Let's open our Bibles together
to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. And I want to thank you again
for inviting me to come and be with you all. It's a real blessing
for Trish and I to be here and get to know you all better and
be able to worship our Lord together with you. Enjoy that passage that Kim was
reading without thinking about what John said, herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us. There's the definition
of love. And gave his son to be a propitiation
for our sins. And then he went on to say, perfect
love casteth out fear. There's no fear. No fear. The law's been satisfied. No
one's standing over you with a rod. where it's the love of
Christ that constraineth us. And it's His love that brings
us together. I pray that the Lord will increase
our understanding of His love and increase our love for one
another. For those of you that have been following us in Apopka,
on Sunday mornings, you'll know that we've started a study in
First Thessalonians a few weeks ago. And last Sunday I concluded
with Chapter 2, and as I was thinking about the work here,
and as I said last night, I want
to preach Christ, I want to bring the Gospel to you, but I want
to bring it to you in the context of Christ and his church because
of where you are as a group of believers that have a desire
to be a church and to have a pastor and I thought that it would be
just in the Lord's providence that the next passage of scripture
in our study in 1 Thessalonians has to do with a pastor. And so I pray the Lord will encourage
you as you continue to pray for and search for God's man to lead
you. And this passage of scripture
is just so wonderful. Paul's riding to the church at
Thessalonica and he was only there for a short period of time
and soon after he got there and started preaching the gospel,
great persecution came against those new believers and Paul
was run out of town. And so now he's in Athens and
he's praying fervently for that group of believers back in Thessalonica
wondering what has become of them knowing that there was severe
life-threatening persecution coming against them in his departure
and so he sends Timothy back to check on them and uh... and timothy in this passage of
scripture uh... well he's called notice notice
and uh... uh... inverse to where paul refers
to timothy as a minister of god that word minister is a servant
and uh... and that's what pastors are uh... they're god's servants and um... And so, everything that the Lord
says about Timothy here is true of God-sent pastors. And it's true of the kind of
man that you would want to be your pastor. A Timothy, one sent
of God to instruct you in the Gospel and to encourage you and
care for your souls. Notice in verse 1, he says, wherefore. Now, anytime the Lord says wherefore,
it's always a conjunction between the thoughts that are about to
come to the previous comments. And so, if we go back to chapter
2 and look at the last few verses, Paul says, in verse 19, for what
is our hope or joy? What's our motivation? What's
our desire? What are we praying for? And
what thrills our souls more than anything else? And he goes on
to say, or our crown of rejoicing? What is it that we rejoice over
more than anything? Are not even you in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? Now what Paul is saying
is that our only concern is for the salvation of your soul. That's
it. Nothing else really matters.
It's your salvation. That when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes, that you'll be able to stand in the very presence of
God and have acceptance before God in Christ. We have people
come to our church in Orlando and they'll have kids and they'll
say, well, what does your church have to offer our children? And
my immediate response to them always is, well, we've got something
to offer them that they can't find anywhere else. It's the
gospel. And sometimes they come out of
religion where their children have been entertained. And I
tell them, I said, this is the entertainment capital of the
world. I mean, Disney World and SeaWorld and Epcot, it's all
right around us. You can go to the beach. We're
not here to entertain your children. We're here to preach the gospel
to them. for the salvation of their souls. That's our only
reason for existence. That's our only reason for existence
is our salvation. So Paul says that's that's what
we rejoice in. That's what we're doing this
for. That's our hope. Your salvation and a man that
God sends. That's going to be the only thing
to be concerned with. He won't covet your silver and
your gold. He won't try to monitor your
life. He'll preach to you the gospel for the salvation of your
soul. And he says in verse 20, for you are our glory and joy. Your testimony of faith, your
love for Christ, your desire for the gospel, that's our glory. and that's our joy, nothing else.
Wherefore, wherefore, in light of that, in light of that being
our purpose, in light of that being our joy and our rejoicing
and our goal, when we could no longer forbear, we've been down
here, what are we worried about? We're worried about your soul.
We're worried, he goes on to say in this chapter, we're worried
that the persecution that's come against you that forced me to
have to leave town might cause you to give up on the gospel.
That's when we could forbear no longer. We've sat down here
praying for you and fretting for your soul and concerned for
you. We thought it good to be left
at Athens alone and to send Timothy, our brother and minister of God,
and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish
you and to comfort you concerning your faith." Now, there's some things in verse
2 that I think will be very helpful to you in praying for and looking for a pastor. And the
first thing that I see in this verse is the word sent. A man
that God has sent. Not a man that has taken it on
himself to try to control or or or or or lead a
people a man that God has sent. A man after God's own heart. I will send shepherds after my
own heart. How do we know if God sent him?
Well the first thing we know for sure, he's preaching the
gospel. He's preaching the simplicity
and the truth of the glorious person and finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's preaching it in a way that
comforts your soul. You see that in that verse? He
says that I sent him here to establish you, to give you a
place to stand and to have encouragement and comfort for your soul. So,
a man that has been sent of God, I have young men ask me sometimes,
well, how do I know if God's called me to the ministry? A couple things I say to them.
Number one, if you can do anything else and be content, then God
hasn't called you. God sends a man to preach the
gospel. He puts it on his heart to where he can't do anything
else. He has to preach Christ. So God puts a desire in his heart
to preach Christ. Number two, he gives him the
ability to preach Christ. And he's not the one to discern
that. No God-sent gospel preacher will ever preach feeling like,
boy, I've got the ability to preach. He'll never feel that
way. God-sent preachers will always say what the Apostle Paul
said who is sufficient for these things and they will never be
content with their own ability but God's people will recognize
an ability in them that will be a blessing to them and then
the third thing is opportunity so it's desire ability and opportunity
sometimes I I meet young men that have a desire to preach,
and they have some abilities, but the Lord doesn't give them
any opportunity. There's no one calling them to
preach the gospel to them. So, if the Lord has sent a man,
he will have a desire to preach, he'll have the ability to preach,
and you will give him an opportunity to preach. because you'll be
blessed by his preaching and want to hear the gospel preached
by him. So Paul said, I have sent unto
you Timothy. Now, you see in Timothy's name the
word theos, which you know is the word for God. And the word
time is the word for honor. And so here's a man who honors
God. He's not promoting himself. He's not calling attention to
himself. He's preaching Christ from the Scriptures to the honor
and glory of God. I remember hearing a story one
time about a man and his wife that were in London during the
time this virgin was preaching. And they went to the Metropolitan
Tabernacle and it was full. They couldn't get in. And so
they went down the street and listened to another preacher
that morning. And he was a very eloquent preacher. And the man came out of listening
to this sermon and said to his wife, wow, what a sermon. That night, they were able to
get in to listen to Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle, and
after listening to Spurgeon preach Christ, he came out of that service
that night and said, wow, what a Savior. What a Savior. You're not looking for a man
that is eloquent, a man who's able to impress people with his
rhetoric. You're looking for someone who
preaches the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
when you hear him, you want to know this man honors God. He honors God by preaching Christ,
by lifting Him up. What did the Lord say? He said,
and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. You don't
want a man that draws people to himself. You want a man... I remember Cody Groover, our
dear brother that preached for us on Medicaid. As a matter of
fact, he preached the very first message in our church in Apopka,
in our building. And as you know, Cody has gone
home to be with the Lord. Cody gave this illustration at
our church one time. He said a gospel preacher is
like a clear pane of glass. All the glass does is let the
light through. You don't notice the glass, you
just notice the light coming through the glass. He said some
preachers are like stained glass windows. You know, they're very beautiful
to look at, and very eloquent of speech, but there's very little
light that goes through a stained glass window. On the other hand,
you might have a preacher who doesn't live what he says,
and so he'd be like a dirty window, and the light doesn't come through
that. That's Timothy, a man that honors
God, just has the light of the gospel shine through him so that
his hearers are not hearing him. They're hearing from God, and
they're glorying in Christ. May God be pleased to send us
such a pastor here. You don't want a preacher that
belongs to the dead theologian society that's always preaching
doctrine and theology and not preaching Christ, the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what the Lord said to
those Pharisees. You search the scriptures because you think
in them you have eternal life. These are they which testify
of me. Joe shared an example, an illustration of me that I
never heard before. He said a lot of preachers are
like the bird that's holding on to the telephone wire. and
he's got a death grip on that wire uh... and completely clueless
of the messages that are going through the wires uh... and preachers
can be that way they take a death grip on doctrine uh... but they're
completely oblivious to the message that's coming through the doctrine
is doctrine important yes the doctrine points us to christ
points us to the glorious person of the lord jesus christ and
uh... we want to we want a pastor that
has been sent of God that honors God by lifting up the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so the only answer that there
is to the question is, or the only question that needs to be
asked is, what sayeth the Scriptures? What does the Scriptures say
about the Lord Jesus Christ? In the volume of the book, It
is written of me. This book is about Him. It really
is. And if a man has been sent of
God and he seeks to honor God, he's going to find Christ in
the Scriptures and preach to you the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's not going to promote himself.
He's not going to preach the law. He's going to preach liberty
in the finished work of Christ. 1 Peter 1 Being born again. The miracle
of the new birth always happens through the preaching of the
Gospel from the Word of God. Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of Truth. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. The Lord uses His Word. to bring
about the new birth. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and don't miss the last phrase in that verse, and this
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Just because a man is committed
to this book as the Word of God doesn't mean that he's been sent
of God or that he's trying to honor God. I know that from personal
experience. You can be theologically trained
and teach the theology and the history and the doctrine of the
Bible and miss Christ. This is the Word. which by the
gospel is preached unto you. If Christ isn't being preached,
the Word of God is not being preached. We don't separate the
living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, from the written Word. We know
that one is given to reveal the other. And the Bible is a means
to an end. Christ is the end. He is the
end. a man who's going to honor God,
a minister of the gospel. Before we do that, go back with
me now to our text in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. Timothy, a man who
honors God, sent of God, and notice the next one, our brother. Our brother. Now some of you
have come out of religious experiences where the pastors and elders
weren't really your brother. They might say they were your
brother, but they served as your master. A pastor that's been sent of
God, who honors God, will be your brother. That word brother
means to be birthed from the same womb. He's going to be your
equal. He's not going to rule over you.
He's not going to abuse you. He's going to sympathize with
you. He's going to care for your soul.
And he's going to identify with you as a brother, birthed in
the same way and for the same ends. Remember that passage we
looked at last night in Psalm 87? This man and that man was
born there. So, this is the maternity ward. You know, some people call it,
you've heard the church refer to it as a hospital for sinners,
but it's a maternity ward. This is where God births His
children into the family of God. And we're all birthed the same
way. We're brothers. You're not interested in a man
that's going to try to control you. You're interested in a man
who has the concern of your salvation in his heart, and he is your
brother, preaching to you the gospel of Christ. Notice what
he says. He sent Timothy, our brother,
The minister of God. This word minister is the word
servant. It's the same word translated
deacon. It means a table waiter. And
a man's son of God will be your servant. And as a result, you
remember when the disciples were arguing about who was going to
be first in the kingdom of God, and the Lord made it very clear
to them. He said, He who would be first, let him be last, and
let him be the servant of all. Now, that's how you earn respect. You earn respect through service.
You can never command respect. You can't do that on your job.
Husbands, you want to create a problem in your home, just
tell your wife, God requires you to submit to my authority.
See how that works out for you. You put someone under the law
like that, and all they're going to do is rebel against you. You
might be able to get someone to submit to your authority if
you threaten them with the law, but they're just going to resent
every minute of it. This minister is a servant. He's a servant. And it takes
some time. It takes time to earn respect. You don't do that overnight.
But if God sends a man who has the honor of God and the salvation
of your soul and the preaching of the gospel from the word of
God as his desire, you will grow in your love and
appreciation for him. And you will willingly, willingly
follow after his leadership. It's not going to be something
that he's going to lord over you. He'll be a minister, a servant,
a minister of God, and you'll know that his whole life is being
spent for your good, and that he has your best interest at
heart. He's not here to use you or to abuse you in any way. He's here to serve you. and that'll
be the kind of man that you won't have any trouble following. That's
the kind of husband you ladies don't have any trouble following,
isn't it? A husband that'll lay down his life for you. A husband
that'll go through the fire for you, that'll serve you and provide
for you, care for you. You'll follow him, won't you? Same thing. A minister of God
is a servant of the brethren. Notice what else he says, and
our fellow laborer. A man sent of God for the honor
of God and the salvation of God's people with a servant spirit
putting his life on the line first and foremost before he
asks anyone else to do anything. is going to find himself to be
a fellow servant with other men of like mind. Sometimes I hear
of pastors that are kind of lone wolves. They don't really have any fellowship
with anybody else. They're kind of doing their own
thing. That's not my experience. I mean, we have other churches
and other men that we fellowship with, and we're co-laborers. We're involved in the same work.
Isaiah said, they shall all see eye to eye, and we do. We see
we're in agreement. Why? Because we're in lockstep
conformity to a man and his rules and regulations? No, because
we're all in lockstep conformity to Christ. and the revelation
that he's made of the gospel and of himself in his word. And
so we fellowship together in this ministry. What you will
find is you will find other churches like the church in Apopka and
other churches that you are already fellowshiping with that will
come along beside you and support you in the work that the Lord
has given you to do. And Paul said, this man Timothy
that we sent down to you, he's your brother. He's a minister
of God. He's a servant. And he's our
fellow laborer. Our fellow laborer in the gospel
of Christ. Now that's where we find unity.
Paul asked this question to the church at Corinth. He said, is
Christ divided? No, Christ is not divided. We don't have different opinions
when it comes to the gospel. We all believe the same thing.
That's not true anywhere else in religion. Religious men love
to debate and fight and argue over doctrine, don't they? Fellow
laborers in the gospel are working hand in hand together for the
glory of Christ. and the salvation of God's people.
They just are. And it's such a blessing. I hired a man to help me do a
job at my house recently. And I knew how to do the work,
but I needed some help. And I didn't want to, well, I
needed help. So I told him exactly what I
wanted to accomplish and what I wanted to get done. And we're
working along beside each other and everything's going fine.
And then I went off to do something else and came back and he's doing
it completely different than what I told him to do it. I said, no, no, no. Well, this
is the way I want it done. And, you know, and that happened
like three, four times during the day. Every time I'd turn
around, he'd do it the way he thought it should be done. And
I'm paying him. Well, it didn't work out very
well. And I'll never have him work for me again. But that's not the way it is
in the ministry of the gospel. This fellow laborers in the gospel
of Christ, there's no contention of opinions over how it's to
be done. over what's to be done. The gospel is clear. And God's
taught all of us the same gospel, from the same word, by the same
spirit, and we preach the same message. And what a blessing
it is to have co-laborers in the gospel. Turn with me to Romans chapter
16. Look at verse 25. Now to Him that is of power to establish
you according to My gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ
according to the revelation of the ministry which was kept secret
since the world began but now is made manifest by the scriptures
of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting
God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." The obedience of faith is believing
the gospel. And the Lord has given us his
gospel in his word. It was a mystery to the natural
man, but now he has revealed it. And the purpose of preaching
this gospel is to establish God's people. In other words, give
them a firm place to stand. Stand right here. Don't move. Stand on Christ and be comforted
by His finished work of salvation. Go back with me to our text and
let's look at this real quick. What's a pastor? He's sent. He's
interested in honoring God. He's interested in your soul.
He's your brother. He's your servant. He's not preaching
at you. He's not preaching down to you.
He's not trying to lord himself over you. He's not preaching
the law. He's not putting you under the
law. He's preaching to you the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
revealed in the Word of God. For what? for you to have an
established place. A place where you can stand firm. Abide. Abide. Isn't that what
you just read, Ken? Abide in Christ. That's what
it means to be established. We're united to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He is our comfort. You see that? To establish you
and to comfort you. to comfort you concerning your
faith. Now, a man sent of God is not
interested in trying to monitor the behavior of your life. He's not going to do it. He's concerned about what you
believe. that if you believe the gospel,
the Lord will take care of the rest. He'll take care of the
rest. He's wanting to comfort you concerning
your faith. He wants you to be comforted
with the comfort wherewith he has been comforted. As a fellow
sinner and a brother and a co-laborer in the gospel, he has found his
comfort in the glorious person and accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Speak ye comfortably
to them. Tell them what? Their warfare
is accomplished and their iniquity is taken away. That's our comfort. When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
his mighty head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished. The warfare against sin, against
Satan, against death, against the grave, against the law has
all been accomplished. It's all accomplished. It's finished.
There's nothing more to do. Comfort my people. And speaking
comfortably to them, Let me speak to their hearts. The only way
you can speak to a man's heart is by speaking from your heart.
You're not speaking from your head. You're not speaking from
thought. You're speaking from your heart.
You're speaking from your own experience. Tell them their warfare is accomplished.
Tell them their iniquity is taken away. Do you remember what Isaiah
said next in Isaiah chapter 40? He said, Lord, where do I begin?
Where do I start this message? And the Lord said, tell them
their grass. Just tell them they're grass. Tell them they don't have
anything. Tell them they can't do anything. Tell them they've
got no contribution to make. That'll be a comfort to them.
Because if you get them to look at themselves, you get them to
try to find something in themselves that will favor them or merit
them salvation, you're not going to be a comfort to them. You're
going to be a burden to them. Tell them they're grass. A man, son of God, knows he's
grass, and he knows that the comfort that he's experienced
and the comfort that God's people need is to be reminded that they
can do nothing, that Christ has done everything. They have no
ability, and He has it all. All right. Let's let's take a
break.