So our study today is on the books of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. You'll see behind me on the board an outline of 2nd Thessalonians, because since we're teaching through week by week through 1st Thessalonians on Wednesday nights, I thought it would be appropriate during this time to focus on the one that we're not going to get to. Originally I had intended to cover both books with y'all this summer before we pick back up the confession in the fall and as you see it's July we're gonna miss two weeks, and we're only halfway through so that's just Not in the Lord's plan for us, so we're gonna do just first Thessalonians on Wednesday nights, but um today we'll start with looking broadly at both of these letters because they're written very close together to deal with a lot of situations and Two weeks ago, when we were last in here, we talked about Paul's prison epistles. That's Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. And we said that these were Paul's most mature writings. Does anybody remember what we meant by saying that those prison epistles that we talked about two weeks ago is that they were Paul's most mature writings? Mr. Leathers? Exactly right. This was towards the end of his ministry. And he's, he's had a lot of experience. He's had decades of ministry behind him and he's reflecting on these things. Now, what we don't mean by that is that they were in some way, uh, more inspired, right? They're not, they're not more true than other letters, but they are, uh, it's important to know. It's helpful to know that they are more mature in that sense. And today, we're actually going to go to the completely opposite end of the spectrum. First and second Thessalonians are both written towards the very beginning of Paul's ministry. There's some really rigorous academic debate over whether Paul wrote the letters to Thessalonica first or Galatians. It's terribly boring, because we're talking about the difference of a year, right? So in the grand scheme of things, doesn't make a lot of difference. But my New Testament professor, Bob Kera, said in his article on these letters, he says, scholars of all stripes assign it a date, he's speaking specifically of 1 Thessalonians here, of approximately 50 AD. And then he tacks on, depending on one's dating of Galatians, all agree that 1 Thessalonians is Paul's first or second canonical letter. And I just thought this was also as good a time as any to tell you a little bit about how your Bible is constructed. I think maybe the default is to assume that things are arranged chronologically, because that tends to be how we think in the West. But now I've just told you that the three letters before this are all later in his ministry, and this one is towards the beginning of his ministry. Does anyone know why that is? Why the New Testament is arranged the way it is? What's it arranged according to? specifically Paul's letters. It's not chronological. They're arranged according to length. If you look at Romans, you'll see that Romans and 1 Corinthians are both 16 chapters, 2 Corinthians is 13 chapters, Galatians and Ephesians are each six, so on and so forth. Now, someone's gonna fact check me and say, well, Colossians is four chapters and 1 Thessalonians is five. What's going on there? Shorter chapters. Shorter chapters in 1 Thessalonians than in Colossians. But that's just helpful to know that they're arranged, generally speaking, in terms of length. And since we've been studying 1 Thessalonians on Wednesday nights, as I mentioned, we'll kind of breeze through some background information. You can read about Paul's planting of this church. Yeah, question? I have no idea. But that's a fair question that I've asked, and all we know is that's just the way the church did it. Yeah. Who decided that? The actual arrangement of the canon? That's a whole, there's a whole book called, Michael Kruger wrote it. The Canon Revisited that deals with a lot of those issues. In terms of the actual arrangement of things, this is just the traditional order that they've been handed down in. I think that was originally done, my mind's saying Nicaea, but I'm not sure. Nonetheless, the important thing is to know that those books were not determined canonical by the councils, but that was the order in which they were arranged. And we don't want to make too big a deal out of the arrangement of the books, because the important thing is the content of the books. No one makes an argument that there's a line of theology that develops across the canon in Paul's letters. It's the content of the letters that matters. So we can read about the founding of this church in Thessalonica in Acts chapter 17, and the gist of it is that it's founded in the city of Thessalonica, which is a very affluent city. Mr. Duncan, what do I mean when I say Thessalonica is affluent? Yeah, where does that come from for them? Yeah. Okay, that's part of it. You actually mentioned some of this on Wednesday night, which is why I called on you. They were located along trade routes. They were very advantageously placed, especially with respect to Rome as the capital city. So they were a strong ally of that. So they had a lot of things going for them. And these affluent, well-developed, cultured people at the time, They don't take too kindly to Paul's teaching, and so they run him out of town. Again, Dr. Kerr explains, Thessalonica had good relations with Rome. At the time that 1 Thessalonians was written, Thessalonica was a senatorial province under the direct control of the Roman Senate, and Claudius was the Roman emperor. Because of the good relations with Rome, it is assumed that the imperial cult was strong in Thessalonica and may explain at least in part the hostility toward the Thessalonian Christians. And so what Dr. Kerr is saying there is the Roman gods, the Roman pantheon of religion, was popular in the city because of their close tie, their close affiliation with Rome, and that is at least in part why the gospel of Jesus Christ was so strongly rejected and refuted by them. And so after Paul is run out of town about a year later, this church starts to wonder, was that guy that brought this strange teaching here, was he legit? Is his teaching legit? What am I to make of this Christianity? And so Paul sends Timothy to check on them. And now in 1 Thessalonians, he's writing to them. And again, the general outline, the general timeline of events is this. Paul plants the church. He's run out of town. He sends Timothy. and receives back a mostly positive report from Timothy about the status of these Christians. A mostly positive report, but a couple of concerns. And so he addresses those in 1 Thessalonians. I'm just gonna pick on Mr. Duncan again. What was one of the concerns that Paul wrote about in 1 Thessalonians? That they were being idle. What's that mean? Somebody else explain. What does he mean by idle? Not active. They weren't necessarily like backsliding, but they weren't doing anything to advance their faith or anybody else's faith. Yeah. They were, they were not, they were not actively pursuing growth and uh, yeah, they were not actively pursuing or developing their faith or even just their own character, their own, uh, their own moral compass. They were dealing with idleness. Yeah. Mr. Trump. General question, but did Paul write different letters to the Bible? Like, Or just all of his letters that he wrote, like this? No, there's certainly other writings that Paul had. They just were not all inspired by the Holy Spirit. So like, for example, when we talked about the letters to Corinth a couple weeks ago, he references within those letters other letters that we don't have. They were not inspired because they're not preserved, they're not brought down. But yeah, no, he wrote lots of things. We have records of them insofar as he referred to them in other inspired writings. Correct. We don't know word for word what they said, but we know that he says, I wrote about, I wrote to you about this and now I write again. And so we can assume it's largely going to be in concert with that, but we, we do not have copies of other non-canonical letters. Um, And so he's written first Thessalonians to deal with a couple of these concerns. And he actually hears back from them very shortly thereafter. We're talking a matter of a couple months, which in this world, in this time to get from Thessalonica to Corinth on foot takes a while. And then he writes second Thessalonians to clarify a few things. We'll talk about that in a moment. His basic goals over the course of these two letters are fourfold. He wants to, affirm his love for these Christians, and he wants to affirm his credentials. And both of these goals are primarily set forth in 1 Thessalonians, because that's where he's answering the questions. Do I care about you? Yes, very much. Am I the real deal? How can you know? Well, and he lays that down for them as well. And then the other two goals that he addresses in both of them are our concerns over their characters, specifically with regards to idleness, to failure to act, and then answering questions about eschatology, the time of the end, the return of the war. these kinds of things. And we're going to spend the bulk of our time this morning examining the matters that are covered in both of these letters, primarily the questions of Paul's eschatology, because that's what these letters are by and large known for. A lot of people are really confused and not sure what to think about the end times and what to think about the Lord's return and these things. And I would say that's largely because they think it's only contained in the book of Revelation. They think it's only contained in one of the harder books to interpret. And yet Paul gives us a very clear, linear, logical line of connection in these letters that if you consult them first, they will actually help to interpret the book of Revelation in a large way. In fact, you guys are too young to remember this, but Dr. Phillips intentionally preached 1 and 2 Thessalonians right before he preached Revelation, because it helps to get the grid straight, and then that's the lens through which we interpret a lot of those visions. And I just have also here, just as a note of apologetics and just factoid-level stuff, as I said earlier, no Bible scholar, no one who has any serious credentials, whether they believe that these books are inspired or not, notwithstanding, nobody that knows what they're talking about denies that Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians. That's as close to universal academic consent as you're gonna get with anything. A lot of people, however, doubt that he wrote 2 Thessalonians. So I thought it'd be interesting and helpful to look at what are their arguments they put forth for why, so that you can, I have no doubt, break them apart. I'm actually gonna let you guys do most of that. Let me just advance the three arguments that people suggest for why Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians but not 2nd. Argument one, 2 Thessalonians is too closely patterned after 1 Thessalonians to have been written by Paul. That's the primary argument of the Academy for why it's not. Does anybody have any suggestions as to why that chase? They're written by the same person to the same people at approximately the same time. I'm just telling you what's put out there. Second Thessalonians is... Josiah? Sort of. They're saying that these paralleled sections, Paul, the argument is if Paul wrote a second letter, he wouldn't continue on those same themes. But it's completely reasonable to expect that he would for the reasons that Chase put out there. But yeah, that's a good clarification. The second objection. Second Thessalonians is more formal in tone than First Thessalonians. What they're saying is 1st Thessalonians has a lot of lovey-dovey stuff in there, for lack of a better term, and 2nd Thessalonians does not. Therefore, the same guy couldn't have written it. Well, in 1st Thessalonians, Paul hadn't been with the people in a long time. They're kind of wondering who he is, and he's kind of introducing himself all over again. The 2nd one, he's already done that, so it doesn't need to be. No, that's exactly right. He's already dealt with that issue, and now he's simply writing to clarify questions that they had in response to the first letter. I thought the first objection was a bit too similar. I know. I'm just telling you what the Academy has. All right. Third argument. There are two differing views of signs related to the second coming. First Thessalonians expects that the end will come suddenly, like a thief in the night. Second Thessalonians expects anticipatory signs and events before the end. Rebellion comes first. Second Thessalonians 2.3. Paul would not have contradicted himself in such a short space of time. Ford. Both can be true. How so? There are going to be signs that the end is coming, but the actual end will come very unexpectedly. Yeah. They're not mutually exclusive. They are set up in a way that suggests they are, but they're not. And I would also add many Old Testament prophecies of Christ's first coming seemed contradictory until the actual fulfillment came. There were many things like he'll be called a Nazarene and yet he'll be born in Bethlehem. Well, we know how that works out because he was born in Bethlehem and he was raised in Nazareth. That seems contradictory, but it actually works together when you see the pattern of things. And then, as Ford pointed out, the anticipatory signs are not the same as the actual second coming. And so these are good points to just discuss. And I say this also just largely so that you all know that when you come up against people who present very seriously and have very serious critiques of the Bible, nine times out of 10, this is the level of depth that they're going to. It's nothing to be worried about. So with that said, let's look at the outline of 2 Thessalonians as I have it on the board. Does anything look interesting about this outline? There are two thanksgivings. There are two thanksgivings right on the money. This is the only letter where that happens. Why do you think that is? I want to notice something else about this outline. So the thanksgivings come before further instruction on things that he's already talking about. And they come again right before, I mean, with the exception of a prayer request in the middle here, They do come very closely connected to also a strongly worded correction that he's going to give them in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 about their idleness. Why do you think that might be? Nick? He just wants to show them that he's thankful and loves them, but he also wants to help them with some problems they're having. Right. What is your standard? What is, I think, most of our standard response to receiving Instruction about something that we've already been taught about or correction about something that we've already been corrected on Annoyed Josiah We weren't really doing it right. Okay, so discouragement annoyance discouragement. What else might we think? What do we think about the person that's giving that to us disappointed, harsh, overly critical maybe. Paul wants to say it's exactly the opposite. I'm giving you this because I'm thankful for you, because I love you, because I care about you. He wants it to be crystal clear at the outset that both of these instructions and corrections, that his words come from the heart of one who is unbelievably grateful for them. In fact, he can't stop praising them to the Lord. Let me read for us just from the first Thanksgiving section, chapter one, verses three and four. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as it is right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring." He wants them to say, on the whole, I think y'all are doing well. I think you're doing very well. He says, I boast about your faith in the other churches of God that I go to. I'm like, those Thessalonians, they've got it together. You're not perfect, and I'm gonna push you to be better, but I want you to know that's coming from the base of, I am grateful for you. Because your faith is growing abundantly. How does he know that their faith is growing abundantly? Verse three, because the love of every one of you for, one another is increasing. That's a really encouraging sign to a pastor is to watch the people that are under his care grow, yes, in their love for the Bible and their love for the Lord, that's first and foremost, amen, but that love is demonstrated, is visible in your love for one another. And if I could just say, I see that amongst you all regularly and it's a great encouragement. It should be that way. So let's move on then, having considered the Thanksgiving very briefly, into the instruction. This is chapter one, verses five to 12, making sure this outline matches this outline. All right. So Paul has already dealt with the return of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 4.13 to 5.11, and we'll look at that in the coming weeks. But there are some matters here that they're still unclear on how to think about. It seems that they thought, the Thessalonians thought that those who died already, who have died in the years since the planting of the church, were going to somehow miss out on the return of the Lord. that they had lost their opportunity, that they weren't gonna be part of the ushering in of the kingdom of God. And you can read about that. We know that's what they thought because of what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4, 13. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that's those who have died, that you may not grieve as others who do not have hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you, by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede, let's go before, those who have fallen asleep. He's saying that with respect to the coming of the Lord, those who are alive at the time of his coming will have no advantage over those who have already passed away. we will all meet him together bodily. And Paul has cleared that up, but this has led to just more questions, as things about the end often do. And so let's just read through this and really, all too briefly, make some observations. Would somebody please read 2 Thessalonians 1, 5 to the end of the chapter? Second Thessalonians 1, 5 at the end of the chapter. I'm going to give Mr. Johnson 5 through 8, and Ms. Duncan, if you could actually do 9 through 12. All right. Go ahead, Mr. Johnson. inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled out among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in Him, according to the grace of our God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you very much, you two. All right, so what are some things that we learn about the return of the Lord Jesus from those verses? I've got three in my notes, but I wanna hear from you guys. There's some things that we learn from that passage about the return of Jesus. One of them is just in verse five. Yeah. I think it was said a few days ago, but like we can listen to Travis cause God will deal with the unrighteous. And there he says, he will repay. Yeah, that's spot on. That's the second thing that we learned, so we'll do that one now. Our suffering will in some sense be vindicated by God. And what she was articulating there is that those who treat God's people unjustly will be dealt with. Either by grace through faith they will come to salvation and their sins are imputed to Christ and dealt with on the cross. They will not repent and they will not believe the gospel. They will be punished at the last day. But one way or another, all injustice committed against the Lord and against his people will be dealt with at the Lord's return. All right, what's another thing that we learn about suffering and the return of the Lord in concert in these passages? Verse five essentially says that our suffering is in some way preparatory for glory. We're going through trials and tribulations here in a way, in a manner of God's training us for glory. He says that the evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering. We are suffering for the sake of the kingdom of God. He's preparing us through suffering for the kingdom. And then finally, in verse 12, our suffering in this present age is a means of glorifying Christ. Ryan. What does it mean when it says separated from his might? What verse are you looking at? To grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire and inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God, who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Does anybody else see a thing where it says separated from his might? Verse nine. Away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. They're being cut off from the strength of the Lord, which is the means by which we endure, the means by which we live. So, verse 12 shows us that our suffering in this present time is a means of glorifying Christ. How is that so? How is it that your suffering now is a means of glorifying Christ? Yeah, it's a means of evangelism. I've got something better to hope for than here. Yeah, I think that's right on the money. It's a means of showing that specifically when we suffer, that's good for general suffering. I'm thinking also in terms of when we suffer For the sake of Christ so like dr. Phillips talked about it for those of you that were at the 830 Kind of some of the the trials that he went through as a new believer Because he was a believer like trials that are directly connected to the faith And what we show when we endure those things well is that Jesus is worth it He's glorified and that he is shown to be worth it. I think a lot of Jacob and Rachel in Genesis 29 20 it says that he labored his seven years to get Rachel and they seemed to him but as a few days Because she was worth it Well, that's the the real meat of this passage and we'll breeze through the rest of the rest of it fairly quickly Let's just read Let's read the beginning of chapter 12. I'll read it and make some observations. Chapter 2. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be too quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to come from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come, saying, some people are telling you that you've already missed it. It hasn't happened yet. How do we know that hasn't happened? There's still one more thing to take place. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, and the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. There's still one more thing that needs to take place, and that's this, the coming of one who would exalt himself as God. And the Westminster Divines thought, and I think credibly, that this one that would present himself as God, that this one who would lead a great apostasy was the Pope, that the original Westminster Confession of Faith refers to the Pope as the Antichrist. We took that out in the American version reasons that are deeper than we can get into here. But nonetheless, there will be some man of lawlessness who presents himself as something of a religious figure and savior that will lead many astray. And then he goes on and explains this is not new information, but let's skip down to verses nine to 12. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they might believe what is false, in order that all might be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. This is the judgment of God. He gives them over to follow this one, since they will not follow him. Since they refuse to have the Lord reign over them, he gives them to the one who will lead them to destruction. And Paul is being clear here. This happens, and then the Lord returns, and I skipped over the most important verse, and then the lawless one, this is verse eight, will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill, with what? With the breath of his mouth, and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. That is, the Lord Jesus will win the battle decisively. That's why I asked to sing A Mighty Fortress this morning, because there's this line that says, one little word shall fell him, shall conquer him, shall defeat this one of lawlessness. That's who Martin Luther was talking about. He's drawing it from 2 Thessalonians 2. And then Paul closes with this great benediction. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. The point of all this is not to solve puzzles or mysteries or things like that. It's not to be a stern, overbearing authoritarian. The point of the admonition to against idleness, the point of the instruction about the coming of the Lord is that God's people might live in this life, a life of peace because of the nearness of God to them. The nearness of his return and the nearness of him by his spirit presently with us. Let's pray. God in heaven, we give thanks to you for your holy word. We thank you for the many rich teachings of your letters to the Thessalonians and how they profit us even still today. Lord, we pray that we would live as those who have hope in the return of Christ and that in the meantime, your peace would guide and guard our hearts. In Christ's name we pray, amen.