We Are Not Hucksters!

I'd ask you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to Acts chapter 17. Acts 17. You follow then as I read the first ten verses of this chapter. The story of Paul and Silas and Timothy in Thessalonica. Acts chapter 17 verse 1. now when they had passed through Amphibolus and to Polonia they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews and Paul went in as was his custom and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ and some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

But the Jews were jealous and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authority, shouting, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. And Jason has received them.

And they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar saying that there is another king, Jesus. And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.

Let's pray. Father, now we pray that you would open the word of God to us. Open it to us in a way that we would not just learn about some things that not just learn about the Bible, but that your word would penetrate our hearts and accomplish what it's intended to accomplish. Thank you for giving us your word. Thank you for giving us this text. We pray now that this would be a profitable time in your word as we seek you, as we seek your will, as we seek you in these words.

We thank you now in Jesus' name. Amen. Paul rejoiced when he heard from Timothy that the Thessalonians were standing in their faith, standing firm in the midst of trouble and persecution, not moved by it all. But Timothy had also reported to Paul that they were harboring some doubts You can see that in our text in 1 Thessalonians because Paul mounts a vigorous defense of the ministry that he and Silas and Timothy have had among them So if you will, let's turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and we'll read the first 12 verses where we hear Paul's defense of their ministry among these people. 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 men 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 our own selves because you had become very dear to us for you remember brothers our labor and toil we work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God you are 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. Now remember that Paul cheers on these champions to the finish, but they may be losing some steam. The brothers at Thessalonica are starting to doubt as they look back at what happened when trouble started.

Or possibly their enemies were whispering some explanations in their ear, in their ears about the Apostle Paul and his companions. What happened to our friends Paul, Silas, and Timothy? What did they accomplish by coming here It seems like nothing but trouble When I think back their preaching provoked an outburst of rioting and then they left And now the hostility that was aimed at them has been turned against us.

Did they preach and run at the first sign of trouble? And besides that, why hasn't Paul returned? Why hasn't he come back? did they really give us the good news of God in Christ? Or are they like every other celebrity orator? They hit town, manipulate the crowds, get their money, and they're gone. I just don't know.

I don't think it's true, but what other explanation can there be? And so Paul responds essentially saying, you know that's not true. Remember what kind of ministry we had amongst you. Notice how often he calls them to remembrance in these 12 verses. Verse 1, for you yourselves know, brothers. Verse 5, for we never came with words of flattery, as you know.

Verse 9, for you remember, brothers. Verse 10, you are witnesses, and God also. How holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct towards you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we responded to you. You can see then that he's calling to mind and calling them to careful reflection on their ministry. And he's telling them, you know these things are true.

And these things that he's defending, obviously they were thinking or someone was saying it to them. And so he calls on them to careful reflection on really what was their ministry like. As they sit there in their doubts, he says, here's what you need to know. Remember what it was like when we were there. Now, why has God included this in his word? What does it say to you sitting here centuries later?

What is this all about then for us? if you're going to make it if you're going to persevere in trouble and trial you need a proper ministry of god's word god wants you to know what a proper ministry of his word looks like and he describes it here in paul defense in these 12 verses He telling us here as he says to them you know what kind of ministry we had remember And he describes for them the kind of ministry he had as if he's making a defense against these accusations. The first thing he says is you must minister the word of God with boldness. Minister the word of God with boldness, verses 1 and two.

Verses three and four, you must minister the word of God with fidelity. Verses five through nine, you must minister the word of God with selfless love. And then lastly, verses 10 through 12, you must minister the word of God with integrity. If you're going to continue the fight of faith you must experience a proper ministry of God's word he's cheering them on he wants them to finish well they're having their doubts he says this is what our ministry was like remember what our ministry of the word of God was like and in it he describes for us then a ministry a proper ministry of the word of God this morning we want to look at the first two of those building blocks that he's given us the first two of these four the first is this minister God's word with boldness minister God's word with boldness the first two verses for you yourselves know brothers that are coming to you was not in vain but though we'd 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 the word for there it's there for a reason it connects us back with chapter 1 verse 9 he says in chapter 1 verse 9 for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception that we had that's the same word that's translated our coming in chapter 2 verse 1.

That is, we're talking here about how we came. We're talking here about our entrance into the city. It's the idea of reception or our coming. The word means entrance. Our visit with you. Our coming to you.

So the apostle Paul says, if you want to judge whether we're genuine or not, check out how we came to you. Check out how we came to you. Well, How did they come to Thessalonica? How did they come? He sets out all these descriptions, and he does it in the form of contrast, if you've noticed. He does it in the form of contrast, and here's the first one.

Our coming was not in vain, but consisted of a bold proclamation of God's gospel, of God's word. There's the first thing he says. our coming was not in vain rather it was a bold proclamation of the word of god it was not in vain it was not an empty mission it was not a mission with no purpose it was not a mission that wasn't serious now he's not talking about results he's not saying our coming to you was not in vain because of all the things that happened when we preach the word of god he's not saying our coming was not in vain because we had a bunch of new converts. That isn't what he's trying to say.

We have no idea how many converts he has, but that's not what he's saying. He's talking about the character of their mission. Our coming to you was not in vain because you know how we came. We came with a purpose and we fulfilled that purpose. It was not vain. Now, my visit to Grace Baptist in Kennewick, Washington a few weeks ago could have been in vain.

Even if by my preaching there that church was helped. It could have still been in vain. Even if a bunch of people were saying wow God's word really spoke to me. I need to change. I need to abound in the work of the Lord which was the theme of the conference. I need to abound in the work of the Lord.

It could have been in vain even though there's a whole bunch of people who say that how so if i had gone there if i had gone there just so that they would pay for the wonderful time beck and i had traveling there and back it would have been in vain no matter how many people were helped because it was not a god honoring purpose oh by the way i'm it would not have been a god honoring purpose that was not why we went. Alright? It still could have been in vain.

He says, you yourselves know it was not a vain mission. How could they tell it was not in vain? Because when they hit town they started proclaiming the gospel of God That was the purpose and they fulfilled it And they fulfilled the purpose of ministering God word after the insulting, shameful, painful way they were treated at Philippi. He brings that on as part of his defense.

He says, you know how we were treated in Philippi. We told you about that. What happened at Philippi? Well, if you go back and read Acts 16, here's what you find. They dragged them into the marketplace. The mob dragged them into the marketplace and dragged them before the local authorities.

And without any investigation as to the truth of the charges, without any kind of trial, they put them up in public, they stripped them, and then they beat them, and then they incarcerated them. That's what had happened at Philippi. Now, if that had happened to you, if that had happened to you, would you jump at another chance to proclaim the gospel?

If they hauled you down to the town square, stripped your clothes off, and then beat the living daylights out of you, and then two days later you had a chance to share the same gospel that got you into trouble, what would you do? Would you go, yeah, another chance. Is that how you would have responded? After leaving Philippi, after being treated that way, they walked down the road, and a couple cities later they hit Thessalonica, and they started doing the same thing over again.

And then when trouble erupted in that town, there was a lot of conflict. We just read about it. What did the team do? You know what happened, said Paul. We proclaimed the gospel with the boldness that God gave us. We proclaimed the gospel with boldness.

God gave them boldness so that they continued to minister the word of God even though they'd been shamefully treated and insulted and hurt in Philippi and even though the same thing started happening Thessalonica they didn't back off they continued to preach the word of God rather than a vain mission they had boldly proclaimed the word of God it was not in vain because they came and didn't abandon their mission they came and they preached so Paul says look at the character of our mission and stop doubting because it obvious we didn just come to gather a following and then jump ship it obvious that not what we intended to do We proclaimed the Word of God with boldness Now what the point What's the point for us? If you want champions who finish well, they must be encouraged by a bold ministry of the Word of God. What happens if there is not a bold ministry of the Word of God?

I look at you and I think this. What would happen if after years of ministry here, trouble came and I jumped ship? Would you be encouraged to continue? I dare say you might be thinking, was he the real deal and was the message he gave the real deal? Right? I think you'd be tempted to wonder.

Well, if it's no good when trouble comes, he jumps ship, why should I continue? The Apostle Paul is saying to them, look, don't doubt. Don't doubt. We boldly proclaim the gospel to you. He wants to encourage them. He wants them to pick up steam again.

My Romanian brother, Viorel Crucero. Some of you remember Viorel. We loved Viorel. over when we first met him this was our sign for him which is the pulling of a of a train horn he's like a steam locomotive going all the time nothing gets in vrl's way he's quite a man of god the vrl had an uncle and a father who were both ministers of the gospel in romania when the communists ruled his uncle was told not to preach he preached the secret police dragged him out in the woods and crushed his skull.

His father was told not to preach. He got up in the pulpit, preached on Sunday. A very short time later, he was dragged off to forced labor camp on the Danube Canal, which in Romania is the Siberia of Romania. It's where you go to die. Both of those men refused to give up preaching the gospel. They They were bold in their proclamation of the gospel.

If we would continue to fight the fight of faith, then we need a bold ministry of God's word. And unabashed the situation is not going to dictate how we preach how we share We are not going to stop a bold ministry of the Word of God Now, verse 3, you find another 4, and I believe it's again a reference to chapter 1, verse 9. In fact, you see those 4 showing up throughout this text.

And it's taken us back for, you know, the entrance we're talking about. What else was true about our visit with you? And so we have the second building block of Paul's defense and a greater understanding of a proper ministry of the word of God. And here's the second thing he says in verses 3 and 4. Minister God's word with fidelity. Minister God's word with fidelity.

Verses 3 and 4. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, So we speak not to please men, but to please God who tests our heart. Here's the second contrast now. You know that we were not hucksters trying to hustle you, but we were commissioned servants of God, faithfully doing what he called us to do.

Okay? That's the second contrast. We're not hucksters. We're not trying to hustle you. We were faithful servants of God. Now, why would the apostle say this?

Well, one of the reasons why he's saying this is because of the first century rock stars. They had rock stars back then, although they didn't have electric guitars or anything like that. When I say rock stars, I'm talking about the celebrities, right? The celebrities of his day. The orators of that day were celebrities because they would come to town and they would give these great speeches.

That's the way they were entertained back then, right? You don't have television or radio or Pandora or Spotify or big concerts. What they had were these orators, and they would go from city to city. Some were philosophers who peddled their ideas. They were after gain and glory. In Sunday school, we talked already today about how philosophers would come to town, set up shop, see if anybody would come to their lectures, try to make a living that way, right? and so these they would come peddling their ideas and they were after gain and glory after reputation they're after gaining money and they would gather disciples who would commit themselves and their to them and they would live off of them.

Others just wanted to hustle folks and once they had their money, they left. We all know folks like that. They became famous and popular. Now, in one way, you can kind of relate what Paul's saying to what we see today with, I don't know what to call them, television preachers, right? Who gain a great reputation, who are always trying to get your money, right?

Send me $5 for this little cloth, this healing cloth. You've seen that, right? I've gotten it in the mail. Right? Send $5 and this cloth becomes effective for healing. You know, that kind of thing.

Making money, right? Paul claims that the Thessalonians, he says, you know we weren't out to hustle you. You know we weren't out to manipulate you and get some reputation or money. You know that's not what we're after. He says to them, reflect on the nature of our mission. Examine what it was like.

What was it like? You know that we called you to respond to God's good news. We made an appeal to you. An appeal that said there is a king. His name is Jesus. And that king is king of all.

And he has come with his kingdom. And his kingdom can only be entered if you believe in the sacrifice that he made. Embrace it by faith. be forgiven of your sins, and enter under the rule of this Jesus, and find great joy and happiness. Respond, they would say. Respond to the call of God in Christ. He says, you know we made that appeal, and you know that appeal did not spring from error.

What we taught you was truth, not error. We did not concoct some sort of crazy program, some kind of crazy thing in order to get a bunch of people to follow us, right? You would not find this mission team saying to them, hey, you give us two denarii and we promise that God will make you rich, right? As he says, that's not what happened. You know, we didn't come to you with error.

We came to you with the truth of the gospel. He says our appeal did not spring from impurity. He's claiming here that their motives were not impure. Their motives were pure They were not after gain They were not after glory They were after followers of Jesus They were being faithful to getting followers of Jesus not getting stuff for themselves. They weren't there to gain followers of themselves.

They weren't there to gain riches. They weren't there to live off of them. Our motives were pure. We came in the name of Christ. He says, our appeal did not spring from deceit. They refused to use any rhetorical tricks. to gain a following.

We've all experienced that. We've all experienced people. The rhetorical tricks we can see all the time. You watch a movie sometimes and at the end you're bawling and crying and think this wicked person is really a good guy, right? He's really been misjudged. The movie has portrayed him in such a way that you're bawling at the end thinking how could anyone treat him that way?

Emotional appeals of some kind. All these kind of tricks. He says, you know we didn't do that you know we didn't trick you into following us he says to them you know our message was not false our motives were not impure and our methodology was not deceitful you know that instead as you examine our ministry here's what you see we have been approved by God we've been approved by God now that's an interesting word the word approved there has the idea of approved through testing.

Having been tested by God, he approved them for ministry. You know, when I fly to Romania, you know how it is, you get on any plane. But when I fly to Romania, I never hear the pilot come on. You always hear the pilot, he always addresses everybody. I've never heard this. Good afternoon, this is your pilot, Bill Nelson. this is my first time in the cockpit of a Boeing 777.

And I hope this trip will be as good for you as I hope it will be for me. I've never heard anything like that. Why not? Because that guy's not in the cockpit as the pilot, as the captain, unless he's been tested and proven and approved to fly that plane, right? I know that when the captain comes on, he's a guy who has had hundreds of hours of experience.

He's been through the testing process. He been approved to fly that plane Well Paul says he been tested He and Silas and Timothy have been tested and they been approved by God for ministry I not sure what he talking about I have an idea that quite possibly he's talking about God approved us for ministry, at least me, in my experience at Antioch, my home church that sent me out. I ministered there for years before I left to be a missionary.

God saw my ministry and he set me apart. to take the gospel to other places. He says, we have all been approved by God, and having been approved, they have been entrusted with the gospel. God entrusted the gospel to them to proclaim to other people. He says, we've been true to the calling of God. He says, we don't shape our message to please men. You notice that?

We're not speaking in a way to please men, and that's a great temptation with the gospel, is it not? What is the gospel? The gospel is this. You're not as good as you think you are. In fact, you're worse than you think you are. In fact, you're in rebellion against God who is holy and cannot overlook any rebellion.

And judgment is coming. However, God has sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for your sins. So that if you believe in him, he won't hold your sins against you. Your rebellion will be wiped out. You can become God's friend and no longer His enemy. And beyond that, He will release you from the captivity of the sins that have controlled your life up to this point.

And He will give you joy and happiness in all kinds of marvelous ways He's going to change you. Now, that's not an easy message. It's not an easy message to tell people you're really worse than you think you are. Right? That's not easy. And yet, that's part of the gospel message.

If you listen to the radio at all, there's a church in Columbus downtown called St. John's Church. I've heard their advertisements on the radio. I did a little investigation, looked them up on the Internet. Here's what I found. For example, it starts out. you know their website starts out with welcome are those who are single married separated or divorced Inked pierced liberal conservative straight lesbian gay all are welcome All right, now I'm sitting there thinking, I hope we can say the same thing, to be honest with you.

I hope we can say the same thing. You're gay, lesbian, whatever you are, come on. We'll welcome you here. You just come. But as I started to investigate a little bit more, here's a Facebook ad they had. It's all good.

Gay, straight, bisexual, transgender, or none of the above. St. John's. Okay, this is not good. I click on a video ad from their band leader, from the lead singer in their band, their worship band. And he's inviting everybody to come and celebrate Pride Sunday with us. and behind him is the rainbow a rainbow quilt hanging up on the wall of the sanctuary in which he points out right and he says come for worship he gives the times of worship and stay for a conversation and how people of faith can engage in pride in a transformative way okay now i know what you're saying it's not quite the message that God gives in the gospel is it it's been shaped by a desire not to offend people who may not agree with God it's it's a message that says you know what God just takes anybody hey he doesn't the gospel doesn't come to change you because you don't need to be changed the gospel doesn't come to offer you forgiveness because who's sinning right it's a message shaped by people and Paul says we didn't do that we remain true to the message of God we did not shape our message to please men he says you remember that we did not preach in a way to please men.

I mean, frankly, how could you even think that? Because when they were preaching, a riot erupted and they dragged Jason to the authorities, right? He says, we proclaim the message that pleases God. What is the message that pleases God? You know what the message is that pleases God? The message is this.

I sent my son because I love you. And I want you to have a life of freedom and righteousness. I want you to learn the joy of loving me. I want you to be in my family. You're out of it now. You're a rebel.

But my message to you is, come in. embrace Jesus. I sent him for you. That's the message that pleases God. He says to them, we stay true to God as we preached. And if you still doubt our motives and methods, what does he say? God tests our hearts.

God tests our hearts. You know, oftentimes we, I was reminded of this this week, oftentimes we look at those passages like 1 Corinthians chapter 4 where Paul writes, hey, don't judge me. I don't judge myself. But there's coming a day when God reveal all the secrets of the heart. And what the next sentence And each will receive his commendation from God You know what Let me just say something This is kind of a rant It plays to this point but I want you to remember this In our circles we tend to look at the justice of God as something to be feared and it is Because if we're rebels against God, that justice will fall heavy upon us.

But justice of God cuts both ways. Paul says, don't judge me, let's wait till judgment day. Each man will receive his commendation from God. That is, the justice of God not only condemns us, the justice of God will also say, He's right! And vindicate you. Do you realize that?

As God's people, God's justice no longer stands against you. His justice has been satisfied. Now His justice is for you. And those who make your life miserable because you're a Christian, God says, my justice will stand for you. And that's what He's saying here. He says, look, God tests our hearts.

God tests our hearts. He knows our motives are pure. He knows that. Justice of God will stand for you. And so Paul says, when you reflect on the nature of our mission, we have been faithful to God who commissioned us We have ministered God word with fidelity He the one who approved us entrusted us with the gospel and sent us out And we have been faithful to what God has commissioned us to do What's the point?

If you want champions who finish well, they must be encouraged by faithful ministry of God's word. What's the result if that does not happen? you lose confidence in the messenger and the message when you start shaping the message to please people it's not going to go unnoticed it's not going to go unnoticed people lose confidence when the message changes you be true to the message that god has given faithful to the ministry of god's word champions will not be cheered to the finish if they think they're being hustled you won't finish well if you think i'm just up here trying to get more money you won't finish well if i'm trying to hustle you if i'm trying to just get a big church if that's my goal and you have reason then to doubt but if that goal is to faithfully preach what god has committed to you then you have a faithful ministry of Word of God You minister the Word of God with fidelity So then here are the first two building blocks of what a a proper ministry of the Word of God is. A ministry that will help us finish well, that will cheer us on, that will keep us going, that will give us the steam we need.

Here's a description of how we ought to minister the gospel. The gospel that transforms and sustains us. We'll only do that if we minister with boldness and fidelity. Father, thank You for Your Word. Once more, we are in awe of how Your Word speaks to us. We pray, Father, that You would help us as leaders to be bold and faithful to the ministry of Your Word.

We pray that all of us here, not those who preach, but those who have the Gospel, would be bold in sharing it and true to the God who has called them to it. Father, help us so that we will be the champions that finish well. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.