The Work of God's Gospel

how like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Like the fathers and children he addressed in Ephesians 4, Paul did not provoke his listeners to anger or exacerbate them, but he led them to the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. The primary work of all these leaders, of all these ministry workers, was to verbally explain the gospel and its ramifications to those who would hear. And in verse 13, We see that these leaders were thankful for the success that they had in this work.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

We'll come back to the effect of this word-saturated ministry on its hearers in a few minutes, but the first point is the hard work of God's gospel demands good doctrine. Second point, the hard work of God's gospel demands good character, or more colloquially, difficult work, not difficult leaders. It's natural when engaged in hard work in stressful circumstances to get testy, cut corners, be impatient, expect a reward. But these workers described in 1 Thessalonians were not like that at all. Paul says in verse five,

we never came with words of flattery, nor with a pretext for greed.

In verse six, he says,

nor did we seek glory from people.

He notes that by right of their calling by Jesus Christ, they could have made demands. They could have been a burden on the people there in Thessalonica, but they did not make demands. In verses seven and eight, Paul says something utterly remarkable. Not only have the workers been respectful, and not abusive or manipulative or greedy or demanding, but they have formed a personal relationship with the believers under their care that is analogous to the deepest kind of human love imaginable.

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 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,

or as translated everywhere else in scripture, beloved to us. But this great love and care is not only analogous to human love, but to godly love. Twice, the prophet Isaiah utters God's own words describing how he, the holy, perfect, wrathful God of the Old Testament, loves his people even more than a mother does. In Isaiah 66, 13, the Lord says,

as one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you. you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

And even more poignant in Isaiah 49, 15, the Lord, the Lord God says,

can a woman forget her nursing child? That she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget.

even these nursing mothers may forget.

Yet I will not forget you.

He has us in his hands, he has us in his care, even more so than a nursing mother. And this is the kind of love and care your leaders and your teachers and your fellow members are called up to commit to you. In verse 10, Paul sums up their behavior with an almost impossible standard. how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. It's a very high standard, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. Before we look at the applications for these first two points, let's look at the evidence for Paul's claim Who validates or confirms Paul's claim that the doctrine and character of him and his workers are godly? The Thessalonians themselves and God himself. Look throughout this entire passage. Look first at verse one. You yourself know, brothers. Verse two, as you know. Verse four, approved by God, God who tests our hearts. Verse five, as you know, God is witness. Verse nine, for you remember, brothers. Verse 10, you are witnesses and God also. Verse 11, for you know. So, our leaders are called for good doctrine and good character. What can we do in response to this message? First, support your godly leaders. Support your godly leaders. I've come up with at least five ways. For homework over lunch, I'm sure you can come up with five more. First, pray. As our church covenant says,

we will pray for our leaders and submit to them as they lead us to Christ through scripture, teaching and correcting with gentleness.

Pray for your elders and your deacons and your Sunday school teachers and everybody in the church body. Paul. Paul asks at least eight times in the New Testament that the people he's writing to pray for him and for his work, and many of these reflect the same issues that we have on hand here today. For example, in Ephesians 6, he says,

to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me. that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Also in Colossians 4,

at the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.

And finally, at the end of 1 Thessalonians, he says, he who calls you faithful, meaning God, he will surely do it. And immediately after calling on the knowledge that the sovereign God has everything in his hands and everything under his control, he continues by saying,

brothers, pray for us.

Pray to that sovereign God that he would take care of us, that he would guide us, and that he would keep us solid in both doctrine and character. Secondly, encourage your leaders. Write them a note. Thank them when you see them. Say something caring or helpful. Keith and I both gave testimony at last week's 60th anniversary celebration. Had different times and different circumstances. One sentence of encouragement from one person in a dark time had been a balm to our souls. And we still remember those words years later. Third, don't question their motives. They, we, me, can absolutely be wrong. We are totally fallible. But give your leaders the benefit of the doubt, unless you have very strong evidence to do otherwise. They may have an idea that's not quite fully baked. Work with them, but don't assume that they're doing it out of malice or because they have some sort of error that they're trying to force on you. Fourth, hold your leaders to high standards of doctrine and character while giving us gracious slack in all the other areas. This can be very difficult to do at all. It can be awkward. It can be challenging and it is very hard to do wisely, but it is your responsibility. Finally, fifth. Be generous in your financial support for those who dedicate their lives in labor and toil for you, sharing with you not only the gospel of God, but their very own selves. And as I am reminded this morning, as Keith is away on vacation, that means be generous in terms of the time that you give them to recuperate and relax and refresh. One benefit of having lay elders is we can say things that sometimes the staff elders are not comfortable saying. Keith and Ben give their lives for you. They work day and night. They toil, they labor. As I said last week during the anniversary celebration, they tie themselves to God's word. They bring it to you at every opportunity. If the word is hard, they do not run from it. They tie themselves to it and are faithful to it. You see the work that they do. You see how they're in people's lives. This is your testimony that they do these things. And we, I would encourage you to Encourage them in every possible way. Their lives are before you, open for examination. They do not hide. They are among you. This call to provide support goes for other ministries we budget money for, either directly to individuals or through supplies. That could include missionaries, seminarians, those who volunteer at Southwood, and the Mercy Ministry, and the nursery, or teacher children, or clean the building, or track our finances, or repair and maintain the facilities. All of these hard-working people for God's gospel deserve your support. These five things you should be doing for all the members of the church, but even more so for those with additional roles and responsibilities. Second application of these first two points. The need to know and be known makes the local church critical to gospel work. The need to know and be known makes the local church critical to gospel work. Six times in just 11 verses, the Thessalonians are called on to validate the faithfulness and character of Paul's ministry team, who lived and worked among them. You know, you remember. You can't be very dear or beloved to a TV or podcast preacher, no matter how faithful he is in doctrine or how biblically kind he is. You can't have relationships that remind you of those you have with your loving mother and your loving father if you've never met them or you don't know them personally. This also argues for personal relationships and missionary and other cooperative efforts as well. Ministry is a hands-on work, and that means getting into the trenches with your brothers and sisters and knowing and caring for them personally. The first two points, the hard work of God's gospel demands good doctrine, and the hard work of God's gospel demands good character. Point three, God's gospel works hard in the believer. God's gospel works hard in the believer. We're looking here from the second half of verse 12 through the first half of verse 14. As I already mentioned above, verses 12 and 13 form a transition between the exhortation and teaching of the leaders to its effect on the hearers, on the believers who have been changed.

We exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

So the good news. for those who had worked so hard in Thessalonica is as they said in verse one, their coming was not in vain. Even though they were there for a very short time, God granted gospel success. Even in persecution, God granted gospel success. The Thessalonian believers heard the word of God, believed it and were changed. God's gospel worked in each individual believer to regenerate him, to transform him or her, enabling him or her to walk in holiness, become imitators of Paul's team and of Jesus, as Paul wrote in 1.6, and enable them to inherit the glorious kingdom of God as co-heirs with Christ. Verse 14, however, also indicates that they also inherited the Savior's suffering. and became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus in Judea, who were being shut down, who were being imprisoned. They suffered similar persecution in their very hometown of Thessalonica, where Jews attacked Paul and the missionaries, attacked Christians and tried to drive them out of town, yet they remained faithful. This transforming Word of God is the way we know about salvation. We learn of God's goodness and we learn of his greatness. We learn of his Son who can save us. So the first application today is to receive and accept the Word. Imitate the godly examples that God has placed before you being faithful in doctrine and character, loving one another as the most tender of parents do, and as God does for us, walking worthy of the word that you have heard, living out in holiness and faith what you have been called to do, knowing that God will keep you to the end. That, however, is not an easy task. It is work. Thankfully, God's word is working in you and enabling you to do this. But the second application for this morning is that the gospel promises persecution, not prosperity. The gospel promises persecution, not prosperity. Paul, Timothy, and Silas, and the believers in Thessalonica would scoff at the heresy of the modern prosperity gospel. And they do it from jail, recovering from a beating by the mob. They knew God, as in verse 12, had called them, elected them, chose them to be in his own kingdom and to experience his own glory. But they also knew from personal painful experience that the road to that kingdom is paved with suffering, conflict, labor, and toil. Jesus himself told us in John 15, 20,

remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

And Paul, later in writing, in one of his last writings to his son in the Gospel of Timothy, wrote in 2 Timothy 3, beginning in verse 12.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good word.

Persecution's a hard thing to talk about in America because we are very blessed. And when I think about the toil and labor that most of you have on a daily and a weekly basis, Despite some of the fears that some people have, I'm not worried about the government coming in and shutting us down. I'm worried about you being afraid to share the gospel with a coworker because it's awkward. I'm not worried about your neighbors coming and burning your house because you shared the gospel with them. I'm worried that you're not raising your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord because it's hard and it takes time and you have to do it every day. There is very real persecution in the rest of the world of our brothers and sisters in Christ where they are shut down by the government and arrested and put in jail just as Paul and his co-workers were, where Your house can be burned down if you decide to go against your village and become a Christian. Your very own parents, who you thought loved you and cared for you, will dismiss you and separate themselves from you or call for other people to attack you because of your acceptance of the gospel. And we need to be very careful that we do not exaggerate what we suffer when we see what our brothers and sisters are suffering. We need to make sure that we are supporting them in every way we can with our prayers and our presence and our provision. Third point is God's gospel works hard in the believer. Finally today, we come to a hard word in our fourth point. God's gospel work hardens the unbeliever. God's gospel work hardens the unbeliever, looking in verses 14 through 16. As Paul was reminding the Thessalonians of how they had been persecuted, he compares them to the churches in Judea that had been persecuted by the Jews there who had, as it says in verse 15,

killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out,

meaning Paul, that these Jews in Judea displeased God and opposed all mankind. So they're against the whole world, God and man. And perhaps their most specific sin is in verse 16 where they hindered us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved. The gospel should be going out to the whole world and anybody who is hindering that is in deep and dreadful sin. And verse 16 tells us that they have filled up the measure of their sins and wrath has come upon them. The proclamation of the gospel and God's word has this effect on people. There are two basic responses. As the believers did in verses 12 through 14, they can believe and be changed and that word can work in their heart and change them. But the other response is to reject God and to reject his word. And many times people go beyond simple rejection to hardening and attacking God's people. There was a whole flurry a few years ago of people who were not only atheists, but they were mad about it. And they wanted to go around and attack Christianity. For some reason they don't go around and attack astrology or palm reading. But Christianity, that makes them mad. That they respond to. and they want to attack those who are Christians and for those who are trying to spread the gospel. And so in context here, it's sometimes wondered whether or not the Jews have some sort of special responsibility and special wrath that has come upon them. The short version is no. And I think scripture is very clear on that. In one sense, I think in context here, Paul is clearly comparing the Jews who lived in Thessalonica, which are referred to here as the Thessalonians' countrymen, who were persecuting them, to the persecution that occurred in Judea by the Jews who lived there. It was very specific. Also, when we talk about Jews being condemned in scripture, we also talk about it referring to Jewish leaders rather than all Jews. But of course the obvious answer is that Jesus was a Jew. All 12 disciples were Jews. Paul was a Jewish leader who persecuted the churches in Judea. He is personally guilty of everything he is condemning here. It is clear, however, in Scripture that God's promises, promises of both wrath and promises of salvation, apply both to Jew and Gentile alike. The gospel is a stumbling block to both Jew and Gentile alike. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1,

for since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

So that gospel is a stumbling block to Jews and Gentiles alike. And both Jews and Gentiles are called to know salvation in Jesus Christ. Romans 118 is very clear that wrath is intended for all those who fight against God.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Paul goes on in Romans 2.6 to say,

he will render to each one according to his works. To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality.

The application for this last point is crystal clear. If you are here and you are an unbeliever, if you have rejected God, If you are hindering the gospel, repent and believe. All those around you who are smiling and nodding and affirming what I'm saying, we were just like you. Ephesians 2 tells us, and you, meaning all of us, including those who are believers,

were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us to live together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

And that grace is available to you too. I call on you as Paul called on the Thessalonians to repent and believe. Understand that you are a sinner who has broken your relationship with God. He is holy and perfect and pure and he can't abide by you in your fallen state. but he loves you and he sent his son Jesus to die for you, to take the penalty of your sin upon himself, that you might be saved to have eternal life as well as this glorious walk in life here as we work through the toil and trouble of sanctification and living in this fallen world, knowing what is before us. And so I call on you today, if you do not know God, to call out to him. If you do not understand the gospel, that you talk to the person sitting next to you, that they might share, just as Paul shared, just as Timothy shared, just as Silas and all the brothers and sisters in Thessalonica shared the gospel with one another. In conclusion, I pray that the proclamation of God's word, even today, would yield the fruit of repentance in new believers' lives. Let's pray. Most gracious and loving Heavenly Father, who is like you, the Lord our God? You are strong to save. You are faithful in love. Your son has paid our debt, and the victory is sure and certain. You are our salvation, and you are the salvation of all who would repent and believe. We pray this in the name of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. As we look to our song of response, I would ask you to look to verse one.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glorious grace.

Let us stand and sing together. Turn your eyes.