Marks of a True Ministry, Part 1

The Inseparable Link Between God's Sovereignty and Human Instrumentality

0:03 We have concluded our studies in the first chapter, which for the most part is given over to Paul's praise and thanks to God for the mighty work of his grace in establishing a witness to the gospel and bringing sinners to himself there at Thessalonica. In chapter 2 and verse 1, which we have already considered, he rejoices as he looks back in retrospect that his ministry to these people was not in vain. And so we consider Paul's great fear of a vain, an empty, a fruitless, profitless ministry. And now as we move on in our studies, beginning with verse 2 this morning, we do so to consider what we might well call the marks of a true servant of Christ, for just as surely as chapter 1 and verse 2 to the end of the chapter is a paragraph of praise to God for his work in the Thessalonians. So chapter 2, verse 2 through to verse 12 is a beautiful description,

1:22 biographically, granted, Paul describing his ministry and the ministry of his companion Silas when he was at Thessalonica, of what makes up a true servant. A true servant of Jesus Christ. Now there is a very vital relationship between the truths of chapter 1 and these truths of chapter 2, verses 2 through 12. Having shown that the success of his ministry was due to the election of God, verse 4 of chapter 1, knowing, beloved of God, your election.

1:58 Having shown very clearly the success of the gospel purpose and in the power of the Spirit, verse 5 of chapter 1, our gospel came not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost. Going to show us that though the success which made his ministry something other than a vain ministry was rooted in the eternal counsels of God and came to pass by the sovereign activity of the Spirit, it was vitally linked with the human instruments by which this work came to pass. And whatever happens in the salvation of sinners, and in the establishment of his church, these two things are invariably present.

2:51 It is rooted in his own sovereign and eternal purpose.

2:59 Instrumentality. And so if we are to be balanced in our understanding of the work of God in our own lives, in our own church, in the lives of others, we must hold to these two principles with equal tenacity. We must never so regard the instrument in such a light that we feel, well, if I become...

3:20 If I become holy enough, if I become zealous enough, if I become bold enough, then the gospel will succeed and it all depends upon me. No, that would be a terrible thing and it could lead to nothing but frustration. And then if you did see some success, you'd be bowing down at your own footstool and praising yourself. We must ever recognize that if God is pleased to work in the salvation of souls, whether it be our children, our neighbors, through our church, through any movement, mission board, whatever, it is due ultimately to the eternalness of God and to the mighty work of the Spirit.

3:58 We must never relinquish that truth. And when I preach through the first chapter, I sought to do justice to those words as they are found. But on the other hand, if all we do is hold to the truth of chapter one, that God must do the work and His eternal purposes cannot be frustrated and the work of the Holy Spirit in converting sinners is an efficacious work, a work that when God puts forth His arm, none can stay. If we hold that truth at the exclusion of what is taught in chapter two and are not earnest in longing to be pure vessels, longing to be zealous, bold witnesses, we will not see the pleasure of the Lord prospering in our hands.

4:42 These two things are inseparably joined. The eternal sovereign purposes of God and the purity and zealousness and boldness of the human instrument through which His work is done. And you see that brought out so clearly in these verses that we shall begin to study this morning. After verse two of chapter two, but even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know, we were bold in the gospel of God with much contention.

The Marks of a True Servant and the Necessity of This Study

5:20 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. We put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak.

5:37 For neither at any time used we words, as ye know, covetousness, God is witness, nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherished her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail, night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any. We preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also. How wholly and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe, as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God.

6:41 Who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. When is a church established, sinners converted? When does the work of God prosper? The answer of Paul is it prospers when God purposes that it shall prosper.

7:01 When he sends his gospel with power, that's the answer of chapter 1. But his answer is incomplete until we get the answer of chapter 2. When he has vessels that are pure, vessels whose motives are right, vessels who proclaim a proper message from the base of a proper motive and with a proper end in view. What are the characteristics of a true servant of Christ?

7:31 What are the factors that make up a faithful ministry and should characterize a faithful minister? That's what we're going to extract from this section which I have just read to you. Now why should we do this? Why not sort of just skip over this?

7:49 That applied to the apostle and maybe a little bit to preachers. But we're lay people sitting here in our pew and we have such great needs. Why spend our time looking at this in some detail? Well, I hope I can convince you that this is a necessary study.

8:03 First of all, from the standpoint of evaluation. A very personal question this morning. What do you think characterizes a true servant of Christ? When you hear a preacher, when you walk with a servant of Christ, as you think of your reality as a parent, as a witness, what do you think should characterize whether he is a preacher, in the sense that we would use it, a pastor, whether it's a parent, whether it's a person witnessing to his neighbor, what constitutes a true ministry?

8:45 If you had a paper and pencil and were to write down a dozen things that should characterize a true minister and true ministry, what would you put? As far as importance is concerned. The second question I'd ask you, would your list, would your idea of what constitutes a true minister simply be a projection of your own projection of biblical concepts? It's amazing the ideas some people have of what constitutes a true ministry and what constitutes a true minister.

9:21 I heard just yesterday a woman who was talking, talked with a woman who was talking with someone else in that church who professes to be a Christian and is rather zealous and active and they were talking about witnessing to one's neighbors and I talked to my neighbors, they have their religion and I wouldn't dare offend them. You see, her concept of a true witness was this, above all things, thou must not offend. That's the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth, tenth commandment of being a true minister, a true witness, thou must not offend. Now where'd she ever get that concept?

9:59 Did she get it from the Bible? Of course not. I think she got it from the Bible, got it from the Bible, but she didn't. Did you pick them up along the way and you just walked by and picked up this and picked up that?

10:19 Now where'd you get your concept? Did you just sort of pick them up as you moved down the street of life and you picked up a little here? How do you know your concept? How do you know you're not a true minister?

10:31 Oh, you say, you must be, I like you. No, no, you must not be. The basis of verses 2 to 12, you will have indelibly inscribed the concept of a true minister and a true ministry. Now not only do we need it for evangelization, but in these verses there'll be some of you as parents that will be utter, that you'll be witnesses to your neighbors. I hope that I shall never be the same again as a pastor. I hope you Sunday school teachers will never be the same again. That as we see the standard of a true ministry, the ministry that God owns

11:39 to make a vessel of the Spirit in saving and blessing men, we will cry out that God will make us that kind of a minister regardless of where we minister. Well, I hope that's convinced you then that this is a necessary and I trust will be a profitable study together. Having then looked at the setting of this passage in its larger context, compared it with chapter 1, having, I hope, convinced you of why we ought to study this passage for a basis of evaluation and for a standard of emulation, we ought to emulate, now, if time permits, I want us to study verse 2 this morning and we will confront the first true minister that we had suffered before and were shamefully treated as you know, to speak unto the gospel of God with much contention. Do you see the first two marks of a true minister and a true ministry in verse 2? Do you see them?

Mark 1: Suffering and Shameful Treatment

12:54 The declaration of the truth. One degree or another views in your ministry as a Christian witness, as a parent, as a Sunday school teacher, as a pastor, as a witness, as a work associate. If you do not know now or have not known in the proposition leading to suffering and abuse, you are not a true minister. And if you do not know boldness which leads to the declaration of the truth to that extent, that the apostle sets before us in this second verse. Now, what incident is he referring to when he says to the Thessalonians, but after that we had suffered before and were shamefully treated as you know at Philippi.

14:16 We will turn back very briefly to Acts chapter 16 and God has recorded for us what he is talking about. ... have come to the city of Ephesus, I mean of Philippi, I am sorry, with no motive, the poor sons of Adam from that terrible plight, liberty and possessions of the sons of God. Can anyone ever have a more noble mission than that? He wasn't coming to stick his hand out and get a nickel from them. He wasn't coming to drum up votes so he could be prime minister.

15:01 He wasn't coming for anything but to do them good by nature. And he had the one message that could avert the judgment of God and so he comes with nothing but good upon his heart. And what happens? Well, notice carefully verse 19.

15:22 Having cast the demon out of this demon-possessed girl who was an instrument of money-making to some of her masters, when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone they caught Silas and moved them into the marketplace better trance than if they dragged them into the marketplace unto the ruins. Get the picture. Here is a poor girl so possessed with the devil that she has these unusual powers of telling the future, of fortune telling, a medium. These people didn't care that the image of God was an instrument upon which the devil played his tune and through which he accomplished his purpose and that this girl should have been delivered by the power of God. The devil's demonic influence and power didn't concern them in the least. Their love of money was so deep that they would utterly disregard the release of this human being from the captivity of the devil. And so they take the servants of God and they drag them into the marketplace.

16:29 Then, verse 20 says, they bring them to the magistrates and then they lie about them. They said they do exceedingly trouble our city. Yes, isn't that terrible? They deliver people from the chains of sin.

16:41 They deliver people to live holy lives. They deliver people to honor God. Isn't that a terrible crime? That's the worst crime in the world.

16:52 Our city, what a terrible lie. They teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. That's right, if you're a Roman, it's not right to love God and love His law and serve Him. That's a terrible thing.

17:08 You see the parallel in our day? You seek to get people to honor the law of God? You cry out against the sins of the nation. You're not loyal, you see.

17:18 The same thing. And so they were not only physically abused, dragged into the city, then they were lied about. Then they were abused even more physically. Verses 22 and 23 say that they beat them, laid many stripes upon them and they cast them into the prison charging the jailer to keep them safely.

17:40 There they are, physically abused, shamefully treated, and all of this was illegal and they faced them with their illegalities. He said, we're Roman citizens and you've treated us contrary to the law. They wanted to sneak them out of town by night. Early in the morning, I loved the way Paul said, he said, nothing doing.

18:00 You've treated us wrongfully, you bring us out. We're going to make you eat crow. That's what he was saying. Because you've done wrong by the laws and as a Christian Paul was committed to the upholding of the laws of state.

18:12 And so the story goes on how they were brought out. Now, what does Paul call this treatment? Now we're back in 1 Thessalonians. He calls this treatment received in Philippi which we've just read from the 16th chapter of Acts two things.

18:31 He says, we suffered and were shamefully treated. Suffering is the general word which can refer either to physical abuse or to physical abuse and to insult. It's the word used of Christ, the Son of Man must suffer. It's the word used in Acts 9 when it says Paul must suffer many things for my name. But the word shamefully treated should be shamefully treated not entreated. Is a word that means to act insolently. Insulting abuse. And it refers more to that verbal abuse. The lies that they told.

19:13 The insults that they heaped upon them. It's to treat something in a way that is beneath the dignity of their position as the creatures of God. And so Paul experienced both suffering physical agony and this shameful abuse verbally. Now it was unlawful.

19:33 It was unreasonable treatment. There was no reason for it whatsoever except that the heart that it will do the most unreasonable thing in all the world. Of the message of mercy who tell of the way of deliverance for time and eternity and such is the perversity of the human heart that it turns on these messengers and abuses them and commits them to prison. And yet this is precisely what God promises to all of his children.

20:10 Suffering. Philippians 1.29 To you it is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on his name but to suffer for his sake. Our Lord said in Matthew 5 Blessed are ye when men shall revive verbal abuse and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

The Effect of Suffering: Boldness

20:39 He gave it negatively in Luke 6.26 when he said woe unto you when all men speak well of you. Woe unto you when there is no verbal abuse. Woe unto you when there is no insolence as a child of this abuse upon the apostle and his companions. Notice verse 2. We are shameful we want to speak unto you the gospel. The effect of suffering to us to embolden to speak the truth. Suffering and abuse will have one of two effects upon the professing Christian. It will either

21:30 in the parable of the sower. The Lord said some seed that falls on stony ground it springs up but when the sun arises it withers and it dies. In the interpretation he said the sun is like persecution. When persecution arises because of the word what happens?

21:48 Some people they wither beneath it and they say if this is the price I must pay to be a Christian. Receiving verbal abuse or physical abuse it isn't worth it and so their mouths are silenced and their witness is cast off. But true Christian just like the sun upon a true living plant that has roots the same sun that withers the plant that has no root nourishes the plant that has root. And so all persecution could do to the apostle because he was a true child of God was to nourish him and nurture him in his Christian experience so he says though we were abused and shamefully treated we waxed bold to proclaim unto you the gospel of God. Now we have said that one of the marks of a true Christian is not only suffering but boldness. What is this thing called boldness? Well perhaps we can define it by saying what it's not. It is not

Defining Biblical Boldness

22:53 when we say boy that guy is really brassy. What we mean is he's kind of impudent and haughty. He's just always shooting off his opinions and acts as though the sun of truth rises and sets upon his head and upon his head alone that the whole rest of the world is in absolute darkness. Brassy, bold, haughty.

23:14 That's not the boldness Paul is speaking about. Neither is it what we call bombastic. Bombastic is when a person doesn't have too much worth listening to so he tries to make it up by noise. He doesn't have much content so he sort of pads it with noise. As someone said it's the empty cart that makes the loudest noise. And this is often true. When we see someone who blusters about and is always we say maybe witnessing or talking about the Lord when if you really just take away all that flash and fire and get down to what they're actually saying you realize what it is is a lot of fraud. There just isn't much substance to it.

23:52 It's sort of like the spun sugar you know. And you get that big cone and you say boy isn't this going to be wonderful? And when you're all done there just ain't much left to it is there? You take a big wad of that and put it in your mouth and you can hardly wet your molars with it.

24:06 Well this is not boldness in the biblical sense. Well what then is biblical boldness? Well the word is translated in Mark 8.32 as openly.

24:16 Speaking openly. In John 10.24 it's translated to speak plainly. In Acts 2.29 Peter says let me speak unto you freely. In Acts 28.31 Paul is said to have spoken with all confidence. Now the same root word is translated openly, confidently.

24:38 Thoughts together. What is the biblical concept of boldness? I think it's this. Listen carefully. It means openness and freedom. Execution was to speak with freedom. The gospel. I think they've captured the thought of the word in the original.

25:22 To speak of suffering in Philippi we were unfettered by the fear of our reputation. We had no reputation left. Well Paul had to end up in jail as usual. Reputation amongst the people. I'm nothing but a rabble rouser. They give you the key of the he said yeah they inscribed it on my back look at my stripes. So he had no reputation left. He had nothing to lose.

25:56 Nothing to lose. So Paul said the effect of persecution was what? Boldness. I've gone over the dam.

26:10 I might as well be a fool for Christ's sake here at the end of the day. But it was the factor in his boldness. No fear of reputation. No fear of his skin. It had already been welted enough with stripes and abuse. And he had no fear of the face of man. When this little hook-nosed Jew faced people in the eye he cared not what men thought of him, what men did to him. The theme that comes out and will develop it in future weeks the Lord willing he speaks of a loud of God. We speak in the sight of the God whose we are witnesses and God all so. Oh beloved when a man is so conscious of the presence of his God now and the fact that he shall stand before his God then what is the face of a puny little creature of the dust? What is the face of man in the light of the awesome face of God? What does it mean to speak boldly? It means to

Application of Boldness in Ministry and Life

27:09 speak by the fear of reputation. By the fear of our skin. By the fear of our fellow man. I want to say by way of application that this point this is the mark of every truly God ministry. It will be met with opposition which leads to abuse and suffering. It will simply make the servants of God more bold. The message of God. The pulpit and I would say to any of you young men who have any aspirations whatsoever of being God's ministering servants assuming the awesome responsibility of a teaching preaching elder your soul consciousness that all that matters is the glory of God and the propagation of the truth of God and the humbling of man in the dust before God speak

28:11 with unfettered freedom. You're never free to minister to people's needs until you're free from the fear of their faces. A preacher who has an ounce of the fear of man is fettered. For the scripture says the fear of man bringeth a what? Bringeth a snare.

28:31 And in his study he comes to a passage and he says oh no I can't I can't. That'll devastate the sister so and so. Why Mr. so and so will think that I've chosen that just for him. And so what does he do?

28:45 The fear of man will snare his tongue. It'll snare his mind that he won't be able to develop that passage in his study. It'll snare his tongue that he'll not be able to speak it from the pulpit. The fear of man bringeth a snare.

28:57 And if there's anything that's absolutely basic to the requirement for the Christian ministry it's that a man by the grace of God isn't able to wax old in the gospel. Now let me apply this in the other realm. You parents listen carefully now. It's a rare case where God so works by his spirit and has worked in terms of the genes that he put together and the temperament that he gave the children that from the time they're born to the time they take their place in society they love the counsel and teaching and instruction and direction you give them as a parent.

29:37 Now this might have happened a few times in the history of the human race but it's the rare exception now as a parent face it there are times when your little darling just ain't gonna like your advice rather more he isn't gonna like if you blow off you put some barriers that steam and say not only is this my counsel but this is my command what we do and as long as you're under the roof you're part of that we this is the way we operate I didn't like this roof you eat what's put before you and do there's not a short order cook when you're old enough go and sit at a restaurant and pick through a menu and pay for it fine until then get that look off your face and eat cheerfully what God has provided

30:54 and your mother has set before you and when it was said it was said and you put the smile maybe didn't come from him particularly like that I didn't run down the city hall and call up a petition to make my dad mayor I didn't like it didn't like it opposition opposition you'll be in at 11 o'clock yeah but you'll be in at 11 o'clock or I don't know why from which I was kept because of some parents who feared God more than they feared the frown of their little boy in order to do what to discharge abuse all it did was make us more principled to speak until it happened to your neighbor I detect even an added clueless with one or two of the neighbors since I put several good in the Christmas cards because they couldn't read those trash without getting the impression you know

32:22 neighbor Martin thinks we're lost and need to get saved that's exactly right I do you got the message and I may be reading something in but I think I detect when people are right out within a few yards they don't even as you're getting in their car and you're looking ready to say hi to them and they don't even look up enough to grunt and this happens a few times you begin to get the impression maybe they just aren't too interested in looking up and even grunting out a hello or a hi so what are you going to do that you'll be ensnared from giving that trust from speaking that word from taking in a great stance what about your work companions you see you can carry this into so many areas William Gurnall minister without boldness is like a smooth file a knife edge and a sentinel afraid to shoot his gun and I say a Christian a Christian without boldness as he seeks to witness to his neighbor is like a smooth file a knife edge and a sentinel afraid to shoot his gun opportunities for you to speak has been ensnared

33:47 if ministers be bold you're sitting in that barber's chair and the guy next to you you'll be equally bold to say hey Mac did you ever hear the third commandment God hears every word and one day he'll hold you into account for it well things may get deathly silent in the barber shop like they have on a few occasions for me but so what people sitting next to me they were bold they smoked their cigarettes and blow all that smoke in my face and permeate my clothes bold when I reached down to get my bible to do a little study that fear of man came on me and then I got so ashamed of myself I said what in the world is wrong with you they're not ashamed to blow their smoke in your face and turn off with their liquor my biggest bible write out they all read something principle I don't want to labor the point but you see it carries over as an individual witness as a neighbor as a parent as a preacher is this matter of boldness now what was the source of this boldness of Paul persecution helped to strengthen it helped to refine it but what was its source he tells us here

The Source of True Boldness

35:14 notice we were what the source of boldness is they would say well if only seems to me that argument was given a long time ago Lord I can't speak remember Moses Jeremiah you see I just a little bible that if I just knew more I feel more free to open up because I'm afraid now if I say anything I'll get hung up with questions I can't answer oh isn't the human heart clever to excuse its silence come on be honest you know why you don't open your mouth it's your fear of the face of man isn't it come on be honest isn't that it you know a hundred times more than that poor pagan knows that poor pagan you work with they don't know from nothing about the bible all they know maybe is that Genesis is the Bible or the first book and there's a couple of gospels named Matthew, Mark they might know Luke and John but even there they may not know that anymore boldness of knowledge boldness of ability or others would say well if I just had more experience well pray tell how are you going to get it well you know I'd love to learn to drive but I have so little experience

36:40 I'll have to wait until I get experience boy I'd love to be a good cook so I'll just send him on out burgers at the white tower until I get some experience well where are you going to get the experience you see in other areas we'd be hopelessly stymied in every single endeavor that we undertake and yet when it comes to being bold we say well if I just had more well where in the world are you going to get the experience if you just don't open up your mouth and start speaking where is it going to come that was the root of this concept well others would say well you know I think just like the stars never say anything they witness to the glory by just sort of being out there silently speaking I'm a silent witness I'm like the waves of the shore who when they come dashing up on the shore with all their noise that's the way some people are they can witness by their noise by their mouths but I'm like the stars I'm just a silent witness it's just not my temperament well did Paul say wax bold in our aggressive temperament personality no beloved will you notice his words he said having been shamefully treated and suffered at Philippi we were bold here's the source of all boldness

38:03 we were bold bold mentioned but it is a God initiated God bold it was the consideration he was united in the flesh of his flesh of Christ that he was drawn looking to him alone as you read the account in Philippi singing hymn in that jail at midnight conscious that they were not there alone that they were joined to their sovereign God and that they were there by his appointment this is the thing that produced the boldness it must be in a disposition of such love to him such regard for his confidence in his power his considerations overshadow our natural timidity and our natural reticence may I speak here personally I think you people know me well enough that this would be in order when I go out in meetings it happened even these past two days almost generally someone will say something to indicate well you've just got a special gift of being bold and not fearful

39:31 and not fearing the face of people and all the rest and I resent that if I may use the word resent apparently I think there are some times you ought to resent things if not resent I reject I refuse that to some of you and if you want a verification you ask my dear wife I'm an unusually sensitive person so sensitive that when my teachers would ever had to holler me as a kid I would be upset for three or four days afterwards whenever anyone tells me off good and proper it shakes me up sometimes for days I want to be loved and accepted as much if not more than any person in this room today I'd love to have you go out of here thinking oh isn't he a wonderful person and a wonderful pastor but I've got to tell you the truth about yourself I don't know you, you may be Christians you may be lost this may be my one opportunity so I've got to tell you you're a sinner by nature and practice Jesus Christ is the only savior of sinners and unless you're joined to him you'll perish they have you go out of here thinking he's the most narrow bigoted, unreasonable, dogmatic individual I've ever seen or heard that's almost a verbatim quote of what I've heard about myself

40:59 I testify to the God of the boldness coming out of the sense that he has commissioned me and I shall stand before him as my judge and I dare you the smiles of men to affect my faithfulness to their souls will keep you faithful as a parent with your children laboring to keep the continual smile of your dear little children and will not enforce the grace of your children the relationship to him

42:14 you see this matter of boldness is not a temperamental or psychological issue but it's a spiritual issue Proverbs 28 1 an excellent verse the latter part of the verse says the righteous are bold and it says the wicked flees when no man pursues you can remember what it was like as a child taking a walk at night and afraid of the dark and I can appreciate it any of you kiddies afraid of the dark problems with fear of the dark I'll fess up, I do I can remember walking down the street and if just a leaf twitched I'd go 90 miles an hour I was sure there was something in that tree coming out to get me and more than once I'm sure just the sound of my own feet up with me I was moving so fast convinced me that somebody was chasing me the wicked fleeth when no man pursues you see he's just so full of fears that the slightest little twitch here and little noise here and he's all pins and needles isn't that the way some of us are that shouldn't mark the righteous you twitch and afraid every time it looks like maybe the neighbors gonna get a little upset with you for talking to them as a Christian when your children get a little disturbed with the implementing of Christian standards

43:42 it says the righteous are what of his ten and looks out over the situation and bellers out in a row and trembles all the other creatures in the jungle the king of the beasts has come out of the picture the child of but he's been shut up with his God knows that nothing matters but his God and he has the source of spiritual boldness well I must hurry on in this developing this theme time is just about gone from us having considered what boldness is and the source of it what was the subject of Paul's boldness This is the mark of a true minister, whether it's a parent, whether it's a preacher, teacher, whoever it be. We were bold to speak our opinion. It would have been just as timid as any of us to throw our opinions into the arena of other men's opinions. He said, no, we were bold enough to speak unto you.

The Subject and Context of Paul's Boldness

44:45 It may not be opinions or notions, but the eternal counsel of the living God. The message of which he is the author. The message that tells who God is and what man is and who Christ is and what Christ has done and how men must repent and believe. The message of which God is the author, of which Christ is the focal point, of which the cross is the great theme.

45:19 He said, God gave me unfettered boldness to speak that. How blessed to be unfettered to speak the message of God. And if somehow this can get hold of us, dear ones, when you go to witness to that neighbor, and there is that natural timidity. That's why I fessed up to you as many times as I've witnessed to strangers.

45:41 When I sat on that plane and it came to reaching in my suitcase. And when you're riding coach, you don't do anything privately. I mean, those seats are barely wide enough to get someone my size into it. And even then, you've got to kind of hunch your shoulders this way if you're eating because you're stacked in so close.

45:57 And there was that initial shame and fear of reaching in. Well, these people think I'm some kind of fanatic. He says he's such a big Bible. Like I want even bigger than this that I had in my briefcase.

46:06 Now, pull that one out. It all seems like a big pulpit Bible. And yet, the thing that will enable you to overcome is to recognize this is the word of God. This is not some crazy opinion of a religious nut.

46:20 This is simply the creature acknowledging his creator is scripture. Then all your timidity goes. When you go to witness, you're not giving him your opinion.

46:36 You're not a witness to that person you work with. I'm giving the message of God. We wax bold in our to do what? To speak the gospel of God.

46:46 And you may be as timid as a church mouse speaking about politics. You may be as timid as a church mouse speaking about international affairs. But, oh, beloved, you ought to be bold as a lion when you speak the message of God. Because it's his message.

47:02 It's his message. Well, the last thought I want us to extract from this text, because it's there. We dare not pass it over. What was the context in which Paul waxed bold?

47:13 He refers to that situation in which he was persecuted. He said the effect of it was to make him bold. We've looked at what boldness is, the source of boldness. Then we looked together at this matter, a subject of boldness.

47:27 Now, what's the context in which that boldness was expressed? Notice, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God's intention. Better translated, in the midst of much conflict.

47:51 He gets beat and he gets out of prison to do what? Start another riot at Thessalonica. He hasn't preached long. When the people gather together and cause a.

48:04 Storm, and they say to one of the friends there was taking care of Paul and his friends. If those people don't get out of town, we're going to hold you as hostages. And there he was started a riot again out of the frying pan into the fire. Now, in what context was he bold?

48:17 And you see, it was in a context of suffering and more opposition and more persecution, more struggles, more dangers. But the wonderful thing is that when that boldness is rooted in this strength that flows from God and confidence in the message of God, then even death itself, we're back where we started. What are the first two marks of a true minister and the true ministry? Opposition that will lead to abuse and boldness that leads to a full declaration of the truth of God.

Concluding Application: The Marks of a True Church and Minister

48:55 So as you think of your kind of preacher, what is your kind of preacher? I've heard people say, well, you know, so-and-so, he's my kind of preacher. What's your kind of preacher?

49:07 This is the one who upsets apple carts now and then and gets people upset. He may just be a true minister if he does. If that which is. He's declaring the message of God.

49:20 Is he the minister who's bold enough to deal with issues that he knows will not just maybe remotely infer that you might be guilty of something, but actually gives you a personal indictment that you're guilty?

49:34 That's the mark of a true minister. Now, mark of a true parent ministering to his children. There'll be opposition, verbal abuse to speak the message of a true church. Would we like to have a church that where we go, everybody says, oh, they're just a lovely bunch of people.

49:59 They're just. They're just so nice.

50:03 Got a few crazy notions, but oh, they're lovely people.

50:07 You see, if we begin to aggressively proclaim the message of God, there's going to be opposition. There's going to be abuse. And you're going to be labeled as part of that. Now, do you want it?

50:17 If we're to be a true church, that'll be a part of it. But in the midst of it, there should be this boldness of better freedom to speak for the words of the living God. Persecution is never the enemy of the people of God. Smug complacency is your worst enemy.

50:35 And boldness is one of the gifts he delights to give to a persecuted people. I commend for your reading during the afternoon, the fourth chapter of Acts. When the first persecution arose there in Jerusalem, it drove the people of God to seek the face of God. You remember what happened?

50:51 The place where they prayed was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And they what? Spake the word of God with what?

51:06 Persecution. You see a beautiful example of first Thessalonians chapter two.

51:12 Well, may the Lord, that we shall have etched in our minds the marks of a true minister and a true ministry. Opposition. Here this morning, a stranger to God's grace, I would boldly declare to you, seek the Lord. If you perish without a vital relationship to Christ, you've lived in pain and death shall be an ushering into a horrible state of darkness forever.

51:43 God grant that you'll be found seeking his mercy in Christ. Let us unite. In prayer.