Remainning a Faithful Church.

Children are helpless to most things in the world. when real young, we cannot help ourselves nor defend ourselves. We need both protection and provision. Even as adult children we still need their wisdom. Their wisdom serves as a protection and provision. That is what makes losing a mother so difficult is there is a felt void.

Mothers can do amazing things but they cannot do everything.

There are provisions that we need that only Christ can provide

There are threats and impending danger that on Christ can protect us from

Because Jesus has loved us, and stood in our way of certain death, Paul reminds the children of Thessalonica to remain faithful.

Because or savior is faithful

Text in Their Town

Paul is dealing with dogs of a different source they, were false teachers who were trying to undermine the work Paul, Timothy, and Silas had done for them. They were trying weasel their way into the church preaching prosperity and lies.

Paul wrote to them to remind them that the missionaries care to the people and their affliction to preach the truth demonstrated a faithfulness to God and the people of Thessalonica. Therefore they are to stay the course preaching truth, loving like those who modeled love to them.

Text in Our Town

The role of the church is to

be faithful to preach the truth, protect against false teaching.

Just like a mother who suffers pain and heartache and sacrifices her own interests to provide her child with the best environment to thrive, we are to love this community with the same confidence as a mother who trusts her investment will produce a quality and contribution that makes it all worth it. So we trust that God is going to produce a great work in us so that others will be of great biblical quality and contribute to the purpose of the church.

The Church is to Remain Faithful to God. The Church is to Remain Faithful to the People

1 Thessalonians 2:1–8 HCSB

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our visit with you was not without result. On the contrary, after we had previously suffered, and we were treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, we were emboldened by our God to speak the gospel of God to you in spite of great opposition. For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive. Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but rather God, who examines our hearts. For we never used flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives —God is our witness — and we didn’t seek glory from people, either from you or from others. Although we could have been a burden as Christ’s apostles, instead we were gentle among you, as a nursing mother nurtures her own children. We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

The Church is to Remain faithful to God (1-4)

Explanation

Paul wrote as one who had seen affliction He was beaten just down the road from these guys for giving a little girl her freedom over spiritual bondage.

He has arrived at Thessalonica to continue fulfilling the church's mission of preaching the Gospel.

Illustration

Preaching the truth worked.

1 thess 1:9-10

1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 HCSB

for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you: how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead —Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

Just like in Philippi, there is always spiritual warfare around spiritual truth.

Argumentation

How can we be so certain that the Bible is truth and that those who stir up the crowds are not right?

Those who stir up crowds are always mentioned in the Bible for their selfish motive.

The Crowds in Jesus’ day were self-righteous, hungry for power

e Hypocrites who sought their own glory

Matthew 23:27–32 HCSB

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have taken part with them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ You, therefore, testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ sins!

b. In Paul’s time they were making money off the poor demon possessed girl

e. Acts 16:19

Acts 16:19 HCSB

When her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

The same is true of today. People reject the truth of God’s Word because it exposes their corrupt motives.

Most people that I encounter who take issue with the Bible have not even read it. If they have, it is an attempt to prof texting one verse.

For Paul having seen the injustice surrounding Him and false teachers, he vowed to not in any way burden them to demonstrate that the Gospel is for the glory of God and the ransom of individuals not the glory of many to extort the people.

Our position as a church is to be equally concerned for upholding the Word of God without error, impurity, or deception. When God’s Word is used by the people of God, being lead by the Spirit of God, IT can produce life change that only God can do.

1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 HCSB

Colossians 1:3–6 HCSB

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the message of truth, the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace in the truth.

and His own experience

Gal 1:11-13 “Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on human thought. For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I persecuted God’s church to an extreme degree and tried to destroy it.”

Gal 1:15-16 “But when God, who from my birth set me apart and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me, so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.”

Gal 1:23-24 “they simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me.”

Just as any mother would stand up for their child when they are being bullied or their family reputation is being drug through the mud, in order to protect and preserve the child,

So Paul is taking a stand for those he loves. He is doing so by saying- based on the authority of God’s word- they have conducted themselves not with a motive of selfish gain or they wouldn't have endured the suffering. Instead they believed with all their being that this Word is true and they will accepted whatever reaction the world threw at them knowing that it has the power to protect and preserve the church.

Application

Our power as a whole and as individuals is in God’s word. We believe it all to be infallible.

Our responsibility to God is also to act in accordance with Word.

Paul modeled a clear sense of priorities. THis was Paul’s Priority (ref, later with our whole lives) God calls people and therefore our lives are to be lived with His will as our priority.

Paul modeled a clear sense of concern for the Gospel

this caused him to caution his life and his conversations so that no one would reject Jesus on the merits of his own actions.

The Church is to Remain Faithful to the People (5-8)

Explanation

Verses 5-6 explain how they did not act while 7-8 explains how they did act.

5-6: flattery or greed. Paul waived what was allowed Him just to be sure they did not confuse him with a false teacher

7-8: He was gentle, caring, loving

Paul use of the word Nursing is a noun not a verb. In their context nurses provided comfort when people were sick, care when loved ones were dying. Paul notes that not only was he like a nurse who competently cared for the offspring others, he would especially nurture and care for his own children.

Argumentation

This is a call to love in action

The Gospel brings people so closely together. Not only the one hearing it, but the one giving it away.

The Gospel is worth us sacrificing our time

The Gospel is the love of the church shared

Alistair Begg “The way we love as pastors is by preaching the Word, The day I stop preaching the Word is the day you know I stopped loving you.”

Illustration

The wolf in the early spring watches her young pups play all around in the cattails by a pond. they are all over the place. By summer she is teaching them how to hunt, where to find food and the young wolves even carry around other, younger pups in the pack. Wolves set an example of behavior by following the leader. During winter, when the snow falls, you can observe a pack of wolves walking in the footsteps of the leader, creating one line of prints in the snow.

Paul was gentle, kind and loving to the Thessalonians because he was following his leader’s footprints.

It was Jesus, who upheld the word even when he was held up on a cross

It was Jesus who rebuked those who rejected the Word of God

It was Jesus who gave up heaven to dwell on earth so that we could see how to live

It was Jesus who sacrificed everything to give us everything.

It was Jesus who loved us and gave his life for us so that we could be protected from eternal death and instead have the provisions of eternal life.

“Quote”

The very act of dying on the cross, at the same moment that it shows me how serious my sin is also guarantees and shows me without a doubt that he accepts and loves me.”

Timothy Keller

Jesus wants you to know that

1. In a world of false teachers and false hope He is the voice of truth and life

2. The Gospel will change you and give you purpose in Him

3. The more you seek to live like Jesus, the more you will desire to give your whole life to him

Closing

My prayer as a church is that we would

1. defend the truth,

2. have integrity,

3. and be nurturing to those in this community.

1. Imagine if we all allowed the Word to change us in radical ways and that we lived that life in the presence of others- intentionally looking to share the hope of Jesus with them.

2. Imagine, if we made space in our lives to train up new believers in the faith, not just pray a prayer and leave them to the wolves without a protection.

the impact that would have in the Greater Columbus area would defiantly catch negative attention, and probably affliction but it would produce eternal results.

That is what the Church is to remain doing.

Be faithful to Jesus because Jesus was faithful for you

Prayer

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