In drawing this letter to conclusion, Paul's primary concern is to issue a number of specific injunctions that will help the believers in Thessalonica to understand how they can live out their faith in Community so that they will become known as a Community that reflects that values of the Gospel.  We identify 3 sections: 1) Love and Respect your Leaders; 2) Live out your Faith Together - including 5 pastoral injunctions, 3 'all the time' practices and 5 instructions about being a Spirit-led community; and 3) Let God do His Work in You.  The strong reminder at the end of this letter is that we do not become pure and blameless in this world by trying harder; instead we become more like Jesus as we grow to love and honor Him more and more and allow Him to do the work of making us holy!  May this be our experience together!
Listen below or right click here to download the file

In our text today Paul draws our attention forward to the physical return of Jesus to this earth.  He reminds us that is is an event which is absolutely certain and one which ought to dramatically affect they way in which we live now.   From the 3 sections of our text we draw 3 lessons:

• Living expectantly means living responsibly in Community (4:9-12)
• Living expectantly means learning to grieve well - with certain hope (4:13-18)
• Living expectantly means being awake and sober - putting on faith and love as a breastplate and hope as a helmet (5:1-11)

Listen below or right click here to download the file

Paul speaks with strong and uncertain language about sexual purity in these verses.  'It is God's will...' he begins and finishes with 'anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God'.  He is calling believers in Jesus to a holy life!  What we notice in these words, however, is that this is not simply a negative 'thou shalt not' approach, but rather he is calling us upward to a higher calling!  We notice the language of verse 4 which calls us to 'possess (live fully) in your own body in a way that it holy and honorable'.  Our sexual bodies are rooted in the story of Creation; sexual expression is designed for the context of the covenant relationship of marriage.  Whenever we take it out of that context, we cause damage to God's precious gift, to ourselves and to others!  Let us hear this word carefully together!
Listen below or right click here to upload the file

The four paragraphs in our text today combine to present a singular message.  In each of them Paul clearly expresses how much he loves them and how much he wishes he could be with them.  We observe in particular that Paul loved the believers enough to really care about what they believed!  He was anxious to know whether they had fully received the Good News of Jesus and whether or not their faith was growing and becoming mature.  From this text we seek to pay attention to those in our own journey who loved us enough care what we believe about the story of Jesus - and we take time to express thanks for them.  We also look around us and ask the question: who is there in my world right now that I need to really love - to love enough to care about what they believe; to help them grow in their understanding of the Good News of Jesus!  We observe and join with Paul's closing prayer:  "May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you." 1Th 3:12 NIV
Listen below or right click here to download the file

Jesus radically redefined the idea of leadership when He spoke about the Kingdom of God: "...whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."  In our chapter today Paul defends the actions of he and his team when they first visited the city of Thessalonica- they came as servants who had been entrusted with the Gospel.  We seek to observe some specific characteristics of servant leadership in the Kingdom of God in this chapter and carefully apply it to whatever sphere of Christian ministry we find ourselves in!  May our hearts be encouraged to receive this word into our lives.
Listen below or right click here to download the file.

This first chapter of Paul's letter to the Thessalonians is marked by a particularly positive tone.  Paul is overjoyed and expresses great thanks because the faith of these new believers in the city has not only remained and grown in the midst of much opposition; it has in fact spread throughout the whole region of southern Europe so that people everywhere are talking about how they had 'turned to God from idols'.  We ask the question from this text: how is it that faith becomes so contagious??  Two elements seem evident from the way Paul describes the story: True Words and Consistent Actions!  We challenge ourselves therefore to intentionally listen to the True Words of the Gospel and to allow those words to shape our attitudes and actions each day! 
Listen below or right click here to download the file.

Dear friends of ICB!  We are back from our summer trip to North America!  We thoroughly enjoyed our time there but it is also good to be back in Bishkek and renewing our studies in the Word together.

Today's lesson is an overview of the letter of 1 Thessalonians.  In this lesson we read the entire text of the letter in an effort to catch the main flow of the letter as Paul wrote it.  We discover a couple of important key words:  1) GOSPEL - this is the Good News about Jesus, especially the news of Jesus death, burial and resurrection which is the foundation of Christian faith.  2) CHURCH - the church is made up of people whose lives have been radically transformed by the Good News that is the Gospel of Jesus.  Paul is writing to these new believers in the city of Thessalonica to encourage them by talking in specific terms about the life-changing nature of the Gospel.  Over the coming 6 weeks we look forward to looking at the letter in greater detail! May this Gospel shape our lives to become more like Jesus!
Listen below or right click here to download the file