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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/bruce-rodgers/1thessalonians-the-bearers-of-truth-living-templates-for-the-saints/
Let's look again in 1st Thessalonians chapter 2. 1st Thessalonians chapter 2. Now we'll read the chapter together. Verse 1. For yourselves brethren know our entrance in unto you that it was not in vain but even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated as you know at Philippi we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention or conflict.
For our exhortation was not of deceit nor of uncleanness nor in guile. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel even so we speak not as pleasing men but God which trieth our hearts.
For neither at any time used we flattering words as you know nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness nor of men. Sought we glory neither of you nor yet of others when we might have been burdensome as the Apostles of Christ but we were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth her children.
So being affectionately desirous of you we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only but also our own souls because you were or became dear unto us. For you remember brethren our labor and travail for laboring night and day because we would not be chargeable unto any of you we preached unto you the gospel of God your witnesses and God.
Also how wholly and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children that ye would walk worthy of God who have called you unto his kingdom and glory.
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing. Because when you received the word of God which you heard of us you received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe for you brethren became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.
For you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen even as they have of the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us. And they please not God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins always for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
But we brethren being taken from you for a short time in presence not in heart endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire wherefore we would have come unto you even I Paul once and again.
But Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing. Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. For ye are our glory and joy of the heading that I have put over this message is bearers of truth and living templates for the Saints.
Now I don't know if that makes sense to you. You could use the word model or example. But the basic thrust of my message is that we must be in harmony with the message we're preaching. And we need to understand what that message is.
It is the gospel of God and that gospel of God is the most personal revelation of God that he has ever given. God has spoken he has spoken in different ways throughout history. But when he sent his son into the world and when his son was on the cross God was opening out the depths of his being to us.
He is unveiling to us the very depths of what he is. And so the gospel of God is a very intimate personal revelation of God himself. And so as we preach the gospel it is essential for us to not only appreciate what we have been brought into but also to be able to be in ourselves living out that character.
The people are not only listening to what we say they're watching us. They're observing what we show and manifest towards them. So we're going to see a number of these principles brought out in the passage.
And so you notice how many times he seems to be vindicating himself. Vindicating himself normally that's not a good sign. It's usually an indication there's some underlying problem between them. But I'm not.
I don't see that in the letter that there's a problem between Paul and the converts. Not like in Corinth he doesn't have to do it because they're thinking this way of him. But because I believe the enemies of the gospel have been busy not only on one hand persecuting the Saints but also trying to slander the preachers trying to insinuate false motivations.
Now I remember going back to the to the work in Kappas casing. We came in there Murray Pratt was he might have hit the ripe age of 30. I'm not sure. And I was 27 now 26 27 when we went there. So we were young and most of the ones who got saved were in our age range.
It was a very very young work in many ways there were some really old folks that got saved in their 50s anyway so we were young and you know what one of the one of the ideas that was circulating around that community was that this was a cult and here were these young fellows coming in here and they're and they're stealing away our sons and our daughters.
These people were afraid of what we represented now there was. It wasn't that long after. Remember the Jonestown massacre and all that stuff way back. Well that was just the year before and some of the moonies had come around that community not too long before we arrived and so they that was another rumor.
You know we were these cults. There's a lot of suspicion. So when you don't know anything about people and you don't know what they represent it's easy to believe anything about them. And so there are all kinds of rumors and insinuations.
And so some of that is is I sense looked at here in this passage. But it's interesting the first thing that he mentions is to remember the persecution that he and his fellow laborers had experienced before he got to Thessalonica.
I find it interesting that Paul does the same thing when he is appealing to Timothy in his final writing in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 they had experienced a lot of affliction and persecution together. But he reminds him of things that happened to him just before and at the time when Timothy got saved in Iconium Antioch Iconium and Lystra.
And really I get the impression from this is simply this idea. Paul is reminding these believers I suffered to bring the gospel to you. I suffered back in Philippi a hundred miles to the east but I came to you as well.
We endured we were we were shamefully treated we were brutally treated at Philippi. And yet we had a boldness in our God. So it comes back again to this underlying confidence that God is working and I am willing to work with God whatever the cost may be.
The gospel is a message of sacrifice. And these men were willing to sacrifice. They were willing to suffer in the bringing of the message to these people Thessalonica. And he reminds them of that at the very beginning and so they would be encouraged.
Yes this isn't just something strange that has happened to us. This is of the character of the message and its reaction of those who rejected. But then he mentions from verse three down for our exhortation was not of deceit.
This word seems to imply the idea of falsehood error. We didn't come like the Jonestown people or the moonies. We didn't come. It wasn't something that originated in falsehood. It wasn't a lie that we brought to you.
Now I know that just because somebody's willing to die for what they are espousing does not mean it's right. And we know that today very obviously in our world when you think of things involving the Islamic world and so on.
But it does emphasize that these people genuinely believe that the right. If you are willing to suffer for what you are preaching if you were willing to suffer hardship that at least brings this much credibility you believe in it it matters to you.
You're willing to die for this. So this is our our preaching to you did not arise out of falsehood. We didn't come here to spread a lie. We were willing to give you the truth. And I remember again how how that was an important element in the beginning of the work in cap as well in establishing that sense in those who listen to us that these people want us to know what God is saying to us.
But then he uses two other expressions. One is uncleanness. It did not arise out of uncleanness that is really talking about moral uncleanness immorality. And he says neither was our underlying motivation it was not that we were trying to trap you into something that would make you trust us so that we could sexually immorally affect you.
This is one of the scandals isn't it in the religious world. And it's not limited to the religious world it happens in all areas of life where people gain a position of trust over other people. And that is why if there's one thing we must must be very very sensitive to we must guard against it that neither by deliberate intention nor as we become involved with people.
And as you're dealing with people you become very close to them. Some of that is emphasized just a few verses down of how tender how intimate the bond becomes between the messengers and the converts. This must be guarded against very very strictly strongly within our own being that we do not let something of the flesh overtake our spiritual interest in people that we are trying to reach.
And so he is he is making this bold declaration. This is not what you saw this is not what you experience from us. And he says neither was it in guile. It was not a deceptive kind of thing that was in order to deceive you.
And then he says but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel even so we speak not as pleasing man but God who tries our hearts. I think we get too used to the gospel. We get too used to spiritual things living and serving in the presence of God as we meet together in assembly capacity and so on God has entrusted to us the most precious revelation of himself.
And so this language. And I know that Paul because of his background because at one time he persecuted the Christians he deeply appreciated God's mercy to him to save him and then to entrust him with the very message that he tried to blot out.
So Paul had a deep appreciation for this. Maybe some of us who have grown up in Christian homes and have had the gospel surrounding us all our lives maybe we just take it for granted far too much to think of how precious it is that we are allowed we are allowed to speak for him the message that can save a person and bring them into eternal life the most important thing that could ever be in a person's experience.
And so he is saying here that God has tested us. God himself has tested and approved us and so he served with that consciousness. I am doing this for God. And in in 2nd Corinthians particularly he repeats this over and over again in the sight of God in the sight of God in the sight of God.
And we need to cultivate this to be conscious of this. Somehow it seems too easy to just get on the human level as we interact with people. Paul was conscious that he was serving in the presence of God and for God God who tries our hearts.
Many speaks about the issue of flattery. You know basically the gospel is incompatible with flattery. It's pretty hard to preach the gospel honestly and be a flatterer because the gospel confronts us with our failing it confronts us with our guilt are in fitness for God's presence.
And so the gospel is is incompatible with this human characteristic of flattering people to gain a following or to gain prestige among them. And so he says we did not come to you with these kind of motivations.
And then he says you know that we didn't flatter you. And then he says nor a cloak of covetousness that they would never necessarily know that but he says God is witness now one of the things that I have come to appreciate and my brother Sandy has already alluded to this from the other side of from assembly giving Christians giving to full-time workers from the standpoint of someone in the Lord's work and preaching the gospel in new areas and seeing how important it is that they do not get the impression that we're here for their money.
I am deeply grateful if you want to call it a system the way that we handle finances among assemblies and the Lord's work it protects against this this all too common corruption in human nature to make use of something that matters to people.
Remember the expression religion is a racket spiritual things eternal things the things of God are a matter of concern to people and they're willing to pay. They're willing to to spend money. And it's so easy for organizations to develop the system where they're.
They're working on this lever of course certain religious systems that have taken it to to the to the ultimate degree with things like purgatory and all that kind of thing where they have they've made a market merchandising.
This is one of the one of the errors of the last days are spoken of in second Peter making merchandise of you. And Paul is saying there was not in our hearts any desire to grasp after what you had. And he comes into that further when he says here in verse 7 or verse 6 and then verse 9 so I'll pick up that more when we come to verse 9.
But he says nor of men sought we glory so people can have the aim through covetousness or it can be to have a high position for people to glorify them as we didn't seek glory from you and impose ourselves on you and expect you to provide for us and to honor us in this way.
And so he says as we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ but instead we showed he says the character of parents. And he starts out with this beautiful expression we were gentle among you even as a nurse cherishes her children.
Now even though that's the way it's translated here it really is not talking about a nurse at the hospital taking care of your little baby just after it's born. This is talking about a nursing mother who is cherishing her own children.
Now I don't think there's anything more gentle more tender than that picture of a nursing mother with that little infant that is so helpless so fragile so dependent so needy. And here is someone who as the mother of that child nursing from her own being supplying life to that infant and in that sacrificial spirit sleepless nights dad gets to roll over go back to sleep after the baby stops crying mom gets to feed it.
That picture is so precious. We need we need nursing mothers. We need tenderhearted fathers. We need those who when they bring the gospel to people are willing to impart themselves to those people in accord with the spirit of the message itself are able to draw people to themselves and love them and sacrifice themselves for them.
That's the that's what we have here. So being affectionately desires of you we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only but also our own souls because you become dear to us. I remember when we were in that transition stage in the work in cap and Murray and his wife had left this is after about five years four to five years and he started to be involved in the next town that we got involved in in the city of Timmins.
And for about a year I went back and forth half a week there and half a week back in campus casing and then we ended up moving as well. And there's one couple in particular that I had spent about a year in marriage counseling just trying to help them.
They had a very unstable relationship a lot of baggage and I had spent you know week by week spending some time with them trying to teach them trying to help them become more stable in their marriage and so on.
And I remember the wife saying to me when she found out that Becky and I were leaving as well she made this statement. She says we feel like we're being put up for adoption. We feel like we're being put up for adoption and we don't like it now the brethren one thing we'll say about the work that happened there the Lord raised up men very quickly from among them we showed gift and development and care for the Lord's people.
But in some ways because partly because they were all quite young yet it was almost like we were like parents who left a bunch of teenagers home and just left them on their own not not left them home for the weekend.
We we left and they're left to take care of themselves. And because they were so much the same age it was difficult for some of them to put confidence in those that became the overseers among them. This is something that you can't force you can't just impose someone over the Lord's people and expect them to connect with them.
And what I see in this passage is this very powerful bond that develops through the preaching of the gospel through people getting saved. And there needs to be on the one hand of those who bring the gospel this willingness to be involved in their lives to take care of things that you might say this isn't part of a you know I didn't sign up for this when I when I signed up to be in the Lord's work to help somebody with whatever you know help whatever fix the house teach them how to budget whatever whatever it may be to help them in whatever needs they had like a parent with a child.
Now I'm going to say make one comment about the practice that we have typically as assemblies become mature and we have gospel series in assemblies and I encourage that I appreciate that and we sort of higher in the preachers now I'm not going to despise that I understand at times it's very valuable to have men come that God uses.
There is one potential weakness I'm just going to mention that relates to this passage and that is because of this bonding that is intended by God what happens when the preachers do all the preaching.
They do all the visiting they do all the caring for these new converts and then they go and they don't come back and they don't visit and they don't keep in touch. There's a potential weakness right there.
And unfortunately we have seen this happen too many times now. I know everybody doesn't go on to be saved no matter how it happens. But so often we have people who show indication of life they seem to be beginning to flourish and then it fizzles.
And and this is where I would encourage local believers to be involved local believers to be integrated into this gospel work. And I would even encourage having one preacher common local brethren working with them have the local believers and integral part of this because somehow you must develop and maintain this bond.
This is a bond that is very precious it is very powerful because those believers those converts are going to listen to the father in their faith their father in faith their mother in faith and so on. So that's a it's an important part of the pattern that we see.
And so he says verse 9 this is where we get back again to the financial aspect. You remember brethren our labor and travail for laboring night and day because we would not be chargeable unto any of you.
We preached unto you the gospel of God. Now I will say this in my own experience even though Murray and I were involved in new work in Kapuskasing and then in Timmins and we basically were out of circulation as far as among the assemblies the first at least 15 years of of my time of being in the Lord's work we rarely went anywhere even for conferences.
So how were we supported. Was it out of sight out of mind. I can say thankfully in appreciation but the Lord took care of us. The Lord's people were faithful. And there were times of testing. Yes I'm sure every one of us who are involved in full-time work go through those times.
But the Lord provided for us. Now I have heard preachers at times and this is not very often. We don't preachers don't discuss finances usually I have heard at times a preacher saying I have to I have to circulate among the assemblies or I wouldn't be supported.
So whose fault is that. And is there a fault. I would suggest there may be neither at fault or could be both at fault. And I'm not the judge of that I'm I can only speak from my own experience that I believe that what Paul gives by way of example in the New Testament I think gives us a better framework of understanding this of financing the Lord's work of the of the care of the workers and so on than what sometimes we box ourselves into.
There are certain preachers who have had struggles and have had to work part-time or even full-time during part of their time. And I've heard others saying well are they in the Lord's work or aren't they in the Lord's work.
I would suggest that you'd have trouble with Paul if that's the way you're thinking. Let me at least express what I see as the framework in which Paul worked. He was laboring in pioneer work and I realized that that is easier to do when you're single.
But as I say even in my own experience my wife and family were with me in those early years and the Lord took care of us even though we hardly visited other assemblies. Paul's framework was this. The work must go forward the gospel must be preached if the Lord's people bring help and support that's deeply appreciated.
If not I'll work as I have to to supply my needs. And as he mentions in his his little conference with the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20 you know he says my hands have ministered to my own needs and to those that were with me.
So Paul didn't take the idea that well God's people have failed me or somehow that God has failed me. But rather this is my mandate to preach the gospel to spread the Word of God and by whatever means he would see it go forward and so I would encourage us to not.
Well I deeply appreciate the the idea and the practice that we have to seek to support the Lord's work. And I will just make this one further comment so I don't get myself into trouble here. Sometimes it's the practices that we have that have a weakness in it.
And again I have no idea what you do here if we only give fellowship to preachers when they visit at the door you are in a sense you are you are bringing that that effect to cause that influence to happen.
Seek the will of God seek to be in harmony with God seek to be exercised about the Lord's work further afield as well as what is right at your door. By that I don't mean that it's wrong to support those who do come and help in the local work and teach and so on.
That's also part of the pattern. But anyway he is emphasizing here that as they preach the gospel they made every sacrifice that was necessary so that the impression that was conveyed was completely in harmony with the gospel of God.
The gospel is a gospel of God's gift of God's giving of God's love. And that is what was conveyed. And then he mentions here in verse 10 and verse verse 10 to 12 you are witnesses and God also how wholly and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you.
I remember some years after Murray and I had left cap and and so on one of the brethren who who was one of the elders there he mentioned to me about a particular problem that was kind of developing among them.
And it was basically that the brethren didn't know how to behave themselves in the Bible reading. They were allowing petty rivalry and whatever disagreements they had in their thinking they were allowing it to be very evident.
They were handling each other as competitors it was becoming very very instead of being edifying it was it was it was. It was the opposite. And this brother said to me says if you and Murray had had behaved that way when you came among us so we wouldn't have stuck around we would have been gone.
And so we need to we need to think. And again I think there's a problem that as we get used to the Lord's service in the assembly as its functioning we lose sight of this. It still matters how you behave it matters what kind of impression you are conveying to the younger believers.
Do they go home and talk about the fight. Do they talk about the animosity the rivalry or do they. They may not be able to discern who's correct and who isn't in the discussion. But they can sure pick up on our attitudes and the way we treat one another.
And so we need to we need to be very conscious of this that we are to model the truth. We are to be examples that people will not feel a conflict between listening to what we are teaching and listening and seeing our behavior and so on.
And of course that goes as well for the standards of godliness of our behavior that that that we live out. Because those who are younger and new believers coming in they are going to measure what the Word of God means by what they see being lived out in your life.
That's how they're going to value the Word of God. And if they see that you just treat certain aspects of the scriptures very casually carelessly indifferently they're going to assume that that means nothing or that you people are hypocrites.
And so this is very very important. So that's why as I'm trying to bring this idea we are bearers of truth. We are carrying the revelation of God in the gospel it centers in his beloved son and all that he is.
And so this is this is the charge that we have as a father. Some of us find it easier to be the gentle mother to be the soft gentle side the supportive side the encouraging side the comforting side. But there also has to be authority.
There also has to be firmness. There has to be this what a father is intended to convey. And that he says as a father who exhorts comforts and charges lays responsibility upon. And so again this is part of the responsibility.
Now there is a time of transition. Every family learns this. There's a difference in talking to your three-year-old and your 13 year old and your 23 year old. And if you haven't figured that out you're really in trouble.
Part of that transition is from being their total authority and what they what they basically frame their up their observation of what is life what is good and what is otherwise from to you standing beside them and then learning to to have that focus upon God himself.
And here's how that's brought out here he says here we exhorted you we comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his children that you would walk worthy of us. No that's not what he says that you would walk worthy of God God who has called you to his own kingdom and glory.
This again is the one key element that we have to remember as well even for those that we see saved and have such a personal involvement with we have to remember they're not mine they're his. And we may well discover that we can bring them so far and we can't bring them any farther.
And that's when that deep parenting part of life happens where you have to step aside and you have to learn to accept those people not as being under your thumb or even under your care as much as those who must take responsibility for their life before God.
Paul mentions to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 after saying like a father to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth because he had spoken of discipline. And then he held back from coming.
And some of them are saying yeah Paul. Paul talks tough but he's a wimp when he gets close up and Paul warns them when I come I will speak with authority. I will act with authority. But there in chapter 1 he says to spare you.
I came not. And the reason for that is so that they would come to repentance before God themselves without the pressure of his presence. But then he adds the statement not for that we have dominion over your faith.
Not for that we have dominion over your faith. For by faith you stand. And that basically is teaching this I am not your Lord even if I brought you the gospel and I taught you and I discipled you and I brought you up through to develop as a Christian I am not Lord over your faith but we are helpers of your joy helpers of your joy.
And so that is what we see here as well that transition from the mother's gentle absolute devotion to the care of that little convert of that of that newborn the father's administration the father's authority being asserted in in in molding them in their Christian life but ultimately to commit them into the hand of God and the purposes of God.
I'm just going to close with the last verse says you are you are our glory and joy. And I wonder if in your life in your Christian life is there any other Christian that is your glory and joy. Is there any other Christian.
Is there anyone else that you have labored for that you have sought to help and so as you see them progress you joy in their progress. You're like a father or a mother looking over a child who has become a responsible dedicated adult and you can say you are my pride and joy.
It's a very beautiful expression.