Sunday School | 1 Thessalonians

Introduction

Steve Merton's here. What's up, buddy? Good to see you. Julie's here hanging out with Steve. You guys, welcome. If you are just settling in, it would be helpful for you to get one of these, a document that says 1 Thessalonians at the top. If you don't have one, then Dan will run around and give you one. Just wave at him and he'll get you. There you go, Bubba. Thanks, sir. All right. Excellent.

So what this is, we are doing — we're about a little better than halfway through a series doing, for the most part, one-week summaries of every book in the New Testament. A couple books get two weeks because they're too big and too wonderful and complex, but mostly we're doing one-week shots.

And a little more keep am I keep passing out? Susan, what do we do? What's yeah. Okay. I'm gonna keep going. I wonder if it — well, we'll just see, but it feels like I just keep losing syllables. What? First Thessalonians. Okay.

The Purpose and Structure of the Series

What we're doing is we're doing one-week summaries of every book in the New Testament. And if you've missed any of them, they're all up here. You can get the print versions here, or you can come grab those. We're gonna do the audio; it's all online. If you go to the same place you get any of our Sunday school stuff — just go to chsroanoke.com.

Stephanie, can you maybe bring the other mic piece back down, if you don't mind? And I'll, in case it's the element that's causing this. And that, by the way, if you think, just use that. That doesn't work. That's a loud mic. It wouldn't work for our purposes here.

As we go through, my purpose and the whole thing is to help you guys just read it. My sense is that a lot of times we get more out of something the fifth time we read it or the tenth time we read it than the first time we read it. And so what I'm trying to do is get you to the point that for each one of these, this is like the tenth time through. You just know what you're looking for and are familiar with things.

Of course, for many of you, it is the tenth or twentieth time you've read it. But we just want to make it be so that as you come into this book, you have full access to all of its treasures. And I don't know if this would surprise you, but there are — let's see. Hang on. I'll pause for a second. What am I doing? Doing this one. Yeah. Hey, all right. Now we'll see if this — now we'll know if this is the element or something else.

Reading the Entire New Testament

Okay, so there's about 250 pages in the New Testament, roughly. If you read 10 pages a day, you'd be done in twenty-five days. If you read five pages a day, it would take you fifty days. Right? If you just do the math on this. And there's enough time between now and December 31 for you to read the entire New Testament. You could totally do that.

Gina, can you give me a piece of tape? Do you know where the tape is? This is such a disorganized mess right now. Or actually, you know what? This one will work. Gina, never mind. This will probably still have some stick on it.

Okay, so there's enough time for you to read the entire New Testament by the end of the year. You could join us if you've maybe been keeping up and reading each book the week that we talk about it and you're already better than halfway done. That's great. But if not, you could just bang this thing out and just before the end of this year, have one more layer of running through the New Testament and just have it in your brain. That's really what we're trying to encourage you to do.

Focus on 1 Thessalonians

Today we're going to be talking about 1 Thessalonians. And I'd love to hear, as we often do, what do you already know about 1 Thess? All right. What you got? Thessalonica.

Okay. So it is a letter to the church in Thessalonica. Right? So Thessalonica is a city in Greece. It sounds Greek, doesn't it, that Paul visited? You can read about that in the book of Acts if you want to understand the context in which it was created. Very good.

What else do you know about 1 Thessalonians? You got anything that sticks in your brain? Major passages? John, what you got? Go louder. I can't hear you.

That's right. Why didn't we learn that things were going well? Yes. Okay. Very much. Let's go back. Let's get a little bit of context for it. Go back to Acts. Go to Acts 17.

And I think this is interesting. I don't know if it is your habit to see where the books of the New Testament fit into the storyline. You could think of Acts as kind of like the hang — what do you call it? Like the bar — oh, thank you, Susan. Thank you. Acts is like the line that you hang all your hangers on. Right? It's the bar in your closet. And then you can hang, you know, one Thessalonians goes here and Romans goes there and Galatians goes here and you kind of see the total timeline.

If you want to know the origin of this church, you can find that in Acts 17. It says, verse 1, when they passed through Amphipolis, is that how you say that? and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. And as his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures.

Now, what ends up happening is literally what happens every single time Paul goes anywhere. What are the two things that happen every time Paul preaches the Gospel somewhere in the Book of Acts? Somebody gets angry. Somebody gets angry. That's right. And then what else? Riots. Riot and revival. That's the same thing. Right? Somebody gets angry and somebody believes. There's a revival, there's a riot, and there's a revival. It happens right here.

It says in verse 4, some of the Jews were persuaded and they joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. But the Jews were jealous, so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. And things go on and on and on.

And then finally, Paul gets basically — he does get run out of town in verse 10. As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea, and off they go. Right? And so the Thessalonian church, like most of the churches, was born out of genuine belief in transformed lives in the context of an angry mob. There's a revival and there's a riot everywhere he goes. That's true in Thessalonica, and it's actually going to be an important theme throughout the letter.

Initial Reactions and Themes

So very good. What else? Anything else? First Thessalonians that's just like off the top of your head? Hang here with weird dangly things. You got anything else? I like when they studied the word and studied what they're talking about. Yeah. Research it.

So the Bereans were not — they were like not — they're not Thessalonica, they're not the Thessalonians, they're the next town. But they, it gets a little bit chippy in Acts because it says the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians. The Bereans were the good guys. Like the Thessalonians were a little iffy, which is funny because of what we're about to see.

But the Bereans, Luke loves the Bereans because they diligently studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true. We want to be Berean. When somebody says something, when I say something, don't believe me. Look it up. Like, do the work. That's what's going on there for sure.

Sam, what did you want to say about Thessalonica or Thessalonians? There's like a big passage about the second coming of Christ. He used to talk about the rapture. Yes. Okay. We're gonna look at that.

Major Themes in the Letter

So one of the major themes in this letter is the return of Christ. It permeates the — it permeates the letter, including a passage that has broadly been understood to teach that Jesus is going to gather away the church before he comes and before there's a judgment on the world. We'll look at that.

I don't think that's true, and that's gonna be troubling to some of you, but that's okay. So we'll get there. Here's the thing I think you — if you read through 1 Thessalonians, if you sit down and you just read it like a letter, what you're gonna find is it is far and away Paul's warmest epistle.

Okay? If you made a continuum of all of his letters, you would have a sense that when you're in Galatia or you're in the letter to the Galatians, when you're in 1 Corinthians, Paul's a little snippy. Okay? Paul's annoyed. He's the Corinthians give him a lot of grief, and so there's a lot of correction, there's a lot of rebuke, there's a lot of like, really? Like what are you thinking? Right?

With the Galatians, he's hot. The letter comes out. As soon as the letter opens, there's none other Paul, an apostle of Christ. He says, I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which is no gospel at all. He's really pretty upset in Corinthians. He's pretty upset in Galatians. In 1 Thessalonians, it is love, love, love, love. He adores the Thessalonians. And when you read through the letter, it's just absolutely permeated with warmth and kindness.

He misses them. They're not costly to him. He just loves and enjoys and misses these people. Okay? So probably the centerpiece of that is where the passage I have here, 1 Thessalonians 2:8.

We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well because you had become so dear to us.

Think of the image. Right? Someday when Jesus comes back, what Paul wants, what he's saying is that when Jesus comes back, and there's this infinite joy to be in his presence, the thing that I'll be so excited to talk to Jesus about, the thing that I'm gonna say, “Hey, look at what I do.” You know, like when you're a little kid and you make some crayon drawing, and then you show it to your parents and you're proud of what you did because this was your art? Paul is saying, you are my art. When Jesus comes, what would bring me greater joy than to say, “Jesus, come see my friends, the Thessalonians,” with whom I've walked and in whom I've instructed and taught and helped to come to know you.

You are my — you're my favorite.

He loves them. He goes on and he describes this idea that they've been separated in 1 Thess 3:1.

When we could stand it no longer, what they couldn't stand was their anxiety and their fear, their dread that the Thessalonians may have crashed.

Read what's going on here: he's with them, he plants a church, then it's time to leave and go to the next town to do it, but then he catches news — the persecution has gotten really hard in Thessalonica. And he's like, oh, man. We led them to Christ. We grounded them in the faith, and then we took off. And then, like, bad things started to happen. Or really bad things continued to happen. And I don't know if they're going to stay faithful. Like, I really don't know. Like, are they strong enough? Because when persecution comes, people tend to bail.

And we've been hearing reports that things are not great in Thessalonica, and we're like, oh, man, I hope they have not crashed. I hope that they are still walking with Jesus. I hope that they are hidden in him. And then he sends Timothy off and he gets this report. And his report on the report is this (3:1):

When we could stand it no longer, when we couldn't stand our worry about your well-being, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens.

And he says, for this reason, I could stand it no longer. I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that, in some way, the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless. But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought us good news about your faith and love.

He told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we are encouraged about you because of your faith. For now, we really live since you're standing firm in the Lord.

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day, we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

You get it? He loves these guys. I'm not making this up. This is Paul's warmest letter. I can't think of another letter that has as much personal investment as the 1st letter to the Thessalonians. So when you read it, just follow the tone. Watch what he's doing there.

It's in that context that he's also going to use this thing that we just put at the bottom of all these family metaphors. He says,

We were gentle among you like a mother. We dealt with you as a father deals with his children. And then he calls them brothers.

It's just the whole thing soaked in familial language.

Major Theme: The Return of Christ

That's the tone. Any interaction with that, or are you good with all that? Loves them, it's a happy letter. Hang out on that book. But if you want to know the topic, the topic overwhelmingly, the dominant theme in this letter, is the return of Christ.

If you look in your Bible (I've listed them here), what you'll find is that every time the reason the chapter divisions are where they are, you guys know chapter divisions are not original? Paul did not populate chapters two, three, four, five. He just wrote a letter. Then, like 500 years later, somebody went through and said, "Let's divide it here, let's divide it here," which is just useful for us.

These chapter divisions are based on the fact that he's constantly referring back to the return of Christ. I've listed them all. This is the kind of thing you might just transfer into your Bible.

At the very end of chapter 1, in recounting his time with them, he says:

They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

Chapter 1 ends with an allusion to the return of Christ, as does chapter 2, the part we already read.

For what is our hope or joy, the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

Same thing in chapter 3.

May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Chapter 4.

After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

And at the very end of the book, in chapter 5:

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the pervasive theme of the book. The whole thing is about it. Now chapter 4 is really about it. We'll look at that in a second. But that's the nature of 1 Thessalonians.

The Ambiguity and Theological Implication

So it's a letter of incredible warmth and love and affection for people he delights in, and he just talks incessantly about Jesus coming back. Good enough? Here's what I want you to consider about this idea that this letter is about the return of Christ.

I think what Paul is modeling is not that this particular letter is uniquely about the return of Christ, but rather that all of life is about the return of Christ. That whatever he's talking about, and he talks about many things that are not ostensibly, overtly the return of Christ, it's like all roads lead back to this.

We live our lives in anticipation of the day that he's coming back. So whatever else Paul is talking about, it's like, you know what that reminds me of? Jesus is coming back. And you know, as we think about how we live our lives and what we need to do, we should do it in light of the fact that Jesus is coming back.

And when I think about you and how much I love you, I just think about how amazing it is going to be that we're going to be friends forever when Jesus comes back. Because everything all converges back to this singular concept: he is coming back. It's a major predominant theme, not just to the letter and not just to Paul's life, but to our lives as well.

Dig it? Dan? What does this word cherugia mean? Oh, that just means the second coming, the return of Christ. Yeah. Am I being too fancy about it? Yeah. That the second coming of Christ, his parousia. Okay. Now you ready? Now I'm going to just mess with your heads a little bit.

The Doctrine of the Rapture

Some of you may have heard me talk about this or may have heard others talk about this. But there is a doctrine known as the rapture, and that is a particular idea that kind of plays out like this: that sometime that Jesus is coming back. He's come once, and he's going to come again. But between his first coming and his second coming, there's his almost coming.

There's this other thing that's gonna happen where Jesus comes back but he doesn't come all the way. He comes most of the way. And what he's doing when he comes most of the way is gathering his church away. It's called the rapture. Rapture is a Latin word that means caught up. It's based on this passage here in 1 Thessalonians 4:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command and with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up — there it is.

The Latin Vulgate, the Latin translation of the New Testament, says the word rapture. It's the Latin for caught up.

We will be raptured together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.

You with me? Okay. That passage, if you read that, you're like, what on earth could Tim possibly say to undercut what God's word said? I'm gonna go Bible over Tim. And that's a good idea. Always go Bible over Tim. But when you go Bible over Tim, and make sure you're going Bible, not what you think the Bible says, but what it actually says.

The most important thing to notice is not just what it does say, but what it doesn't say. Jesus, what Paul is saying is: okay, so here's us. Okay? This is like church, steeple, here's the people. Right? Here's the people. And Jesus is gonna come. Let me just read it again.

The Lord himself, verse 16, will come down from heaven with a loud command and with the voice of the archangel, the trumpet call of God. He's here in the air. And after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And then the story stops. Okay? And at that moment, here's what I want you to recognize: once the Lord comes, once his people greet him, somebody is going to do a u-turn. Agreed? Either Jesus is going to do a u-turn and take us away with him and complete what many people think happens in the rapture, or the people are going to do a u-turn and escort Jesus in.

And this passage doesn't make clear which it is. It just — the story ends and everybody's floating in the air. Either Jesus takes us away to go someplace else or we escort him in. The very least, it's ambiguous. But I would suggest to you it's not ambiguous, that the question is actually resolved in the text in ways that many people just haven't noticed.

And here's the reason: if you go here, it says, after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. That word meet is apentesis. And what I'm gonna do, I'm just gonna touch that word. My Bible does all kinds of cool things that yours might not do. I'm gonna touch it, and then what I do, I'm gonna find that there three times in the New Testament that that Greek word is used.

They are Matthew 25, Acts 28, and 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

First, in Matthew 25:6, listen to this story. We'll start in verse 1.

At that time, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Verse 6:

Here's the bridegroom, come out to meet him. Let's go and escort him.

The virgins woke up, and they trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, give us some of your oil, our lamps are going out. No, they replied, there may not be enough for both us and you. Go to those who sell oil, buy some from yourselves.

While they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later, the others came and said, Sir, sir, open the door for us! And he said, I tell you the truth, I don't know you.

And Jesus says, therefore, keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour. What those virgins were supposed to do was they were supposed to leave and meet the bridegroom and then do a u-turn and escort him in, but they weren't able to do it. They left, went outside to meet him, not to go away with him but to do the u-turn themselves and come back in.

Does this make sense? That's one.

The other time it's used is in Acts 28. Paul himself. In Acts 28, we'll pick it up in verse 11. Paul is coming to be with the believers.

In 28:11:

After three months, we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered on the island. It was an Alexandrian ship, with the twin gods Castor and Pollux as figureheads.

They arrived in Sicily, and then from there—look at verse 14—

There, we found some brothers who invited us to spend a week with them, and we came to Rome.

The brothers heard we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the three taverns to meet us, to apenthesusus.

And the Bible says:

At the sight of these men, Paul thanked God and was encouraged.

And then, in verse 16:

When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him.

The two other times that this word apentesus is used, someone important is coming in, and someone else goes out to meet him and escort him in. They go out to meet him and to escort him in.

I think that’s exactly what's going on in 1 Thessalonians—that we will be caught up in the Lord to meet him in the air, and then we will do a u-turn, and we will escort him in.

This is not the supposed 1.5 coming of Christ. This is it. There are only two: the first coming and the second coming. And 1 Thessalonians 4 is about the second coming. It’s not about a pre-coming rapture away; it is about the coming, when we go to meet him and escort him in.

Make sense? Now, for some of you that were raised on Tim LaHaye books, I know that's a big fight. And that's okay. And you can think on this and process it. You can come down wherever you want. Or you can go over to Matthew 24 and misunderstand that one too. Or we can process it.

But I’m telling you, I think that’s a pretty significant misunderstanding. The people that disagree with me tend to disagree vehemently about this, and that’s okay. We can still be friends. Even if I’m completely wrong about everything, I hope that you will still be my friend.

But I hope you also consider the possibility that Tim LaHaye is wrong and that the whole framing is just not what the Scriptures actually teach. That he is coming back and what we look forward to is not escape, but his restoration.

We are not escaping this. The gospel’s sweetness is not escape. The rapture is framed in kind of premillennial, pre-trib dispensationalist theology, and that whole framing is an escapism. I want to go away. That is not the gospel. We are not looking forward to the great escape. We are looking forward to his coming, the blessed appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to give himself for us, to redeem a people that are his very own.

His coming, his restoration of all things. Not our escaping away while all the bad stuff goes down. Okay? I think it’s radically different. It’s not just about what the Greek word means. It’s about what we long for. And what we long for is his coming, his restoring this place, not the catching away to some other place.

If you want a debate on that, I’ll be happy to do that, but I wanted to lay that case out quickly. And I feel like there was one hand. Did I miss it? Okay. Robin?

Clarifying Scriptures and Final Remarks

Where does the scripture talk about one will be in the field and one will be taken and one will be left?

Yes, the grinding, the grain, and one will be taken, and one will be left. That’s Matthew 24. Robin says, what about that passage that says one is in the field, one is taken and one is left? Yeah. That’s Matthew 24.

We can do that quickly. This would be the second most common teaching point about the rapture. Here’s the thing I’ll just show you: do we have time? Okay. Let’s do it quickly.

Matthew 24 is the Olivet Discourse. It’s Jesus on the Mount of Olives. It’s probably — let's see, do I agree with this? It might be. It’s certainly the top three teachings from Jesus' lips on his return.

In it, just notice this. Let’s see. Go down to verse 36.

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Now, hear this. Okay?

As it was in the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For in the days before the flood, people were eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark.

And they knew nothing about what would happen to them until the flood came and took them all away. This is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Forget everything I said for a second and just read verses 40 and 41:

Two men will be in the field, one will be taken, and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken, and the other left.

Overwhelmingly, when that gets taught by people advocating for the rapture, they’re just saying, well, they’re probably both going to get raptured. Okay? A Christian and a non-Christian working in the field — which one gets taken?

Okay. Here’s the question. You may not have even noticed the ambiguity. When it says one will be taken and the other left?

Two women are grinding. One is taken, and one is left. In popular imagination, to be taken is rescue, to be taken in the rapture. That suddenly somebody’s grinding all by themselves because Gary just got sucked away, and there’s this idea that, like, to be taken is rescue.

But look at the passage. What he says prior to the part I told you to forget is in verse 38:

In the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.

And then, in verse 37, he says as it was in the days of Noah. So it’s likening present circumstances to Noah’s flood. Now, if you go one verse earlier than that, in verse 37, he says:

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

And the thing that is like Noah’s flood is that folks are just doing their everyday stuff. They’re eating, drinking, marrying, grinding grain.

And look what happens in verse 39:

And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.

This took them away. That is, in Noah’s day, being taken was not a good thing. It was judgment.

Jesus is employing an image of judgment, not rescue. Just like in Noah's flood, some are taken in judgment. The parallel is that at his return, some will be taken in judgment, not rescue. And that’s why the ambiguity in the narrative is there; it’s not saying rescue but judgment.

In the same way, it's like in first Thessalonians: we meet him in the air, and then the story ends. It does not specify whether the u-turn is him taking us away or us escorting him in.

Application

This makes a big difference in how we look at the return of Christ. It’s not about escaping. The gospel isn’t escape; it’s restoration. We’re looking forward to his coming, the restoration of all things, not the escape into some secret rapture.

And so, the popular framing of the rapture, as an escape before judgment or tribulation, misunderstands these passages. They are about the return, the parousia, the second coming, in glory, not some secret snatch away.

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If you want a debate on that, I’ll be happy to do that, but I wanted to lay that out clearly. And I feel like there was one hand. Did I miss it? Okay. Robin?

Final Clarifications

Where does the scripture talk about one will be in the field and one will be taken and one left?

Yes, the grinding passage. Two will be grinding, one taken, one left. That’s Matthew 24.

Robin asks about that passage. I’d say, it’s Matthew 24 again.

We can do that quickly. This is the second typical use of the rapture argument. But look at verse 40:

Two men will be in the field, one will be taken, and the other left.

Again, if you’re hearing this in a popular rapture teaching, it’s often understood as one being rescued and the other judged. But that’s not necessarily what the text says.

In the context of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, and comparing it to Noah’s flood, being taken is not a rescue but an act of judgment. Just like in Noah’s day, the flood took away in judgment. Therefore, the ambiguity is that at his return, some will be taken as part of judgment — not rescue.

And that is consistent with the imagery Jesus employs. It’s surprise judgment; some will be taken unaware. It’s not an escape. It’s judgment.

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In conclusion, the passages about being caught up in the air and the left behind imagery can be understood differently when seen through the lens of judgment, not rescue. The story ends with everybody floating in the air because it’s ambiguous, but the implication and the original imagery suggest judgment, not rescue.

Final Remarks

So, just to summarize: First Thessalonians is a warm, affectionate letter focusing on Christ’s return. It’s likely about his second coming, the corporate glorious return, not a secret pre-tribulation rapture.

The main application points include being ready for his return, sexual purity, love for the church, and diligent daily living. We’re called to live in expectation of him restoring this place, not escaping away from it.

And next week, we’ll look at 2 Thessalonians. It continues these themes but also addresses issues like laziness and steadfastness.

Feel free to read both. Be prepared. That's all we’ve got. Thanks.