do just that.[5]

THE CALL TO SANCTIFICATION
1 Thessalonians
4 Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing—do this even more. 2 For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is God’s will, your sanctification:

• Paul says this: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.”
• We could equally translate it, “It is God’s will that you should be holy.”
• The words “sanctified” and “holy” are two different English words for the one Greek word that lies behind them both (hagiasmos), and this is a key word occurring four times in the paragraph, holding this paragraph together and revealing its primary theme.
• It’s a passage about being holy—and, especially, holy with regard to your sexual conduct.[6]​

that you keep away from sexual immorality,

• The first of the three commands is the shortest and the most general, and it goes like this. He says, in verse 3b, “You should avoid sexual immorality.” The verb that Paul uses here (“avoid”) is actually a rather strong one in the original Greek language, and it has the idea of not just avoiding something but keeping away from.
• You know, there is a strong sense of “don’t come anywhere near.”
• The word porneia is typically understood as referring to any form of sexual misconduct.
• this first command is quite countercultural. And the challenge is also for us today[7]

4 that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God.

• Paul is talking about how each person should learn to control their own vessel; that is, they should control their own body; that is, they should control their own sexual desires.[8]
• He says here, in the second command of verses 4 and 5, “that each of you should learn to control.”
• Now, I am not naïve. I recognize how there are other things that are influenced by our genetic makeup that are not easy to control.
• For instance, some of us are prone to anger; we fly off the handle just like that. It’s not easy to fix, but yet we are still called upon to correct our behavior. Some of us struggle with food; somehow we’re wired in a way that we react to food differently than other people do.
• Yet we are still called upon—it may not be easy, but we’re still called upon—to, well, to learn to develop control.
• And in a similar way, Paul says that when it comes to our sexual desires, even though we’ve been created with these desires, we have to learn how to control them.
• And how do we control them? For the second time in the passage, he talks about the word “holy,” that we control our body in a way that is holy and honorable, “not in passionate lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.”[9]
• The same thing comes up with another important Old Testament text from Lev 20:23–26. God says this to His covenant people:
• “Do not follow the practices of the nations whom I am driving out before you.… I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from all the nations.… And you will be holy to me, because I, the Lord your God, am holy, the one who separated you from all the nations to be mine.”
• Again, I hope you heard the connection between the two references to “holy” and the words “separated” and “separated” because, again, we are getting this idea that the meaning, the concept of the word holy and holiness, is the idea of being unique, being set apart, being distinctive, being separate.[10]

6 This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you.

• The third command says that to be holy in our sexual conduct means you act in a way in which you don’t bring harm to others.
• Paul says, “The Lord will punish people for all such sins.”
• Now, he adds, at the beginning, the little word “because,” which is omitted in most translations, but it’s important because it shows that this statement is meant to give a justification for the commands that come before it.
• Why should the Thessalonians, and why should we, be holy in our sexual conduct?
• And the first reason has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ and something that He is going to do in the future, Paul says, “because …”; and a more literal rending of the verse is “because an avenger is the Lord concerning all these things.”
• The first reason, for being holy in one’s sexual conduct has to do with the future return of Jesus.[11]

7 For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness.

• He’s saying, “You guys who live in a sex-saturated society, God’s will is that you be holy; that you be separate; that you be set apart; that you be distinct; that you be, well, peculiar when it comes to not only attitudes toward sex but also practices toward sex.”
• And if you’re keeping track, and I am, this is now the third of four occasions within the paragraph of verses 3–8 where Paul uses this keyword and key concept of “holy” because the big theme of the whole passage is the challenge and the call for the Christians not only of the ancient world but us today to live what kind of life with regard to our sexual conducts?
• To live a holy life. And Paul reminds us that God has called us—God has appointed us—to live just that way.[12]

8 Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

• Paul doesn’t really write “God gives you his Holy Spirit”; he writes, “God gives you his Spirit who is holy.”
• Is there a difference between the two? Yes, there is.
• The second reading puts an emphasis on the character of the Spirit that God gives.
• Paul is stressing that God is giving not any old spirit to us His people; He is giving us a Holy Spirit.
• So the reason we can live a holy life is because we have the Holy Spirit living within us.
• Now, Paul is not teaching this, but this verse reveals his indebtedness to the Old Testament. Paul is a thoroughly trained Jew who knows the Old Testament inside out. And here he is reflecting—again, not teaching, but he is reflecting—in his statement beliefs and convictions that the Jewish people had about the future, about how one day God would pour out His Spirit.
• So, if we imagine an Old Testament perspective for a moment, we say, “O God, how we love your law. Out of all the people in the earth, we are the only ones with whom you’ve entered into a covenant relationship.
• We are the only ones to whom you have revealed your will. But although we’re glad for the law, we are struggling with the attempt to obey it fully, so we are appreciative of the sacrifices, which don’t pay for our sins but give us an opportunity to express our true penitence for our failures and our true gratitude for your grace in our lives.”
• We nevertheless are looking to the future, a future time that Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel talked about, a time when God would, well, enter into a new kind of relationship with us His people, a new covenant; and part of that new covenant is that God will pour out His Spirit. And we want that Spirit. Why? Not just because we have the Spirit for the Spirit’s sake. No, the Spirit will empower us to do and to be what God has always called us to do and be, and that is—already, at Mount Sinai—“a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
• So God’s will for His people doesn’t change. He has always called His covenant people to be holy as He is holy.
•  The key to living such lives of holiness is the present and ongoing presence of God’s Spirit.
• So here, as elsewhere in Paul’s letters, the Holy Spirit is the power that enables believers to live holy lives.
• What Paul is promising the Thessalonians, and what God’s Word is promising us here in this third cause is that we who are members of God’s people [have] been given the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, which ultimately is a gift of power, power to overcome sin and to live the holy life that God has always called His people to live.
• So how can we be holy in our sexual conduct?

Well, we can’t do it on our strength, [and] we can’t do it by our own abilities, but we can do it with the present empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. That’s the good news of the gospel that Paul shares with the Thessalonians, and that is also good news for you and me.[13]


[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (1 Th 3:1–13). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[3] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[4] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[5] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[8] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[9] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[10] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[11] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[12] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[13] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

• We left off last week with Paul validating himself…

 
RECEPTION AND OPPOSITION TO THE MESSAGE
1 Thessalonians 2
13 This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe.

• Paul was praising the Thessalonians for their spiritual wisdom.
• They recognized and accepted the gospel as a word from God himself, not the product of debatable human wisdom.
• The fact that this word “is at work in you who believe” serves as further validation both of the truth of the gospel and of the Thessalonian faith.
• The present tense participle “believe” shifts the focus of the verse from the event of the Thessalonians’ conversion to the present state of their faith.[1]

14 For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, since you have also suffered the same things from people of your own country,

• The gospel was worth suffering for.
• Persecution started in Jerusalem, spread through Israel and now has made its way to Mecedonia.

just as they did from the Jews 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us.

• This is the only instance in which Paul charged “the Jews” with the death of Jesus (cf. 1 Cor 2:8).
• “the Jews” is used as a reference not to the people as a whole nor even to those who remained Jews religiously but to those Jews who actively opposed the spread of the gospel.[2]
• Was Paul giving evidence of “religious bigotry” when he accused the Jews of killing Jesus Christ and persecuting the Christians? No, he was simply stating a fact of history.
• Nowhere does the Bible accuse all Jews of what a few Jews did in Jerusalem and Judea when Christ was crucified and the church founded.
• The Romans also participated in the trial and death of Christ, and, for that matter, it was our sins that sent Him to the cross (Isa. 53:6).
• There is no place in the Christian faith for anti-Semitism.
• The first Christians were Jews, as was Paul, the greatest Christian missionary.
• Paul himself loved his fellow Jews and sought to help them (Acts 24:17; Rom. 9:1–5).
• Why, then, did the leaders of Israel officially reject Jesus Christ and persecute His followers? They were only repeating the sins of their fathers.
• Their ancestors had persecuted the prophets long before Jesus came to earth (Matt. 5:10–12).[3]

They displease God and are hostile to everyone,

• Paul encouraged the suffering Christians by assuring them that their experiences were not new or isolated.
• Others had suffered before them and were even then suffering with them.[4]

16 by keeping us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. As a result, they are constantly filling up their sins to the limit, and wrath has overtaken them at last.

• Paul was feeling a little bit sensitive to the criticism, apparently from those outside the church, that “If Paul were really genuine, if he was really sincere, how come he hasn’t come back? How come he hasn’t returned? He’s kind of taken your money and your attention, and he’s left the scene.”
• So our passage comes logically where it does, after 2:1–16, because Paul moves from the past defense to, now, a present defense.[5]

 
PAUL’S DESIRE TO SEE THEM

• Don’t give up on me (Paul)

17 But as for us, brothers and sisters, after we were forced to leave you for a short time (in person, not in heart),

• The Greek term used here, aporphanizō, describes separation between people.
• It was often used in the context of parent-child relationships in which it could describe either children who had been orphaned by their parents or parents who had lost their children.
• Here Paul depicts himself as a father cut off from his children—the Thessalonian believers (compare v. 11).[6]
• Paul is the orphan from the Church at Thessalonica.
• And this is another powerful picture or powerful metaphor that Paul makes.
• If you think about a young boy or girl who loses their parents, they can’t see them, and they often start crying.
• And this is the emotion that Paul is trying to evoke by this metaphor.
• Paul says, “You know, I’m like a little child. I’ve been torn away; I have been orphaned from you, and I’m grieving this separation.”[7]

we greatly desired and made every effort to return and see you face to face.

• Zoom Meetings don’t cut it during a pandemic.
• I hugged someone yesterday and you could feel the emotion between the two of us. I even heard an emotional gasp from the spouse who wasn’t hugging others. There was an obvious absence there.

18 So we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us.

• Military metaphor – “blocked” – dug out in the road.
• Later uses term “the Lord make a way.”

19 For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 Indeed you are our glory and joy![8]

• If you said to someone, “I love you,” that would be one way of expressing your love.
• But what if you said, “I really, really, really, really, really love you”?
• And that’s kind of what Paul does in this paragraph.
• He goes over the top; he uses excessively emotive language in order to drive home this truth and to make sure there’s no doubt in his readers’ minds at all about his genuine love for them.[9]

 
ANXIETY IN ATHENS
1 Thessalonians 3

• Don’t give up on the faith

1 Therefore, when we could no longer stand it, we thought it was better to be left alone in Athens. 2 And we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ,

• Did Paul really need to explain who Timothy was?
• Were there multiple Timothys?
• No! He was affirming the authority of Timothy among the church.

to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith, 3 so that no one will be shaken by these afflictions.

• The Greek word thlipsis is not referring to the bad things [that] happen to all people, that come from living in a fallen world.
• And what that involved in the ancient world was not [getting] thrown into jail or thrown to the lions or in the arena; instead, it’s more accurate to think about ridicule, ostracization, [or] maybe spontaneous acts of violence.
• But that kind of social harassment [is] the key concept that these early Christians were experiencing.
• And it was not because their pagan neighbors were upset that they worshiped Jesus.
• No, it was the fact that they worshiped only Jesus.
• It was the exclusivity of the Christian faith that got them into trouble. So Christians, by not participating in the pagan practices of that day, often wounded public sensibilities, and it led them to being charged [with] being atheists.[10]
• Much like today. If you say, “Jesus is my sole focus.”, you will be called out for not taking a stand on one of the many social agendas that is happening in our world right now.
• Paul was literally encouraging the Church to continue their practice of focusing on their faith in Jesus alone.
• Focus, focus, focus… don’t be distracted by all that is going on around you.
• It is your faith in Jesus that is going to allow you to love and serve others… not your words… not your posts… not your selfish motives… not your agenda… your faith alone in Jesus… Stay focused.

For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.
4 In fact, when we were with you, we told you in advance that we were going to experience affliction, and as you know, it happened.

• Paul is saying that his reader should not be surprised or discouraged by the suffering, since they already know that these things are a normal part of the Christian life.
• Paul was encouraging the Thessalonians in the midst of their suffering [and] to make sure that they remain strong in their faith is to remind them of something he said many times, and that is that it is normal for followers of Jesus Christ to experience this pushback.[11]

5 For this reason, when I could no longer stand it,

• Repeated verse 1.
• “no longer stand it” – watertight – leaking out of a vessel.
• Paul loved the Church at Thessalonica so much that it was cracking and leaking… like a ship or a bowl.

I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing.
 
ENCOURAGED BY TIMOTHY

• God hasn’t given up on you
• Just like the two troubles in paragraphs one and two ultimately stem from Satan’s evil supernatural power—verses 2:18 in the first unit and 3:5 in the second—so, also, the solution to the two troubles is God’s good supernatural grace.[12]

6 But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and love.

• Timothy has just returned as Paul pens this letter.
• Paul is encouraging them about “their faith”

He reported that you always have good memories of us and that you long to see us, as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction, we were encouraged about you through your faith.

• Faith & love were, and still are, the distinctive characteristics of those who are true members of the community of the redeemed (Gal. 5:6; Eph. 1:15; Col. 1:4–5; 1 Tim. 1:14; Phlm. 5; Rev. 2:19).[13]

8 For now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, 10 as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith?[14]

• There is something about seeing a person face to face.
• About touching them… hugging them… having conversation without restrictions of letter writing, social networking or seeing them through a screen.
• We always long for the reunion… my sister and niece are flying to Indy on Saturday.
• We are taking 66 people to camp next Sunday.
• We get to reunite at Pinheads on July 12th…
• In the mean time…
• How can we thank God?

[1] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, p. 88). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, pp. 90–91). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 169). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 169). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[5] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (1 Th 2:17). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (1 Th 2:13–20). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[10] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[11] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[12] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[13] Green, G. L. (2002). The letters to the Thessalonians (p. 167). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.
[14] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (1 Th 3:1–10). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

• We left off last week with Paul’s introduction (opening) and verses of Thanksgiving for the Church at Thessalonica.

 
PAUL’S CONDUCT
1 THESSALONIANS 2

• In 2:1–12, Paul is defending his past character during his three-plus Sabbaths in that church.

1 For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our visit with you was not without result.

• Paul emphasized the fact that the readers themselves must testify to his character.
• “You know” is emphatic in the Greek text.
• If Paul was combating critics, he did so by calling on the Thessalonians as defense witnesses.[1]
• He’s reminding them of what was done and also looking for confirmation.
• “Yes, right?”

2 On the contrary, after we had previously suffered and were treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, we were emboldened by our God to speak the gospel of God to you in spite of great opposition.

• They were beaten Philippi and ran out of town.
• But then God gave them boldness/courage to come to Thessalonica and teach the same message.
• Tell me today, that Pastors aren’t told what to preach/talk about on Sunday mornings.
• Paul said he came to speak the Good News instead of what everyone else is instructing him to do.

3 For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive.

• Even in Paul’s days, there were people who preached a message with the intent of making money.

4 Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts.

• A person obligated to speak for one who can judge the heart would be foolish to change the message in order to please the hearers.
• Such an act would comprise a breach of trust.
• Thus it was impossible in the mind of the apostle to be a person pleaser and a God pleaser at the same time[2]
• A steward owns nothing, but possesses and uses everything that belongs to his master.[3]
• Are you a good steward of your resources, time and physical body?

5 For we never used flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives—God is our witness--

• Paul didn’t put on a show or manipulate emotions to share the Gospel.
• There were no fancy presentations.
• There was no salesmanship occurring.
• Material support in return for spiritual or philosophical instruction was common both in the church and in the Hellenistic world in general.
• It was not considered improper.
• In this context the term indicates more than simple financial support.
• It refers to the weight of authority that might put a demand for financial support or a demand for respect.[4]

6 and we didn’t seek glory from people, either from you or from others.

• What is the problem that Paul is trying to address?”
• And the answer is [that] he’s trying to react and correct criticisms about his character from opponents.
• Paul’s opponents were both the Jews & the Gentiles.
• He was teaching and people were converting from Judaism and the pagan gods.
• You probably have had that experience where someone you know is in the room and they get a phone call, and you hear one half of the conversation.
• But even though you don’t hear the other half, it’s not difficult, usually, for you to reconstruct what the other person is saying.
• And something similar like that is true for us when we read Paul’s letters.
• We are hearing one half of the conversation, Paul’s half, but from what Paul says we can pretty easily and pretty confidently reconstruct what the other half is, what other people were saying to which Paul is now responding.[5]

 

• Paul, in our passage, gives the Christians in Thessalonica three pictures, three family pictures: a picture of an infant, a picture of a mother, and a picture of a father.
• And Paul gives them these three pictures in order to help the Thessalonians think about Paul in the right way.
• Paul is concerned about this issue because he knows of the intimate connection between the messenger and the message.
• The intimate link between the messenger and the message.
• In other words, if there are any questions about the character of the messenger, that automatically can raise in people’s minds questions about the character, the integrity, of the message.[6]
• Trust – If you don’t trust your pastor, you need to find one you can.
• The same thing Paul is teaching is what I am teaching.
• Trust the Father. But how can we teach you to trust the Father if you can’t even trust us?
• One of my biggest issues, is integrity.
• Some say that is a pride issue.
• Let me be the 1st to say, I’m not perfect in my behavior.
• But when it comes to my integrity, you might have just pushed one of my buttons.
• I want to be able to live my life (even though I still do acts of the flesh) so that it will publicly prove my integrity.
• I am not interested in putting on a show.
• I am interested in people connecting with me and trusting me.
• It is through the connection and trust that they will listen to the message of Jesus Christ.
• If I can’t connect with people and build their trust, then I am nothing but a clanging gong.
• I don’t see it as a “pride issue” but a necessity for the Gospel to be heard by the community.

7 Although we could have been a burden as Christ’s apostles, instead we were gentle (infant) among you,

• The idea of innocence also comes from an ancient author of Paul’s day.
• Philo, the important Jewish writer, said this: “It is impossible for the greatest liar to invent a charge against infants”—same word that Paul uses—“as they are wholly innocent.”
• So this quote from Philo is important to show that in the ancient world the word that Paul uses--nēpios or “infant” or “baby”—was associated with the idea of innocence.[7]

as a nurse (mother/ wet nurse) nurtures her own children. 8 We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. 9 For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers and sisters. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers.

• Interesting how Paul refers to himself as a nursing mom.
• One that connects intimately with their children no matter what they do.
• Mothers have a tendency to look the child in the eye during nursing and there is a connection there that a Dad will never have.
• The sacrifice of a nursing mother is that she is available both day and night.
• The nursing mother eats the food and transforms it into milk for the baby.
• The mature Christian feeds on the Word of God and then shares its nourishment with the younger believers so they can grow.
• This metaphor Paul uses about his ministry is to help them understand how much he deeply loves them.
• So, although effective ministry demands that pastors and church leaders act in a professional way, ministry must never become a profession.[8]

11 As you know, like a father with his own children, 12 we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to live worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.[9]

• There is no question that, in the ancient world, parents—and especially fathers—were authoritative powerful figures.
• That has changed in our society because we get Homer Simpson, Tim the Toolman Taylor, Al Bundy and Phil Dunfy.
• In other words, it’s important to see that Paul is not misusing his authoritative fatherly role; instead, Paul says the purpose of [his] being a father to [them was to help them] live lives that are “worthy of God.”
• What does it mean to “walk worthy of God”?
• Walk by the Spirit
• Having my integrity with Cory & Chloe is more important than having it with you.
• They have to trust me if I am going to have intimate conversations with them.
• I used to come at them with emotions… it just turned them away.
• So there are clear structures put on the authority and the purpose of that authoritative role that Paul, as a spiritual father, has.
• Pastors do not wait to discover how the rest of the congregation feels about a particular issue before they venture their own opinion; but instead, they, in an appropriate way, move ahead in articulating a vision for the future.
• That means that church leaders don’t quickly retract statements or change their opinion at the first sign that people don’t like what they say.
• In other words, they are not afraid to run the risk of saying things that are biblical and that are relevant and true but are also potentially unpopular.
• These three same family metaphors are true and appropriate not just for those in leadership position but for all members of the church.[10]

[1] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, p. 70). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, pp. 73–74). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 163). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, p. 76). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[8] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[9] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (1 Th 2:1–12). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[10] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

• We left off last week with Paul in Corinth.
• Silas and Timothy rejoined him there.
• Timothy has given him a direct report of all that has occurred in Thessaloniki since Paul’s departure.
• Paul sits down to write this letter to the Church at Thessalonica.
• The Church in Thessalonica was close to perfect as you could get in comparison to the other churches Paul writes letters to.
• “If you find the perfect church, don’t join it because you will make it imperfect.” Statement based upon behavior.
  
  

1 THESSALONIANS
GREETING
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy:

• First and Second Thessalonians are the only two of his letters in which Paul did not add some elaboration to his name and/or to the names of his cosenders.[1]

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Paul uses the word church which is transcribed ekklesia in Greek.
• The word church means “a called-out people.”
• Whenever you read about a call in the Bible, it indicates divine election—God is calling out a people from this world.[2]
• The Jews were God’s chosen people (called out) in the Old Covenant.
• Ekklēsia is also a synonym for “synagogue” (synagōgē) and was occasionally used of Jewish assemblies in the Septuagint.[3]
• Yes, Paul was intentional in using “ekklesia” because he was making the point of "oneness" in Christ.
• There had to be Jews who were upset that he was including the Gentiles.
• There had to be Gentiles who didn't want to be associated with the Jews.
• But those who were focused on Paul's message of Good News were rejoicing in the "oneness".

Grace to you and peace.

• Grace precedes peace, because peace is the result of grace.
• When God’s grace comes to you, then grace will come from you and you will have peace.

 
THANKSGIVING

• This “thanksgiving” section is a commendation and exhortation.
• It is the “coming attractions” for the body of the letter.

2 We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you constantly in our prayers.

• Paul could not call them, social network, visit them.
• He could not be with them.
• His only option was to think about them and pray for them.

3 We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Faith, hope and love.
• Timothy has shared how they have modeled their faith to Paul.
• Works were produced by faith
• Labor was motivated by love
• Endurance was inspired by hope
• All three were based upon “in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Jesus does this through the Church.

4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you,

• Elect, chosen because they are “in Christ”.

5 because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance.

• It was not because we spoke eloquently.
• But you could clearly see God working in us and through us.
• Power = “dynamite”
• The assurance of the converts, if that is what Paul had in mind, might have been demonstrated by their willingness to endure persecution even after Paul was run out of the city[4]

You know how we lived among you for your benefit, 6 and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord

• We patterned for you what it was like to live your life by another power.
• There was no New Testament at that time.
• It was Paul, Silas & Timothy’s spoken word as well as the Spirit living and working through them.
• You are talking about Paul, the killer of Christians.
• See how the Lord transformed him.
• If Paul, the man who killed Christians, can have a heart change, then so can you.

when, in spite of severe persecution,

• The Gospel was in opposition of idolatry.
• Christians got blamed for everything.

you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.

• You had faith, hope and love from the Holy Spirit.

7 As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

• Paul is commending here with also the implication that they should continue on doing these things.
• People are talking about you all over the world.

8 For the word of the Lord rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out.

• This is the ripple effect.
• It was evident. They couldn’t hold back
• It was like this loudspeaker.
• Not only in their words but their life actions.

Therefore, we don’t need to say anything, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you: how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

• This leads us to believe that the majority of the believers in Thessalonica were Gentiles because they turned from their idols/gods.

10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.[5]

• Paul teases them with the resurrection and what is to come.
• He will answer their questions in chapters 4-5.

 
What every church should be is what every Christian should be: elect (born again), exemplary (imitating the right people), enthusiastic (sharing the Gospel with others), and expectant (daily looking for Jesus Christ to return).[6]

[1] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, p. 47). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 159). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[3] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, p. 50). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[4] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, p. 59). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (1 Th). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 163). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

• We left off last week with… Paul preaching in Athens at the Aeropagus where he was both ridiculed and followed. Notably by specific women

A SHORT MINISTRY IN THESSALONICA
Acts 18
51 AD
1 After this, he left Athens and went to Corinth,

• Corinth was approximately fifty miles from Athens and almost due west. (Show map)
• Corinth, with its 200,000 people, would not be the easiest city in which to start a church, and yet that’s where Paul went after leaving Athens.
• And he went alone! The going was tough, but the apostle did not give up.
• A man was shoveling snow from his driveway when two boys carrying snow shovels approached him.
• “Shovel your snow, Mister?” one of them asked. “Only two dollars!”
• Puzzled, the man replied, “Can’t you see that I’m doing it myself?”
• “Sure,” said the enterprising lad; “that’s why we asked. We get most of our business from people who are half through and feel like quitting!”[1]
• Rob Bell - “Puke & Rally”
• Corinth’s reputation for wickedness was known all over the Roman Empire. (Rom. 1:18–32 was written in Corinth!)
• Thanks to its location, the city was a center for both trade and travel. Money and vice, along with strange philosophies and new religions, came to Corinth and found a home there.
• Corinth was one of the two most important cities Paul visited. The other was Ephesus.

2 where he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul came to them, 3 and since they were of the same occupation, tentmakers by trade, he stayed with them and worked.[2]

• Jewish rabbis did not accept money from their students but earned their way by practicing a trade.
• All Jewish boys were expected to learn a trade, no matter what profession they might enter.
• “He who does not teach his son to work, teaches him to steal!” said the rabbis; so Saul of Tarsus learned to make leather tents and to support himself in his ministry[3]

 

• Priscilla and Aquila are Jews who have been expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius.
• They, like Paul, are tentmakers. Because the Isthmian games are being held in Corinth at this time, there is a great need for temporary shelter. Thus the three tentmakers get plenty of business.
• Were Aquila and Priscilla Christian believers at that time? We don’t know for certain, but it’s likely that they were.
• Perhaps they were even founding members of the church in Rome. We do know that this dedicated couple served most faithfully and even risked their lives for Paul (Rom. 16:3–4).
• They assisted him in Ephesus (Acts 18:18–28) where they even hosted a church in their home (1 Cor. 16:19).
• Aquila and Priscilla were an important part of Paul’s “team” and he thanked God for them. They are a good example of how “lay ministers” can help to further the work of the Lord.
• Every pastor and missionary thanks God for people like Aquila and Priscilla, people with hands, hearts, and homes dedicated to the work of the Lord.
• Paul lived and worked with Aquila and Priscilla, but on the Sabbath days witnessed boldly in the synagogue.
• After all, that was why he had come to Corinth. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia (Acts 17:14–15; 18:5), they brought financial aid (2 Cor. 11:9), and this enabled Paul to devote his full time to the preaching of the Gospel.
• What a joy it must have been for Paul to see his friends and to hear from them the good news of the steadfastness of the Christians in the churches they had planted together (1 Thes. 3).[4]

 
Problems in Thessaloniki

• There is a Greek scholar who said this Thessaloniki is the only seaboard city of contemporary Greece that has never, from its foundation (316 BC) till today, lost its commercial importance.
• Ranged in population anywhere from sixty-five thousand to a hundred thousand is a good guesstimate, and that means that Thessalonica ranks up among the top ten most important cities in the ancient world in the Roman Empire.[5]
• You’re likely familiar with the fact that Julius Caesar was assassinated, and, ultimately, that assassination led to a battle against two of the assassins, Brutus and Cassius.
• [There were] two other Romans who were defending the honor of Caesar. One was Marc Antony, and the other was a kid, because he was only eighteen years old. He was the grandnephew of Caesar, and he became, ultimately, Caesar Augustus.
• And so we have this massive battle between Romans taking place—of all places, not in Italian soil but in northern Greece, just down the road from Thessalonica around the city of Philippi.
• And on one side, with Philippi behind it, stood Brutus and Cassius, and they were in the stronger position.
• And on the other side, to the west, with Thessalonica behind them, was Marc Antony and Octavian.
• And so the city of Thessalonica had to make a choice: Which side would they support? And the consequences were potentially great.
• Well, either out of wisdom or out of luck, they sided with the right people because, somewhat surprisingly, Marc Antony and Octavian won this battle, and as a result of their loyalty, the city of Thessalonica was rewarded by these two now-Roman leaders Marc Antony and Octavian with the status of a “free city.”[6]
• Now, the status of a free city is really a big deal because that meant that the city enjoyed some important benefits, like a measure of autonomy over administrating their local affairs.
• They had the right to mint their own coins, they had some tax concessions, and they also were free from military occupation.[7]
• We might think today that in a city of 65,000–100,000, a top-ten city in the ancient world, so what if there are some fifty Jesus followers in the city? Who cares?
• But if you remember this close intimate relationship between Thessalonica and Rome, we can better appreciate how the city leaders and those people in positions of power and authority would be very much concerned if there were any local citizens who would be saying or doing things to undermine this special relationship between the city of Thessalonica and Rome.[8]

 
Luke the Historian

• In Philippi:
• Acts 16:20-21 - Bringing them before the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews 21 and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.”[9]
• In Thessaloniki
• Acts 17:5-9 - But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob (citizen assembly – lowest form of authority), and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly (city council – executive branch of the lowest authority).  6 When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, 7 and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus.” 8 The crowd and city officials who heard these things were upset. 9 After taking a security bond from Jason and the others, they released them[10] (city officials - Now, the third and highest level is a very unique office. The Greek word is politarchēs, and there’s no really easy way to translate it. Most Bible translations simply say the “city leaders” or the “city rulers.”)
• And there’s been a bit of controversy about this highest level because in the past, a generation or more ago, many scholars, especially more liberal scholars who seriously doubted the historical reliability of Acts, wondered about this particular office of politarchēs because, by the early 1900s, there was no inscriptional or archaeological evidence for the existence of this particular office.
• And so those scholars tended to appeal to that as evidence that Luke was not a good historian; he was only making up history to serve his theological purposes.
• But as is often is the case, these scholarly claims often are later proven false, and that’s what happened here.
• In fact, they’ve uncovered now seventy inscriptions to this unique office of politarchēs, twenty-eight of which come from the city of Thessalonica itself.
• There’s a reason that we didn’t find them for a long time, and that has to do with the second thing we talked about just a few moments before, and that was that “free city” status that Thessalonica enjoyed.
• One of the benefits of having that free city status is [that] instead of wiping out the existing political structures and doing things the Roman way, instead, in Macedonia they could keep doing things the way they had done all along.
• And so this office of politarchēs is actually a rather ancient Macedonian office because of the free city status of Thessalonica that was allowed to continue to exist in the city of Thessalonica.[11]

 

• And this is important because it shows, again, how historically reliable Acts—and Luke, the writer of Acts—is. In fact, [Luke] is so [familiar] with the historical context that just earlier, in the account in Acts 16, when Paul is in the city of Philippi, Luke uses particular titles for the city leaders there that are appropriate for that being a Roman city and then switches to this unique title here in Acts 17, the account in Thessalonica, that unique phrase politarchēs.
• So, instead of Luke looking like a bad historian, he actually comes across as an extremely knowledgeable one, and he knows that when the missionaries of Paul and Silas and Timothy come from the Roman city of Philippi to the ancient Macedonian, free city-status city of Thessalonica that in that place Paul would have been brought before politarchēs.[12]

 
Crisis in Thessalonica

• Silas and Timothy join Paul at Corinth. The church in Philippi has once again sent a financial gift to Paul, and Silas hands it to him. The money enables Paul to devote himself exclusively to the work of church planting.
• Timothy brings news from Thessalonica. The church is being persecuted, but it is standing steadfast for the Lord. It is also sounding forth the gospel.
• Believers from the churches in Macedonia (Philippi) and Achaia (Corinth) have visited the Thessalonican believers, and they are encouraged by their faith, their love, and their steadfastness in the midst of local persecution.
• However, due to the pressure, some of the Thessalonican believers are returning back to their pagan lifestyles—namely fornication. Someone has died in the church recently, and the believers are grieving the loss.
• They also have questions about what happens to believers when they die.
• The church in Thessalonica has been on Paul’s heart. He has desired to see the believers and has been lifting them up to the Lord day and night, asking for God to make a way for him to visit them.

 
1 THESSALONIANS
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy:
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace to you and peace.

• Paul’s ministry in Thessaloniki, is that he worked as a tentmaker… Yet, he lived out the Gospel through his daily life and conversations.
• I’ve been asked, what is my response to “all this”.
• What is “all this”? Pandemic, Spaceex, Covid-19, riots?
• I have my thoughts… both good & bad. I express many of them to Michelle (because she is safe).
• But my response was…
• “Staying focused. I can't change people's behavior, opinions or minds. Not my job. Be the light.
• Nor can they tell me what I should say or do.”
• As most pastors have posted, I am probably in most agreement with Tony Dungy’s post. But he’s said it.
• The best that I can do is remain true to my calling.
• Teach the Word of God in a fallen and evil world.
• Love others with the leading of the Holy Spirit that resides in my body.
• See the bigger picture and remain faithful in the little things that reflect Jesus to this world.

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 474). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ac 18:1–4). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 475). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 475). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[5] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[8] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[9] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ac 16:20–21). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[10] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ac 17:6–9). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[11] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[12] Weima, J. A. D. (2020). NT350 Book Study: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

• We left off last week with… Paul & Silas were in Berea sharing the Good News and they were testing it with the Old Testament.
• Many became believers

A SHORT MINISTRY IN THESSALONICA
Acts 17
51 AD
13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came there too, agitating and upsetting the crowds. 14 Then the brothers and sisters immediately sent Paul away to go to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed on there.

• There is now a Church of believers in Jesus established in Berea

15 Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.

• Manuscripts vary with “if by coast” or “by sea”.

 
PAUL IN ATHENS
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols.

• Paul arrives in Athens alone.
• Athens is the cradle of Greek philosophy and democracy.
• It is a free Greek city with a population of no more than 50,000. Athens is full of idols and pagan temples—so much so that wherever Paul turns, statues, temples, and shrines fill his horizon.

17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

• Synagogue indicates there are a group of Jews in the community.
• Synagogue on the Sabbath and the marketplace during the week.

18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?”

• What makes Paul ignorant?
• What makes him a showoff?
• Epicureans were thoroughgoing materialists, believing that everything came from atoms or particles of matter.
• There was no life beyond this; all that was human returned to matter at death.
• Epicureans believe that the chief aim of life is the pursuit of mental pleasure. They also believe that pain, suffering, and superstitions should be avoided.
• Stoics were pantheists, believing that the ultimate divine principle was to be found in all of nature, including human beings.[1]
• Stoics believe that humans should be free from passion, so they suppress their affections and accept all things as the will of the gods.

Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
19 They took him and brought him to the Areopagus (Mars Hill),

• The Areopagus was both a court and a hill, due to the fact that the court traditionally met on that hill.
• The term Areopagus means hill of Ares.
• Ares was the Greek god of war.
• The Roman equivalent god was Mars, hence the KJV “Mars’ hill”.
• This hill was located beneath the acropolis and above the agora.[2]

and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting?

• Paul needed to be questioned because it was something they had not heard before.
• Resurrection?
• They could not understand Paul’s concept of resurrection at all.
• Epicureans did not believe in any existence after death, and Stoics believed that only the soul, the divine spark, survived death.[3]

20 Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.

THE AREOPAGUS ADDRESS

• In the following narrative Paul works among Gentiles for eighteen months in Corinth and for nearly three years in Ephesus, but no example of his preaching is given.
• The reason quite simply is that it has already been given—in Athens, in the very center of Gentile culture and intellect.[4]

22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. 23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed: ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

• Paul now calls them ignorant.
• There is a play on the concept of ignorance. To worship an unknown (agnōstō) god is to admit one’s ignorance.
• Greek mythology and even Roman mythology. (Zeus, Apollo, Hermes, Athena, Poseidon, etc)
• Paul would now proclaim a God who was unknown to them.
• In fact, this God, totally unknown to them, was the only true divinity that exists.[5]

24 The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands.

• This pandemic that we are experiencing is turning the Church Building upside down.
• Even Solomon said as he dedicated the new temple in Jerusalem…
• 1 Kings 8:27 – “But will God indeed live on earth?

Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.” [6]
25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.

• It was a commonplace of Greek philosophy to view divinity as complete within itself, totally self-sufficient, totally without need.
• Paul’s words resonating with the Greeks.
• There is but one sovereign God, Creator of all.
• To know him they must abandon all their other gods.
• Otherwise he would remain to them the “unknown god.”[7]

26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.

• The God whom Paul proclaimed was no local Jewish cult God.
• He was the one sovereign Lord of all humankind.[8]
• All nations came from one man (Adam).

27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

• We, as humans were created to seek after God.
• It is not far from us because nature reveals there is a God no matter where you may be.
• Here Paul quoted from the poet Epimenides: “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.”
• Then he added a quotation from two poets, Aratus and Cleanthes, “For we are also His offspring.”[9]

28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29 Since we are God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.

• This led to Paul’s logical conclusion: God made us in His image, so it is foolish for us to make gods in our own image!
• Greek religion was nothing but the manufacture and worship of gods who were patterned after men and who acted like men.[10]
• If humanity is like God, then God is not like gold or silver or any such material representation.
• Only the creature can express the true worship of the Creator, not the creation of the creature, not something made by human design and skill.[11]

30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

• BOOM!!!
• You are not ignorant anymore!
• The Sovereign God is no longer the “unknown god”
• You have heard the Good News!
• Listen for the testimony of those who witnessed Jesus after the crucifixion.
• And if this is true, you need to believe and repent because judgment is coming!
• Repent: to change your mind. Change your mind about all these gods and dependence on self.

32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.”

• It was the doctrine of the Resurrection that most of the members of the Council could not accept.
• To a Greek, the body was only a prison; and the sooner a person left his body, the happier he would be.
• Why raise a dead body and live in it again? And why would God bother with a personal judgment of each man?
• This kind of teaching was definitely incompatible with Greek philosophy.
• They believed in immortality, but not in resurrection.[12]

33 So Paul left their presence. 34 However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. [13]

• There were three different responses to the message.
• Some laughed and mocked and did not take Paul’s message seriously.
• Others were interested but wanted to hear more.
• A small group accepted what Paul preached, believed on Jesus Christ, and were saved.[14]
• There is little fruit in Athens, and no church is planted there.
• Only a handful of converts are made.
• Paul’s ministry in Athens would be considered a failure considering the results from other locations.
• But if the Aeropagite was made up of 30 members and 1 of them, Dionysius, became a believer, it is significant.
• Intellectualism will often lead you to your own abilities rather than to a God who wants to live your life for you.

[1] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 366). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 368). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 367). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[4] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 365). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 371). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[6] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (1 Ki 8:27). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 373). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[8] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 374). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[9] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 473). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[10] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 473). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[11] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 376). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[12] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 474). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[13] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ac 17:1–34). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[14] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 474). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

• We left off last week with… Paul & Silas leaving Philippi and Luke & Timothy most likely staying behind.
• The Church in Philippi is mostly populated by God-fearing women. Paul mentions Euodia and Syntyche in his letter to the Philippians later on in the story.

A SHORT MINISTRY IN THESSALONICA
Acts 17
51 AD
1 After they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.

• Paul & Silas head west on the Egnatian Way. After passing through the towns of Amphipolis (about 30 miles southwest of Philippi) and Apollonia, they come to the port city of Thessalonica. Thessalonica is about 90 miles southwest of Philippi.
• Show the Maps
• Each of these cities was about a day’s journey apart when traveling by horseback.
• Luke gave no time frame; and if the company traveled by foot, one would have to assume the 100-mile journey took more than three days and that there were other stopping places than the two major towns Luke designated on their itinerary.[1]

2 As usual, Paul went into the synagogue,

• A good number of Jews lived in this city if there was a synagogue.

and on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and rise from the dead: “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah.”

• Four key words in Acts 17:2–3 describe Paul’s approach to the synagogue congregation.
• First, he “reasoned”, which means he dialogued with them through questions and answers.
• He “explained” (“opening”) the Scriptures to them and “proved” that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.
• The word translated “alleging” means “to lay down alongside, to prove by presenting the evidence.”
• The apostle set before them one Old Testament proof after another that Jesus of Nazareth is Messiah God.

4 Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a large number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women.

• Timothy not mentioned.
• This witness went on for only three Sabbaths; then he had to minister outside the synagogue.
• We do not know exactly how long Paul remained in Thessalonica, but it was long enough to receive financial help twice from the church in Philippi (Phil. 4:15–16).[2]

 
RIOT IN THE CITY
5 But the Jews became jealous,

• They were losing their numbers in the synagogue.
• The Jews began listening and following Paul.
• Pirating “church members”.

and they brought together some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city.

• Easily described as men from Philippi where Paul & Silas were run out of town.

Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly.

• Jason was the host of Paul, Silas & Timothy.

6 When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, 7 and Jason has welcomed them.

• Iconium, Derbe, Lystra, Philippi had all experienced similar stories of Paul telling people about the resurrection of Jesus.

They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus.”

• In A.D. 16, Emperor Tiberius issued an imperial decree banning the prediction of a new king and kingdom in the cities of the empire.

8 The crowd and city officials who heard these things were upset. 9 After taking a security bond from Jason and the others, they released them.

• The mob was agitated because they could not find Paul and Silas, so they settled for second best and obtained a peace bond against them.
• Jason had to put up the money and guarantee that Paul and Silas would leave the city and not return.
• Paul saw this prohibition as a device of Satan to hinder the work (1 Thes. 2:18), but it certainly did not hinder the Thessalonian church from “sounding out the word” and winning the lost (1 Thes. 1:6–9).[3]
• Bad publicity is publicity.
• When faith is challenged, the faithful will rise up… even against the government.
• Is the Church essential or not?

 
THE BEREANS SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES
10 As soon as it was night, the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas away to Berea.

• About fifty miles from Thessalonica, Berea lay on the eastern slopes of Mt. Vermion in the Olympian mountain range.
• In a somewhat remote region, Berea was the most significant city of the area, having been capital of one of the four divisions of Macedonia from 167–148 b.c.
• It evidently had a sizable population in Paul’s day.
• The journey from Thessalonica began in the nighttime because of the hasty departure.
• By foot it would have taken about three days.[4]

Upon arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

• Paul went into the synagogue and there discovered a group of people keenly interested in the study of the Old Testament Scriptures.
• In fact, they met daily to search the Scriptures to determine whether or not what Paul was saying was true.
• Paul had been overjoyed at the way the people in Thessalonica had received the Word (1 Thes. 2:13), so these “noble Bereans” must have really encouraged his heart.[5]
• When it comes to the Word of God, it is always best to listen, hear and go check it out for yourself rather than just assume what they are telling you is true.
• It took me a long time to learn this.
• Now I filter all the time.
• People ask me who I read or listen to… very few.
• I have over 3,000 books in my digital library.
• That’s a lot of opinions.
• I look for facts and things that make sense with other Scripture so all 66 books line up together.

 
Promised through the Seed of a line of Jewish Patriarchs
Genesis 21:12 – Line of Isaac
12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be concerned about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac[6][7]
 
Jeremiah 23:5-6 – Line of David
5 “The days are coming” —this is the Lord’s declaration--
“when I will raise up a Righteous Branch of David.
He will reign wisely as king
and administer justice and righteousness in the land.
6 In His days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell securely.
This is what He will be named:
Yahweh Our Righteousness. [8]
 
Isaiah 11:1-2 – Line of Jesse
1 Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him --
a Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a Spirit of counsel and strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. [9]
 
Numbers 24:17 – Line of Jacob
17 I see him, but not now;
I perceive him, but not near.
A star will come from Jacob,
and a scepter will arise from Israel. [10]
 
Micah 5:2 – Line of Judah
2 Bethlehem Ephrathah,
you are small among the clans of Judah;
One will come from you
to be ruler over Israel for Me.
His origin is from antiquity,
from eternity.[11]
 
Luke 3:31-34
31 son of Nathan, son of David (Jeremiah 23:5-6),
32 son of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1-2), son of Obed,
son of Boaz, son of Salmon,
son of Nahshon, 33 son of Amminadab,
son of Ram, son of Hezron,
son of Perez, son of Judah, (Micah 5:2)
34 son of Jacob (Number 24:17), son of Isaac (Genesis 21:12), [12]
 
Born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:2
2 Bethlehem Ephrathah,
you are small among the clans of Judah;
One will come from you
to be ruler over Israel for Me.
His origin is from antiquity,
from eternity.[13]
Matthew 2:1
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived unexpectedly in Jerusalem, [14]
 - 2 Bethlehem’s – Sea of Galilee & near Jerusalem.
 
Born of a Virgin
Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.[15]
Matthew 1:18
18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.[16]
 
Shall Be Immanuel (God With Us)
Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.[17]
Matthew 1:23
23 See, the virgin will become pregnant
and give birth to a son,
and they will name Him Immanuel, [18]

• These cannot all come to pass by chance.
• In 1969, Professor Peter Stoner took eight of those prophecies, eight of them...born in Bethlehem, preceded by a messenger, riding on a donkey, betrayed by a friend, sold for 30 pieces of silver, money used to buy a potter's field, silent as a lamb, hands and feet pieced.
• Had his math students do a study of the science of probability. They came up with one chance in ten to the seventeenth power...that's one chance in ten with seventeen zeroes after it.
• And interestingly enough, some years later his grandson went back to the problem and decided it was actually ten to the eighteenth power.
• Cover Texas with silver dollars… have a blind man pick 1 pre-marked silver dollar out of the whole bunch.

 
But here is the “proof in the pudding.” (You have to eat the pudding to know what is in it.)

• Colossians 1:27
  27 God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.[19]

 
12 Consequently, many of them believed, including a number of the prominent Greek women as well as men. [20]

[1] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, pp. 359–360). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 470). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 471). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 363). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 471). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[6] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Ge 21:12). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Ge 22:18). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Je 23:5–6). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Is 11:1–2). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[10] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Nu 24:17). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[11] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Mic 5:2). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[12] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Lk 3:31–34). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[13] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Mic 5:2). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[14] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Mt 2:1). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[15] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Is 7:14). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[16] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Mt 1:18). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[17] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Is 7:14). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[18] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Mt 1:23). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[19] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Col 1:27–28). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[20] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ac 17:1–12). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

• We left off last week with Paul, Silas, Timothy & Luke in Philippi where Lydia and her family were saved and baptized.
• If things are going really well for them… what would you expect to happen?
• Spiritual warfare

 
PAUL AND SILAS IN PRISON
Acts 16
16 Once, as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She made a large profit for her owners by fortune-telling.

• Still in Philippi and developed a routine.
• She had employers
• She was clairvoyant
• She could tell the future
• How is this different than a prophet?
• Prophet declared the things of the Lord and was never wrong in their prophecy.

17 As she followed Paul and us she cried out, “These men, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God.” 18 She did this for many days.

• She followed the four for many days… and began listening to what they were proclaiming… the Good News!
• She then began to make her own proclamations concerning the subject matter of the four.
• Remember, there was no Jewish synagogue so there were very few Jews in this Roman province.
• This was a polytheistic society. They had many gods.
• But the “most high god” was recognized as Zeus.
• What she was proclaiming made no difference to the public walking by the scene.
• But who did it annoy? Who constantly had a thorn in his side?
• Paul was frustrated that day after day, this slave girl was undermining his message.

Paul was greatly annoyed. Turning to the spirit, he said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out right away.

• How was this delivered?
• Calmly? Out of irritation? With passion? With compassion?
• He didn’t even have to call it by name.

19 When her owners realized that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

• This public scene had gone on for days and the local authorities had refused to deal with the confrontation between the Gentile slave girl and the Jewish teachers.
• Once the owners realized they were going to lose their profits from the slave girl, they did a citizen’s arrest and took Paul & Silas to the authorities.
• There is no mention of Timothy or Luke in this situation.
• In fact, the last 1st person reference was in verse 17.
• Acts doesn’t use the 1st person reference again until chapter 20.
• This leads us to believe that Luke was separated from Paul at this point and doesn’t rejoin him until Paul returns to Philippi.
• Luke most likely stayed in Philippi during this time and ministered to the new believers.

20 Bringing them before the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews 21 and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.”

• For some reason Paul or Silas never dropped the “we are Roman citizens” card on them.
• 1) They were described as Jews
• 2) They were causing a public uproar
• 3) The Good News was against the Roman Empire. Which didn’t become law until later.

22 The crowd joined in the attack against them, and the chief magistrates stripped off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten with rods.

• There were protests in the streets!

23 After they had severely flogged them, they threw them in jail, ordering the jailer to guard them carefully.

• They were arrested and flogged right in front of everyone so that all would see it was being dealt with and they should return to their homes.
• This was just one of the three floggings Paul would receive during his ministry.
• 2 Corinthians 11:25-28 - Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. 26 On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers; 27 toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing. 28 Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my concern for all the churches.[1]
• The jailer had a major responsibility to keep them their otherwise there would be more public outcry if they escaped or were released.

24 Receiving such an order, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.

• Their feet were placed in wooden stocks, which were likely fastened to the wall.
• Often such stocks were used as instruments of torture; they had a number of holes for the legs, which allowed for severe stretching of the torso and thus created excruciating pain.
• Luke did not indicate that any torture was involved this time.
• The entire emphasis is on the tight security in which the two were held.[2]

 
A MIDNIGHT DELIVERANCE
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

• Instead of complaining or calling on God to judge their enemies, the two men prayed and praised God. When you are in pain, the midnight hour is not the easiest time for a sacred concert, but God gives “songs in the night” (Job 35:10; also see Ps. 42:8).
• “Any fool can sing in the day,” said Charles Haddon Spurgeon. “It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but the skillful singer is he who can sing when there is not a ray of light to read by … Songs in the night come only from God; they are not in the power of men.”[3]
• I have many song-writing friends and they keep a pad of paper and pen or their phones by their beds at night.
• Prayer and singing to God are powerful weapons during the night.
• iTunes playlists, Comfort Playlist, call out the name of “Jesus”.

26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped.

• He was going to kill himself because it would have been more honorable for him to die by his own sword than to die by failing the Roman magistrate.

28 But Paul called out in a loud voice, “Don’t harm yourself, because we’re all here!”

• Paul had to have heard the jailer draw his sword and cry in agony/fear.
• Paul called out… because no one could see what was happening.
• Paul immediately took command of the situation.

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

• There was no light switch.
• It was more like the candle lighting service at Christmas.

30 He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

• It was the jailer who was the prisoner, not Paul.
• Paul not only saved the man’s life, but pointed him to eternal life in Christ.[4]

31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house.

• The legalists in the church would have replied, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved”.
• But Paul knew the right answer—faith in Jesus Christ.
• In the Book of Acts, the emphasis is on faith in Jesus Christ alone (Acts 2:38–39; 4:12; 8:12, 37; 10:10–43; 13:38–39).[5]
• Each family member made their own decision.

33 He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away he and all his family were baptized.

• The Jailer washed their wounds and in the same verse had their own wounds washed.

34 He brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe in God with his entire household.
 
AN OFFICIAL APOLOGY
35 When daylight came, the chief magistrates sent the police to say, “Release those men.”

• Luke is not surprised by this miraculous release because it had already occurred once before in Acts 5.

36 The jailer reported these words to Paul: “The magistrates have sent orders for you to be released. So come out now and go in peace.”

• It doesn’t say they went back to prison.
• The Jailer could have given them the news at his house or they actually returned to the prison.
• I’m assuming they returned to the prison to be released.

37 But Paul said to them, “They beat us in public without a trial, although we are Roman citizens, and threw us in jail. And now are they going to send us away secretly? Certainly not! On the contrary, let them come themselves and escort us out.”
38 The police reported these words to the magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

• The “alarm” of the magistrates was understandable.
• Abuse of the rights of a Roman citizen was a serious offense.
• Magistrates could be removed from office for such; a municipality could have its rights reduced.
• For instance, the emperor could deprive Philippi of all the privileges of its colony status for such an offense.[6]

39 So they came to appease them, and escorting them from prison, they urged them to leave town.

• It was essential that the young Christian community have a good reputation among the authorities if its witness was to flourish.
• Christians broke none of the Roman laws.
• It would continue to be a major emphasis in Acts.
• In this instance Paul and Silas were totally innocent of any wrongdoing.
• It was important that the magistrates acknowledge their innocence and set the record straight.
• This was why Paul made such a major point of it.[7]

40 After leaving the jail, they came to Lydia’s house, where they saw and encouraged the brothers and sisters, and departed.[8]

• They stayed long enough to minister to the young church.

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (2 Co 11:25–28). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, pp. 353–354). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 468). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 468). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[5] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 468). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[6] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 357). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[7] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 358). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ac 15:36–16:40). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Where we left off in Acts…

• Paul had completed his first missionary journey
• First Missionary Journey Map
• Cypress (Paphos), Perga, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra & Derbe w/ Barnabas.
• Once they had landed in the Galatia area John Mark bailed on them.
• Judaizers followed them and discredited all their teachings.
• They ended up back in Antioch where they were confronted by the traditional Jews from Jerusalem.
• Paul went to Jerusalem to meet with the council and ended up with a letter that affirmed his teachings and ministry.

 
PAUL AND BARNABAS PART COMPANY
Acts 15:36-41
Around 50 AD
36 After some time had passed, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit the brothers and sisters in every town where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they’re doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take along John Mark. 38 But Paul insisted that they should not take along this man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company,

• They had just spent months unifying the Church through the message of Jesus and now they have an argument and become divided.

and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus.

• Barnabas was not giving up on his family. We discover in Colossians 4:10 that John Mark & Barnabas are cousins.
• Barnabas didn’t give up on others. The early Church named him Barnabas because it means “son of encouragement”. (Acts 4:36)

40 But Paul chose Silas and departed, after being commended by the brothers and sisters to the grace of the Lord.

• Paul selected a new partner, Silas, a chief man in the church, a prophet (Acts 15:22, 32), and one chosen to take the Jerusalem Conference decrees to the churches (Acts 15:27).
• “Silas” is probably a Greek version of the name Saul.
• He was coauthor with Paul of the Thessalonian epistles, and he was the secretary for Peter’s first epistle (1 Peter 5:12).
• Like Paul, he was a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37).[1]

41 He traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

• Even though we see this parting of ways between Paul & Barnabas as a division, the Lord used it as multiplication by making two strong teams.

 
PAUL SELECTS TIMOTHY
Acts 16
1 Paul went on to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but his father was a Greek. 2 The brothers and sisters at Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to go with him;

• Timothy was probably converted through Paul’s ministry when the apostle first visited Lystra, for Paul called him “my beloved son” (1 Cor. 4:17) and “my own son in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2).
• Timothy’s mother and grandmother had prepared the way for his decision by being the first in the family to trust Christ (2 Tim. 1:5).
• Young Timothy undoubtedly witnessed Paul’s sufferings in Lystra (Acts 14:19–20; 2 Tim. 3:10–11) and was drawn by the Lord to the apostle.
• Timothy was Paul’s favorite companion and coworker (Phil. 2:19–23), perhaps the son Paul never had but always wanted.[2]

so he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek.

• Gentiles would not be required to become Jews in order to be Christians.
• Paul did not allow Titus to be circumcised lest the enemy think he was promoting their cause (Gal. 2:1–5).[3]
• The converse was also true: Jews would not be required to abandon their Jewishness in order to become Christians.
• There is absolutely no evidence that Paul ever asked Jews to abandon circumcision as their mark of membership in God’s covenant people.
• According to later rabbinic law, a child born of a Jewish mother and a Greek father was considered to be Jewish.
• The marriage of a Jewish woman to a non-Jew was considered a nonlegal marriage; and in all instances of nonlegal marriages, the lineage of the child was reckoned through the mother.
• According to this understanding, Timothy would have been considered a Jew. His father, however, being a Greek, would not have had his son circumcised; and the local Jews were aware of this (v. 3). Thus Paul had Timothy circumcised.[4]
• I’d say Timothy was committed at this point.

4 As they traveled through the towns (most likely Iconium & Antioch in Pisidia), they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem for the people to observe. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
 
EVANGELIZATION OF EUROPE
6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

• Map of 1st & 2nd Missionary Journey
• Map of 1st & 2nd Missionary Journey on Google Maps
• We are supposed to go to Israel in October with a group of 35 people… but I don’t know if we are going to be able to with the pandemic.
• I want to go really bad!
• The geographical scheme is certainly not the dominant motif in this section: the divine leading is.
• We have no idea what the “medium” of revelation is to Paul and his team.
• Father (v. 10), Son (v. 7), and Spirit (v. 6) together led Paul to the decisive new breakthrough—the mission to Macedonia, the witness on European soil[5]

8 Passing by Mysia they went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!”

• Macedonia was where Alexander the Great was from.
• Alexander had a vision of one world.
• Paul was making it come true with the Gospel.

10 After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

• All of a sudden it changed to “first-person” speech with the usage of “we”.
• Is this where Luke joined Paul’s party?

 
LYDIA’S CONVERSION
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis,

• The weather must have been good and the winds favorable because their ship sighted Samothrace the first day.
• Samothrace was a mountainous island with a peak rising 5,000 feet above sea level.
• It lay off the Thracian coast on a direct line between Troas and Neapolis, the port of Philippi.
• The next day they arrived at Neapolis.
• In Acts 20:6 the voyage from Philippi to Troas took considerably longer—five days in all.[6]

12 and from there to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in that city for several days. 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer.

• The Jewish population in Philippi must have been very small since there was no synagogue there, only a place of prayer by the river outside the city.
• (It required ten men for the founding of a synagogue.)[7]

We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there.

• “It is better that the words of the Law be burned than be delivered to a woman!” said the rabbis; but that was no longer Paul’s philosophy.[8]

14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening.

• She was “a worshiper of God,” a Gentile who was not a full Jewish proselyte but who openly worshiped with the Jews. She was seeking truth.[9]

The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying.

• The Lord opened her heart does not indicate that Lydia was passive in this decision.
• Lydia was a God-fearing woman already.
• A Gentile who was pursuing the Jews God.
• Lydia was listening.
• Lydia had to respond.
• Her response was a choice of “yes” or “no”.

15 After she and her household were baptized,

• Lydia was an influencer
• She was a business woman.

she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

• She obviously influenced Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke to stay with her.

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 466). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 466). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 466). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 343). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 345). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[6] Polhill, J. B. (1992). Acts (Vol. 26, p. 347). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[7] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 467). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[8] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 467). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[9] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 467–468). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.