TPT The Books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 170

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

The books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians are precious letters sent to comfort and strengthen a young church. Packed with prophetic insight about the last days, Paul's words encourage us to be alert and live to please God as we wait for Christ's return. This 12-lesson study guide on the books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, designed for both individual and group study, provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details the authorship of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. The lessons then walk you through every portion from the books and include features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history. Enrich your biblical understanding of the books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.  

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

TPT: The Books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians: 12-Lesson Bible Study Guide

Copyright © 2025 BroadStreet Publishing Group

9781424569700 (softcover)

9781424569717 (ebook)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

General editor: Brian Simmons

Managing editor: William D. Watkins

Writer: Matthew A. Boardwell

Cover and interior by Garborg Design Works | garborgdesign.com

Printed in the United States of America

25 26 27 28 29 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

From God’s Heart to Yours

What I Love about Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians

Lesson 1

Uprooted by a Riot

Lesson 2

Show and Tell

Lesson 3

A Measure of Ministry

Lesson 4

Absence Makes the Heart to Wonder

Lesson 5

Relieved by the Report

Lesson 6

Loving and Living as Christians

Lesson 7

Jesus Is Never Late

Lesson 8

Practicing the Presence

Lesson 9

What’s Coming to You

Lesson 10

You Can’t Miss It

Lesson 11

Shoulder to Shoulder

Lesson 12

Keep Busy

Endnotes

From God’s Heart to Yours

“God is love,” says the apostle John, and “Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him” (1 John 4:7). The life of a Christ-follower is, at its core, a life of love—God’s love of us, our love of him, and our love of others and ourselves because of God’s love for us.

And this divine love is reliable, trustworthy, unconditional, other-centered, majestic, forgiving, redemptive, patient, kind, and more precious than anything else we can ever receive or give. It characterizes each person of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and so is as limitless as they are. They love one another with this eternal love, and they reach beyond themselves to us, created in their image with this love.

How do we know such incredible truths? Through the primary source of all else we know about the one God—his Word, the Bible. Of course, God reveals who he is through other sources as well, such as the natural world, miracles, our inner life, our relationships (especially with him), those who minister on his behalf, and those who proclaim him to us and others. But the fullest and most comprehensive revelation we have of God and from him is what he has given us in the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the twenty-seven books of the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament). Together, these sixty-six books present a compelling and telling portrait of God and his dealings with us.

It is these Scriptures that The Passionate Life Bible Study Series is all about. Through these study guides, we—the editors and writers of this series—seek to provide you with a unique and welcoming opportunity to delve more deeply into God’s precious Word, encountering there his loving heart for you and all the others he loves. God wants you to know him more deeply, to love him more devoutly, and to share his heart with others more frequently and freely. To accomplish this, we have based this study guide series on The Passion Translation of the Bible, which strives to “reintroduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader. It doesn’t merely convey the literal meaning of words. It expresses God’s passion for people and his world by translating the original, life-changing message of God’s Word for modern readers.” It has been created to “kindle in you a burning desire to know the heart of God, while impacting the church for years to come.”1

In each study guide, you will find an introduction to the Bible book it covers. There you will gain information about that Bible book’s authorship, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson following the introduction will take a portion of that Bible book and walk you through it so you will learn its content better while experiencing and applying God’s heart for your own life and encountering ways you can share his heart with others. Along the way, you will come across a number of features we have created that provide opportunities for more life application and growth in biblical understanding.

  Experience God’s Heart

This feature focuses questions on personal application. It will help you live out God’s Word and to bring the Bible into your world in fresh, exciting, and relevant ways.

  Share God’s Heart

This feature will help you grow in your ability to share with other people what you learn and apply in a given lesson. It provides guidance on using the lesson to grow closer to others and to enrich your fellowship with others. It also points the way to enabling you to better listen to the stories of others so you can bridge the biblical story with their stories.

  The Backstory

This feature provides ancient historical and cultural background that illuminates Bible passages and teachings. It deals with then-pertinent religious groups, communities, leaders, disputes, business trades, travel routes, customs, nations, political factions, ancient measurements and currency…in short, anything historical or cultural that will help you better understand what Scripture says and means.

  Word Wealth

This feature provides definitions for and other illuminating information about key terms, names, and concepts, and how different ancient languages have influenced the biblical text. It also provides insight into the different literary forms in the Bible, such as prophecy, poetry, narrative history, parables, and letters, and how knowing the form of a text can help you better interpret and apply it. Finally, this feature highlights the most significant passages in a Bible book. You may be encouraged to memorize these verses or keep them before you in some way so you can actively hide God’s Word in your heart.

  Digging Deeper

This feature explains the theological significance of a text or the controversial issues that arise and mentions resources you can use to help you arrive at your own conclusions. Another way to dig deeper into the Word is by looking into the life of a biblical character or another person from church history, showing how that man or woman incarnated a biblical truth or passage. For instance, Jonathan Edwards was well known for his missions work among native American Indians and for his intellectual prowess in articulating the Christian faith, Florence Nightingale for the reforms she brought about in healthcare, Irenaeus for his fight against heresy, Billy Graham for his work in evangelism, Moses for the strength God gave him to lead the Hebrews and receive and communicate the law, and Deborah for her work as a judge in Israel. This feature introduces to you figures from the past who model what it looks like to experience God’s heart and share his heart with others.

  The Extra Mile

While The Passion Translation’s notes are extensive, sometimes students of Scripture like to explore more on their own. In this feature, we provide you with opportunities to glean more information from a Bible dictionary, a Bible encyclopedia, a reliable Bible online tool, another ancient text, and the like. Here you will learn how you can go the extra mile on a Bible lesson. And not just in study either. Reflection, prayer, discussion, and applying a passage in new ways provide even more opportunities to go the extra mile. Here you will find questions to answer and applications to make that will require more time and energy from you—if and when you have them to give.

As you can see above, each of these features has a corresponding icon so you can quickly and easily identify them.

You will find other helps and guidance through the lessons of these study guides, including thoughtful questions, application suggestions, and spaces for you to record your own reflections, answers, and action steps. Of course, you can also write in your own journal, notebook, computer document, or other resource, but we have provided you with space for your convenience.

Also, each lesson will direct you toward the introductory material and numerous notes provided in The Passion Translation. There each Bible book contains a number of aids supplied to help you better grasp God’s words and his incredible love, power, knowledge, plans, and so much more. We want you to get the most out of your Bible study, especially using it to draw you closer to the One who loves you most.

Finally, at the end of each lesson you’ll find a section called “Talking It Out.” This contains questions and exercises for application that you can share, answer, and apply with your spouse, a friend, a coworker, a Bible study group, or any other individuals or groups who would like to walk with you through this material. As Christians, we gather together to serve, study, worship, sing, evangelize, and a host of other activities. We grow together, not just on our own. This section will give you ample opportunities to engage others with some of the content of each lesson so you can work it out in community.

We offer all of this to support you in becoming an even more faithful and loving disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple in the ancient world was a student of her teacher, a follower of his master. Students study, and followers follow. Jesus’ disciples are to sit at his feet and listen and learn and then do what he tells them and shows them to do. We have created The Passionate Life Bible Study Series to help you do what a disciple of Jesus is called to do.

So go.

Read God’s words.

Hear what he has to say in them and through them.

Meditate on them.

Hide them in your heart.

Display their truths in your life.

Share their truths with others.

Let them ignite Jesus’ passion and light in all you say and do.

Use them to help you fulfill what Jesus called his disciples to do: “Now wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age” (Matthew 28:19–20).

And through all of this, let Jesus’ love nourish your heart and allow that love to overflow into your relationships with others (John 15:9–13). For it was for love that Jesus came, served, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This love he gives us. And this love he wants us to pass along to others.

What I Love about Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians

Paul’s letters contain so much hope and grace, especially when you turn to 1 and 2 Thessalonians. They are full of encouragement and exhortation that will leave you richer in your spiritual life.

The apostle Paul brought the gospel to the important city of Thessalonica, with an estimated population of one hundred thousand. Originally named Thermai (“hot springs”), the city was renamed Thessalonica after Alexander the Great’s half-sister. The city was home to a Jewish community as well as many cults and false religions.

During his second apostolic journey, after leaving Philippi, Paul and his team arrived at the wealthy city of Thessalonica, the capital of Macedonia. As he preached and taught in the synagogue, many Jews and God-fearing gentiles became believers and formed a congregation of Christ-followers (Acts 17:4).

Shortly after leaving the city, Paul sent Timothy back to ensure the believers were doing well and living faithfully by the truths of the gospel. When Timothy returned, he informed Paul of the great faith, hope, and love still burning in these believers’ hearts. So Paul wrote them this letter, about two years after the church had been established, to comfort and strengthen their hearts.

So why do I love these letters? Let me start with 1 Thessalonians.

This letter is one of the earliest known writings of the apostle Paul, which makes it perhaps the oldest Christian writing we have. It dates back to AD 50–51, only twenty years after Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead.

There is great comfort and hope in 1 Thessalonians. The believers had let Paul know that they had questions about the second appearing of Christ, so Paul addressed that subject in his letter. This young church needed to hear from their spiritual father, Paul.

In this deeply personal letter, Paul offers wise and practical advice on how to live our lives with gratitude, grace, and glory. He addresses the recipients as their “father” (2:11) and their “mother” (v. 7). Eight times he addresses the Thessalonian believers as his beloved “brothers and sisters.” He even describes them as his “exhilarating joy” (v. 19). Such a treasure is found in the few pages of this letter.

And why do I love 2 Thessalonians? The Jesus followers in Thessalonica looked to Paul as their apostolic father and asked him to clarify the events surrounding “the day of the Lord.” So Paul wrote to inspire idle people to engage themselves in making a living and presenting the gospel of Christ through the holy example of their changed lives.

We all want to know what living in the last days before Jesus’ second coming will be like. Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians gives us some answers. With only forty-seven verses, this book is packed with prophetic insight to strengthen and prepare us for those coming days. Not only does 2 Thessalonians give us information about what is ahead, but it is also a map to guide us through anything that might assail us as we approach the grand finale of all time—the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ with his glorious messengers of fire!

Although we spend our lives watching and waiting for his appearance, we must live every day for his glory. We are to be alert, awake, and filled with his holiness as we draw closer to the fulfillment of the ages.

This letter encourages us to stand our ground, be faithful to the end, and always make the message of Christ beautiful in our lives. We must do more than combat evil; we must live for Christ and expect his coming. He should find us living as passionate lovers of God, abandoned to him with all our heart.

We all need the truth of 2 Thessalonians today to keep our lives focused on what is truth as we look to Christ alone to be our strength, no matter how difficult the future may appear. One day we will each be able to personally thank the apostle Paul for writing this inspired letter.

May you be blessed as you study 1 and 2 Thessalonians!

Brian Simmons

LESSON 1

Uprooted by a Riot

(Acts 16:6–17:14)

At first, the shouts and tumult went unheeded as little more than street noise while the little band of converts carried on their lively discussion about Jesus the Christ. Before long, however, the crescendo of angry voices outside climaxed abruptly with fierce pounding on the door of Jason’s house. “Where is Paul of Tarsus? We demand to see him! We know he is staying here. Bring him out!”

This infant Christian church had a notion that this day was coming. From the day they first heard the apostle Paul and his friends preach the good news of Jesus in their city, they were promised that following Jesus would bring hardship. Now, hardship had come to their door, attempting to uproot the church in Thessalonica.

The apostles were not in, so their host, Jason, bravely went out to meet the mob. Scripture does not tell us where Paul was that day, but he did not intend to be in Thessalonica at all. His plan for this journey had been to minister in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) where he had previously initiated gospel missions among the churches of Galatia. But God intervened, redirecting him to Europe. This change of direction brought him to one of the most important seaports in Greece.

How did Paul decide to turn his mission toward Europe instead of continuing to evangelize in Asia (modern-day Turkey) (Acts 16:6–10)?

In what important Macedonian city did Paul and Silas evangelize before coming to Thessalonica (vv. 11–12)?

What kind of initial response did they receive (vv. 13–15)?

As an observant Jew with a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew (Old Testament) Scriptures, Paul was prepared to instruct fellow Jews about Jesus, their awaited Messiah. As Jews had fanned out across the world, they established synagogues wherever there were ten Jewish men. Synagogues were easy to find in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia Minor, but when the apostles turned their attention to Europe, these Jewish communities became sparser.2

That is why Paul went to a riverside prayer meeting in Philippi. Had there been a synagogue to preach in, he would have done so. Instead, he was content to join a prayer group just outside the city and tell the good news to the women gathered there. Perhaps only one family believed the message.

The reception in Philippi did not remain this warm, however. Before long, Paul performed the exorcism of a fortune-telling slave girl. Upon deliverance from her demonic spirit, she also lost her supernatural abilities, which infuriated her owners, who had been making money off her. They then took Paul and Silas for judgment before the local rulers. Without a trial, these two men were publicly flogged and summarily dumped in jail overnight (vv. 16–24).

Rather than moaning over the pain and indignity they had endured, Paul and Silas worshiped God that night while their fellow prisoners listened. Suddenly, a miraculous earthquake shook the jail, swung open the doors, and loosed all the prisoners’ chains. The jailer assumed a jailbreak, and rather than facing certain severe punishment from the city council, he steeled himself to drive a dagger into his own chest. Paul surprised him with the welcome news that no one had escaped. This unexpected relief brought the jailer to his knees and into the Christian faith. By morning, his whole family professed faith in Christ (vv. 25–34).

After these events, what decision did the magistrates make about the apostles (vv. 35–36)?

Did Paul welcome or resist this decision (v. 37)? Why? What did he demand?

How did the magistrates react to the report of the officers? What did the magistrates ask Paul and Silas to do? How did the two missionaries comply (vv. 38–40)?

How would you describe the reception and effectiveness of Paul and Silas in Europe to this point?

To Thessalonica

Leaving Philippi, Paul and Silas continued down the Roman highway called the Egnatian Way. This route was built under the orders of Macedonian proconsul Gnaeus Egnatius in the second century before Christ. The road linked Byzantium (now Istanbul) to the Adriatic coast. From there, a 150 km boat trip could deliver a traveler to the terminus of the Appian Way leading to Rome. From Philippi, Thessalonica was the next major city on this important road (17:1).

In Paul’s day, Thessalonica was already a thriving city and the seat of government for the Roman province of Macedonia. Because of its navigable commercial seaport, Thessalonica has been a principal center for trade for more than two thousand years.

From every vantage point in Thessalonica, Mount Olympus looms large on the southwest horizon. The Greeks believed that their great gods held court on its summit. Like many Mediterranean societies, the Thessalonians of Paul’s day offered worship to an array of Greek, Roman, and even Egyptian gods. Uniquely, the city was dedicated to the Phrygian gods, the Cabeiri, whose mystery religion included drunken reveries and orgies. Layered onto all this was the required civil homage to the Roman Caesar.3