What Paul and his companions did and did not do?

 Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to defend you or someone else’s character?

Paul and Silas had to deeply defend themselves against the opposition. Let us learn from their example. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 (NLT)

“You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. You 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, in spite of great opposition. So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery. For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too. Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you. You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.”

Paul in this section of the long narrative of I Thessalonians is seeking to defend their ministry to the Thessalonians from all of the falsehoods that were being spread. He is reminding them of reality and that their visit was “not a failure.”

“You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure.” (I Thessalonians 2:1)

Paul wrote to them about his own and Silas’s suffering. They had been “flogged and imprisoned without a trial.” Paul reminds them that they came under terrible conditions. But, Paul wrote,

 “Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.”  (I Thessalonians 2:2)

 Paul is now set to defend their ministry. Gordon Fee in “The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians”, page 55.

 What Paul was Not like among the Thessalonians (2:3-7b)

·       Our appeal was not based on error

·       Nor on impure motives

·       Nor on trickery

·       But as those approved by God

·       We speak not as people-pleasers but before God

·       For we did not use flattery

·       Not wear masks to cover greed

·       Nor seek praise from human beings,

·       But we were “innocents” [like babes] among you

·       Paul has emphasized that he and Silas and Timothy are “God-pleasers” not anything more.

·       Innocent to those who would judge.

What Paul Was among the Thessalonians (2:7c-12) and page 72 of Fee’s book

Paul did not want there to be any mistake about what they did and did not do on their ministry visit to the Thessalonians.  What they did do when in Thessalonica:

“…

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This episode lets us know three things about God:  

• God's is as relevant today as He has ever been, and He left us a record in His Word as evidence
• God's Holy Spirit is alive and active to bring the words off of the page and into our lives
• God has made a promise to be with us, Revelation 3:20 (NIV)

'Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. '

We are here. www.HeartVisionChurch.org

This sermon was delivered by Rev J. Rochelle McIntosh at Desert Christian Fellowship in Mesa, AZ, where she served as associate pastor with Senior Pastors Michael and Susan McFarland in the early 2000's.  The scripture of this sermon can be found in Ephesian 2:12-20 (AMP)

'remember that at that time you were separated from Christ [excluded from any relationship with Him], alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise [with no share in the sacred Messianic promise and without knowledge of God’s agreements], having no hope [in His promise] and [living] in the world without God. But now [at this very moment] in Christ Jesus you who once were [so very] far away [from God] have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace and our bond of unity. He who made both groups —[Jews and Gentiles]— into one body and broke down the barrier, the dividing wall [of spiritual antagonism between us], by abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the hostility caused by the Law with its commandments contained in ordinances [which He satisfied]; so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thereby establishing peace. And [that He] might reconcile them both [Jew and Gentile, united] in one body to God through the cross, thereby putting to death the hostility. A nd H e came and preached the good news of peace to you [Gentiles] who were far away , and peace to those [Jews] who were near . [Is 57:19] For it is through Him that we both have a [direct] way of approach in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens [outsiders without rights of citizenship], but you are fellow citizens with the saints (God’s people), and are [members] of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the [chief] Cornerstone, '

There are additional reference scriptures that can be found in:  Genesis 7:1, Nehemiah 6:1-4, and John 14:27.

This sermon is very inspirational to us, and we hope you find this sermon encouraging to you as well.

God Bless,

Willie and J. Rochelle McIntosh

We are here. www.HeartVisionChurch.org