Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When the Church Sins | New Testament | 1 Thessalonians 2

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

Why have so many Americans left the church in the past few decades? In today's episode, Jensen dives into the disappointment and challenges that face those who've walked away. Looking at 1 Thessalonians 2, Jensen explores he motives, love, and truth that should guide the church's ministry. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Thessalonians 2

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Researchers estimate that over the last 30 years, around 40 million Americans have become de-churched. With that many people leaving churches in America, they're bound to be hundreds of different reasons behind their exiting the pews. But throughout my time in ministry and talking with friends who have walked away from the church, I've seen a common thread, at least from people in my generation. There seems to be a large amount of disappointment in the establishment of the church. Scandals happening at large megachurches, the evangelical identity being taken over by political

agendas, and even mistrust in local leaders after hurtful interactions or teachings. Many of my friends and the college students I talked with still believed in core tenets of scripture, but had been driven away by the tactics, mistakes, and at time, blatantly sinful actions of those in power in the church. It's sad. And it's also hard to argue that the church in America hasn't been tainted by these very things that had driven them away. As I often say in those conversations, we have to remember that the church is the bride of Christ, that even at her most sinful, Christ died for the church. We see the sin that has invaded our hearts and our pulpits and our ministry leaders and the members of our churches. We know it is there. Christ knew it was

there too. And he still chose to invest in and build his church. And so while I see all those things too, rather than walk away and rely on my own spirituality to get me through, I have been emboldened to lean further into the church. When I was walking through my own frustrations with the church late in college, I found myself sitting across from Keith, actually, venting out my own feelings of betrayal and anger at the sin within the church. And Keith said something to me that completely changed the way I saw the church. He told me I could leave and be someone sitting on the sidelines throwing critiques of the church, or I could stay where I was, invest, and be a part of helping the church, look more and more like the way God intended her to be.

Now, I decided I didn't want to be a heckler on that day. And a few years later, when I experienced the pain of being hurt by the brokenness from within the church, I knew that the answer still wasn't walking away, but stepping further in to be faithful where the Lord had placed me. And I know the pushback to this response, because I felt it in my own heart. Doesn't this give the church a past to be harmful, to hurt, to remain unaccountable? And when I feel this way or begin to have these questioning thoughts, I'm encouraged by passages in scripture like the one we read today.

In 1st Thessalonians chapter 2, we see Paul giving an accounting of the ministry that the missionaries took part in in Thessalonica. And as he goes through their actions, many scholars believe he is giving a defense for the work that the missionaries did, contrasting their actions to those of the common pagan speakers who would have been speaking and instructing at the same time in their city. You see, the Thessalonians lived in the second largest city in Greece after Athens. It would have been full of people of all kinds of religions, all kinds of temples, all kinds of different ministry going on. And Paul writes to these men and women of the church to remind them of what the ministry of the Church

of Jesus Christ looks like. Now, as we walk through as many of these verses today as we can, I want all of us to be encouraged by the work and ministry of Paul. And I also want us to be challenged by it. We are given a clear picture of what the church can and should be. We're given a picture of God's heart for ministry. And so even when the brokenness of man gets in the way, we have to hold fast to the knowledge that God is working to redeem and restore his church to function in ways that are good and holy. And we can also be emboldened by these verses that when we see the brokenness of man invading the church, we can confidently stand firmly against ways that are contrary to what God desires for his church. So let's dive in. What does First Thessalonians chapter 2 tell us about how the church should function in ministry? Verse 1. You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without result.

we had previously suffered and had been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know. But with the help of our God, we dared to tell you this gospel in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. So first, Paul speaks of motives. He reminds the people that their ministry was effect. that they came to them in the face of strong opposition and stayed true to preaching the gospel. They weren't motivated by impure motives. They were not trying to trick people. Their intentions were purely to share the gospel with them. Later in verse 9, Paul speaks of working day and night so that

they would not be a burden to the people. Most likely, this meant that as he was doing his ministry duties, he was also working as a tentmaker so that his ministry wouldn't be a financial burden on the church. Now, of course, this doesn't mean that true ministry should be done without the generosity of the church. There are plenty of other places in scripture that affirm the need for the church to support those in ministry through tithing and gifts. At other times, Paul did rely on the generosity of others. But Paul uses this specifically as an example here to show his heart, his intentions behind his ministry. He's not like the pagan teachers who would use their power to gain wealth from the people they speak to, sharing an empty teaching and taking from the people they pray on.

No, Paul and his fellow missionaries seek to be faithful in what they do. Good stewards of the money and opportunity they've been given so that the gospel can spread and they do not become a burden that gets in the way of its growth. So we see that the church is to be a place where the main motivation is the spread of the gospel. That it is imperative that those doing ministry of any kind, whether in a paid position in a church or volunteering their time, would be constantly checking their own heart, their own intentions, their own motives. And this leads us directly into the next point that Paul makes.

Verse 4. We are not trying to please people, but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed. God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you. So Paul and his missionaries were not looking for financial gain, nor were they looking to gain the approval of man. They had already made it clear.

They faced opposition and persecution where they preached. The things they say are not mere forms of flattery. The praise they give the Thessalonians for their faith, the encouragement to trust in the hope of the gospel. None of that is so that the Thessalonians would praise them, but that they would be pointed back to the gospel. He again speaks of greed. They do not seek to gain the trust of these people so that they themselves will benefit. Instead, he says they were like young children. Other translations say infants here, pure motives with no greed. They are not motivated by money, not motivated by the praise of others. They work out of the pure motives. to see the gospel spread. These are the things that should be true of every member and leader and

volunteer in a church. This is what sets Paul and his missionaries apart from the pagan teachers around them. And finally, Paul goes on to describe the ministry that they performed in Thessalonica. He uses two metaphors, one of a mother and one of a father. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much. We were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well. You are witnesses, and so is God of how holy, righteous, and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each one of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God who calls you into His kingdom and glory. Paul concludes his description of their

work in Thessalonica with the report that their ministry was motivated by both love and truth. They love the people deeply. He uses the metaphor of a nursing mother, giving of herself, giving her energy, her body, her time to sustain the lives of those around her. This is the way that the church should see themselves as they seek to minister to those around them. It's the way of Jesus, to lay down one's own life their body so that another might know and live fully in the goodness of the gospel, and to do so with delight, delighting in the sharing of the gospel and the fellowship of other believers. And while they showed love, they also spoke the truth of the gospel to the people in their care. They taught and lived holiness. As a father,

out of love, they encouraged and comforted them. But they also admonished them to live lives worthy of God. They called the people to obedience, to live their lives in step with the gospel, and teachings of God. They reminded them that God was calling them into his kingdom and bestowing upon him his glory. And with this, they too must live lives that reflect his kingdom and glory to the world around them. You see, the church should always be a place that reflects the love and the truth of the kingdom of God. It should be full of people whose motives are pure, whose desire is to see the kingdom of God spread throughout the entire world, loving and giving of themselves to the people they seek to teach and minister to, while also holding fast to the truth of the gospel, not swaying from

the obedience to scripture Jesus calls us to. As we see people turning away from the church, as we feel our own hearts being turned off to the church by the brokenness that seems to continually be uncovered. I pray that these verses can give us hope, hope that the mission of the church is to be selfless, loving, and full of the truth of Scripture, and that one day, the very churches we make up will be fully redeemed in the kingdom of God. I pray that these verses give us strength and confidence, strength and confidence to be both loving and truthful within your local church, to have conversations and ask questions when you fear that motives may be impure or truth or love may be being neglected.

And I pray that these verses would challenge our own hearts, that they would challenge us to not sit on the sidelines and throw stones at the Church of Jesus, but to get off the bench and begin taking part in the ministry and work of the church in the ways that Scripture encourages us, that we would check our motives, that we would show the sacrificial love of a nursing mother to those in our churches, that we would uphold the truth of the scripture in how we live our lives and the ways we encourage other believers in the faith. As long as Jesus is king, there is hope for the church. May we lean in and invest, taking part in the ministry of building God's kingdom here and now. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an

email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.