Take the role of first-century pagans



1. The Revolutionary Gospel

Take the role of first-century pagans. Most believe in no gods, but think all is ruled by fate. Nearly all try to placate or manipulate whatever spiritual powers there may be by making offerings nevertheless. Some have turned to mystery faiths, which feature entry rituals much like the rituals of contemporary lodges. All view the material world as permanent; none foresees a resurrection; most fear a dark and empty half-life after death.

Divide into teams, each of which is to read at least two chapters of 1 Thessalonians and to make a list of everything they learn about this God the apostle preaches. What is He like? What does He do? What are His concerns? What changes in one's view of life and its meaning would He make?

Come together again to hear reports, and to begin to sense through each team's discovery just how revolutionary Christian truth we take for granted today was in the first-century world.

2. The Power of Love

In a minilecture, briefly sketch the role of love in validating the Gospel message in the first century. Then have your group members break into teams. Each should study the first 3 chapters of I Thessalonians, and answer the first two, and next two, questions.

• If you were a new believer in Thessalonica, how would you know that Paul loved you?

• How might you demonstrate love to a non-Christian friend, and thus communicate the relational dimension of the Gospel?

• How did the Thessalonian believers respond to Paul's teaching and love?

• How, in a modern local church, might this kind of love find expression? List at least 20 practical ways in which members might 'love one another.'

Last study we talked about the Gospel and how revolutionary it was to first-century Christians. Today we learned about the relationship between Paul and the Thessalonian church. Combining these two studies, answer the following questions:

How does the Gospel create the Church?

How does the Church spread the Gospel?

How does the Gospel shape the church?

How can the Church, while passing on the Gospel, embody it?

3. Transformation

Hellenistic religions and philosophies did have moral content. Some were highly ethical and proposed strict standards, while others seemed actually to foster immorality. But none gave the adherent any real hope.

Then the message of Jesus broke out on the world with the promise that not only would believers have a new relationship with God, but they would also become new and different people as well! Christianity promised the power to become righteous.

True to this promise, believers in Thessalonica began to experience a progressive transformation that touched every aspect of their personalities. Read 2 Thess. 1:3. The capacity to trust and the freedom to love were increasingly characteristic of these young believers. God was working an inner transformation.

Look again through the Thessalonian epistles, see the extent of the transformation that Christianity provides. How did Christ overcome the following in the lives of the Thessalonica believers?

Anxiety and fear (1 Thess 1:3; 10; 2 Thess 1:3-4; 2 Thess. )

Isolation (1 Thess. 1:3; 2:7-11; 3:6-10, 12; 4:9-10; 5:13)

Moral compromise (1 Thess 1:3; 2:14; 3:4, 8)

Motivations (1 Thess. 1:6; 2:4-6, 14; 3:3; 4:3-6, 11-12; 5:8, 12)

Personal failures (1 Thess. 3:12; 4:1, 3, 7; 5:23)

Lack of goals and meaning (1 Thess. 4:1, 11-12; 5:14-15)

4. The Day of the Lord

Divide your group into 5 sections. Assign to each section one chapter of 1 Thessalonians. Each is to read his/her chapter individually, and locate references to the future God has planned for believers, and to see what impact the future is to have in believers now.

Have your group members report their findings chapter by chapter.

Discuss: "Why was teaching about prophecy given such a high priority when Paul had so little time with the Thessalonians? What role should prophetic teaching have in our own faith? Why?

Do not discuss at length, but use this preliminary study to stimulate awareness of prophecy's significance as a stimulant to Christian living.

5. Persecution

Sketch the background of this church as it relates to persecution. Then give your group members the following series of statements to try to answer from 2 Thessalonians 1:

Christians should be immune from persecution and suffering.

God's love is shown by delivering His people from trouble.

Christian who suffer have reason to doubt God's love.

We should always pray that suffering believers will be delivered from their troubles.

If God was both good and all powerful, He would not let His people suffer. Therefore He must either not be good or not be all powerful.

6. Anxiety (2 Thess. 2:1 - 3:5; Amos 5:18; Zephaniah 1:14-15)

7. Responsibility & Purposefulness

Paul emphasized two themes in 2 Thessalonians: one, in chapter 3, is that of responsibility. Each believer is to live responsibly in this world, working to meet his/her own needs. The other theme is that of purposefulness. The Christian understanding of the future provides us with a sense of goal and purpose - of the meaningfulness of life - that others lack.

The theme of purpose is expressed particularly in Paul's prayers or reference to prayer (1:11-12; 2:13-16; 3:1-5). Discuss briefly the responsibility theme, and then set pairs to study the prayers. In view of the future God has planned, what can give our lives meaning and purpose? What can we do that our lives will not be wasted?

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