← Prophecy Watchers
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:02]
A
Hello, I'm Gary Stearman of Prophecy Watchers. Today I'd like to read from an epistle of Paul, First Thessalonians. Very telling about the early church. This is the new American Standard Version. You can follow along in your own Bible if you'd like to. First Thessalonians 1:1, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. To the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and your labor of love and steadfastness of the hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. In the presence of our God and Father. What an opening. And now we come to the message. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction, just as you know what kind of men we prove to be among you, for your sake you also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the Word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything, for they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had with you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. Chapter two. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness of our God to speak to you. The Gospel of God amid much opposition. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity, or by way of deceit. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak not as pleasing unto men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with pretext for greed. God is our witness, for nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others. Even though, as apostles of Christ, we might have asserted our authority. But we prove to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how, working night and day, so as not to burden any of you, we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God. How devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you, believers, just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you unto his own kingdom and glory. For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you receive from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of man, but for what it really is, the word of God which also performs its work in you who believe. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. They're not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved, with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost. We, brethren, having been bereft of 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, more than once. And yet Satan, thwarted us. For who is our hope or joy or crown or exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? For you are our glory and joy. Chapter 3. Therefore, when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone. And we went to Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the Gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed, when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction. And so it came to pass, as you know. For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you and our labor should be in vain. But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us, just as we also long to see you. For this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction, we were comforted about you through your faith, for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God for you, in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account, as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face and may complete what is lacking in your faith. Now may our God and Father himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you, and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all men, just as we also do for you, so that he may establish in your hearts unblameable the holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Chapter 4 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you may excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of our Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality. For each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you, for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Now, as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again Even so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will ascend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus shall we ever be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Chapter 5. Now, as to the times and epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night, while when they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly, like birth pangs upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you like a thief. For you are all the sons of light, sons of the day. We're not of night or darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation for God has not destined us to wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord, and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. And we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all men. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing in everything, give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophetic utterances, but examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.