Adult Sunday Class (Page 4)

The Superiority of Jesus The letter to the Hebrews is an impassionate plea that the readers, who were predominately Jewish converts, must not turn away from Christ and return to their former ways (i.e. Judaism or paganism). The author does so by arguing for the superiority of Jesus Christ, as God’s exalted Son, final revelation, eternal priest, and perfect…

The Gospel Breaks Down Social Walls The reader enters Paul’s letter to Philemon without being provided with the backstory. The traditional interpretation of the letter views it as Paul’s request for Philemon to welcome back Philemon’s slave Onesimus. Another interpretation suggests that Onesimus was not a fugitive but had committed some misdeed and sought out Paul to…

Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus are known as the “Pastoral Epistles” (PE). However, they are more than a simple manual of church practice. They are Paul’s attempts to address specific situations in the ministry contexts of Timothy and Titus. At the heart of these letters is Paul’s concern for “sound” doctrine (1 Tim 1:10; 6:3; 2 Tim 1:13; Titus 1:9). Paul uses…

Living in Hope of Jesus’ Return  Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians shares similar concerns of the first letter. For example, Paul commends the church for enduring persecution (1:3-12). He also continues his focus on eschatology or the meaning of the “day of the Lord.” There are similarities in how both letters describe the day of the Lord—e.g., that day…

Living in the Light of Christ’s Second Coming The Apostle Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians in AD 50-51 during his 18-month ministry in Corinth. Except for the possibility of an early date for Galatians (AD 48), this letter represents one of Paul’s earliest canonical letters. In response to Timothy’s reported concerns about the church, Paul wrote the letter to…

The Sufficiency of Christ As an integral part of the Prison Letters, Paul wrote Colossians to reinforce the believer’s faith. The church was in dange of becoming extinct, because it was trapped in an error that Paul calls an outside “philosophy” (2:8, 16-23), which treatened their assurance. This error was not a heresy or some kind of false doctrine. The…

Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians to acknowledge the gifts from them (4:10-19). Along the way, he also urges two individuals to be reconciled to one another (4:1-3). One of the key features of this letter is the so-called hymn of Christ (2:5-11). This, along with John 1:1-18, is one of the most exalted statements about Jesus’ divinity and pre-existence in the New…

Christian Identity, the Church, and Mission  Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is probally the least situational of all his  letters, because it does not explicitly address any specific problem. As a circular letter, it is a manifesto to the church, describing its identity: who it is, how it came about, how it must conduct itself, and its mission within…

Christian Identity, the Church, and Mission  Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is probally the least situational of all his  letters, because it does not explicitly address any specific problem. As a circular letter, it is a manifesto to the church, describing its identity: who it is, how it came about, how it must conduct itself, and its mission within…

Paul’s letter to the Galations addresses a situation in church Paul’s Gentile converts are being told by a new group of teachers that in order to be fully intergreted into God’s covenant people they need to enter into the Mosiac covenant by circumcision. Having to defend his apostleship and message, Paul explains the origins of his theology by giving us…