Sermon Tone Analysis

Leadership is not easy.

When a sports team does not win, the owner fires the head coach.

When a corporation loses its competitive edge or fails in a major way to live up to expectations, the board of directors often fires the president.

When a church does not grow according to people's expectations, the pastor is often forced out.

Those called to be leaders in the church, who preach, teach, and lead God's flock, are entrusted with the unequaled duty of proclaiming the gospel to unbelieving sinners, and bringing those who believe and are baptized into the fellowship of the local church.

There the Holy Spirit will sanctify them as they worship God in spirit and truth, submitting to the teaching, and application of Scripture.

Church leaders also must intercede for their people through public and private prayer, oversee the administration of the Church, lead in public worship, equip other teachers and workers within the church, superintend and enforce church discipline, and provide biblical counseling to the congregation.

All of this spiritual work is to build up the saints to maturity "to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph.4:13).

Church leaders must be spiritual physicians who can capably apply biblical cures to those vices and heresies that might afflict members of the church.

They also must be a tender shepherd who, while feeding the flock, also heals their wounds, calms their fears, protects them from spiritual dangers, and comforts them in their distresses.

In short, church leaders are to be champions for biblical truth (2 Tim.

4:2), providers of spiritual resources (1 Peter 5:1-2), guardians and protectors (Acts 20:28-31), and always serve as models of spiritual virtue (1 Tim.

4:12).

For all of this, church leaders are directly accountable to the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb.

13:17; James 3:1).

Even the uniquely gifted apostle Paul asked the question, "And who is adequate for these things?"

(2 Cor.

2:16).

He realized that no man could effectively discharge the immense obligation of spiritual leadership by human wisdom, effort, and strength alone.

He knew that only God could provide the power to be an effective leader.

In spite of the purity of Paul's life and the transforming power of his message, the enemies of the gospel were having some success in convincing the Thessalonians that Paul and his companions were men of wicked intentions, nothing more than self-seeking frauds like so many other "spiritual teachers" of that time.

Therefore, as distasteful as it was for Paul to have to defend himself, he answered his detractors directly and concisely for the sake of the truth.

!

I. PAUL'S OPENING REMINDER

* /"For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, "/ (2:1)

#.

Paul opened the defense of his spiritual leadership with a general statement about the effectiveness of his ministry

#. it was not in vain

#. the apostle immediately urged his audience to remember their own experience with him and his companions

#. what had occurred was obvious and self-evident

#. awareness of how Paul ministered among the Thessalonians did not come from a secondhand report, but from their own firsthand involvement

* /"For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God."/ (1 Thessalonians 2:9, NASB95)

#. the phrase our coming to you refers to the missionaries' arrival in Thessalonica with the message of the gospel

#. vain translates a word which means empty

#. but the ministry of Paul, Silas, and Timothy in Thessalonica was not so insipid 1) on the contrary, it had a powerful impact because it produced deep and far-reaching effects in the lives of the Thessalonians

#. the strength of the Thessalonian church, even after Paul's leaving, was evidence that he had not labored in vain

#. as he continued the defense of his ministry in this section of the letter, Paul expressed five ingredients that opened his ministry to divine power

#.

1st, his confidence in God's power

#.

2nd, his commitment to God's truth

#. 3rd, his commissioning by God's will

#.

4th, his motivation by God's knowledge

#. 5th, his dedication to God's glory

!

II.

PAUL'S CONFIDENCE IN GOD'S POWER

* /"but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition."/

(2:2)

#.

Paul's confidence in the power of God, both to energize his ministry and protect him from harm, gave him boldness, courage, tenacity, and fearlessness in the face of his enemies

#.

Paul was thinking of those enemies when he reminded the Thessalonians that he and his companions had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi (Acts 16:16-24)

#. you remember the story ...

#. it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met them who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling

#. she followed after Paul and his companions, and she kept crying out, saying, /"These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation."/

#. finally, when he couldn't take it any more, the Apostle Pau turned and said to the spirit, /"I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her! "/ -and it came out at that very moment.

But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, /"These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans."/

#. and that's how Paul and Silas got to spend the night in a Philippian jail cell

#. the Bible says that they suffered and were mistreated

#. suffering refers primarily to the physical abuse - the beating, the stocks, and prison

#. mistreated refers to treat shamefully and insultingly

#.

Paul declared that even after they had experienced such bad treatment In Philippi they continued to preach the gospel in Thessalonica, where they were falsely accused of treason (Acts 17:7) and unfairly assaulted by a mob (Acts 17:5-6)

#.

Paul's confidence to preach the gospel was not in himself

#. on the contrary, his confidence or boldness was solely in God

#.

Paul wholeheartedly trusted that God would sustain him

#. as he would later write to the Ephesians, he was /"strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might"/ (Eph.

6:10)

#.

Church Leaders must Have Confidence in God's Power as They Lead the Church

!

III.

PAUL'S COMMITMENT TO GOD'S TRUTH

* /"For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit;"/ (2:3)

#. the apostle Paul knew he could be confident in God's power because he was committed to God's truth, not only in his preaching but also in his living

#. enemies of the truth often try to destroy ministers of the gospel by persecution

#. but when that does not work, as it did not with Paul, they try to undermine people's trust in the spiritual leader's message or his personal integrity

!! A. PAUL AFFIRMED HIS UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO GOD'S TRUTH IN BOTH SPEECH AND CONDUCT

#.

First he declared, /"... our exhortation does not come from error."/

#. the word exhortation means an urgent cry, appeal, or call, with an emphasis on judgment

#. the Apostle Paul did not stray from the truth or operate apart from the standard of divine revelation

#.

Paul assured them there was no false teaching or error in his ministry

#. doctrinal truth matters!

* /"If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing.

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called "knowledge" which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith."/

(Him.

6:34, 20)

#. church leaders must be, above all else, guardians of Scriptural truth

* /"Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you."/ (2 Timothy 1:13-14, NASB95)

* /"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."/

(2 Tim.

2:15)

#.

Paul was committed not only to speaking and guarding the truth but also to living the truth

#.

Paul makes it clear that his message did not originate from impurity

#. although the word could refer to social uncleanness - some kind of social stigma - it primarily referred to sexual uncleanness

* ILLUS.

In Paul's day many of the mystery religions and Greek cults practiced and even exalted sexual perversion.

Those religions were very popular because in most of them the primary religious experience centered on the cult adherents having sex with a ritual temple prostitute or the cult leader.

Temple orgies were not uncommon.

Sexual intercourse had such a central role in those pagan religions because the members believed that when one had sex with a male leader or female prostitute they were supposedly achieved some sort of mystical or metaphysical union with the gods.

Thus wicked, unscrupulous leaders would seek converts for the purpose of having a sexual encounter with them.

#. it was typical for religious charlatans to enter a locale and seek women for personal sexual satisfaction under the pretext of offering them a deeper, more complete, more intimate religious experience

#. incredibly, Paul's enemies were accusing him of the same kind of impurity as the false teachers seeking converts for sexual favors

#.

Paul absolutely denies these charges and tells the Thessalonians; /"Look at the lives we lived.

You know that we were totally above board in all our associations."/

#. the apostle and his companions had no impure ulterior motives, nor were they sexually immoral spiritual leaders

#. they spoke the truth out of pure lives

#.

Church Leaders must Be Committed to God's Truth and Not Impurity

!

IV.

PAUL'S COMMISSIONING BY GOD'S WILL

* /"... but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel,... "/ (2:4a)

#. a third and essential element in Paul's powerful impact was that his ministry was approved by God

#. with this point, the discussion moved from the apostle's commitment to the truth to his commission from God

#. the perfect tense of the verb have been approved means Paul was tested and found valid