A Life Pleasing to God: Representing the Kingdom and Glory
Pastor Fletcher continues our sermon series with 1 Thessalonians 2:9-12, discussing how Paul approached sharing the gospel with the Thessalonians. Discussion points: There are many ways to misrepresent the gospel as we live as Christians, we are called to live above reproach among our neighbors, we can balance challenge with encouragement or love with truth as we tell others about Jesus.
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Scripture reader: [1 Thessalonians 2:9-12] For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Preacher: All right, good morning. It's good to see everybody this morning. My name is Fletcher. I'm the lead pastor of the church. Um. One thing my wife and I love to do is to eat a nice meal. Anybody with me? it's a great thing to do, have good meals and Boston has a lot of great restaurants. Can I get a name man? there's lots of great places to eat here. The selections sometimes feel overwhelming. We've lived in the Boston area for like 13 years, and there's like places that have been on our list for 13 years that we still haven't made ourselves, go to. And at the same time, there's just more and more restaurants all the time.
We've actually been watching the TV show The Bear a little bit and that's a it's a good show applause for The Bear wow, OK, and but you know, language warning with the bear but other than that it's like pretty, pretty good show and in that show they like are like trying to make a restaurant and what it looks like so I don't wanna ruin anything, but I just want to take a moment for you to imagine with me that you've opened a new restaurant. It's your favorite style of food, whatever it might be. It's, it's fancy. You go into all the trouble to, to make it really nice. You make the vibes just right, the ambiance is on point. The service is impeccable. The food is impossibly delicious. I mean just the perfect restaurant location right where you want it. Everything is great.
The only problem is now that the only people who know about it are your close friends and family. You have no online presence, you have no background as a chef except for the food that you're making is amazing, but no one knows about it. So what do you do? Well, you decide that you're going to hire some ambassadors to go and tell people about the restaurant, but you delegate that task to an employee, and that was your mistake, OK? Because as you delegate that task to an employee, what do they go and do? They go take the wad of cash that you hand them. And find the local teenagers and give them each $20 to go and hand out flyers for your restaurant and so while they're handing out flyers for your restaurant, this amazing secret joint that you've created out of all that you have, they're also vandalizing buildings and they're eating their McDonald's as they hand out flyers to your restaurant. Whoa, really? McDonald's while you're while they're handing out these flyers. They can't answer any questions about the restaurant. They don't know anything about what it's actually like.
And here's the reality, if people would actually just come with the invitation, they would have the most amazing time, would they not? I mean, this, you've designed everything to a T. But they have done such a terrible job. Of advertising this restaurant. They have misrepresented your heart and what you've set out to do in such a gross way. That no one is interested. This is how so many people experience Christianity, is it not? They might hear about Jesus, they might know a few of Jesus' teachings, but then they meet the people who call themselves Christians. And we oftentimes misrepresent what Jesus is all about.
You know, the word Christian actually means like little Christ. That's like where it came from. To be a Christian means you are a representative of who Christ is meant to be, but oftentimes as Christians, we fail to represent the actual call of what it means to follow Christianity. That's why we need Jesus, most, most assuredly, it doesn't mean that you're a terrible person in the sense that God doesn't love you. God still loves you, even when you miss. Represent his kingdom, but at the same time, we're not always the best advertisement for the kingdom and the glory of who Christ is. I mean, if you really know who Jesus is, you have experienced and tasted the manifold presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, I think that you would be the first one to say, I am not always the best advertisement for this great thing that I have experienced who God is. Right? I do not always best represented. But God does call us to represent his kingdom, nonetheless.
And that is what Paul is talking about today. Paul is writing to the Thessalonians. We've been going through a series through the first Thessalonians, and in his letter today he's continuing the argument that he was making last week. Last week he talked about how they were, how he and Silas were when they visited the Thessalonians and how they. They were not, like the celebrity pastors, taking advantage of their position to grow wealth and, and to boost their ego. No, they were gentle and and gracious and genuine with the Thessalonians. And today Paul continues. To make this argument, he continues to explain what he was like and what he wasn't like. And so as we look at this, one way that we can break up the way that Paul is writing this letter is by saying three ways that he could have misrepresented Christianity. If he had acted in these ways that the Thessalonians might assume that one would act, he would have misrepresented who Jesus is. And so as we explore this, we're going to look at these three ways that Christians misrepresent Christianity. And then, after we get done with that, we'll look at the real invitation into what Christianity is all about.
OK. So, 1st, 3 ways that Christians misrepresent Christianity. And with each of these, what you'll see is that Paul starts each verse. There, we're only looking at 4 verses today, OK? So the 1st 3 verses, they each start with You'll remember, he says it 3 times. He's like, well, you remember, for you know. Your witnesses, each time he's like, you remember, this is what we were like when we came to you, because remember this, this letter was probably the first letter that Paul ever wrote. to a church and it was just a couple of years after he had visited and planted the church and so he's able to recall you remember what we were like when we were with you.
So this first way that Christians often misrepresent Christianity is by being a burden upon those that they are trying to reach. Much like the teenagers handing out flyers for your all-star restaurant, the teenagers, they might, they might ask for a little bit of money as they hand out the flyer like, hey, can I bum, can I bum a dollar as they're handing out these flyers? That would not represent what you're trying to do in that restaurant very well, would it? But yet Christians often can misrepresent Christianity in the call of Christ, by being a burden upon those. I just have visions of televangelists, do you not? of saying, I will pray for you, just send me money. Send me as always the call for money.
Verse 9, this is what Paul says, For you remember brothers our labor and toil. We worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. And so for Paul, it's very important that the Thessalonians remember that he was not a burden. In fact, Paul was what we call bi-vocational. Now what do I mean? By vocational is actually a bit of a misnomer because it makes you think that if someone's bi-vocational that they have two vocations where they're earning money in both places to make ends meet. No, usually when we use the term bi vocational, what we mean is that someone has a full time job where they are working and making their money and then but their true calling is found in their ministry and for Paul, he had this full time job of making tents.
Now for many of you, you might have full-time jobs. But for Paul, he's not known as a tent maker, is he not? That's like one of those things that you kinda, it's like Bible trivia, like Paul was a tent maker, on, on the side, and that's how he actually on the side, notice like, it's like, but this actually his career. Even though his calling was to start churches from place to place, many of you might have careers that enable you to have a calling to serve the Lord, and many of you do, you just don't consider, you don't call yourself by vocational, but I see it and we see it around you and the Lord sees that also. And so Paul has this bi-vocational life, and it was largely because he doesn't want to be a burden upon the Thessalonians. He doesn't wanna go there, preach the gospel, and be like, now you gotta pay me because I'm not gonna be able to live if you don't pay me.
Now he's not saying that it is wrong for pastors to make a living off of what they do to serve a local church. In fact, he makes the argument in other places. Don't, he says it weirdly, but he's to us, he says, don't thresh, don't, don't muzzle the ox while it's threshing. Which what he's saying is don't make the pastor, I'm not gonna go into all the details with what that means necessarily with from the agricultural standpoint, but what he's saying is don't make the pastor's life so unduly difficult to where he cannot do the work that God has called him to do. And so I don't think that it's wrong. I, I make a salary here. This is my full time job. It is my calling and my vocation, but I don't think Paul's saying that it's wrong to do that. I think that for him though, he didn't want to be this itinerant preacher going from place to place, also having to make money in a different way than, through the church. So that's what he was trying to do.
And so for Christians today, we misrepresent Christianity when we're a burden on those we're trying to reach. In what ways might we be a burden? Well, I think financially it's probably the primary way in mind. And there's lots of different things we can think about. We always mention giving during our worship gatherings, but I hope no one gets the idea that the reason why we do these gatherings is for money. I, I hope that we don't present it in such a way that you get that impression. Additionally, I think that many pastors might ask for money in a way that isn't appropriate though. maybe on TV you see the pastors that are selling indulgences for money, basically selling different things or their prayers or. Whatever it might be, some churches, they might pass a plate for for money. You guys been in those churches before, right?
And I actually don't have anything against passing a plate. Some churches, they might pass that plate one more time. Anybody been in one of those churches that might pass the plate again? Has anybody been in the perfect trifecta where they've passed it 3, 4, it's happened, it happens guys there are churches that do this and it does give the impression that the ministry is a burden and so as we seek to reach people with the gospel, we cannot be a burden on them.
I think just some other practical things that we can think about with being a burden upon people is being a burden upon people's time. I've got nothing against something like door to door evangelism like that's fine, but it does feel a bit intrusive, does it not? And I don't know if I'm gonna go door to door with my neighbors and demand that they speak to me about things because they know me and then it might change their opinion of me as I'm trying to witness to them through having a a loving relationship over time and sharing with them. As the opportunity allows itself, and so I don't know if I'm gonna seek those times of being a huge burden, but I know people who have been saved that way who have come to meet the Lord. So I'm not dissing it completely. There's probably a place and a time for it, but I'm gonna be careful and discerning about that.
Also, I think that sometimes churches demand way too much time from people, do they not? And we can make Christianity into a burden. All right, don't give me those looks. We're really intentional to try to keep things mostly simple here, but you know I had a conversation with my mechanic a couple of years ago and he was telling me that he he he was turned off to the church because his mother spent her every day at the church, and he just couldn't imagine fathom it. And I think that sometimes that's a blessing to some people they want to spend their time that way and that that's great, but it can be presented as a burden where you need to give every moment of your life. And yes, you need to give your whole life to Jesus, but it can look in different ways. So that's the first way that Christians can oftentimes misrepresent Christianity.
The second way that Christians can oftentimes misrepresent Christianity is by being hypocrites. This is like the teenagers handing out the flyers for the restaurant while they eat their McDonald's. Now don't get me wrong, a McDonald's fry might make its way into my restaurant, but not the, the fish filet. OK, that is not gonna make it the McRib, they get lost. No way, no way is that coming in. So verse 10, you are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you, believers. That's, that's a lot of like descriptive words that describe really good behavior. How holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct. Paul is saying, we were not hypocrites, we practiced what we preach.
Now I have a difficult time with this verse sometimes though, because I look at this and I'm like, well, didn't Paul? Maybe he could just grew in wisdom over the years because a few years after that, he wrote a letter and he called himself the chief of sinners, did he not? And so here we have the chief of sinners calling himself holy, righteous and blameless. And I think that the best way to read this passage to read both of them to be true, that Paul. Is living his life at in an exemplary kind of way, while at the same time knowing that in his heart he can be and he is the chief of sinners. That it does not mean that he's perfect in every way, but that he exemplifies what he preaches at the same time.
This is the life of a Christian, is it not? That we are called the holy righteous living, yet at the same time, we are sinners, and we fall so short of that all the time. This is Christian this feels like Christianity one on one stuff, but it probably isn't. If you call yourself a Christian, but you ignore the teachings of the Bible, you are misrepresenting Jesus. Period. That's all there is to that. If you call yourself a Christian, but you ignore the teachings of Jesus, you're misrepresenting Jesus. Especially on things like sexuality or drunkenness or financial dealings or gossip or loving your enemy.
If you don't follow the scriptures on these things, you are misrepresenting what it means to be a Christian. And it does terrible damage to the cause of Christ. In the same way that no one wants to see their oncologist smoking cigarettes behind the hospital. No one wants to see their Christian neighbor hosting a brothel out of their in-law suite. You don't want to misrepresent Christianity by the way that you live your life. And so we must endeavor to live in a way that is holy and righteous. And above reproach.
Number 3, the third way that Christians misrepresent Christianity. It's by being unbalanced with love and truth. Being unbalanced with love and truth. The message of Christianity always comes with both love and truth. And how many times does our message Major on the one and minor on the other. And I know that you know, maybe I can even pinpoint where you are on your political spectrum based upon where you are on this, you know, maybe if you lean a little left, you might lean a little more towards the love, and if you lean right, it's like we gotta tell the truth and be more truth speakers and I think that the Christian message demands both love and truth.
Verse 11, for you know. I love everyone, he's like, you know how you're witnesses. You remember, for you know how like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God. So check it out. First he calls himself a father, we'll get back to that in a second, but then he says, we exhorted you, each one of you, and encouraged you. So he has this encouragement, and then he has this charged you to walk in a manner worthy of the of the gospel, worthy of God. Both, he's encouraging them along saying you can do this, you've got this. Let me encourage you, while at the same time he's challenging them to live up to the standards that Christ has for them. Like a good father, like a loving father.
A father must walk this balance very carefully because we can discourage our children if all we do is offer challenge, how many of us have a father who just felt like they always needed to be challenging us and they lacked that encouragement and that soft touch? And what did that do to your psyche of who you are and who you became? While at the same time, if all you got was a soft touch, and no. Tough truth. You're not gonna be able to be the person that God has called you to be. We need to have both, the encouragement, the love, the embrace, the keep going at it-ness. The one to celebrate the small wins, the encouragement, the exhortation. And we need the challenge.
Paul walked this tightrope quite well, and if you love and encourage, if that's all you do, what you're going to end up doing is cheapening the gospel because the gospel has some very tough things in it. There's some very tough things about what it means to follow Jesus. And so it can't just be that, but at the same time, if all you do is preach the tough things without the love and encouragement that we have in Christ, you miss the whole picture and you harden the gospel. You make it impossible, you make it like a lozenge that you can't actually ever get any flavor from. Can you, it's just like sucking on a bead in that situation. Like you don't make it something that's enjoyable. And you miss the whole thing.
And so the gospel requires a fine balance of the two. And we misrepresent Christianity when we only offer one or the other. And so that's the 3 ways that we oftentimes misrepresent Christianity that Paul talked about. And so with that we are covering many of the things that if you're not a Christian here today, you've seen these things and maybe they've made Christianity feel dis distasteful to you and I hope that you can get to this next point where it's what is at the heart of the real gospel. What is at the heart of this thing? What is the real message of Christianity?
Verse 12, and it's really just the last part of verse 12. He emphasizes this in the last, you know, 8 words of this thing. He says this, We exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. That those last 8 words, who, who, I think it's 8 words, 12345679 words, 8 if you don't count "and". "Who calls you into his own kingdom and glory."
This is the linchpin of this entire passage. In fact, this could be the linchpin for all of Christianity, for what it is that we're doing here, what this is all about. This is the real Christian message. This is what you're actually being invited in. This is not the teenager handing out the flyer, this is the flyer. That you made for the restaurant. This is what it's actually about and if you just look at this and you don't look at the misrepresentations all around, then you'll get the heart of what God is actually calling us to. First, let me just break it down. I'm gonna break down several little pieces of this first, it is God who calls us. It is God who calls us. He has called us into His kingdom and his glory, his own kingdom and his own glory. He has called us.
How often do we think about Christianity as being a moral system that we might pick up ourselves? We think about Christianity as something that we might pick up like a hobby. Yeah, I'm kinda getting into Christianity these days. But what it says is that God calls us, the message of Christianity isn't a hobby or a moral system, a code of conduct to live your life. It is an invitation by God to live into his own kingdom and his glory. Second. You might notice that it says, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory, who calls you, not who called you. It is a present, active participle, indicative. I'm gonna keep on going with my Greek nerdiness here, but it is present tense. It is not past tense and that what that means is that it has this idea of continual action that God is continuing to call you. And it is true that he has called you in the past, but he is continuing to call you today and into the future.
And what does that mean for us? It means that Christianity is not a one-time decision that you might make to dedicate your life to the Lord. It is not something that happened in your past to you, but it is that you might have experienced once, but it is an invitation today. To experience and enjoy the kingdom of God and the glory of God. And third, what does he call us into but his own kingdom and glory. This is so much bigger than how we sell Christianity often, oftentimes we sell Christianity, and these things are true, but they're just small, OK? And maybe it's a childlike faith and that's glorious, but we sell Christianity as like a relationship with God. As having Jesus as my friend. But it's so much more than that. Because it's described not only as a friendship with God, but you are invited into the kingdom of God. So much bigger. You're invited to enjoy the glory of God.
Just imagine that the triune God who has existed throughout eternity past before all of creation was made. Existing in loving relationship where one person pours out their love on the other persons of the of the Trinity. They have existed in glorious splendor throughout all of eternity. They invite you to share in their glory and the light of their glory shines so brightly that we will not even need a sun that we will just enjoy. The majesty of who they are. who God is. This is the glory that we're being invited into. Far more descriptive.
Look, we all recognize that there must be more to the world. We are all glory hungry people. We're all looking for a way to make a name for ourselves, to make our our lives feel worthy. In fact, the Old Testament word for glory, the Hebrew word for glory is cabode, which means heavy weight. We're looking for a weightiness to our life. CS Lewis puts it this way, he says, if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. How many celebrities do we know who have gotten the whole world and just it never felt like enough? It was never enough. I look at the people in our government, had all the world available to them, and they continue to want more, right? Every billionaire wants to start something new, wants more money, wants more glory.
I just wish that we could look at someone like, this is really, I, I use this quote at least once a year, but Jim Carrey. Once said it's like my favorite because Jim Carrey to me he's like the all star of all star. My kids just know him as Doctor Robotnik in the Sonic movies. I'm like one day we'll introduce you to Dumber and Dumber Dumb and Dumber, and your life will never be the same, but this is what he says. He says, I wish that everyone. They could be rich and famous and have everything they ever dreamed of, so that they could see. That it's never enough. I wish everyone could have everything they ever dreamed of so that they could see that it will not fulfill you. Because these longings for the glory in our heart are there to show us that our hearts were made for the glory of God. And that the glory only of God is what can satisfy this longing for glory that we have.
Paul tells us this answer. He says all the moments of glory in life, they point forward to the desire for the glory of the Lord. When in 12 Corinthians 3, it says it like this, and we all with unveiled faith, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed currently, are being transformed. We Christians, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed. Into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. Friends, you are not just an employee, a parent, a student, but you were called by the king of the universe into his glory and his kingdom.
Now, isn't that so much better than what we make it out to be oftentimes? And it's like, how do you experience this? It's difficult. But let's go back to the restaurant illustration for a second. You would never recommend that restaurant based upon what the teenagers' representation, but if you did happen to wander in there. And you tasted how great that food is. And you had the impeccable service that was designed to leave every desire. Satisfied. And the vibes were just killing it. And the price was good. And everything was just the most amazing experience. Well, then, You might actually turn and become an evangelist for that restaurant yourself. You might become an ambassador for that restaurant yourself.
And friends, that is the invitation of Christianity. It is the reality that God has called us into His kingdom, and how has he called us, but through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ our King, that he has come to pay our penalty of for our sin and to make a way for us to enjoy life with eternity forever. And this is the call of the gospel that he calls us into, and we so often misrepresent it, but God has called us, those who of us who have experienced the joys of the gospel, to go and be his ambassadors in the world today. If it is true, if these things are true, if Christianity is this invitation to the glory and kingdom of God, we cannot keep it to ourselves. We have to share it, which is why our vision as a church is that God has called us to be a city on a hill, sending and shining the light of Christ into Somerville. And beyond for generations to come, the Somerville area and beyond.
The only way that we're going to see this vision come to fruition is if every person owns the vision for themselves. It's not my restaurant, I work at it, OK? I might be an employee of the restaurant, it's God's restaurant. But now that you've enjoyed it, we must all go and share the good news of God's kingdom with those who are around us. God has called us to enjoy his kingdom and to share it.
And so today, I want you to just consider which one of those two. You, I, I would defend that you will always misrepresent the kingdom of God if you haven't enjoyed it first. And so what stage are you in? Do you need to enjoy some of this kingdom of God? Because you will misrepresent if I just tell you go and share about it, you're gonna be like those teenagers eat eating the McDonald's McFish over there, OK? It's, it's, it's not gonna be good. You're not gonna have much to say. You're not gonna be able to answer the question, but if you go take a seat. At the table and taste and see that the Lord is good and oh friends, it is good. The food is good. Then you have something to share.
And so today, I invite you. Maybe you have known about Christianity for a long time, but you haven't taken a step into it. Today could be that day, or maybe you, it's just been a while since you had a meal and you're like, I need a refresher how good this is. We invite you to come and to receive that. As we close up today, we're gonna invite you to to a meal. And this is a sacred meal. It's a holy meal. It's one where Christ is present with us in a special kind of way, where we tear off a piece of the bread that represents his body, and we take up the juice or the wine which represents his blood for us, and we remember and we meditate on what he has done for us.
And as you come and receive this meal, be renewed. But maybe you are in a place where you haven't. received that as him as your savior in the first place, and we invite you instead to receive Christ. And we would invite you whether you need, you just need know you need to dine more of Christ, that you need more of his life in your life or not. If you just want to take that step today we invite you we we're gonna have some prayer counselors for you in the back and after the service up here, but in the back during the next song, if you would like to just pray with someone like, hey, I've seen following Christ as more of a burden than a joy. I want to make a change. I want to see it as a joy again. I invite you to to receive that today. As we turn ourselves to prayer, would you stand with me?
Father, I pray that you would help us today to enjoy the kingdom and glory of Christ. For anyone who has seen it as a burden and not a delight, would they receive the easy yoke of Jesus, be delivered from their sins, and made new. Would they turn from their seeing you as a moral code, moral system and see you as a loving father who's called us into His kingdom and his glory and God, would you just shine your glory on us as we sing these praises to you, as we take of this meal, would you remind us of the sacredness of who you are? And God, I ask that you will also use us as your ambassadors, and that we will reach Somerville and beyond for your, your good news. And invite people to the table to enjoy with you. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.