CALL TO CONFESSION

John 13:34-35

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of glory and love, You loved us before we took our first breath, sending your Son to accomplish our full and free salvation. You command us to love one another as you have loved us, yet we confess our deep unwillingness to obey. We are consumed by jealousy, harbor resentment and hatred in our heart toward our brothers and sisters, and expect that they serve us rather than laying down our lives for them. Father, forgive us.

Jesus, we thank you that your blood purifies us from our sin and gives us confidence before the Father. You endured the wrath we deserved so that your endless love and approval would flow over us. You took on our humanity and loved others on our behalf. You lived the selfless life we failed to live and freely gave yours to clothe us in your righteousness. Thank you for your shining goodness that allows us to stand before you. 

Holy Spirit, we need your strength to overcome our daily failures. Grant us swift repentance for our selfishness, pride, and hatred. Soften our hearts to cherish one another, and radically transform us by your love to extend grace and mercy to others. Let us fix our eyes on the cross, where our sin is crushed and where our names are written in the wounds of our crucified Savior. We come in his name, amen. 

“Take a few moments to personally confess your sins to the Lord.”

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

“Hear these words of comfort and assurance.” 

1 John 4:9-10

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

• If you have ever planted a young oak tree, for the first couple of years it doesn’t look like much.  The first years of a tree’s growth are mostly happening underground. The roots need to go down before the branches can spread out. 
• Now, nobody really gets excited about roots. Roots exist for fruit. And a tree that is firmly rooted is a tree that is meant to provide shade and bear fruit for others. 

• Last week we started this series in 1 Thessalonians and we spent some time looking underground, at the roots of the young church in Thessalonica that was rooted in faith. 
• God’s redeeming grace chose them, the Spirit worked in them, and their faith resounded from them across Macedonia and Achaia. 
• And Paul says that the Thessalonians turned from idols to serve the living and true God.
• They were rooted so that they could be sent. They were saved so that they could serve. 

• What does it look like when ordinary believers, rooted in Christ, are sent out into their homes, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces, to serve? 
• In our passage today Paul answers those questions. 
• In chapter one he showed the Thessalonians what God had done in them, and in chapter two he showed what God did through the messengers who brought the gospel to them. 

• Paul was forced out of Thessalonica by people who resisted the gospel message. So Paul writes to set the record straight. 
• In defending his ministry, he also leaves us a pattern of what it looks like to be sent to serve. 
• And this will help us understand how we’re supposed to serve the community God has called us to. 

• Here's our main point: Those who are rooted in the gospel are sent to serve. We are called to speak with courage, give of ourselves, and trust God’s Word to do God’s work. 

1 Thessalonians 2:1-6

• Verse 1, “For you yourselves know…” Paul begins with an appeal to memory.  In Philippi he was beaten, imprisoned, and shamefully treated.
• From Philippi, they walk about a hundred miles west to Thessalonica, the capital city of Macedonia.
• After what Paul experienced, most would want to lay low for a while. But not Paul.
• He writes, “We had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.” 
• Acts 17 describes their ministry in Thessalonica. 
• Some believed, but others stirred up a mob against them who shouted, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.”
• Ministry in Thessalonica was a fight from the very beginning. 

• Paul states where his boldness came from. He says, “We had boldness in our God.”
• The courage displayed to proclaim the gospel in the midst of conflict wasn’t a confidence rooted in Paul’s personality. It was a fruit of being rooted in God. 

• Some of you, when you hear that we need to be bold in proclaiming the gospel, think, “Well that leaves me out. I’m not an extrovert.” 
• But here’s what I want you to know: gospel boldness was never about having the right personality type. It’s about remembering we have a big God. 
• The same God who gave courage to a beaten-up apostle in Thessalonica is the God who lives in you by his Spirit. 

• In verse 3, Paul addresses three accusations that were being made against him. 
• First, that his message was simply false.
• Second, that he had impure motives. 
• Third, that he was being deceptive.
• Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica was cut short because of a riot and he had to leave the city quickly. His critics took advantage and sought to discredit his ministry and authority through a smear campaign.

• Paul answers in verse 4, “We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God.” 
• The Greek word for “approved” means to be tested. Like the refiner who would put gold into the fire to prove whether the gold was genuine.
• Not only that, they were entrusted with the gospel. The message is not theirs, they are just the messengers. 
• Three times in this passage: verses 2, 8, and 9, he calls it “the gospel of God.” 
• The good news belongs to God. They don’t get to rewrite the message to make it more popular. 
• They have faithfully delivered the message they were entrusted with. 

• Paul’s aim in ministry was not to please man but to please God. 
• And that’s the same for us, church! We don’t twist, soften, or edit the gospel to make it more palatable to our shifting culture. 
• We preach it plainly because we have been entrusted with it by God and our aim must always be to please God first. 

• Paul says it also in Galatians 1:10: “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
• Who is your audience? Many of us live much of our lives performing for an invisible panel of judges. We adjust what we say and what we leave unsaid based on how we think they will score us. And the reality is that we become timid when we should be bold, and we are silent when we should speak. 
• But the person who knows that God is his audience is set free.  They can speak the truth in love and leave the results to him. 

• And that’s why Paul says in verses 5 and 6, “we never came with flattering words, a pretext for greed, or seeking personal glory.” 
• Flattery is telling people what they want to hear so that they will like you. 
• Greed is using people for what you can get from them.
• Glory seeking is wanting to be admired and honored.  
• Paul adds that they could have thrown their weight around and made demands as apostles of the risen Christ. But they chose not to impose their rights on these young believers. 

• Young people, at school there may be enormous pressure to stay quiet about Jesus so you don’t get labeled.  But you don’t need the approval of your classmates, or those who follow you on social media. If you belong to Christ, the God of the universe has already approved you in his Son. You can be brave and honest about your faith, because you are not performing for anyone. You are living for him. 
• In the workforce, you’re always tempted to manage your image. You know what to say and what not to say. But oftentimes, that is a cover for fear of man. Fear of what it might cost you to go public with your faith. 
• Like Paul, our boldness must be in our God. 
• We don’t have to be impressive. We need to be faithful. 
• We need to live and speak to please God alone.

1 Thessalonians 2:7-12

• In verse 7, the tone shifts. Paul has been defending his ministry against accusations and now he presents the posture of gospel service he displayed before the believers. 
• He uses the image of a nursing mother’s tender care for her own children. 
• Paul and his companions did not come in a heavy-handed way. They came with a softness and humility that no doubt surprised people. 
• The posture of gospel service is selfless and sacrificial. 

• Then he writes in verse 8, “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.”
• The Greek verb translated “affectionately desirous” appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It means ‘to yearn’ or ‘to long for.’ 
• Paul is saying, “We didn’t just like you, we yearned for you with a deep love.”
• They came to Thessalonica and they didn’t just hand out gospel tracts and walk away. 
• They shared the gospel and they shared their very own lives out of a deep love for people. 
• Love never holds back the truth but boldly declares Christ to others. Love gives of oneself. 

• Church, this is where so much of our evangelism and ministry falls short. 
• We are tempted to treat the gospel like a pamphlet we hand to a server at a restaurant. 
• But Paul didn’t just deliver information. The gospel came wrapped in a life. 
• That’s what Christ’s incarnation was. That's the good news: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” 
• Effective gospel service requires the ministry of presence and words. 

• “Because you had become very dear to us.” Paul didn’t see these people as gospel projects. These were people Paul loved. 
• Do the people you are trying to reach for Christ know that they are dear to you? 

• In verses 9-12 Paul shifts the metaphor from a nursing mother to a hard-working father. 
• Paul was a tentmaker by trade. He worked night and day to not burden the young church, all the while proclaiming the gospel of God. 
• Paul didn’t want anyone to accuse him of taking advantage of other people’s generosity. He supported himself so that no one would think the gospel came with a price tag. 

• As to his conduct, Paul says his conduct is unimpeachable. 
• “You saw it for yourself, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.” 
• They saw his outward life and God saw his heart.  His life matched his message. 
• As we serve others and bring the good news, there is nothing that hinders our witness more than when our walk doesn't match our talk.

• Now, in verses 11 and 12, he switches up the working father’s image to that of a father’s responsibility to train, direct, and prepare his children for life. 
• Paul had become a spiritual father to them.
• He describes what he did with three verbs:
• He exhorted them, which means he came alongside them. 
• He encouraged them, which means he brought comfort to them. 
• He charged them, which means he spoke a solemn truth that he pressed upon them. 
• The goal of all this fatherly work was so that they would “walk in a manner worthy of God.” 
• That the whole of their Christian walk would be a match to who God is. 

• What is the ground of it all? Paul writes, God “calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” 
• God is calling them forward, toward a kingdom that has already dawned in Christ and a glory that will one day be fully revealed. 
• Paul doesn’t motivate them with fear of his disapproval. 
• He motivates them with the greatness of the God who called them, and the glory that awaits them. 

• Parents, the pictures that Paul used to describe gospel ministry are a reminder that home is not a break from ministry. It’s the front line of ministry. 
• Point your children to the God who calls them into his own kingdom and glory. 
• Some of you are past the season of raising children, but you are not past the season of parenting.
• Titus 2 calls older men and older women to train the younger.
• Take someone under your wing. Have them over. Share your life, not just your advice. 
• Church, being sent to serve means that we cannot reach people from a distance.
• People need to see the gospel wrapped in our lives. They need to sit at our tables. They need to know they are dear to us. 
• And no one can use the excuse that they are too busy for any of this. 
• Paul worked full time, night and day, and he still made time to share his life with people. 

1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

• So far Paul has been talking about the messengers. Now, in verse 13 he turns to the message. 
• If we stopped at verse 12, we might conclude that the success of ministry depends on how bold, how pure, and how loving the messengers are. 
• Those things matter. But they are not what saves anyone. What saves people is the word of God. 
• Paul thanks God. If the Thessalonians believed, it was because God had opened their hearts.

• They ‘received’ the word. That is, they took hold of what was passed on to them.
• They ‘accepted’ the word. They welcomed it in the way you would welcome a guest into your home. 

• The Thessalonians heard Paul’s speech. But behind Paul’s voice was God’s voice. When the gospel was preached, God was speaking. 
• And they received it for what it really is, not the words of men, but the word of God!

• When the Scriptures are faithfully read and preached, you’re not listening to one man’s opinions. 
• When the word is opened, God speaks. 
• That should make us humble and expectant.

• Verse 13 ends with the word of God, “which is at work in you believers.” 
• The verb “at work” in the Greek is where we get our word 'energy.' 
• God’s word is not inactive or neutral. It is energetic. It acts. It does things. 
• Hebrews 4:12 "The word of God is living and active…"
• God’s word always does God’s work. 

• And notice that the word keeps working in believers. 
• It didn’t just work once, at the moment of conversion. It goes on working, shaping, correcting, comforting, and sanctifying. 
• The word that brings you to new life in Christ is the word that keeps you growing up in Christ. 

• In verses 14 through 16, Paul describes the opposition he faced and the Thessalonians faced from those who resist the gospel message. 
• Opposition to the gospel is not a Jewish problem or a Gentile problem. 
• It is a human problem. It is the natural response of the sinful heart to a holy God. 

• What these opponents were trying to stop was the preaching of the gospel so that “they might be saved.” 
• God’s purpose is salvation. His wrath is real. There will be judgment for those who continue in their rebellion and opposition to Christ. 
• But God’s first word to the world is not wrath. It is the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.
• He sends messengers. He sends his word. He sent his Son. Wrath will only come upon those who refuse his rescue. 

• But opposition, in the end, did not stop the word. 
• Paul was driven out of Thessalonica, but the church he left behind remained standing. It was still growing. Their faith was sounding out across the region. 
• You can drive out the messenger, but you cannot stop the message. 

• Maybe you’ve grown discouraged in sharing your faith with a loved one who doesn’t seem to change. Remember, the power is not in you to save. It is in the word. Keep sowing it faithfully. God’s job is to make it grow. Isaiah prophesied, the word never returns empty but accomplishes everything God sends it to do (Is. 55:11). 
• If you’re facing some type of opposition, remember you are not alone. You are walking the same road as the early church and the Lord Jesus himself. Opposition does not mean you are failing. It often means the word is at work. 
• Do you receive God’s word as what it really is? Or do you treat it as the word of men, something to be evaluated, something you can take or leave depending on whether you like it? When Scripture confronts your sin, do you argue with it, or do you submit to it? When it calls you to serve, do you make excuses, or do you obey?

CONCLUSION

• As we close, everything Paul says about ministry in this passage is a reflection of someone greater. Paul is a servant, but he is serving in the footsteps of the Servant. 
• Paul was bold in the face of shameful treatment. But Jesus, “for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame (Heb. 12:2).”  When he was beaten, mocked, and stripped, he did not turn back. 
• Paul did not seek to please men, but God. Jesus did only what was pleasing to his Father. 
• Paul was gentle as a nursing mother. Jesus said, “I am gentle and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:29).”
• Paul shared not only the gospel but his own self. Jesus did not just bring us a message of salvation. He gave himself up for us all. 
• “The son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). “
• The ultimate Servant, sent by the Father, was rejected and crucified.

• If you are here today and you have not yet trusted in Christ, I implore you to trust in him today. 
• The call is to turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ alone.
• If you hear this call today, do not ignore it. Receive the word not as the word of a man, but as what it really is, the word of God. 

• And to those who are in Christ, you have been rooted and now you are sent. 
• John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 
• You were not saved to sit. You were saved to serve. 
• Here are three take home questions to wrestle with:
• First, is there a place where fear of people has kept me silent? If so, ask God for boldness, not in yourself, but in him. 
• Second, with whom will I share, not only the gospel this week, but my own self?
• Invite that person to your lunch table or to your home. Give them your time and open your life. 
• Third, do I trust the word of God to do the work of God? Will I open it, hear it, obey it, and share it, confident that it never returns empty? 

• Roots go down so that branches can go out to provide shade and nourishment for others. 
• Church, you are rooted in faith, now go from this place to serve. 

APPLICATION AND REFLECTION

In light of today's message....

• What did I learn about the gospel?
• How can I apply what I learned about the gospel to my life?
• With whom can I share the gospel this week?