In his sermon 'God-Pleasing Ambassadors,' Jason Dohm discusses the defense of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy's ministry in Thessalonica. He explains that their abrupt departure due to opposition and the presence of new believers necessitated a clear defense to prevent misunderstandings. The sermon emphasizes three main points: firstly, Paul and his companions were approved by God and entrusted with the Gospel, distinguishing them from false ambassadors. Secondly, Dohm outlines the marks of counterfeit ambassadors, such as using flattering words, covetousness, and seeking praise from men. These false ambassadors do not genuinely represent God's message. Thirdly, the sermon highlights the characteristics of God-pleasing ambassadors, which include gentleness, integrity, and a willingness to share their lives with others. Dohm urges believers to follow the Great Commission, be diligent in their ambassadorship, and avoid altering the Gospel's message to please people. He concludes by encouraging Christians to recognize true ambassadors and share their lives in the service of the Gospel, much like Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy did.

Last week, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy began a defense of their ministry. They looked back at their time in Thessalonica and they defend their words and their lives, lived there in Thessalonica. Jim gave us two likely reasons why they would spend space in the letter to defend their ministry in Thessalonica. I think he was right on with those. The first likely reason was this, the circumstances that forced them to leave town so abruptly.

You remember from Acts 16 and Acts 17 what was happening. They encountered very strong opposition and they essentially had to flee town for their lives. One day they were there and the next day they were gone. And that could lead itself to a lot of misunderstanding that could invalidate the Gospel message. So Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, they write back to this church to clear those matters up.

The second likely reason was that these are brand new Christians. There's never been a church in Thessalonica. There's never really been a Christian presence in Thessalonica. And now there is, but they're just full of new believers, and they've been left with their enemies. They've been left with these fellows of baser sorts, as Jim quoted from the King James Version last week.

This mob, this rent-a-mob that was hired to run them out of town, and successfully so. So you have new converts, new believers, and they're in the middle of enemies who attacked the Apostle Paul and his hand-picked companions and how much more so their new converts. And so Paul and Silvanus and Timothy write back so that they'll have a good explanation to give to all their surrounding enemies. This week we pick right back up on verse 3. In some ways it was a shame to detach verse 3 from our text this week.

But Paul's arguments throughout, we're going to find this all through the letter, his arguments are so skillful that it's almost impossible to find a really good place to make a break for a sermon. He's weaving everything with what went before and what comes after in a way that makes that a difficult task. So we're going to be reaching back to verse 3. Look at verse 3 so that we're entering with the context. Verse 3 says this, For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit.

So Paul says that there are gospels that come from error. No, not our Gospel. Our Gospel is the Gospel of truth. Paul says there are ambassadors of Gospel that come in uncleanness. No, not us.

We lived holy lives among you. Paul says that There are Gospels that are deceptive. You have to trick people to get them to embrace it. No, not our Gospel. Our Gospel came to you in complete integrity.

Our motives were right there on the tabletop. And So this is right where we pick up for our text this week. So here's a road map for the rest of our time. There are going to be three main points to the sermon. The first point is this, that Paul and Silvanus and Timothy were approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel.

It's not their Gospel. They were sent with somebody else's Gospel. Number two, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy give us the marks of counterfeit ambassadors. In other words, there are false ambassadors, a lot of them out there. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy tell us how to recognize them.

And then finally, thirdly, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy tell us the marks of God-pleasing ambassadors and they say we were like that. As we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. God, I thank you for how the gospel came to me. When I think of this, I see faces of people who spoke truth to me and helped me to see what I had never been able to see before and hear what I had never been able to hear before. Thank you for the coming of the Gospel to Jason Dome.

You would send people who would say words, it would pierce my heart because it didn't come in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Thank you for how the gospel has come to us. I know my brothers and sisters are seeing faces of people who brought the gospel to them to thank you, God, that you sent ambassadors into this world with truth, with a gospel that saves, with a gospel that reconciles. And now, O God, make us ambassadors that please you. Send us to a world that is dying with good news of reconciliation with the Holy God through the work of Jesus Christ.

May we please you. May we be sent by you. May we preach a pure gospel. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. Point number one.

Approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy here are beginning a flow of argument. Not that, but this. That characterizes the whole text. Not that, There are these marks of the counterfeit, not that, but this.

There are the marks of the real deal, of the things that please God, and we were that. So, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy begin by saying, we were approved by God. Us being in Thessalonica isn't our idea. We actually see that in the account from Acts. Paul has a vision at night of a man from Macedonia saying come and help us.

This is not our idea. Coming to Thessalonica, not our idea. We were sent to Thessalonica. We were approved by God and we were entrusted with the Gospel. The text begins with, but, or as the NIV translates it, on the contrary, so our authors are building a contrast with verse three.

In contrast with error, we are approved by God and entrusted with the gospel. In contrast with lives of uncleanness, we are approved by God. He searches our hearts. He has tested us. We are approved by Him and entrusted with the gospel.

In contrast to deceit and having to trick people in to accept something, we are approved by God and entrusted with the Gospel. Listen to what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. You see what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 20.

He's saying that when someone preaches the gospel, when someone is an ambassador for Christ, it's like they're standing as Christ to say, be reconciled to God. It's Christ's words. Christ sends his people into the world to people who are enslaved to sin being killed by sin to say be reconciled to God through Christ. It's like they're Christ standing before sinners to say what Christ said. The point is they didn't send themselves.

God sent them. They were tested by God. God searched their hearts and he approved them. The point is the content isn't theirs. It is from God.

They were entrusted with the gospel. So they didn't send themselves and the content isn't theirs. God sent them and the content is God's content. That's why in verse 8, it's called the gospel of God. It's not their message.

It's the gospel of God. The gospel proceeding from God. His words spoken to sinners. They're ambassadors. Isn't that what an ambassador is?

You open an embassy, maybe in a country that's your enemy, maybe, or even a country that's your friend, and you place an ambassador there. You send him there. No one sends themselves as an ambassador to the embassy. And he better not be saying, or she better not be saying, their own things. They're told what to say, maybe in enemy territory.

They're given the terms of peace to offer to these kingdoms. That's what ambassadors do. That's what Christians are and that's what Paul and Silvanus and Timothy were in Thessalonica. So consequently, everything done was to please God and not men. The text says that so explicitly.

Who cares if man is happy with the message? The ambassador can't afford to care whether the message is well received or poorly received. The ambassador's job is not to make the person receiving the message happy. The ambassador's job is to deliver the mail. Not to write the mail, to deliver the mail.

Doesn't that fit with exactly what Paul says? We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. This is God commanding all men everywhere to repent as is said in the sermon in the book of Acts. I think there are two ways for us to wrongly apply this to ourselves. The first way is this, to say, we're Paul.

I'm Paul. There are some unique applications for the Apostle Paul here. It doesn't apply to us in exactly the same way. You're not Paul. I'm not Paul.

There are many places we can go to prove that, but the place that I've selected is Galatians chapter 2 verse 7. Listen to Galatians chapter 2 verse 7. Paul writes, the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter." Galatians chapter 2 verse 7, Paul is claiming a special place for himself and for Peter. And there are apostles, first of all the word apostle is used in two ways in the New Testament. There is a general sense in which anyone who is sent is an apostle.

It really just means a messenger. But there is a more technical, narrower sense in which it applies to Peter and Paul and the eleven. Which is much more authoritative. And these were those who had seen the risen Christ and had been directly called by the risen Christ. So there are little A apostles who are messengers who were sent from one church to another or from a church to go to evangelism and plant churches, but they're not capital A apostles who had been appeared to by the risen Christ and directly called by the risen Christ as Paul was.

Paul was appeared to by the risen Christ and directly called by the risen Christ as were the eleven. So I believe in our text because he's saying we, It's little a apostle, messengers, those who have been sent out to preach the gospel. We know Paul's story. We know a little bit about what it means that he was approved by God and entrusted with the Gospel. We know that direct revelation came through Paul.

Direct revelation is never going to come to you or I in that same way. No way. Every once in a while I write a letter to a church. It will never be included in here and nothing could be more appropriate than that. Leave it out.

Paul has received things that are different than anything that I will ever receive. So had Peter. So had others who were authors of the Old and New Testament. We're not that. So I don't think we come and say in exactly the same way as Paul was approved by God and entrusted with the gospel, we're approved and entrusted in exactly the same way.

But that leads us to the other way to wrongly apply this to ourselves. We go to the opposite extreme and say this has nothing to do with me. This is Paul and Silvanus and Timothy and the special people and so I can just check out for the next ten minutes because this part of the text just doesn't apply to me. The truth of the matter is that we do have the Great Commission. The Great Commission is to you if you're born again and it's to me.

It's a direct command to take the Gospel to the nations, to leave no spot on earth untouched by the preaching of a reconciling gospel through Christ. We have our marching orders and we are ambassadors. If you are born again, you are approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel. Maybe not in exactly the same way at every point as Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, but we are ambassadors. We are sent by God and we've been given a message that is not our own to preach and it's our business to get about pleasing God, to being God pleasing ambassadors.

That's point one, approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel. Here's point two. Marks of counterfeit ambassadors. There are fakers out there. There are Those who say, I was sent by God and He told me to say this, and they were never sent by God, and those aren't God's words.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy give us three marks, And they're arguing we don't bear any of those marks. That's not us. Here's the first mark. They say, we didn't use flattering words ever. Verse 5, neither at any time did we use flattering words.

We never flattered you. A counterfeit ambassador flatters. A counterfeit ambassador, a faker, one who says they were sent by God when they really weren't, says that God told them to say these words and they are really not God's words, they are a flatterer. Friends, the gospel is an offense. The natural man doesn't like the Gospel and the natural man doesn't receive the Gospel.

The natural man doesn't clap for the Gospel. The natural man doesn't appreciate the Gospel. This morning I googled the Gospel is an offense Bible verses and the first link drops in 23 New Testament verses that say that. So it's all over the New Testament. It's a stumbling block.

Jesus is a stumbling block and a rock of offense. He is the aroma of death to those who are perishing. The Gospel is an offense. It confronts us in our sin and it attacks our pride. If there are two things the natural man loves, it's his sin or her sin, it's his pride or her pride.

You try to get the natural man or the natural woman to part with sin and pride, you have a fight on your hands. The Gospel is an offense. We must never present the Gospel in a way that minimizes or ignores the offense. It's no service to anyone, least of all God in heaven, to minimize or ignore the offense of the gospel. Let the gospel be an offense.

Now does that mean we should go out of our way to be a stench in the nostrils of unbelievers? By no means. By no means. But it does mean that you shouldn't try to go out of your way to take the barbs out of the Gospel. Those barbs are there on purpose.

Those barbs are designed to drive the sinner to a point of crisis where they must choose. The choosing doesn't happen absent the work of the Holy Spirit. I'm not preaching libertarian free will or anything like that. But I am saying that the gospel is designed for that. The gospel is designed to create a crisis for the sinner.

And when you take off the sharp edges, so that there's no crisis, what you have is a false gospel and false conversions. The church is awash in false gospels and consequently false conversions. People who think that it's all well between them and God. People who think that they've been reconciled with God, but they never have because they were never driven to a crisis point where they either had to repent or not repent. Here's what F.F.

Bruce says, the flatterer is a stock character in the literature of ethics and manners who habitually employs flattery to gain some advantage for himself. He trades on the fact that people naturally like to hear things which set them in a favorable light. And by telling them such things he expects to gain a following. That gets right to the heart of flattery. Listen to this one phrase again.

He trades on the fact that people naturally like to hear things which set them in a favorable light. That's what flattery is. You setting your hearer in a favorable light to gain an advantage. Joel Osteen is the poster boy for this. There is never a crisis.

You are never driven to a crisis under that kind of preaching. Because you are told that you have got everything you need inside of yourself. Life has been hard on you. Life has beaten you down. You have not looked at things in the right way, but if we can fix that about you, if you can look at things in the right way, then all will be well with you.

That does not reconcile you with the Holy God. That kind of gospel never reconciled anyone to a Holy God. There are two kinds of flattery. The first is the one that we generally think of. This is speaking overly well of someone.

Exaggerating their virtues, or maybe even inventing virtues and applying them to someone that they don't really apply to. This is how we think of flattery. But there's a much more subtle kind of flattery, which is the flip side of that, which is ignoring a desperate condition. To see someone in a desperate condition and to pass over it as if that didn't exist is flattery. It's the piece piece when there is no peace that we find among the false prophets of the Old Testament.

To see someone on a broad road that leads to destruction and just to pass over that as if everything is fine is a form of flattery. Because it's ignoring a desperate condition and refusing to confront the roots of it, which is you're sinful to the core. To know that someone is sinful to the core, and to see it clear as day, and to know the desperate condition that that places them in before a holy God, and then to pass over it as if all is well is hatred. It's hatred. It's flattery.

We get insight into the Gospel of Paul and Silvanus and Timothy in chapter 1 verse 9. You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Now think about what that tells you about the gospel that was preached by Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. You turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. How did that happen?

Paul said you're serving idols. If you want the living and true God, you have to cast away all of those idols. You cannot have them both. You have to repent. You have to turn away from self and the things you've loved and the things that you've trusted and place all your hope and trust in this.

You cannot have this without forsaking that. This is not a flattering Gospel. J.C. Ryle says this over and over and over again in his writings, your best friend is the one who tells you the most truth. Isn't that true?

Some of the people you might be mad at in your life are actually your best friends, you just haven't recognized it yet. They brought you truth and they've irritated you with it. And you haven't gotten around to figuring out that they really are your best friend yet. It'll sink in. This happens all the time to everyone.

This happens all the time to everyone. You have friends who actually refuse to flatter you, and they tell you the most truth, and you're irritated at them. And so am I. But at the end of the day, I really do know who my best friends are. I know they're the ones who won't flatter me.

And in your heart of hearts, you know the same. So first they say we didn't use flattering words ever. Second, they say our gospel work wasn't a cloak for covetousness. Our gospel work among you in Thessalonica wasn't a cloak, a garment, a coat for covetousness. A counterfeit ambassador does that.

A counterfeit ambassador makes it look like your interests are at heart, but really they just want things from you. Covetousness is a craving for what God in his wisdom hasn't given you. I think that's a good definition of covetousness. Craving, not a little desire. A craving, a have to have of things that God in his wisdom hasn't given you.

In other words, God knows better than you what you ought to have. But you think you know better than him, and you say, thanks God who is wiser than me, hasn't given me. No, he wasn't wise. I need those things. And so you chase after them and you will not be denied.

That's covetousness. And as it turns out, religion can be a great way to get those things. Religion can be a great way to get those things. It's a great cloak. It's a great way to hide what you're really after.

It always has been. Hey, the modern expressions of this are just that. They're just modern expressions. There are ancient expressions going all the way back. It always has been and it always will be a great cloak to hide what you're really after.

Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 17. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 17. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 17. For we are not as so many peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God we speak in the sight of God in Christ. Paul acknowledges here in 2 Corinthians 2.17 that there are so many who are peddling the Word of God.

They are using their gospel work as a cloak for covetousness because they crave things that God in his wisdom hasn't given them. And they've found an avenue to get those things. I hardly need to mention expressions of this in our day. They are everywhere. So secondly, they said our gospel work wasn't a cloak for covetousness.

They weren't trying to get things that God hadn't given them through their gospel work. Finally, they said, this wasn't about anyone praising us. That's how we came to Thessalonica. We weren't after applause. We weren't after a standing ovation.

The Greek word in verse 6, it's rendered glory. We weren't after glory. The Greek word is doxa. It's where we get doxology from. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

They didn't come to Thessalonica so that someone would sing their praises. A counterfeit ambassador is after that. A counterfeit ambassador is in it for applause. Is in it for someone to sing his or her praises. Jesus confronted this head on in Matthew chapter 6, where he says three times, Don't be like the hypocrites.

He says, the hypocrites do their charitable deeds to be seen by men. That's the key phrase, to be seen by men. Is it wrong to do charitable deeds No, we should do charitable deeds, but you shouldn't be do it. You shouldn't do them to be seen by men That's what makes you a hypocrite Jesus says the hypocrites do their charitable deeds to be seen by men. Jesus says don't be like that.

Jesus says a second time, hypocrites say their prayers on the street corners to be seen by men. Don't pray like that. Go behind a door. Pray to your Father who is in the secret place. He will reward you openly.

Then the third time, Jesus says, don't be like the hypocrites. They fast to be seen by men. They mess up their hair. You can tell when they're fasting, and that's on purpose. They made it really plain that they're sacrificing.

Jesus says, comb your hair when you're fasting. Don't let anyone know when you're fasting. Don't do it to be seen by men. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy say, we're free from that. We're free from that.

If you rejoice in the Gospel, we rejoice and you're rejoicing, but we're not doing it for your applause. We just want to please God. But we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. So they say this isn't about anyone praising us, but know this, there are demands that we could have made that we didn't make when we were in Thessalonica. There were things that we had a right to, and we passed over the right for the sake of the Gospel.

What are these demands? Well, the text doesn't say. It's left, very broad. They could be financial demands. They could be demands of honor.

They could be demands of deference. We're the Apostles of Christ. We say you do. They could have done that. It would have been within their rights to make financial demands, to make demands of honor, to make demands of deference.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. I feel like 1 Corinthians chapter 9 is Paul's own exposition on our text in many ways. It has many intersection points with different points of our text. So I'm going to read a long portion of it. We'll read a lot more of 1 Corinthians 9 than we will of 1 Thessalonians 2 today.

But it's Paul's exposition, so we'll let Paul explain himself. 1 Corinthians 9, I'll start in verse 1, I'll read through 18, and I'm going to be making comments all along the way. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 1, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?

Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord." A comment that sounds just like, our coming to you was not in vain. From our chapter in 1 Thessalonians 2. Continuing in verse 3, My defense to those who examine me is this, Do we have no right to eat and drink? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? Whoever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? Do I say these things as a mere man?

Or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does he say it all together for our sakes? For our sakes no doubt this is written.

That he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things, lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. This is really the punch line of the whole text.

So let me just stop and comment here. Paul is saying, there are things as an apostle that I have the right to demand, and you would be required to give it to me because of what the law says. But I will forego that right to make sure it's not an obstacle to the gospel. To make sure that the gospel gets as far as it can, as fast as it can, I will pass over the rights that are due to me as the Lord's worker, as an apostle? Nevertheless, we have not used this right but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ." I think Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are writing much the same thing in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Continuing in verse 13 now, Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of those things of the temple? And those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the Gospel should live from the Gospel. Another comment. As we progress through 1 Thessalonians, we're going to see that Paul did the same thing in Thessalonica.

He passed over the right to be provided for, and they provided for their own needs. They worked at a trade, and they labored, they toiled night and day. We're coming to that either next week or the week after that. They toiled night and day so as not to be a burden of the Thessalonians, even though they had a right to be provided for. Back to verse 15.

But I have used none of these things, Nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me. For it would be better for me to die than anyone should make my boasting void. For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward.

But if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship, what is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge. That I may not abuse my authority in the gospel. So Paul in verse 17 says something, well I think it's 16 and 17, says something really interesting. It seems like he's saying, he's preaching the gospel against his will.

I don't think he's saying that at all. It's not against his will, but it wasn't his will. Meaning, preaching the gospel to the Gentiles was never Paul's idea. Never. Read the account in Acts.

It was God's idea. He was sent. He's an ambassador. He's not on his own mission and he doesn't have his own words. It's God's mission and it's God's words.

He said, this was my idea and this was my words, I might clamor for a reward. But I have a trust here, That's exactly what is said in verse 16. Yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. Verse 17, for if I do this willingly I have a reward, but if against my will I have been entrusted with a stewardship." It isn't his idea, it's not his words, he's been entrusted with a stewardship. He has to.

Woe is him if he doesn't preach the gospel. It's burning in his heart and he knows it will be total disobedience to God not to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. And then he ends by saying this, that I may not abuse my authority in the Gospel. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have the right to demand certain things, but they pass right over that right. Why?

So the Gospel makes it as far as it can, as fast as it can. Brothers and sisters, this is simply Christ-likeness. It's all it is. It's nothing more than Christlikeness. Who had more rights than Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fully God, who more completely laid aside his rights than Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, who took on the form of a servant.

He had the most rights and he most completely laid them by and so did his apostles and so should all of his ambassadors, so must all of his ambassadors. A final note on point two. Our authors call two witnesses in verse five. They Repeat a phrase that we've already seen multiple times and we'll see multiple times again. As you know, he calls them to witness.

They heard what they preached. They saw how they lived. So Paul calls the Thessalonians as witness and he says God is witness. God can see what the Thessalonians can't see which is the motives of the heart. Paul says standing before God who sees everything I can tell you we didn't do it for money, We didn't do it for your applause.

We did it to please God. Finally, point three, the last point. Marks of God-pleasing ambassadors. Marks of God pleasing ambassadors. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy have taught us about counterfeit ambassadors.

Now they teach us about the real thing, the ones who please God. Verse 7 begins this way, but we were, and then he says how they were among them. So he's laying out a contrast between the counterfeit and those who please God. Verse 7, we were gentle among you. The first thing, first mark of a God pleasing ambassador is gentleness.

Does that mean that the gospel isn't preached with passion and conviction? No, of course not. You can still be gentle and preach and pound the pulpit. Maybe not every minute. You see how this fits with what they just said.

They said we could have made demands on you. There were demands that we could have made that we didn't make, but instead of that we were gentle among you. That's part of the gentleness is having the right to make demands, financial demands, demands for honor, demands for deference that they passed over in order to just be gentle among them. Think of how many challenges there were among all these new believers who one month ago, two months ago, three months ago were pagan idolaters. You think this church had any problems?

There's lots of praise and there's no censure in this letter. We don't know what the problems were, but I'm telling you there were problems in this church. These were new converts. These are recovering idolaters. Do you remember?

You remember when it was all new. You remember when you were first saved. And when you got a good glimpse of how much work the Holy Spirit needed to do in you. Being saved doesn't mean all that old stuff goes away overnight. It's the starting line, not the finish line.

And then the Holy Spirit begins to work and begins to purge. God doesn't bring you to maturity in a day or a week or a month, or a year, or a decade. Sanctification, being made holy, is progressive. It happens over time, and not much time has passed, which means these people aren't very holy. I'd love to know the list, the priority list for Paul and Silvanus and Timothy of the things that needed to be addressed urgently in this church of recovering pagan idolaters.

I bet it was a long list. But Paul was gentle. Listen to what he writes to Timothy. This is very pertinent. This is Paul writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 24.

2 Timothy 2, 24, and a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, he has to be gentle to all. Well he's writing to Timothy, but Timothy's already seen it in action. They've been together in Thessalonica among a bunch of recovering idolaters. Recovering idolaters, barely recovering, newly recovering, lots of work left to do.

You know what? They were patient. Paul and Sylvain and Timothy were not bulls in a china shop. There were fragile things in Thessalonica. New converts are fragile.

They are. They won't always be fragile and we shouldn't despise anyone for being fragile. We all were when we were newly converted very fragile. Think of how patient God was with you. I hope God also put people in your lives who were patient as well.

He did for the Thessalonians. He gave them Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. Be patient with them. Be gentle with them. How gentle?

Just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. That's how gentle. How is that? Well, think of the gentleness of the scene of a mother nursing a child. It's just a gentle scene.

But I'll say this. Now take that scene, the scene of gentleness, a mother nursing her baby, and back up ten minutes. Not the same scene. Babies are demanding. Like babies now.

That's the life of a nursing mother, is babies who have to be fed now. They were gentle. It's hard to think of something more demanding than a baby that's hungry. It's hard to think of something more self-sacrificing than a mother who is nursing. She cherishes her child, and how do you know?

It has an expression, gentleness. The cherishing works its way out. You can see it. You can watch the cherishing happen in the gentleness that a nursing mother has for her baby. The first mark is, we were gentle among you.

Verse 7. The second mark is, we were well pleased to impart to you the gospel and our own lives. We were well pleased, this is verse 8, well pleased to impart to you the gospel, but not just the gospel, but also our own lives. In chapter 1 verse 5, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy say, Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance. It wasn't a word only Gospel.

It came in power. The Holy Spirit was there. The Holy Spirit was on the preacher. The Holy Spirit was on the hearer, so it was embraced as the Word of God. This is another way in which their gospel was not just words.

I love this. This is beautiful. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy aren't bringing a word only gospel. The Holy Spirit is in it and in addition to the words they bring their lives and so you can have that too. You can have my words, that's easy.

Oh that's so easy. It's giving your life alongside the words that actually reinforces the words in a way that almost nothing else will. They shared their lives. King James says, souls are very souls we shared with you. It's like breath of life is the literal for the Greek word.

It means the deepest things that we have. We gave it all. We gave you the words. They are the words of life. Oh, are the words needed.

They do bring us to the crisis point. But if there's not a life to be invested behind it, so often the words fall on deaf ears. Listen to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 15. This of course is Paul, 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 15. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls.

This is that. Alright, we gave you the gospel but not just the Gospel, we gave you our lives too. We'll spend and be spent for your souls. You need the words of life? We know that.

Here are the words of life. You need us to come live among you? You need us to come live among you. You need us to come live among you as a mother who's nursing her child. You got it.

It's yours. We'll spend. We'll be spent for your souls. Why? Why would they do this love?

Just love? It says we were well pleased. This isn't a bitter burden for Paul and Sylvainus and Timothy. They were well pleased to give their lives to the Thessalonians because you had become dear to us. That's why you become dear to us.

You weren't our project. You earn a notch for our belt. You're dear to us. I like the translation beloved better. And here's why.

Deer is fine. There's nothing wrong with the translation deer. The Greek word has the same root as agape, meaning it's just a different form with the same root of the word, which is agape. It's love. You're beloved by us.

That's why we didn't just come with words. We're not just full of words, we're full of love for souls. Listen to 1 John 3.16. Not John 3.16, but 1 John 3.16. By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us.

And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. You want to know love? Look at Christ. He laid down his life for us. Christ had lots of words.

The Gospels are filled with sermons, perfect sermons from Jesus. Jesus didn't stop there. Jesus' primary ministry to us was not his sermons. He laid down his life. Why did he lay down his life, love?

And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This is another way in which what we see in the lives of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy is simply Christ-likeness. It's simply walking after the pattern of Jesus. Applications. Number one, this trains us to recognize God pleasing ambassadors from counterfeits.

We're being trained to know the difference between God pleasing ambassadors, ambassadors who were sent by God, who have God's words, who please Him. And the counterfeits, and they're everywhere. And you better be able to tell the difference. Because you need to get as far away from counterfeit ambassadors as you can get. And you need to receive God pleasing ambassadors.

So you need to know how to recognize one from the other. This text trains us to do that. And you know that's what Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are doing for these young converts. They're not there physically anymore, but there are going to be a lot of counterfeit ambassadors who are going to come rolling through Thessalonica. When you look at the letters to other churches by both Paul and Peter, that's what you find is that they're stealing these new converts, hardening them against false teachers, teaching them to recognize them and teaching them to reject them.

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are training these new converts how to recognize the difference between one and the other. Because many people say, God sent me to say this, and God didn't send them, and those aren't God's words. Number two, this gives us a pattern for our ambassadorship. Ambassadorship didn't end with Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. Of course not.

It's a great commission. It extends until Jesus returns in glory. And now we have a pattern. First, we must be approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel. What does that mean?

Well it starts with being born again. Being approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel begins with Having a new heart. Having a heart of stone removed and being replaced with a heart of flesh. And then, I think 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 has a direct bearing. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15.

Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God, A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Be diligent, brothers and sisters, fellow advances of the Gospel, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. A worker, a worker in the harvest, it's white. We're workers in it. God wants us bringing in a harvest of souls into his kingdom, but we need to be diligent, to be approved by God.

How so? Rightly dividing the Word of Truth, being careful with the word. It's not our words we're taking, and we're not taking the edges off the Gospel. We're not taking the sharp parts off the Gospel. We're not taking the prickles out of the Gospel.

The Gospel comes with prickles. If you haven't delivered it with the prickles, you haven't delivered it at all. The Gospel delivered rightly brings sinners to a crisis point, confronts them, attacks their pride, and then you're in for a fight. Look at the counterfeits. Flattery, covetousness, praise of men.

So we're preaching the gospel in this community. We need to examine ourselves. Is there any hint of flattery in the gospel we're preaching? Is there any hint of covetousness? Are there things that God and His wisdom has withheld from us because he knows better than we do what we need.

But we're craving them and we're using gospel work to get those things. Is there any hint of that? Is there any hint of loving praise of man? There's always a hint of loving praise of man. We always have to be working to purge that.

Look at what pleases God. Gentleness Is our gospel advancing ministry characterized by gentleness? The gospel might include a little yelling, If you're preaching it in public, but it shouldn't be characterized by yelling. It should be characterized by gentleness. What about sharing our lives?

This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where the wheels meet the highway. Do we have a word only gospel around here? We better not have a word only gospel. God will call your bluff.

God will call our bluff. If we bring a word only gospel. We are ambassadors. We've not sent ourselves. We don't have our own message.

Let's pray. God, how good your word is, how counterintuitive it is to so many of our own thoughts. It's not like our thoughts. It's not like our ways. Your ways are higher.

Your thoughts are higher. How glad we are you shared them with us. God, we do want to be a channel for your mercy to sinners. We do want to be approved by you. Test our hearts, Lord.

We know you are the God who sees everything, who tests every heart. Oh help us to know and trust us with your gospel Lord. Please, you've been so kind to us. We don't want to be the end of your kindness to sinners, O God. Multiply your kindness to sinners through us, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.