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“Genuine Ministry” (Week #2)
“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. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night
and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of
God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct
toward you believers. For you know 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.” (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 ESV)
Introduction
Remember in 1992, I am going to reference this first and then I will reference the back story of
it, there was a movie that came out called “Leap of Faith”. Maybe you have seen it; it was a
movie with Steve Martin who plays a popular televangelist that travels around the country and
does all kind of shows basically and in the midst of it you get to see all the inner working of that
and all of the things that happen. What you may not know is that the movie “Leap of Faith” is
actually based on a true completely story. The movie “Leap of Faith” is based off of someone,
that if you are over the age of about 40, you probably recognize this name, if not, then you may
not but it is based off the “quote un-quote” ministry of a man named Peter Popoff. Peter Popoff
was a very famous televangelist in the 80’s, in fact in the early 1980’s it was estimated that he
was making somewhere around 4 million dollars a year and not only for a preacher period but
definitely in the 80’s that was a lot of money. Actually it was gauged, just a few years ago his
ministry made 23 million dollars in one year so they were making a lot of money. What was
interesting about that is that right around 1986 there were some people, there was a guy named
The Amazing Randy, he is an illusionist and he wrote a book named “Flim-Flam”. It was a book
that was written to expose people that he felt that were taking advantage of other people. What
he did was he was a master at being able to see when someone is deceiving them why, because
he makes his living as an illusionist so he knows what it looks like and he knows the tricks of the
trade. So what they did was he and another guy, his assistant, they snuck into one of Popoff’s
meeting and they brought in 20 thousand dollars worth of sound equipment. They brought into
the back and they swept the deal until they found a frequency and heard someone talking on it
and they stopped and they found this little frequency there in and the middle of it right at the
beginning of the service, these are famous words if you know the story, but the famous words the
female voice came over the system and it said, “Can you hear me Petey? I love you. If you can’t
hear me, you’re in trouble. Let’s get started.” And they began to do their meeting and what they
found out was that it was actually Popoff’s wife talking to him over a radio frequency to an ear
piece that he had in his ear. And she would say things like, “Alright, I got a hot one for you!
Over in the right section there is a lady and this her name and this is her address, this is her
middle name in case you want to know this is her middle name and this what she is struggling
from and she has come here is morning because she wants you to do this for her.” And he goes
over and he holds his hand on his head and says “There is a woman named Elizabeth right over
here and she is suffering from this ailment and I want you to come forward, I want you to come
forward right now and she lives at bla, bla, bla and he gives the address.” And people are just
blown away and the entire time his wife is feeding it to him off of a visitor card that the woman
filled in when she came in the door. Well the Amazing Randy and his group of people went to
about 17 to 20 meetings that Popoff had over a span of time they recorded every single one of
these transmissions. And so much so that they actually had a guy that went to like 5 different
ones and wore a disguise at every different one and presented himself as someone to be healed in
a different way and in the 5th one he dressed as a woman and had Popoff heal him of uterine
cancer. So the issue is that this came out on Johnny Carson’s television show. Millions of people
watched this. The very next year, Popoff’s ministry declared bankruptcy because obviously it
was a sham. Well lo and behold he pops back up in 1999, 2000 and in 2006 his ministry made 24
million dollars doing the exact same thing that he’s always been doing. The issue is this; the
issue is at that point if you remember those days round about that point was when some other
stuff started happening, some other famous people, their names started flying up on the news
screen because everybody got suspicious of televangelist and then because they were suspicious
of televangelist, they got suspicious of all evangelists, then they suspicious of all churches and
then they because suspicious of religion, organized religion in general and so as this happened
and because these things that occurred, the church got a very very very bad reputation because of
what these men had done. And now adays, I’m not going to say its worse than it’s every been
because obviously I haven’t lived the entire existence of the church but the truth is, is that it’s as
bad as most people can remember it has ever been because people don’t trust the church. And if
they don’t trust the church truthfully, they are never going to trust Christ, because the church
today, and the truth is, that we as the church don’t really help things because we say we believe
one thing and yet live completely different than what we say we believe. But the truth this
morning is this, I want us to grasp this, genuine ministry is essential in an age searching for
authentic Christianity. Genuine Ministry is Essential in an Age Searching for Authentic
Christianity.
Our Ministry Should be Marked by Boldness (v. 1-2)
Look with me at 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 1 through 12. The first two verses here 1
and 2. “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.”
So what should we look like? Last week we looked at what we should be marked by and what
Paul, would give thanksgiving for us and what kind of church should we be, what kind of
believers we should be and it just kind of continues on in 1st Thessalonians and the first thing I
want us to see this morning is that Our Ministry Should be Marked With Boldness; our
ministry should be marked with boldness. Look again at verses one and two. “For you yourselves
know brother,” you yourselves, he is being very emphatic, he says, “of all people you know this,
you, you people, you Thessalonians, that I spoke to, you yourselves know brothers, that our
coming to you was not in vain. It produced results. Something happened and you yourselves
know. Why? Because you got saved.” If you remember in Chapter 1, he described their
salvation. And so he says, “You know this, you know that it wasn’t in vain you know that it
accomplished what it was supposed to accomplish because you are the ones that benefited from
it, you got saved.” Look what he says, “but though we had already suffered and been shamefully
been treated at Philippi as you know.” So Paul is harkening back to something and it’s very
important. In Acts chapter 16, verses 12 through the end of the chapter, in Acts, Paul and his
cohort, their traveling around, Paul and Silas, their traveling around and they are preaching the
Word of God and they enter into Philippi, you remember Paul received the Macedonian call to
enter into Macedonian and Philippi being the chief city of Macedonia, he goes into Philippi. And
as he’s preaching in Philippi, and they are going about their business, doing their Bible studies
and things like that, it says one day Paul and Silas were headed to the place of prayer. They were
going to pray as they there going there, there was a servant girl who come behind them and
continued to scream out at the top of her lungs, “These men are servants of the most High God,
these men are servants of the most High God.” And she cried this out so much so and it was so
distracting, that Paul got annoyed and the text actually says that Paul got angry and he turned and
he cursed not the girl but he cursed the demon because the text tells us that she was in fact
demon possessed and that she was a slave girl and that the men who owned her used her for gain.
She would try to tell the future, people would listen to her and so they earned money off of this
girl. And Paul turned and he cursed the demon and cast the demon out of her and what happened
is these men when they showed up they realized that the girl couldn’t do what she used to be able
to do and their meal ticket was gone, their way of making money was gone and they got angry
and they took Paul and the took Silas and drug them before the magistrates and they said, “These
men are teaching customs that are unlawful for us as Romans to participate in.” So the
magistrates got angry, they ordered them beaten and thrown in prison. And you remember the
story, they are thrown in prison and they are in Philippi. So what happens? Paul and Silas are in
the jail, they got the chains around their hands, chains around their feet it’s about midnight, they
start singing, right? They begin to sing praises to the Lord, the earth shakes, the chains fall off of
them and all the other people, the door opens and it’s an amazing thing and the jailer sees that the
door open, he assumes they have all escaped, he’s about to fall on his sword and if you
remember Paul and Silas says “don’t kill yourself, we’re here.” And he says, “Oh, goodness,
what should I do to be saved?” And what do they tell him? “Repent and believe. Repent and be
baptized and you shall be saved and your entire household.” And that day he and his entire
household were saved. So it’s amazing story but Paul says, “you remember when we came to
you we had just come from Philippi.” So Paul and Silas have just came from Philippi seeing this
amazing thing occur and then they go into Thessalonica while they were in Thessalonica and
they were preaching they see an amazing revival occur among the Thessalonians and he says
“but you remember we just came to you we had just come from Philippi.” Now think about this,
it’s just a very short time; they were beaten with rods and then thrown in prison. Literally just a
small amount of time between these two events and so when Paul and Silas show up, when Paul
and his cohort show up to preach to the Thessalonians they are beaten, they were bruised and
their battered and it’s because they were preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul says,
“you know when we came to you” he says, “we were shamefully treated at Philippi, as you
know, but we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much
conflict.” So what happened? It’s not as though they were in Philippi, everything was ugly, they
were preaching the gospel and then all the sudden they went to Thessalonica and it was amazing,
and the doors were open and they were preaching. What does Paul say? Literally left Philippi
from being beaten for preaching the gospel, and he went into Thessalonica and he uses the term,
“much conflict.” He says we came in there and what did they experience, they experienced the
same amount of conflict, they experienced trouble on every side, they experienced people
attacking them because of their message. It’s a great read. Go to the book of Acts later and start
in verse one and just read all the way to the end and what you are going to notice is this, just take
a piece of paper and put a little mark every time someone is, to use the phrase Paul uses, when
someone is shamefully treated for the gospel. Mark it down. And then below that in another
column mark every time that it says, “and so that they didn’t say another word.” What your
gonna notice at the end is that there is this massive column of marks for every time they were
beaten, every time they were imprisoned, every time every thing was done to them. In the bottom
column where you are marking down every time they quit speaking you will notice there are not
marks. None whatsoever. Why? Because Paul says, “We came to you; even though we had just
been beaten in Philippi and then we come to Thessalonica we experience the same conflict. You
know brothers that we spoke boldly.” But there is a very interesting phrase in this that I don’t
want to skip over, look what he says; “We had boldness in our God.” Many times we as a
church we try come before the world and explain to the world all the benefits – you know we are
good for the community, we are good for society, we are good for these things and we are to a
certain extent but this is the deal, when Paul came before the government or Paul came before
rulers, or Paul came before influential people, Paul did not come before them on his knees,
groveling, asking for an audience. Paul came before them boldly, not boldly in himself, because
as such Paul didn’t have any boldness. If Paul came before a king, which he did several times, if
Paul came before a king and he spoke as Paul in Paul’s boldness, he gets nothing. In fact, if he
comes just as Paul, then he does go on his knees, he would go on his face but Paul comes before
rulers, he comes before great leaders and influential people and he stand there boldly and he
proclaims the Word of God. Why? Because he is bold in his God. So what’s the problem today?
Well, part of the problem is this; we claim as Christians, we claim as the church of God, to have
the most amazing news that anyone could ever hear. We do! This is the truth, is this world is
trapped in sin; we’re trapped in evil, stuck in our own, our own sin, and we need deliverance
from someone. We can’t do it ourselves, nothing we can participate in in the culture can do it for
us but the church holds this great, what Paul calls a great mystery and it’s the mystery of this that
Jesus Christ died for our sins. That’s the amazing truth that we have. We have something that
literally is a game changer. If you are in this room and you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then
you should be able to testify to this, is whatever you testimony has, because they all have little
details, you should be able to testify to this, that one day I was like this and then I encountered
the gospel and my life changed. It was a game changer for me. It changed the way I thought, it
changed the way I talked, it changed the way I acted, it changed the way I lived, it changed the
way I interacted with other people, it changed everything. That’s the message we have. It’s a
message of change and it’s not just a change for the better, its like scripture says, it’s not just
change for better, it’s not just looking a little better, or turning over a new leaf, like a said before
is when you get saved, the message we have is not that you can turn over a new leaf, it’s that you
can become a completely new tree. That’s the message that we have. So we have this amazing
message and yet for some reason the church feels like it needs to plead for an audience with the
culture. We don’t have to plead for and audience with the culture. We have a message that they
need. And Paul says, “Brothers you remember this, we were beaten in Philippi, we showed up in
Thessalonica and we received basically the same treatment and yet it didn’t stop us.” We talked
about last week; the fact that now a days for whatever reason, the church is seen as this, like a
dog that has been beaten by its previous owner and anytime someone comes near it, it just
crouches in the corner and it gets scared and it starts shaking. This is the thing, is not only do we
have an amazing message, but the scripture says that another great mystery is Christ in you, the
Hope of Glory. That means that no matter where you go, the God of All Creation dwells within
you, and if we’re the body of Christ, and we’re the church of Christ, then wherever the church
goes, it’s just like the old hymn writers say, we are not the church that walks just around
aimlessly, we are the church triumphant. Why? We already won! We already won! When you’ve
already won, you don’t walk through the battlefield scared. You already won! There is nothing
they can do to you now. We have a message and Paul says, “You remember brothers, when we
came we came with boldness but we came with boldness in our God.” See we don’t come in as
the church as Christians, we don’t come claiming that we’re know it alls, or that we know
everything or that we have everything under control, listen, we are a bunch of broken people, in a
broken world, who mess up all the time and we’re pretty much terrible but we serve an amazing
God with an amazing grace. None of us is perfect, but He is and that’s the blessing. That’s who
we are. That’s who we are. We are not, look at us, we’re so holy, you need to be like me. No,
don’t be like me! Heaven help us, don’t be like me. Be like Him! I’m not trying to be like me,
I’m not trying to be like my Dad, although I think he is a wonderful man, I’m trying to be like
Jesus. And that’s the goal. And so we don’t come to people boldly in our own strength, Paul
says, “We came boldly in our God.” We came boldly in proclaiming the gospel to you, so first to
be seen, for Christianity to be seen as authentic it has to be bold. Why? Very simple, if
Christianity is meek and mild and quiet, you know what you are doing? You are presenting the
church as something it’s not. You’ve probably heard this illustration before but it’s the truth,
what if someone you knew, someone you knew very close to you, maybe it’s not even someone
you know but it’s someone you had some sort of relation with and you knew them they were
extremely ill with some rare sickness and you actually found the cure for it and they’re gonna
die. They’re gonna die tomorrow and you have, literally fix it, you have the cure but you’re
afraid to embarrass yourself. And you’re really, kinda, you don’t want to insult them, you don’t
want to interrupt their life, they have their bubble, you don’t need to enter their bubble, so you
just stay away. “Maybe when I get a chance and they ask me, I’ll give them the cure.” Well, one,
they’re never gonna ask you because they don’t know you have it. Instead what do you do? What
would any sane person do? They’re dying tomorrow, you have the cure, they need it. What do
you do? I don’t care if they’re eating lunch; I don’t care if they are going on vacation with their
family, I don’t care what they’re doing, I’m coming in their front door and I’m giving it to them.
Why? Because what I have to give them is vastly more important than anything they are doing.
It’s the same with the gospel. It’s the same with the church. I don’t care what the culture is
doing, the message we have is much more important than anything they could be doing. We
don’t sit back and cower in the corner. Paul says, “We came, and we came boldly.”
Our Ministry Must be Identified With Integrity (v. 3-4)
That’s the first thing, the first thing that we need to be seen as authentic. The second is this, is
that Our Ministry Must be Identified With Integrity. Look at verse 3, verses 3 and 4. “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.” This is of paramount importance. Listen to what he says again in
verse 3, “For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive”. This
is the first thing and we work hard at this and that is this that we need to make certain that what
we preach as the gospel, is the gospel. And I can’t stress that enough. You think, well that’s not
that, I don’t think we have that big of a problem. If nothing else that kinda what you pay me for,
is to make certain that the message we present to the world is the gospel, not a false gospel, not a
fake gospel, not part gospel, just the gospel. There are so many people in this world who fall
prey to people who either preach that you need to believe in Jesus Christ and you need to trust in
Him and be saved by faith AND you need to do this and this and this and this in order to be
saved. There are those that teach that. There are millions of people who fall prey to that even
right now. And there are people in buildings right now who are being taught that sin is not that
big of a deal. Everybody makes mistakes, God knows that. Sins not that big of a deal. The cross
is kind of oppressive and it’s kind of a rough message so we are going to pass over that or the
fact that the blood, that’s just kind of a weird illustration that used to be used, we probably need
to stay away from that one, it’s kind of gruesome and it bothers people. So we are going to
preach that people are basically good, there is no need for a cross and the blood has no place, so
you really don’t need to repent. So let me explain something to you, if that is the “quote
unquote” gospel you are preaching, then no matter what decision people make, no matter how
much they cry, they are not getting saved. That’s not the gospel. The gospel is hard. The gospel
is difficult according to the scriptures. The reason is, the very first thing you must accept is this,
is that you and I, we must accept that we are sinners. Broken! We do evil things, we think evil
deeds, we approach things with a worldly mindset. We have to come to that place that we are not
holy as God requires and we can’t fix ourselves but, God being rich in mercy and abounding in
loving kindness, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross. He died for your sins, for my
sins and He rose three days later and then He ascended into heaven and he offers forgiveness of
sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit to all those who repent, which is to turn from their sin and
believe in Him. That’s the gospel, plain and simple. Paul says, “We came to you and we came to
you not from error.” Our appeal does not spring from error.
The second one is not from impurity. We don’t let anything mix in with it. We don’t let
anything mix in with it. The first one is not from error; we don’t take anything out of it, we don’t
mess it up but also without impurity, we don’t add anything to it. We don’t add anything to it.
And we say, well I know of some demonizations, some other religions that do that. But you
know the thing is that it is just as common in Baptist circles as anywhere else. Is that people
grow up, how do I know this, is because I myself grew up this way and have talked to tons of
people who grew up the same way. This is the deal, is that you do not believe in Jesus Christ,
trust in Him by grace through faith, trust in His death, burial, resurrection and have to live a
certain way and do certain things and be a certain way in order to earn salvation from God. That
is not the gospel. The gospel is by grace through faith and that what not of yourself, it didn’t
come through you, not of yourselves is not of works or otherwise we could boast about it and say
look at me, I’m saved because look at what I did. None of us can say that, all we can say is I’m
saved and I have nothing to do with it, it was Him. He says it didn’t spring from error, it didn’t
spring from impurity and then, nor did it spring from any attempt to deceive. This is where we
kind of fall in with the original illustration and that is that people now a days have this picture of
the church they have this view of the church like, “so, when’s he gonna start asking for our
money.” I’m never going to gonna ask for your money, Ok. Because that’s not my goal, that’s
not my purpose because just like Paul said, I’m here to preach the gospel, and I don’t come with
any attempt to deceive. I’m not here to use the gospel as a front to really be able get a jet before
I’m 40. Not working on that, Ok. I’m not worried about that, and Paul says, “We didn’t come
with any attempt to deceive you.” So what he is saying is that I have no vested interest in this,
financially or any other way, I came simply because God sent me and I preach the gospel.” See
this world; there are a lot of people. When they start talking, you begin to share the gospel with
them, they say, “Well, I knew of somebody who was a Christian or I’ve known plenty of
Christians, and this is what they did, so and so he did this. And I knew the guy and he was a
Christian, and he did this to so and so that was my friend of mine and I just don’t understand”.
Well how many times have you come to the point where you answer is pretty simple the pops up
immediately and what is it? Is well, I knew so and so and he was a Christian and he did this.
Well my answer is usually the same; it’s one of two things either a – well we’ve all sinned and
we all need grace or b – maybe he wasn’t actually a Christian, he just claimed to be one. Paul
says, “We came without any deception.” The truth is, is this world, there is a lot of people who
might listen to the message if Christians would just get out of the way. We were talking about it
this week, the truth is, as one guy said, “the most dangerous thing to Christianity, many times,
are Christians.” We tend to get in the way. Why? Not because of the message we preach but
because of the lives we live after we preach the message. Paul says, “We came with no attempt
to deceive. We weren’t hypocritical. We didn’t come trying to trick you into doing anything. We
weren’t presenting the gospel with this hand and while you were looking at the gospel, pulling
your pocketbook out of the other hand. We weren’t trying to trick you at all, we simply came
because this is the good news of Jesus Christ and you need to hear it.” So the second thing is our
ministry must be identified with integrity.
Our Minstry Has to be Selfless (v. 5-8)
Thirdly, this is even more specific, “for we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor
with a pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor do we see glory from people whether from you or
from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.” Third thing is Our
Ministry Has to be Selfless. It has to be selfless and I wanted to refer back to something in verse
4. If you look at verse 4 he says something at the end that goes along with verses 5 and 6. He
says, “So we speak not to please men but to please God, who tests our hearts.” See this is the
thing, is we do not, the problem with the first thing that I said about churches that tend to alter
the gospel. You hear the driving purpose behind it? We don’t want to mention the cross because
it might upset somebody. We don’t want to mention the blood because it might upset somebody.
We don’t want to mention sin because that might upset somebody. Who’s running the show? It’s
the somebody’s. But guess what? We don’t preach, we don’t have a message where we preach to
please men; we have a message where we preach to please God. Guess what, the world, this is
what’s sad. Is I wish the world hated us and that’s the truth. I wish the world hated us because
they are supposed to. Jesus said, “If this world hates you, hey, it hated me first.” It’s supposed to
hate us. The issue today is that the world doesn’t hate us, the world just disregards us. We don’t
put any pressure on it, we don’t put any pressure on the culture at all and it’s because we tend to
worry about what this world thinks. We want to be seen in a good light. The problem is that the
scripture says, we preach but we preach not to please men we preach to please God. Why?
Because He’s the one who tests our hearts, He’s the one in charge, He’s the one that gave the
message, He’s that set how it’s to be preached, and He’s should be one that evaluates it. So we
don’t seek to please men, we seek to please God. Then look what he says, “For we never came
with words of flattery.” Why? Because we are not trying to please you, so we don’t need to
flatter you, I don’t need to butter you up so you can hear the gospel, my issue is not how you
receive it, my issue is that I proclaim it. That’s the thing too; sometimes we’re worried about
sharing the gospel because we feel like we have failed if people don’t accept it. That’s the
amazing thing. Did you know you and I were never given an order to save people? We were just
given an order to give them the tools to be saved. So the truth is when you share the gospel and
someone doesn’t believe, you’re successful, they have to deal with God. You’re successful
because your only call is to open you mouth and share the gospel. Paul says, “I didn’t come with
flattery,” he said, “I didn’t come to please you, as you know nor with any pretext for greed. I
didn’t come trying to earn your money. God is my witness. Nor did we seek glory from people
whether from you or from others though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.”
This is interesting, because the word here for glory can kinda mean two things. It can either
mean that we didn’t seek to be seen as apostles and seen as you know, we’re the guys who were
with Jesus, we’ve seen Jesus so you need to listen to us. It can mean that and it can also mean
financial gain. So he says, “We didn’t come just for that; we could have. We could have been
supported; we could have made you listen to us because we were apostles but we didn’t come
with that.” He says, “We didn’t come for glory from people whether from you or from others,
though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ”. What is he saying? He’s saying
that when we came, we didn’t come for our own benefit. We didn’t come for what we get out of
it. We didn’t come to be able to live our lives and do our ministry so that we walk away; we walk
away with more than we came in with. This is the deal, is that if there was way for it to be, the
church should live in such a way, that whenever it ends, whatever that is, whenever ends, if it’s
when Jesus comes back or the church closes, or when that area changes, whatever it may be;
whenever that church ends, it shouldn’t have a dime in the bank because it should expend every
single resource it has to bring people to Jesus Christ. It should do that. Why? Because when we
finish and if it is that when Jesus comes back, or when we all get called home, when we finish,
what’s the point of having a hundred fifty thousand dollars in the bank, or two hundred thousand
dollars in the bank, there are people that need to know Jesus. When we die, guess what,
somebody’s getting the money anyway. Individually, we could spend our whole lives accruing
riches and trying to grow our retirement account, and grow our saving account, and I understand
needing to live, I get that, but at the end, what’s the point of dying and just having a ton of
money because guess what, just like Solomon says, “the king and the pauper are buried right
next to each other and they’re both painted up.” Shane and Shane say, “They are both painted up
like clowns.” Why? Because they both lie six feet under. And the king and the pauper when they
stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, you know what, they stand on the same ground; whether they
had millions or they had nothing. So what’s the point? Paul says, “We came, and we were
selfless. We didn’t do this for ourselves. We didn’t do this for gain. We did this so that you
might hear the gospel and the kingdom might expand and God might be glorified; that’s why we
did it. That’s how we approached the world.” That’s how we should approach the world. Look
we are not coming in this so that we get more political leverage. Who cares about political
leverage! Ok. The truth is that the church in the New Testament, how much political leverage did
they have? Zero! Zero, political leverage and yet, it’s the time that the church grew the most.
Why? Because they didn’t do it for any of those reasons. They did it for His glory. So he says,
“It’s marked with selflessness.” Look at verses 7 and 8. “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 have
become very dear to us; even more so this idea of selflessness.” Did you know that we as
Christians, and he just talked about it, because he said they had become imitators of them. He
said that in Chapter 1; “You have become imitators of love”. And what did he say at the very
beginning of Chapter 1? He said three things. He said, “Remember you work of faith, your labor
of love and your steadfastness of hope.” That you labor at love. You have a love that labors at
the point of exhaustion. Extreme toil! And then he says here, “Guess what we did? We came and
we were ready not only to share with you the gospel of God but also ourselves because we were
desirous of you.” Do you realize that in order to reach the world, you can’t do it forcing a smile
on your face when you knock on the door; you have to genuinely love people. Paul says, “We
came to preach the gospel to you, but we didn’t just come to that alone, we came and we gave
ourselves to you. Why? Because we love you!” Notice that, “We love you.” You loved them
even before they ever even got saved. We gave ourselves to you. Why? Because we love you!
You see the love of Christ compels us. It’s our love for Christ but it’s also the love He’s shown
us, we must show that love to others. The greatest act of love is to share the gospel of Jesus
Christ to someone who is dead in their trespasses and sins. That’s the greatest act of love and the
greatest act of hatred is to not do it. Because if we as believers in Jesus Christ, believe as the
Bible teaches, that those who die without Christ, spend an eternity in hell, not telling people
about Jesus is the worst possible thing in existence. He says, “We did this, we did it because we
love you. And we didn’t just give the gospel, we didn’t just bring the gospel, we brought
ourselves.” Sometimes it’s gonna take that. Sometimes it’s gonna take bending over backwards
and maybe even a little bit more. Sometimes it’s gonna take giving to the point that it hurts. Yes,
sometimes it’s gonna take giving and having people take advantage of you. The only reason
people get upset when they get taken advantage of is because they think they are a bigger deal
than they actually are. The truth is, is when people take advantage of you, what do you expect,
they are sinners; they are going to take advantage of you. It’s not your job or my job to determine
who is and who isn’t. It’s just my job to preach the gospel and to give of myself and Paul said,
“When we came to you, we gave of ourselves.” Why? Because we loved you! Our ministry has
to be selfless.
Our Minsitry Must be Above Reproach (v. 9-10)
Fourth – Our ministry must be above reproach. Look at verses 9 and 10. “For you remember
brothers, our labor and toil, we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of
you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses in God also how holy and
righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.” He says, “This is the deal
brothers, you know of our labor and toil, we worked night and day so we wouldn’t be a burden.”
Now what does he mean? He doesn’t mean work in the gospel necessarily. He means work!
They actually worked. Why? He just said, “We could, as apostles, we could have said, hey,
we’re gonna come and you need to take care of us.” He said, “We could have done that and it’s
totally legitimate but he said, so that we wouldn’t be a burden on any of you, we came and we
worked. So that when we came and did this you would think that we came and did it so you
would support up financially, we came and did it just because it was what we were called to do
and you know that because you didn’t have to give us a dime, we worked for everything we got.”
Most commentators believe that Paul is distancing himself from another group of people. There
were philosophers and teachers who travel around and took advantage of people and when they
did that, they made the people pay for everything and then they would teach them hidden truths
and amazing things. And so the people would pay for their food and lodging and everything else.
And Paul said, “Look, I could have made you do that and it’s completely legitimate,” but he said,
“I didn’t.” Why? “So you wouldn’t think I was like them. I went above everything; I made it
where you couldn’t say anything about me.” It’s like I said last week similar to this; is that, the
truth is, we may preach the gospel and they may not listen and they may not agree with us but
they better agree with one thing’ they may not agree with what we believe but they better agree
that we believe what we believe and that we live it. Paul says, “That were above reproach.” See
the church, some of the stuff I mentioned before, the church has done such a wonderful job of
dragging its name through the mud that the truth is that we stand in such a way, that we live
above where people, they may not like the church and they may not like the message but they
can’t help but in one sense be Ok with us because we are above reproach. We are not taking
advantage of somebody; we are not trying to steal people’s money; we’re not trying to do any of
those things, we’re simply here to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and Paul says, “We are
above reproach.” We made certain that no one could say anything. Look what he says, “You are
witnesses in God also, how holy, righteous and blameless was our conduct.” Holy, righteous and
blameless! Holy, how different; it was different than everybody else. It was set apart; there was
something interesting about us. When we walked into an area, when we spoke with people, when
we lived among people, we just kinda stood out! For some reason, we live our lives trying to fit
in. I don’t know if it’s like built in to us in school or what. We live our whole lives trying to fit
in, just to find out that the scripture tells us in 1 Peter that we are to be a peculiar people. People
are actually supposed to think that we are weird. I got the market cornered. The truth is that I
don’t even have to work hard at that but some of us might have to work hard at it and the truth is
that as Christians we are supposed to stand out. It’s not supposed to be odd when we won’t go
see certain movies for us. And you say, “Well my friends might think I’m a…” Who cares!
You’re supposed to stick out. You’re supposed to be weird. You’re supposed to be odd. When
you won’t participate in certain conversations because its gossip or its negative or its lewd or
something like that and you say, “Guys, do whatever you want to but I’m not going be a part of
this. I’m going to go in the other room for a little bit and do something. Why? Well, you know, I
don’t want to participate in that because the scripture tells me I’m supposed to not participate in
that.” Well, two things, either they are gonna feel guilty and quit talking or they’re gonna think
you’re weird but either way, you’ve succeeded because the truth is, your supposed to stick out,
your supposed to be odd. Paul says, “We were holy, even though we stuck out and we were
strange, we were holy; we were righteous; we weren’t strange just for being strange, we were
strange because we were seeking to live in a Godly way.” And the last one he says, “We were
blameless.” Which simply means this; we were odd, and we stuck out, we were holy and we
were righteous, we were holy for the right reason. We were blameless; which means, even
though we stuck out and even though we were weird, for some reason they couldn’t pin anything
on us. We lived above all that. We lived in such a way that people, they may not accept our
message but they couldn’t really say anything about us negatively. We must be above reproach.
Our Ministry Should be About Building Disciples (v. 11-12)
Then look what he says the last two verses. “For you know how, like a father with his children,
we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged to walk in a manner worthy of
God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” Very simply, Our Ministry Should be
About Building Disciples. Our ministry should be about building disciples. Look at the words
he uses here. He says,” You know, like a father with his children, we exhorted you, we
encouraged you and we charged you.” We exhorted you; we taught you. Hey, here’s what you
supposed to believe and believe it. Then he says, “We encouraged you; we came along side you
and said come on, do it like this.” Then we charged you; now do it! I remember I used the
mowing illustration last week but I’ll use it again, not the same one but I remember one time
when I was younger I always wanted to mow. I always thought it was the coolest thing ever. I
did! I thought it just looked neat – the machine, right? I gonna run that! And my dad says, “Hey,
come on! I’m gonna show you how to mow. Here’s what you do. You got to pick up all the
sticks; here’s how you prime it; crank it; go in a pattern; don’t cut it too low; don’t cut it too high
or you’ll have to cut it again.” He’s teaching me how to do it; he’s exhorting me on how to do
this thing. But he encourages me by saying “I’m going to come out and I’m gonna do it and you
will walk with me; I want you to watch and see how I do this.” So I’m doing it! And then he
charged me. Do it! To this day, my dad has never mowed again. I think he waits till my brother
or I visit, just to mow his backyard. The deal is that, he exhorted me, taught me; encouraged me,
showed me how to do it; guided me and then he charged me, do it! And that what Paul says we
did with you. He says, “When we came, we exhorted you; we taught you what you needed to
know then we encouraged you, we came along side you and then we charged you to go out and
do it. That’s actually the easiest formula for building disciples. The first thing is this, is when
someone becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, we teach them. We teach them. We teach them
what the Word of God says, what God requires of them, what we’re to be doing. What the
church is to be doing; what we’re all about. We teach them those things. Then we encourage
them; we come along side them. We walk with them. We help them grow in the faith. We help
them grow in what they are supposed to be doing. We help them figure out what spiritual gift
they have and all of these different things. We bring them along and then we charge them, now
go do it. Go and do what? Go make more of yourself. Go and exhort; go encourage, go charge.
We’re to be about making disciples. So what happens in the church is that we get so focused, and
we are to be focused on evangelism, but we get so focused on evangelism, we are all about just
getting them in, but then we don’t know what to do with them once we get them here. But in
reality our goal is never to evangelize. You know the scripture does not say, go and evangelize.
The Great Commission doesn’t say go and share the gospel; it says go make disciples. Now,
evangelizing and sharing the gospel is the first step in making a disciple, but it’s not the only step
in fact it’s just the first one in many steps. What are they after that? You need to evangelize, then
you need to exhort, then you need to encourage, then you need to charge. See, we also tend to
give off this picture of inauthenticity whenever we, say we got something and we got this
amazing message we want to present it to you and then when we share the gospel with you and
you believe it and you hear it and you think it’s great, then we drop you and leave you on your
own, it’s not exactly the best message to send to people. Paul says, “We came as a father with his
children. A good father with his children.” Who does what? Guides them, he leads them, he
wants them to become something greater than he is. The greatest thing that could every happen
for me is that my children all turn out better than I did. And that’s what he says with this. He
says, “We came like a father and we did these things. We raised you up.” There’s a lot of points
to walk through. There’s a lot of things but in the end there is just one point and that is that
genuine ministry is essential in an age searching for authentic Christianity. One of the biggest
issues we have, I’m not saying you do all these, and people will just flock to Jesus. Ok, that’s the
Holy Spirit’s business but if we do all these things, we are not going to be in the way. And we
are going to be doing what we are called to do and we let the Spirit move according to His will
and according to His purposes and then we give Him all the glory. Why? Because if were able to
do all this and people flock to Jesus, we would be able to say, “Hey, look what I did. Look what
we did.” But like I’ve said before, our goal is not to be able to say, wow, five years from now
look at what Arlington Park did. Look at what at what we did and we figured all these things out.
Look at what we did when we got all these things organized and all the administration right and
all the programs corrected. Look at what we did! We don’t want any of that. If we get that, then
I don’t want any part of that. We want to be at the place where God does something amazing and
at the end people just say, WOW, look what God did because we had nothing to do with it except
being obedient. We need to be authentic; selfless, above reproach. We need to be about building
disciples. Yes, that takes times; it takes effort. Yes, it involves broken hearts. It involves
stretching. It involves giving yourself to others and having them take advantage of you. But,
that’s part of love. That’s part of giving of yourselves and Paul says, “When we came, you
remember,” what does he say, “we did it in boldness. For you yourselves know brothers,” verse
1, “that our coming to you was not in vain.” The worst thing that ever could be said is after this
church has been here for 50 years, 60 years, 70 years; somebody could look and say, “Wow,
those 50 years were just in vain.” Why? It had no product. It produced nothing. Instead, Paul
says, “We didn’t come to you and our coming you was not in vain.” Why? Because you came to
Jesus Christ and because our ministry looked like this. It was authentic. It was real. It was
Biblical and it was God glorifying. You know it’s interesting, he says here at the end, in verse
12, “We encourage you and charge you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into
His own kingdom and glory.” That’s what so cool. We do all this for His glory and then it’s not
our right, it’s not our privilege, it’s not what we earned but then he calls us into His glory. It’s
not our glory but He actually allows us to benefit from it. But He calls us into His glory, into His
kingdom.
Conclusion
This is the thing, there maybe someone here this morning and maybe you’ve been burned; maybe
you’ve been mistreated; maybe you’ve been hurt in a way that many people could not even
understand. Maybe that’s true, I know it’s happened. It happens all over. Maybe that’s happened
to you and you feel like, man, and that person claimed to be a Christian. Let me tell you
something, what Paul described here, that’s Christianity, that’s Christian ministry. That’s right.
And the first thing is, if you were hurt or burned by anyone claiming to be a Christian, on behalf
of Christians, I want to apologize. But second I want to tell you this, that’s not Biblical
Christianity. The best thing, the greatest thing that could ever happen to you is, step away from
that situation and simply realize that Jesus Christ died for you. He rose from the dead, proving
that He paid for your sin and if you trust in Him, you can have eternal life and you can have just
what He says here, “That you will be called into His kingdom, and into His glory.” You can have
that. So again, put it aside. Put aside the I don’t like organized religion because there’s so many
hypocrites; guess what? Yes, we’re hypocrites. We have to be willing to accept that but we’re
hypocrites that realize we’re hypocrites and we need the grace of God, just like you do. If you
don’t know Jesus Christ this morning, you’ve never experienced His grace, you can as Brother
Jermaine and the praise band comes up, if you don’t know Him, you can know Him this
morning. You can trust in Him this morning and you can be called into His kingdom and His
glory. And if you’re a believer this morning, maybe you’ve been guilty of not doing or doing
some of these things; or maybe you just feel the need to pray and ask God to give you the
strength, give you the grace to be an authentic believer and for our church to be seen as authentic
in this age that’s searching for authenticity. I pray this morning that you will do whatever God is
calling you to do. Let us pray…