AN EFFECTIVE MINISTRY

Introduction

-I want to ask some questions this morning to kind of get us thinking about our topic today. First, WHAT IS A MINISTER? And then, WHO IS IT THAT FULFILLS THAT ROLE?

-Quite often when someone referred to someone as a minister, they were referring to someone who does some sort of vocational religious work. So pastors and preachers and evangelists were considered ministers.

-of course, this led to people thinking that pastors and preachers and evangelists do all the work of the Lord while everybody else just sat back comfortably in their pews.

-But the Bible gives us a completely different picture—according to Ephesians 4:11-12 God has gifted pastors & evangelists to equip the members of the church to fulfill the ministry. My job is to equip you for you to fulfill ministry.

-So that means that each and every one of you are ministers—it doesn’t matter what your age is, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a Christian, it doesn’t matter how competent you feel----when you became a Christian, God gifted you in some fashion to fulfill some sort of ministry for the good of His church and the expansion of the gospel.

-So as I look out amongst the congregation today, I see a room full of ministers

-Having lain that groundwork, we now consider what Paul says in our passage for today—Paul here describes why his ministry was effective within the Thessalonian church, which in turn set the church up for its own effective ministry.

-So, looking at what he says, we want to know what makes for effective ministers and ministries so that through our own giftings we can spread the gospel, encourage the church, and be a blessing to the world.

-I want to lead us to embrace the characteristics that would make all of us effective ministers.

1 Thessalonians 2:1–16 ESV

1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 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. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 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. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 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. 9 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. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. 11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 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. 13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

-I want to answer the question today: what made Paul’s and the Thessalonian church’s ministries effective, and therefore what will make our own ministries effective for the glory of God.

-So I want to touch upon 3 characteristics that we find:

I) Have boldness in the face of conflict (vv. 1-2, 13-16)

-In vv. 1-2 Paul talks about the tribulation he faced in Philippi while ministering the gospel there, and then in vv. 13-16 he recognizes the troubles and suffering that the Thessalonian church endured while ministering the gospel in their own community.

-Just because we are using our God-given gifts to fulfill God-ordained ministries does not mean that everything will go smoothly for us. Even when we are doing good, the world (and the spiritual powers behind the world) are still opposed to what we stand for.

-When we are conduits of the Kingdom of God through ministry, the powers that be in this world will oppose because they are hostile toward the God we serve and the gospel we proclaim.

-But when we meet this opposition, we have some choices that we need to make. We can get hurt and frustrated and then decide to just quit, or we can keep moving forward and proclaim the gospel through our ministry.

-Think about Paul: he was wrongly jailed in Philippi, and then in Thessalonica he was run out of town so that his ministry and message would be silenced. Paul could have just thrown his hands up in the air and said that he doesn’t need to deal with this garbage and then go home and live a nice quiet life somewhere.

-But, instead, Paul persevered and boldly proclaimed the truths of the gospel and its implications even more, to the point of eventually being martyred. He did not allow conflict with the world to take away his courage.

-But sometimes it just seems easier to keep our mouths shut and quit and just sit back and ride the wave of what’s going on in the world until we die or the Lord comes back—we think that we just don’t need this hassle or frustration. And that is exactly what the enemies want.

-And it’s not just lay ministers, but vocational ministers too. It is said that between conflicts within the church and conflicts with the world that 9 out of 10 vocational ministers will quit the ministry before retirement age and most of those will not have any sort of ministry after that. That means the 90% of the voices of the gospel are silenced, never to be heard again.

-But what made Paul’s ministry effective, and the Thessalonian church’s ministry effective, was that they remained bold for the gospel even when they ran into conflict with those around them.

-So, when we meet some sort of open hostility when we are fulfilling the ministries that God has for us, we need to remember Who it is that we are serving, what it is we are called to, and how much impact we can have if we keep going.

II) Be motivated to please the Lord (vv. 3-6)

-in vv. 3-6 Paul discusses the motivation for fulfilling his ministry, and the fact that it was not born out of selfish desires. No ministry will be effective for true kingdom growth and world change when the motivations are all about one’s own desires and ambitions.

-How can you test your own motives? How do you know if your reason for ministry is right?----I think he gives us a test in v. 4—we have to ask ourselves if we are doing our ministry to please men or to please God? Are we trying to advance ourselves, or are we trying to glorify Jesus?

-There is no doubt that we see false teachers and preachers out there who are performing their ministries for financial advancement, personal popularity, or some other selfish agenda.

-Paul describes this in our passage. In v. 5 he talks about the fact that he is not doing ministry out of pretext of greed. You see preachers who are just in it for the money, so they do what they need to do to keep the money rolling in.

-Or in v. 6 he talks about him not doing ministry to seek glory from people—this is the fame to go with the fortune, so instead of promoting God they promote themselves.

-And in v. 5 Paul describes one of the biggest tools they use for these wrong motivations as using words of flattery—that means that these people will just say anything that anybody wants to hear to gain their fame and fortune, including compromising the gospel message.

-The pure gospel message might turn people away, just like it did in Jesus’ and Paul’s days. It can be an offense, and offended people don’t give money or praises, so they compromise the message to get their money and praises.

-And it’s not just vocational pastors that do this, but Christians in general can run into the same questionable motives. Sometimes people take on a task at the church so that they can get the accolades of fellow church members. Sometimes people head something up in a ministry just so they can be looked upon as some super-Christian.

-God will not bless any ministry motivated by that. Instead, Paul urges us to make our sole motivation to please God. We are not placed on this earth to please man or self. We are on this earth to serve man so as to please God. May your main motivation for fulfilling the ministry you are called to be to please God.

III) Give sacrificial service to others (vv. 7-12)

-In vv. 7-12 Paul describes the manner with which he approached his ministry. He didn’t approach ministry as if he were some dictator who barked out orders that everyone should jump at, but rather as one who gives sacrificial service, placing the needs of others before his own.

-Paul describes himself as demonstrating a ministry of compassion, knowing that just as the Lord had patience and mercy upon human beings, that same patience and mercy, along with humility and gentleness, are to be shown toward those to whom he ministers.

-He describes this using the picture of a nursing mother, and later on as a father with his children. Mothers have this yearning for the children to whom they have just given birth. Fathers look lovingly and protectively over the little ones that God has blessed them with.

-That is a picture of us in our service of ministry to others. We don’t give the gospel message just to rack-up numbers in our baptismal, but because our hearts yearn for the lost to be saved. We don’t give ministries of mercy toward the poor or others so that we can feel better about ourselves, but because we want them to see the love of God in a tangible way.

-Our service is a sacrificial service in that, just as Paul says in v. 8, we not only give the message or the ministry, but we give of our very selves as well. So, we know we are giving a service of God when we don’t just go through the motions, but the ministry flows out of the very being of who we are as followers of Jesus Christ.

-This is the manner of the ministry of Christ Himself, that Paul tells us to emulate:

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

(Phil. 2:5-7 ESV)

-When we have such compassion that we empty ourselves of ourselves and place the needs of those to whom we minister first, we know that our ministry will be effective.

Conclusion

-I read a story about an elderly widow, who herself was restricted in her activities, but she was eager to serve Christ by ministering to others in any way she could.

~After praying about this, she realized that she could bring blessing to others by playing the piano. The next day she placed a small ad in the Oakland Tribune saying: "Pianist will play hymns by phone daily for those who are sick and despondent--the service is free." The notice included the number to dial. When people called, she would ask, "What hymn would you like to hear?" Within a few months her playing had brought cheer to several hundred people. Many of them freely poured out their hearts to her, and she was able to help and encourage them.

-Why was her ministry so effective and such a blessing to many? Because she was bold in her witness for Christ, placing an ad in a newspaper in an area not known for its friendliness toward Christians. She was motivated by honoring God through the service of others. And she was willing to sacrificially serve others out of her love and compassion for the hurting.----Oh, that we all would desire to minister like that.

-Christian, I invite you to come to the altar and ask the Lord to lead you on how you can be effective in your own ministry, or maybe you just want to come and ask God what ministry He would have you to do.

-If you are looking for a church home that will minister to you and through whom you can minister, I invite you to join yourself to this body of believers.

-Still, there are others here who are not being ministered to by God because they have not come to Him through the path He has made. The gate and the path to God are narrow, for it is only through Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins and rose again to give you life, but you must turn from the path you’re on and trust Him alone to deliver you. I invite you to give your life today.