1 Thessalonians 2:7-12
This is going to be from 1st Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 9 through 12. Words are on the screen, actually 7 through 12, and you can follow along as I read 1st Thessalonians 2:7 through 12. Here’s Paul writing to the church at Thessalonica.
Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you because we loved you so much. We were delighted to share with you not only the gospel, but our lives as well.
Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, 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. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless we were among you who believed.
For you know how 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.
Well, we’re looking through the book of First Thessalonians and we gave an introductory message a few months ago or weeks ago actually. So, last week we looked at chapter one.
And Paul’s writing to this church that he established in his second missionary journey. And he’s writing to encourage them. And the church at Thessalonica was a model church.
And so, in chapter one we looked at three aspects of how the church in Thessalonica was a model and says they were an elect people. They were chosen by God. And we talked about this doctrine of election that’s all through scripture.
They were also an exemplary people. It says, from you rang out the gospel to all the surrounding areas. And the church at Thessalonica became a model for other churches.
But they were also an expectant people. Every chapter in the book of Thessalonians, all five chapters, ends with the Apostle Paul writing about the second coming of Christ. And so, that’s really the theme of this book of First Thessalonians is be ready.
And what are we to be ready for? We’re to be ready for Christ’s any moment return. This morning we’re going to jump into chapter two and look at the first 12 verses of First Thessalonians chapter two. And the title of this is characteristics of an effective ministry.
Characteristics or portraits of an effective ministry. And when you look at that title you might say, well that’s a good message for pastors who are in the ministry. But if you read your Bible carefully and you understand what the scripture teaches, if we know Christ as our Savior, every one of us is a minister.
We have all been called to minister to one another and to minister to the body of Christ. We’ve all been given a spiritual gift. So, one of the responsibilities and jobs of a pastor, according to Ephesians chapter four, is what? To build up the body of Christ and to train them what? To be involved in ministry.
And so, this isn’t a message and these aren’t portraits just for a pastor. This is a portrait for all of us as we minister to our family, as we minister to our surrounding community, as we minister in opportunities in our workplace, as we minister to one another within the body of Christ. And so, let’s look at three pictures or three portraits because Paul models an effective ministry.
1. a faithful steward
And so, here’s the first picture that Paul gives us from 1st Thessalonians chapter two beginning in verses one through six. It’s the ministry of a faithful steward, of a faithful steward. Paul says that he’s been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel.
And so, it’s the stewardship of the gospel. And so, we’re going to get to verse four in just a little bit, but let’s start in verse one of chapter two. Paul writes, you know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results.
So, we go back to Acts chapter 17, when Paul visited Thessalonica, he ministered in the synagogue for three Sabbaths. And what happened? People came to faith in Jesus through the power of the gospel. And we read about it in Acts chapter 17, that Paul was explaining and proving that Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead.
This Jesus I’m proclaiming to you is the Messiah. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. So, Paul’s recalling his time there in Thessalonica, and he says, guess what? There were some results.
I preached the gospel. I preached that Jesus is the Messiah, and some Jews and some Greeks, some Gentiles came to faith in Jesus. Then he goes on to say in verse two, we had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi.
So, before he was in Thessalonica, he was in Philippi, and you remember what happened there, that there was a slave girl that was demon-possessed, and the slave girl was making her owners quite a bit of money. And Paul and Silas cast that demon out, and all of a sudden, their bank account went to zero. They weren’t able to use this girl anymore to make money.
And they ended up putting Paul and Silas in prison. They were flogged. They were beaten.
And then there was that miraculous earthquake, and Paul and Silas were eventually freed from jail. So, he’s talking about his time in Philippi. He says, we were treated outrageously, as you know, but with the help of our God, we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition.
I don’t know about you, but if I had spent time in prison and being flogged and was treated like that, I might have gone for like, hey, I need a little R and R. I need a little break. Not Paul and Silas. They went from Philippi to Thessalonica, and they continued to preach the gospel.
And what happened there? People got upset, and a riot broke out. And Paul and Silas had to make a nighttime escape for their own safety. Now, Paul goes on to talk about his motives in the next three or four verses.
And why is Paul doing this? It’s because Paul faced some false accusations. There are many, even in the first century, who used religion for profit. And so, Paul is saying, hey, my motives are pure.
Let’s look at it beginning in verse three. 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 those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel.
There’s that stewardship of the gospel. We are not trying to please people, but God who tests our hearts. So, Paul says, we were entrusted with the gospel.
Paul never got over that. He writes about it in his autobiographical section there in 1st Timothy chapter one. He says, I was the chief of sinners.
I was the chief persecutor of the church. I was the one who was chasing down Christians and taking them out of their homes and putting them in prison. And then I had that experience on the Damascus Road and my life was changed and God entrusted me with the stewardship of the gospel.
And so, the first picture of an effective ministry is that Paul was a faithful steward of the gospel. Actually, think about that. I think there’s two aspects to being a faithful steward of the gospel.
2-fold responsibility
a. to guard the true gospel
It’s a two-fold responsibility. Here’s the first one. The first aspect of being a steward of the gospel is to guard the integrity of the true gospel.
It has to do with the true gospel that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. It’s what Peter proclaimed in Acts chapter four, verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other for there’s no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
Jesus described the gospel in Matthew chapter seven and he talks about there’s two gates. One’s a narrow gate; one’s a broad gate. There’s two roads.
One’s a narrow road; one’s a broad road. And through the narrow gate and through the narrow road, there’s a few people on it. Through the broad gate and the broad road, there’s many.
And that road leads to destruction. The narrow gate, which is Jesus, leads to eternal life. So, we need to guard the integrity of the gospel that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Paul was always concerned about this. Paul was always concerned about false teachers that might come in and distort the gospel. So, in Acts chapter 20, Paul’s meeting with the leaders of the Ephesian church.
They meet in a place called Miletus, and Paul knows this is the last time he’s going to see them. And here’s Paul’s charge to the Ephesian leaders. I know that after I leave, this is his word picture here, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.
Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So, he’s warning the church leadership at Ephesus, you better guard the integrity of the gospel because there’s false teachers out there who will twist the gospel. That was Paul’s strong warning in the opening verses of the book of Galatians.
Listen to this text from Paul, verses 8, 9, and 10. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse. As we’ve already said, so now I say again, if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one you are accepted, let them be under God’s curse.
The word there for another gospel means another of a different kind. What are some of the false gospels? That’s when people begin to mix works into the gospel picture. Say that, well, you got to get to heaven, it’s yes, Jesus’ death on the cross plus something, plus your works, or you have to do this or that.
And anytime you add anything and say, well, we have to do something else to get to heaven other than trusting in Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, we’re really saying Jesus’ death on the cross and his shed blood for our sin payment is not enough. And so, when we studied the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 3, verse 2, Paul gives a strong warning, watch out for those dogs. He calls them dogs.
He calls them mutilators of the flesh. Who were they? They were the Judaizers that said, yes, you can follow Jesus, but you have to add following the law. And Paul gave a strong warning against it.
b. to faithfully proclaim the gospel
So, a faithful steward protects the true gospel, the integrity of the gospel. But there’s also a second aspect to being a faithful steward, and this was what Paul did in his life and ministry and as mission trips. The second aspect is to faithfully, faithfully proclaim the gospel that we put our faith in Jesus and Jesus alone.
And his shed blood on the cross paid for our sin debt. And he gave a victory cry on the cross. He said, it is finished.
He was buried and three days later, he rose again and he’s coming again someday. And now what’s he instructed us to do? Here’s where we’re ministers too. He’s given to us, all of us, what? The ministry of reconciliation, 2nd Corinthians 5:19 through 21.
Here’s the gospel. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God. And so, the integrity of the gospel, and you can’t read the New Testament without realizing that God’s given us a commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel, not only here locally, but as we have the privilege of supporting missionaries through our church giving and encouraging those that have been called to go cross-culturally, our goal is to get the gospel and to faithfully proclaim the good news.
Well, that’s the first portrait of an effective ministry, an effective minister. It’s being a faithful steward to protect and guard the gospel, the truth of the gospel, and to faithfully proclaim it.
ii. a nursing mother
But Paul gives a second picture here of what effective ministry looks like, and it’s found in verses 7 and 8, and it’s a very tender picture of a nursing mother, a nursing mother.
So, look at it with me in 1st Thessalonians chapter 2. We’re going to look at four characteristics here that Paul talks about that need to be in our lives as well as we minister. Here it is, verse 7. The NIV says, instead we were like young children among you. The New King James Version in the ESV says we were gentle among you.
a. gentle
And so, what’s the first picture of a nursing mother? Paul begins to talk about we were gentle among you. In an effective ministry, we need to be gentle with people. I’ve learned over the years that we all need to maybe have a sign on our forehead, maybe not literally, but handle with care, because we’re all going through something.
We might look good on the outside, but everybody’s got something on their plate. Everybody’s going through a struggle, and we need to be gentle with one another. One of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 and 23, the works of the flesh, 17 through 23, the nine evidences of the fruit of the Spirit, one of them is what? Gentleness, gentleness.
b. caring
So, Paul says we were gentle among you, and then he says we cared for you, just as a nursing mother cares for her children. Another translation says we affectionately were longing for you. And so, Paul has this picture of gentleness, but he genuinely cared for those believers at Thessalonica, genuinely cared for the people that he was ministering to.
And you know when we minister, people can determine that, they can decipher that, whether we really care about them. Paul pictures a nursing mother who’s gentle, who’s caring for her own children. So, we cared for you, why? Because we loved you so much.
c. loving
So, a nursing mother, gentle, caring, and loving. Jesus talked about this in John 13, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. And then he raises the bar, and he says, love one another as I have loved you.
d. transparent
And so, Paul pictures this nursing mother, she’s gentle, she’s caring, she’s motivated by loving her own children, and we need to be loving toward one another. But then there’s a fourth characteristic. We’re going to just use the word transparent, transparent.
Notice Paul writes, because we love you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, so he faithfully shared the gospel with those Thessalonians, and some of them came to faith in Christ, but what else did Paul share? Goes on to say, not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well. Paul shared his life. Paul was transparent.
Paul was like an open book, and he shared life together with those that he loved. This is a picture of the early church in Acts chapter 2, where they met together, and they committed themselves to the apostles’ doctrine, they committed themselves to prayer, they committed themselves to fellowship, they committed themselves to sharing the gospel, and it said they broke bread together every day. They were sharing meals together; they shared their lives together.
One of the ways that we can share our love for one another is to be transparent with one another. Not every day is a good day sometimes in our life, and it’s okay to be transparent. In fact, when you open up and maybe share that you’re struggling, you want to give us that vulnerability for others to come around you and to pray for you and to encourage you.
So, Paul’s picturing three characteristics of an effective ministry. The first one is a faithful steward that guards the gospel and proclaims the gospel. The second one is a nursing mother who’s gentle, caring, loving, and transparent.
iii. a concerned father
a. Paul’s work
The third one is a concerned father, a concerned father. Let’s pick it up in verse 9 here. Some pictures of Paul as a concerned father, and so we want to look at, first of all, Paul’s work, Paul’s work.
Writing to the Thessalonians, surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship. We work night and day in order not to be a burden to you or to anyone while we preach the gospel of God to you. So, Paul was what? A bi-vocational missionary.
Yes, Paul did receive financial support. The Philippian church sent him money and a gift, but Paul was a tent maker. Paul says, we worked day and night.
So, I picture and imagine Paul teaching and preaching in the synagogue during the day, and then at nighttime he’s working on his craft and working on his trade. Paul toiled and labored, and why did he do that? He did not want to be a burden, a financial burden, to those that he was ministering to. He was what? Starting churches, and so when a church is a startup church, there’s not a lot of finances.
So, Paul helped support himself by being a tent maker. Notice he uses the word toil and hardship. Paul worked hard, and when I was growing up as a young boy in Cleveland, Ohio, I remember somebody asking me, I was probably maybe six, seven years old, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I remember this distinctly.
My answer was, I want to be a garbage man. Garbage man. Like, why do you want to be a garbage man? I said, well, they only work one day a week, you know.
That’s all that I saw them, you know. Little did I realize that. I just thought, well, they picked up our garbage, they’re done.
And then I became a pastor, and whenever I tell that story, I open myself up to it, you know, the joke. Oh, you only work one day a week. You got your wish.
Let me tell you, ministry is hard work, and done the right way. If you care for people, if you love people, it’s hard work. And Paul worked hard, and Paul toiled in preaching the gospel and also in his bi-vocational ministry.
b. Paul’s walk
Paul worked hard. Secondly, we read about Paul’s walk. Paul’s walk in verse 10.
He’s talking about his life now. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless we were among you who believed. So, Paul talks about his work, then he talks about his life.
He says, I wasn’t perfect, but I want to tell you, I lived a holy, righteous life. I tried to be an example to you. And Paul writes to the Corinthians, follow me as I follow Christ.
To the Philippians, he says, the things you have learned and heard and received and seen in me, I want you to do. So, Paul’s life was an example, a godly example of what it means to walk with God. Paul said that I was blameless.
Now, when you go to 1st Timothy 3, chapter 3 lists the qualifications to be a pastor and an elder in the first seven verses. The overarching qualification is this term here that a pastor’s life should be blameless, not perfect. But if somebody makes an accusation, it should prove to be false.
There should be no reason for some sort of deep sin in their life. And then it goes on to list what that blameless life looks like, and then it adds in verses 8 through 12 the qualifications for church deacons. There are qualifications there.
c. Paul’s words
Paul’s walk was holy, was righteous, and was blameless. But then we look at Paul’s words as a concerned father. Paul says, I was like a gentle mother, but I was also a father to you.
For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children. And now Paul gives three descriptive words here, Paul’s words. By the way, we underestimate the power of words.
Proverbs says, death and life are in the power of the tongue. And we can use our words to uplift and encourage, or we can use our words to tear down. And Paul says, I was like a concerned father.
Three descriptive words here, verse 12, the NIV uses the word encouraging here. It’s the word Parakaleo. It means to come alongside, to assist somebody.
It means help up close and personal, ministry up close and personal. It starts with our own families, doesn’t it? To minister to them, and to come alongside them, and encourage them.
My research says, and I understand this as parents because we want to raise our kids in the admonition of the Lord, but oftentimes we give many more negative messages than positive messages, and sometimes the negative messages are necessary, but we need to balance that out with words of encouragement. Boy, do our kids and grandkids need encouragement as they grow up in the culture in which we live. Paul says, I came alongside you, Thessalonian believers, and I encouraged you, like a father dealing with his own children.
Encouraging, the second word here is Paramytheomai, means comforting. Paul says, encouraging and comforting. And then the third aspect is urging you, or some of the translations say charging you.
So, Paul says, I was like a concerned father. I worked hard, I ministered, I tried to live an exemplary life, and I used my words to uplift, to encourage, to charge, to correct. And what’s the goal? What is Paul aiming at here with his words? Here it is, the last part of verse 12, encouraging, comforting, urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and His glory.
What’s the goal? The goal is to encourage others, what, to walk with God, to live a life worthy of what God has called you to do, to be a follower of Jesus and not to bring harm or shame or reproach on the name of Christ. That was Paul’s goal. So, Paul says, my aim is to encourage you to live a life worthy of 48 years ago, next month.
My wife and I stood before a congregation of people in Fort Wayne, Indiana. My dad was the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church. We stood in front of a church and we expressed our vows to one another, and we’ll celebrate 48 years of marriage next month.
But we also, in our dating years, picked a life verse. What would be a good verse scripture that as we start our married life together that we can kind of shoot for to try to live out? And so, the life verse was Colossians 1:9 and 10. I’ll just read verse 10.
It says that we might live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every good work, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. We started our married life together. Our goal is to live a life worthy and pleasing to God.
And so, on that wedding day, and I’m holding the ring in my hands, I can’t get it on anymore because my little arthritis in my knuckle doesn’t allow me to wear it. But hey, maybe we’ll get it enlarged for our 48th anniversary, you know, simple solution, right? But engraved inside, you can barely read it now because it’s kind of been worn off, but engraved inside my ring is Colossians 1:9 and 10. Love, Diane.
I hope that’s your goal as well. That was Paul’s concern for those believers, that they would live a life pleasing and worthy. So, three portraits of an effective ministry, and Paul’s our role model here.
3 Application questions
1. am I a faithful steward of the gospel?
Paul says we need to be faithful stewards. So, by just application in these three aspects here, we have to ask our question, am I a faithful steward of the gospel? Do I know the gospel? Have I received the gospel? And secondly, am I sharing the gospel? I’m looking for opportunities to impact my world by being a faithful proclaimer of the gospel. Secondly, here’s a second thought and a second application question.
2. Do I care for others, love others, and share my life with others?
Do I care for others, love others, and share my life with others? And Paul says, I was like a nursing mother. I was gentle and caring and loving, and I shared my life with you. That’s God’s call to us.
As you read through the New Testament, there’s 12 one another phrases there. We’re to honor one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, love one another. On and on it goes with gentleness and love and caring.
3. do I regularly encourage others to live their lives worthy of God?
Thirdly, Paul says I was like a concerned dad. And here as a concerned dad, he was wanting those Thessalonian believers to continue on in their walk with God and to live a life that was worthy of him. And so, the question that we’re asking is, do I regularly encourage others? It starts out with our own family unit, and it spreads out to those that God gives us positions of influence and spheres of influence, but do I regularly encourage others to live their lives worthy of God? Part of the purpose of the church, isn’t it? Proverbs 27:17 is iron sharpens iron.
Hebrews 10:25, don’t forsake the assembly of yourself together as some are, but what? Encourage one another in what? Encourage one another in what? To love and good deeds. And that’s part of our goal as a child of, well, we’re all ministers, and I trust as you evaluate your life in ministry and as I evaluate mine, there will be faithful stewards of the gospel that will love and care others, share our life with others, and encourage others to walk faithfully with God.