1 Thessalonians No.4 Pastor Paul

The role of moral states. Of wisdom, love, and power. The devil holds the truth.

As angels tell the truth. The bold one to lead, to speak, is right. to me to set my Saviour on the throne.

Great prophet, O my God, my God, who blessed my name, and brought us salvation came. The joyful news of sins forgiven, the bells of Euphrates ring. My Saviour and my Lord, my God, God, and my King, my centre and my soul, thy great grace I see.

I lift up the grave of my sins, with grateful tears I weep. Should all the world surrender, and part all hell and earth, or never tread the road of age and life's work, I shall be safe, for Christ is safe, in heaven above and glory of grace. So then, we're into Thessalonians and the third chapter of the first letter.

The Apostle Paul writing to very dear Christian friends. So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you in your faith so that no one would be unsettled by these trials.

You know quite well that we were destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted and it turned out that way, as you well know. For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith.

I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless. But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us just as we also long to see you.

Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day, we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your heart so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

God will bless the reading of his inerrant word. Let's turn to another beautiful hymn from Hymns of Faith. Well, let's open the Word of God to the passage that I referred to earlier.

1 Thessalonians and chapter 3. One often thinks of the Apostle Paul in that particular office. Apostle. Apostle.

But do you ever think of Paul not only as an apostle but in the category that is perhaps embraced by that word but also has a special significance in and of itself. I refer to pastor. You can't, I feel, be an apostle without being a pastor.

What the Thessalonians understood of the apostolic office, I don't know. At least not on first meeting with Paul. But what they did appreciate almost from day one was that here was a man who had a great concern for people with whom he had to do in that Greek city.

You see, the thing about Paul, the thing about all these old Christian leaders and pioneer of churches is that they had a love for people. I think that you can't really be a Christian unless you have a love for people. And you can't be a leader unless you have a concern for fellow humanity.

Someone has written, and I think, well, the job of a pastor is to gather the people in his arms and draw them near to God. The job of a pastor is to gather people in his arms and draw them near to God. And I want to talk to you about Pastor Paul.

But it's a dangerous subject, not because there's anything explosive that I want to share with you. The danger of the pulpit implying to those who are sitting in the pew at this very moment that what is to follow is so removed from where you are that you've no need to interact. I'm not a pastor.

I don't intend to be a clergyman, a vicar, a priest, or whatever. I'm just an ordinary Christian believer. Therefore, I can close down the shutters of my mind and I've no need to listen any further.

Let me disabuse you of that. I've never been the greatest advocate of a professional clergy. Let me also advance upon that and say that it seems to me that you could never from the New Testament make the conclusion that the pastor's office was exclusively to one category of people.

I go further. You believe that Jesus is your savior. You believe that he died on the cross to rescue you from sin.

You believe that this is the most important message that needs to be broadcasted to our world today. Then that very acknowledgement that you make fits you in part into the pastoral role because there is that sense in which every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the Christian church enters into a sphere of responsibility for other people and it's the love and compassion that we show towards others which will be basic in winning them to the Lord Jesus as savior. So although I'm focusing in on Paul this morning I'm not speaking just to brother preachers who might be in our congregation.

I'm addressing every so-called ordinary Christian. Here is Paul you see and he's writing to this Christian community that he's helped to found in this pagan spot on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and as he writes to them he shows first of all that as a pastor he's filled with a pastor's anxiety. Verses one to five indicates that the anxiety of the pastor.

But then because certain things happen that we'll go into in a moment and therefore you'll pick up the sense in a little while because of certain eventualities the anxiety of the pastor is replaced and if you like we are faced with a picture from verses six through to ten of the pastor's serenity and we need to ask ourselves why did the serenity displace the anxiety? What happened? And then finally in the last two or three verses you'll discover the pastor's affinity with his people because someone who is ministering on behalf of the Lord Jesus is ministering to people with whom they identify with whom he or she identifies. So here I argue there is given to us in a very wonderful way in these thirteen verses of this third chapter of 1 Thessalonians an insight into a pastor's mentality into a pastoral heart and what Paul had in degree. So you must also endeavor to cultivate in your spiritual nature.

The pastor's anxiety he is anxious isn't he? Look at the opening verse of the third chapter so when we could stand it no longer look at verse five for this reason when I could stand it no longer you don't generally use that of a pleasant experience do you? When I'm at the dentist I will not have an injection I cannot stand the needle going into my gum I'd rather cope with the pain of the dentist's drill than have the uncomfortable feeling of someone plunging around at the back of my throat with something that looks like a dagger when it's just two inches before my eye as it enters my mouth. But there does come a point presumably when you can't take the pain anymore you shout ouch or something like that and ask nonetheless that the dentist will come to your rescue. I haven't yet reached that point but doubtless one day it will come.

Paul is not at the dentist's but he is in pain and his pain is because he's been displaced from his people. You see when he was in Thessalonica his ministry there was disturbed you read of it in the middle chapters of the Acts of the Apostles he wasn't able to fulfill what he wanted to do and therefore he's taken away from his people he has to go away from these people to whom he has poured out his heart. Do you ever think of Paul preaching? Any successful man who preaches in any degree, a woman for that matter they preach, as John Bunyan puts it I preached what I did feel what I did smartingly feel.

You see he's talking about God and the need that these Christian people had or these pagan people had for the Lord he smartingly felt it and when they responded he moved into a relationship with them which was a brother-sister relationship which was a father-son relationship which was a mother-daughter relationship which was a pastor-people relationship and he has as a result of political and religious activity and agitation to leave Thessalonica and he's hurting because he's not with the people he loves. That's the nature of the pastor's anxiety. So what does he do? He sends someone back back to Thessalonica the reason being well as I open up these first verses there was the news that he sought the news that he sought we sent Timothy who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ we sent him to you.

Why? Well Paul wants to know how these poor Thessalonian Christians are coping. It's not easy to be a Christian at sixth form college but I think it's a jolly sight easier than what it was actually to be a Christian in Thessalonica in the days of the Apostle Paul. The predicament was this you see verse 3 someone might be unsettled by the persecution that Paul himself is going through as they hear of the treatment that's been afforded that's been allocated to their pastor-pioneer and also the people in Thessalonica these Christians from a pagan background are going through difficulty.

How are they coping? He's concerned isn't he? Have you got a concern for how your brothers and sisters are progressing in the Christian faith? Have you a real genuine concern for what's happening in lands across the seas in terms of the growth of the Christian church there or even in your neighborhood in your locality? The news that he sought we sent Timothy who is our brother and God's fellow worker isn't that an amazing expression? You see Paul can't go himself so he sends a man who can in order to go after the news that he sought and he describes Timothy as God's fellow worker. Are you? Not just Paul's fellow worker but God's fellow worker. And now he hasn't made a mistake the apostle because he uses this expression you remember when he's writing to the Corinthians he talks about Apollos and himself as being co-laborers collaborators with God.

And in a most marvelous statement at the end of Mark's gospel the 16th chapter we're told that the Holy Spirit was upon the ministry of the disciples and the Lord Jesus in effect went with them working alongside. He was working they were working they were God's co-workers. So Timothy goes to Thessalonica on behalf of Paul and the quest well the news that he sought for the news that he sought how are they coping without us the pioneers of the church.

Well Timothy comes back and he allays the anxiety of Paul in great degree. When Timothy comes back he has something to tell Paul about these Thessalonians. The news that he sought is turned into if you like the reminder he brought.

He reminded the Thessalonians of what Paul had been going through and what he had predicted they would go through and he tells Paul that in a most remarkable fashion they're able to withstand the difficulties in Thessalonica and the news that Paul and his colleagues have been very badly treated. Paul doesn't want them to be unsettled. That's why he sent Timothy.

Timothy comes to the Thessalonians with a reminder. In fact verse 4 when we were with you we kept telling you that we would be persecuted and it turned out that way as well you know. All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

That's what Paul said wasn't it? And Jesus said blessed are you when you're persecuted for righteousness sake. Great is your reward in heaven. Do you know what it is to be persecuted? I don't necessarily mean to pick up stones and have stones being thrown at you by someone else.

But I mean in terms of being misunderstood here in Worthing simply because of your belief. I don't mean suffering the consequence of being a pain in the neck. You know some people can be very difficult to get on with even though they're Christian people.

And as a result of the self-induced difficulty that they have in relationships they sometimes feel that the opposition or the problems in relationships that they experience is really caused by persecution. I'm not referring to that at all. I am referring to you taking a clear clean line for Jesus Christ and as a result of that being misunderstood.

Well Paul has Timothy going to Thessalonica seeking out news and bringing with him a reminder that this is what Paul himself and his colleagues had warned the Thessalonians the Thessalonican Christians that this would be their experience if they turned to the Lord Jesus. So there was the news that he sought. The reminder that he brought.

And then as far as Paul is concerned there is the worry he fought. You see he was he was very concerned wasn't he? Look at verse 5. That the difficulties that broke on the shores of the Thessalonian Christians' experience would cause Paul to conclude that the faith that they'd expressed was an invalid faith. I sent to find out about your faith.

I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been useless. How do I know you're a Christian? He that endures to the end. You see there are certain evidences that you and I have to show have to exhibit to prove that our Christianity is genuine.

Not so. It's a very flimsy basis to believe that you're a Christian simply because you can say the creed. I'm not arguing against saying that.

But the possibility is indeed the certainty is that what you profess to believe will be tested. Now the apostle is concerned about the Thessalonians. The testing has come.

Is their faith still there? He doesn't know. He's miles away. So what does he do? He sends Timothy.

This co-worker with God. He sends him to gain news. He sends Timothy with a reminder that any difficulties the Thessalonians are going through is what had already been predicted.

And he also says that he has a great worry. But it turned out to be a needless worry. Is mine a needless worry about your faith? When did you come to Christ? A year ago? Ten years ago? Twenty years ago? This is what a Puritan preacher has to say.

As far as first converts, young converts are concerned. Satan's first work is to keep men from believing. His next is to destroy their faith.

Young converts are most commonly assaulted. This was the nature of the pastor's anxiety. And it was a felt anxiety.

It was a very real anxiety. I take our marriage classes here and I'm grateful to do so. Over the years, I've endeavored to help young couples not only prepare for their wedding day but for the aftermath.

Very often, I have great anxiety. Not just about the wedding. Actually, that creates very few difficulties because most wedding days are spectacularly happy.

But you don't need to be a prophet or a great discerning character to appreciate that it's not that day. It's the month after. And the year after and the decade after is the marriage that God has cemented, has sealed here by the Spirit's power and by the vows being expressed one to another.

Will that marriage enhance their spirituality or will it detract? Will it bring in a whole bundle of temptations that will cause the centrality of Jesus to be displaced in the experience of the newlyweds? That's an anxiety that I have. Sometimes it's utterly unnecessary. Sometimes it's vitally required of me as a pastor.

The pastor's anxiety. But this undue anxiety, as far as Paul is concerned, is helped very much by young Timothy, his co-worker, the one who has collaborated with God, who, having gone to Thessalonica, returns and speaks to Paul. And so from verse 6 through to the 10th, you come across what I've called the pastor's serenity, the return of peace.

But Timothy has just now come to us. But now Timothy has come. You could translate it like that.

You see, here's Paul and he's writing straight away. Incidentally, do you write straight away answers to letters? Nothing is more annoying, isn't it, when you're waiting for somebody to respond to a particular thing that you've written to them about and you wait a week or a month and they just don't seem to respond very, very efficiently. Paul wasn't like that, was he? Timothy's come back and immediately he goes for it.

Well, I was going to say he's biro. That's going a little bit far. But whatever he used in those days.

He goes for his stylus. Maybe he gets his secretary in for it. He had a secretary.

And he immediately writes or dictates the letter. Timothy has now come back. Has just come back.

And so I'm dashing off this little note. Five chapters of it. Long letter writer was Paul.

So that you might know that the anxiety I had has been replaced by a serenity. Why? Well, he's told us. He's told us certain things about you.

You know, to be a pastor and again interpret this not just in the specialized sense though it applies there particularly. But also in a general sense. It can be a very costly business, can't it? This is what A.W. Tozer says of the Old Testament equivalent, the prophet.

At least an equivalent in some degree. He says, I cannot recall in all my reading a single instance of a prophet who applied for the job. If you knew something about the prophets and the fact that none of them ever lived long enough to go to the Jerusalem equivalent of the prudential to cash in their insurance policy you'd have understood what why Tozer makes this comment.

You see, if you have and I touched on this in some degree last week. If you have a pastor's heart, if you have a feelingful heart you can be hurt. If you have a capacity for love then correlated with that is a capacity to be distressed.

In one sense it's nice not to have an emotional disposition. A feelingful disposition. Because maybe you're saved some of the knocks in life.

Now the incredible thing about Paul is that he was not the dispassionate man that some people think he was. I remember telling you this before but it was a long time ago so you'll have forgotten so I'll try again. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one day interviewed on the BBC television.

About Paul. Now I suppose along with F.F. Bruce Lloyd-Jones would be one of the great students of the life of Paul certainly in our country if not in the Western world. And this interviewer on the BBC who really hadn't done her homework tries to take the doctor to task in regard to Paul.

Oh you see he's such a scholastic man he's Paul he's such an erudite man he's just a pure academic and what's more he's a bit of a mischief maker isn't he? I mean look at the odd views that he has. And I listened to Dr. Lloyd-Jones dismantle the interviewer's argument piece by piece until she looked absolutely silly. As he reminded her that on the seashores of the Mediterranean with the elders of the Greek churches in his company Paul wept as he said goodbye to them because he realised that he would never see them again on the face of the earth.

You go through the epistles you go through the Acts of the Apostles and you find yes a man who's erudite a man who's an intellectual in many senses of the word but you also find a man who's tender and feeling full a man who's concerned about Christian people and groups that he has been that he's brought together as a result of his preaching ministry. And he needs the encouragement of knowing that these people are going on well with the Lord. Test your own interests in other people's welfare by placing your life alongside the example of the Apostle Paul's will you? What helped Paul to regain his serenity? Three things.

First the firmness of their faith. Secondly the funness of their memory. And as a result of that Paul knew the fullness of joy.

The firmness of their faith well that's what Timothy tells Paul about as he breaks into the room where the ageing Apostle is. He brings us good news about your faith and love. Ephesians 1.15 you'll see the same phrase faith and love repeated faith to the Lord and love to men and women says John Calvin that faith in God and love for man is the total of godliness is the sum total of godliness.

And this is what these people had. A firmness in their faith. And so pleasant is this recall of Paul so pleasing is the news that he receives from Timothy that is expressed here in terms of the Gospel.

But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news the Gospel about your faith and love. Some people say that the Gospel is only the proclamation of the good news about Jesus. Yes it is.

But part of the Gospel is the proclamation of what that good news has done in the lives of people who've received it. You see we're not just in the business of preaching the Gospel but assessing the effects of the Gospel. And this is what Timothy Paul's co-worker has done.

He's taken the litmus reading he's discovered that this is a genuine faith he reports to Paul of the firmness of faith of these Thessalonians. And what's more there's a fondness of memory on their part for Paul. He's told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and you long to see us just as we also long to see you.

Isn't that truly remarkable? Paul longs to see them and they long to see him. The fondness of memory. And then there's a reference is there not to the fullness of joy.

Therefore brothers in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith for now we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you. Did you notice verse 8? Now we really live.

As though life wasn't worth living for Paul until he got that news. You see so involved was the apostle with the spiritual well-being of the people that he'd won for Christ that he was saying in one sense I pick up the motivation to continue as a Christian ambassador as I hear of the way that you are progressing in the Christian faith. It's costly to be an evangelist in the days when Paul was around at any rate.

You remember how he said we die daily? He said I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus and yet here he's referring to a liveliness that comes to him not because his outward circumstances have in any way been improved but because of news that he has that these dear Thessalonians are continuing to serve the Lord in the pagan atmosphere of their city. Now we really live. It means a lot doesn't it if you've got a pastor's heart to know that somebody's going on in their service and in their love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see you don't live by bread alone. A pastor doesn't live by bread alone. An ordinary Christian doesn't live by bread alone.

What do you live by? By the word of God. By the work of God. By getting encouragement that the church is expanding.

That people are going on to serve the Lord. This is what Paul is telling us here and from this we need to judge our own spirituality. Do we not? So when Paul hears of the Thessalonian Christians continuing faithfully he says in verse 9 how can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you.

Now in the seventh verse and in the previous chapters he's already indicated that he's going through great difficulties in terms of his own persecution but within that difficulty there is joy because he's heard of all the way that it is with these Christians in Thessalonica. Do you rejoice when people are going on with the Lord? You see some of you are getting a little on in years and you can't do what you used to do. Your outward man is deteriorating.

It's the case with everybody. When you get to the age of 20 you start to die. I mean your cells don't get too worried.

Your cells are not replaced with the degree that you expend energy and so on and so forth. It's the aging process. But here are my older friends who are in this predicament that they can't do what they used to do.

But they have news of the work of God advancing. And it's the news of the advance of the work of God that says life to you, to your spirit. Not so? No, we can live.

Why? All that we have given our lives to in the years that have gone by is continuing to develop. I remember on the banks of the Ganges in the state of Bihar speaking to some older missionaries who had given their lives for the advance of the gospel in that area. And there had been very little if any fruit at all in the earlier decades.

And in 1984 or thereabouts when there was a great outreach of evangelism in that area some of these elderly missionaries were flown in from the states and from Canada and from the United Kingdom just for a little while to work alongside a couple of hundred young Indian Christians. And I remember some of these men and women saying to me we always lived for that day. We always believed that somehow one day we would live to see Indian young people taking the gospel of Christ to folks in Bihar.

Now we really live not because we're rejuvenated and we've got a new life in terms of our physical years but because of the good news that we've heard of the advance of the gospel. The pastor's anxiety it's replaced. Serenity takes over because of what he hears and now quickly the pastor's affinity.

His affinity with the people. Verse 10 if you're reading the authorized version I think starts off with a participle praying. We've heard this news therefore what do we do? Well we're praying night and day that we might most that we're praying earnestly that we might see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

What's he praying for? Well he's praying for the restoration of his ministry amongst them isn't he? We may see you again. Verse 11 now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus Christ clear the way and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. You see he's so concerned there's this affinity between the pastor and his people praying for the restoration of his ministry so that he might supply what is lacking.

That's the same Greek verb as mending nets. You remember how Jesus discovers the disciples in Mark's Gospel mending nets on the seashore of Galilee. Well there is still work to be done in terms of teaching these Thessalonian Christians.

So Paul with an affinity for these folk is hastening the day as he's praying to the Lord when he can be back amongst them to teach them further the pastor's affinity the restoration of ministry. And what's more there's the overflow of love isn't there? Verse 12 this prayer that he offers is really a wish a wish that he may be back with them and a wish that God will continue to allow his love to increase and overflow amongst them just as the pastor's love does for them. The Christian community is essentially a loving community.

Not so? A man who does not practice what he preaches destroys what he builds says some commentator. And here is Paul you see he's practicing what he's preached. He preached about Jesus and his love.

He said that the Christian community ought to be a loving community. And here is Paul loving the very community that he brought together by the power of the Holy Spirit. So he prays that he may be back amongst them he prays that in the meantime his love might overflow and he prays finally for an increase in holiness.

Not so? Let's have a look at verse 13. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his holy ones. Jesus is returning and until that return the holy person is the happy person.

So holiness and reap happiness says one preacher. So here is Paul showing his affinity with these Christians in Thessalonica. Look, Paul is a pastor but the great pastor is the Lord Jesus.

And the Lord Jesus sometimes has anxiety in his pastor's heart. Right? He wept over Jerusalem. Why did he weep? Because Jerusalem wouldn't receive the message that he brought.

Maybe, I ask you not expecting a negative answer necessarily. Does he weep over you? How is it with your faith? How are you coping with the problems of just being a Christian? Are you doing well? Maybe the pastor's anxiety as far as the Lord Jesus is concerned is replaced with serenity. Why? Well, because he knows that being full of the Spirit you are a collaborator a co-worker with him and you're able to cope.

And there's a fondness in your memory about him and there's a fondness in his memory about you. There's a firmness in your faith. There's a fullness in your joy.

And so the Lord Jesus has serenity as he looks down on you and not anxiety. And the final thing, of course, remains true. That as Paul identified with his people so the Lord Jesus always identifies with you and me who are part of his body part of his bride.

All your anxiety all your care bring to the mercy seat leave it there. Never a burden he cannot share. Never a friend like Jesus.

Pastor Jesus. Let's sing that little refrain, shall we? In an attitude of prayer. Some of you won't know it.

Many of you will. Just think through what I've been sharing if you don't know the words. Let's stand and sing that.

I don't know what your anxieties may be. I don't know what your failures are or your successes. But this I do know that there's a greater than Paul who identifies with you who sometimes has the anxiousness in his heart.

There's one who wants you to know firmness of faith firmness of heart and fullness of joy and fondness of memory. One who prays for you as Paul prayed for the Thessalonians. One who ever lives to make intercession.

How does that strike you? Never forget you. He's not a an invalid pastor like some of the Old Testament people knew. He wasn't a false shepherd.

He has a love and a concern for you and for me. Father God we thank you for our Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep. Forgive us for the anxiety that often we cause Him.

And help us to be so renewed in our strength so fortified in our Christian witness that we may please Him and cause peace to be in His mind as He reflects upon us and always listen to His prayers on our behalf for His sake. Amen.