Alright, so this is our first session for the inductive Bible study of 1 Thessalonians. And so I want to just kind of go over some guidelines as to the purpose of this study and what for you to expect. First of all, as I mentioned in the first video that you hopefully you saw, the purpose of the study is not for me to study it and then for you to come and listen to see what insights that I've gained through my study.

It's really to get you into the scripture. Because there's so much you can learn from sermons and hearing other people tell you what they've learned. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, 17, "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good work." The part where it says scripture is inspired by God literally means God breathed.

So there's a huge difference between hearing from someone else who've encountered God through the word versus encountering God directly yourself. And so the goal of this is to get you into the scripture, not just to be a listener, but to be students, to study and be able to come to it on your own.

It says in 1 Peter 2, 2-3, "Like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord." So again, it says to long for the pure milk of the word, the pure word, not word that comes through other people's mouth, not an interpretation from someone else's, but pure milk of the word, that we may grow in respect to salvation.

So not just to be satisfied that we're saved, but that we may continue to grow and to mature. And so that's what the purpose of the inductive Bible study is, to get you into the word itself. So in the study that we're doing, what I asked you to do last time was to first become familiar with the actual letter before consulting any commentaries or historical background.

So we want to do as much as we can without going to any other sources, because if you go to the commentaries, it's no different than hearing sermons. Someone else did the study just telling you what they found. We want to be familiar with it as much as we can.

So we want to read it, and I asked you to outline it and get the major themes, repeated words. Hopefully, you've done that already, but if you haven't, it's not too late. Again, if you yourself are not familiar with the text itself, then you're always going to feel like you're just kind of hearing other people's response.

So that's the first thing that we wanted you to do. Then part of the homework was to answer as much of the who, what, why, when, where, how questions from the letter itself. Who wrote it? Why did they write it? Who did they write it to? When was it written?

Where was it written? In what manner was it written? What genre is it in? So we want to be able to answer those questions ourselves as much as we can, again, before anybody else tells you what they are, so that you can look for it yourself. And then I asked you to outline the letter to get the logical flow of thought in the entire letter, not just the text that we're looking at.

But if Paul is saying something to the Thessalonians, how does that fit into the larger letter and what he's trying to get at? So again, I wanted you to do that before the study happens. So hopefully, either you've had an opportunity or you're going to have an opportunity to share all of those things that you were able to get to before doing this study.

I want to give you some large outlines of the letter. And again, hopefully you've done this yourself, but just to kind of give you some guidance on this. The letter, again, this is not the only one. These are certain ways that you can look at the letter. The letter is divided into two major sections.

We have the first section, which is the narrative. Paul describes a lot about how he came to Thessalonica, what he did, how he worked night and day, and how he loved them, how he served them. And so that's the first part. It kind of gives us a background in the relationship that Paul had with them and how the gospel had its effect on them.

And then the second part is the exhortation, chapter four and five, where he goes into abstain from sexual immorality, that this is God's will to hope for the second coming of Christ. And so the exhortation happens in the second part. It's not divided by indicative and imperative, but the indicative is kind of given in the context of a narrative instead of a straight teaching.

So that's what's going on. You can see the outline in this way. For another way to see it is a major breakdown of the letter in three parts. First is the work of faith. And again, he describes how the gospel came to the Thessalonians and their response and genuine faith of how they received it.

And then the second part is the labor of love, where Paul talks about his relationship with them and how he labored for them. He went above and beyond just teaching the gospel. And then the third part, chapter four and five, is calling to steadfastness of hope. And so there's talk about end times and how certain things must happen before Christ comes back.

And so you can divide the letter in this way. Work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. Again, these are just things that I've observed as I was reading through it. And then this is the teaching outline that I'm going to be using through the letter. So I may or may not have given this to you, but you have access to this.

So if you want to take a picture of this and you know what's coming up. So next week, our study is going to be verses one through five, which is Paul's ministry and the love for the Thessalonians. And so it describes a bit about who he is and what he's doing with the gospel ministry.

So this is just for your information. And then your outline may not look exactly the way I have mine. I'm just going to be following what I have. But again, this is to kind of give you the natural flow of thought that Paul is using to write this letter.

So that again, when we jump into verses one and five, we'll have the context of what he is saying instead of just jumping into it blindly. All right. So I wanted to give you some background information about the city. Thessalonica is right here, if you can see it. And this is Paul's second missionary journey.

So Paul had three missionary journeys, but second one. And so if you remember, Paul, actually, by the time he gets over here in Asia, he wanted to come to this area, but the Holy Spirit prevented him. And then he was in this, he ended up going over to Troas.

And then he has a vision from the Spirit of Jesus telling him to come to Macedonia. And that's why he crosses over. And then he ends up in Philippi and the persecution in this area is pretty intense. And so he gets jailed, beaten, and then he's basically going from city to city as he's being chased out.

And so he ends up in Thessalonica. And in Thessalonica, he's only there for three Sabbaths, meaning he's in the synagogues teaching about Christ. And it says that many people ended up coming to Christ as a result of his preaching the gospel, but persecution was so intense, he ended up having to leave abruptly.

And so from there is where he comes to Berea. Okay, Berea, again, is mentioned in Acts chapter 7 and 11. And then from there, he ends up going to Athens. So that's how he ends up in Thessalonica. So Thessalonica probably was not in his initial plan to get there because, again, he wanted to stay in the Asia Minor area.

But again, the Spirit of the Lord directed him toward that path. And then Thessalonica, Philippi becomes one of the churches that he gets very attached to and bears quite a bit of fruit. So that's kind of like the background behind it. Thessalonica is actually a very large city in that area.

It was the capital of Macedonia. Macedonia is this whole area. And again, I'll just give you a little bit more information here. The background information. The letter that he writes to Thessalonica is one of the earliest of letters. In fact, the only other letter that was written before this is the letter to the Galatians.

And Galatia is a church that's in Asia Minor, where he initially wanted to go. So that's the earliest letter. And then the second earliest letter is Thessalonica. Or the letter to Thessalonians. Again as I mentioned, it's the capital of Macedonia. It was not a small city. They estimated somewhere around 200,000 people lived in that city, which at that time is considered a major, major city.

And then like most of the metropolitan cities, the city was known for its pagan rituals and sexual promiscuity, which was again very common at that time. So when Paul came and began to preach about Christ and people began to convert, it was a direct offense to them. That it wasn't just introducing Christ, that believing in Christ meant that everything that they were doing was also wrong.

And so as a result of that, they were called out. Kind of very similar to the situation that we're in today. If we just talked about the love of Christ, there would be no pushback. It's the love of Christ that causes us to see the scriptures, to follow Christ.

And to follow Christ means to go directly against some of the things that this world values where we live in. And sexuality is one of the biggest ones. And this is not unique to us. This was true from the very early on in the church. And that's why they were so heavily persecuted.

And again, the persecution was directly linked to the power of the gospel of what it was doing to the society. The purpose of the letter. Why did he write this letter? Well, it says in 1 Thessalonians 2, "We brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face, for we wanted to come to you.

I Paul, you know, more, but as a result of Satan's work, they were hindered." So he was very concerned that he was bearing much fruit and because he wasn't able to follow up and he had to leave abruptly, he wanted to make sure that they were okay. So he sends Timothy to go check up on them.

And then he brings a good report about how they are thriving and grown in their faith. And in fact, not only are they thriving, they've become the model church in just a short period of time. And so Paul is writing this letter rejoicing over what he is seeing, but also to encourage them to persevere in the gospel ministry that he has left.

So that's the main purpose behind why he writes this letter. Some of the themes, again, this is included in the outline, but marks of genuine faith. Chapter 1, verse 4 and 5, and again, through the rest of the letter, what is a genuine response to the hearing of the gospel?

What does genuine repentance look like? Another theme is, a sub-theme of that is, write gospel, write messenger, and write response. And so we see those major themes that are being fleshed out in these chapters. Chapter 2 is mission 101 because it describes how Paul preached the letter, preached the gospel, how he handled himself while he was there.

What did he do about setting an example? So again, if you want to learn about how Paul did missions work, again, chapter 2 is a great letter to go to, great chapter. Paul's shepherding heart, he didn't just preach the gospel and leave and say, you know, I done my job, but he genuinely loved them with the love of Christ.

And so we see that in chapter 3. Chapter 4 is persevering in sanctification. Now that you're a believer, what does that mean in application in your life? And so he gives exhortations and how they ought to live. And then obviously the second coming of Christ in chapter 4 and chapter 5, and it says that some of them actually fell asleep.

And when they say fell asleep, obviously they're talking about some dying. And in context, it looks like some were actually being killed. So the persecution was very intense. It wasn't just, you know, they were having a hard time eating somewhere, actually dying because of this persecution. And so these are the major themes that that kind of outlined this letter.

All right. So I want to get you started in verses one through five. And just to kind of show you, you know, one of the things that I do that for me personally helps me to understand the thought flow of what's going on in the immediate text. So we're looking at verses one through five, and I've already divided it for you because I haven't figured out how to move the text while I'm recording, but I've already moved it.

So what I did was I divided the thought flow, meaning whenever there's a comma, there's a preposition or transitional phrases or certain things that are, you know, main themes or sub themes. So I kind of usually this is what I do in every before I do every sermon or go into every text is to kind of get the thought flow by doing this on my computer.

So if you look at it, it's a Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, obviously, then there's a comma. And this is part of the introduction to the Church of the Thessalonians. Now the reason why this helps me is because I see line by line his thought process instead of just seeing it in one big, one big statement.

And you can kind of lose the main point of that when you're seeing four or five sentences all at once. But by dividing the words and the phrases this way, immediately when I look at it, I can tell like, oh, Paul is talking to the Thessalonians and he's saying in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then his actual greeting is grace to you and peace. So it's just verse one, but that helps me to see his thought flow, his main point. And in that, OK, the second verse, we give thanks to God always for you, all of you. Again, there's a comma making mention of you.

So whenever there's a comma or there's a there's a linking like a preposition, then I usually just put it in the next line. And then if if it's a sub point, I will put it underneath it. And then to make sure that when I look at it, I can say, oh, he's starting a new thought.

And then here's a supporting idea. I'm praying for you and we're always thinking of you. Thankful for you making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind. So in in our prayer, in our thoughts, work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope. So when I see that just written out like that, it's like that really kind of stands out because faith, love and hope is a common theme in the New Testament.

And you see that being repeated over and over again. So being able to see that right on the on the letter helps me to understand what he's getting at. OK, so I'm I'm praying for you. And whenever I think of you, I think of your faith. I think of your love and I think of the steadfastness of hope in Jesus Christ again in the presence of our God and father.

So you know that this is also part of the introduction, because in God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and he ends first three in the same way in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of God, the father. Right. So he's trying to make sure that that his, you know, his main thing that he is saying is that this is all in Christ.

Right. Is a response to Christ response to God's presence among them. And then verse four, knowing brethren beloved by God, his choice of you. He says he knows that God chose them. And then he gives the reasons behind that for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit.

So he says, these are the things that I see in your response to the gospel, which gives me assurance that you are chosen by God because the word of God did not come to you just word only, but in demonstration of the power and with full conviction. And then he talks, begins to talk about his own ministry, just as you know, that what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.

So here we have, um, the gospel that he preaches their response. Uh, the, the messenger that brought the gospel. And so again, when you look at this kind of, uh, thought flow, it is much easier to kind of hone in on the main points. Right. So if you look at versus one, uh, you know that that's the introduction two and three, the thought is connected.

Right. And then you could say it's, it's all connected, but the, there's a much closer connection between verse two and three, and then again in verse four and five. So it's easier for me to kind of hone in on and ask certain questions and do some digging. So this is whenever I do inductive study or prepare for sermon, this is the very first thing that I do.

Um, because it'll kind of, it'll help me to organize my thoughts and see the text in major themes and then sub themes. And then it kind of highlights, um, certain things that I may not get if it was just all jumbled in in one paragraph. Okay. So if you get a habit of doing this for every text, um, I can guarantee you it will help you a great deal to get more insights out of the text.

Okay. Now asking questions is, um, a huge part of the inductive Bible study. And there are three T's, three principles, um, with a T, three T's that I want you to remember in asking good questions. One is a text dependent, meaning that this is not a question that you had outside.

I said, well, you know, what is the Trinity? What has nothing to do with the text? It's in and of itself. What you can ask is it mentions God, the father and the son, Jesus Christ. How come the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this, in this text? So you want to make sure that it is text dependent, meaning that the questions are coming from digging from the text itself, not something that you had outside that you're bringing into the text.

Um, second T is the tension in the text. Are there any things that he says here that, that kind of seems like a paradox or difficult to understand, or he says something and then he says something else that seems to contradict, seems to contradict. Are there any tensions in the text?

So again, as I mentioned, you know, apostle Paul, you know, uh, mentions God, the father and the son, but, but how come the Holy Spirit is not mentioned? So again, that's a question that you can ask, right? Is there a tension in the text? Um, again, as, and as we go along, uh, hopefully you'll be able to see this being applied in the way that we're studying the, the, the text that we're at.

And then third T is the tie of thoughts together, right? Are there particular themes? So if you look at the text that we're looking at, the, the verses one through five, obviously you have the introduction and then Paul jumps into his gospel ministry. And then the emphasis here is on the response to the gospel.

Paul says he has assurance of their salvation, that they were chosen by God because of what he sees, right? Their faith, love and hope that they have and how the gospel came in power. Uh, and again, all of these things are evidence of assurance that, that he has so that when he prays for them, that he has confidence he's praying for Christians.

So again, so these are good questions that will lead to better observations and interpretation. Okay. And then obviously the, the final part after you've done the observation interpretation is the application, right? In application, we ask what insights did I gain about God and the gospel? And that's the question that we should always be asking because before we seek, okay, what should I do?

We have to ask, what did I learn? And as the scripture says, as Jesus himself says, all of it is about Christ. So what did I learn about God? What did I learn about what he did in the gospel? That's the first thing that we need to be asked.

What did I learn? And then is there a promise to hold on to, right? Again, you're not going to find this in every text, but these are the general principles of how to make applications. Is there a command to obey? So from these things that I've learned, are there things that I need to adjust, to change, to repent of?

Okay. And then is there an example to follow or even avoid? There's something apostle Paul did that I should be doing in evangelism. Is the way that people responded, is there something that I need to be learning and applying? Obviously there are clear examples of that because Paul mentions about his ministry and the way that the Thessalonians responded.

And then finally, what practical application can I make that is practical and measurable? So the application part, you know, when we apply certain things, we want to make sure that it is measurable. Again, I mentioned this before, but not just to say, I want to be a good Christian or I want to follow Christ.

And all of that obviously is assumed, but in what way are we to follow Christ based upon the teaching of this text? And then too, if you're going to make an application, make it very specific so that if somebody was to ask you the following week, did you do this?

That you can say, yes, I did or didn't do it. When are you going to do it? How are you going to do it? So if you're going to pray, when are you going to pray? How long are you going to pray? What are you going to be praying for?

Who are you praying with? And to make the application practical and measurable. So the whole purpose of inductive Bible study is to lead us to this application, to learn about God, to hold on to promises, to obey the commandments, to follow examples, and then make measurable practical applications. Then again, finally, this is the discussion question that I'm not going to read it because it's self-explanatory.

So you can use this as a guide as you end this. So again, as you guys are doing the study for 1 Thessalonians 1-5, please follow these principles that I've given you so that you can come prepared. So again, I want to tell you, if you signed up just because you want a fellowship and rub shoulders with other people, there's other avenues where you can do that.

This is strictly for the purpose of studying the Bible. Not to listen to the Bible, not to just kind of attend the Bible study, but to study the Bible. So I really strongly encourage you to do your homework and set aside specific times of the day that you're going to pay attention to these texts.

And again, I guarantee you, when you start to gain insight from the Word of God yourself, the Word of God will really be open to you. And you really will see that the breath of God has been invested in the Word of God. And it's different from listening to sermons.

It's different from reading books that other people have written. The Word of God is God's very words. He deliberately chose certain words, certain phrases, certain cultural things to communicate certain things to us. And so, inductive Bible study is the best way for us to get to that directly. (laughs)