When I was first given Teaching 1&2 Thessalonians – the first book from this series I had encountered – I expected another commentary from the pastoral mid-range style of the Tyndale and Bible Speaks Today series. It is a similar length and appeared to have a similar emphasis on practical application. Reading the book it quickly became apparent that this was not the case and to judge it in comparison to other such commentaries would not only be unfair but to be asking the wrong questions and looking for this book to provide something it was never intended to. This was a most pleasant surprise.

If you are looking for a commentary that will deal with a text verse by verse and maybe even touch on how best to translate the original languages, then this is not the book you are looking for. If you are looking to start a sermon series on 1 and/or 2 Thessalonians, this is without a doubt a five star, must-buy book.

From the highly concise introductions to the general themes of the books and the well-crafted choice of sermon series outlines, this handbook to your future sermon series provides preachers with an excellent tool kit to get them started. Whereas many commentaries often lose sight of clear structure and thematic progress in a biblical book, making it hard to sculpture a sermon series, this book keeps such concerns to the front making sure that from start to finish a sermon series has a definite pace and constancy.

Especially helpful are the parts of the book dealing with illustrations that provide a ‘way in’ to a topic and ideas for applying a text to the lives of the congregation. Helpful bullet-point summaries are provided at the end of each chapter asking the kind of questions the congregation and preachers need to be thinking about based on the teaching. These applications and illustrations are especially helpful for ministers who are either more generally academic and often forget about ‘real world’ application, or on the other hand ministers who are (likely) too young to have had the life experience needed to illustrate and apply all such passages to the lives of people usually much older than they are.
In sum I could not recommend this book highly enough. Having come across such a resource I doubt that in future I would ever embark on preparing an expository sermon series without first consulting a book from this series.

Adam Young
Emmanuel Church, Saltburn-by-the-Sea

This review originally appeared in the Autumn 2015 edition of ‘Churchman’, p.279-280. 
Published by Church Society
http://churchsociety.org/churchman/