Parousia - Part II, 1 Thess. Chapter 4
1 Thess. – Chapter 4
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Parousia – Part II
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
July 12, 2011
In Chapter 3, Paul began to speak of the coming of the Lord. He uses the Greek word, “Parousia”. In Chapter 4, he continues with this revelation, but first he admonishes the Thessalonians concerning the will of God for sanctification and living Holy lives.
The gods of the Thessalonians were licentious, self-pleasing, rakes vaunted for their sexual misdeeds. People will be like their gods. Consequently the heathen lived in utter immorality. Lust dominated their souls. This was a sailor’s town, a soldier’s town, with self-gratification the core of its life. Marriage was a joke, with wives and daughters fair game for anyone who could get them. Their new life in Christ stood in startling contrast. This is still true today of the world VS Christianity.
Marriage was something of an inconvenience. With the false gods ridiculing marriage, the people couldn’t take it seriously. What a shock it must have been for them to learn that God Himself had not only instituted marriage, but demanded it be kept sacred. To hear that He would punish violators was a staggering idea. The old gods advocated adulterous acts, committing them themselves. Here was a new idea, a whole new concept for the Thessalonian Christians. This is why he began with the Lord’s command.
4: 1-7: “Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication; That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; Not in the lust of what is forbidden,, even as the Gentiles which do not know God: that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”
Holiness was a brand new way of life for these people. In being like their old gods, they were formerly wanton and self-pleasing. Now the One True God commands…”be ye Holy for I the Lord your God am holy!” His worshippers are to be like Him! A pagan can’t do this. For without the Holy Spirit, he is trapped within his fallen, ungodly nature. But a miracle occurs at salvation. The sinner receives the Holy Spirit, creating in him a new nature---a holy one---by means of which he can live a holy life if he wants to.
(Vs. 8) “He therefore that despises does not despise man, but God, who has also given unto us His Holy Spirit.”
Any man ignoring this counsel is not spurning the word of a man, but rejecting the very God who gives us His Holy Spirit. It is the gift of the Spirit, the Holy One that makes a holy life possible. When it comes to brotherly love, it is hardly necessary for me to write to you about that. “You yourselves are taught of God to love one another”
Paul is hinting at imperfections in their relationships when he asks them to excel in this grace.
11-12: “And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing.”
It is important to have the respect of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone. They judge the gospel by our conduct.
What church needs people with nothing to do but cause trouble? Almost every church seemingly has its fanatics, busybodies and loafers. The Thessalonian church was no exception. The immediate expectation of Christ’s coming led some enthusiasts to neglect their work becoming dependent on others. Paul senses the problem. While he encouraged their anticipation of the second coming, he disapproved using it as an excuse for neglecting one’s work.
Last week we did an in depth teaching on these next three verses. For continuity’s sake, I will again overview the subject of the “Parousia”. This word literally means “presence”. This past Sunday morning, we literally experienced the “Parousia, i.e. presence” of the Lord in our foot washing service. His Presence was so strong that we felt like we were with the Him and disciples at the Lord’s Supper and He was washing our feet through the presence of His Holy Spirit. I urge you to read the notes on Parousia- 1 Thessalonians 3 which are posted on the website under Bible Studies.” www.eastgateministries.com
In These verses, Paul is speaking of the visible coming, arrival, advent of the Lord at the Second Coming.
(Vs. 13) “But I would not have you ignorant brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”
At the cross, Jesus bore our grief and sorrow. Un-natural grief always makes for superstition, fear and excessive grief. Obviously they had not yet been taught the part the believing dead have in the Lord’s return. Paul wasn’t about to let his Thessalonian Christians participate in pagan hopelessness. It would deny and disgrace the gospel. So as with the Philippians, he used a bomb of doctrinal insight to settle the matter.
Paul had been caught up into the Third Heaven (2 Cor. 12:2). When he was raptured (in the body or out of the body, he could not tell) in to the Third Heaven, he beheld truths too grand to be fully compressed into human language. His being was so packed with spiritual glories; he frequently drops bombs of insight. Coming upon them is one of the great treaasues reserved for those who study his letters. To the Philippians, for example, he unloaded the truth of Christ’s self-emptying (descent into humanity) to settle a quarrel between two women n the church. (Phil. 2: 6-8)
Now to the Thessalonians, he has unleashed that at the Second Coming those saints who died in Christ will be returning with Him.
Now we believe that Jesus died and rose again, don’t we? Is it any harder to believe that God will bring with Jesus all who have fallen asleep in Jesus? To “bring” these souls with Him, they must first be with Him…”absent from the body…present with the Lord”. (2 Cor. 5:8). When Christ appears with all His saints (3:13), the dead in Christ will be with Him. But as to the day of Jesus’ Second Coming, Paul makes it absolutely clear that the saints will participate in it, whether dead or alive.
He said, I can state this “by the Word of the Lord, (direct revelation). That we, who remain alive unto the coming of the Lord, shall have no advantage whatsoever over those who fall asleep. Paul is picturing the harmlessness of death in Christ. This verse is not teaching soul sleep, but refuting pagan despair at bereavement time. From the human side, death resembles sleep. If so, who agonizes because a loved one is taking a nap? From the divine side, the departed saint is very busy in his new life. Paul’s point is inordinate grief is out of place for those with such insight.
4: 15-17: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not have advantage over those who are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Vision of the Night Given to Carolyn Sissom on September 19, 2001: " I was in a building with many windows with a crowd of people. I looked out the window and saw Jesus coming in “clouds of Glory”, flying in the formation of the Body of Christ. I shouted to the crowd, “Jesus is here”. I ran out to the pasture to meet the Lord coming in the air. Only a few people went with me. I was then “caught up or in”, (I can’t say which) into the “clouds of Glory”. The clouds were individual saints who had already gone on to be with the Lord. They were in their natural bodies, surrounded by clouds of Glory. I recognized some of the family as well as ministers especially an evangelist was identified. I didn’t know they couldn’t speak to me, but I asked them, “Where is Jesus? Because I knew He was in the midst of them.” A voice spoke from behind me, “He is coming toward you.” I saw Jesus about 20 feet in front of me as brilliant light. There was an explosion of light. I awoke with a tremendous burden for those who have backslid.”
Mt. 24: 27-31: “For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Breaking Christian News published this article July 11, 2011.
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Weather Wonders Not Confined to Earth: "One-of-a-kind" Storm on Saturn Just Keeps Going Aimee Herd (July 11, 2011) "It's still going like crazy," -Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker Astronomers are keeping their eyes glued to the 6th planet from our sun as it seems to be weathering an extraordinary storm.
Astronomers say the tempest on the ringed planet has triggered "lightning flashes 10,000 times more intense than on Earth" and that—at the storm's height thus far—they've been recorded at 10 strikes per second. The atmospheric disturbance on Saturn is being called "one-of-a-kind" by astronomers. And Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory remarked, "It's still going like crazy." With the perceived increase in storms, earthquakes and tsunamis here on our own planet, including strange recent events like a huge snowfall in the Atacama Desert in South America (one of the world's driest places), it's interesting to note that perhaps these phenomena are not restricted to Earth. …Birth pangs? Source: CBS Local
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Jesus went on to tell us “ Mt. 24:32: Now learn “a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near; so likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, until all these things are fulfilled.”
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V.; quote from Christian News – Aimee Heard; quotes from C. S. Lovett’s Lights on 1 Thessalonians; Vision of the Night given to Pastor Carolyn Sissom.