Our text this evening can be found on page 1172. We are going to be in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, and that's page 1172 in your pew Bibles. We'll be reading chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. Hear now the word of our Lord. for you yourselves know brothers that our coming to you was not in vain but though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at philippi as you know we had boldness in our god to declare to you the gospel of god in the midst of much conflict for our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive but just as we have been approved by god to be entrusted with the gospel so we speak not to please man but to please god who tests our hearts for we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also of our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim the gospel to you, while we proclaim to you the gospel of God. You were witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And that concludes the reading of God's word this evening. For those that were here the last time I exhorted, and we'll also be catching up those who weren't here, we went through 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. And as we went through it, what we saw and what we came to engage with was a church that was surviving and thriving amidst a culture that was hostile or, at minimum, it was at least opposed to Christ and his church. And we considered how the Thessalonian church was, to some extent, a model of the Great Commission in action. Even more so, we saw how, in that social and cultural environment, it was much like our social and cultural environment. And what we saw and realized is that the gospel is still transforming lives, just as it did then, through the power of the Holy Spirit. But when we stop and think about that, on paper and in theory, this all seems nice and tidy. But is that our experience? The fact is, there is opposition that we face today. And for our part, we face challenges in proclaiming the gospel. Now, for many, these challenges can be a hindrance to our roles in proclaiming the gospel, and this is both on an individual level, but also at a church level. In the section that we're looking at this evening, we observe Paul circling back to what he talked about in chapter one, but expanding on it and giving us more specifics about what that gospel proclamation was like when he came to Thessalonica. And what we will find here is there is a boldness in proclaiming the gospel. And particularly what we come to see is that this bold gospel proclamation has a purpose, it pleases God, and it's preached with love. And those are our three points we are working with this evening. That is, has a purpose, pleases God, and is preached with love. Now, as I mentioned here in the beginning of chapter 2, Paul looks back and he reminds the Thessalonians of his coming to Thessalonica. Now, for way of reminder, the events that happened there. First, he had gone to Philippi. And at Philippi, he experienced turmoil. He experienced resistance and include being beaten and imprisoned. After that resistance, he left the city and he went to Thessalonica. And in Thessalonica, after initially having some success, eventually he also started to face resistance there too. Now, interestingly, he says here in the very beginning, he says that their coming was not in vain. Now, why would he say that? Why could he say that? Well, obviously, on the surface, we know that he can say that because the Thessalonian church exists, and presumably the Philippian church exists. So, of course, he's seen some fruit of the work that he's done. But also in mind is that the shaping and forming of his ministry is done by the fact that there was a purpose behind it. See, he and his associates that were with him, they understood that there was a purpose behind them proclaiming the gospel. And this purpose was that God had called them to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. Now, at this point in time in redemptive history, this was a specific calling to him and other apostles, namely Peter. But at the core of it, when we stop and think about it, it is the Great Commission. The same call that you and I both have. Now, for Paul, this divine purpose also helped embolden him in his ministry. Boldness in the Christian church, and for those that have grown up in the church, it gets talked about a lot. It gets talked about a lot within the context of our lives, the different things we go through. And I think we can become numb to that sometimes. Because what happens a lot of times is, while maybe it's well-meaning when people refer us to a verse about boldness or we think about boldness, we tend to focus on ourselves and our own boldness that we muster up in our own strength. But that's not what Paul is talking about here when he refers to the boldness they had. He's referring to the boldness they had in God. For Paul, his boldness in proclaiming the gospel, It was because of his faith in God, not in and of himself and his own abilities. His boldness was in God, but also in God's word, because he understood the scriptures. He understood that not just the direct revelation that he had had on the road to Emmaus with the risen Christ, but also all the Old Testament scriptures pointed to this being the truth. And with this boldness, it served him, because the fact of the matter is, boldness is needed any time anyone proclaims the gospel. In one way or another, there will always be conflict whenever evangelism takes place. Another synonym or another way of translating the Greek word here for conflict is struggle or opposition. You get the concept there. There's just something going against you. Paul's specific conflict in Philippi and Thessalonica that involved the Jews and the Gentiles both. Now, in the case of the Jews, there was the obvious opposition when it came to the worship and faith being put in the risen Christ. But also, there was the lessening of the law. Now, in the case of the Gentiles, you had the ramifications of Christians because they were leaving the civic cult worship that went on or any other religion there, and how there was a social and cultural element to that worship. It wasn't just a private thing. So it had ramifications in their social lives. Now going back to Paul, the results of proclaiming the gospel for him and his co-workers, it led to suffering physically. And it wasn't just physical beatings, but it also led to public insults. In Philippi it wasn't that they were just beaten and imprisoned. There was a little bit more to the story if you recall. He was stripped and then beaten and then thrown in jail. Now the thing about this is he as a Roman citizen was actually supposed to have a due process and they jumped the gun and if you recall they came to him afterwards when they released him from prison, and they were very apologetic, and he wanted to make sure that everyone knew what they did was wrong. But behind just simply this person-to-person conflict in opposing the gospel, there was another thing going on. There's the spiritual element, the darkness, the spiritual evil that is also there trying to hinder the advance of the gospel. Now, in light of all this, you and I, we can look back and put ourselves in this situation. We can consider what we see then and what we're seeing now. We have been given the Great Commission, but almost immediately, a question arises. How are we doing when it comes to evangelism? Now, I personally can confess, it's a weakness of mine. And I know that I'm not alone in that. There's many that I've talked to as well. It's not a strong suit for us. And for those who are like myself, I think we forget that. The main point that we're talking about here is that purpose that's behind it. We get caught up looking at ourselves, forgetting that we have been called by the Great Commission. We have been called to proclaim Christ. and the thing is with the great commission again it's not about how much we do it it's not about how many souls we individually can save no behind it is that it's the vehicle that god has chosen to reconcile people to himself see he is the one who's ultimately driving the message his spirit is the one who's ultimately softening the hearts of those who turn to him we are simply instruments that he's chosen to use to proclaim this message. So remembering this then, when we look past ourselves and look to God, we find ourselves being able to do the same thing that Paul was doing. We see that boldness then begins to burst forth because we realize it's not about ourselves. Now we may not face physical persecution like the early Christians were, at least not yet, but we are certainly subject to insults are we not especially here in the west we're very prone as individuals to oftentimes caring what other people have to say about us as Christians we're also prone to to caring what people have to say about fellow Christians and our own Christian walk and that brings us to the second point this evening the second point for boldly proclaiming the gospel is that it pleases God. In Paul's ministry, approval from other men and also even from his own heart towards himself, any sort of approval that was not from God did not matter to him. Now specifically here in his cultural context, he stresses this in light of fact that there were many itinerant preachers and teachers and philosophers that were going around sharing a message or a teaching that they had. And one of the tactics that they used, it was very common, was to say whatever they had to say to earn a hearing of the people or to get the support of the people or to cause a desired effect from the people. When we look back in the New Testament, we see that the Jews often use this tactic. Oftentimes when there was trouble that was stirred up, they were going to the civil magistrate to accuse the Christians of declaring that there's another king. The ironic thing about this is that's oftentimes what got the Jews in trouble in history because they believed in another king and they were raising up against those that were over them. More specifically, though, we can think about the scene in Jesus' trial when the chief priests went to Pilate and they appealed to their allegiance to the emperor, their allegiance to Caesar. If you remember the words that they said, we have no king but Caesar. Doing so for the purpose of trying to distance themselves from the religious aspect of everything going on to trying to get the civil magistrate to do what they desired them to do. Now, in our walk with Christ and in our evangelism, the truth is God is the standard and his approval is what matters most. Now, this may seem obvious, but when we step back and we look at everything, for many, what we find is God's approval has become secondary or at best it's a co-priority in their evangelistic efforts and Paul was aware of this very fact he was aware of the fact that it was tempting to try to do other things in an effort to attain a harvest but he wasn't going to change the message he didn't change the message To the Jews, while he might appeal to things that they understood, he was not going to stress and appeal to the law so as to compromise the gospel. Think of Galatians and the issues with the Judaizers that went on there, specifically when it came to circumcision. He wasn't going to let them add any conditions to being a Christian. When it came to the Gentiles, he wasn't going to compromise when it came to the pagan idolatry or the ethics. He wasn't going to budge on any of that where it came in conflict with what God's Word taught. And why did he do this? Because in pleasing God, truth became a characteristic of his ministry. And it's not just the truth in what he was teaching. While that is very much a part of it, it was also the truth in his heart, the motivations of his heart if we look at verse 5 we see he says because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in or sorry that's chapter one chapter two for we never came with words of flattery as you know nor with a pretext for greed god is witness he's appealing to the fact that he wasn't there to suck up to them he wasn't going to say whatever he had to say just to get them to follow Christ. What he gave them was the blunt, honest truth of the gospel. The honest truth that they were created by God, that they were sinners, and that apart from believing in Christ, they were destined for hell. He did not mess with that message at all, trying to make it seem a little less harsh than it might seem at first. And while he did show respect to those that were in his audience, in his hearing, including we have examples of being in the presence of the civil magistrate and giving them the due respect of their role in society, he didn't suck up or make them seem better than what they already were. And he did this because he understood that the gospel itself is offensive. he understood that it will never please anyone whose heart has not been softened by the Holy Spirit. Now, if the gospel is offensive and it will not please man, it's certainly not going to bring money. And Paul appeals to this again in verse 5, where he stresses that none of this had anything to do with greed or the want for money. But he also goes on in verse 6, and he says, nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. Paul understood, and he was also stressing and trying to appeal to their common sense of, look, if I'm not buttering you up, if I'm not doing this for money, the honesty of this gospel message is not going to gain any of that. It's certainly not going to gain me any glory or fame. That's not what I'm doing. What I am bringing to you is the offer of free salvation. the offer of the gospel. Just as in Thessalonica then, so it is now in our day. Fruit will eventually be seen through evangelistic work. Now you and I both know that not every person who hears the gospel turns to Christ. We've all probably had an experience at one time or another where we've shared the gospel and it's not had any sort of fruit. But sometimes, we may simply have been the seed planter, or maybe we have been the waterer. But in the faithfulness of evangelism, fruit will eventually be produced through the pure and the honest proclamation of the gospel. And this fruit will not just be a short-term thing. It'll be lasting fruit. Now, in comparison, there are those who do attempt to use flattery and do the opposite of what Paul did when he came to Thessalonica. But we see in those that do that, that their efforts end up being in vain. They end up being fruitless. Look at the mainline churches. They're withering away, but yet they still keep trying to appeal to the broader culture, thinking that's what's going to turn people to Christ. But this even goes on in conservative churches. There's a stagnation there as well. There's churches that they try to be hip with their worship. There's pastors who are dressed down. They might bring a stool up on stage with their iPad so as to seem less daunting to the congregation. The sermons get watered down or turned into a therapeutic TED talk. Or the church is strategizing to do things to appeal to the senses of the people. I didn't grow up in a Reformed church. In the church that I grew up in, I remember having a conversation with one of the pastors, and he started talking to me about how there's a need to change the curtains that were hung up in the back of our stage at the church, because they were old, and they were really off-putting because of the old color and the dark color. And then he started talking about how there was a chandelier that was in the church lobby, and how that was also very off-putting to people coming in, because it just seemed too out of date. And as he was saying this to me, I couldn't help but wonder and think to myself, what does that have to do with the gospel message? What does the aesthetics have to do with a person believing in Christ? See, those that do this, they might see short-term impacts in what they're doing. But they don't have a lasting effect. They don't have a lasting effect because they aren't rooted in pleasing God. They're not rooted in his gospel. Now, in contrast to this, and positively speaking, we can think about the ordinary means of grace. we do it Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. Why? It produces lasting fruit. Now shifting to our third point this evening, remembering the purpose and being concerned with pleasing God, what will inevitably happen is that it will be preached with love. We can think in this context about the fact that what's going on here with the idea of pleasing God is loving God. And what did Christ tell us that the two greatest commandments were? Love God and love your neighbor. And so in loving God, we're naturally going to be at a place where we're loving our neighbor, especially when it comes to proclaiming the gospel. Paul, in reminding the Thessalonians, he's emphasizing the love that he and his co-workers had for the people. First, he speaks of being gentle, like a nursing mother toward them. What he's getting at, the imagery he's drawing at, we can think of for ourselves. There's a patience that our mothers had with us when we were growing up, understanding that we're just learning this world, that we don't know any better. There's a gentleness that's with it, and there's a slow teaching that's going up, patiently bearing with us as children. But even more so when we think of the nursing element, especially when we're infants, they were giving us the basic necessities that we needed for life. And in this metaphor, Paul is stressing that they were giving them the basic necessities for the Christian life. Now, I think one of the cool things about the Heidelberg Catechism is it accomplishes just this very thing. We think specifically of question two, how can I know this comfort? Which is another way of saying, how can I get salvation? And it lays out very clearly the three things that we need to have. And the truth of the matter is that every believer, you and I, those who are going to believe after us, we all spiritually start as infants. So, knowing that and understanding that, for us, in loving them, we need to remember these things. But there's another element to these things that we also have to remember. For those that come to Christ, there may be hard changes. Those hard changes we don't often think about, I don't think. Things like the loss of relationships, family, or friends. There's one case I know of, where the person I know of, when they came to Christ, essentially their friend group disappeared. And in this oddly lonely time, they were having some sweet communion and fellowship with Christ. And they were growing in their faith. But that still didn't take away from the fact that there was a loneliness that was there. And the gentleness for us, as those that are teaching them, is in the fact that we walk alongside them and we understand that. And we understand that there's a vulnerability that might be there. And these two were the kind of things that Paul was dealing with. He was dealing with people who were into this newfound faith, but were coming out of religious beliefs that were very socially driven. It was going to affect their social life, their day-to-day life. Now after this, Paul shifts and he goes to talk about how they loved them like a father loves. First, before that, he mentions that they modeled their piety towards them, calling them to remember that. But then he goes on to talk about how they invested in the lives of the people, exhorting them as a father exhorts a son, encouraging them as a father encourages a son, and charging them as a father charges a son. And any parent and grandparent can grasp this very thing. And even if you're not a parent or a grandparent, as a child of a grandparent or a parent, you can grasp this too because you've likely been taught by your parents or your grandparents some skill or something of that nature. An example specifically that came to my mind as I was writing the sermon was I'm trying to teach my son Sam how to throw and catch a ball. For me, there's a lot of patience that I need to have. I grew up playing baseball my whole life, and it's easy for me to forget that there was a point in time where I didn't know how to throw. I didn't know how to catch. But in the approach to teach him this, there's a gentleness. There's a patient love that I'm having with him. I teach him and instruct him. I exhort him on what he needs to do, the proper technique. I encourage him when he does make a good throw or when he does catch the ball. And lastly, when he does wrong, I instruct him. I say, no, this is what you have to do. And if you do this, you will throw it well or you will catch it well. But as we wind down, thinking about this love that Paul showed to the Thessalonian people, and how for us as we proclaim the gospel, this love that we should show to these people that we're evangelizing to. We can look back at the purpose, the pleasing of God, and the preaching of love, and we're reminded of someone else. Is this not what our Lord did when he was here on earth? See, in Christ's love for the Father and his love for the people, he came to earth and he dwelt among us. He fulfilled what man could not do by living a righteous life. And then he became the perfect sacrifice. But becoming that perfect sacrifice meant that his death was going to atone for the sins of those who would believe. And his righteousness would be credited to them as well. But it didn't stop there because in his earthly ministry and even to this day in his love. He loves us gently. I was reading recently Richard Sibbes' Bruised Read, and it just called to mind the fact of Christ's gentleness towards his people. As believers, we are always in need of grace and mercy. There's times where we might feel more confident than others, but there's certainly times where we're very vulnerable and fragile. But he doesn't break us. We're not condemned. He's gentle towards us. But he also exhorts us and encourages and charges us, namely through his scriptures. And as we come full circle here, one of those charges is to share and spread this good news as we have in the Great Commission. For those of us in Christ who were once far off, we were in the same shoes as the Thessalonian people, but we came to faith. Someone shared the gospel with us, understanding the purpose in doing so and being obedient to God. There were and still are people in our lives who have loved us and have been part of our pilgrimage as believers, continuing to gently love us or to exhort us to instruct us along the way. But may we, too, also continue to remember these things and do these things in our own way as we boldly proclaim the gospel. Let's pray. Almighty God, graciously grant that your word, which we have heard, may be sealed inwardly on our hearts. As we receive your word meekly with pure affection, may our hearts be filled with love and reverence for you. Cause us to bear the fruit of the Spirit and to live in holiness, diligently following your commandments. And may it please you to use us to lead those who are lost, wandering, and confused into the way of truth. In light of tonight's message, we ask that you would help us to boldly proclaim your gospel. We ask that you would help us to always have that in the front of our minds when we encounter someone who doesn't know you. All this we pray for the honor and the praise of your name through Christ Jesus our Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.