Attitudes of Authentic Ministry
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
1Thessalonians should stand in our memory as a reminder of the truth that God's mighty work, that God's saving work is sufficient. God's saving work is sufficient. I mean where there's real salvation, where there's real birth from above, where the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in a person's life, where there's a new creation, where there's a new nature in Christ, beloved, that work continues. God doesn't save someone only to turn them loose. We know this. And let us be reminded of it. What God begins, God finishes. What God begins, God finishes.
It's a testimony to the sufficiency of the Gospel, the sufficiency of Christ, the sufficiency of the Holy Spirit's operation, work, in a person's life. And this church in Thessaloniki, this beloved community of God's people, stands as a great testimony to the sufficiency of salvation. This church stands as a testimony to the sufficiency of the Gospel, the sufficiency of Christ, the sufficiency of the indwelling Spirit of God, God the Spirit, the reality of a new nature when the Lord really truly saves someone and transforms someone.
Because when you study, as we did last time in our introduction, how the church came to be, this beloved church, what you discover from the book of Acts, chapter 17, is that Paul did not have the opportunity to spend much time with them. You remember Paul had a witness in Thessaloniki on his second missionary journey. This was a large influential city of approximately at least 100,000 residents. So it was a large city, large Jewish population. They had their own synagogue. And from all that we can gather from the account in Acts, Paul was there for three Sabbath days, I mean three weeks preaching in the synagogue.How long he was there thereafter, we cannot be certain about, but we know that Jason had received them into his home and there was some kind of a ministry going on there during that time. But the point being, when you read the account, that he wasn't there for very long. And so when he leaves, he leaves these new believers. There they are without the benefits of, for example, the 18 months' worth of teaching and ministry that he gave to the Corinthians. They did not have that.
We learn from the book of 1 Thessalonians that after having to depart from them, he sends Timothy to them in order to find out how they're doing. He was concerned about them and the way he left so abruptly, he wanted to ascertain as to how they're doing and how they are managing. Timothy brings news to Paul at Corinth, and when Paul receives news from Timothy as to their condition, then he pens this letter under inspiration. And so that's sort of the background as you come to the book of 1 Thessalonians.
He's dealing with the people who are new in the faith. They haven't had a great amount of instruction, but he's rejoicing at what he's hearing because it is truly evident that they really did receive the Word of God with joy. It is evident that God has really done a saving work in their lives. The fruit of this church is truly an encouragement to his heart. Now that is not to say that they didn't have their issues, they didn't have their struggles. And, as we study this letter together, we're going to see that they had their struggle. Some of that came from just not a lot of instruction—simply, they were not well informed when it came to certain things. For example, one of the things they struggled with was what happens to a believer who dies before the return of Jesus Christ. What happens to a believer who dies before the coming of the Lord? If, when the Lord comes, we are alive, what will be our relationship to those who have preceded us in death? They didn't know, they didn't understand. And so he says, brethren, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, "I don't want you to be uninformed." "I don't want you to be ignorant about this." And he goes on to instruct them.
And we also learn from the letter itself that apparently they were struggling in the area of purity and sexual behavior and holiness, being sort of a pushback into the mold of their culture. And so he's going to address that in this letter. Some of them had become also idle. They weren't working, they stopped working, perhaps misunderstanding what it meant to believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. And so, not thinking about His return in the right way, in the right kind of way—the biblical way—not only caused problems when it came to those who died in the Lord, but also some of them had begun to use the return of Jesus Christ as an excuse to stop working and just waiting. So they stopped being responsible in this earthly realm. And so he had to address that. He has to address that.
So as new believers, I mean, they were struggling with issues, but the overwhelming attitude, the overwhelming atmosphere of this epistle is a positive one. So Paul receives news from Timothy as to the well-being of these believers, that he hadn't spent a lot of time with them, and he's marveling. He's rejoicing at the clear fruit that says that their salvation is indeed genuine. As I read this letter all the way through and began to prepare, there were five words that my mind really captured. They summarized the entirety of the letter, and so we're going to do a flyover this evening a little bit.
Now there's a theme you're going to find in this letter again and again, and yeah, you're right, it's the second coming of Jesus. You find in every chapter of this book some reference to the return of Jesus Christ. So that is definitely a major theme in this book. But really, if you look at the book, if you look at it as a whole and you ask, what is the attitude of this book, what is the atmosphere of this book, I want to submit to us tonight there are five words that stand out. And I'm going to give them to you briefly, and then we're going to use those five words tonight as our study, taking this flyover of 1 Thessalonians.
And the first word is ‘affection’. Affection. And not just any kind of affection. When you read this letter, you see deep, genuine affection—the kind of affection that parents have for children, the kind of affection that makes separation very difficult. And as we'll see in a moment, Paul, in fact, describes his relationship to them much like the relationship that a mother or a father would have toward their own flesh and blood. So his affection for them is real, and it is stressed throughout the letter.
The second word is the word ‘thankfulness’. Thankfulness. But a kind of thankfulness that is very specific. It is thankfulness for the clear, undeniable evidences—the clear, undeniable fruit—of genuine salvation. It is thanking God for His work in the lives of these people, and it runs throughout the entirety of this epistle–thankfulness.
Third word is the word ‘concern’. Concern. More than once, Paul emphasizes—and he does this in the strongest kind of way—he wants to see them face to face. He longs to see them face to face. Now, why does he want to see them face to face? Well, I mean, obviously, he loves them. He cares about them. But the number one reason he wants to see them face to face is to discover really firsthand how they're doing spiritually, and it's a concern for them that creates this longing to be with them. So running through this epistle is this attitude of concern, gratefulness that they're doing well, but concern that they continue to do well by the grace of God, that they continue to grow, that they continue to advance in their walk with God.
The fourth word is the word ‘instruction’. Instruction, because the letter is instruction, and what you find in this letter is both doctrinal instruction and dutiful imperatives. There are areas where he knows they are under-informed, and he says, "I don't want you to be uninformed, brothers." And so he's going to pass on information, truth, that they need to know, and getting the report from Timothy—no doubt from that report—Paul now has a knowledge where they are under-developed, under-informed. So he wants to give them instruction, the instruction that they need. At the same time, though, this letter is a letter of exhortation. Exhortation. Throughout the letter, he's saying to them, this is how you must live, this is how you must live, this is how you must think, this is how you ought to think about this, this is how you ought to feel about this, this is how you want to decide about this, here's how you must live as believers in Jesus Christ.
So he instructs them, but then also added to that—I already mentioned it—it's the fifth word, really ‘encouragement’. Encouragement. It's a letter of encouragement. I mean, throughout the letter, he tells them about the good that he sees in them and that others recognize in them. He doesn't hesitate to tell them about the power of their testimony. He's not afraid to correct them, he's not afraid to command them, but everywhere he can, he commends them as well. One of the things that you learn from the book of 1 Thessalonians is that Paul loves to be an encourager. I mean, when he can encourage, he does, he doesn't hold back. And as we study through this book, we will see it every step of the way.
Now tonight, as you're aware, we're not going to read the entire letter, but I want to encourage you—and this will help tremendously as we study through the book together—I want to encourage you, it's a short book, read it through several times, whenever you can. Just read it through. Read it through several times, make your own mental notes about it as you walk through it. And as we come together on Sunday evenings, Lord willing, we will have a more fruitful and fulfilling study together.
But what I want to do tonight is I want to take those five words that I've just mentioned, because not only do these five words represent the attitude, the atmosphere that run throughout this letter, I really believe that these five words also represent a model for what it means to have a ministry to people. They represent a model of what it means to have a ministry to people. This was Paul's ministry to them, and if we recognize these attitudes in Paul as he ministers to the church at Thessaloniki, then I want to take from that the fact that these are also attitudes that ought to be present in me as an under-shepherd, as I strive to minister to God's people in this place. But I really don't want us to think about it tonight just in terms of us as under-shepherds, as elders, our ministry to the flock of God here. I really want you to think about this tonight in terms of your ministry to others, and that is really important.
So let me begin by asking the question, where do you have a ministry? If you're a Christian, you have a ministry. Where do you have a ministry? As we sit here this evening, as we consider this book, where do you have a ministry, child of God? God didn't save you to sit and do nothing. Where do you have a ministry? Recognize that what we're going to see tonight applies wherever you are engaged in ministry, and I'm talking about a husband's ministry to his wife, a wife's ministry to her husband, a parent's ministry to their children, the ministry you have to a Sunday school class, to nursery, the ministry you have to a friend that you are seeking to disciple and bring along in the faith, and so forth and so forth in your sphere of influence.
These five attitudes are absolutely essential to any effective ministry on any level. So this is not just for Paul and Timothy and Silas. These are not attitudes for the under-shepherds of Grace Chapel. This is for every believer. So as I examine myself on many different levels, I want to call on you to examine yourself on many different levels and ask this question: have you learned this model of ministry? So we can entitle this study, Attitudes Necessary for Authentic Ministry. Attitudes Necessary for Authentic Ministry.
And the first attitude is this: genuine affection. Affection. Affection. Genuine affection. Here's an example of it. Turn to chapter 2, chapter 2 verse 8. Actually, let's go back. Let's begin at verse 6. Verse 6, Paul writes, "nor seeking glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you. But we proved to be gentle among you,”--and he's taking them back now to the time when they spent with him, and he's reminding them of his ways–and he says, “we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. In this way, having fond affection for you, we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become beloved to us.For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as to not to be burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly and righteously and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and bearing witness to each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”
You see what he's saying? He says we were like a mother, we were like a father. He says, “having fond affection for you,” verse 8, “we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives.” Let's learn from that. If we don't genuinely love the people we are seeking to minister to, we will have no real ministry. No real ministry. Beloved, if we don't really care, genuinely care, if we don't have a genuine affection for the people that we are seeking to minister to, all we become is, at the best, some cold conduit through whom God is doing something, but we are not engaging those people in ministry ourselves. And that is something less than what God designed for ministry to be. We have to genuinely care for the people we're ministering to.
So husbands, let me ask you tonight, does your wife sense genuine affection from you? And do you express that? And wife, does your husband sense genuine affection from you? Do you express that? Parents, do you express to your children how much you care for them? Do they sense your relationship to them being one of duty or one of affectionate desire? Is there love that is running through everything you're carrying out toward them meant to be by God–ministry?
Now we've got to be careful. I mean, the application is, you know, there's ripple effects here. But now we've got to be careful, having said that, whenever we talk about affection in the context of ministry, we always must beware of over-sentimentalizing ministry or really emotionalizing it. Because let us remind ourselves that even while Paul says he longed to see them—and he does, he says that he has a strong desire to see them face to face—even though he says this, let us not forget he didn't go to see them. He sent Timothy at that time. And that says to us that while Paul had a genuine affection for this church, a genuine affection for this church, he still had to operate his life and ministry according to Holy Spirit-set priorities.
It's possible to have a genuine affection for someone, and yet at a particular time and season to delegate a ministry to them. You genuinely care for them by making sure that their needs are met, even if you can't see to it at that particular moment personally. There's still a place for that in ministry. But what I'm saying is this: just like, let's take the illustration that Paul uses—a mother, a father. Something's wrong, really, with parents who don't have genuine love for their children. Something is desperately wrong. Something's wrong with a parent who would not gladly sacrifice themselves for their children. But if a parent takes affection and they turn it into an excuse for not having a proper sense of priority as they raise their kids, if they make the child the center of the universe—let me say that again—if they make the child the center of the universe and their affection is not in any way bounded, regulated by Holy Spirit wisdom, they will not be helping the child, they will be destroying the child. You love your children desperately, but you still must deal with them in a way that is wise and holy and best for them. There will be times that you correct them, there'll be times that you say no to them, there'll be times that you set boundaries around them, and it is not a godly love that has no sense of priorities attached to it.
So Paul loves them, but at this particular time, it wasn't God's will for him to see them face to face. It wasn't. So he sends Timothy to minister to them. Nevertheless, it is still genuine affection. In fact, I think one of the reasons why he stresses his affection so much for them in this letter is because he did send Timothy, and he doesn't want them to think in any way, shape, or form, "Well, you know what? Paul must not really care about us." No, no. He wants them to know, "I truly, genuinely, love you." But at this time, it was God's will for Timothy to carry out this work toward you.
So I'm not talking about some over-sentimentalized or over-emotionalized kind of thing. I'm just asking the question: do you genuinely care for the people that you have a ministry to? And do you express that? Is your affection real? Is your heart in it? And if it isn't, then you're missing one of the attitudes vital to authentic ministry. And I really wish, beloved, I really wish that every person who didn't genuinely love the church, but finds himself in some position of ministry—I wish they would just step out and let someone occupy that position who does genuinely love the church.
The second attitude is thankfulness. Thankfulness. Paul stresses this in the opening verses. Verse 2, look at it: "We give thanks to God always for you”--for all of you–“making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father." In other words, he says, I thank God for you all the time. All the time.
Look down to chapter 2, verse 13. He stresses it again. He says, "And for this reason we also thank God without ceasing without ceasing that when you received the word of God which you have heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe."
Look at chapter 3, verse 6: "But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always remember us kindly, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith;” Verse 8, "for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God because of you, as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith?"
What is he saying throughout the letter? I thank God for you. I thank God for you. I thank God for what He's done in you, and I thank God for what He is doing in you. It's oozing with thankfulness to God for these people. Beloved, this is a proper attitude for ministry—the attitude of thanksgiving to God. Thanksgiving to God. Ministry—ministry at home, ministry with your wife, with your husband, with your children, with your friends, with those who you are trying to disciple in the church, and in every area of ministry in the church, in every area of influence in your life—thanksgiving. I'll put it this way: wherever you're engaged in ministry, let me ask this question. Do you feel blessed, or do you feel it's become a chore? Do you feel blessed? Do you feel like it's a burden? Or do you feel like you're very blessed? Are you counting all the difficulties and rehearsing those things before your mind, and it becomes weary, wearisome? Or are you taking note of all that God is doing and remembering those things in your mind so that your heart is full of joy and your prayers are full of thanksgiving to God? Notice, he keeps using words like "without ceasing," "always," "day and night." I mean, Paul is living in a continual atmosphere of joyful thanksgiving. Child of God, is that you in your ministry?
Now again, let's not think just about the church. Let's think about your ministry at home. Could we say that your home, your house—could we say that your home is a place full of thanksgiving and affection? That in your family there's an atmosphere of genuine affection and there's an atmosphere of genuine thanksgiving? Why do we give thanks? Because, simply, we recognize who the source is for all true effectiveness in ministry.
Paul understands it, doesn't he? How is it that he could be with them such a brief time, send Timothy back to them, and get such a glowing report about how they're doing? How could that be the case? How could that be so? Because God. Because God is the one who has accomplished what has been accomplished in these people. And so he couldn't help himself. He has to give thanks. That's why you give thanks. Because He is the one who does the work. He's the one who accomplishes what gets accomplished. And wherever you see good fruit, beloved, wherever you see the Lord's blessing, do you stop and really take note? I mean, if you see it in your spouse, if you see it in your children, if you see it in your Sunday school class or nursery, if you see it in a brother or sister—wherever you see the Holy Spirit producing fruit—do you stop and understand that it is not explained by us, no matter what kind of effort we put into it? It is explained by the Lord. And do we give Him thanks for it?
I think this is something especially that parents need to be aware of and concentrate on. If you see a son or daughter walking with the Lord and in their life there's a sense of integrity, responsibility, and they're committed to a life of holiness and pursuit of Christ and living for Christ, be careful. There are far too many Christian parents who pat themselves on the back and say, "Well, honey, didn't we do a great job?" Now, they would never maybe say that out loud. Hopefully not out loud. But they sort of think that way perhaps, and they're raising their children in such a way that they hope the children will turn out to be a good testimony about them, about their methods, about the way they go about raising their kids. When instead we need to realize something: there is nothing good in any person's life except it to be the product of God's grace. God's grace. He no doubt uses means. Parental training is important. We ought to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and the fear of God. But do you understand, if your son or daughter is walking after the Lord, get on your knees and give God thanks. Give God praise. He's the One who's done that. He's the One who's done that. And in church, He's the One who's done that.
We only—I only—we as elders, as deacons, as people serving, we can only take credit for the failures, not for the success. In a Sunday school class or in a nursery or whatever it is, He's the One who's done it. And as you disciple individuals, He's the One who's done it. Now Paul understood this very clearly. 1 Corinthians 3:7–9 he says this: "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything." Reminds me of those very deep, deep words that H. P. Charles' daughter said to him: "Daddy, remember, you're nobody. You're a nobody, daddy."
"So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything,"--now watch this–"but God who causes the growth.” God. “Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor." You see, he doesn't diminish the fact that there are laborers and there's work. He doesn't diminish that. He doesn't diminish that at all. But what are we? What are we? Workers. We're workers. Verse 9: "For we are God's fellow workers;"--now watch this–"you are God's field, God's building." He's the One who does the building. He's the One who gives the growth. We just have the privilege of working in the field.
The same can be said of a family just as it is said of the church. We have the privilege of being workers, but God is the One who gives the growth. Give Him thanks. Give Him thanks. What do we give thanks for? We give thanks for fruit. We give thanks for spiritual growth. We give thanks for the evidences of grace, the evidences of salvation. There's a place for boasting, but it's not boasting in self. It is boasting in who? The Lord. It's glorying in what He's accomplished. You know, I said earlier, Paul is not shy about telling the good things that he sees in them, but when he tells them the good things that he sees in them, who is he boasting in? He's boasting not even in them. He's boasting in the Lord. "Oh, look what the Lord has done. Isn't God great? I look at this fruit in you. I look at your growth, and you're doing amazing. Isn't the Lord great?"
What are the attitudes of authentic ministry? You genuinely love the people you minister to, and you minister to them in an attitude of thanksgiving, and you give God thanks for every good thing that you see God is producing in them.
A third attitude for authentic ministry is concern. Concern. He's concerned about them. And so he writes in chapter 4, verse 9, because you'll see another example of it here. He says, “Now concerning love of the brothers, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, for indeed you do practice it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will walk properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.” Verse 13, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” And he goes on to give them this teaching that we're familiar with concerning the rapture and the coming of the Lord for His church. And so in what context does he do this teaching? Well, he is very concerned that they understand correctly, that they understand right, that they believe right, that they live right. This is why even though he could not go to them face to face, he sends someone who will look after them, he sends someone who will take care of them. He's genuinely concerned. There's genuine concern here for their spiritual well-being. You see, this is the kind of genuine affection we're talking about. It's not just genuine affection in the context of friendship. It's genuine affection in the context of faith. Spiritual sibling-ship.
Do you really care about your people? Do you really care about them, not just on some friendship kind of level? Is your genuine affection for them about the condition of their soul? Not just to sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy time together and you can talk easily. No, no, no. It's beyond that. Is it in the context of faith? Is your genuine affection for them about the condition of their soul? How is their walk with God? Where is their understanding of doctrine? Is their behavior one of holiness? Are they living lives that are a testimony to the world? See, that's what it means to really have a heart for the people you minister to, no matter what realm we're talking about. Is the chief focus of your concern the condition of their soul?
How many parents spend more time concerned about their child's grades or social status or reputation than they care about their child's walk with God? When's the last time you talked to your child about their schoolwork? And when's the last time you talked to your child about their soul? How much time have you spent this last year talking about issues that have nothing to do with their walk with God compared to the time that you sat down on their bed before they went to sleep and had a face-to-face conversation about the temperature going on in their heart toward Jesus?
And I'm not just talking about information. Beloved, listen, our children can spit out information and have a heart that is so far away from God, especially if they've grown up in a Christian home, sat in a Bible-teaching church, if they go to a Christian school. I mean, they can have a lot of stored-up information that has been in their mind but has never been assimilated into their own life and their own heart. And oftentimes when you talk to your kids about sermons and they give you the main points, you know, after the service in the morning, you're driving home, you say, "Oh, kids, let's talk about the sermon. Do you remember the main points?" "Oh, yes, yes." And they give you the main points, and they give you the main points very specifically and precisely. I want to encourage you to follow up by saying, "Great, that's a good outline, but what does that mean about your walk with God?" What effect is that going to have on your walk with God today and tomorrow and the day after? Are you walking with the Lord? Are you staying close to Him? Are you spending time in prayer? Are you spending time in the Word? Are you having those conversations with your kids? And, then, expand that out to wherever you have a ministry. When was the last time you asked someone in your sphere of ministry, "How's your walk with God?" Concern, affection, thanksgiving.
Fourth, instruction. Instruction. If we have genuine affection for people, if we understand that it's God who does good work in people—thanksgiving, right?—and if we have a true concern about their spiritual condition, if all those things are true, then what do we do in ministry to them? What's the chief thing that we do? We instruct. We instruct. We instruct them. We give them the Word of God. And I don't mean apart from prayer, obviously, and all the other means. But what you find Paul doing in this letter, in the letter in which he expresses affection and thanksgiving and concern—what does he do here particularly? He teaches. He teaches. He teaches them biblical teaching. If it's from a genuine heart, it's an expression of our affection for the people of God. See, it's all interconnected. It's an expression of our belief in God working in them. It's an expression of our true concern for the well-being of their soul. How am I concerned about your soul? By giving you the Word of God. How do I give God thanks for what He does in you? By trusting in the sufficiency of Scripture. And how do I show I really love you? By bringing the truth to bear upon your life.
We can put it another way. There are many people who claim in the name of Christ to have a love for the church, but they don't labor to teach the Word of God to their people. You say, "I really love my children." Well, what have you taught them? And, if you really love your kids, wouldn't you teach them the Scripture? Listen, if you love people, if you care about their soul, if you understand God's the one who does the work—well, what instrument does He use? What instrument does He use? What is that instrument that is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, that gets down between the bone and the marrow and works in a person's heart to a depth that we could never do on our own? What instrument does He use? The Word of God. The Word of God. And yet we say we care about people and we never speak truth into their life very often or sometimes. The right attitude for authentic ministry is an attitude that says, "Beloved, I will love you, I will care about you, and I will trust God's work in your life by trusting in the sufficiency of His Word in the hand of His Holy Spirit."
I want to teach the truth of God. But we know this, don't we? To be a teacher of truth, I have to be a learner of truth. Right? I have to be a learner of truth. I can't be a teacher if I'm not a student. I can't be a teacher if I'm not under the authority of the Lord Himself and if I'm not willing to be taught by others. The kind of teaching ministry that will impact people—the people that you love—is not one where you're always the teacher, but also where they can see you, that you're also a learner. When the day ever comes that I'm studying this book just to give you a message, I will cease to have the right understanding of this book.
Before I can say anything to you as God's people, it first has to speak to my own heart. God has to deal with me. My heart has to be brought to a place of submission to the very thing that I'm about to share with God's people and teach God's people. You don't teach the Word of God standing on it; you teach the Word of God standing under it or sitting under it. So that I'm never striving to stand here and say, listen, that's what you need to do. No, no, I'm saying by God's grace, here's what all of us need to do. Even when I use sometimes the "you," it's not that I haven't also been brought under the sound of God's Word myself. Here's what the Word of God says to me first and foremost, and then to you. So every bit of Bible study we ever do ought to be, ought to be, ought to be devotional.
You know people like to talk about devotional Bible study? How's your devotion? Do you have a devotional Bible study? Study Bible? What is a devotional Bible study? Well, here's a simple definition: it is studying the Word of God while you love the Lord. That's it. It's studying the Word of God while you love the Lord. And every bit of Bible study, every bit of it, ought to be devotional even when you're digging into the nuts and bolts of difficult passages. It's not out of, If it's not out of communion with God, if it's not out of genuine communion with God, listen then, beloved, close the book. It is a waste of time. This book was never meant to be just some kind of academic study like you're studying history in a classroom. This is fellowship with God. This is where we meet with God. This is where we hear the voice of God in the Scripture.
And I wonder if we don't teach our children the Word of God because we aren't learning it ourselves. What happens when you study the Word of God while you love the Lord? Oh, let me tell you. You get so excited about what the Lord is doing in your own heart and it just spills out. It pours out. It pours out. And please allow me to say this. When this happens, when you get so excited about what the Lord is doing in your own heart, when you study the Word of God while you love the Word of God and you get so excited about what the Lord is doing in your life, it just pours out. Nobody can shut you up. It is fire in your bones. So how can we have days and weeks go by in our families, in our interactions with others, where we don't talk about the Word of God? How can that happen? It's got to be because it's not pouring in. Right? Because if it's pouring in, what happens? It pours out. Can't help it. It pours out. It overflows.
Well, I must hasten to conclude. Affection, thanksgiving, concern, instruction. The fifth attitude is encouragement. Encouragement. Ministry must include exhortation. Must include exhortation. We are called not just to teach, not just to correct, but to encourage, to exhort. Whatever Paul could encourage, whatever Paul could encourage God's people for, he did. And when he did that, he was simply following the example of Christ Himself, His Lord.
And I think of a great example of this in the seven letters to the churches in Revelation. Because there, our Lord, the living, resurrected Christ demonstrates His love for His church through correction. You remember those seven letters. He corrects the churches there, doesn't He? He tells them what He sees that isn't right, that needs to be aligned or realigned. But what is also amazing about those seven letters, even when He's correcting some very serious things in those congregations, in most of those seven letters He also, what? Has commendation. Commendation. "Here's what I see in you that is praiseworthy."
Well, just to give you one example. Revelation 2. Look at verse 1: “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: This is what the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says, ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot bear with those who are evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, you also have not grown weary.’”
How does He begin? Commendation. “I know you're doing all these things.” Well done. Wonderful. I acknowledge them. I see them. I commend you for them.
Verse 4: “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first. But if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.” And what do you have there? Firm, stern correction. That's love too. That's love too.
But notice how He finishes. Verse 6: “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” And what is that? Commendation. Commendation.
How much exhortation, beloved, goes on in your ministry? How much encouragement comes from your lips? Do you love those people that you serve? Do you let those people that you're seeking to minister to know that you see what God is doing in their life? We have to ask ourselves, do we see the Lord doing good things? And if the answer is yes, then we have a responsibility to encourage. If the answer is yes, then we have a responsibility to encourage, to exhort and praise and not just correct.
When was the last time you told the person that you have a ministry with—husband, wife, child, brother, sister in Christ—when was the last time you told them what you see God doing in their life? Good things that you've seen the Lord produced in them–evidences of grace, growth in areas in their lives.
And Paul is not stingy with encouragement. Read this letter and you'll see what I'm talking about. His encouragement to these people is really throughout the letter. And it has to be authentic. I'm not talking about something we put on. We're not talking about something artificial. I'm talking about something from our hearts—genuine, real.
Let our affection be real. Let our thanksgiving be real. Let our concern be real. Let our teaching be authentic. Let our encouragement be real. Beloved, make no mistake about it: if you want to be effective in ministry, those five attitudes are absolutely essential. And may the Lord, beloved, grow each and every one of us to live out those five things that we see in the apostle as he writes this letter to these believers. Take stock of your ministry.
Let's pray.
It's a testimony to the sufficiency of the Gospel, the sufficiency of Christ, the sufficiency of the Holy Spirit's operation, work, in a person's life. And this church in Thessaloniki, this beloved community of God's people, stands as a great testimony to the sufficiency of salvation. This church stands as a testimony to the sufficiency of the Gospel, the sufficiency of Christ, the sufficiency of the indwelling Spirit of God, God the Spirit, the reality of a new nature when the Lord really truly saves someone and transforms someone.
Because when you study, as we did last time in our introduction, how the church came to be, this beloved church, what you discover from the book of Acts, chapter 17, is that Paul did not have the opportunity to spend much time with them. You remember Paul had a witness in Thessaloniki on his second missionary journey. This was a large influential city of approximately at least 100,000 residents. So it was a large city, large Jewish population. They had their own synagogue. And from all that we can gather from the account in Acts, Paul was there for three Sabbath days, I mean three weeks preaching in the synagogue.How long he was there thereafter, we cannot be certain about, but we know that Jason had received them into his home and there was some kind of a ministry going on there during that time. But the point being, when you read the account, that he wasn't there for very long. And so when he leaves, he leaves these new believers. There they are without the benefits of, for example, the 18 months' worth of teaching and ministry that he gave to the Corinthians. They did not have that.
We learn from the book of 1 Thessalonians that after having to depart from them, he sends Timothy to them in order to find out how they're doing. He was concerned about them and the way he left so abruptly, he wanted to ascertain as to how they're doing and how they are managing. Timothy brings news to Paul at Corinth, and when Paul receives news from Timothy as to their condition, then he pens this letter under inspiration. And so that's sort of the background as you come to the book of 1 Thessalonians.
He's dealing with the people who are new in the faith. They haven't had a great amount of instruction, but he's rejoicing at what he's hearing because it is truly evident that they really did receive the Word of God with joy. It is evident that God has really done a saving work in their lives. The fruit of this church is truly an encouragement to his heart. Now that is not to say that they didn't have their issues, they didn't have their struggles. And, as we study this letter together, we're going to see that they had their struggle. Some of that came from just not a lot of instruction—simply, they were not well informed when it came to certain things. For example, one of the things they struggled with was what happens to a believer who dies before the return of Jesus Christ. What happens to a believer who dies before the coming of the Lord? If, when the Lord comes, we are alive, what will be our relationship to those who have preceded us in death? They didn't know, they didn't understand. And so he says, brethren, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, "I don't want you to be uninformed." "I don't want you to be ignorant about this." And he goes on to instruct them.
And we also learn from the letter itself that apparently they were struggling in the area of purity and sexual behavior and holiness, being sort of a pushback into the mold of their culture. And so he's going to address that in this letter. Some of them had become also idle. They weren't working, they stopped working, perhaps misunderstanding what it meant to believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. And so, not thinking about His return in the right way, in the right kind of way—the biblical way—not only caused problems when it came to those who died in the Lord, but also some of them had begun to use the return of Jesus Christ as an excuse to stop working and just waiting. So they stopped being responsible in this earthly realm. And so he had to address that. He has to address that.
So as new believers, I mean, they were struggling with issues, but the overwhelming attitude, the overwhelming atmosphere of this epistle is a positive one. So Paul receives news from Timothy as to the well-being of these believers, that he hadn't spent a lot of time with them, and he's marveling. He's rejoicing at the clear fruit that says that their salvation is indeed genuine. As I read this letter all the way through and began to prepare, there were five words that my mind really captured. They summarized the entirety of the letter, and so we're going to do a flyover this evening a little bit.
Now there's a theme you're going to find in this letter again and again, and yeah, you're right, it's the second coming of Jesus. You find in every chapter of this book some reference to the return of Jesus Christ. So that is definitely a major theme in this book. But really, if you look at the book, if you look at it as a whole and you ask, what is the attitude of this book, what is the atmosphere of this book, I want to submit to us tonight there are five words that stand out. And I'm going to give them to you briefly, and then we're going to use those five words tonight as our study, taking this flyover of 1 Thessalonians.
And the first word is ‘affection’. Affection. And not just any kind of affection. When you read this letter, you see deep, genuine affection—the kind of affection that parents have for children, the kind of affection that makes separation very difficult. And as we'll see in a moment, Paul, in fact, describes his relationship to them much like the relationship that a mother or a father would have toward their own flesh and blood. So his affection for them is real, and it is stressed throughout the letter.
The second word is the word ‘thankfulness’. Thankfulness. But a kind of thankfulness that is very specific. It is thankfulness for the clear, undeniable evidences—the clear, undeniable fruit—of genuine salvation. It is thanking God for His work in the lives of these people, and it runs throughout the entirety of this epistle–thankfulness.
Third word is the word ‘concern’. Concern. More than once, Paul emphasizes—and he does this in the strongest kind of way—he wants to see them face to face. He longs to see them face to face. Now, why does he want to see them face to face? Well, I mean, obviously, he loves them. He cares about them. But the number one reason he wants to see them face to face is to discover really firsthand how they're doing spiritually, and it's a concern for them that creates this longing to be with them. So running through this epistle is this attitude of concern, gratefulness that they're doing well, but concern that they continue to do well by the grace of God, that they continue to grow, that they continue to advance in their walk with God.
The fourth word is the word ‘instruction’. Instruction, because the letter is instruction, and what you find in this letter is both doctrinal instruction and dutiful imperatives. There are areas where he knows they are under-informed, and he says, "I don't want you to be uninformed, brothers." And so he's going to pass on information, truth, that they need to know, and getting the report from Timothy—no doubt from that report—Paul now has a knowledge where they are under-developed, under-informed. So he wants to give them instruction, the instruction that they need. At the same time, though, this letter is a letter of exhortation. Exhortation. Throughout the letter, he's saying to them, this is how you must live, this is how you must live, this is how you must think, this is how you ought to think about this, this is how you ought to feel about this, this is how you want to decide about this, here's how you must live as believers in Jesus Christ.
So he instructs them, but then also added to that—I already mentioned it—it's the fifth word, really ‘encouragement’. Encouragement. It's a letter of encouragement. I mean, throughout the letter, he tells them about the good that he sees in them and that others recognize in them. He doesn't hesitate to tell them about the power of their testimony. He's not afraid to correct them, he's not afraid to command them, but everywhere he can, he commends them as well. One of the things that you learn from the book of 1 Thessalonians is that Paul loves to be an encourager. I mean, when he can encourage, he does, he doesn't hold back. And as we study through this book, we will see it every step of the way.
Now tonight, as you're aware, we're not going to read the entire letter, but I want to encourage you—and this will help tremendously as we study through the book together—I want to encourage you, it's a short book, read it through several times, whenever you can. Just read it through. Read it through several times, make your own mental notes about it as you walk through it. And as we come together on Sunday evenings, Lord willing, we will have a more fruitful and fulfilling study together.
But what I want to do tonight is I want to take those five words that I've just mentioned, because not only do these five words represent the attitude, the atmosphere that run throughout this letter, I really believe that these five words also represent a model for what it means to have a ministry to people. They represent a model of what it means to have a ministry to people. This was Paul's ministry to them, and if we recognize these attitudes in Paul as he ministers to the church at Thessaloniki, then I want to take from that the fact that these are also attitudes that ought to be present in me as an under-shepherd, as I strive to minister to God's people in this place. But I really don't want us to think about it tonight just in terms of us as under-shepherds, as elders, our ministry to the flock of God here. I really want you to think about this tonight in terms of your ministry to others, and that is really important.
So let me begin by asking the question, where do you have a ministry? If you're a Christian, you have a ministry. Where do you have a ministry? As we sit here this evening, as we consider this book, where do you have a ministry, child of God? God didn't save you to sit and do nothing. Where do you have a ministry? Recognize that what we're going to see tonight applies wherever you are engaged in ministry, and I'm talking about a husband's ministry to his wife, a wife's ministry to her husband, a parent's ministry to their children, the ministry you have to a Sunday school class, to nursery, the ministry you have to a friend that you are seeking to disciple and bring along in the faith, and so forth and so forth in your sphere of influence.
These five attitudes are absolutely essential to any effective ministry on any level. So this is not just for Paul and Timothy and Silas. These are not attitudes for the under-shepherds of Grace Chapel. This is for every believer. So as I examine myself on many different levels, I want to call on you to examine yourself on many different levels and ask this question: have you learned this model of ministry? So we can entitle this study, Attitudes Necessary for Authentic Ministry. Attitudes Necessary for Authentic Ministry.
And the first attitude is this: genuine affection. Affection. Affection. Genuine affection. Here's an example of it. Turn to chapter 2, chapter 2 verse 8. Actually, let's go back. Let's begin at verse 6. Verse 6, Paul writes, "nor seeking glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you. But we proved to be gentle among you,”--and he's taking them back now to the time when they spent with him, and he's reminding them of his ways–and he says, “we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. In this way, having fond affection for you, we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become beloved to us.For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as to not to be burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly and righteously and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and bearing witness to each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”
You see what he's saying? He says we were like a mother, we were like a father. He says, “having fond affection for you,” verse 8, “we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives.” Let's learn from that. If we don't genuinely love the people we are seeking to minister to, we will have no real ministry. No real ministry. Beloved, if we don't really care, genuinely care, if we don't have a genuine affection for the people that we are seeking to minister to, all we become is, at the best, some cold conduit through whom God is doing something, but we are not engaging those people in ministry ourselves. And that is something less than what God designed for ministry to be. We have to genuinely care for the people we're ministering to.
So husbands, let me ask you tonight, does your wife sense genuine affection from you? And do you express that? And wife, does your husband sense genuine affection from you? Do you express that? Parents, do you express to your children how much you care for them? Do they sense your relationship to them being one of duty or one of affectionate desire? Is there love that is running through everything you're carrying out toward them meant to be by God–ministry?
Now we've got to be careful. I mean, the application is, you know, there's ripple effects here. But now we've got to be careful, having said that, whenever we talk about affection in the context of ministry, we always must beware of over-sentimentalizing ministry or really emotionalizing it. Because let us remind ourselves that even while Paul says he longed to see them—and he does, he says that he has a strong desire to see them face to face—even though he says this, let us not forget he didn't go to see them. He sent Timothy at that time. And that says to us that while Paul had a genuine affection for this church, a genuine affection for this church, he still had to operate his life and ministry according to Holy Spirit-set priorities.
It's possible to have a genuine affection for someone, and yet at a particular time and season to delegate a ministry to them. You genuinely care for them by making sure that their needs are met, even if you can't see to it at that particular moment personally. There's still a place for that in ministry. But what I'm saying is this: just like, let's take the illustration that Paul uses—a mother, a father. Something's wrong, really, with parents who don't have genuine love for their children. Something is desperately wrong. Something's wrong with a parent who would not gladly sacrifice themselves for their children. But if a parent takes affection and they turn it into an excuse for not having a proper sense of priority as they raise their kids, if they make the child the center of the universe—let me say that again—if they make the child the center of the universe and their affection is not in any way bounded, regulated by Holy Spirit wisdom, they will not be helping the child, they will be destroying the child. You love your children desperately, but you still must deal with them in a way that is wise and holy and best for them. There will be times that you correct them, there'll be times that you say no to them, there'll be times that you set boundaries around them, and it is not a godly love that has no sense of priorities attached to it.
So Paul loves them, but at this particular time, it wasn't God's will for him to see them face to face. It wasn't. So he sends Timothy to minister to them. Nevertheless, it is still genuine affection. In fact, I think one of the reasons why he stresses his affection so much for them in this letter is because he did send Timothy, and he doesn't want them to think in any way, shape, or form, "Well, you know what? Paul must not really care about us." No, no. He wants them to know, "I truly, genuinely, love you." But at this time, it was God's will for Timothy to carry out this work toward you.
So I'm not talking about some over-sentimentalized or over-emotionalized kind of thing. I'm just asking the question: do you genuinely care for the people that you have a ministry to? And do you express that? Is your affection real? Is your heart in it? And if it isn't, then you're missing one of the attitudes vital to authentic ministry. And I really wish, beloved, I really wish that every person who didn't genuinely love the church, but finds himself in some position of ministry—I wish they would just step out and let someone occupy that position who does genuinely love the church.
The second attitude is thankfulness. Thankfulness. Paul stresses this in the opening verses. Verse 2, look at it: "We give thanks to God always for you”--for all of you–“making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father." In other words, he says, I thank God for you all the time. All the time.
Look down to chapter 2, verse 13. He stresses it again. He says, "And for this reason we also thank God without ceasing without ceasing that when you received the word of God which you have heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe."
Look at chapter 3, verse 6: "But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always remember us kindly, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith;” Verse 8, "for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God because of you, as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith?"
What is he saying throughout the letter? I thank God for you. I thank God for you. I thank God for what He's done in you, and I thank God for what He is doing in you. It's oozing with thankfulness to God for these people. Beloved, this is a proper attitude for ministry—the attitude of thanksgiving to God. Thanksgiving to God. Ministry—ministry at home, ministry with your wife, with your husband, with your children, with your friends, with those who you are trying to disciple in the church, and in every area of ministry in the church, in every area of influence in your life—thanksgiving. I'll put it this way: wherever you're engaged in ministry, let me ask this question. Do you feel blessed, or do you feel it's become a chore? Do you feel blessed? Do you feel like it's a burden? Or do you feel like you're very blessed? Are you counting all the difficulties and rehearsing those things before your mind, and it becomes weary, wearisome? Or are you taking note of all that God is doing and remembering those things in your mind so that your heart is full of joy and your prayers are full of thanksgiving to God? Notice, he keeps using words like "without ceasing," "always," "day and night." I mean, Paul is living in a continual atmosphere of joyful thanksgiving. Child of God, is that you in your ministry?
Now again, let's not think just about the church. Let's think about your ministry at home. Could we say that your home, your house—could we say that your home is a place full of thanksgiving and affection? That in your family there's an atmosphere of genuine affection and there's an atmosphere of genuine thanksgiving? Why do we give thanks? Because, simply, we recognize who the source is for all true effectiveness in ministry.
Paul understands it, doesn't he? How is it that he could be with them such a brief time, send Timothy back to them, and get such a glowing report about how they're doing? How could that be the case? How could that be so? Because God. Because God is the one who has accomplished what has been accomplished in these people. And so he couldn't help himself. He has to give thanks. That's why you give thanks. Because He is the one who does the work. He's the one who accomplishes what gets accomplished. And wherever you see good fruit, beloved, wherever you see the Lord's blessing, do you stop and really take note? I mean, if you see it in your spouse, if you see it in your children, if you see it in your Sunday school class or nursery, if you see it in a brother or sister—wherever you see the Holy Spirit producing fruit—do you stop and understand that it is not explained by us, no matter what kind of effort we put into it? It is explained by the Lord. And do we give Him thanks for it?
I think this is something especially that parents need to be aware of and concentrate on. If you see a son or daughter walking with the Lord and in their life there's a sense of integrity, responsibility, and they're committed to a life of holiness and pursuit of Christ and living for Christ, be careful. There are far too many Christian parents who pat themselves on the back and say, "Well, honey, didn't we do a great job?" Now, they would never maybe say that out loud. Hopefully not out loud. But they sort of think that way perhaps, and they're raising their children in such a way that they hope the children will turn out to be a good testimony about them, about their methods, about the way they go about raising their kids. When instead we need to realize something: there is nothing good in any person's life except it to be the product of God's grace. God's grace. He no doubt uses means. Parental training is important. We ought to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and the fear of God. But do you understand, if your son or daughter is walking after the Lord, get on your knees and give God thanks. Give God praise. He's the One who's done that. He's the One who's done that. And in church, He's the One who's done that.
We only—I only—we as elders, as deacons, as people serving, we can only take credit for the failures, not for the success. In a Sunday school class or in a nursery or whatever it is, He's the One who's done it. And as you disciple individuals, He's the One who's done it. Now Paul understood this very clearly. 1 Corinthians 3:7–9 he says this: "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything." Reminds me of those very deep, deep words that H. P. Charles' daughter said to him: "Daddy, remember, you're nobody. You're a nobody, daddy."
"So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything,"--now watch this–"but God who causes the growth.” God. “Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor." You see, he doesn't diminish the fact that there are laborers and there's work. He doesn't diminish that. He doesn't diminish that at all. But what are we? What are we? Workers. We're workers. Verse 9: "For we are God's fellow workers;"--now watch this–"you are God's field, God's building." He's the One who does the building. He's the One who gives the growth. We just have the privilege of working in the field.
The same can be said of a family just as it is said of the church. We have the privilege of being workers, but God is the One who gives the growth. Give Him thanks. Give Him thanks. What do we give thanks for? We give thanks for fruit. We give thanks for spiritual growth. We give thanks for the evidences of grace, the evidences of salvation. There's a place for boasting, but it's not boasting in self. It is boasting in who? The Lord. It's glorying in what He's accomplished. You know, I said earlier, Paul is not shy about telling the good things that he sees in them, but when he tells them the good things that he sees in them, who is he boasting in? He's boasting not even in them. He's boasting in the Lord. "Oh, look what the Lord has done. Isn't God great? I look at this fruit in you. I look at your growth, and you're doing amazing. Isn't the Lord great?"
What are the attitudes of authentic ministry? You genuinely love the people you minister to, and you minister to them in an attitude of thanksgiving, and you give God thanks for every good thing that you see God is producing in them.
A third attitude for authentic ministry is concern. Concern. He's concerned about them. And so he writes in chapter 4, verse 9, because you'll see another example of it here. He says, “Now concerning love of the brothers, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, for indeed you do practice it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will walk properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.” Verse 13, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” And he goes on to give them this teaching that we're familiar with concerning the rapture and the coming of the Lord for His church. And so in what context does he do this teaching? Well, he is very concerned that they understand correctly, that they understand right, that they believe right, that they live right. This is why even though he could not go to them face to face, he sends someone who will look after them, he sends someone who will take care of them. He's genuinely concerned. There's genuine concern here for their spiritual well-being. You see, this is the kind of genuine affection we're talking about. It's not just genuine affection in the context of friendship. It's genuine affection in the context of faith. Spiritual sibling-ship.
Do you really care about your people? Do you really care about them, not just on some friendship kind of level? Is your genuine affection for them about the condition of their soul? Not just to sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy time together and you can talk easily. No, no, no. It's beyond that. Is it in the context of faith? Is your genuine affection for them about the condition of their soul? How is their walk with God? Where is their understanding of doctrine? Is their behavior one of holiness? Are they living lives that are a testimony to the world? See, that's what it means to really have a heart for the people you minister to, no matter what realm we're talking about. Is the chief focus of your concern the condition of their soul?
How many parents spend more time concerned about their child's grades or social status or reputation than they care about their child's walk with God? When's the last time you talked to your child about their schoolwork? And when's the last time you talked to your child about their soul? How much time have you spent this last year talking about issues that have nothing to do with their walk with God compared to the time that you sat down on their bed before they went to sleep and had a face-to-face conversation about the temperature going on in their heart toward Jesus?
And I'm not just talking about information. Beloved, listen, our children can spit out information and have a heart that is so far away from God, especially if they've grown up in a Christian home, sat in a Bible-teaching church, if they go to a Christian school. I mean, they can have a lot of stored-up information that has been in their mind but has never been assimilated into their own life and their own heart. And oftentimes when you talk to your kids about sermons and they give you the main points, you know, after the service in the morning, you're driving home, you say, "Oh, kids, let's talk about the sermon. Do you remember the main points?" "Oh, yes, yes." And they give you the main points, and they give you the main points very specifically and precisely. I want to encourage you to follow up by saying, "Great, that's a good outline, but what does that mean about your walk with God?" What effect is that going to have on your walk with God today and tomorrow and the day after? Are you walking with the Lord? Are you staying close to Him? Are you spending time in prayer? Are you spending time in the Word? Are you having those conversations with your kids? And, then, expand that out to wherever you have a ministry. When was the last time you asked someone in your sphere of ministry, "How's your walk with God?" Concern, affection, thanksgiving.
Fourth, instruction. Instruction. If we have genuine affection for people, if we understand that it's God who does good work in people—thanksgiving, right?—and if we have a true concern about their spiritual condition, if all those things are true, then what do we do in ministry to them? What's the chief thing that we do? We instruct. We instruct. We instruct them. We give them the Word of God. And I don't mean apart from prayer, obviously, and all the other means. But what you find Paul doing in this letter, in the letter in which he expresses affection and thanksgiving and concern—what does he do here particularly? He teaches. He teaches. He teaches them biblical teaching. If it's from a genuine heart, it's an expression of our affection for the people of God. See, it's all interconnected. It's an expression of our belief in God working in them. It's an expression of our true concern for the well-being of their soul. How am I concerned about your soul? By giving you the Word of God. How do I give God thanks for what He does in you? By trusting in the sufficiency of Scripture. And how do I show I really love you? By bringing the truth to bear upon your life.
We can put it another way. There are many people who claim in the name of Christ to have a love for the church, but they don't labor to teach the Word of God to their people. You say, "I really love my children." Well, what have you taught them? And, if you really love your kids, wouldn't you teach them the Scripture? Listen, if you love people, if you care about their soul, if you understand God's the one who does the work—well, what instrument does He use? What instrument does He use? What is that instrument that is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, that gets down between the bone and the marrow and works in a person's heart to a depth that we could never do on our own? What instrument does He use? The Word of God. The Word of God. And yet we say we care about people and we never speak truth into their life very often or sometimes. The right attitude for authentic ministry is an attitude that says, "Beloved, I will love you, I will care about you, and I will trust God's work in your life by trusting in the sufficiency of His Word in the hand of His Holy Spirit."
I want to teach the truth of God. But we know this, don't we? To be a teacher of truth, I have to be a learner of truth. Right? I have to be a learner of truth. I can't be a teacher if I'm not a student. I can't be a teacher if I'm not under the authority of the Lord Himself and if I'm not willing to be taught by others. The kind of teaching ministry that will impact people—the people that you love—is not one where you're always the teacher, but also where they can see you, that you're also a learner. When the day ever comes that I'm studying this book just to give you a message, I will cease to have the right understanding of this book.
Before I can say anything to you as God's people, it first has to speak to my own heart. God has to deal with me. My heart has to be brought to a place of submission to the very thing that I'm about to share with God's people and teach God's people. You don't teach the Word of God standing on it; you teach the Word of God standing under it or sitting under it. So that I'm never striving to stand here and say, listen, that's what you need to do. No, no, I'm saying by God's grace, here's what all of us need to do. Even when I use sometimes the "you," it's not that I haven't also been brought under the sound of God's Word myself. Here's what the Word of God says to me first and foremost, and then to you. So every bit of Bible study we ever do ought to be, ought to be, ought to be devotional.
You know people like to talk about devotional Bible study? How's your devotion? Do you have a devotional Bible study? Study Bible? What is a devotional Bible study? Well, here's a simple definition: it is studying the Word of God while you love the Lord. That's it. It's studying the Word of God while you love the Lord. And every bit of Bible study, every bit of it, ought to be devotional even when you're digging into the nuts and bolts of difficult passages. It's not out of, If it's not out of communion with God, if it's not out of genuine communion with God, listen then, beloved, close the book. It is a waste of time. This book was never meant to be just some kind of academic study like you're studying history in a classroom. This is fellowship with God. This is where we meet with God. This is where we hear the voice of God in the Scripture.
And I wonder if we don't teach our children the Word of God because we aren't learning it ourselves. What happens when you study the Word of God while you love the Lord? Oh, let me tell you. You get so excited about what the Lord is doing in your own heart and it just spills out. It pours out. It pours out. And please allow me to say this. When this happens, when you get so excited about what the Lord is doing in your own heart, when you study the Word of God while you love the Word of God and you get so excited about what the Lord is doing in your life, it just pours out. Nobody can shut you up. It is fire in your bones. So how can we have days and weeks go by in our families, in our interactions with others, where we don't talk about the Word of God? How can that happen? It's got to be because it's not pouring in. Right? Because if it's pouring in, what happens? It pours out. Can't help it. It pours out. It overflows.
Well, I must hasten to conclude. Affection, thanksgiving, concern, instruction. The fifth attitude is encouragement. Encouragement. Ministry must include exhortation. Must include exhortation. We are called not just to teach, not just to correct, but to encourage, to exhort. Whatever Paul could encourage, whatever Paul could encourage God's people for, he did. And when he did that, he was simply following the example of Christ Himself, His Lord.
And I think of a great example of this in the seven letters to the churches in Revelation. Because there, our Lord, the living, resurrected Christ demonstrates His love for His church through correction. You remember those seven letters. He corrects the churches there, doesn't He? He tells them what He sees that isn't right, that needs to be aligned or realigned. But what is also amazing about those seven letters, even when He's correcting some very serious things in those congregations, in most of those seven letters He also, what? Has commendation. Commendation. "Here's what I see in you that is praiseworthy."
Well, just to give you one example. Revelation 2. Look at verse 1: “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: This is what the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says, ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot bear with those who are evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, you also have not grown weary.’”
How does He begin? Commendation. “I know you're doing all these things.” Well done. Wonderful. I acknowledge them. I see them. I commend you for them.
Verse 4: “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first. But if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.” And what do you have there? Firm, stern correction. That's love too. That's love too.
But notice how He finishes. Verse 6: “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” And what is that? Commendation. Commendation.
How much exhortation, beloved, goes on in your ministry? How much encouragement comes from your lips? Do you love those people that you serve? Do you let those people that you're seeking to minister to know that you see what God is doing in their life? We have to ask ourselves, do we see the Lord doing good things? And if the answer is yes, then we have a responsibility to encourage. If the answer is yes, then we have a responsibility to encourage, to exhort and praise and not just correct.
When was the last time you told the person that you have a ministry with—husband, wife, child, brother, sister in Christ—when was the last time you told them what you see God doing in their life? Good things that you've seen the Lord produced in them–evidences of grace, growth in areas in their lives.
And Paul is not stingy with encouragement. Read this letter and you'll see what I'm talking about. His encouragement to these people is really throughout the letter. And it has to be authentic. I'm not talking about something we put on. We're not talking about something artificial. I'm talking about something from our hearts—genuine, real.
Let our affection be real. Let our thanksgiving be real. Let our concern be real. Let our teaching be authentic. Let our encouragement be real. Beloved, make no mistake about it: if you want to be effective in ministry, those five attitudes are absolutely essential. And may the Lord, beloved, grow each and every one of us to live out those five things that we see in the apostle as he writes this letter to these believers. Take stock of your ministry.
Let's pray.
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