THE PASTOR’S POINTS
sermon ministry of
CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH
Thomasville, NC
A fellowship of faith, family and friendships.
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September 7, 2003
As we wind our way through this part of the Bible, we are tracing the personal journal and journeys of Paul. We note that he was an apostle, an itinerant preacher, church planter and statesman of the early church. One other undeniable descriptive title we must apply to the man is EXEMPLARY WITNESS!
It is important for us to learn about this from Paul. The Great Commission (1) "marching orders" of the church are to go and make disciples. We have taken for ourselves here at Cedar Lodge Baptist Church a PURPOSE STATEMENT which accepts those marching orders; namely that we will fulfill that Great Commission by pursuing missions and ministry; "pursuing" means going hard after something.
Paul did plenty of both - going…and winning folks to faith in Jesus Christ. His methodology was simple; he was a witness of all that Jesus did in changing Paul from God’s enemy to God’s friend. Paul became an exemplary witness, and we should take our example from him. In this passage I find six OBSERVATIONS about exemplary witnesses who share their faith in Jesus with our community and culture; they…
I. LIVE EFFECTIVELY
1You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. 1 Thessalonians 2:1
People who live effectively for Jesus Christ are the heavyweights who make a difference in the Kingdom. Paul was a guy who started either a riot or a revival wherever he found himself. There were always results, never indifference to the ministry of Paul. Largely, the results depended upon the people (whether it was a riot or revival), because Paul’s message never changed.
Gordon Maxwell was a Christian worker in India. People respected him because he worked hard. His Christian character was evident to everyone. One day, Maxwell asked a Hindu man to teach him one of the local tribal languages. The Hindu man said, "No Gordon, because if I do that, you’ll convert us all to Christianity." Gordon said, "No, you don’t understand. All I want you to do is to teach me the language, so I can make more friends here." But the Hindu man said, "No, I will not, for no one can live with you and not become a Christian." (2)
Can you imagine how exciting it would be if the word got around Thomasville that if you want to avoid getting saved and having your life so radically changed that the blessings turn you into a walking-talking billboard for the God-life, then you need to stay away from Cedar Lodge? How wonderful it would be to have THAT kind of reputation! That, my friends, is living effectively!
II. LIVE BRAVELY
2You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, even though we were surrounded by many who opposed us. 1 Thessalonians 2:2
We are near the two-year anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy. In these 24 months we have come to associate the words courage and bravery with many images. Most of us know someone who has served in the war against terrorism, or has suffered because of the events. Living with bravery is not an option these days.
It has never been an option for Christians. Paul fought opposition his whole life because he was committed to Christ. Acts 16 records the beatings and humiliating public trials of Paul and Silas. In spite of it all, Paul refused to back off declaring the Gospel when he got to Thessalonica.
What about us? We have no Roman soldiers with sharp-tipped swords and spears to threaten. Living bravely hardly equates with Paul’s kind of dangers. His life was threatened often; he was beaten with a whip made of several strands of leather with metal or glass pieces tied to the ends. He was imprisoned in harsh circumstances (much worse than the "cable TV-less" Davidson county jail). Paul was shipwrecked and almost drowned, bitten by snakes, hated by his own family for the sake of living bravely for Christ. What about us?
Most of us agree that the Ten Commandments and should not be taken out of schools or Alabama courthouses; I am one who also agrees. So, we whine about it, and sign email petitions to get it corrected.
Is that living bravely? My friend, running to the Constitution to protect our rights to put up a monument, or protect a student’s right to pray is small potatoes next to the millions of Christian church members who never use the right they have to open their mouths and share Christ with a neighbor who would be glad to listen. Most of us do not live bravely when it comes to being the witness Christ has called us to be. Most of us are not pursuing (going hard after) ministry and missions when it comes to telling the Good News - not like Paul did. And we should!
III. LIVE SINCERELY
3So you can see that we were not preaching with any deceit or impure purposes or trickery. 4For we speak as messengers who have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He is the one who examines the motives of our hearts. 5Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you very well know. And God is our witness that we were not just pretending to be your friends so you would give us money! 6As for praise, we have never asked for it from you or anyone else. 1 Thessalonians 2:3-6
It was common in Paul’s day for itinerant preachers to blow into town, give a few speeches, demand some payment and then head out before anyone figured out they were just in it for the cash. Paul made sure to remind the people that didn’t describe him. He earned his living making tents, and he wasn’t even interested in praise or reputation, much less money.
The televangelist who appeals for money for some orphanage or hospital he is building in a third-world country is today’s embodiment of what Paul was despising here. Much of the time most of the money you send ends up building the phony a mansion, while the hospital or orphanage gets built a brick-a-month.
Paul never used flattery. He told the Gospel up front, helping people to understand that coming to Christ was a commit-everything proposition. A friend of mine was also my secretary for several years. She once shared with me this wisdom that I have tried to remember and employ -
What you win people with is what you win people to!
If we win people to Christ with tricks or flattery, we don’t win them to Christ; we win them to whatever the tricks suggest. In youth ministry, we can supply young people in this community with an endless supply of fun activities and parties - we have not won them to Christ, we have won them to pizza. We can have nothing but happy times and anything goes - again, we have not won them to Christ, we have won them to their own private little manipulation party.
If we "win" adults by saying "Come sit here and enjoy the service, the music and the dinner on the grounds" we have not won them to sacrificial giving, working, going and serving others in Jesus Christ’s name, we have won them to self-serving please-me fun and games. I tell you, we ought to keep in mind the One we are to please is not on our church roll - He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
In the early 1990s when President George Bush had fiery John Sununu as his White House chief of staff, a reporter asked Sununu if his job was difficult. He quickly answered, "No." The reporter thought Sununu had misunderstood the question, so he asked again, and got the same reply. Sununu, a former governor of New Hampshire, then explained why he felt his job was easy: "I have only one constituent." He knew his job was to please the President. (3)
Sincere living demands that we please our king, not bow to popular demands or opinion polls. The Episcopalians did that - they ordained a practicing, openly-homosexual man as bishop in Vermont, over the objections of Holy Scripture, to satisfy a current trend of politically-correct but worldly opinions, and they will have a Holy God to contend with. They may be sincere, but they’re sincerely wrong, and heaven will answer!
Exemplary witnesses live effectively, bravely, sincerely, and…
IV. LIVE GENTLY
7As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but we were as gentle among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own children. 1 Thessalonians 2:7
I try to live gently; I honestly do. Sometimes I’m like a rhinoceros in a china shop. Paul understood his authority and his power as an apostle. Still, he was always mindful of the fact that the spiritual well-being of others depended on his being gentle.
Charles Lowery is a funny man. He writes for SBC Life. In a recent issue he shared how important this gentle/positive issue is:
I speak at quite a few banquets. Many times the food is incredible with great desserts. This year I had two banquets on successive nights in different cities. At the first banquet, there was this wonderful cheesecake with a caramel nut topping. As we sat down to eat, the pastor told me that he thought I looked like I had put on a few pounds. He said that it looked like being on the road was making me a "big" preacher. Now, you would think that those words would have kept me from eating the cheesecake. Actually, the opposite happened. I ate the whole thing! I needed comfort. I was feeling a little let down, my self-esteem was suffering. Remember, it’s not what you are eating - it’s what’s eating you.
What made this incident stand out in my mind was that the next night’s banquet had the same cheesecake. I had already decided to eat it. Jack Graham happened to be sitting at my table. One of the first things he said to me was that he thought I had lost weight and that I really looked good. He said that he was proud of me because he knew how difficult it is on the road to keep the weight off. I didn’t eat the cheesecake. Why? Because Jack’s words boosted my confidence, so I didn’t need the comfort food. I discovered that good words are like honey; they fill you up but without the calories. (4)
The first preacher was not gentle - he said what he felt like saying; he had a laugh at Lowery’s expense. The result - comfort food and a few more ounces on the speaker’s middle. The second preacher was gentle and encouraging. The result - a brother who is better equipped to handle his temptations.
Do you live gently? Do you say words of kindness? If the situation Charles Lowery described were set in the secular world, which set of words do you think may have led up to a sharing of faith? What if Charles Lowery was not a believer and it was a Rotary luncheon? To which pastor would he have been more prone to listen? Do your words grate? Are your words rude? Rudeness hardly ever proceeds from gentle mouths.
V. LIVE GENEROUSLY
8We loved you so much that we gave you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too. 1 Thessalonians 2:8
For once I am going to talk about generosity and I am not going to even mention money! (Do you believe in miracles now?). Paul gave his total energy and life’s interest to the Gentiles at Thessalonica. He had his salvation, was on his way to heaven, but it was not enough to sit on the pew and enjoy that salvation - Paul had to do something about others who were lost.
Paul opened up his past, present and hopes for the future to the lost people of that city. He gave himself fully - opened his whole life to scrutiny and criticism…and there was enough of that to go around. Still, Paul counted it a privilege to share himself with others that they might also know Christ.
When it says that he gave his own life, it is in the imperfect tense. That tense in Greek is an indication that something was done, and it has a continuing, never-ending effect. Some say it’s like getting a mortgage…the signing is the thing that happens, the payments never end. In this case, Paul opened his life to the Thessalonian believers and that life stayed as open as a book. If there is anything that will motivate people to see the real Christ, it is a genuine opening-up, a transparency of life that lets others in to see the care you have for them. An exemplary witness is open and transparent.
VI. LIVE LOVINGLY
8We loved you so much that we gave you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too. 1 Thessalonians 2:8
Bishop Joseph McKinney said, Anyone can love the ideal church. The challenge is to love the real church. (5) One reality about leading others to Jesus Christ is that we will never be exemplary - a good example of the love of Christ if we don’t exhibit the love of Christ. In other words, you can’t go around being sour-faced all the time and expect that people will be drawn to Christ because of you. The only thing they’ll be drawn to is away from you!
It takes sacrifice sometimes to be this kind of exemplary witness…and sometimes we get caught up short of the ideal. Jim Cymbala is the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. He shares a story of getting caught a little short:
One Sunday in our church service, a woman who sings in our choir, a former drug addict with the HIV virus, told the story of how she came to Christ. She described in raw detail the horrors of her former life. A street person named David stood in the back listening closely.
The meeting ended, and I was exhausted. After giving and giving, I had just started to unwind when I saw David coming my way. I’m so tired, I thought. Now this guy’s going to hit me up for money.
When David got close, the smell took my breath away-a mixture of urine, sweat, garbage, and alcohol. After a few words, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a couple of dollars for him. I’m sure my posture communicated, Here’s some money. Now get out of here.
David looked at me intently, put his finger in my face, and said, "Look, I don’t want your money. I’m going to die out there. I want the Jesus this girl talked about."
I paused, then looked up, closed my eyes, and said, "God, forgive me." For a few moments, I stood with my eyes closed, feeling soiled and cheap. Then a change came over me. I began to feel his pain, to see him as someone Christ had brought into the church for that moment.
I spread out my arms, and we embraced. Holding his head to my chest, I talked to him about his life and about Christ. But it wasn’t just words. I felt them. I loved him. That smell-I don’t know how to explain it-it had almost made me sick before, but it became beautiful to me. I reveled in what had been repulsive.
I felt for him what Paul felt for the Thessalonians: "We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us" (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8). God put that kind of love in me. The secret to Paul’s ministry was what I felt that night. That divine love became supernatural power. The minute my attitude changed, David knew it. He responded to that love and allowed me to minister to him. The gospel got through to David that night. I was a detriment until God got me back in tune. (6)
Friends, the only way to live lovingly is to live the way Jesus did. Now, I know me, and I know you; it’s not possible. We are too full of the human gene pool to live like Jesus. We can, however let Him live through us.
What is that like? I want to point you in the direction of the cross. There is the picture of the exemplary witness of which we have been talking. In the history of time and space, since before the foundation of the world Jesus Christ was slain (Rev 13:8) for our sins.
If you want to know what it is like to live life as an exemplary witness of the love of God and His saving grace, look at the cross.
Jesus has lived life effectively - His death and resurrection saves.
Jesus has lived life bravely - He counted everything loss for us.
Jesus has lived life sincerely - He loved us first.
Jesus has lived life gently - He was meek and lowly for us.
Jesus has lived life generously - He gave Himself while we were yet sinners.
Jesus has lived life lovingly - He offers all He has that He might bring you to the Father, and create a relationship to last for eternity.
If you want an example, look to the cross. There you’ll find a Savior who is more than an example…He is your friend, and the lover of your soul. Fall in love with Him, and nobody standing in any pulpit, no preacher in any church will ever have to tell you what to do or how to do it…you’ll tell others because you won’t be able to keep silent!
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ENDNOTES:
(1) Matthew 28:18-20
(2) The Effective Christian, part 1 by Marc Axelrod, on SermonCentral.com (adapted)
(3) Knute Larson, Holman New Testament Commentary: I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon (Holman Bible Publishing, 2000), pp. 22-23; submitted by Larry Trotter, Wake Forest, North Carolina
(4) Charles Lowery, http://www.sbclife.net/Articles/2003/09/Sla9.asp
(5) Bishop Joseph McKinney, Leadership, Vol. 6, no. 3.
(6) Jim Cymbala, Keeping Connected to Spiritual Power, Leadership (Fall 1993), pp.67-68
