The Gospel Messenger

INTRODUCTION:

Interest:

Since our son and daughter-in-law, Daniel and Maria were here over the past week, Thursday, I along with Grace, David, and Katie went to Greenfield Village for the day. We had a good time together going through all the historic buildings. One place that always fascinates me is the weaving building. They have one loom in there from the late 1800s that creates a pattern in the cloth based on a system of punchcards and spring-loaded metal hooks…essentially an early precursor to the computer. Since I worked in the computer field for several years, I find that history fascinating.

I am also fascinated though, by the simple fact that these various strands of thread can be woven together in such a fashion that complicated patterns result in the final cloth. You see white threads and color threads intersecting all together in a loose area, but then the crossing thread is pulled tight to the thread that come before and over several iterations of that activity a pattern emerges. I know Donna Hobson has a loom in her house so she understands how this all works, but to me it remains a mystery even as I stand there and watch it unfold before my eyes.

One thing that struck me though is how ever single thread plays a role in creating the pattern in the cloth. When that thread is on a spool and then coming down into the loom it doesn’t seem like its position is that strategic; yet by the time all is said and done that thread plays an important point in the grand scheme of creating a beautiful piece of cloth.

Involvement:

We will see this morning that our lives as Christians function in a rather similar manner. We may seem like we exist all on our own, but as our lives interact with the gospel message, we find that they are woven together to form a grand tapestry that displays the grace of God; we all have a role in that gospel process.

Context:

We are returning to our series through 1 Thessalonians, as you can see. Two weeks ago, before the Labor Day weekend break, we began looking at the 2nd chapter of this letter. We saw that Paul had begun this chapter by reminding the Thessalonians as to what kind of men he along with Silas and Timothy had been when they first brought the gospel to their city. Apparently since the Jewish opposition against them had forced them to leave Thessalonica so quickly and since Paul had been unable to return and visit the young believers again, some of the opposition had begun accusing Paul and the others of actually being religious charlatans. It was rather common for people of that day in the Roman Empire to use religion for personal benefit. Paul and the others were being accused of that.

In the first 4 verses of the chapter Paul has already given two lines of defense…we had two sentences, both begun with the word “for” indicating that he was explain something through contrasts presented with the word “but” in the middle of the sentence. Essentially he has for we were bold because we were not afraid to suffer for the sake of the gospel and we were faithful because we only cared about pleasing God. Of course, we observed that we must strive to be the same in our presentation of the Gospel message—bold and faithful.

Preview:

This morning we are going to look at a third line of defense that Paul gives. In the previous verses Paul has really demonstrated that the proclamation of the gospel is our sacred duty as Christians. Today, we will see that performing that duty will impact how we go about living out every aspect of our lives. You see, the main point we will learn in our four verses this morning is that The gospel message is intertwined with our lives as its messengers. The message itself—the gospel message—cannot be separated from our lives; the two are necessarily intertwined.

Illustration

I believe that this is something that is becoming increasingly important for us to realize as believers. Obviously, the fact that Paul made this point nearly 2,000 years ago indicates that it is not a new concern. Still, we live in a day in which the culture is continually promoting the idea that personal lives can be held independent from a person’s official view on nearly any topic. We have seen countless politicians claiming that marital infidelities really have no bearing on their fitness to hold office. We have recently witnessed a great number of celebrities flying personal jets to a climate change conference…we were told that the incredible carbon footprint that they were willing to leave behind through their mode of travel should have no bearing on the authority by which they promote their convictions regarding global warming.

The list of goes on and on of examples in which the actions of people do not match up to the message they are giving. We shake our heads as such inconsistencies…but I fear, we also absorb some of the worldview that enables such inconsistencies to be held side by side…it is the postmodern world that we live in…and the danger is that such thinking can tempt us to rationalize holding the gospel message in one mental hand—carefully and purely defined and articulated—while holding our lives in the other mental hand—indulgently living at a minimalistic level of Christlikeness.

We need the message contained in these verses. We need the wakeup call to carefully and fully line our lives us with the vital message that we carry. The gospel message is intertwined with our lives as its messengers.

Our verses this morning have some typical Paul-type convoluted grammar, but in general they pivot on the word “but” at the beginning of v. 7 in order to give us two contrasting ideas. We are going to follow that simple outline this morning as we look at our passage.

Transition from introduction to body:

The gospel message is intertwined with our lives as its messengers. Let’s go ahead and read our 4 verses together.

BTW…I want to point out the little indicator in the bottom right corner of the slide right now. If you happen to be using the Faithlife Bible app to read from this morning, this indicator will also show up at the bottom of your screen. All you have to do is tap on it and it will automatically take you to 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 5. This indicator was also there earlier for our Scripture reading, but you may have not noticed it at the time. It is just one way in which the integrated software tools we have started using can help out during our services. Of course, turning to the chapter and verse in your physical bibles is a tried and true approach as well.

1 Thessalonians 2:5…<read vv. 5–8>

The gospel message is intertwined with our lives as its messengers. That means that first of all, the idea that we see in verses 5 and 6 is that…

BODY:

I. We must not undercut the gospel message

We must not undercut the gospel message. The gospel itself is powerful. As we have discussed already in this letter, the gospel does not receive its power from us; it is, as Paul says in Romans chapter 1, “the power of God unto salvation.” Still, we have to realize that there are things that we can do which will undercut its message.

Illustration

Rather like the case of all those celebrities flying personal planes to a conference to express their concerns about climate change, it is rather hard to take a message serious if the person presenting it does not seem to even believe it.

As I said earlier, in Paul’s day there were a lot of people traveling around the Roman Empire presenting various religious ideas for their own personal benefit. In general, such people could generally be identified by their actions. In fact, these actions were so common that they had become stereotype behavior for the religious charlatans, a bit like kissing babies is a stereotype for of politicians in our day.

Transition:

Paul goes on to list three such stereotypical actions which he and the other men carefully avoided so as to not undercut the gospel message that they were presenting to the people. Again, we must learn from Paul. First of all, we must not undercut the gospel message…

A. Through flattering speech

Paul reminds the young believers in Thessalonica that they had never come “with flattering speech.” The idea behind the word “flattering” is that of using the kind of acceptable speech that lulls another person into a false sense of security so that the speaker can get what he wants.

Illustration

As sinners, this is something we instinctively seem to know how to do…a child doesn’t have to be very old before he will attempt one day to come to mom and say, “Whoa, Mom, you look so beautiful today.” Mom, looks at her son and says, “Why, thank you” only to have said son follow up with, “May I have an ice cream cone?”

Well, we may get more sophisticated in our approaches as we age, but the instinct is the same. In the ancient world, this term “flattering” was well known as people tried to advance their cause by buttering up their listeners with their words.

But Paul says, “we never” did this. Never…not once!

Application

One of the things we must avoid doing as we present the gospel—a message that will be rejected by many, as we have discussed many times—is to try to make ourselves accepted by using flattering speech. Let’s be aware of the inherent desire to try to position ourselves so that we will be accepted through our words even when the gospel might be rejected. Such effort will undercut the very gospel message we are to boldly and faithfully communicate.

Transition:

We must not undercut the gospel through flattering speech. Secondly, we must not undercut it…

B. Through greedy motivations

Greed is always a destructive motivation. Frequently, it is the motivation that actually causes the flattering speech that we just talked about. The hard part, though, is that greed can be pretty well hidden as people can act very genuine and caring. In fact, the word that Paul uses that we have translated as “pretext” perfectly describes this reality. It was a word used in the theaters of the day for the masks that actors would wear to indicate that they were playing various characters. The audience was to look at the mask and not the actor behind the mask in order to identify the character in the play. The idea was that it is not that hard to put a mask on that covers the motivation of greed that is actually below the service, ultimately driving the actions. It was money which drove many of the religious charlatans who came through the cities.

Yet Paul denies that greed had any part in the actions that he and the other men took. He denies it strongly. He says they never put a mask on to hide their greed. But even more significantly than his denial, he calls God to be His witness. He acknowledges that the Thessalonians might have been fooled by a well-worn mask, but God…the God before whom the intents of the heart are fully revealed…God knows that greed had no part in Paul’s motivation to share the gospel.

Application

The strength of Paul’s denial here may very well indicate that some of his opponents were charging him with such motivation….which should warn us that we must be careful to guard ourselves against such charges ourselves. Many a ministry and many a reputation have been brought down by greed. We must be sure to first of all ensure that we are not motivated by greed…we must be careful to keep our own hearts pure before God and to live our lives in such a fashion that a charge of greed will not have any chance to stick…the best defense against a charge of greed is to develop a habit of generosity.

Transition:

Greed can undercut the gospel message. And thirdly, we must not undercut the gospel message…

C. Through personal glory-seeking

This is another way that our message can be so quickly undercut…when it seems as if the goal of given the message is ultimately to receive personal glory. Paul was so sensitive to this common issue that he gives a double denial in verse 6, “we did not seek glory from either you or from other people” is his denial. Some of his opponents may have been claiming that Paul and the others had only come through Thessalonica so that they could have the thrill of having the crowds of that city hail their great oratory skills. Others may have claimed that they only came through so that they could then go back home…wherever that might be…and have the locals their amazed with their stories of travel and acceptance. In either case, the accusation would work out the same—the message that these men brought was designed to feed their thirst of glory.

Application

The lure of praise is so strong that we must always be on guard so as to not fall under its pull. We dare not undercut the gospel message by seeking glory for ourselves. Yet, let’s not too quickly discount the danger…it is real. We all like to be liked. We must constantly be reminding ourselves that we serve as slaves of God; carrying His message is a sacred duty—as we discussed two weeks ago. There is nothing commendable about doing our duty; rather, it is shameful to not do so. All praise goes to God for what He chooses to do through His gospel message. While we know all these things, we must be constantly diligent to not allow words of praise to lodge themselves in our minds. We may receive words of praise, but we must never seek them out. Rather, we must seek to be faithful to our duty.

Again, Paul is our example in this. He…much more than we ever will, actually had a level of genuine authority before the Thessalonian church because of his position as an apostle…he could have actually claimed to be somebody of importance. But that was something he never did as it would have completely undercut the message He was carrying…a message which points to Jesus alone.

Application

Let’s really remember this. We carry a message that points to the One who died in our place. Everything we do must point to Him while none of it points to ourselves. We must not undercut the gospel message through personal glory-seeking.

Transition:

We must not undercut the gospel message. That is the first idea that is expressed in our verses. We must not undercut it through flattering speech, nor through greedy motivation, nor through personal glory-seeking. This is so important because, The gospel message is intertwined with our lives as its messengers. The message cannot be separated from our lives because God has chosen us to be its carriers.

The gospel message is intertwined with our lives as its messengers. We cannot undercut the gospel message with our lives; but on the flip side, the second idea that we can see in our verses is that…

II. We must reflect the gospel message

Not only must we not undercut the gospel message, we must also positively reflect it. That is the idea that we see in verse 7 when Paul introduces the positive side of their conduct with the word “but”…he is saying, “We didn’t do those things which would undercut the message, but we did do a number of things which would positively reflect through our own lives the message of the gospel that we communicated to you.”

Application

Friends, things have not changed from Paul’s day until today. Because our lives are so intertwined with the gospel, there is no way that we can act in a neutral fashion; all of our actions will have an impact on the gospel message which we are to communicate. We must work hard to ensure that our actions...our lives, for that matter… have a positive reflection on the message. It is our duty.

Transition:

Paul notes two ways in verses 7and 8 that he and the other men reflected the gospel message through their lives…we must do likewise. First of all, we must reflect the gospel message…

A. Through gentle behavior

There is a bit of debate as to exactly how verse 7 should be translated so you will find some differences among our English versions…should it be translated as becoming “gentle” or becoming “babes”? While the Greek text itself is a bit unclear, what is clear is the general idea that Paul is trying to convey; the missionaries treated the people in Thessalonica with tenderness, when Paul and company came into town they did not exude any sense of loftiness or superiority toward the people they met. He uses this picture of great gentleness by likening his relationship with the Thessalonians to that of a nursing mother with her baby.

Application

This is not a difficult idea to understand, but it is nonetheless one that can be hard to actually do. As we look at those wallowing in the filth created by their sin, it is easy to let a lofty attitude creep into our thoughts…our lives are so much more put together than theirs. It is easy to forget that the only reason that our lives are so much better is because we have experienced God’s saving and transforming grace in our lives. Yet, were it not for God’s grace—that grace that comes through the very message we are to convey—we could easily find ourselves in just as dire of a situation. It is as we remember this vital truth…as the gravity of the reality of all that we have received through Jesus Christ grips us…that we will find ourselves responding toward those we encounter with a gentleness that reflects the gospel message we carry. It is as we allow the gospel to change us that the fruit the Spirit…which includes gentleness…will flow from us.

Transition:

We must reflect the gospel message through gentle behavior. And then finally, we must also reflect it…

B. Through self-sacrificial efforts

Paul notes that he and the others were “well-pleased” to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ with the Thessalonians when they arrived in that city. But sharing the gospel message was not enough for the missionaries; they recognized that the gospel also called them to share their own lives with the Thessalonians. You see, the gospel called forth love from them for every person who bore the image of God. It called forth a special love from them for every person for whom Jesus specifically died—the elect of which they anticipated were in that city according to verse 4 of the first chapter. They loved them because God called them to love them…and then as they came to know them, their love increased and they found themselves willingly and joyfully spending their lives for the sake of the Thessalonians.

Illustration

The truth of the matter is that we all spend our lives on what we love. Let me pick on Pastor Aaron for a moment by way of illustration. Pastor Aaron will spend hours of his life chasing a little white ball around some grass that someone else has carefully cut until he eventually gets it to fall into a little hole many yards away from where he started. He does that because he loves to golf and it doesn’t matter to him that he has to make sacrifices in order to chase that ball. This past Thursday, he was even planning on leaving his house before 5 am just so he could pursue his love with some other men who loved the same thing.

Application

We get the idea of sacrifice for the things we love. The question is, do we love the gospel enough that we will sacrifice our lives for it…that we will give up the time when we could be doing other things so that we can impart not just the gospel, but our very lives for those who need to hear it. We will get a chance to somewhat test our love for the gospel this November because we are being asked to invest 4 days in a role to learn how to give the gospel message more effectively; it will take sacrifice to clear our calendars for the Exchange seminar. But we also have to realize that the gospel is not meant to be given in a drive-by fashion. Rather, God wants us to invest our lives in forming relationships with those who need to know Jesus Christ so that through our self-sacrificial efforts our lives will be seen to reflect the message. As one commentator put it, “A true missionary is not someone specialized in the delivery of the message but someone whose whole being...is communicated to his hearers.” What self-sacrificial efforts are you making for the gospel?

Transition from body to conclusion:.

We must reflect the gospel message through self-sacrificial efforts. We are to reflect it through gentle behavior and self-sacrificial efforts. We are to do so because The gospel message is intertwined with our lives as its messengers.

CONCLUSION

Our lives and the gospel message which we have a sacred duty to communicate are like those threads I saw on that loom in Greenfield village...once put together, they are so interwoven that they form a single fabric.

Do you know Jesus as your Savior? Then you have been appointed as a gospel messenger. Is your life reflecting your duty? As we have seen this morning, that means that we must not undercut the gospel message with our lives. Rather, we must reflect the gospel message with our lives.

We cannot separate the gospel from our lives; The gospel message is intertwined with our lives as its messengers.