(011) Beyond Words
1 Thessalonians | The Anatomy of a Healthy Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 47:19
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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.
Paul was consumed by gospel ministry.
His live was laser focused.
In these first couple of chapters Paul reminisces about his original ministry in Thessalonica.
He does so to remind the the Thessalonican believers how they should be living.
There is the context and a key phrase I want you to see.
First, the context…
The end of chapter one and into chapter 2 Paul is reminding them of when he and his mission team came to Thessalonica.
He is describing the time before they recieved Christ as their savior.
Then, verse 9: “While we proclaimed the gospel to you.”
1 Thessalonians 2:9 (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.
Paul was writing about his interaction with them when they were unsaved.
The application can easily flow into how we interact with and treat new believers as well, but that should just be the natural overflow of how we have already been interacting with them before they recieved Christ as their savior.
1. A thriving church has a gentle heart towards the lost. (vs. 7)
1. A thriving church has a gentle heart towards the lost. (vs. 7)
But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
1. A thriving church has a gentle heart towards the lost. (vs. 7)
1. A thriving church has a gentle heart towards the lost. (vs. 7)
These unbelievers were pagan idol worshipers.
Full of the sinful ways of the world.
Yet look at how Paul interacted with them.
A. Gentle as a nursing mother.
A. Gentle as a nursing mother.
There are many reasons a nursing mother is a picture of gentleness
Think about the focused attention and care they give a nursing child.
Moms are busy.
Like is chaotic.
But they shut all of that out and take time for their baby.
In that moment all business is shut out and they are giving focus and care to that child.
We never hear a mom ignore a hungry child because they are simply too busy.
It is important to carve out time to give focused attention to unsaved people.
Think about the patience they have for their nursing child.
Moms are awake all hours of the night.
There are times they cannot put their newborn down.
They need constant care.
Be patient and gentle in caring for the faults of the unsaved.
We tend to be more patient when newborns act the way they do
because they are just doing what newborns do.
The unsaved people in our lives are just doing what unsaved people do.
I have to remind myself of that on a regular basis.
Let’s not forget what scripture tells us…
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
A. Gentle as a nursing mother.
A. Gentle as a nursing mother.
It is important that we treat the lost with gentleness.
Not trying to wield some sort of authority over them.
Not thinking we are in some way better than them.
Not judging of their life choices.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
A. Gentle as a nursing mother.
A. Gentle as a nursing mother.
B. Gentle as a mother caring for her own children.
B. Gentle as a mother caring for her own children.
Don’t miss this.
This might be hard for us to wrap our minds around.
Paul doesn’t just say gentle as a nursing mother, but a nursing mother caring for her OWN CHILDREN.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
B. Gentle as a mother caring for her own children.
B. Gentle as a mother caring for her own children.
Consider the care you have for your own children.
You would give your life for them.
How much care and concern do we have for the world around us?
2. A thriving church has a genuine love for the lost. (vs. 8-9)
2. A thriving church has a genuine love for the lost. (vs. 8-9)
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.
2. A thriving church has a genuine love for the lost. (vs. 8-9)
2. A thriving church has a genuine love for the lost. (vs. 8-9)
This seems to build loving unsaved as your own children.
A. Their love is seen by their genuine relationships.
A. Their love is seen by their genuine relationships.
“being affectionately desirous of you”
“You became very dear to us.”
This was being said TOO believers but not OF believers.
Paul was speaking of his care for them in his early ministry with them before they became Christians.
The idea in the greek is the desire as desiring their own son.
It is not only ok, but it is good and biblical to have genuine relationships with other humans who were also fellow image bearers of Christ.
Who, by the way, desperately need the message of the gospel that God trusted us with.
B. Their love is seen by their gospel focused heart.
B. Their love is seen by their gospel focused heart.
“We were ready to share the gospel with you.”
Not only the gospel
In the previous verse Paul talked extensively about speaking the gospel boldly.
“Our gospel came to you, not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” (1:5)
“You recieved the word with much affliction.” (1:6)
“We had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God.” (2:2)
“We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak.” (2:4)
“We were ready to share the gospel with you.” (2:8)
So here he doesn’t spend as much time, but we can’t overlook it.
We can’t lose sight of our desire and goal to share the gospel with the unsaved.
That’s why I like to call them “redemptive relationships”
It doesn’t cheapen the relationship.
It is still a genuine friendship.
It simply reminds me to be praying for this person and to be looking for opportunities to share the gospel with them.
B. Their love is seen by their sacrificial heart.
B. Their love is seen by their sacrificial heart.
“We shared our own lives with you.”
“We worked day and night that we might not be a burden to you.”
First, This brings us back to the idea of relationships.
Sharing our lives with them.
Not just handing them a tract.
Not just inviting them to church.
But sharing our lives for them.
It is much easier to give them the Word.
It is much easier to give them our opinion.
It is not so easy to give them ourselves.
We are not so quick to make a genuine and costly investment in their lives for the sake of the gospel.
We have been reminded several times over the past several weeks that when we take gospel ministry seriously, it will cost us something.
We will need to sacrifice for the sake of others.
When we share our lives with people and they walk away, it hurts.
Paul took it even farther…
He intentionally worked day and night so he wouldn’t be any sort of burden to them.
Paul’s life was a living sacrifice both for the church and the unsaved world.
3. A thriving church has a glad heart for gospel ministry. (vs. 8)
3. A thriving church has a glad heart for gospel ministry. (vs. 8)
1 Thessalonians 2:8 (ESV)
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.
3. A thriving church has a glad heart for gospel ministry. (vs. 8)
3. A thriving church has a glad heart for gospel ministry. (vs. 8)
Because they have become very dear to us.
“Ready” - to think well of, take good pleasure in, well pleased.
Excited and anticipating.
I look at interactions completely different now.
This calling to take the gospel to the world is not a drudgery.
It is joyful.
It is an adventure.
Yes it can be hard, but Jesus said He will be with us always.
We need to remember what Paul teaches us.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
We need to remember who ultimately saves the lost.
We can’t save anyone
We are merely entrusted with the gospel.
God is the one who draws the to Himself and saves them.
We are simply the vehicle God chose to carry the gospel to them.
Our responsibility is to invest well what we have been entrusted with.
Questions for thought:
How of my time and recourses are given for the sake of the gospel?
Do I have a gentle or judgemental heart with the lost?
Am I glad and ready to take the gospel no matter the earthly outcome?
