Here are the words for the fill-in-the-blanks in our Beth Moore “Children of the Day” women’s Bible study!
p. 12 – 13
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy
1. Silas (Silvanus) entered a gap ripped open by a severed relationship.
2. The same edge that can sharpen can also slice.
3. The next person we meet could become one of the dearest people in our lives.
Homework: p. 15 – 24
p. 13
4. A journey gone awry could lead to the exact frame of mind God is looking to use.
1 Thessalonians 4:9: “For you yourselves have been taught by God.”
Homework: p. 25 – 35
p. 36 – 37
It is highly probable that we are reading the first drops of inspired ink from the pen of the apostle Paul.
1. Three groups are in operation at all times in a thriving body of believers: we, you, and they.
WE: The effectual
YOU: The affecting
THEY: The affected
In Acts and the letters bearing Paul’s name about 100 names, often coupled with a score of assorted titles, are associated with the Apostles.
2. WE get the privilege of telling YOU that you are loved by God and chosen (1 Thess. 1:4).
p. 37
3. Often we hope God is at work, but sometimes we get to know it (1 Thess. 1:5).
4. In a world of pretense and platforms, we better be ready to prove ourselves. “You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake” (1 Thess. 1:5, ESV).
5. A geographical lesson from Thessalonica: Each circle of believers faces outward so that THEY can see us and we can see them.
6. Until Jesus comes back, we keep coming back (1 Thess. 1:10).
p. 60 – 61
According to 1 Thessalonians 2, what would whole parenting look like?
Or, to put it another way: How would we diagram no-holes parenting?
1. nurtured
2. affectionately desired
p. 61
3. accepting parent’s very self
4. exhorted
5. encouraged
6. charged to walk worthy
p. 86 – 87
1. The entitlement to the unbearable (v. 1).
Check this definition: vulnerable: “from Latin vulnerare to wound
(1) capable of being physically or emotionally wounded
(2) open to attack or damage.
2. The high-cost investment (v. 5).
3. The evaporating illusion of control (v. 5).
p. 87
1. The pure reciprocity (v. 6).
2. The sheer relief (v. 7).
3. The coloring of memory (v. 6).
4. The coming alive (v. 8).
“Do you see the unrestrainable madness of love that is shown by his words? Make you to increase and abound . . .”
p. 110
This week in our homework, we purposely dodged portions of 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 so we could save them for today’s session. This counter-cultural segment of Scripture centers on sexual ethics.
Keep the following continuum in view as we move through our discussion:
There are limitations regarding sexual conduct <- ———- -> There are no limitations regarding sexual conduct
p. 111
1. What God dictates here is pertinent now and it was pertinent then (v. 3). The Greek word for sexual immorality is porneia.
p. 111
2. What God dictates here is doable. See v. 1: “just as you are doing”
3. What God dictates here is learnable. See v. 4: “that each of you learn”
4. What God dictates here is honorable. See v. 4. God does not require of us what cannot ultimately honor us.
p. 138
1 Thessalonians 5:19 (ESV) – Do not quench the Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:20 (ESV) – Do not despise prophecies.
Prophecy: “Reception and declaration of a word from the Lord through a direct prompting of the Holy Spirit and the human instrument thereof.”
p. 139
Propheteuo: “To prophesy . . . To foretell things to come . . . to declare truths through the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit whether by prediction or otherwise . . . To tell forth God’s message, hence the noun prophetetes, prophet, is the proclaimer, one who speaks out the counsel of God with the clearness, energy, and authority which spring from the consciousness of speaking in God’s name and having received a direct message from Him to deliver.
How do they rank? We can set no extracurricular word on the same standard with Scripture.
p. 139
What is their purpose? 1 Corinthians 14:3 (NIV) – “But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.
Must knows:
* Prophesies can be quite legitimate. They are by their extracurricular nature incomplete (1 Cor. 13:9).
* Prophesies must be tested. Keep in mind how much easier it is to eliminate than to examine (Acts 17:11, Matt. 7:15, 1 John 4:2-3).
Dr. Gordon Fee: “Despite the fact that the ministries of the Spirit can be abused in the Christian community, Paul’s own deep appreciation for the central role of the Spirit in individual and corporate life will not allow for correcting abuse by commanding disuse. Rather, the antidote for abuse is proper use.”
Concluding bottom line
Believers in Christ cannot be both lazy and Spirit-led.
p. 162
In our homework this week, we began to unravel the sacred parchment of the Second Letter to the Thessalonians. Six words from the center of chapter 1 will preoccupy us today: When the Lord Jesus is revealed.
The lexical Greek word is apokalupsis: “revelation, uncovering, unveiling, disclosure . . .
Apokalupsis, a grander and more comprehensive word, includes not merely the thing shown and seen but the interpretation, the unveiling of the same . . .
Christ’s first coming was an epiphaneia (2 Tim. 1:10); the second, an apokalupsis, will be far more glorious.
p. 163
Savor the NET Bible translation of 1 Peter 1:1-2:
From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those temporarily residing abroad . . .
Now read 1 Peter 1:3-9. Note three distinct time periods:
1. Now
2. A little while
3. When Jesus is revealed
According to 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, when the Lord Jesus is revealed . . .
* Relief will come to the “afflicted.”
* “Relief” in the Greek is anesin.
p. 163
* Eternal relocation will be assigned.
* Marveling will occur (v. 10).
* He will be glorified in His saints (v. 10; Rom. 8:18-19).
p. 188
What was happening at their present time and is still happening in ours:
1. The working of the mystery of lawlessness. The NIV translates the phrase “the secret power of lawlessness.”
2. The active restraint over the mystery of lawlessness.
p. 189
The three most plausible identities of the restrainer:
* The Holy Spirit (He) and the work of the Church (it).
* Paul (he) and the preaching of the gospel (it).
* The emperor (he) and the empire / power of the state (it).
What will happen before the Day of the Lord:
1. The restrainer will be out of the way (v. 7b).
2. The rebellion will come (v. 3).
3. The man of lawlessness will be revealed (v. 3). The word translated “revealed” is the lexical Greek apocalypto. Compare v. 9 where the word translated “coming” is parousia. According to Dr. C. A. Wanamaker, “That person’s manifestation is a deceptive parody or anti-parousia” of Jesus’ future coming.
* Mark 16:15: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
* 2 John 1:7 (ESV): “For many deceivers have gone out into the world . . . Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
AND THEN . . .
1. The Day of the Lord will dawn with the appearance of Christ.
2. The Lord Jesus will kill the lawless one with His breath and bring him to nothing.
p. 212
1. A potent two-fold request for prayer.
* That the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored. Compare Psalm 147:15.
* That we may be delivered from wicked and evil people.
* “Delivered” – Greek rhuomai: from rhuo, to draw, drag along the ground. To draw or snatch from danger, rescue, deliver. This is more with the meaning of drawing to oneself than merely rescuing from someone or something.
p. 213
Note the descriptions “wicked and evil.” The Greek meaning of the first word is particularly interesting. Greek atopos – “from a, without, and topos, place, without place or having no place. Inconvenient, prejudicial, hurtful, evil, improper (Acts 28:6). Of persons: absurd, unreasonable (2 Thessalonians 3:2); of conduct: inconvenient, unsuitable, improper, wrong.”
Consider what could be a Ten-word Instant Upturn: “For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful.” (ESV)
p. 213
2. A significantly personal signature. Imagine a handwritten version . . .
The benediction: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.