God Invades Time

When God sent His Son to assume a human nature, He dignified so much of our earthly existence. Amazingly, Jesus spent the majority of His life at the carpenter’s bench. This forces us to reconsider the importance of our work. As we read 2 Thessalonians 3, and do so against the backdrop of Advent, we will explore a sound theology of work.

What is the basis of our faith, hope and love? Is it not the gospel of the Lord Jesus and the grace of God that brings eternal comfort? As we continue to prepare for the coming of the Lord Jesus at Christmas, this Sunday we look with eager hope and expectation toward the second coming. Jesus will return in power and will destroy those who set themselves against God and his kingdom. 2000 years later we continue to stand firm in the foundations of the gospel- grace, faith, hope and love!

Pastor Ian reminded us this week of just how many Christmas hymns connect Jesus’ first coming, what we celebrate at Advent, with His second coming. We cannot separate the Son who came to the manger from the Son who will return in power. So, while 2 Thessalonians may seem like an odd text for Christmas, it is quite fitting to see how it frames our mission. This week we will see how God’s justice encourages us to glorify Jesus.

When Peter Drucker said “culture eats strategy for breakfast” he reminded us of just how important it is to have a healthy ethos in a church. In what appears to be a list of injunctions in 1 Thessalonians 5.12-28, Paul actually gives us a glimpse into how a healthy church should interact. May the Lord strengthen and sustain us to this end.

Having stressed Jesus’ visible return, Paul now addresses our next question: when will this happen? In 1 Thessalonians 5.1-11, we learn that we are to prepare for Jesus’ coming rather than become distracted with its precise timing. We prepare for Jesus by practicing faith, hope, and love.

What happens when we die? We spend too little time contemplating this question because of the serious implications of the answer. While many of our peers think the answer is either unknowable or a matter of speculation, we will see that Jesus speaks authoritatively, granting the church hope and encouragement.

As we read 1 Thessalonians, we might find it shocking that Paul turns to address sexual ethics halfway through the letter. In our culture, many wonder why God would be concerned with our sex life. We will take two weeks to study this passage considering why God’s design for sex is both counter-cultural and Kingdom-oriented.

Each local church is known for something…the service-oriented church, the praying church, the loud music and lights church, the church full of grey-haired people…what was the church in Thessalonica known for? For that matter, what is Providence Church known for? In our text Sunday, Paul is overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness for the faithfulness of the church in Thessalonica. We’ll see how faithfulness is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Christian and how God calls us to walk in faith with each other.

What role does prayer play in the life of the local church? Many of us struggle with prayer. I am hoping as we continue to look at 1 Thessalonians we come to see prayer as a gracious invitation from God rather than another thing to jam into our busy schedules. May ours be a local church dependent on God alone.