Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in 1 Thessalonians.
[00:00:00] You are listening to the Through the Bible Studio series with Pastor Nate Holdridge. Join us as we continue our study through the New Testament book of First Thessalonians. Here's Nate.
[00:00:15] In First Thessalonians chapter 1, we had the opportunity to observe some of the memories that Paul the Apostle had of the Thessalonian Church. The wonderful beginning of the church in Thessalonica, the way that they received the Word of God. Even in the midst of persecution there was a group of people in the city of Thessalonica who were absolutely rejoicing over the gospel. Their lives were changed and a church
[00:00:45] was established. As a reminder, of course, there were those who were jealous of Paul and his ministry. And they persecuted Paul and his companions, Silas and Timothy. Eventually they were driven from the city of Thessalonica to Berea. Paul then eventually went to Athens and was rejoined with Silas and Timothy in the city of Corinth, where he ministered for the Holy Spirit.
[00:01:14] He ministered for a more lengthy period of time. It's from Corinth that Paul is writing the book of First Thessalonians, likely, quite possibly, the first epistle that Paul has written that found its way into God's Holy Word.
[00:01:32] Paul is writing to this very new Christian church shortly after a follow-up ministry from his friend and disciple Timothy. He's encouraging them and strengthening them.
[00:01:45] Chapter 1, we saw Paul remember and reminisce over the Thessalonian church. They were a church that received the gospel well. But here in First Thessalonians chapter 2, we have a wonderful opportunity to discover Gospel-centric ministry. In other words, how did Paul the apostle, in those pure days of ministry? How did he conduct himself? How did he do it?
[00:02:13] What was his message and what was his motivation, so to speak? And so we're going to see a few of those things here today as we study from First Thessalonians chapter 2.
[00:02:27] I should say this though, before we get into this little chapter, I just should say to you that you are called to ministry.
[00:02:36] Perhaps you've been listening along through the Bible or simply picked up this particular study in First Thessalonians, but you need to know wherever you are and whoever you are that God has a calling for your life.
[00:02:53] It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 4-7. Now there are varieties of gifts, Paul writes, but the same spirit.
[00:03:04] And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
[00:03:18] To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
[00:03:25] And so you listen to Paul writing to the Corinthian church and you understand there may be a varieties of gifts, and there may be a varieties of service, and there may be varieties of activities, but each one in the body of Christ has been given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
[00:03:46] You have been called, and pastors and teachers, apostles and prophets have been called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
[00:03:56] You have a calling upon your life, a ministry that God wants to produce through you. And what better way to learn how to minister than by looking at probably the greatest and most effective minister of all time outside of Jesus Christ, Paul the Apostles.
[00:04:15] So let's see Paul's message was what his motivation was and the method that he used in ministering to the Thessalonian believers. Let's read together, first Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 1,
[00:04:28] For you yourselves know, brothers, that are coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.
[00:04:54] Now this is a little bit of going back to chapter 1 because in chapter 1 Paul proclaims as he reminisces about the Thessalonian church, he proclaims their incredible receptivity to his message.
[00:05:10] And he said, you know, when I preached, when Timothy preached, when Silas preached, you received the word even though it was in much affliction, you received it with the joy of the Holy Spirit.
[00:05:23] You blasted forth like a trumpet, the gospel into the other cities that surrounded you and you forsook idols and you began anticipating the second coming of Christ almost from the moment that we preached the gospel to you.
[00:05:45] And so Paul shared with them here now in verse 1 of chapter 2 in response to that, he says, listen, you know that our ministry to you was not in vain. It wasn't pointless or ineffectual.
[00:06:00] It made a difference in your lives. And of course it did and what a joy it must have been for Paul. You know, he went to plenty of places and spoke to plenty of people who bore little or no fruit but to be able to go to a place where there's fruit, to be able to be in ministry and serving a group of people who receive the message.
[00:06:27] What a joy for a pastor's heart. What a joy for this apostle now it encourage you if you are in a local church body, in a local fellowship I encourage you.
[00:06:41] Receive the message. Let it sink into your heart. It will so encourage the spiritual leadership that God has put in your life.
[00:06:52] So Paul says you know that our coming to you was not in vain. And then he said, you know, you know in verse 2 that even though we'd already suffered him and shamefully treated at Philippi and that was the case.
[00:07:06] Paul of course had gone to Philippi with Silas and in preaching the gospel there with this little team Timothy as well in preaching the gospel there with this little team.
[00:07:18] Eventually God himself into some trouble with the local law was beaten with rods was inflicted with many blows and was put into the inner prison where he was locked up you know sort of in the dungeon so to speak.
[00:07:38] It tells us in Acts chapter 16 and what Paul is saying here's he saying listen you know that we would have had every single excuse to go to Thessalonica and to take a break to let our wounds heal so to speak.
[00:07:55] That's not at all what they did he says we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict what was the message of this apostle well before looking at the message of the apostle we need to notice that his message.
[00:08:15] The message of the gospel it was something that even in the midst of conflict even in the midst of difficulty and turmoil Paul was willing to preach the gospel message that's how worthy this message is being proclaimed preached it is a valuable worthy message and Paul even in the midst of conflict preached this message not only when it was peaceful.
[00:08:45] Not only when it was easily or well received but Paul preached this message even in the darkest most difficult times I think he looked through the persecution and saw a beautiful church beginning in Thessalonica and in his spirit he refused to stop preaching for those people.
[00:09:08] And so for the love of Christ and for the love of those people he preached the gospel in the midst of much conflict but he had boldness he says in our God to declare to you the gospel of God.
[00:09:21] And so in being effective in ministry the question is well what is the message the message is the gospel you should know that by now the message is the gospel even in difficulty even in conflict.
[00:09:35] This is why Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verse 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[00:09:51] I remember years ago being in Bible college and going through the book of Romans and I remember the teacher of that particular Romans class he began every single class by opening up his Bible and saying I am not ashamed of the gospel.
[00:10:12] It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes and he would quote this and I remember at that moment in my life thinking okay come on let's move on to the deeper stuff surely there is more important ground to cover.
[00:10:31] It is great to hear about the gospel come on but let's move on into deeper territory.
[00:10:38] But you know as the years have ticked by and as I've seen the struggles of ministry as I've watched lives go south as I've experienced the struggle of communicating the truth in a world that at times doesn't want to hear that truth.
[00:10:58] I've discovered that it is indeed all together important for a minister to have a message that is so singular that it's the gospel that the gospel the blood of Christ the work of Jesus on the cross would be central would be held high.
[00:11:18] This is all important in effective ministry because here's the thing you can do a lot of different ministry and a lot of different names with a lot of different emphasis and you can look as if you are incredibly fruitful but the true fruit and the best fruit comes from preaching Jesus Christ and him crucify.
[00:11:42] And so I believe that an effective way to minister to anybody in this life is to be constant in preaching the message of the gospel.
[00:11:49] Now this means a lot of different things I think in part it means preaching the message of what this gospel has done in your life you talk of Jesus and what he's done and what he's meant to you and for you.
[00:12:02] You declare the gospel to your children you speak to them about the suffering of Jesus and the pain and the agony of Christ you speak to them of the possibility
[00:12:11] of redemption and the hope that's found in Jesus.
[00:12:16] When you're looking at the brokenness of the world and the despair of the world and all of that and a thing wells up within you that causes you to want to cry out against it and be angry about it
[00:12:29] agitated as you read the news.
[00:12:32] Remember the gospel, apply the gospel, remember the brokenness of the world that we live in.
[00:12:40] In hard times in a marriage yours or those that you're ministering to are so easy to preach principles and philosophies and psychology but bring the gospel into that marriage.
[00:12:57] Bring the gospel into that home and someone is sick or someone is dying or someone needs recovery or victory over addiction.
[00:13:09] Make sure that the gospel is the message that is being preached.
[00:13:14] The gospel isn't just some simple starting line to ministry to where we graduate and begin to preach another message, no the gospel is our message.
[00:13:25] I apologize and I'm a little excited about this but the gospel has meant so much to me.
[00:13:31] And so I pray that you would minister the gospel as well.
[00:13:36] This was the message of Paul. His message was to declare the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.
[00:13:43] Now for his motive, how did he do this? What was the motivation of Paul?
[00:13:49] It says in verse 3, he says, for our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive
[00:14:00] but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak.
[00:14:05] Not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts.
[00:14:12] For we, verse 5, never came with words of flattery as you know nor with pretext for greed, God is witness.
[00:14:21] Nor did we see glory from people whether from you or from others though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.
[00:14:29] In this little section, these handful of verses that I just read to you.
[00:14:34] Paul explains to us six things that his motivation was not.
[00:14:42] Motivation number one, it was not a motivation that sprang from error.
[00:14:49] Paul in other words had correct doctrine, right doctrine.
[00:14:55] And Peter had confessed this.
[00:15:00] Second Peter chapter 3, verse 16, he says, listen, there are some things in Paul's letters that are hard to understand
[00:15:08] which ignorant and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.
[00:15:17] In other words, Peter the apostle that he spoke of what Paul was writing up said this man is not erroneous.
[00:15:26] He is scriptural, so scriptural that his letters are scripture.
[00:15:32] Jesus of course affirmed this same truth that Paul was not ministering from error as his apostle when he said in John chapter 14, verse 25.
[00:15:43] He says, these things I have spoken to you well I am still with you but the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name.
[00:15:51] He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
[00:16:00] He said in John 16 verse 12, I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now when the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth
[00:16:11] for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
[00:16:18] He will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
[00:16:23] And in John 17 verse 14 Jesus said to the Father, I have given them your word.
[00:16:31] And in all three of those passages, John 14, John 16, John 17 Jesus is referring not to just general believers in saying the Spirit will lead you into all truth.
[00:16:44] The Spirit has given you his word, O General Believer.
[00:16:48] No he is referring to the Apostles.
[00:16:52] The Apostles would be reminded of the truth by the Spirit of God.
[00:16:56] The Apostles receive the word from Christ, the Apostles, the Apostles, the Apostles.
[00:17:03] And so Paul in his ministry he wasn't coming from error, he had the word the truth of God.
[00:17:11] He also wasn't coming from number two, impurity.
[00:17:15] His message was a pure message.
[00:17:19] The worst kind of message is actually not just a totally false lie.
[00:17:26] That's a horrible message but I think a worse message is a message that is a partial truth mixed with a lie.
[00:17:36] You know when a Mormon looks me in the eye and says, I love Jesus and I believe that Jesus saves.
[00:17:45] I've placed my faith and my trust in Jesus.
[00:17:48] I believe that Jesus is the Son of God on paper that sounds nice.
[00:17:54] But the second you investigate it, you begin to discover that what I'm saying when I say that Jesus is the Son of God
[00:18:00] and that I believe that he's the second person of the triune Godhead is quite different from what the Mormon believes about Jesus as the Son of God.
[00:18:10] This means that he was the first of many sons of God and that these sons included Lucifer, Satan himself,
[00:18:18] that they were procreated by Elohim and one of his many unnamed wives.
[00:18:25] So you think about what do you mean when you say you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?
[00:18:31] It's truth mixed with error, it's impure.
[00:18:37] And he also said I didn't come with any attempt to deceive.
[00:18:42] In other words, I wasn't giving you error on purpose. It's a horrible thing.
[00:18:48] But number four he says, and also I never came with words of flattery.
[00:18:53] This was common in that day. There would be philosophers and orators that would cruise throughout the Roman Empire
[00:19:01] and they would entertain and flatter and seek personal followers.
[00:19:06] Get as many Twitter followers and Facebook fans as they could possibly acquire.
[00:19:12] This will lead them to fame and fortune.
[00:19:15] And Paul says, when I came to you that wasn't my stick.
[00:19:19] I was preaching the gospel, I wasn't there for words of flattery.
[00:19:23] It wasn't trying to bait the hook which flattery literally could mean.
[00:19:29] I wasn't trying to preach a flattering message.
[00:19:34] And that's so true. The gospel is not a flattering message.
[00:19:40] It's a humbling message.
[00:19:43] Jesus number five, and we never came with a pretext for greed.
[00:19:47] Now Paul was a hardworking man building tents.
[00:19:50] He had a right to apostolic financial support.
[00:19:55] But he rejected it there in Thessalonica.
[00:19:58] He was a hard working man not serving for personal gain.
[00:20:02] And number six, lastly, he says my motivation was not to seek glory from people.
[00:20:09] I wasn't there to find fame and following having people thinking highly of me.
[00:20:15] Wasn't there for any of that?
[00:20:17] So those are six things that we know. He was not there for.
[00:20:20] He was not there to preach a message that sprung from error or impurity.
[00:20:26] Or with any attempt to deceive, he was not there to speak words of flattery
[00:20:31] or as a cover for greed or to receive glory.
[00:20:35] Now it was none of those things. Those were not the motivations of Paul.
[00:20:39] So the question is what was then his motivation?
[00:20:44] It's simply this and I would encourage you to let this little truth sink deep into your heart today.
[00:20:49] He said so we speak, verse four.
[00:20:54] Not to please man but to please God who tests our hearts.
[00:21:02] The simple motivation of the Apostle was to please God instead of man.
[00:21:09] To be well pleasing in the sight of God rather than being well pleasing in the sight of man.
[00:21:17] Part of being effective in true changing of lives, true ministry is to be a person who has a heart to please God and to please God alone.
[00:21:32] Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 9 he said,
[00:21:37] whether we are at home or whether we're away, we make it our aim to please him.
[00:21:45] And you know I found that when this is the motivation for ministry, when your heart and your desires completely just to please God.
[00:21:54] That he's your judge and you know that you'll stand before him and you're not so worried about pleasing people but your concern is to please God.
[00:22:04] I've discovered that in one sense that when a man is in that frame of mind, he is absolutely free.
[00:22:13] He is free. It's so wonderful to be set free from the tireless need to be a people pleaser.
[00:22:21] And sad to say, I think there are many people who are doing ministry many times full time church service ministry because of a deep need to please people.
[00:22:36] And that should never be the motivation should be to please God. This man is free.
[00:22:44] And I think in another sense, this man is satisfied. God's will for a man's life is his best for a man's life.
[00:22:52] This man is satisfied just resting in what God desires and as well this man is pure.
[00:22:59] This man is pure because God's will and God's desire, the things that please God are holy and are good.
[00:23:06] The second you start desiring to please man first and that's your motivation for the things that you say and do is the second that you begin to compromise whether it's doctrinal compromise or philosophical compromise or practical stylistical compromise.
[00:23:24] That compromise comes the second that the pleasure of man is the goal in the way that you serve and in the way that you do the work of the ministry.
[00:23:35] Paul's heart and motive was pure. Now let's close out this particular study by looking at verse seven and eight of First Thessalonians chapter two to see the method of this man.
[00:23:49] And this method may surprise you. He says, but we verse seven were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
[00:24:00] So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves because you had become very dear to us.
[00:24:16] In short, even though the word love isn't in those two verses, I think we'd have to say that the approach, the method, the style of Paul in communicating and serving and ministering.
[00:24:30] I think we'd have to say that the style of Paul was love. He was simply love. He says, we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
[00:24:41] I don't know about you, but that isn't necessarily the first picture that comes into my mind when I think about the ministry of Paul, the Apostle.
[00:24:48] I think of sort of a rambo of Christianity. You know, the guy who is drug out of the city beaten and stoned to the point where they assumed that he was dead.
[00:24:58] They pray for him. He gets up and he goes back into that city. I think of a man that is intense. A hardcore minister of the gospel.
[00:25:09] But the way that he describes himself, he says, I was like a nursing mom taking care of her own. I was a nurturer.
[00:25:19] I mean in one sense this is like an awkward statement really Paul. That's what you were like. You were like a breastfeeding mother.
[00:25:26] But that's what he was. He was a nurturing man. I just so love this. My third daughter is by nature.
[00:25:36] All of my daughters really in one sense are nurturers. I have three wonderful little girls, wonderful daughters, but the goddess blessed me with.
[00:25:44] My third daughter is probably the strongest natural nurturer I have ever seen in my life.
[00:25:53] I mean she will just walk up to me and set her hand on my back or on my neck or on my leg and she just begins to stroke my leg.
[00:26:06] Nurturing just comes natural to this little woman that goddess put in my life.
[00:26:13] And Paul the Apostle, although an exorter, although a teacher, although a professor so to speak and instructor and apostle, Paul was also a nurturer.
[00:26:25] He was affectionate toward the Thessalonians church. He was willing, verse 8 to share his own self sacrificial with the Thessalonians and he says, verse 8, he says, and you became very dear to us.
[00:26:42] Listen you guys, the truth of the matter is that as we serve the Lord, you can have the right message and you can have a strong and good motive and desired.
[00:26:52] Please the Lord, you can preach the message of the gospel. But people really truly do need to be cared for.
[00:26:59] We live in a harsh world and God is looking for messengers and people who are willing to be loving and gentle and kind
[00:27:08] and be communicators of the gospel with the right and pure message and motivation, who use a loving style in serving others.
[00:27:20] So in closing I think it would be appropriate to say, I love you and God bless you too.
[00:27:28] Thank you for listening. For additional resources and teachings or to contact us, please visit us at naitholdridge.com.