 Yeah, we entered into chapter 4 and we read out the first few verses and in verse 1 we see that Paul is giving them a series of instructions so that they may please the Lord so that whatever they are doing may be pleasing to him. We don't live out the commandments of God because it's something that we are obliged to do rather we follow God's instructions because we want to please him. That should be our ultimate goal and Paul is glad and he says you are in fact living in that way. You are leaving God pleasing lives and he's happy about it but then he says do this more and more. So stagnation is one of the greatest dangers in a believer's life. If a believer feels that they have made a lot of changes in their walk, that they have made sacrifices and improved and drawn closer to God and then if they say oh good now I have arrived there's nothing more to be achieved. If that attitude sets in then there is danger of backsliding because this is what they say when they are preaching from the pulpit. You are either going forward or you are going backward. It's not possible to stay in one place. So if you are stagnating you will automatically start going backward. So the Lord's command is that we should continue to increase more and more in our maturity. We can never say I have reached a certain level and this is enough for me. We are supposed to continue growing to higher levels of maturity. So he says I urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more for you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. So the Lord Jesus authorized Paul and the team to tell them that they can never be satisfied and sit back. They have to continue doing more. And so because they need to do more and more in this he begins by making one important you know by giving one very important instruction in the area of sanctification and purity. So he says in verse 3 it is God's will that you should be sanctified that you should avoid sexual immorality. And he says each of you should learn to control your own body. Now sexual temptations would attack different people differently. I mean not everyone is obsessed with you know sex the way the people of the world are. But every person gets targeted in this area in a different way. So each believer will have to learn how to control their own situations and their own temptations. Different people could attack differently. So what in what ways does Satan generally attack you in this area of you know sexual purity. So you would have to learn how to control yourself how to protect yourself shield yourself in this particular area depending on the schemes and strategies that Satan generally uses against you specifically. So there's no general instructions you know where you can say okay if you do this this this then you will be completely immune to all kinds of sexual temptation. There's no one set of rules. Each person will have their own temperament their own social circles the kind of things they watch and they listen to it differs from person to person. So the Lord will you know impress upon your heart the steps that you need to personally take to strengthen yourself to shield yourself to you know to protect yourself in this area. So you would have to learn by experience to control your own body more and more. So this is an obligation to every this is something that is given to every single believer as a commandment. Nobody can say oh you know I mean I'm a person who lives quite a decent life so I don't have to worry about this. No everyone will get attacked in the area of you know impurity. So we all need to control our own body each person is to figure out what steps they should personally take to sanctify themselves so that they will be holy and honourable. So what do you personally have to do to stay holy and honourable in the area of sexual purity and then in verse five he says not in passionate lust like the pagans who do not know God. So when marriage ceremonies were conducted you know in these Roman cities they would have a certain kind of marriage vows which you know here. Pastor John if you could mute yourself will I be able to mute my mute you from here. I don't think it's a muting option. If you could just if you could just mute yourself please. Okay. Yeah what was I saying? Which verse was I in? Ah yeah the passionate lust of the pagans who do not know God. So in the Roman cities Pastor John if you could just mute yourself I'm unable to do it from yeah thanks. Thank you. Yeah the in the Roman cities whenever they would have you know those marriage ceremonies they would have a series of vows which would be said. But nothing was said about maintaining purity in marriage because it was considered an act of worship if they would go to a temple and you know sleep with one of the prostitutes over there. So temple prostitution was considered an honourable thing. It was an act of worship which was used to honour certain Greek gods. That was the kind of city that they were living in. So their idea of marriage was very low. There's not much loyalty expected. So in fact in the initial ceremony itself no mention was made about loyalty and faithfulness. It was in that kind of a setting that these believers were living and they had been unbelievers in the past. You know which means they too would have indulged in those kinds of lifestyles. So now when they have come to the Lord this is the Lord's command to them that they must sanctify themselves and learn to control their own body. So therefore even if you know nobody can say that you know we are living in a culture that is very fallen. The Thessalonians were living in a culture that was very fallen. But what was the Lord's standard for them that they too should be holy and honourable and how to be holy and honourable. Each person would have to individually learn what steps they have to take to control their body. So in verse 6 and verse 7 they are told to remain pure not to take advantage of their brothers and sisters by having affairs. And then verse 8 it's a very very strong statement being made over here. Therefore anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God the very God who gives you his holy spirit. So anyone who chooses to disobey in this one area is literally just rejecting God himself. So this is something very serious. He says this instruction if you ignore it you are not just rejecting a human but you are rejecting God himself. So because they were living in that kind of a culture maybe you know Paul felt in his heart that this is something that he should stress and emphasise. Even he had spoken to the Corinthians also who were living in that same kind of a heathen culture. He says to them in 1 Corinthians 619 he says do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. He says whom you have received from God. So the same thought is being reflected over here in the Thessalonian letter. He says if you reject this instruction then you are rejecting God who gives you his Holy Spirit. So this is one area where we cannot compromise. We have been given the Holy Spirit by God through grace freely, generously. The Holy Spirit has been given to us and this Holy Spirit was willing to condescend to a low level where he is literally living in us. I mean he doesn't need to but he has chosen to do that. It's a privilege which we have been given that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. He chooses to indwell us and live in us. So now we have to treat our bodies as his temple in a most holy and honourable manner. There is no leniency in this area. We are expected to be very honourable and holy when it comes to sexual purity. And then he moves on to the next point. He says make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. I mean imagine they are being faced with persecution from every side. People are speaking against them, people are working against them. Some of the people who joined the church were in fact very well off. They had position status and now it looks like as if they have lost their privileges. They are in a rather bad shape. All this is happening to them and the advice that is being given over here, the godly command that is being given over here is make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. So even though you are under attack, even though people who were earlier friendly towards you are now hitting out at you, even though what is rightfully your privilege as a citizen of one of those Roman cities, because Thessalonica was also having that special privilege of being considered a Roman city. So when all those things are being attacked and being taken away from you, let there be no retaliation from your side. Don't resort to violence. Believers are never told anywhere to retaliate against their persecutors. So their ambition, they should make it their ambition to lead a quiet life, he says. And then the next point that he makes is you should mind your own business. It's such a very practical and relevant point where people try to interfere in other people's lives. Proverbs 2517 says something very nice, very useful. Proverbs 2517, it says in the NIV, it says, sell them set foot in your neighbor's house, too much of you and they will hate you. So don't get over involved in other people's matters and try to interfere and try to get involved and order them what they should do and how they should live. Mind your own business, he says, and work with your hands. So we talked about this earlier. Some of them were so eagerly expecting Jesus immediate return that they had given up their jobs and they were happily living off others instead of supporting themselves and working hard. They were taking advantage of the love of the believers and they were making the other people shell out money for them, which is actually not a very good thing to do. So he says, work with your hands so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. You see, this is the example which they had set for the Thessalonians. When they were with the Thessalonians, they did not take money from them. They supported themselves. He had said earlier, night and day we worked so that we don't have to take a penny from you so that we will be able to continue supporting ourselves and work for you. So that's the example which they have set. So which is why the Thessalonian believers respect them. So Paul is saying in the same way you people respect us, all the people of the city who are watching you will equally respect you if you support yourselves and don't depend on others. So it is important for us to have a career, to earn a living, to support ourselves. If we are the kind who are just taking advantage of others and living off others, it creates a bad impression for the Lord whom we serve. People will get a wrong idea about the King whom we serve. So we should be people who work hard during the Reformation time. When you had reformers like Martin Luther and Calvin and all these other great names coming forward and many people began to take their spiritual walks seriously. Up to then it was only just rituals. You pay money in the church, you perform certain penance rituals, you give money to the poor. If you do those things, they were taught that God will be satisfied and he will allow them into heaven. But now after the reformers came and they began to share the true gospel, during that time one of the things where the true Christians began to take a stand in the area of work. Unlike all the other employees who used to go to their workplaces late and try to waste their time during the working hours when situations were like that, these Christians, it was called the Protestant work ethic. So the Christians everywhere in the West at that point of time in Europe, they all began to go to their offices exactly on time, make sure that they're working throughout the day without wasting any time and they would only leave when it is actually time for them to leave. They were not cutting corners. So everyone else who was watching them began to see that there's a difference between the ones who just have the traditional religion and the true followers of Christ. So that way they in fact earned a lot of respect from society. The church of course was very, very angry with the Protestants because they had stepped away from the Catholic faith. But the people who were watching this protestants developed great respect for them because these were hardworking people who served sincerely. There was no cheating. There was no hypocrisy. There was no duplicity where you work hard while the boss is there and once the boss goes, you sit around and you waste time. There was none of that happening at that time. So they earned the respect of the society. So Paul says, live in that way so that the people who are watching you will think favorably regarding the Lord whom you serve. So after having talked about those things, I think those were some specific instructions which God wanted him to give to these believers. Now he moves into the next topic which is about the resurrection. So if we could have someone read out for us from verse 13 up to verse 18. Chapter 4, 13 to 18. Please if you could regard this as an actual classroom setup. If anyone, any person could unmute and if you can read out chapter 4 verses 13 to 18. 13, but I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Yes, thank you. We had touched upon this earlier. They were under the impression, those believers were under the impression that Jesus would come back very, very soon. So some of them give up their jobs and they all were eagerly waiting. But the years before the coming of Jesus, some of them began to pass away. So the church was still very young. I'm sure years had not gone by. I'm sure it's just a matter of months. But during those months, it looks like certain people have passed away and have died. And so now the church is thinking, oh Jesus has not yet come back and collected us and taken us to heaven. What's going to happen to these people who died, who placed their faith in the Lord and were waiting, but now they are dead. So they were worried that these people, because they have not been collected by Jesus, they would have probably gone to hell. So that was the deep concern which they had. And so they were mourning like the people of the world. The people of the world mourn when somebody dies because there is no hope left. That person is lost to them forever. So there is just no hope and they weep and they mourn. Paul says, you don't need to be ignorant like those people. I want you to know that when Jesus comes back, those who have fallen asleep, those who have died, will come back along with him. So he might not have physically come and collected them, but they are now safe in him. So this was not something that the Thessalonian believers were very aware of and so they were concerned. So he sets them right regarding this thing. And he says something encouraging to them. In verse 16 he says, the dead in Christ will rise first. So it's talking about them rising from their graves. It's talking about resurrection over here, which means the people who have died and who have been buried or who have been cremated or who have maybe been lost at sea and their bodies are somewhere deep down in the ocean. It doesn't matter what has happened to these people who have died in Christ. These people, they will rise up first in the sense that dead bodies will be resurrected and they will be rejoined with their physical body and then those who are still alive on the earth, they will then be caught up into the air. So when the second coming happens, or in this case maybe for those of us who believe in rapture, we should say, when the rapture happens, it is the ones who have passed away, they will come along with Jesus. And even as they come along with Jesus, their physical bodies which are somewhere on this earth will be resurrected and they will be rejoined with their physical bodies. And then while that is happening in the air, those who are still on the earth, the believers who are on the earth waiting expectlently, they will then rise up into the air and meet with Him. If you look at the wording over here, there is some kind of an experience which will happen in the clouds. It says those who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So there are different people who believe differently about the whole rapture experience, but there is going to be some kind of rapture experience that there is no doubt about. Something will happen in the clouds, a meeting with the Lord will take place in the air, that much is confirmed. As to how it will happen and when it will happen, that people differ regarding that. So maybe very briefly we could just touch upon that. Two main beliefs which are there regarding this experience where believers will rise into the air and be caught up in the clouds even as they are meeting the Lord. Two beliefs regarding this. So the belief one is this in Revelation 6 all the way up to chapter 19. There is a time of very great persecution which is described in Revelation 6-19. It is called the tribulation period when there will be a lot of persecution against the church of God. So belief one is basically this, that Jesus will come in the clouds, He will not come down to the earth. So it's not a second coming. He will stay in the clouds and it is the believers who will rise into the air and meet with Him. So they say this will take place before the tribulation period begins. Those who believe in the first belief, they say that this experience, this rapture will take place before the tribulation period starts. And then after the seven years of tribulation is completed, then Jesus will physically come down and set His feet on the earth where He literally has come down for the second time. So that will be called the second coming. When He just comes in the air and we rise up to meet Him, that will be called rapture. And then after the seven years of tribulation, when He literally comes and plants His feet on the ground, that will be the time of the second coming. But there's another passage which we need to keep in mind. So the tribulation happens from chapter 6 to chapter 19. And then chapter 20, there are four verses which talk about the rule of Christ. So in Revelation 20 verses 1 to 4, if someone could actually read out that, then it would make more sense. If somebody could just go to Revelation, Revelation chapter 20 verses 1 to 4, please. Revelation chapter 20 verses 1 to 4. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in His hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan and bound Him for a thousand years. And He cast Him into the bottomless pit and shut Him up and set a seal on Him so that He should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, He must be released for a little while. Yes. That's it. Go on, go on. Verse 4. Exactly. So here it's talking about how Satan will be bound up for a thousand years and thrown into something called the bottomless pit and during those thousand years, Christ and the believers who have served Him, they will all reign together for a thousand years. So that's basically called the Millennial Rune. So where do we fit in this Thessalonian passage? When it comes to the timeline, where exactly would it fit in? So the belief one is that there will be a time of intense tribulation but before that intense tribulation can take place, Jesus will come in the clouds. He will stay in the air. It's the believers who will rise up to meet Him and all those who have died before that, they will come along with Jesus and meet us in the clouds and then we will all together go back to heaven. So the second coming does not happen at that point of time. So the belief of those who hold this first position is that after the seven years of tribulation, then Jesus will actually come down to the earth and at that point of time, Satan will be bound. He will be placed for a thousand years in a bottomless pit and during those thousand years, Jesus will actually rule over here on this earth. The second belief is different. They say, they are called the, okay, the position that we talked about just now is the pre-millennium position and there are those who believe in post-millennialism. That's the other viewpoint, the second belief. Post-millennials, they are under the impression that we are already living in the millennial period now. So they say, you know, the people are getting saved, gospel is being preached. So yes, Satan is bound in the sense he cannot stop the progress of the gospel. You know, the gospel is getting spread from one tribe to another and all the people, groups are coming to the Lord. So in that sense, Satan is bound. He's not able to prevent the gospel from going forward. However, he's bound, he's free in the sense he can, he can, he's, even though he's bound partially, he's also free partially because he's able to persecute the Christians. And so right now the millennial period is going on and then a tribulation period will come when there is intense suffering. The whole church will go through all of it and then at the end after that then Jesus will come down in the clouds and then the believers will rise up to meet him and then they will not go back into heaven. Father, he will come down and plant his feet on the ground and that will be the second coming. So the second position is that the rapture and the second coming will happen simultaneously. He'll come in the clouds, believers will rise up and then they'll all come together down and the second coming takes place and the rule of God continues. You know, I mean, he, the final judgment is done and then Satan is put into the lake for fire and yeah, then the earth and the heavens will be rolled up, all of that. So we generally, I mean, hold to the pre-millennial view where we believe that the rapture and the second coming will not happen simultaneously together but they are two separate events. One happens before tribulation, one happens after tribulation. This is our belief. And why do we hold on to that view based on Acts chapter 1 verses 11 to 12? So if we can have someone read out for us Acts chapter 1 verses 11 and 12, please. Verse 11, who also said, men of Calilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. Yes. Then they return. Yes, it's important, yes. Tell us it's important. Go ahead. Then they return to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. So the ascension of Jesus into heaven took place on the mount of Olives and even as all the followers of Jesus are staring up into the sky even as he's rising up into the clouds the angels they come and they say in the same way he has gone up in the same way he will again come down. So the expectation is that when Jesus comes back when the second coming happens it will be on the mount of Olives and there's something in the Old Testament which backs up this statement. Zechariah 14, 3 to 4. So if someone could go to Zechariah chapter 14 versus 3 to 4 please. Zechariah 14, 3 to 4. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle and in that day his feet will stand on the mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem on the east and the mount of Olives shall be split into from east to west making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. So according to this passage when the second coming happens Jesus will actually literally come and plant his feet on the mount of Olives and that mountain will split into two and a great valley will be formed. It will be a great earthquake or something of that sort. And then God will defeat the enemies. So when you look at the Thessalonian passage it is not talking about Jesus coming down to the mount of Olives. It's only talking about him being in the air and then believers will rise up to meet him. So which is why most believers hold this first view Rapture is a separate event. He just comes into the clouds and we will meet him in the air and we will all be taken up into heaven with him. Then the seven years of severe persecution and tribulation will take place. After that when he comes back then at that time he will descend upon the mount of Olives. There will be a great earthquake. There will be a war which will be waged against the enemies of God and then after the enemies of God are defeated then the thousand year rule of Christ on the earth will begin. During which time Satan is completely bound. He cannot even act. He can do nothing. He is helpless in the bottomless pit. And then after that for a short while he is released again and he will again try to create some kind of a position and then there is a final battle and then that's the end. So we would definitely say that the first Thessalonian 4 passage is talking about Rapture event. It's not talking about the second coming event. So that's basically how we would see it. Even as we are just velling on this concept, we talked about pre-millenianism which is the view that we hold. Then you have the post-millennial view where people are under the impression that we are already going through the millennium period and then when finally Jesus comes, the rapture and the second coming will happen together. That is the other belief system. There is something else that is called pre-terrorism. The only reason I am talking about these things is because it's there in your notes. So if you touch upon it then you will have an idea of what it is. So the other term that is mentioned in your notes is something called pre-terrorism. Pre-terrorism is basically the viewpoint of people who say that the tribulation is something which happened when Jerusalem fell in AD 70. So they are not even really expecting any kind of a tribulation period to happen in the future in the end times. They say that all the passages which talk about an intense time of persecution, those passages are referring to AD 70 when Jerusalem fell. This may not really be a very valid view because that was just the fall of one city. It affected one people group. But then the kind of persecution that is described in Revelation it doesn't just impact one city and one people group. It's a time of persecution that people of all races they face and it says that tribes and people from all nations were held on to the Lord and they proved their loyalty to the Lord. So we cannot say that the tribulation period only talks about 70 AD. There's another term that is mentioned in your books and that is hyper pre-terrorism that's even more vague that theory of hyper pre-terrorism that basically says that we are already living it seems in the new heaven and the new earth. Which means what we have now is what we are always going to have. Sin will never be completely wiped out. Satan will never be completely defeated. I don't know from where they came up with such an idea because if you look at the scriptures we clearly see that Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire one day. And we are told that the current earth and the heavens will be rolled up. So hyper pre-terrorism is so unbiblical that we don't even have to take it seriously. So when these Thessalonian believers lose a loved one and even we in our current age when our loved ones die we do not have to mourn we do not have to feel sad because we know that they are safe and secure with God. And if the rapture happens during our lifetime when we see Jesus coming down in the clouds we will actually see even our relatives, our loved ones, our family members because they will come down along with him to collect all of us and we will see them being rejoined with a resurrected body and while that is going on we will also rise up into the air and we also in a twinkling of an eye he will talk about that in second Thessalonians. Our bodies also will turn into resurrected bodies. We didn't undergo the experience of dying and being buried and cremated and all of that but in that moment while we are rising up into the air we also will receive resurrected bodies. So our relatives who went before us they will receive their resurrected bodies and we too will receive it in that moment and it will all happen during a rapture in the clouds, in the air where we meet with the Lord. So second coming is something which will take place after the seven years of tribulation. That's at least the belief that we will hold on to but of course different people have different opinions regarding this matter. Alright, we will start chapter 5 next week. So we know we will just finish early today because I don't want to get into the new chapter and the concluding thoughts that he has over there. That's a separate section by itself. We will deal with it next class. Alright then let's just close with the word of prayer Lord we thank you for the things that we could learn from the Thessalonian letter today. We pray O Lord that like these Thessalonian believers we will continue to live to please you. Paul said that he was pleased with the way that they were living in honouring the Lord and he said do this more and more. So we pray O Lord that we will never become complacent and satisfied with our level but we will continue to work towards becoming more and more like you because that is the goal which pleases you. So we pray O Lord that there would not be any stagnation in our lives but we would continue to move into greater intimacy with you. We also thank you O Lord for the great hope which we have in you that death can do nothing to us. We thank you O Lord that we and our loved ones are safe in you and we thank you for the privilege which we are going to have one day of receiving resurrected bodies and that we will have the joy of having the same kind of resurrected body that Jesus Christ has. We thank you O Lord for that honour and privilege as well. Thank you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much.