First Thessalonians

First Thessalonians

ONWARD AND UPWARD

1 Thessalonians 5:1-28

“Seeing Through God’s Bifocals”

his kid leaves Seattle to enroll at Pullman where he promptly forgets about home. Weeks pass. Then this email: "Dear son, your mother and I enjoyed your last letter. Of course, we were much younger then, and more impressionable. Love, Dad."

POINT TO PONDER: Are you so swamped with adjusting to today’s torrent of changes that thinking long-term is out?

In 50 A.D. Paul is in Thessaloniki (Greece), a city with a pagan temple on every future Walgreens corner (Acts 16:12-40). Many embrace his news that the Messiah had come to earth, that His sacrificial death has completely paid for all our sins. And we receive His forgiveness by faith, not by earning it.

But religious legalists boot him out of town. For those left behind, life under Caesar is hard, suffering is a growth stock, and coping dominates today’s To Do list. Can you relate?

DISCUSS: Let’s spend two minutes now in silence as you describe on the back of these notes how well you’re coping with the deluge of changes in your life and all around you.

Paul writes to the beleaguered new believers, and to us, about real hope as the world nears a date with God’s daytimer. Let’s read part of his letter in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-28 (p. 879, NIV).

Rapture, Then Rupture

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

In ch. 4 Paul unpacked the Rapture, i.e., Jesus will come back in the clouds to rescue His followers from the collision course our planet’s been on since sin crashed our first Garden party.

Now, a second mega-event, still in our future: “the day of the Lord” aka the Tribulation, when God will defeat Satan (Jeremiah 30:7; Revelation 6-19). This starts with an artificial peace, brokered by a winsome leader who pretends to protect Israel (Luke 12:40).

Then seven years of hell on earth: millions of new Christ-followers are martyred; billions die in wars, violence, natural disasters, pandemic plagues. And this con man-turned-Antichrist barges into the “holy of holies” in Jerusalem’s rebuilt temple, claiming to be messiah with his one-world government, monetary system and religion (Isaiah 24:1-23; Revelation 9:1-21).

To end this bloodbath, Christ returns to earth, not in the clouds as before, to trounce Satan and his allies, then establishes 1,000 years of genuine peace on earth. Next, the Great White Throne when God dispatches all unbelieving sinners -- and Satan -- to an endless existence in “the lake of fire” (Amos 5:18-20; Joel 2:28-3:21; Zephaniah 1:14–2:3; Isaiah 2:12–22; Matthew 24:36-51).

DISCUSSION: How does this Stars Wars-like glimpse into the future, whether soon or far off, make you feel?

Those “in Christ” are not in the dark (1 John 5:9-13). They know God does not intend for them to face His Tribulation wrath. And they know Christ could return any moment, saving those who love Him from terror that defies description (2 Peter 3:1-18).

DISCUSSION: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). Who in your circle needs this hope today, and how will they hear it?

Juiced For Jesus

1 Thessalonians 5:12-18

Stress can drain hope. Paul’s counsel: • Be all over respect, patience, peace and kindness. • And the “holy hat trick” - joy, prayer, thanks. Bonafide joy comes from God. He loves to hear from us. And thanking Him says, “No matter what, I trust You.”

Good, To The Bone

1 Thessalonians 5:19-28

My darling daughter Laurie, 45, wife and mother of two teens, has stage 4 bone cancer. More than ever, she’s my hero. God’s peeling away layers during this unwanted season. She writes this to her friend Ichabod Caine:

Layer #1 “Does God LOVE me?” So many “then why…..” questions are in this layer, and I needed to address each one. And God did “love” me while I struggled with this…He loved me with flowers and cards and pink iPods and visits and phone calls and many other things.

Next layer was TRUST … ‘Do I really trust Him?’ Even if it means I die from this and leave my kids and Chad?! Do I trust in the hardest of times or just when it doesn’t have terrible consequences? Do I trust that if I die, my kids will be ok?….that He holds their lives as well as mine? If my world is shaken to the core…do I trust Him?

The next layer was CONTROL … I learned that control is really nothing but a façade. He showed me that I have no control, none, zero….over the cancer or anything else for that matter. I can’t control the cancer or the medicine or whether or not I will die, or if my marriage will survive this, or what my kids will grow up to be like and on and on and on….This layer was hard, very hard, as it overlaps with the trust layer in a big way.

Then HOPE…. “What is real hope?” How in the world do you have hope when things look the way they do? How do you have hope when you don’t see it or feel it?…Hope is not a feeling….but it is a choice.

Then there is … THE TRUTH: Ohhhhh, I am a feely person….I love feelings….but they are so under the influence…..too tired, bad day, overwhelmed, traffic, bad doctor news, head cold….I had to find and hang on to the truth despite the fact that my feelings told me otherwise….Truth:

God is good.

God knows what He is doing.

God loves me.

I can trust Him.

“Now Where’d I Leave Those Bifocals?”

Is near-sighted coping with simply surviving today blocking you from dealing with life’s bigger issues? Today when you’re alone, peer through God’s bifocals and wrestle with Laurie’s questions:

• Does God love me?

• Do I trust Him?

• Who’s in control?

• What is my hope?

• What is Truth?

Remember that Wazzu student. Is it time to call home?

His Deal

May 12 & 19, 2009

www.His Deal.org

Focus on forever.

Online resources re Bible-predicted future events:

www.RaptureReady.com

www.joelrosenberg.com

www.GrantJeffrey.com

www.HalLindsey.com

“I’ve written as urgently and accurately as I know how. This is God’s generous truth; embrace it with both arms!” (1 Peter 5:12)

“The Way Home”

√ “It’s not possible for a person to succeed – I’m talking about eternal success – without heaven’s help” (John 3:27).

√ “Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation” (Hebrews 9:27-27).

√ “ For the reward of sin is death; but what God freely gives is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).

√ “… whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! … the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn’t see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, an angry darkness at that” (John 3:36).

√ “God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence. But by the free gift of God's grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people's sins are forgiven through their faith in him”(Romans 3:22-265).

√ “For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it." (Ephesians 2:8-9).

√ “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved” (Romans 10:9-10).

√ “God has given us eternal life, and this life has its source in his Son.

Whoever has the Son has this life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I am writing this to you so that you may know that you have eternal life—you that believe in the Son of God” (1 John 5:10-13).