Our Labor is Not in Vain

If you have a Bible, turn to 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12. That’s where we are going to be camping out this evening and we are going to be talking about something that I think relatively few actually enjoy talking about and that is the subject of work. When God instituted work for us, it was designed as a good think. God Himself worked, He is working, and He will continue to work into the future so we know that work itself was not created as a punishment because God Himself works. Jesus says in John 5:17 “But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”” Here’s the question then: why do we not like work? Is it because it can be hard? Is it because we don’t want to do it? Is it because we are distracted and think work takes away from what we could be doing? Could it be that sin has tainted us in such a way that we don’t see the positives of a hard day’s work? To be honest, all those answers are correct. I think one other reason why we are so hesitant to work is because we often feel like it doesn’t matter. Or maybe it feels like it doesn’t make a lasting influence on anyone. I don’t know about you but when I see the work ethics of some people, I often get inspired by the work and the effort that they do. This is one of the reasons why I love reading Christian biographies so much is because I see the work and faithfulness that someone like George Whitefield or Jonathan Edwards or Charles Spurgeon had and the impact that they had and it makes me want to get to work. It puts wind in my sails. Tonight we are going to see the work ethic of the Apostle Paul and those that served alongside him in Thessalonica and my hope is that we are inspired by their faithfulness to God and God’s faithfulness to them. My hope is that we leave here not just with a recognition that work needs to be done on behalf of the Gospel but that we have a desire to do the work! Let’s open up in prayer and then we will start reading 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12

1 Thessalonians 2:1–12 ESV

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.

The Marathon of Christian Service (Verses 1-2)

We’re going to break up these 12 verses into 4 main headings and the first of these headings are connected to the first 2 verses and I’ve entitled this section: the marathon of Christian service. You’ve heard me say enough that when it comes to the Christian walk, it’s a marathon and not a sprint. Have any of you heard of an event called the Iron man triathlon? It is one of the most taxing events that someone can willingly put their body through. A triathlon usually involves running a marathon, riding a bike for a set amount of miles, and swimming a certain amount of miles. An Iron man triathlon involves an almost 2.5-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and a full marathon run and it has to be completed in one day in order to say that you completed it. And yes, people have died while attempting them. Triathlons are advertised as a way to push our bodies to their limits. I have nothing but respect for people that not only compete in these events, but even just attempt them. You don’t wake up the morning of and decide that you’re going to do this. You need to train. You don’t get to walk on a treadmill for a half an hour once a week and splash in the kiddie pool and get to say that you’re good to go. You train, you work, you push beyond the pain, and you persevere because you have your mind set on the end goal and this is what we are to do with our spiritual lives. Paul made it up in his mind that he was going to share the Gospel with those in Thessalonica. Paul looked past the pain and recognized that the end would be worth the means. And really, you need to look at it through Paul’s eyes here. He isn’t coming to Thessalonica straight from a revival service. He isn’t coming to the town hot off a best-selling book tour and now there are thousands flocking to hear him preach. No, Paul and his companions are showing up to Thessalonica beaten, bloodied, and abused. They were just ran out of town. This is consistent with what Luke writes in Acts 16-17. That’s what Paul refers to in verses 1-2. Paul was just arrested, persecuted, and then tossed out of town. Yes, there was revival in the house of the Philippian jailer, yes there were people that came to faith in Christ while he was in Philippi but it wasn’t a walk in the park. Paul is leaving that town and he doesn’t know what awaits him in Thessalonica. It may be more imprisonment, it may be more persecution, but no matter what, Paul is persevering. It’s the marathon of Christian service. It’s the marathon of Christian work. Paul was prepared for the same treatment in one town as he was in another because he didn’t go by purely human means. Paul says in the middle of verse 2 that they “had boldness in our God to declare to you the Gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.” It may have been Paul’s legs that carried him to Thessalonica but those legs were carried along by a God-given boldness. Understand this, it’s easy to do something when it’s easy. It’s substantially more difficult to keep on keeping on when you get door after door slammed in your face. Yet Christians throughout the centuries have done the work of the Gospel, despite afflictions and conflict because God has given them the strength and the boldness to do the work. Christianity does its best work in the darkest parts of human hurt. It is in the midst of much affliction that Christianity blossoms. Paul himself mentions at the end of 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” He says that a wide door for effective ministry has been opened to him despite the fact that there are many adversaries. Despite the fact that persecution could come at any second, there is a work that will thrive. The evidence of those that stood opposed to the Gospel didn’t cause Paul to run away in Ephesus but was actually one of the main reasons why he felt he had to stay and endure. All of this is to say that don’t let push back to your faith be a hint that your labor needs to stop. Opposition to your faith is not a reason for you to simmer down. Persecution is not a reason for you to keep it all to yourself. God also builds the man for the moment and the moment for the man and it is God Himself that will give you the boldness and the strength to endure through difficult times. I can certainly testify to this reality in my own life. It always shocks me when I see so many Christians shrink back when times of persecution or trouble comes. It doesn’t seem to take much these days to shake us. It’s not like Christ didn’t warn us ahead of time of how the world would treat us. This is one of those moments where it pays to read the terms and conditions before you hit accept. Satan will almost always bring in some form of adversity when he sees that there is a threat to his kingdom. Satan is not in the business to let us just have our way and yet he is really serving his own undoing because Christianity has always thrived under pressure. It’s like how Pharoah sought to slow the Jewish race by persecuting the Hebrew boys but the nation only grew larger. When Christians are caught up in a boldness that can only be described as God-sent, there’s not a force on earth or below the earth that can stop it. As a Christian, you are always on the winning side. Remember what John Knox said, “one man and God always makes the majority.” While there is often much conflict in the face of Gospel witness, that labor is never in vain because God Himself is seeing to the work and if God is for us, who can be against us?

God-Pleasing Christianity (Verses 3-6)

Let’s move on to verses 3 and 6. We’ll read them again quickly, 1 Thessalonians 2:3-6

1 Thessalonians 2:3–6 ESV

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.

What I want you to gather from this section is the type of work and the type of person that Paul was and see how that should relate into your own life. 1 Thessalonians is one of the best letters from Paul that we have that shows how much work he did, the heart that he had, and the labor that he went through. What was it that drove Paul through such adversities? How many times do we stop something because we are met with a bump in the road or it seems to hard or experience too much push back? What drove Paul was not the approval of man. Paul was not a man-pleaser. Paul’s mission in life was done to please God alone. He didn’t care if he offended someone with the truth. Paul carried this mindset wherever he went, even from the earliest days of his ministry. In Galatians 1:10, Paul says

Galatians 1:10 (ESV)

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

We either live for the applause and pleasure of man or we live for the pleasure of Jesus Christ. It’s either/or not both/and. If the approval of your friends, if the approval of the world and their acceptance is your greatest need, that is your God. The world does not need more Christians that are simply striving to please the ears and hearts of a fallen world. The Church cannot strive to be world pleasers. I don’t believe that the church needs to be seeker-sensitive. Even the name itself, a seeker-sensitive church, is an oxymoron because the Bible is clear in Psalm 14 and Romans 3 that no one seeks God. R.C. Sproul used to say that if you were to open up a truly seeker-sensitive church, the only person that would show up is God. You’re purpose in this life is not to please the world. You’re purpose in this world is not to take the teeth out of the Bible so it doesn’t hurt those that hear it. A church that is afraid to confront sin is not a true church. We are not here to make the message of Christianity simply tolerable. Far too many preachers are man-pleasers. Martin Luther said, “At this day, we may find many who seek to please men, and to the end that they may live in peace and security of the flesh, they teach the things which are of men, that is to say wicked things. But we, because we endeavour to please God, and not men, do stir up against us the malice of the devil, and hell itself.” You exist to please one person: the Lord Jesus Christ. As long as what you are doing is pleasing to the Lord, it doesn’t matter what you do or who flocks to you. One of my favorite verses as a preacher, and this may be a little surprising is Isaiah 6:11. Isaiah is recounting his call to be a prophet and the Lord gives him his message and Isaiah asks the question: God how long do you want me to do this and God’s answer seems pretty strange to most people I think:

Isaiah 6:11 (ESV)

Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”

And he said:

“Until cities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without people,

and the land is a desolate waste,

The Lord’s answer is basically, “Isaiah, preach until there’s nothing left. Preach even though no one will listen and no one will like what you have to say.” The message that Isaiah was to deliver was not a man-pleasing message. Isaiah 6:9-10 tells us what Isaiah was to say: “And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”” God tells Isaiah that his task is to preach and keep preaching even though the ears of the crowd won’t hear a lick of it. Even though the world may view his ministry as a failure because the destruction of Jerusalem would still come, was Isaiah a failure? Not at all! His ministry went exactly how God said it would and God was pleased with his work. God will always be pleased when you work for Him and when you make it your goal in life to serve and teach others based on your love and service for Him. I can’t tell you how many nights of heartbreak have been saved by me reflecting on these verses. Youth ministry is hard and I know that the likelihood of you listening to every word that I say is relatively small. But the best service that I can do for you is by first seeking to serve Him. If I am striving with all my might to please Christ first, God will be pleased with my service and the same truth applies to you and your work as well. Let’s look again at verses 7-8 and it is here where we really see the servant’s heart of the Apostle Paul.

A Servant’s Heart (Verses 7-8)

Even though we are not serving Christ to be loved by others, we should still strive to serve others. We don’t serve them for their approval but because Christ has been our example to serve others. Take a look at John 13, take a look at Christ’s entire mission, it was a mission of service. Both to His Heavenly Father and to save us from our sins. Jesus says in Matthew 20:28

Matthew 20:28 (ESV)

even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We are to work with a servants heart. 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8

1 Thessalonians 2:7–8 ESV

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.

Paul did not commandeer over the people with his apostolic authority. Paul was no dictator. Instead he was gentle with them. He was like a mother striving to take care of her very own children. All of us should strive to be more gentle, we should all strive to give our very selves to others because Christ gave His very self for us. Every one you come across, you should approach with a servants heart. There should be no difference between how you interact with the janitor or the superintendent of the school. There should be such a level of humility, gentleness, respect, and love that no one should be able to fault you on how you conduct yourself with those that are around you. Do you have a servant’s heart? To have a servant’s heart is in a way to have the heart of Christ Himself. Going back to Martin Luther, he described a Christian in this way: “A Christian is an utterly free man, lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is an utterly dutiful man, servant of all, subject to all.” While we are subject to none but Christ, we do not use that freedom as a means for gain but instead willingly submit to service because of our obedience to Christ. What does this service look like in practice? Read again 1 Thessalonians 2:9-12

1 Thessalonians 2:9–12 ESV

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.

The Labor of Christian Service (Verse 9-12)

Here we see the marks of Christian work and Christian service. While we may not see all, I think that we see enough. I want you to take note of these 6 marks of Christian labor, there are certainly more but for time’s sake, we’ll look at just these 6 and then we will wrap this up.

Christian work is night and day

The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the first statement that Paul makes in verse 9. They worked night and day. Christian service is 24/7. Now I would argue that this doesn’t mean that you work until you are physical unable to do it anymore. I think instead it stresses the need for us to always be willing to serve. It means that we always have a servants heart. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 5:40-42 “And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” Go beyond the bare minimum in your service. Don’t be content with doing something just to say that you did it.

Christian work proclaims

The second thing that Christian service stresses is that it is a proclaiming work. All that Paul did was so that the Gospel of God would be proclaimed. His words and his actions testified to the God that he served. Our proclamation also goes alongside whatever it is that we are doing in life. Paul says that they labor and toiled so that they would not be a burden to anyone WHILE they proclaimed the Gospel. Our work should proclaim and we should proclaim while we work. We should work so wholeheartedly that people can tell that we are Christians and we should be proclaiming the truths of the Bible while we are working. Whether you are a pastor or a Hardees cashier, this is something that you can do.

The Christian worker should be blameless

The third thing is that a Christian worker should be blameless. Our conduct should be Christ-saturated. We should absorb goodness and release goodness. We are to act as holy people because we are a holy people. We have been set apart from the rest of the world and that sanctification should not cause us to be arrogant but should guide us in our service. How do you act towards unbelievers? How do you act towards believers? Take a step back and ask yourself: is all that I do blameless? Is it holy; is it righteous? What do people notice when they look at me?

Christian work exhorts

The fourth thing I want you to recognize is that Paul said that he and his co-workers exhorted everyone of them. What does exhort mean? In the context that Paul uses it, it means to implore, it means to call alongside to aide, to direct, and to instruct. The Greek word that Paul uses is actually related to the word Parakletos which is where we get the word paraclete which is the same word that Jesus uses to describe the Holy Spirit. While we do not replace the Holy Spirit, we should strive to come alongside others in the same way that the Spirit comes to aid us.

Christians work encourages

The fifth thing that Paul references is that they encouraged the believers. We are to be encouragers. We are to be like Barnabas whose name literally means son of encouragement. We don’t exist to tear each other down, we strive to build one another up. Are you encouraging those that are around you? You don’t have to change the world, but you can change someones world simply by being kind.

Christian work has a purpose

Finally, we know that all that we do as Christians has a purpose. Paul says at the end of verse 12 that we are to walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls us into His kingdom and His glory. We know that God has a purpose for us. We know that everything that we do, should point ahead to the kingdom that is to come. That which we give now, God will replenish later. Solomon writes in Proverbs 19:17 “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” We are working for a Kingdom that is as good as ours. Charles Bridges wrote, “Many acts of kindness have been buried and forgotten. The witness of our conscience is the only fruit. But here is a safe deposit in the very heart of God. It can never be lost or forgotten.” What Bridges is getting at is that their is nothing that we do in the name of Christ that will not be rewarded or forgotten. God recognizes all that we do on behalf of His kingdom and He will hold Himself accountable that we are paid for that service. Jesus says that something as little as a cup of water given to the thirsty will not go unnoticed or unrewarded. Work now for the reward of a Kingdom that is to come. What you do right now matters. Paul would later say in Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Everything you do as a Christian should be done as an act of service to your Savior. Be it your homework, be it evangelism, be it your job, be it your role as a student or athlete, what you do should proclaim the God that saved you, it should exhort those around you, it should point to a Kingdom that is to come, and all that you do should reflect blamelessness, holiness, and righteousness. Remember, you are working to please your Commanding Officer and God will see to it that your labor is recognized and not wasted. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58

1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

All that we do as Christians is marked by resurrection power with the guarantee that in the final resurrection, our labor will not go unrewarded. So, work hard. Live for the Lord and don’t let the world dictate how you serve and how you work. We are guaranteed a Kingdom that will last forever so what could a little bit of hard work now do that could take that away from us? Let’s pray.