Excerpt from Lesson 1: How many of you have read 1 Thessalonians already? OK, good. Did you find yourselves going, “What is he talking about with the ‘day of the Lord’?” Because later in his letters, for instance in his last letter, Romans, its never mentioned. So, you have to think about this as “early […]

Excerpt from Lesson 2: Where does Paul put the credit on everything that he does? Its always on the Holy Spirit, it is never on him personally. That idea of the Holy Spirit is just so central to Paul’s teaching and to the way that he communicates with them.

Excerpt from Lesson 3: Where is the focus of that thought, everyone? Its on the resurrection, not on the crucifixion. Now why is that important for the apocalyptic world? The resurrection is what sets Jesus apart and qualifies him.

Excerpt from Lesson 4: OK, so let’s just remember who it is we are talking about? Who is the “them”? The Jews. And what was their crime? Attacking Paul.

Excerpt from Lesson 5: Timothy had stayed behind while Paul went to Athens. Then Timothy joins Paul in Athens and Paul immediately sends him back to Thessalonica to check on them.

Excerpt from Lesson 6: There are a few things I want to point out before we start the first section which starts with verse 13. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:2.

Excerpt from Philemon: OK, so the question is, “how does Paul keep teaching while being a prisoner?” He’s writing his letters from prison, isn’t he. He wrote three of them from prison, because he was in three different prisons. So, in Roman days, they had a practice of not feeding their prisoners, and it eliminated […]

Excerpt from Philipians Part 1: The society that we are reading about in Philippians was one where Christians were facing tremendous opposition. And, when you live in a society where Christianity is as accepted as it is in the 21st century in the United States, can that dull your experience?

Excerpt from Philipians Part 2: Alright, so, a lot to unpack in this first verse. So, Philippians 1:1 – what do you think Paul would normally be doing in this verse? Greeting people. And in the classic style of Roman letter writing, what are the three things we’ve learned are always going to be present?

Excerpt from Philipians Part 3: So, lets look at the word morph for a moment. Now here’s the point. Noumenon and phenomena. Noumenon exists only in your thinking. Phenomena is when it takes shape externally. Morph belongs in which one? Is a shape visible?

Excerpt from Philipians Part 4: I’m just going to make a couple of comments. I mentioned that Philippians 2: 6 – 11 is known as a hymn. Many of you noticed that it was poetry and written differently in your Bibles. It is one of the most well-known and loved passages in all of Paul’s […]