Haggai - Introduction

Haggai and Zechariah both started prophesying around the same time, namely in the second year of the reign of King Darius the Mede. The primary background is of God using Haggai to encourage the people to complete the building work on the temple.

Some Israelites had returned to Israel from captivity in Babylon. Building work had begun several years earlier, but due to a combination of opposition and discouragement the work had stopped for about sixteen years.

The original order to return to Jerusalem had come from Cyrus and about 50 000 Jews did so. Work on rebuilding the temple had started. The work had stopped due to opposition and the perceived need to cultivate the land and build houses.

Zerubbabel was the Jewish governor and Joshua was the high priest.

The book has four messages and these are carefully dated, so we know exactly when they were given. As well as being useful in its own right, the book of Haggai helps as a useful backdrop to understanding Zechariah.

Ecclesiastes 12 - The end of wisdom

I had forgotten how depressing the final chapter of Ecclesiastes is. He calls on us to remember our Creator in the days of our youth.  This is all well and good, but he then goes into a melancholy dialogue about the end of our days. This is all expressed in a very prosaic manner, but it is about the drawing near of death nonetheless.

So what is he saying? Is it that he did not remember his maker in the days of his youth and that he should have done? The truth is that without God life is indeed meaningless. Moreover, without resurrection life is meaningless.

The book close with sound advice. The Teacher also states his intentions, which were to teach people wisdom and truth. The proverbs act as firmly fixed nails, like grips hammered into a rock face. Life is confusing at times, at times it seems dark and we cannot see the way ahead. In these times the sayings of the wise act as a guide. It is only the word of the Lord that is a reliable guide to life.

He closes with a declaration that we need to fear the Lord, for He is the judge of all.

Ecclesiastes 11 - Wise advice

This chapter contains much common sense. Some investments take a long time to yield a return, but we need to invest in long term ventures. This does not just apply in financial terms, but in all things. In a marriage, our children, or a church, the investment is long term.

Also we need to diversify investments. Now this does not mean having many wives! But in some things we do not know which one will succeed, and we do not know what will go wrong. So to try a range of options is wise. 

We can always find an excuse for not doing something. You can always see some possible threat on the horizon, something that might go wrong. And yes, it might well go wrong, but if we do nothing we are guaranteed to gain nothing. So we need to be prepared to take a risk.

Nor do we know all of the Lord's ways. He tells us some things, but does not tell us everything. So we should just get on with things.

Life will bring both good and bad, light days and dark days.

We should not spend our days in anxiety, it will achieve nothing.

The Resurrection - Necessity, Reality, Implications

A recent sermon on the Resurrection:
The Resurrection - Necessity, Reality, Implications 

Ecclesiastes 10 - Really another chapter of Proverbs!

It only takes a little folly to outweigh a lot of wisdom and honour. One stupid mistake or sin can cause untold damage. A fool displays his folly in all that he does. 

All of us sometimes invoke the anger of those above us. The natural reaction can be to seek to defend ourselves or to get angry. Often the best course of action is to "keep calm and carry on"!

Sometimes rulers promote the wrong people. They do it out of nepotism or some other form of favouritism, or just out of folly. Bosses sometimes do the same at work. It is important that the right people are in the right position.

Everything we do involves a risk of some sort. Today we are obsessed with health and safety. Now it is right to take proper precautions and criminal not to do so, but there is no way of eliminating all risk. In fact the only way is to do nothing, but than in itself is dangerous!

Skill is needed as well as power. In fact this chapter is reading more like a chapter from Proverbs. Perhaps the Teacher was reverting back to his wisdom days!

We should always be careful what we say. Jesus said that we will be judged for every idle word. Things we say supposedly in private or in confidence can find their way out.

Ecclesiastes 9 - Death comes to all

Without God goodness makes no sense. The atheist faces an enormous problem with morality. This is not saying that atheists are immoral, some are, some are very good people. What it is saying is that they have no basis in atheism for morality. Why should we be good? Indeed, what is goodness? The Teacher here observes that if this life is all there is, then the destiny of all is exactly the same, whether they are good or bad, whether they are religious or irreligious. One might argue that the benefit of goodness is that it helps others. But this really takes us no further, for the ones being helped are going to die as well, on in the end the goodness does them no good. And then why is it good to help others? 

He also observes that sin resides in the heart of all of us. Then we die. Yet life is better than death. We were created to be alive, not to die. But if death is the end everything is ultimately meaningless. 

So in verse 7 he returns to the point he has been at many times before. Just get on with life and make the best of it. In fact, this is the approach to life adopted by most people. This is the only life in which we can make a difference, so we might as well take our chance. 

Furthermore, life does not always work out as it should. It is not always the wise or the strong who do best. Chance, about which we have no control, happens to all of us. Stuff happens.

The world does not always honour those it should. The Teacher recalls a time when a city was saved by a wise but poor man. This was a great deed he did, but he was despised instead of honoured. We see the truth of this in many places in life, the truly praiseworthy do not receive the praise they deserve.

Even so, wisdom is better than folly.

Ecclesiastes 7:23-8:17 - The limits of wisdom

The Teacher has dedicated himself to being wise but still could not work everything out. We imagine that if only we try hard enough we can do anything. The truth is that without God we can do nothing. 

So he turned to try and work out what was going on with human stupidity and wickedness, so he had plenty of material to work with!

First he considers the woman who is a temptress. Sinners will be ensnared by her, and numerous men have been trapped by sexual sin. A sign of pleasing God is that we escape this snare.

Verse 27 and 28 will not be very popular with half the population! Mind you, men only come off slightly better. In truth there has been only one upright man ever, the Lord Jesus Christ, and no upright women (not even Mary!). God created mankind perfect, but man then went off in his own direction.

Sometimes wise people can be imagined as being dour, but true wisdom will brighten a man's face. His face will no longer be hard, and nor will his heart.

We are to respect authority. Here is specifically refers to the king, in Romans 13 Paul broadens out the principle.

There may be a time when someone who is evil seems to have power, but he too will one day die and have none.

Even so, it is better that justice is done quickly. Our legal system would do well to pay heed to verse 11! When justice is not done, or is so slow to happen, more people plot evil ways. 

However, God is the ultimate judge, so the truly wise person will make it their goal to please God. Yet sometimes the good suffer and the wicked prosper. The Teacher's advice seems to be to make the best of life. We cannot work everything out.

No one can fully understand what life is about. We need to trust in the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 7:13-22 - A balanced life

"Consider what God has done". This is very sound advice. We should consider what we have been told about God in the Bible, we should consider His creation, we should consider what He has done in our lives and in those around us. 

This is not a fairytale approach to life, for we are to consider both the good and the bad times. True wisdom comes by considering the whole of life and facing up to reality. We need to understand that the bad times are part of His plan as well. Now there are two mistakes we can make. One is to see the good things as the product of God and the bad times as the product purely of the devil. The other is to see everything purely as a product of God. I don't think anyone fully understands all of God's workings, but the bad times are both part of His plan, and a result of our sin and the devil's plans. We also need to recognise that we cannot predict the future.

Verse 16 is very enigmatic, but also useful. We can have a view life that says if I do right everything will go right, if I do anything wrong disaster will ensue. Now, how we live does matter and does make a difference. In general things will go better if we follow God's ways, and if we rebel then trouble will follow. However, there will be times when we cannot make sense of life in this way. Things will go wrong for no obvious reason. Also we must avoid becoming obsessed with getting every little thing right, checking every single motive and action we have. We will drive ourselves crazy doing this. There are situations where it is at least very difficult, if not impossible, to be "perfectly right".

So we are advised to avoid extremes. A little balance in life is a sensible thing. 

We should also beware of paying attention to every word that people say about us. With our mass communication systems today and social media this is very wise advice. If we worry about every little things that is said about us we will go mad. Also, as it says in v22, consider what we have said or thought about others! There is plenty that we are not proud of.

Ecclesiastes 7:1-12 - The wisdom of adversity

Having decided that wealth does not give meaning to life the Teacher now turns to wisdom. He values depth rather than superficiality. So a good name is better than perfume. The second half of verse 1 seems rather strange, but the succeeding verses clarify the point, and the point is that suffering and adversity are usually what really teach us things. Laughter is often rather superficial and is almost certainly going to be followed by sadness, whereas death is the destiny of all. So there is truth in death. The modern approach is essentially to pretend that death doesn't happen, or to ignore the problem as long as possible. Any truly wise approach to life must face up to the reality of death. Laughter is so often just transitory.

Misuse of money, whether through bribery or extortion, is utterly destructive, it corrupts the heart.

Patience is better than pride. We can feel we need to give a quick response, so often it is better to wait and think, even if that means that it appears that we don't know what to do. The past always seems better than the present. Why is this? It is because the bad things and the daily frustrations of the past tend to fade in our memories, whereas today's frustrations are staring us in the face. 

Wisdom is valuable because it helps preserve life.

Ecclesiastes 6 - Life without God

The Teachers continues looking at riches. Note that riches themselves are not wrong. There is a whole lot of bad teaching in the area of prosperity. On the one hand there is the so-called prosperity gospel which at best puts an undue emphasis on wealth and at worst is greed teaching. But then in opposition to this we can so easily teach wealth is bad, which is equal nonsense. Riches are not wrong in themselves, and can be a gift from God and a source of blessing. 

Here the Teacher observes that sometimes God gives good things to people, but not the ability to enjoy them. There are many examples of people getting lots of money, but far from blessing them it ends up being a curse, just bringing trouble. 

Verse 3 looks at the temporal nature of things. He muses that a stillborn child is better off than the living. The problem he is wrestling with is the apparent meaninglessness and pointlessness of life. However it starts, whatever happens in the middle, the end is always the same, death. This is the inevitable conclusion of a world without God, or a world without eternity. You see the human attempt to explain life is to look at the world as a closed system, this is all there is. We do this from a moral perspective - we decide what is right and wrong. We do it from a scientific perspective - everything is explained in purely material terms. But if we do this the logical conclusion is that life is ultimately pointless. 

Ecclesiastes 5 - The deceptiveness of wealth

Verse 1 is an important reminder to all of us. It is very easy to approach God or to read His word with the attitude that God has to agree with us, that He has to learn from us. We should go with the attitude that we are there to learn, it is us who need to change our minds, not God. 

When we presume to tell God what He should think and do we are acting like fools. If you are one of these fools then answer this question. What say did you have in the day you were born? In fact what say did you have in whether you would ever come into existence? When did you last create a universe and keep it going? 

As it says in verse 2, God is in heaven and we are on earth, so let our words be few. We need to recognise our true position in the scheme of things.

We also need to be careful about making vows. We can be hasty with our words, but we should only make promises to God if we genuinely intend to fulfil them. It is better not to make the vow at all, than to make a vow and break it. 

Verse 8,9 give a pretty accurate description of the economic system. There is always some creaming off profits, and it rarely goes to the poor. Yet seeking after money is a delusion as well. For no matter how much one gets you still want more. Money genuinely does not buy you happiness. In fact those in modest circumstances can often be more at ease than the rich. Money can suck life out of us. And the starting and end points of everyone's life is the same. We start with nothing and end with nothing. 

So if we are able to enjoy our work we should be grateful. If we are able to enjoy any material goods we have now we should be grateful, rather than making an idol out of money. We need to live today.

Ecclesiastes 4 - Oppression and the importance of friends

A common objection to Christianity is if there is a just God why is evil allowed to prosper. This is not just the accusation of the atheist or sceptic, it is something that believers often feel as well at times in our lives. It is also an issue that the Bible is not afraid to tackle. David and many of the prophets raised the same or a similar question, and the Teachers here does the same.

People were oppressed, suffering much with seemingly no comfort. Power was on the side of the oppressors. His conclusion was that the dead had the best deal, except for those who had never been born. 

Even where things were achieved in life, so often it was achieved through envy. Envy was what motivated people to do things, not a love for others or some other noble sentiment. 

Fools do bring much suffering on themselves through laziness, but striving too hard is also foolish. It is better to have a reasonable amount and have peace, than to have more but have to stress oneself out achieving it.

Then there are those who strive but have no one to pass their wealth on to.

Mixed in with these rather depressing thoughts is something more positive in verses 9-12. We need each other. If you are on your own then when your failings come to the fore (as they assuredly will at some point) you have no one to help. However, if there are two then the other can help in those times. There is an obvious allusion to marriage with the reference to keeping each other warm. The third strand is God. But there is wider application as well. The whole message of the Bible is one of people working together with God. It is not just people working together, for if God is not involved then we will end up just working together to create an idol. It is working together with Christ at the centre. 

Wisdom is given value on verse 14, but again the pointlessness comes to the fore. A leader may be welcomed, but then later on people will start to despise the leader. 

Easter Saturday - the inbetween time - reflection

Today is Easter Saturday. We tend not to think much about the Saturday. We have Good Friday when we remember Jesus' death on the cross, then tomorrow we celebrate resurrection on Easter Sunday. But what about Saturday?

Let's just think about the Saturday and what the disciples were going through. Think also about what Jesus had told them beforehand. Jesus had spoken to them on several occasions about His dying and and about His resurrection (Matt 16:21; 17:12; 17:22; 20:17-19), but they had never understood it.

On the Friday Jesus had been crucified and was buried. One of the disciples had betrayed Jesus, one, despite his loud declarations of allegiance, had denied Jesus three times, the others had fled. What did it all mean? What had been the point of the last three years? Why had they made that decision to leave their fishing boats and go and follow this man? Sure it had been good at times, absolutely amazing in fact, but what now? Wouldn't it have been better to have stuck with their fishing?

Now think about your life. Jesus has told us that there will be times when we go through struggles (John 16:33). The whole of the Bible carries the same message. For example Psalm 34:19 tells us that the "righteous may have many troubles", Psalm 3:1 speaks of the numerous foes who rise up against us. 

But just as Jesus had told them that He would rise again, these verses speak of deliverance. Psalm 3 tells us that the Lord is a shield around us and that from Him comes deliverance. Psalm 34:19 tells us that the Lord delivers us from all our troubles. John 16:33 tells us that Jesus has overcome the world.

So why do we go through these times? Because it is only by going through them that we come to fully understand the fullness of God's salvation. Before Good Friday the disciples had no understanding of what Jesus' death and resurrection meant. On the Saturday they were left wondering what it was all about, full of fear and despondency. Then came resurrection and amazing and wonderful realisation of what it had all been about, of who Jesus really was, really is. A wonderful realisation of what their lives were all about, something infinitely greater than they had ever dreamt of or imagined.

Maybe you are in the middle of a Saturday experience just now. Wondering what it is all about, what God is doing? Wondering if you wouldn't have been more sensible not to have made some decision you made a while ago, thinking your life is coming to nothing. This is Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday. Our God is a God who does things way beyond anything we can imagine or hope for. His plans are far greater than our plans. And just as the resurrection helps us understand what the suffering was all about, so the salvation helps us realise what the difficult times were all about.

Every wilderness that God takes us through leads to a promised land.

Happy Easter!

Ecclesiates 3:9-22 - Eternal and temporal

Having mused on a "time for this, a time for that" we are back to "what's the point?". He starts by looking at work, and I am sure many of us can identify with this. He talks about the burden God has laid upon us, and after the fall part of the judgement was that our work would be hard. It is a pretty safe guess that almost of all of us will have found the burdens at work will have increased over the last ten years. 

Verse 11 expresses some of the frustration of being human. God has put eternity in our hearts. We know there is a deeper purpose than what we see in front of our noses, we sense that there has to be more to life than being born, living for a few years then dying. Yet we cannot work out what it is! The Teacher's immediate answer to this is just to get on with life now and enjoy it as best we can. To enjoy our work is indeed a gift of God, and when we do enjoy our work we should be grateful to God for that. 

Yet there is still the matter of eternity. God is an eternal God and His works endure forever. Moreover, we will be called to give an account. At present we see much wickedness, but this makes it all  the more certain that God will bring a time of judgement. In fact, he is continuing in his "a time for ...". We cannot understand why God allows certain things to happen, but we can be sure that in the end there will be justice. 

He then seems to go into despair again, wondering if we are any better than animals. It is the human spirit that makes us different from animals. Physically we are made of much the same stuff as animals, yet we know that there is a radical difference. 

So he concludes this section by suggesting that we just get on with life because nothing else is possible.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 - Understanding the times

The first eight verses are perhaps the most well known section of Ecclesiastes, "a time for everything". Everything has a time. All sorts of things happen. We would like to be in control of the times, we would like to "make the weather". Now there are times when we can make very significant decisions or take vital actions, but this happens when we are working together with God. There are some times we wish would last forever, and there are times we wish would never happen. But all sorts of things do happen and part of the key to life is to recognise what time we are in and what God is doing. Everyone is born at some point, and all of us will die one day. 

Sometimes we find that one method or one strategy works really well, then we decide that is the best strategy all of the time. This is usually a serious mistake. Sometimes we should tear down, sometimes we should build up. Sometimes we should press on, refusing to give up, other times to do so is simply folly, refusing to accept reality. To put it more in a church and particularly charismatic context, sometimes we should believe that something will happen, not being swayed by the apparent circumstances. Sometimes this is a true act of faith and trust in God, but at other times it is living in fantasy and will do only harm. We need to keep in touch with God, living out of a relationship with Him.

Ecclesiastes 2 - The search for meaning

We are not satisfied with the conclusion that life is meaningless, we want there to be purpose and we feel that there must be purpose. So the Teacher seeks out where that purpose is. He has found that wisdom does not provide the purpose, now he looks for pleasure. It is probably true to say that in our age there are more folk who seek to get meaning in life out of pleasure than out of wisdom! The Teacher just sought to enjoy himself, getting drunk and "embracing folly", but this too proved to be meaningless. Pleasure does not satisfy and just leaves us feeling empty.

Next he embarked on great projects. We set ourselves a goal, something we believe to be significant, and devote all our efforts to achieving that goal. The Teacher embarked on building houses and plating vineyards. These were carefully and wonderfully designed, and "project managed". He acquired much wealth, and many slaves and entertainers. At the same time he kept his wisdom. So he did all this in a thoughtful manner.

He fully devoted himself to all this, but at the end came to the same conclusion, it was all meaningless.

Wisdom having proved unable to provide meaning, he tried the opposite, folly. He concluded that wisdom was better than folly, but both the fool and the sage reach the same end, both die. In purely materialistic terms the final outcome of life is exactly the same for every human being. Rich, poor, wise, foolish, strong or weak. The final verdict of this life is "dead".

This all led him to hate life, what was the point of all the effort and hard work in life if at the end of it we all die? And even the things that for a time give satisfaction or pleasure, they too come to nothing. 

At the end of this chapter he comes to the conclusion that the best we can do is to eat and drink and find what satisfaction we can in our work. And this comes from the hand of God. Without God there is no point to life. He is the One who gives meaning. 

At this point the Teacher has come to a rather lacklustre conclusion. It is not like the great hymns of praise to living for Christ that we find in the New Testament letters. It is more just a "let's make the best of it" conclusion. He even declares that this too is meaningless. This is not the final conclusion, certainly not the final conclusion of the Bible, but there are times when we cannot see the end, when we are not full of the presence of God. In those times the answer often is just to get on with things, knowing that at some point God will bring more light to our lives.

Ecclesiastes 1 - The pointlessness of life

The writer introduces himself as the "teacher" or "leader of the assemble".

"Meaningless, meaningless", or "vanity of vanities". The word can also mean vapour. All is meaningless. This is actually the only logical outcome of atheism or materialism (the view that the material world is all that there is). For according to atheism we have no idea why we are here, we just happened as the outcome of a random event. We are here for a short period then we die, and everything we did has come to nothing. You could argue it will benefit those who come after us, but this is no real solution. For they too will die, and one day the sun will die and consume the earth. The logical conclusion of atheism is a meaningless existence.

Even ignoring the eventual dying of the sun, the solar system just continues as it always has done, totally unaffected by anything that we do. The wind blows and streams flow into the sea, but it is never filled up. Things just keep on going on and on.

We watch and listen to things, bit never see enough nor know enough. History goes around in a cycle of sorts. Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. One generation follows another and nothing really has been achieved.

Now this is not the end of the matter. The Teacher was king over Israel and was not satisfied with this conclusion. Nor is any thinking man or woman. We have an inherent sense that there must be more to life, there must be some meaning somewhere. So the Teacher set to find out what this meaning is. Men seek understanding, seek wisdom. The Teacher himself, assuming it was Solomon, had great wisdom. Yet this wisdom just brings grief and sorrow. In a modern context, so much progress just seems to make things worse. 

Ecclesiastes - Introduction

Ecclesiastes is a weird and wonderful book that defies simple interpretation. Some think it was written by Solomon, the first verse giving a string indication for this, though "son of" in the Bible does not necessarily mean the immediate son of. Others think it was written some time later, basing thier view on the type of Hebrew language used and the negative view of rulers. Those who go for this latter view date the book at some time after the Jewish exile. 

The book considers many attitudes and secular views, showing the futility of them. There are, and have always been, streams of Christian teaching that giving a simplistic view of life. If you obey God everything will go fine, if you don't it won't. The so-called prosperity gospel is one of example of this, but it is an attitude that can crop up in any branch of the church. This book (and Job) is addressing life as it really is. There are many things that we don't understand, many times when life is perplexing, with God's purpose and presence difficult to discern. God is not afraid to address the realities of life.

The book is a mixture of optimism and pessimism. This upsets some people as it means they cannot have a nice neat analysis of the book. Well tough! Life is like that. God deals with us as we really are.

Perhaps the key to the book is to see it as demonstrating the futility of trying to make sense of life without God,

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 - Final words

We are to respect and acknowledge those who work hard amongst us. The context is primarily those who serve the church. Note that they also admonished people. Part of the role of the church is to declare what is right and wrong, and to correct its members where appropriate. Not in a heavy handed way, lording it over people, but there is a time and place for discipline. The church suffers when there is no discipline.

We are to seek to live at peace with each other. Having just urged them to commend those who work hard, those who are idle and disruptive are to be warned. Idleness and disruptiveness often go together. The devil finds work for idle hands, as the saying goes. We are not to seek revenge.

Verses 16 and 17 are wonderfully short but very apposite. We are to rejoice always and pray always. These are often things we do least of. Let's change our ways and do more rejoicing and praying. Prophecies are not to be treated with contempt, but to be tested, holding on to what is good. There are those who say prophecy ceased with the apostles. I must say I can find no evidence whatsoever in Scripture to support this view, and it seems a very strange doctrine. It is true that the canon of scripture is closed, but throughout the Bible, from creation to Revelation God has spoken to individuals, to nations and to churches. I am sure that He has not changed His ways!

We can quench the Spirit by treating prophecy with contempt, we can also quench the Spirit by not rejecting evil. 

Verse 23 is a wonderful verse. The Lord is working to change our lives, to transform us. He started when we were saved, it will be completed when He returns, and it is ongoing right now. He is working so that every single bit of us is completely aligned with Him.

1 Thessalonians 5::1-11 - The return of Christ

Verses 1 and 2 are very sound advice, as sound as Jesus' reply to the disciples that no one knows the day nor the hour. When Jesus does return it will be abundantly clear to all, you will not need even an ounce of spiritual insight to recognise it. At the same time it will come as a surprise, it will not be obvious until it actually begins to happen. In fact people will be saying "peace and safety", thinking everything is just going along much as they always have done. Jesus could return within this year, within ten years. Equally it could be a hundred years, a thousand year even a million years. No, I cannot imagine how it could possibly be a thousand, million or billion years before He returns, but I am just a man with the limited understanding of a man.

So what are we to do in response this. Not to think about it all? No. We are to think about the Day of His return, for most of us it actually not prominent enough in our thinking. But our response to this is to be sober, to put on faith, love and hope ( note the trinity of faith, hope and love again). We are to look forward to the day, for the return of Christ will be the fulfilment of all that has been promised.

It is not a day to fear, for we have not been "appointed for wrath", but to "receive salvation". The return of Christ is an anchor in our life, a fixed point that gives us hope, so that we can live as children of God and servants of Christ today.

1 Thessalonians 4:9-18 - When Christ returns

Love for one another was an established feature of the church in Thessalonica. This love expanded to all the churches in Macedonia, not just their own church. We need to have a vision and a concern beyond our immediate neighbourhood. So Paul simply urges them to continue to grow in love. 

They should also seek to live a quiet life. Now we need to read this carefully. As a church we are to have an impact on our locality and our nation. But we are not to be busybodies, constantly interfering in everything, having an opinion on all and sundry. It seems  that some of them may have been concerned with everyone else's affairs without taking proper care of themselves. We are to provide for ourselves and to live lives worthy of respect.

The world has a wrong and distorted view of death. In Christ death has lost its sting. It was important that the Thessalonians had a right view of death and were not misled by the culture around them. The world is without hope. So either death is just viewed as the end of everything, or there is wishful thinking about an afterlife of some sort. We know that Jesus died and rose again, death could not hold Him. So those who die in faith will be raised with Christ on the last day. There is no loss in dying before Christ's return, which seems to have been a concern of some of the Thessalonians. 

And when Christ returns it will be obvious to all. It will be with a loud shout, the voice of angels and the trumpet call of God. There will be no secret about it. The dead will be raised and if we are here then we will be caught up together with Christ. Either way, we will be with Christ forever.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 - Sexual immorality

Teaching the gospel included teaching people how to live. This applies just as equally today. The society Paul and his co-workers were preaching into was a mish-mash of all sorts of things, most of it pagan and ungodly. Our society has no respect for Christian values. When people get saved they need to learn how to live, this applies in the area of sexual morality, attitudes to work, attitudes towards others, honesty etc. Now this does not mean that someone who gets saved has no good in them, no right attitudes, but there is much to unlearn. And all of us are still learners as well.

The Thessalonians needed to persist in following a Christian way of life.

Sexual immorality is the first concrete example. Some say that the church is obsessed with sexual immorality and that it doesn't really matter that much. Such talk is nonsense. Just think how much unhappiness is caused by sexual immorality. At the extreme end of the scale there are things like the sex-trade, child abuse and rape. At a much more mundane level much misery is caused by sexual infidelity, the deluge of pornography distorts people's view of each other, particularly how men view women. Sexual morality does matter. Get it wrong, as we are doing, and it is destructive, get it right and sex becomes the life affirming, life producing gift from God that it is meant to be. 

Self-control is the vital element here. Society, in its infinite stupidity, says that telling people to just say no is unrealistic. This is a very low view of humanity indeed. Self-control is a vital fruit of the Holy Spirit. 

Verse 8 is very poignant. In society's headlong rush to introduce "same-sex-marriage" it is God that society is rejecting, not man's teaching.

1 Thessalonians 3 - Suffering trials

Paul was so keen to hear how the Thessalonians were doing that he decided the best way to achieve this was to send Timothy. Perhaps agitators had been telling the Thessalonians that Paul didn't really care about them and only sent Timothy as a sop. This was in no way the case. Paul did care deeply about them, and Timothy was a fellow servant of the gospel and highly respected. When trials happen rumours and wrong ideas will abound. So Paul is seeking to deal with this. Trials are a normal part of the the Christian life. The notion that if only we had enough faith, or prayed enough, or whatever then everything would be fine and easy is complete nonsense and a dangerous false teaching. The truth is that we will face trials (Jesus said so, Paul said so, Peter said so, James said so, case closed), and the truth is that in all things we are more than conquerors. Paul was concerned that the Thessalonians had been tempted away from the faith.

But now Timothy had returned and had brought very good news about their faith and love. Communication is vital. He brought good news about their love for Paul. Notice the importance of two way caring. Relationships within the body matter. So this encouraged Paul in the persecutions he was facing. He was encouraged by the news that the work he was doing (or that Christ was doing through him) was bearing lasting fruit. 

So we see that the focus of Paul's joy and happiness was seeing the gospel bear fruit. We need to be careful where the focus of our joy is. Paul continues to pray all the more earnestly for them, to be able to see them, and to be able to build them up.

He then continues in prayer, asking for the opportunity to see the Thessalonians, to see their love increase, to be strengthened in their hearts. So that they be presented holy and blameless to Christ when He returns. Notice that each chapter so far has ended with a reference to the return of Christ. Now the chapter numbers were put centuries later, but the references to Christ's return sort of mark the end of various sections.

1 Thessalonians 2:13-20 Giving and receiving the word

They accepted the word as a word from God. We are meant to preach the word of God, not our own ideas. That is why the Bible should be the focus and inspiration behind everything we preach and teach. Now this does not mean that everything has to necessarily be expository preaching, but it must be Bible based. So it matters how we give the word. It also matters how we receive it. We should check all teaching against what the Bible says, but we if the teaching/preaching is good we need to receive it as a word from God. 

This means that purely human approaches to studying or examining the Bible are doomed to failure. It does not mean that we do not use any analytical methods, any textual criticism etc, but we do need to recognise that we are reading God's word, not the word of man. Then the word of God will be at work in us. For God's word is living and active, it is not just words on a page. That is why it is so important that we read the word, study the word, meditate upon the word. 

Paul then encourages the Thessalonians by pointing out what the Jewish believers in Israel had suffered. It must have been hard for the Thessalonians to be persecuted by their neighbours. Paul reminds them that the Jewish believers in Judea went through the same process. Believing the gospel brought persecution. The persecutors are just heaping up judgement upon themselves. They not only have their own sins to account for, but are stopping others being saved. 

After being separated from them Paul made every effort to see them again, "but Satan blocked" their way. Note that Satan is active, and sometimes he seems to succeed. 

Then Paul declares that the Thessalonians are his crowning glory. Paul's task was to present people to Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 - Caring as a father

Paul had had to abort his visit to Thessalonica because of the opposition, but it had still achieved results. Despite the opposition, following on from the opposition encountered in Philippi, they preached the gospel. If the gospel had been a means of making money or achieving fame then Paul and his companions would have given up a long time ago and gone for an easier method! Instead, they spoke as men chosen by God fulfilling God's task.

This affected their inward motivation and their outward actions. They did not use trickery nor flattery in trying to win the Thessalonians, but spoke and acted openly. Moreover, they acted humbly. Pride and self-seeking are often the marks of false teachers.

Paul was motivated by care for the people. This involved practical actions, working to support themselves instead of asking for money. The lives of Paul and his co-workers were testimony to what they were doing. With regard to the people, they dealt with them as a father deals with children, seeking to encourage them, help them, and urge them to live lives worthy of the Lord. We have been called into His kingdom and glory.

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 - Living examples

We now get a further reason why Paul thanks God for them. God has chosen them. Remember that Jesus said, I chose you, you did not choose me (John 15:16). Note also that Jesus goes on in that verse to say that the purpose is that they might bear fruit. So Paul is giving thanks because he sees that the fruit is indeed being produced. We also need to always remember that the initiative for our salvation rests with God, not with us.

So how does Paul know they have been chosen by God? Because he saw that the gospel came to them with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. There is both strong internal and external evidence. 

Paul and his companions did not simply preach the message, they lived it as well. So the Thessalonians could become imitators of them. We are to be examples of what we preach. 

They also welcomed the message in the midst of suffering. We know that Paul was attacked in Thessalonica and had to escape. The attack on the Christians would have continued. But with the suffering came joy in the Holy Spirit. So the Thessalonians became an example to be followed as well. The Thessalonians had a good reputation. May our church be a church with a good reputation. Now this is a good reputation in the right sense, a reputation of being devoted to God and having turned away from the things of the world. The Thessalonians had turned away from idols and turned to serving Christ. We live in a time when the world is increasingly seeking to squeeze us into its mould. Same-sex "marriage" is the most obvious example of this at present, but not the only one.

Paul closes the is section with reference to the return of Christ. When Christ returns it will be to judge the world. The wrath of God will come. And the wrath of God is God's passionate and reasonable judgement on our sin. 

1 Thessalonians 1:1-3 - Hope

The letter comes from Paul, Silas and Timothy. They frequently worked together, and, of course, we have two of Paul's letters to Timothy in the New Testament. This is one of the few letters where Paul does not introduce himself as an apostle, though the letter does include the usual "grace and peace to you". 

Another feature of chapter one is how short it is! However, that is not really a feature as chapter numbers were put in many years later.

Paul had been force out of Thessalonica, so is assuring the Thessalonians that he has not forgotten about them. Moreover, he thanks God for them. 

Verse 3 is one of several instances in Paul's letters where faith, love and hope occur together, 1 Corinthians 13 being the most famous example. Faith and love produce work and labour (ie much the same thing!). Hope produces endurance. Endurance is one of the most important Christian virtues. Many can start well, many can shine for a time, but there are few who keep going, who will see something through to the end, who will press on during the difficult times. Endurance is vital if we are to build something that lasts, and it is hope that enables us to endure. We know that Christ has already won the victory, and we know that we will share in His inheritance, so we have hope for the future.

1 Thessalonians - Introduction

Acts 17:1-9 tells us about Paul and Silas in Thessalonica. There were some Jews there for he initially spoke in the synagogue, and a few of them believed. However, a large number of God-fearing Greeks and prominent women believed. There was also much opposition from the Jews. So Paul and Silas had to flee from the city.

Paul probably wrote 1 Thessalonians from Corinth in AD 51. This letter may well be Paul's earliest letter, Galatians being the only other contended.

Thessalonica was an economically active city and the capital of Macedonia. 

Paul's primary purpose was to encourage the church, and also to give them instructions on how to live their lives. A new faith meant a new way of life. Both Thessalonian letters have a significant eschatalogical element to them, and is seen by many to be a directing them of the two letters.

2 Chronicles 36 - The End

We now come to the final chapter in Chronicles. After Josiah Judah was dominated by Egypt for several years, effectively having puppet governments. The puppet kings did themselves no favours (v8, 9) carrying on with their detestable practices. After being a puppet to Egypt, they then became dominated by Babylon. 

Zedekiah is castigated for not paying attention to Jeremiah the prophet. He also rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. The nation continued to go from bad to worse.

The Lord had send numerous prophets to the land warning them of the consequences of their actions, but they paid no attention. So the Lord handed them over to Babylon and they suffered much. Many were carried off into exile. v21 tells us that the land was given its Sabbath rest. The Law had stipulations for Sabbath years and Jubilee years, but it is doubtful that these laws were often observed. So the Lord gave the land its Sabbath rest, when all the people had been cleared out. So the people were in exile until the seventy year period had been fulfilled, then King Cyrus gave the order for people to return to their land. The writer is setting everything in its context, enabling the people to understand their present situation. In a sense the nation had a second chance, it should learn from the past. 

Some will object that God's judgement, involving much bloodshed as it did, is harsh. However, this is a stupid attitude. We should learn the lesson and put things right, following God's ways instead of rebelling against them. However, it seems that we would rather argue that God is unfair than repent.

2 Chronicles 35 - State and religion

As with Hezekiah, a much greater emphasis is put on the celebration of the Passover than is given in 2 Kings. The writer is emphasising the importance of worshipping the Lord properly. It is important to realise how Kings and Chronicles fit together and what they teach us. Israel lived in the real world, things happened, economies grew and shrank, battles were fought and lost. Israel worshipped God, rebelled against God, worshipped idols, cleared out all idol worship. And the two were intimately linked. The state of Israel's relationship with the Lord, the level of her commitment to the Lord, was the determining factor in how her economy, and her relationships with the rest of the world went. 

So it is for us. Society tries to make "religion" a purely private matter. It is not. This applies to us as individuals and as a nation. Society is trying to get us to abandon our religious beliefs (especially on sexual morality at present) or at least to keep them to ourselves. We must not let this happen.

In verse 7 we read that Josiah provided for all the lay people the sacrifice for the Passover. There is an obvious parallel with Christ here. Jesus has provided the sacrifice for all of us, He is our Passover lamb.

The officials, ie the state, provided for the people and priests. A state that honours God will be a more powerful state.

Josiah was killed in a battle with Egypt. This was a result of disobedience to the Lord. The word had even come from a pagan ruler. All our actions of obedience or disobedience have consequences.

2 Chronicles 34 - Young Josiah

Josiah became king at the age of eight. When he was about fifteen he sought the Lord for himself. Then fours later he started to cleanse the nation if its high places and idols. The idols were utterly destroyed, symbolic of the desire to be completely rid of all vestiges of idol worship.

Next he set to work on the temple. Again, the use of money is mentioned. In the church we should not be shy of talking about money and using it properly. It is the improper use of money and wrong attitudes (especially a love for money) that are the problem. Money should be used to achieve God's purposes. 

While all this was going on they found the Book of the Law. It is amazing that they had forgotten about it. However, much of the church today seems to have forgotten the Bible, so maybe we should not be that surprised. 

The king listened to the Law and repented. A female prophet then speaks. The news is bad, for judgement is going to come. However, Josiah would not see it because of his faithfulness. 

Josiah reacted by getting all the people to commit themselves to the Lord. 

2 Chronicles 33 - Manasseh, from evil to good

Manasseh came next was an evil king, he also reigned for a very long time, fifty five years. He followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out. The driving out of nations, particularly in Joshua, was not part of a land-grab, but was driving out of nations whose practices were detestable (including child sacrifice), the purpose was to avoid Israel following these practices so that a Godly nation would be raised up that would be a light to the nations. There are some today who see Israel rather too much in terms of the land that they have. I am not saying the land does not matter (and I  most definitely do not believe in replacement theology), but we need to have the focus on the right thing. Likewise, the church is meant to be a light to the nations and we should not adopt the practices of the world, which we seem all too ready to do.

Manasseh even went as far as setting up idols in the temple of God. He sacrificed children, practised divination and witchcraft. 

The writer makes it abundantly clear what Manasseh's sins were. Verse 9 is most damning, Israel was worse than the nations they had driven out. The Lord sent prophets but they were ignored (remember Jesus' parables on the same theme). So God sent an army against them. Manasseh was carried off into exile but then humbled himself and the Lord listened to him. This is a model of what happened to the whole nation. They all sinned and many were taken into exile, but if they repented the Lord would forgive and restore them (see Solomon's prayer).

Manasseh returned to Jerusalem and did some restoration work, and also removed the idols. The people still used the high places, but only to worship the Lord.

So Manasseh followed the reverse path of several of the previous kings, who started off well and then fell at the end. Manasseh started off badly but then turned to the Lord at the end.