Home  Select Lesson and press

Home

CurrentLesson

Email

SS Materials

Study Aids

About Us

Links

Share This

1 and 2 Thessalonians

Introduction
Contents
Study References("Helps")
Daily Discussion Online
Email Discussion List
Teacher Resources 

Cover

When the Lord Descends from Heaven

Irish author Samuel Beckett wrote a drama, Waiting for Godot, about two homeless men waiting on the side of the road for someone named Godot who was supposed to come and save them from the meaninglessness of life.

Until he comes, life seems so miserable that they decide to hang themselves. But having no rope, one of the men takes off the cord that holds up his pants, which collapse around his ankles.  Testing the cord’s strength, they pull; it breaks, and both men almost fall. They decide to find a better rope and try again later.

“We’ll hang ourselves tomorrow,” says Vladimir. “Unless Godot comes.”

“And if he comes?” asks Estragon.

“We’ll be saved.”

Godot never comes, which means they’re not saved. They weren’t, of course, supposed to be. Beckett’s whole point with the drama was to show the absurdity and hopelessness of life.

What a contrast to the view of life presented in the Bible. In particular, what a contrast to the view presented in this quarter’s lessons, which are on the apostle Paul’s two letters to the Thessalonians. 

Like Beckett’s two characters, the Thessalonians faced stresses, strains, struggles, even persecution. In other words, life for them, as for us, has its hard moments. How easy and understandable it would have been for them to have fallen into the pessimism Beckett expressed. Instead, the Thessalonians had a sure hope, a hope based on Jesus.

This quarter, through Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, we’ll get a glimpse into the life of an early Christian church—an urban church—really, and see some of the struggles and challenges that it faced, including the difficulties that arose from the fact that Christ had not yet returned! Fascinating, too, is that however different their circumstances from our own, so often the principles reflected in Paul’s words to the Thessalonians deal with the issues and challenges that we, too, confront as we await—not some mysterious Godot—but the Lord Jesus, whose death on the cross at the first coming guarantees His return in glory at the Second.

Jon Paulien is dean of the School of Religion at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California.


Contents:

Note: Both versions of our lessons display nicely on a small screen. Our "Mobile" version uses BibleGateway, which works better for some mobile devices. On the other hand, the main version, using Reftagger from Biblia.com works better for other mobile devices. So experiment and take your pick. (We'd also be really interested in what works best for you. Write to us through our "Contact" link and be sure to tell us with what device you are accessing our lessons.)

No. Date Topic Mob Refs
1

Jul 6

The Gospel Comes to Thessalonica 

Jul 6 Less 1
2

Jul 13

Preserving Relationships 

Jul 13 Less 2
3

Jul 20

Thessalonica in Paul's Day  

Jul 20 Less 3
4

Jul 27

Joyous and Thankful  

Jul 27 Less 4
5

Aug 3

The Apostolic Example

Mobile Less 5
6

Aug 10

Friends Forever  

Mobile Less 6
7

Aug 17

Living Holy Lives  

Mobile Less 7
8

Aug 24

The Dead in Christ  

Mobile Less 8
9

Aug 31

Final Events  

Mobile Less 9
10

Sep 7

Church Life  

Mobile Less 10
11

Sep 14

Promise to the Persecuted  

Mobile Less 11
12

Sep 21

The Antichrist  

Mobile Less 12
13<

Sep 28

Keeping the Church Faithful  

Sep 28 Less 13

Did you know that you can receive each day's lesson via email? You may also discuss each day's lesson with other Sabbath School lesson students on our blog.


Principal Contributor:
Jon Paulien
Editor:
Clifford R. Goldstein
Associate Editor:
Soraya L. Homayouni
Publication Manager:
Lea Alexander Greve

Editorial Assistant:
Sharon Thomas-Crews
Pacific Press Coordinator:
Wendy Marcum
Art Director and Illustrator:/b>
Lars Justinen
Concept Design:
Dever Design


The Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide is prepared by the Office of the Adult Bible Study Guide of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The preparation of the guides is under the general direction of the Sabbath School Publications Board, a subcommittee of the General Conference Administrative Committee (ADCOM), publisher of the Bible study guides. The published guide reflects the input of worldwide evaluation committees and the approval of the Sabbath School Publications Board and thus does not solely or necessarily represent the intent of the author(s). 

Editorial Office: 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904.


Sabbath School Study References

The Study References (formerly called "Helps") include all related Scripture and most EGW quotations. The "New King James Version" of the Bible is used with permission.  The related Study References are linked from each lesson and a link to the whole quarter's Helps is provided on this page.

Teacher Resources

Did you know that you can find all manner of resources for teachers on our site? We offer Teaching Outlines, Thought Starters and links to seeing and hearing the lesson online a week or two ahead of time. See our Teacher Resources page.

For questions and concerns about the Study Guide,
please contact the editor of the Bible Study Guide, Clifford Goldstein


The web version of the Sabbath School lesson is published on this site by permission of the Office of the Adult Bible Study Guide, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Website contents copyright 1996-2020 by Sabbath School Net, an independent supporting ministry.
For permission to copy contents of the web version of the Sabbath School lesson, please contact both the Office of the Adult Bible Study Guide and the publisher of this site.


All art in these lessons and on the cover is published on this site by permission of GoodSalt.com.
Our Favorite Images come from GoodSalt.com


We invite you to join a discussion of this lesson each day on the Sabbath School Net Daily Lessons blog. And on Sabbath mornings, you are warmly invited to join a group discussion of the week's lesson in your local Seventh-day Adventist congregation.


Sabbath School Net Home page | Directory of Sabbath School Bible Study materials


Sabbath School Net is an independently funded supporting website not affiliated with nor funded by the Sabbath School Department of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists)It is run by volunteers and costs are covered solely by donations from the users of this site as well as the small commissions generated by sales through our links to online stores.

If you are using this site regularly, please pray for God's blessing on our visitors and ask Him to impress you how you can help with the costs of putting this site up every month. We appreciate any gift to support the ongoing publication of SSNET, and only you and God know how much you can give. Even a small donation every month helps. And larger gifts are much appreciated. (No, you don't need a PayPal account. Just choose the "Continue" link to the left of the PayPal registration. And, yes, it's safe - as safe as your online bank account.)

Donate


Sabbath School Net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.


You can find a sampling of materials available to aid you in your studies at our SSNET Store. (We will get a small commission not only from any books you purchase but also from whatever else you purchase at the same time. These commissions help to underwrite a small portion of the cost of publishing this site.)



You can also go directly to the home pages of stores which will pay us a small commission for whatever you choose to buy, without costing you a penny extra: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | ChristianBooks.com | AbeBooks Store


Archive of previous Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guides
Prepared for the Internet by the SSNET Web Team.
Contact the Sabbath School Net Web Team
Go back to top of page