A SEE-THROUGH MINISTRY 
1 Thes.2:1-12
INTRO
Jesus said; I am the truth" If God is about anything, he is about truth. The word truth is related to the word reality. What is true is real; what is real is true; it is the genuine article. But truth is like justice. It must not only be done, it must be seen to be done. Truth must not only be true, it must be able to be seen to be true.

Truth can be stated dogmatically and harshly and it is still true and we must therefore still believe it. However, if truth can be proclaimed in a winning way, we are more likely to get a good hearing from our listeners. That has its limits. We may not dress truth up as something else. There is a difference between making the truth attractive and hawking it, conning people to believe it. That sort of thing, everyone can see, diminishes its truth value. Truth should not need that sort of help.

So when we as Christians come along with the truth about things that get to the real heart of life, truth about morality and sin and judgment and God and eternity and salvation, this truth especially we must not dress up. And since the truth about God and man and sin and salvation has some hard things to say, it is even more important that we handle it carefully and try to present it in an attractive manner. But, however successful we are at that, we may never be in the least untruthful about it, cover some of it up, conveniently pass over what may be called hard 'home truths.' 

Since then, we are bringing the message of truth to the world, we must be truthful messengers, in every way. We must be truthful people. In particular, ministers and missionaries and elders and deacons must be truthful people. After all, if we do not show by our lives that the truth has freed us from sin and made us truthful people, why should other people believe it is the truth and that it can save them? This is what these verses are about.

For there were as many different religions around in Paul's day as in ours; and as many travelling preachers and religious salesmen. As one writer puts it, 'Holy men' of all creeds and countries, popular philosophers, magicians, astrologers, crack-pots and cranks; the sincere and the spurious, the righteous and the rogue, swindlers and saints, jostled and clamoured for the attention of the credulous and the sceptical. Into which category did Paul fit? For in a certain sense, he kept bad company. So he had to defend himself and to do so, he pointed out some things about his ministry that set him off quite distinctly from others, be they merely misguided or charlatans.

If ever a man 'practised what he preached,' it was the apostle Paul. You know, he says, our coming to Thessalonica was not in vain (v.1). You know we were bold in God to speak the Gospe" (v.2). You know we did not come with flattering speech – and God is witness to that too (v.5). With a slight variation on the words, but to the same point, You recall our labour and hardship to bring the Gospel to you free of charge (v.9). You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly we lived among you (v.10). And finally, You know how we exhorted and encouraged you as a father his own children (v.11). Six times Paul says this sort of thing. He has a very clear conscience and his defence was easy because he had, if you like, a see-through ministry. We can divide these appeals up into three categories. First of all, he says his motives were transparent; then he says his maintenance was transparent; and thirdly he says his morals were transparent.

1.	A SEE-THROUGH MINISTRY WILL BE TRANSPARENT IN ITS MOTIVES
There are a few ways by which we may know the difference between a true minister and someone who is in it only for the money. For one thing, Jesus told us, a true shepherd comes in the front door; he is straight-forward about his message and his methods are equally straight-forward. Furthermore, when the going gets tough, the true minister of Jesus Christ does not leave for an easier spot. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep but when the hireling, the man who is in it for the money, sees the wolf coming, he flees because he is not really concerned about the sheep.

And the wolves were always baying at Paul's feet. He was badly beaten up in Philippi. And he and Silas and Timothy met the same opposition in Thessalonica, but that didn't stop them. Not that Paul and his fellow missionaries were naturally bold men. They found their boldness in our God to speak … the gospel of God amid much opposition (v.2).

The reason for this was because their message was the truth. It did not come from error; it was the gospel of God! Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, only if we are convinced that what we believe is from the one true God will we ever withstand opposition, will we ever persevere under discouragement. Look at the Bible saints. See how they suffered. All those saints listed in Hebrews 11; then look at Peter and John who were thrown into prison, let out again only, against orders, to continue preaching, and then thrown back into prison again. What gave them the courage to do this? Their message was from God. 

Nor did Paul preach this from impurity – probably he means sexual impurity. There was a lot of sexual activity connected with ancient religions, even with their worship. Well, we've seen near enough the same thing in our own day. How many cult leaders, even purportedly Christian, have gathered converts and formed communes and then claimed all the women for themselves? Paul was so sure this could not be charged against him that he could say, You know we were pure.

Nor did we come with deceit, he says. There was no trickery about Paul's methods. We don't need trickery for we have the truth from God. And since it is entrusted to us by God, will God not make it effective as and when he wants to?

So Paul did not come to please men. He did not come with flattering speech. Paul was very much a disciple of his master. The Lord Jesus spoke the truth to the Pharisee and the prostitute. He was gracious to the one as much as to the other or he rebuked the one and the other, whichever was necessary. He didn't curry favour with men whoever they were or whatever position in society they held. Neither did Paul. 

Nor was Paul in it for the money. The Gospel was not a pretext for greed. These are the motives of a faithful and true minister of the Gospel. 

This also helps us to see what the work of ministers and elders is. Some-times the Gospel is like a hot potato. But it is the Gospel of God and it is for all of us equally. So elders and ministers must attempt to bring it however they honestly believe it to apply, in preaching and one on one as they visit. That is costly – for us and for you. For we want to regard you as friends and it is not an easy thing to rebuke a friend. Or we might have to defend someone else in the congregation against you, even though we might personally get on better with you, because that is what seems to us to be the truth of the matter. 

But if we are going to be honest with each other and with the Lord, if we are going to be transparent about the Gospel we claim to believe, we must bring the truth of God whether it seems necessary to speak in exhortation or for encouragement. For in the end, I am sure, you would not really have a minister or elders who spoke only with flattering words, who were insincere, only trying to gain as many people's support as possible.

2.	A SEE-THROUGH MINISTRY WILL BE TRANSPARENT ABOUT MAINTENANCE
Paul reminds the Thessalonians that he and Silas and Timothy worked night and day while they were with them. If they were not preaching and teaching, they were making tents to make an income to live on. They did this so that there could be no doubt about their motives. Paul's approach here was another flow-on from the OT. The Jewish rabbis discouraged living by the Law. There were no paid teachers in Palestine (Morris).

This is not to say that he was not paid by the Church on other occasions.  He was and in fact, he received money from Philippi while he was in Thessalonica. He taught that a missionary or a minister should be properly paid. But Paul would not receive support from unbelievers or from new believers; he would rather labour with his own hands to preserve the purity of the Gospel in the eyes of the world. John says the same thing in his third letter. 

But verses 7-9 are not really about financial support. Paul only talks about his financial support as an example of a much larger subject and that is this: a true preacher of the Gospel is so far from being a religious salesman that he is much more like a nursing mother. Rather than looking for high living from his people, a true preacher gives his life for his people. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, says Jesus and so he did. So also Paul says, we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children, having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. In other words, they maintained the Thessalonians, not the Thessalonians them; that is the point.
 
And Paul was not a modern mother. He uses a special word here. He did not give birth, stay at home for six weeks and then get back to the real world, to his (or her) real career. He was a nursing mother. But he was not just a wet nurse, as many societies have had, particularly, I suppose, in high-society. For he says we were among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.

These men were devoted to serving the Thessalonians and providing all their spiritual needs. They were given to this work and they were gentle in it, tenderly caring for them, having a fond affection for them. And because the Thessalonians had become very dear to them, they imparted even their own lives for them. They poured out their strength and energies for these new Christians as only a mother does for her own children, up day and night often, when they won't settle or when they are sick. That is a tall order brothers, but if we would be the shepherds God has called us to be, that is what is required of us. No wonder Paul says to Timothy later that elders must have their own families in order in pretty much every way. For what married man could make this sacrifice unless his wife and children were able to make the sacrifice with him?

3.	A SEE-THROUGH MINISTRY WILL BE TRANSPARENT IN ITS MORALS
In the last three verses Paul changes from speaking about themselves as acting as a mother to the Thessalonians to acting as a father towards them. There is a difference between a father and a mother, despite what Mrs Clark and her coterie would have us believe, and in the natural realm only women can be mothers and only men fathers.

It is the function of mothers to bear and nurture life. And for that women are made both physically and psychologically. So mothers will tend to be – even very – protective, for their instinct is safety and security. That is why in the early years especially it is so very important for a mother to be at home, to have time, to foster in children the emotional security and stability which makes for a secure personality with which the growing child can then launch out on the big wide world.

But a father is and his function is different. And the male physique and psychology, if we would only read God's creation for what it plainly says, makes that obvious. Man is an initiator, an aggressor. Even in the act of love, he is the primary actor. He is to be a go-getter, a risk-taker. So it is a father's task to take this growing child out from under his mother's protective wing from time to time and shove him out into the world, dry him behind the ears and make him take his lumps when he gets into trouble, or does something silly, or simply finds the world is a hard place. It will be father rather more than, though never only, who administers discipline.

Of course, the characteristics are not mutually exclusive, only found in the one and never in the other. But you recognise them. He's a real boy, we say; she's a real girl. And a tom-boy is still a girl. But now Paul says that a true ministry must combine both roles. He has just spoken about the motherly side. He now says, in v.11, that they were also exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father.

Each one of you; they gave time individually. As a father … his own children; they took enough time individually to get to know the people, somewhat at least, as a father would know his own children. Brothers, we have to do this for that is what the Lord has done with us. Christ came as one of us to die for us and calls us to come to his throne of grace to receive help in our time of need. And we are to be under-shepherds as he is the great shepherd. Do we do this?

As a father, Paul and his friends were exhorting and encouraging and imploring the believers … to walk worthy of the God who calls them into his own kingdom and glory. But they practised what they preached; they walked the talk. Paul and Silas and Timothy behaved toward them devoutly, uprightly and blamelessly; as they themselves walked worthily of the God who called them. They were examples to the Thessalonian believers. They were devout (holy; NIV). They were devoted to God; their lives focussed around God and his kingdom. They were righteous. They lived according to the law of God. They were not perfect. None of us make that until we get to heaven and in Romans 7, Paul spoke of the struggle he had with sin. But they were morally upright, and plainly so. You were witnesses to this, Paul says. We were unblameable in this. 

They were morally transparent men and as a father to his children they exhorted and encouraged them to do likewise. At times a father has to give his children a straight up telling off; more sometimes. But he will not only do that. He will take them to the Word of God and exhort and encourage them in a kindly – well, as we say, fatherly – way. He will implore them. He will speak very seriously and, when necessary, tell them solemnly that their way of life is not worthy of the God who calls them.

And brothers and sisters, as difficult as that is to do and to receive, a true shepherd must do that. There seems to be a notion abroad that a good pastor is someone who can provide a good shoulder to cry on. That is one side of the work. But there is this fatherly side as well and, like Paul in v.4, the true pastor cannot merely please men because one day God is going to call him to account. He must also love his people more than so to desire their friendship that he fails to exhort and implore them to live in a way worthy of God, so they end up missing out on his kingdom and glory. It is a bastard son, of whom a father is ashamed, that he does not deal straightly with when necessary, Hebrews tells us.

CONCLUSION
Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, God has called us for his kingdom and glory. May the Lord indeed take us there. He calls elders to shepherd his sheep along the way, remembering also that they are sheep too, who need the same shepherding from one another. True shepherds have a see-through ministry. Their motives are transparent, their maintenance is transparent and they live rather to maintain the lives of their people than themselves; and they are morally transparent also. 

Pray for us, people of God, that we do our work conscientiously before God, as a nursing mother with her life and healing, as a father with his exhortation, his pushing, his correcting and directing when necessary. And that our lives will be transparently honest and holy.

Of course, all that applies to us all for we are all to be prophets, priests and kings bringing the Gospel to the world. The Gospel met with success in Thessalonica because Paul and his fellow missionaries lived and exemplified its truths. If we are to be used by the Lord in our world, we also must live and exemplify what we preach.				     Amen