back to indexSession #1 (intro)
00:00:00.000 |
Alright, so this is our first session for the inductive Bible study of 1 Thessalonians. 00:00:08.000 |
And so I want to just kind of go over some guidelines as to the purpose of this study 00:00:20.680 |
First of all, as I mentioned in the first video that you hopefully you saw, the purpose 00:00:28.260 |
of the study is not for me to study it and then for you to come and listen to see what 00:00:39.680 |
Because there's so much you can learn from sermons and hearing other people tell you 00:00:48.440 |
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, 17, "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, 00:00:54.880 |
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may 00:01:02.240 |
The part where it says scripture is inspired by God literally means God breathed. 00:01:07.760 |
So there's a huge difference between hearing from someone else who've encountered God through 00:01:13.720 |
the word versus encountering God directly yourself. 00:01:17.540 |
And so the goal of this is to get you into the scripture, not just to be a listener, 00:01:22.760 |
but to be students, to study and be able to come to it on your own. 00:01:28.880 |
It says in 1 Peter 2, 2-3, "Like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word, so that 00:01:34.840 |
by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord." 00:01:42.160 |
So again, it says to long for the pure milk of the word, the pure word, not word that 00:01:48.120 |
comes through other people's mouth, not an interpretation from someone else's, but pure 00:01:52.440 |
milk of the word, that we may grow in respect to salvation. 00:01:57.760 |
So not just to be satisfied that we're saved, but that we may continue to grow and to mature. 00:02:06.780 |
And so that's what the purpose of the inductive Bible study is, to get you into the word itself. 00:02:12.760 |
So in the study that we're doing, what I asked you to do last time was to first become familiar 00:02:22.640 |
with the actual letter before consulting any commentaries or historical background. 00:02:27.560 |
So we want to do as much as we can without going to any other sources, because if you 00:02:33.280 |
go to the commentaries, it's no different than hearing sermons. 00:02:37.240 |
Someone else did the study just telling you what they found. 00:02:40.360 |
We want to be familiar with it as much as we can. 00:02:43.440 |
So we want to read it, and I asked you to outline it and get the major themes, repeated 00:02:49.920 |
Hopefully, you've done that already, but if you haven't, it's not too late. 00:02:54.760 |
Again, if you yourself are not familiar with the text itself, then you're always going 00:03:01.200 |
to feel like you're just kind of hearing other people's response. 00:03:05.080 |
So that's the first thing that we wanted you to do. 00:03:09.040 |
Then part of the homework was to answer as much of the who, what, why, when, where, how 00:03:28.560 |
So we want to be able to answer those questions ourselves as much as we can, again, before 00:03:33.800 |
anybody else tells you what they are, so that you can look for it yourself. 00:03:40.560 |
And then I asked you to outline the letter to get the logical flow of thought in the 00:03:44.280 |
entire letter, not just the text that we're looking at. 00:03:47.960 |
But if Paul is saying something to the Thessalonians, how does that fit into the larger letter and 00:03:55.480 |
So again, I wanted you to do that before the study happens. 00:03:59.100 |
So hopefully, either you've had an opportunity or you're going to have an opportunity to 00:04:04.440 |
share all of those things that you were able to get to before doing this study. 00:04:09.880 |
I want to give you some large outlines of the letter. 00:04:14.800 |
And again, hopefully you've done this yourself, but just to kind of give you some guidance 00:04:24.160 |
These are certain ways that you can look at the letter. 00:04:27.880 |
The letter is divided into two major sections. 00:04:30.800 |
We have the first section, which is the narrative. 00:04:33.440 |
Paul describes a lot about how he came to Thessalonica, what he did, how he worked night 00:04:38.720 |
and day, and how he loved them, how he served them. 00:04:42.640 |
It kind of gives us a background in the relationship that Paul had with them and how the gospel 00:04:49.880 |
And then the second part is the exhortation, chapter four and five, where he goes into 00:04:56.120 |
abstain from sexual immorality, that this is God's will to hope for the second coming 00:05:04.960 |
And so the exhortation happens in the second part. 00:05:08.320 |
It's not divided by indicative and imperative, but the indicative is kind of given in the 00:05:13.120 |
context of a narrative instead of a straight teaching. 00:05:20.200 |
For another way to see it is a major breakdown of the letter in three parts. 00:05:33.240 |
And again, he describes how the gospel came to the Thessalonians and their response and 00:05:41.920 |
And then the second part is the labor of love, where Paul talks about his relationship with 00:05:48.560 |
He went above and beyond just teaching the gospel. 00:05:52.480 |
And then the third part, chapter four and five, is calling to steadfastness of hope. 00:05:59.060 |
And so there's talk about end times and how certain things must happen before Christ comes 00:06:05.520 |
And so you can divide the letter in this way. 00:06:08.240 |
Work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. 00:06:13.440 |
Again, these are just things that I've observed as I was reading through it. 00:06:19.520 |
And then this is the teaching outline that I'm going to be using through the letter. 00:06:24.240 |
So I may or may not have given this to you, but you have access to this. 00:06:29.140 |
So if you want to take a picture of this and you know what's coming up. 00:06:32.800 |
So next week, our study is going to be verses one through five, which is Paul's ministry 00:06:42.000 |
And so it describes a bit about who he is and what he's doing with the gospel ministry. 00:06:51.760 |
And then your outline may not look exactly the way I have mine. 00:06:57.880 |
But again, this is to kind of give you the natural flow of thought that Paul is using 00:07:06.760 |
So that again, when we jump into verses one and five, we'll have the context of what he 00:07:11.640 |
is saying instead of just jumping into it blindly. 00:07:16.660 |
So I wanted to give you some background information about the city. 00:07:21.000 |
Thessalonica is right here, if you can see it. 00:07:28.440 |
And this is Paul's second missionary journey. 00:07:31.440 |
So Paul had three missionary journeys, but second one. 00:07:34.360 |
And so if you remember, Paul, actually, by the time he gets over here in Asia, he wanted 00:07:41.080 |
to come to this area, but the Holy Spirit prevented him. 00:07:44.540 |
And then he was in this, he ended up going over to Troas. 00:07:50.000 |
And then he has a vision from the Spirit of Jesus telling him to come to Macedonia. 00:07:59.680 |
And then he ends up in Philippi and the persecution in this area is pretty intense. 00:08:05.220 |
And so he gets jailed, beaten, and then he's basically going from city to city as he's 00:08:15.280 |
And in Thessalonica, he's only there for three Sabbaths, meaning he's in the synagogues teaching 00:08:22.040 |
And it says that many people ended up coming to Christ as a result of his preaching the 00:08:27.200 |
gospel, but persecution was so intense, he ended up having to leave abruptly. 00:08:34.960 |
And so from there is where he comes to Berea. 00:08:37.880 |
Okay, Berea, again, is mentioned in Acts chapter 7 and 11. 00:08:43.640 |
And then from there, he ends up going to Athens. 00:08:50.320 |
So Thessalonica probably was not in his initial plan to get there because, again, he wanted 00:08:59.640 |
But again, the Spirit of the Lord directed him toward that path. 00:09:03.800 |
And then Thessalonica, Philippi becomes one of the churches that he gets very attached 00:09:14.320 |
So that's kind of like the background behind it. 00:09:16.400 |
Thessalonica is actually a very large city in that area. 00:09:24.480 |
And again, I'll just give you a little bit more information here. 00:09:31.880 |
The letter that he writes to Thessalonica is one of the earliest of letters. 00:09:35.080 |
In fact, the only other letter that was written before this is the letter to the Galatians. 00:09:41.120 |
And Galatia is a church that's in Asia Minor, where he initially wanted to go. 00:09:47.640 |
And then the second earliest letter is Thessalonica. 00:09:55.920 |
Again as I mentioned, it's the capital of Macedonia. 00:09:59.120 |
They estimated somewhere around 200,000 people lived in that city, which at that time is 00:10:07.240 |
And then like most of the metropolitan cities, the city was known for its pagan rituals and 00:10:11.520 |
sexual promiscuity, which was again very common at that time. 00:10:15.880 |
So when Paul came and began to preach about Christ and people began to convert, it was 00:10:23.760 |
That it wasn't just introducing Christ, that believing in Christ meant that everything 00:10:31.160 |
And so as a result of that, they were called out. 00:10:33.320 |
Kind of very similar to the situation that we're in today. 00:10:37.160 |
If we just talked about the love of Christ, there would be no pushback. 00:10:41.520 |
It's the love of Christ that causes us to see the scriptures, to follow Christ. 00:10:46.200 |
And to follow Christ means to go directly against some of the things that this world 00:10:57.400 |
This was true from the very early on in the church. 00:11:00.540 |
And that's why they were so heavily persecuted. 00:11:03.680 |
And again, the persecution was directly linked to the power of the gospel of what it was 00:11:17.360 |
Well, it says in 1 Thessalonians 2, "We brethren, having been taken away from you for a short 00:11:24.080 |
while in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face, 00:11:30.680 |
I Paul, you know, more, but as a result of Satan's work, they were hindered." 00:11:38.200 |
So he was very concerned that he was bearing much fruit and because he wasn't able to follow 00:11:42.840 |
up and he had to leave abruptly, he wanted to make sure that they were okay. 00:11:50.480 |
And then he brings a good report about how they are thriving and grown in their faith. 00:11:54.600 |
And in fact, not only are they thriving, they've become the model church in just a short period 00:12:01.160 |
And so Paul is writing this letter rejoicing over what he is seeing, but also to encourage 00:12:06.840 |
them to persevere in the gospel ministry that he has left. 00:12:14.120 |
So that's the main purpose behind why he writes this letter. 00:12:18.120 |
Some of the themes, again, this is included in the outline, but marks of genuine faith. 00:12:25.120 |
Chapter 1, verse 4 and 5, and again, through the rest of the letter, what is a genuine 00:12:38.440 |
Another theme is, a sub-theme of that is, write gospel, write messenger, and write response. 00:12:47.120 |
And so we see those major themes that are being fleshed out in these chapters. 00:12:52.400 |
Chapter 2 is mission 101 because it describes how Paul preached the letter, preached the 00:12:56.600 |
gospel, how he handled himself while he was there. 00:13:04.480 |
So again, if you want to learn about how Paul did missions work, again, chapter 2 is a great 00:13:13.400 |
Paul's shepherding heart, he didn't just preach the gospel and leave and say, you know, I 00:13:17.560 |
done my job, but he genuinely loved them with the love of Christ. 00:13:29.520 |
Now that you're a believer, what does that mean in application in your life? 00:13:34.640 |
And so he gives exhortations and how they ought to live. 00:13:37.800 |
And then obviously the second coming of Christ in chapter 4 and chapter 5, and it says that 00:13:45.880 |
And when they say fell asleep, obviously they're talking about some dying. 00:13:49.880 |
And in context, it looks like some were actually being killed. 00:13:55.880 |
It wasn't just, you know, they were having a hard time eating somewhere, actually dying 00:14:03.080 |
And so these are the major themes that that kind of outlined this letter. 00:14:10.320 |
So I want to get you started in verses one through five. 00:14:15.880 |
And just to kind of show you, you know, one of the things that I do that for me personally 00:14:21.100 |
helps me to understand the thought flow of what's going on in the immediate text. 00:14:26.480 |
So we're looking at verses one through five, and I've already divided it for you because 00:14:31.400 |
I haven't figured out how to move the text while I'm recording, but I've already moved 00:14:37.800 |
So what I did was I divided the thought flow, meaning whenever there's a comma, there's 00:14:42.640 |
a preposition or transitional phrases or certain things that are, you know, main themes or 00:14:50.360 |
So I kind of usually this is what I do in every before I do every sermon or go into 00:14:55.240 |
every text is to kind of get the thought flow by doing this on my computer. 00:15:00.560 |
So if you look at it, it's a Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, obviously, then there's a comma. 00:15:05.180 |
And this is part of the introduction to the Church of the Thessalonians. 00:15:08.280 |
Now the reason why this helps me is because I see line by line his thought process instead 00:15:14.240 |
of just seeing it in one big, one big statement. 00:15:18.320 |
And you can kind of lose the main point of that when you're seeing four or five sentences 00:15:24.360 |
But by dividing the words and the phrases this way, immediately when I look at it, I 00:15:28.680 |
can tell like, oh, Paul is talking to the Thessalonians and he's saying in God the Father 00:15:36.320 |
And then his actual greeting is grace to you and peace. 00:15:41.200 |
So it's just verse one, but that helps me to see his thought flow, his main point. 00:15:47.880 |
And in that, OK, the second verse, we give thanks to God always for you, all of you. 00:15:54.080 |
Again, there's a comma making mention of you. 00:15:56.720 |
So whenever there's a comma or there's a there's a linking like a preposition, then I usually 00:16:05.920 |
And then if if it's a sub point, I will put it underneath it. 00:16:09.240 |
And then to make sure that when I look at it, I can say, oh, he's starting a new thought. 00:16:17.360 |
I'm praying for you and we're always thinking of you. 00:16:22.240 |
Thankful for you making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind. 00:16:25.960 |
So in in our prayer, in our thoughts, work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness 00:16:32.840 |
So when I see that just written out like that, it's like that really kind of stands out because 00:16:37.680 |
faith, love and hope is a common theme in the New Testament. 00:16:41.480 |
And you see that being repeated over and over again. 00:16:43.440 |
So being able to see that right on the on the letter helps me to understand what he's 00:16:51.840 |
And whenever I think of you, I think of your faith. 00:16:53.720 |
I think of your love and I think of the steadfastness of hope in Jesus Christ again in the presence 00:16:59.800 |
So you know that this is also part of the introduction, because in God, the father and 00:17:03.840 |
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he ends first three in the same way in the Lord Jesus Christ, 00:17:11.480 |
So he's trying to make sure that that his, you know, his main thing that he is saying 00:17:20.600 |
Is a response to Christ response to God's presence among them. 00:17:24.640 |
And then verse four, knowing brethren beloved by God, his choice of you. 00:17:32.360 |
And then he gives the reasons behind that for our gospel did not come to you in word 00:17:35.680 |
only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. 00:17:39.160 |
So he says, these are the things that I see in your response to the gospel, which gives 00:17:44.260 |
me assurance that you are chosen by God because the word of God did not come to you just word 00:17:49.800 |
only, but in demonstration of the power and with full conviction. 00:17:53.240 |
And then he talks, begins to talk about his own ministry, just as you know, that what 00:17:57.440 |
kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. 00:18:00.840 |
So here we have, um, the gospel that he preaches their response. 00:18:06.360 |
Uh, the, the messenger that brought the gospel. 00:18:09.760 |
And so again, when you look at this kind of, uh, thought flow, it is much easier to kind 00:18:20.520 |
So if you look at versus one, uh, you know that that's the introduction two and three, 00:18:28.320 |
And then you could say it's, it's all connected, but the, there's a much closer connection 00:18:32.640 |
between verse two and three, and then again in verse four and five. 00:18:36.920 |
So it's easier for me to kind of hone in on and ask certain questions and do some digging. 00:18:42.200 |
So this is whenever I do inductive study or prepare for sermon, this is the very first 00:18:47.880 |
Um, because it'll kind of, it'll help me to organize my thoughts and see the text in major 00:18:56.000 |
And then it kind of highlights, um, certain things that I may not get if it was just all 00:19:04.640 |
So if you get a habit of doing this for every text, um, I can guarantee you it will help 00:19:11.080 |
you a great deal to get more insights out of the text. 00:19:17.680 |
Now asking questions is, um, a huge part of the inductive Bible study. 00:19:23.520 |
And there are three T's, three principles, um, with a T, three T's that I want you to 00:19:32.520 |
One is a text dependent, meaning that this is not a question that you had outside. 00:19:42.960 |
What you can ask is it mentions God, the father and the son, Jesus Christ. 00:19:49.560 |
How come the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this, in this text? 00:19:54.180 |
So you want to make sure that it is text dependent, meaning that the questions are coming from 00:19:58.320 |
digging from the text itself, not something that you had outside that you're bringing 00:20:07.400 |
Are there any things that he says here that, that kind of seems like a paradox or difficult 00:20:13.440 |
to understand, or he says something and then he says something else that seems to contradict, 00:20:21.800 |
So again, as I mentioned, you know, apostle Paul, you know, uh, mentions God, the father 00:20:27.440 |
and the son, but, but how come the Holy Spirit is not mentioned? 00:20:31.200 |
So again, that's a question that you can ask, right? 00:20:36.240 |
Um, again, as, and as we go along, uh, hopefully you'll be able to see this being applied in 00:20:42.240 |
the way that we're studying the, the, the text that we're at. 00:20:46.000 |
And then third T is the tie of thoughts together, right? 00:20:52.360 |
So if you look at the text that we're looking at, the, the verses one through five, obviously 00:20:57.240 |
you have the introduction and then Paul jumps into his gospel ministry. 00:21:01.760 |
And then the emphasis here is on the response to the gospel. 00:21:05.320 |
Paul says he has assurance of their salvation, that they were chosen by God because of what 00:21:14.120 |
Their faith, love and hope that they have and how the gospel came in power. 00:21:20.080 |
Uh, and again, all of these things are evidence of assurance that, that he has so that when 00:21:26.480 |
he prays for them, that he has confidence he's praying for Christians. 00:21:30.200 |
So again, so these are good questions that will lead to better observations and interpretation. 00:21:38.520 |
And then obviously the, the final part after you've done the observation interpretation 00:21:45.440 |
In application, we ask what insights did I gain about God and the gospel? 00:21:49.160 |
And that's the question that we should always be asking because before we seek, okay, what 00:21:58.640 |
And as the scripture says, as Jesus himself says, all of it is about Christ. 00:22:04.920 |
What did I learn about what he did in the gospel? 00:22:07.600 |
That's the first thing that we need to be asked. 00:22:09.920 |
And then is there a promise to hold on to, right? 00:22:12.960 |
Again, you're not going to find this in every text, but these are the general principles 00:22:21.600 |
So from these things that I've learned, are there things that I need to adjust, to change, 00:22:28.480 |
And then is there an example to follow or even avoid? 00:22:32.560 |
There's something apostle Paul did that I should be doing in evangelism. 00:22:36.440 |
Is the way that people responded, is there something that I need to be learning and applying? 00:22:41.200 |
Obviously there are clear examples of that because Paul mentions about his ministry and 00:22:47.480 |
And then finally, what practical application can I make that is practical and measurable? 00:22:52.760 |
So the application part, you know, when we apply certain things, we want to make sure 00:22:59.080 |
Again, I mentioned this before, but not just to say, I want to be a good Christian or I 00:23:05.680 |
And all of that obviously is assumed, but in what way are we to follow Christ based 00:23:13.520 |
And then too, if you're going to make an application, make it very specific so that if somebody 00:23:17.400 |
was to ask you the following week, did you do this? 00:23:20.960 |
That you can say, yes, I did or didn't do it. 00:23:26.040 |
So if you're going to pray, when are you going to pray? 00:23:32.320 |
And to make the application practical and measurable. 00:23:36.920 |
So the whole purpose of inductive Bible study is to lead us to this application, to learn 00:23:42.640 |
about God, to hold on to promises, to obey the commandments, to follow examples, and 00:23:55.760 |
Then again, finally, this is the discussion question that I'm not going to read it because 00:24:02.440 |
So you can use this as a guide as you end this. 00:24:06.320 |
So again, as you guys are doing the study for 1 Thessalonians 1-5, please follow these 00:24:11.940 |
principles that I've given you so that you can come prepared. 00:24:17.720 |
So again, I want to tell you, if you signed up just because you want a fellowship and 00:24:22.120 |
rub shoulders with other people, there's other avenues where you can do that. 00:24:28.400 |
This is strictly for the purpose of studying the Bible. 00:24:31.400 |
Not to listen to the Bible, not to just kind of attend the Bible study, but to study the 00:24:38.020 |
So I really strongly encourage you to do your homework and set aside specific times of the 00:24:45.360 |
day that you're going to pay attention to these texts. 00:24:48.360 |
And again, I guarantee you, when you start to gain insight from the Word of God yourself, 00:24:56.900 |
And you really will see that the breath of God has been invested in the Word of God. 00:25:02.200 |
And it's different from listening to sermons. 00:25:04.360 |
It's different from reading books that other people have written. 00:25:13.060 |
He deliberately chose certain words, certain phrases, certain cultural things to communicate 00:25:21.120 |
And so, inductive Bible study is the best way for us to get to that directly.