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In our lesson today, we see that “A Heavenly Service Requires Heavenly Minded Leaders.”   And it is a heavenly service to serve in the Church which is His Body.   That is because this church is a heavenly organism indeed.   Though our feet are on the solid footing of earth itself, spiritually that footing is unstable and always changing as opposed to our heavenly citizenship in the...

We are finishing today our series on “Prisoners of Hope” and how women were in the very center of that hope in more ways than one, just as Paul in 1 Tim. 2:15 was highlighting.   We have looked carefully at how this was proven down through history in Old Testament times and also in New Testament times before Paul was raised up as apostle of the Gentiles.   But what about after that, what...

Today we continue our short series on “Prisoners of Hope”, in support of Paul’s often maligned statement in 1 Tim. 2:15.   He refers there to Gen. 3:15-16 but explains his comment there about women on an encouraging note, namely, that women bearing the judgment given to Eve after her rebellion may be “saved in (lit. “through”) childbearing IF they continue in faith …”   This is apparentl...

We continue today in the “Prisoners of Hope” series with our long expected teaching on the Virgin Mary.   Mary and her betrothed husband Joseph are the focus of God’s great work to launch the final phases of his completion of the promises given in Genesis 3 regarding “the Seed of the Woman”.   God does bring forth his Son and it is accomplished exactly in accord with his eternal plan. &n...

“Prisoners of Hope”, is our continuing theme today and our focus will be on a great man of God who was also a priest, and his wife, a godly woman, named Elizabeth.   Their son, born in their advanced age, would be given in God’s good timing and would be named “John” as the angel Gabriel announced directly to Zachariah.   John would go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah according to...

“Prisoners of Hope”, this is how the prophet Zechariah described the often downtrodden and persecuted people of his select nation of Israel.   Today we continue a mini-series on the work of God through believing women in the Old Testament.   Our focus today is on Esther, a godly woman raised as an orphan by her uncle Mordecai in the nation of Persia.   Through an amazing series of e...

“Prisoners of Hope”, this is how the prophet Zechariah described the often downtrodden and persecuted people of his select nation of Israel.   Today we continue a mini-series on the work of God through believing women in the Old Testament.   We have seen and will continue to see today how women were absolutely central to God’s developing plan of redemption.   From Sarah to Rahab to...

We will now enter into a multi-part series on the hope Paul expresses in 1 Tim. 2:15.   He refers to Gen. 3:15-16 but now adds, as an interpretation and application, that women may be “saved in (lit. “through”) childbearing IF they continue in faith …”   There is much discussion among commentators regarding the meaning of this as on the face of it there is a perceived offense against wom...

In chapter two of Paul’s first letter to Timothy, Paul wrote that for the sake of order in the churches, women should not follow the lead of some women in the Ephesian assembly who had taken over the teaching function from the ordained men who had been duly appointed to that function.   In this section he begins the teaching regarding women teaching men by going all the way back to the book of Gen...

The principles governing the church meetings are addressed with firstly an exhortation to the men regarding prayer: it should be without doubt and wrath controlling.  Secondly, the women, instead of using the meetings to show off superficial and worldly adornments should reveal their inner godliness by good works.  In addition, there was a serious issue at Ephesus with some women trying...

In verse 17 of chapter 1 of Paul’s first letter to Timothy, Paul writes: “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, [be] honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”   This verse contains the “context” for the rest of the letter.   All else will be in the light of God’s glory as exclaimed here to son Timothy.   Several times he then expands on this statement,...

Continuing on today in the first chapter of this wonderful first epistle to Timothy, we see something of great importance.   Paul makes a statement in verses 15 and 16 that has significant dispensational importance.   He calls himself the chief of sinners and then the first in the line of recipients of God’s grace through Christ’s “longsuffering”.   In each case, whether regarding h...

We introduce our studies today in Paul’s first letter to Timothy by looking at his introduction to the letter, his statement of apostleship and his very personal reference to the recipient of the letter, his very dear and precious Timothy.   The special place brother Timothy had for Paul is well summarized by this expression, my “own son in the faith”.   Paul had it seemed been the one w...

Paul’s teaching in his church epistles often present a series of great contrasts.   Each chapter of these two letters has the singular focus of just that, the pre-Tribulational Rapture of the Body of Christ.   This is Paul’s central focus in each of these chapters and the main teaching of these letters.   The exhortations all revolve around the way of life of believers with this hea...

We will close our study in the apostle Paul’s letters to the Thessalonian believers with two studies, this one on the overriding theme of the second letter, and the second on an overview of Paul’s pre-Tribulational, Rapture teaching. In the second letter, the apostle reasserts the graphic and eternal difference between our revealed inheritance and that of the unbeliever.  But the focus is also on...

Today we finish our verse by verse study of Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians.  In these final verses, the apostle first asks the believers to pray for him, and that is significant.  He asks for their respect and honor and then goes on to a long section (10 verses!) where he strongly exhorts all to be self-sufficient like he was himself.  He was a tentmaker while on his miss...

In this letter especially, the apostle Paul has written that those that were persecuting the Thessalonians would surely be judged by the Lord God in due time.  He was specifically writing to them about the Rapture of Christ’s Body Church and then what would occur on this earth during the Tribulation period immediately afterwards.  During that period those that had rejected the gospel of...

    * Today we finish a four part series on one aspect of the rapture of the church that is often either ignored or opposed, that those left behind when the Lord calls us to meet him in the heavens, those that have heard and rejected the gospel of the grace of God, will be lost forever with no second chance during the Tribulation.  Popular “evangelicalism” of the “pre-Trib” var...

Today, in part 3 of a 4 part series on the Rapture of the Church, we will highlight the apostle Paul’s teaching on verses 3 through 10 of 2 Thessalonians.  These verses are one of the main teachings on what is often called today the “pre-Tribulational” Rapture of the Church.  There Paul teaches that when the Rapture of the Church occurs (called the “falling away” in verse 3, really simpl...

Paul gives many details in chapter 2 of second Thessalonians regarding the coming Tribulation and how Satan, called the “man of sin” there, will wreck havoc on this earth and especially for believers.   Many will be saved in that time including the elect of Israel.   That will be “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7) and that nation will be delivered then from their long enemy.   But what Paul...

In chapter one of Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, we saw that the sufferings of the church the Body of Christ are a “token” or “sure indication” (same Greek root word even) of God’s coming judgments on those that have persecuted us, the same ones he has just described in 1:8 as “… them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”.   So there is no quest...

As we begin Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, the subject remains the return of the Lord although in chapter one the emphasis is not with the timing   of his return (that we will come to in chapter 2) but with the contrast between members of Christ’s Body Church and unbelievers as far as their eternal hope or lack of it is concerned.   The return of the Lord will secure that des...

Today we finish Paul’s first letter, his first letter to the Thessalonians.   What a blessing it has been to learn so much about our Blessed Hope, the Rapture of the Church which is His Body.   Having presented in chapter 4 the teaching that Christ’s Body saints will be regathered into the heavenlies (not into the earthly Millennial Kingdom) when Christ returns, the saints were encourage...

Chapter 4 of this letter announces the details of our Blessed Hope, the Rapture of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The details given are very important to know and for the Thessalonian believers, some of whom were sorrowing even “as those that have no hope”, this teaching was surely comforting indeed.  Then, in chapter 5, the apostle gets to some really important teachings that provide quite lit...

We now will begin to consider this detailed account in chapter 5 of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians believers.  Here the apostle contrasts the coming conditions during the prophesied Tribulation period with what is true of believers today living under the Dispensation of the Grace of God.  The one teaching they do not need to know about since we will not live during the Tribulation, the R...