Entrusted with the Gospel

Hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2022, Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Acts through the book of 2 Thessalonians. We're at 2 Thessalonians 2 this morning. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's word.
Let's pray. O Lord, we thank you so much. You are a gracious God, abounding in loving kindness and truth. We pray that as we read your word, Father, please, we need your Holy Spirit to instruct us. Please work in our hearts. Conform us to your image. Teach us your ways. May we know you and follow you. In Jesus's name, amen. All right, so we're at our first Thessalonians chapter two, and we're gonna read the first 10 verses. No, no, how's that go? Hold on, let me recheck this out here. We're gonna read the first 12 verses. The first 12 verses, here we go.
For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.
But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. so affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil, for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. We preach to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe, as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children. that you would walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? Well, first, A, what is this about?
There's really a few sections here, most of them about Paul's conduct, right? Verses one through three about Paul and how he had come to them. And then verses 4 through 9, we have Paul as he lived amongst them. How did he conduct himself? And lastly, 10 through 12, we find out how Paul instructed them. So, verses 1 through 3, we hear about the message that came, that didn't come with emptiness.
But they came from Philippi, where he had just been thrown in jail, where people had opposed him because of how he had preached the gospel, and they had charged him saying it was against Roman customs. And so he came to them, and they weren't timid about this.
But they came to Thessalonica preaching the gospel with power in God. Notice it's not a power that's residing in Paul himself. It's not because he's courageous or bold in and of himself, but that he knows that this is God's message. And Jesus Christ had appointed Paul to be an apostle, to go to the Gentiles with this message. And so it's with this message that he preached the gospel to them. And our exaltation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. And so he's going to pick up on that idea of the veracity of his message in verses 4 through 9.
But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak not as men-pleasers, but God who tests our hearts. God had put Paul through the refining fire and had burned away the dross. He knew Paul's heart because he had given him a new heart. He had changed him from Saul to Paul. He had thrown him on the ground on that Damascus road, and he had changed his life. He taught him, and he reformed him, and then he entrusted him with the good news that Jesus Christ is a Savior of men and nations, and he sent him out with that news.
And so he had been entrusted with that gospel, not to be pleasing men, right? Not as man pleasers. They didn't come with this message because they wanted to make buddy buddy best friends with people. That's not what they were concerned about. They needed to be faithful to their father who was in heaven. Paul and Silas and Timothy were entrusted with the gospel to go give it to people, to hand to them the news about God. And no matter how people received it, they were going to be faithful because they were accountable to God, not to the people who were receiving the message. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, right? They didn't come with rhetorical flourish. They didn't come trying to puff people up and make them feel all good.
Oh, you're so great. You're so wonderful. God loves you. He's going to save you because you are a great people. No, actually some of the things he said were deeply offensive. This is why a lot of people hate the gospel. He didn't come with flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness. He wasn't one of these traveling philosophers going town to town to town to town, just peddling a message, just trying to line his pockets. His message was not meant for him to personally aggrandize himself, to give himself a cushy life. That's not what it was for.
God is our witness. He invokes God himself. to say, the Lord himself, God himself, the maker of heaven and earth, who knows the secrets of the depths of our hearts, knows that these things are true. Nor did we seek glory from men, right, they weren't, again, they weren't man pleasers, they weren't trying to receive praise and accolades, either from you or from others. when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ, right? They were, Paul was sent out authoritatively as an apostle.
He was sent with this and he could have demanded, you all must respect me because Jesus Christ has given me my commission. But he doesn't do that. He doesn't throw his weight around. But instead he came, not seeking the glory of men, but instead, how did he treat the Thessalonians? How did he come to them? Well, he gives us two different pictures here.
The first is, but we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. Paul sees his spiritual children there in Thessalonica And he loves them He wants to see them grow He sees them and he has affection for them like a mother who has a nursing child Who holds that baby through the night? You know, I we have four children And I'm always amazed that whether it's 11 o'clock at night, 11 o'clock in the morning, or three o'clock in the morning, whenever Olivia has a child and she's caring for that child, the sense of serenity she has as she cares for that child, as she nurses the baby and she loves the baby, I realize, man, That's the type of love that a pastor ought to have for the people. He cares for them, that he loves them, that he wants to protect them. He says, because of this affection that we had for you, if we were willing to share our lives, Right, not just the gospel that God had sent us, but anything we had, right, we wanted to give it to you, we wanted to care for you, we wanted to love you. So he didn't see it as a burden for him to work while he was doing his missionary endeavors, but he wanted it to be that they could see that he loved them and he cared for them.
For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil, for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. We preached to you the gospel of God." This is one of the ways that we know that a Jewish person wrote this letter, because in a Jewish person's mind, it's night and day, night and day, not day and night, day and night. It's just an interesting side note there. because Jewish people consider the new day starting at night. And so Paul is saying that, right, when it was still dark outside, we worked. And when the workday was over, we shared the gospel with you. We did this again and again. This is how we showed that we loved you. We labored tirelessly. So he cares for them as a nursing mother.
But then he turns to a second imagery in verses 10 through 12 and talks about being like a father. He says, you are witnesses in God also how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe. As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children, that you walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory." Again, he doesn't just say God is our witness, that we didn't cover up things for covetousness, but he says you're our witnesses. You and God are our witnesses, how we behaved ourselves among you.
They weren't lewd, they weren't crass, they weren't stealing, but they were holy and devout. They carried on their ministry amongst the people in Thessalonica as faithful, as holy. Yeah, they had sin, but the tenor of their ministry was that of holiness and of godliness.
As you know, he did his job as a father. So he uses both imagery here, both as a nursing mother who loves and cares for her child, and also as a father who exhorts, instructs, charged, comforted, all of them. He wasn't just a sentimental, sappy guy. They weren't just there to puff them up and to coddle them, but they also did the fatherly work also.
They cared for them so much so that they told them hard things and comforted them, encouraged them when they needed encouragement, and chastised them when they needed to be chastised, calling sin, sin, and encouraging them when they saw repentance. This is the work that he shows, so it's both the nursing mother and as the instructing father, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his kingdom and glory. That was their purpose there, to love them as a nursing mother, but also to exhort them that they would walk worthy of God who calls them into his own kingdom and glory. He wanted to see them not be weak in their Christian faith, but to walk worthy of the calling that God had given them as citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
Well, what's the best verse to summarize this? Okay, well, in my Bible, I have underlined verse two, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. I also have verse four underlined, but as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. And I would also underline verse 11. As you know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children.
What would you underline though? Would you underline something different? Well, last we have to ask ourselves seek calling. What do we call to do? How does this play out in your life? Well, we can ask ourselves a few questions here. First, are we bold? as we speak the gospel, right? Are we telling others about Jesus Christ? Well, secondly, I want to ask you from the second paragraph there, especially if you might be a pastor. I know some pastors in other countries listen to this. I don't know if any in the United States do, but the question being, have you been approved by God and tested by God?
What is your motivation for preaching the gospel? Are you sharing not just your theological knowledge, but are you sharing your life and your heart with the people? Do you love God's people? Do you care for God's people? Do you nourish God's people? Do you dote upon God's people?
Do you see them growing in the Lord and rejoice in them like a nursing mother caring for her children? And then I would say also, again, I'm gonna speak to ministers here, but then I'm gonna also bring this home for all Christians, right? Pastors especially need to take heed of two different things here.
First, are you doing ministry because you wanna line your own pockets? Or are you doing ministry for the glory of God? Let me ask that again. Are you doing ministry because you want the praise of men, because you want the accolades of others, because you want to line your own pockets, or is it for the glory of God and for the welfare of His people?
Number two, as a faithful minister of God, are you teaching? Are you encouraging? Are you correcting? Are you building up the saints? As he said here, he comforted and charged every one of you. He exhorted them. Are you exhorting? Are you encouraging? And are you charging the people of God? Are you truly leading them as a pastor?
I want to back up now and I want to survey all of us and I want us to realize what the point of all pastoral ministry is meant to be. Why is Paul so thankful for them? I think it's because of verse 12, that you walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. It's good every once in a while, and I'm gonna encourage you to do this in your own heart and to pray, to take stock of your life, to evaluate your heart and ask yourself, am I walking worthy of God?
In the way I treat my spouse, do I live out the gospel? In the way I parent my children, do I live the gospel? In the single life that God has called me to, am I living out the gospel? As you go to work, do you conduct yourself as one worthy of the gospel? As you go to the marketplace, do you conduct yourself as worthy of the gospel? When you watch TV, the programs you put on or the apps you open, the websites you visit, are you walking worthy of the gospel? As you speak to others, as you interact with your parents, with your siblings, with your friends, do the words that come out of your mouth, do they sound worthy of the gospel? Does your conduct look like it's one seeking to please and to bring glory to your Father in heaven? It's a hard task, isn't it?
God has called us to walk in holiness, not so that we could become Christians, not so that we could earn the celestial city, but because we hope for it, because we walk by faith, because God's grace and peace has been given to us. Let's pray. Father, please work in our hearts, work in our lives, that we might follow after you. Please, Lord, let us walk worthy of the gospel. Father, we stumble, we fall, we falter. You know that there are chinks in the armor of our holiness. You know the deep recesses of our hearts, the things that we still love that we ought not to.
And we plead with you, God, that you would please reform our lives and conform us to the image of Jesus. Please, Father, let us know the hope we have. Let us walk by faith in Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.