WWUTT 493 Genuine Among You?

When the Apostle Paul went into a new city to preach the gospel, he knew he wasn't going to be there very long, but that did not keep him from opening up his heart and fellowshipping with the fellow saints.

And so we need to be that open with one another when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Paul’s Genuineness in Ministry Among the Thessalonians

Thank you, Becky. Becky, we continue with our study of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, and I'll once again be reading verses 1 through 8. The Apostle says,. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.

But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive.

But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God, who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed.

God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 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 to us. I come back again to verse 5 here, where the Apostle Paul says,.

Ministry for God’s Glory and the Believers’ Benefit

For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. So Paul, once again, laying out to the Thessalonians that the reason why they came with the gospel of Jesus Christ was first and foremost to glorify God, but also for their benefit.

You know, everything that we experience in the Christian life goes just like that. In that order, everything is for God's glory and for our benefit. So we pray, we come to God and we pray to him for his glory.

And when God is glorified, we benefit from that. God has invited us through Jesus Christ to come to him with our requests, our concerns, our sorrows, our rejoicings. And we are able to take our finite existence here and step into his infinite glory and share with him.

And what a wonderful privilege that is. So prayer is one aspect of the Christian life that is to God's glory and for our benefit. Going to church is the same thing. You go to church with the body of believers, with fellow saints, those who like you have been called out of darkness and out of sin and into the marvelous light of God.

And together you rejoice and celebrate God with one voice, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your hearts to God, as Paul instructed the Colossians to do. You also encourage and admonish one another.

So in regular fellowship with each other, you know one another's struggles and hurts, how you can pray for each other, how you can build one another up. But also you might be able to recognize places in a person's life, areas in their life that they are not submitting to God, that pridefully they're kind of storing up for themselves and thinking that they can do things on their own.

Or maybe they are starting to stumble into sin. And with regular fellowship with the body of saints, you have people who are affectionate for you, who have your best interest in mind when they correct you on your sin and call you back into righteousness, that you may continue to grow in sanctification.

And as you are growing in holiness, you become a benefit to the body of Christ. So once again, gathering together as the church, you are a benefit to one another. You glorify God, but this is also a benefit to you to gather with the saints in such a way.

I also consider how sitting under good preaching is to God's glory and also to your benefit. Because on a daily basis, as you're going to work today, as you are going to the store today, as you interact with your kids and they interact with their friends, maybe heading back to school soon, as you watch television or movies, as you pass by billboards or listen to the radio, any of these things.

As we interact with the world, the world is a very toxic place. And all of the different philosophies of the world start to creep into our minds as we get bombarded with things through songs and ads and television and other stuff.

We talked about some of this yesterday. And so we need a regular cleansing of all that toxicity that gets into our minds, being reminded that this world is wasting away. It has nothing for us. We're going to wander around in the world to be tempted by some of the things that are out there.

Oh, I need that new gadget. I need that new house. I need this car. And then I will be satisfied. Well, these are all the messages of the world that get into our minds. And so we need to be reminded through the preaching of the word, glorifying God with the declaration of his word.

We need to be reminded of the gospel promises that all of creation has been subjected to futility because of sin. All of this world is wasting away. But we who are in Christ Jesus will be delivered from our sins and from this withering world into a perfect eternal kingdom where there is no more crying, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, no more evil.

Christ will wipe away every tear and we will live with him forever in all of his love and goodness and glorious grace. That is the kingdom that we are looking forward to. And as we hear the word of God proclaimed, it turns our eyes from the temptations of this world to God's heavenly kingdom.

And we have minds that are set there instead of the things that are here on this earth. So that's what a regular preaching of the word of God does for us. It glorifies God. And when God is glorified, we benefit.

We cleanse out the toxicity of our minds that that's caused by our wandering around in this world. And it draws our eyes heavenward again. We have our hope restored and we're no longer brought down by the sorrows and things like that going on in this world around us.

You know, that's especially good news when you think about how dreary the news has been this week, hearing about North Korea making threats to the United States. They are are even considering targeting Guam, where there is a naval base, a United States naval base there.

So North Korea looking for a way to kind of flex its might and show its power, these new missiles that they've got now. So maybe Guam is going to be their target. And as we as we hear this kind of stuff in the news, we wonder, I mean, is this hot air?

Is this just Kim Jong-un saying something or is he really going to follow through with this? Is he going to show the strength that North Korea has, even though they probably get wiped off the map by a number of different countries, not just the United States of America if they tried to attack anybody?

But is he is he really attempting to do something? Is his mind really that dark? And as we hear this stuff in the news, we're like, boy, that would be terrible for one nation to open up on another nation.

Tens of thousands of people will die. And so it's hearing news like this that can tend to be kind of hopeless. It can tend to be kind of dreary that we need some good news. And that's what the gospel offers to us, where Jesus said to his disciples in this world, you will have trouble.

But behold, I have overcome the world. We will experience tribulation in this world. But it is it is Christ in whom we hope who has overcome the world. So we know that everyone who is in Christ Jesus will be delivered from it.

The grave is not even our final resting place. We will be forever with him in glory. All this stuff is good news. And I truly believe this is one of the reasons why you listen to programs like this. You want to hear good gospel teaching.

You want to you want to hear the Bible, God's word being declared because it's to God's glory. And when God is glorified, we as his creatures, those who have been remade and reshaped in the image of Christ, benefit when God is glorified.

So we'll benefit for all eternity, glorifying God forever in his wonderful kingdom. Somehow I went all the way there out of First Thessalonians 2 5. So let me read that again for we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor pretext for greed.

So once again, Paul saying we didn't come to do this for ourselves. We did this for the glory of God and for your benefit. You know, interesting that he uses there the word flattery or what gets translated for us, the word flattery for we never came with words of flattery.

What is flattery? Like, I think we just tend to think of flattery as nice words or compliments that you would say of somebody else. Flattery is specifically insincere praise. So if you are flattering somebody else, you're doing it because I don't know, maybe you want to feel good about yourself because you think you've given you've made somebody else feel good by the words that you have said.

Maybe that's your whole reason for doing it, because you get something out of it. I flatter somebody else because I get I get something out of it. And that's what these philosophers were doing when they were coming into places like Thessalonica with all their great speeches.

They would flatter the people in sincere praise. They would lavish on them because they're trying to attract people to them. You know, the seeker friendly church moving the whole consumer church concept does this very thing when we're just trying to get butts in the seats.

We're trying to get as many people in our church as possible and kind of build for ourselves these mega churches. Well, you lavish flattery on people. You're just trying to make them feel good. So they'll end up coming to your church.

And then that's insincere praise. And it tarnishes the conscience of the one who is supposed to be preaching the gospel of God for his glory. I'm specifically talking about the pastor. The apostle Paul said this to Timothy and first Timothy, chapter one, starting in verse five.

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion when the pastor is lavishing flattery, insincere praise on the congregation.

He's doing this to build himself up rather than give glory to God and benefit the people of God with the teaching of his word. But, you know, not just pastors do this. It's not just pastors who lavish insincere praise on the congregation.

The congregation can also do this to the pastor. And I actually had this happen with me when I first came to First Southern Baptist Church. I was the associate pastor leading worship, but had an associate pastor position.

I taught a few Bible classes and things like that. And then it was after the senior pastor stepped down, he went to plant a church in another area that I moved in the senior pastor position. And it's what the church wanted.

It wasn't like it was just kind of a, well, he moved out. And so I just shifted up. Everybody was wanting me to move into that spot. And as soon as I did, everybody's attitude toward me changed. Not every single person, but for the most part, that was the case.

And both my wife and I noticed it. It's like everybody treated us as very important people all of a sudden. And we were going, what's changed about us from who we were just a few weeks ago? Suddenly, you're treating us totally different than the way we were when the other pastor was here.

And I would have flattery that was just lavished upon me. Somebody would say something like, you know, you're better than the other pastor. We like you more than the other pastor. Your sermons are so great because you got such a great voice.

It was always tougher listening to the other pastor talk. And that never made me comfortable. I never appreciated those comments, because if you only like me because you think I'm better than the other pastor, then there's somebody else that's going to come along who's going to be better than me.

I don't think I'm the best pastor out there. And as soon as they come along, your loyalties are going to shift. Suddenly, I'm going to go to this guy because I like him better. And I felt like the people who were in my church weren't there because they love God and the people of God.

They were there for totally superficial reasons. And as soon as those reasons were not appealing to them anymore, they had no devotion to that church or the people of God or me and my family. It was it was very heartbreaking that my kids would get attached to their kids.

And yet, as soon as something about their comforts changed, they wouldn't remain there anymore. And sure enough, that was the case. But I'm grateful to God that he prepared me for that, because during that whole period where I had people just kind of lavishing flattery on me, the Lord showed me Proverbs twenty nine five, which says a man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.

And so I knew, boy, if I get sucked into this, I'm going to fall into a snare and a trap. Eventually, I would preach something that would make somebody uncomfortable and they would leave. And little by little, this happened.

Those people who would lavish this flattery on me, I don't think any of them remained. And little by little, as I would preach something that would that would make their hearts feel a little bit uncomfortable, the Holy Spirit would convict them rather than listening to that conviction.

They would just get up and leave and go find another church where they could find another pastor that they thought was better than me. But I didn't take that personally because I knew that their hearts were already kind of going in that direction.

And I preached the way that I did to be able to convict their hearts and bring them back into a mindset that is to give glory to God rather than glorifying them themselves. So we all have this tendency.

We all have a weakness to want to glorify ourselves. But Paul is saying the sincerity by which they came to Thessalonica preaching the gospel was not for themselves. It's not like what the philosophers were doing, lavishing flattery on people to attract people to them or doing this for selfish gain to gain money for themselves.

Paul says, verse six, we didn't even seek glory from you, whether from you or others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. This isn't him saying, hey, we could have we could have demanded you to glorify us, but rather because we are apostles and we don't have homes, we're itinerant ministers.

So we just go from place to place sharing the gospel. And because we're doing this by the authority that Christ has given to us, we could have come here and said, hey, you have to take care of us because we're apostles of Jesus Christ.

And you would have had to do that because of the position that we had. But Paul said we didn't do that. Instead, we were gentle among you. We did not burden you in any way, didn't even ask for bread from anyone, as Paul says in another place.

But we set an example for you. We worked for our own keep and we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. Does a mother demand of her children to give her money and provide for her?

No, not her children at home anyway. No, a mom doesn't put a burden on her kids that way. And so Paul didn't do this with the Thessalonians either. And they were like his children because he shared the gospel with them.

And then they turned from sin and followed Christ because of what Paul declared. And so that made them spiritual children in a certain sense, not the only place that Paul talks about that. He mentions that in other places, addressing churches as though they are his children, like the church in Galatia, for example, who were sinning.

They were following after a gospel of law, which is really no gospel at all. And Paul said, I feel like I have to go through labor pains for you again. So addressing them even as his children, but those who had not actually shown that they were born again in Christ Jesus, for they had returned to a false gospel rather than remaining steadfast in the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

So Paul addresses the Thessalonians the same way as his children, verse eight. 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.

So Paul's saying here that we were not disingenuous when we were among you. We were vulnerable. We opened our hearts up to you. We shared life together. And so they would see Paul as a dear friend and know that his affections for them has not changed, even though he is now in Corinth and so far away from Thessalonica.

They might have even been a little bit disappointed when Timothy showed up because they were like, oh, man, we wanted to see Paul, but he didn't come. He sent Timothy. Well, Paul wanted to reassure them.

He sent Timothy because of how much he loves them. Timothy was his his most trusted servant. And because he loved the Thessalonians, he sent Timothy. That was one of the signs of his affection for them.

You know, Paul did not withhold of himself from the men that he traveled with and from the churches that he ministered to whenever he went to these cities. And there were times when Paul got his heart broken.

We read in Second Timothy, chapter four, Paul's last letter before he was martyred for preaching the gospel. And he said to Timothy, and this is Second Timothy, chapter four, starting in verse nine, do your best to come to me soon for Demas in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

Now, that's probably totally unrelated to the church in Thessalonica. It's because Thessalonica was a rich city. Demas didn't want to put up with the struggles anymore that a person has to go through to share the gospel, the sacrifices.

And so, you know what? Rich living in Thessalonica looks better for me. So he deserted Paul in his hour of need and instead went back to a place where he could find his own personal comforts. And so Paul thought of this man as a friend.

We hear or we read of him speaking of Demas as a friend in Colossians, as a matter of fact. So we know he was close to this man and yet had his heart broken by him when the going got tough. Just as Jesus went through this, when he was arrested, when the shepherd was struck, the sheep scattered, just as he said to his disciples would happen, that they would all desert him.

Peter said, no, even if all these run away, I will never desert you. And yet he did even denied Christ three times before the rooster crowed, just as Jesus said that he would. Yet this did not keep Jesus from sharing himself with his disciples, even when it meant his heartbreak.

But this was to fulfill all the things that had been written in the scriptures about him. And so when we would go through that, whenever we preach the gospel or we stand on godliness in Christ Jesus, and there are those who are going to ridicule us and scorn us for that, even people who we love dearly, we know that we are sharing in a suffering that Christ went through.

And this is for our sanctification. And we are growing all the more into the image of Christ who has saved us from our sins and delivered us into his glorious kingdom, which we are looking forward to, where we will not have these struggles anymore.

But in the meantime, while we are here, let us not withhold ourselves from anyone sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ who saves. Let's pray. Our Lord God, we thank you so much for the word that was shared with us today from your word, the Bible.

And I pray that it it draws us all the more to you, but also to each other, that we would understand an importance and a need of being affectionate with one another, of not being fake with each other, but being genuine, opening up our hearts that we might share all of the wonderful things that the people of God were meant to experience while we fellowship with one another here on this earth.

It is a taste of a fellowship that we will experience for all eternity in your glorious kingdom. So let the promise of this enliven our hearts and encourage us all the more to look heavenward, not be tempted by the things of this world and not be discouraged by the things of this world, but we will be delivered from this world when we enter your kingdom in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord, we pray.

Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text. Pastor Gabe is the author of the book, 40 of the most popular Bible verses and what they really mean. Available in paperback or for your Kindle can be found at our website at www .utt .com.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.