Home	Our Hope
Bible Study		June 20, 2010
Good News of Faith and Love

Lesson (1 Thessalonians 2:17 – 3:13)

This lesson focuses on the 3^rd chapter of Thessalonians, but the book of 1^st Thessalonians suffers from a bad chapter break¹ between chapters 2 and 3. If you are reading from chapter 2 into chapter 3 you don’t see it but if you just drop in to chapter 3 it feels like you just walked into a conversation and don’t know the topic. So we’ll begin with the last few verses from chapter 2.

¹⁷But, brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. ¹⁸For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan stopped us.

¹⁹For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? ²⁰Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

¹So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. ²We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, ³so that no one would be unsettled by these trials.

^{(ANT) 2}And we sent [Timothy] our brother to you, a Minister of God and our helper in The Good News of The Messiah, that he might strengthen you and inquire of you concerning your faith, ³Lest any of you should lose hope by such sufferings.

³[…] You know quite well that we were destined for them. ⁴In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know.

⁵For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent Timothy 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.

⁶But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has 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.

⁷Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. ⁸For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.

⁹How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? ¹⁰Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

^{(ANT) 10}[…] we pray all the more earnestly, night and day, to see your faces, and perfect whatever is lacking in your faith?

¹¹Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. ¹²May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. ¹³May 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.

Questions

"How do you feel when you receive news of a brother or sister standing fast in their faith? stumbling in their faith?

"And if you are going through distress and affliction yourself, [can] such news have either a positive or negative impact on your walk?

"Our Christian walk is seen and/or heard about by other believers, to whom we can be either a source of encouragement or discouragement."²

"Think about the fact that you will spend eternity with many of the people in your church. How does this affect the way you relate to them today?"³

Notes

v.17 – Desiring to return

Paul and his team were driven out of Thessalonica

For a short time

Intense Longing

Every effort to see you, again and again

Satan hindered

"One might ask how did Satan hinder Paul. Remembering that Satan is the prince of the power of the air and is the spirit that is now working or energizing the sons of disobedience (all unbelievers), it is possible that Satan "energized" some of his "children" to somehow impede Paul's journey, but beyond that one cannot speculate. The main point is that Satan can hinder legitimate Christian work and workers. He has done it effectively in the past and undoubtedly continues to have apparent successes today. However, was he really successful in his thwarting of Paul? No, for although he meant it for evil, God used it for good, inspiring Paul to write the precious letter to the Thessalonians that you are reading. Furthermore, Paul was able to send Timothy which provided training for his young disciple regarding how to effectively follow up evangelistic efforts."⁴

v.19 – Fatherly love (father’s day tie-in)

Paul is saying the people he ministered to would be the cause of his glory

Good children make the father appear wise

Not just joy in the present but glory at the second coming

"Paul did not say that he would receive a crown, though this is suggested. He said that the saints themselves would be his crown when he met them at the Judgment Seat."⁵

"Is anyone going to be in heaven who will come up to you and thank you for having a part in giving out the Word of God? Have you given your support to missions? If you have, someone you have never known, someone from the other side of the earth, may come up to you and thank you for your support of missions. He will thank you for being interested in getting out the Word of God because the Word reached him and enabled him to be saved. That, my friend, is going to be part of the reward that we will get in heaven. We need to recognize that. It is a wonderful hope to look forward to the time when Christ Jesus takes the church out of this world. It is even more joyous to know that someone who trusted Christ because of your witness will go along with you to meet the Lord!"⁶

How about the ones that did not accept

v.1 – Timothy sent

Now we start the 3^rd chapter

Paul has been describing:

how he misses the Thessalonians – intense longing
how important they are to him – our hope, our joy– , and
how they tried to visit them again – every effort, again and again

Loving them so much and not knowing how they were doing but knowing they would be facing persecution became too much for Paul and his team

Decided to send Timothy

Confirms the relationship between Timothy and Paul

Timothy was to:

Inquire and report
Strengthen

v.3 (cont.) – Persecution

told you it would come

it came

(implied) we expect it continued

v.5 – Fear of loss to persecution

concern (afraid) that the persecution was successful

moved backward? have to rebuild

carpenter

v.6 – Timothy returns

So happy to hear of:

their strong faith and love – their efforts not wasted
their reciprocal longing

"Faith indicates that the Thessalonians had not just made an intellectual decision for Christ, but that they were firmly persuaded and convicted of the truth of the Gospel that Christ had died for their sins, was buried and rose on the third day according to the OT Scriptures. Furthermore they had surrendered to that truth and had a walk or conduct that was consistent with their surrender. […] They had works that demonstrated the authenticity of their faith. In short, faith shows itself genuine by a changed life and Timothy brought Paul the good news that these godless, hopeless, pagan Gentiles had turned from idols to serve a living and true God and were looking expectantly for Jesus' return.

"Love describes their unconditional, sacrificial love, the same love that God is and that God shows. It follows that this quality of supernatural, divine love is only made possible by the indwelling and enabling of the Holy Spirit. The only way the Thessalonians could demonstrate to Timothy a love like Christ was by yielding to His Spirit and allowing Him to live His life through them and that same principle applies to us as believers today."⁷