1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

The integrity of the messenger testifies to the integrity of the message

One way the Thessalonians weren’t a model. Bereans more noble (Acts 17:11)

Pray

Picture of Grant Retief. Some of you might know him

Son of former bishop Frank Retief. Leader of one of our biggest churches in KZN.

Talking to him this last week at synod. And he was telling me, its been one of his most difficult years in ministry. Even though church’s been growing wonderfully, there’s someone on his council whos launched a smear campaign against him. They’ve accused him of many things including racism and of breaking people’s marriages.

And in his words, If even 10 percent of the accusations are true, he should step out of ministry.

And so this had the potential to do great harm, not just for Grant and the church, but also… for the gospel.

You see if you discredit the messenger, you also discredit his message.

Well the good news is the man has now left the church without too many people following him. And so there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

But what was most interesting for me was what Grant Retief has done next. He hasn’t sighed a huge sigh of relief now that this trouble-maker has left.

No, he’s now asked for a qualified, independent person to come in and to do a thorough review of all the accusations. And in this way the whole church can see that he’s open to this independent review and there can be no question marks about his reputation.

And I think that’s a very wise decision.

Its not just that he’s a defensive person who just wants people to like him. its because he recognizes that the reputation of a pastor is important. Not just for his sake. Its important for the gospel.

If you discredit the messenger then you discredit the message.

Imagine you take your car in for a service and the mechanic tells you there’s something seriously wrong with your engine and you very lucky you haven’t broken down already and you need a whole lot of new parts. and it ends up costing you thousands and thousands of rand. But then a few months later, you read in the newspaper: this same mechanic’s been found guilty of fraud. And his business has been shut down.

What you gona think? Was there really something wrong with my engine? Did I really need all those expensive parts?

In the same way if you are impacted by a powerful preacher and he moves you to make big changes in your life. But then a few months later you discover that he’s had an affair. Or he’s been stealing from the church. and he’s dropped out of the ministry.

Surely it’ll raise question marks about his message.

Discredit the messenger and you discredit his message.

And that’s almost certainly what’s happening in Thessalonica when Paul writes this letter. There’s a smear campaign against Paul. And so in chapter 2 Paul goes into lots of detail and he puts in great effort to defend his reputation. Not because he’s defensive, but because he’s concerned for the integrity of his message. He wants us to be sure that its true1.1 Now to remind you where we are, we busy with a series on 1 Thessalonians and we’ve called living with hope and we saying it is possible to be sure that we really are saved and that we really are going to heaven.

But this morning we gona see the importance of the gospel messenger. This is one of the ways in which our assurance might be knocked. If we’ve got question marks about the messenger. Then that might raise question marks about the message

But now we come to chapter 2 and we see Paul’s still talking about their conversion.

Just jump down to chapter 2 verse 13.

Notice the similarities with what we saw last week.

And so that’s my main aim this morning: We busy with this series on living with hope. And we’ve seen that biblical hope isn’t just wishing for something that’s uncertain. Its actually being sure of something that’s certain. And so that’s my aim this morning. That we’ll be certain about this gospel message, that the integrity of the messenger will convince us of the integrity of the message.

And this is a very relevant truth for our country:

Some of you will remember Bongo Mkiva, Solanga’s brother who did an apprenticeship here.

And he used to regularly say that the biggest obstacle to black people becoming Christians is this perception that its a white man’s religion. And they argue that Christianity comes from white people. And many of these white people brought suffering for black people? You think of apartheid and colonialism. And some times these things were even done in the name of Christianity.

And so Christianity is associated with these things. And according to Bongo, if someone could deal with that obstacle then he’d be the Francis Schaeffer of South Africa. He’d have a massive impact in our land.

But of course this isn’t just an objection for black people in South Africa. Its been a common objection throughout the history of the church. How can we

Similarities:

Ch 1v2 – always thank God for all of you. Ch 2v13 give thanks for you continually,

Ch 1v5 - the gospel came to you not simply with words, but with power. Ch 2v13, you accepted the gospel not simply as word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God.

Ch 1v6 – you became imitators of us. Ch 2v14 – you became imitators of the churches in Judea.

Ch 1v6 – you welcomed the message in spite of severe suffering. Ch 2v14 – you suffered from your own countrymen.

And so its very similar. Once again, Paul is thanking God for their genuine conversion.

But sandwhiched in between these two sections where Paul describes their response to the gospel. In between that, in ch 2v1-12, Paul describes his own proclamation of the gospel.

And so basically this is what Paul’s saying: you guys are genuine Christians You really are saved. And the way you can be sure of this isn’t just because of you and the way you received the gospel. Its also because of me and the way I proclaimed the gospel.

That also should give you assurance of your faith

accept the message of the church when the church itself has behaved so badly?

Now we not gona be able to deal with every aspect of that question this morning. Solanga did excellent sermon on this last year. You can find it on the website.

But we simply gona make the point that the bible does recognize this connection between the integrity of the messenger and truthfulness of his message.

And when we go back to the original source. Further back than colonialism. Further back than apartheid. Further back than other crimes committed by the church. If we go back to the original messenger, the original man who was entrusted with this gospel, then we do find a man who’s life supported his message.

And that’s what Paul wants us to see in chapter 2.

So here 3 marks of a genuine gospel minister

Firstly, he preaches in spite of persecution

Secondly, he preaches with pure motives

Thirdly, he preaches with genuine love

1) He preaches in spite of persecution (v1-2)

So Firstly, he preaches in spite of persecution.

In verse 1 Paul says: our visit to you was not a failure. And its very striking the evidence he gives.

I wonder what you would give as evidence that your ministry was a success.

You might say people flocked to hear you. They really listened to you. You received positive feedback. There were many converts

Those are proofs of a successful ministry.

Well just compare that with what Paul says in verse 1.

“You know brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure.

What’s the evidence? Verse 2.

“We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you His gospel in spite of strong opposition.”

You see, its almost the opposite of what we might expect. Paul’s message wasn’t appreciated by the majority. In fact it was so hated that he was beaten and thrown into prison and riven out of the town.

And so according to many people that might be evidence of his failure. Everywhere he goes people hate him and arrest him and chase him away.

Well not according to Paul.

According to Paul, this is actually the evidence of his success.

Not just that he faces persecution, but that he keeps going in spite of it.

And just to appreciate that, think about your attempts to share the gospel. Haven’t you been discouraged by rejection?

When Instead of showing interest, people seem bored.

When instead of being converted, people take offence.

Doesn’t that tempt you to stop sharing the gospel?

I think that’s a very natural human response.

When you face rejection, its very natural to question your message or your gifting or your calling. “Maybe this isn’t really what God wants me to do.”

That’s a natural human response.

And I think that’s why Paul adds those words in verse 2. I wonder if you noticed. At the end of verse 2. “With the help of our God, we dared to tell you His gospel in spite of strong opposition”.

You see this is why Paul can be completely unfazed? After being severely beaten. After being thrown into prison. After being driven out of the city.

Instead of raising question marks about his message or his ability or his calling, he simply gets up and continues to preach.

That’s not a natural response. That’s not merely human.

That’s evidence of God’s help.

And so far from being a sign of Paul’s failure, this is actually the sign of his success.

Its evidence that God is with him

But not only does this point to the help of his God. It also points to the purity of his motives. You see, if Paul’s motive was simply for the praise of people

If he was chasing after fame or money,

But instead of getting praise, he’s gets persecution. Instead of getting money, he’s gets imprisonment.

then surely that would have stopped him from preaching.

And so the fact that he keeps going in spite of that points to a deeper motive.

2) Preaching with pure motives

And so that leads us to our second point this morning. Notice the “for” at the beginning of verse 3. Paul keeps preaching in spite of persecution. But why can he keep doing that? It’s for or because, he preaches with pure motives.

Verse 3.

For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed – God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.”

You see this is how Paul perseveres through persecution. Its because of the purity of his motives. He isnt trying to please people. He’s trying to please God.

And its not just something you see in Paul. You see it in many of the great heros of the faith.

You think of Athanasius, the African bishop who fought for the true doctrine of the Trinity, that Jesus really is fully God. And someone came up to him and said: don’t you realize Athanasius that the whole world is against you. And what was his response? Well then its Athanasius against the world.

Where does he find the courage to stand against the whole world? Its because he’s not trying to please people. He’s trying to please God.

Or you think of the old Bishop Polycarp who lived in the first century after Christ and he refused to bow down to Caesar and acknowledge Caesar as Lord. And so he gets brought into the Coloseum to be executed. But first he appears before the governors who plead with him to deny Christ.

“Consider yourself and have pity on your own great age. Swear by the fortune of Caesar. Repent. Swear and I will release you. Reproach Christ.”

To which Polycarp answers: Eighty and six years have I served Him and He has never wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, who has saved me?”

The governor tries again: “Swear by the fortune of Caesar”

Polycarp: “Since you still vainly strive to make me swear by the fortune of Caesar, showing ignorance of my real character, hear me frankly declaring what I am – I am a Christian – and if you desire to learn the Christian doctrine, assign me a day and you will hear it.”

The governor: “I have wild beasts and I will expose you to them unless you repent”

Polycarp: “You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour and then is extinguished; but the fire of eternal judgment and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly, you are ignorant of.”

Then they bind him to the stake and he says: “Oh Father, I bless you that you have counted me worthy to receive my portion among the number of the martyrs.”

As soon as he utters the word, “Amen”, the officers light the fire.

Now where does he find that courage? Where does it spring from?

It’s the same truth:

A deep, undistracted focus on God.

Eighty and six years have I served Him and He has never wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, who has saved me?”

That’s what characterizes these great men

It reminds me of when I was just learning how to paddle on a surfski. And contrary to how it might seem from the shore, its not so easy to stay upright and not to capsize one of those boats. And a crucial lesson was to focus your eyes on a fixed point. As soon as you look around at the surroundings or the waves, then you lose your balance.

Well in the same way, the only way to keep our spiritual balance is to fix our gaze on God.

Proverbs 4:23 says: above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life….

V25 – let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.”

As soon as we look around at the praise of men and the opinions of people and the pleasures of the world, that’s when we lose our balance and we capsize our faith.

Proverbs 29:25 describes the fear of man as a snare… It’s a dangerous trap that we need to avoid

And so just look at the end of verse 4 again. Just examine your life in the light of these words. Could these words be said of you?

“We are not trying to please men, but God, who tests our hearts.”

There all kind of tests that we might use to evaluate our performance in this world. But ultimately there’s only one test that really matters. It’s the test of God. How does God evaluate your life?

And he’s not just examining your outward actions. He’s examining the motives of your heart.

What lies behind everything that you do?

Are you trying to please men or are you trying to please God?

But then thirdly, there’s a difference between being a people-pleaser and being a lover of people.

Its good to be a lover of people.

And sometimes we confuse these two things: We want to avoid this impure motive of seeking the praise of men.

But in the process we become cold and insensitive and uncaring for others.

But that’s not at all what Paul was like. His focus on God didn’t make him less loving. It made him more loving of people.

And so that’s the third mark of a genuine gospel preacher: he preaches with genuine love. And in verses 7 to 12 Paul uses 2 metaphors to describe his love for the Thessalonians.

Firstly, the image of a mother caring for her children. Look at verse 7.

“But we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.”

It’s hard to think of a stronger metaphor of love than a mother’s love for her kids.

That’s how strong Paul’s affection was for the Thessalonians. He loved them. He cared for them. They were precious to him.

And I think the best way to describe this image is by contrasting it with the attitude of a professional.

You see, I’ve got a wife who looks after kids. And I can tell you she works really hard. I think sometimes she wishes she could go work in an office for a few days so she could have a break from the continual demands of raising 3 kids.

And at the moment its not just a day time job. Its night and day. Its relentless.

But I can tell you, my wife doesn’t do this job as a professional.

She’s not just like an employed child-care professional who’s simply doing her duty in order to get paid.

When she gets up at night to feed Rebecca. When she changes her nappy. When she baths the kids and disciplines them and feeds them. She doesn’t keep record of all the jobs so that one day they can pay her back.

No that’s not the motive of a mother.

And yet sadly, that’s the approach of many people to gospel ministry. They see it as a profession

And they view people as projects. And our job is simply to tell them the gospel or to preach the sermon. And then we can tick the box. We’ve done our evangelistic duty. Or we can move the marble in the REACH500 campaign. And that’s as far as it goes in terms of our involvement in that person’s life. But just contrast that with Paul’s attitude in verse 8.

“we loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you, not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”

You see Paul is far from a professional. He’s not just doing his duty. He’s caring like a mother. And he’s not doing it for the pay. In fact he’s so concerned that he shouldn’t be a burden on these new believers that he gets another job as a tent-maker and he works like a mother does: both night and day in order not to be a burden.

Verse 9.

“surely you remember brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.”

Now the New Testament’s clear that a gospel minister does have the right to be paid. It commands churches to pay their ministers. And that’s a good thing

so they don’t need to find other jobs and they can be undistracted in their focus on gospel ministry.

But the pay should never be the main incentive.

And of course this is a massive problem in Africa. Where pastors are using the ministry as a way to become rich.

Just this last Friday, as I was driving to the airport after synod, I was using Taxify which is the equivalent of Uber. And the driver was telling me about the church that he visited in Pretoria.

And he was so impressed by this pastor who was so powerful, and how he urges people to give them his money. And then he prays for the people and right there in the service he asks them to take out their cellphones and some of them receive a message about money that’s suddenly deposited in their account. And even though my driver didn’t himself receive any money, he was taken by this and he was impressed by the power. Now of course its not hard to imagine how something like that could be staged. But

And when I argued that this was a fake. He was shocked would someone really use the word of God for such a purpose?

But sadly that is what many people do and they’ll have to answer to God.

A true gospel minister doesn’t serve as a professional. He serves and cares for his people like a mother.

But that’s not the only image of love.

In verse 11 Paul changes from the image of a mother to that of a Father.

And I think that it’s a true generalization that the greater strength of a mother is to understand the needs of her children and to care and provide for those needs.

There’s no doubt that’s true for my wife. She’s better at understanding and caring for our children’s needs

But probably the greater strength of a father is to push the children out of the nest and in a loving way to encourage them to grow up and become strong and mature themselves

And so that’s probably the image Paul has in mind in verse 11.

“For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom…”

Its another beautiful picture of the ministry. Just like a father loves his children and wants to push them to be the best they can be. In the same way we should be urging our people to live lives worthy of God.

And so these are the marks of a successful ministry.

Our visit to you was not a failure Paul says:

For

we preached in spite of persecution. We preached with pure motives. We preached with genuine love.

This is a genuine gospel ministry. And it’s a great example for us to follow as we seek to share the gospel.

And its been a special challenge for me as a pastor. Many of my failures have been exposed by these verses. And I plead for your prayers that I might be more faithful. I so value those of you who do pray for me.

But that’s not the main purpose of this passage. Paul isn’t writing this so that the Thessalonians will follow his example. No he’s writing it to give them confidence in his message.

the integrity of the messenger testifies to the integrity of the message.

And so that’s what he thanks God for in verses 13-16. That the Thessalonians really did put their confidence in his message.

And that’s how we’ll close this morning: Just 3 quick marks of confidence in Paul’s message

Firstly, you’ll receive it like the Thessalonians in verse 13. Not simply as the words of man, but as it actually is, the Word of God

I wonder if thats your response as you read your bible, as you come to church, as hear the gospel? Do you simply receive these words as common? Simply as the words of people? Or do you receive them as the great and powerful and authoritative word of God?

Secondly, if we really confident in this message, we’ll be willing to suffer for it.

Just lik the Thessalonians in verse 14.

They become imitators of God’s churches in Judea?

And I wonder what you think it looks to imitate the early churches? Well according to verse 14, Its to suffer “from your countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews.”

It reminds me of a statement by the American missionary, Nik Ripken. He visits persecuted churches around the world. And he asks them: how can people in non-persecuted countries stand with you in your suffering. And the normal answer that we think of is by prayer. That’s how we stand with those who are being persecuted. And that is true. But that’s not the answer they give.

They say: if you really wanna stand with us in our suffering, then don’t be quiet about the gospel.

You see that’s why they suffering – because they refuse to be quiet. They keep sharing the gospel.

And so this is what they say: don’t give up in your freedom what we refuse to give up in our persecution.

That’s how we imitate the early churches. That’s how we stand with the persecuted church today. That’s how we demonstrate our confidence in this message. By refusing to be quiet, and being willing to suffer.

But then thirdly, if we really confident in the gospel, then we’ll accept it as the word of God, we’ll be willing to suffer for it. And finally we’ll never prevent others from hearing it.

I just want you to notice how strongly Paul condemns such a crime.

Look at verse 16.

They make an “effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved…”

Look at how Paul describes such a crime.

“In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.”

And so I wonder if we share Paul’s perspective of this crime.

We still have quite a lot of freedom in our society today, but I think it is becoming more common for us to be prevented from speaking this message whether in the schools or in the universities or in the work place.

And I wonder if we take that crime as seriously as Paul. That it’s to heap up your sins to the limit.

In other words it’s to make your sin as full as it can be. You can’t have a lesser sin than this. This is the greatest

And you think of the great crimes in the history of the world: you think of the genocides and the holocaust. These are terrible crimes. But the greatest crime is to prevent people from hearing the gospel.

And when you think about it, it makes sense. Because this is the gospel by which people are saved. Saved from an eternity in hell. There’s no other way for people to be saved. And so that’s why verse 15 can say they are hostile to all men when they prevent them from hearing this message. There’s no greater hostility than this.

And so there might be someone here this morning who’s guilty of doing that. Whether its directly or indirectly. Please don’t stop others from hearing this message.

That’s the greatest crime.

And so we’ve seen three marks of confidence in the gospel. To accept it as the word of God. To be willing to suffer for it. And to never stop others from hearing it.

That’s the confidence we should have in this message.

Lets pray.