When you look for a church, don't ask, how good is their music? How good is their children's program? Don't ask, how clever is their preacher?
How interesting is he? Ask this, how well do they guard the truth? How well do they take care of the treasure of truth?
That's the issue. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Do you think you need a title to be a legitimate leader? Well, if you're a Christian, that's all the title you need. It makes you a leader, probably more than you realize. You are a spiritual leader. But practically speaking, how can you have a God-honoring influence in any circumstance, whether you're a pastor or a stay-at-home mom or a college student, whatever your role? Consider that today on Grace to You as John MacArthur begins a study titled, Leading the Charge. But before we get to the lesson, John, we're more than 56 years into this ministry called Grace to You, and of course, there are more ways than ever for people to connect with your Bible teaching. But this daily broadcast continues to be an important means for reaching God's people with verse-by-verse teaching, and John, there are two important groups of people to thank for that.
Absolutely. And group number one are the people who support us through their prayers and giving. I mean, we have no source of support other than the folks who believe in this ministry. We're dependent on them.
When we talk about grace partners, we're dead serious. Those people who give to this ministry are in every sense partners with this ministry. And week after week, month after month, we hear from listeners who have benefited spiritually and expressed their thanks by supporting us financially.
That's why we're here. We literally live on that support. And so obviously we're grateful for it. The support of folks like you guarantees that we can continue to air programs like today's and get vital in-depth teaching to people both here in the U.S. and these days all across the globe. The second folks that we're dependent on and grateful for are the team at this radio station. This station is in every sense a partner as well, providing the important platform for ministry. Much good is being accomplished for God's kingdom through Christian radio. And we're so grateful that they open up space for us to be a part of their program. So we're glad for this station. We ask you to pray for discernment for the folks who operate and own the station. Let them know you benefit from the programs they provide every day. And when you contact this radio station, be specific about why you appreciate them carrying grace to you.
Your comments carry more weight than you may realize. So in whatever role you play in coming alongside our work, whether as a donor and one who prays for us, or as a radio station manager or staff, we thank the Lord for you. And we know that we're dependent upon you and he is using you effectively through this ministry. God bless you all. Yes, friend, we are so thankful for your support of grace to you. And I'll have more details on how you can connect people with John's verse-by-verse teaching after today's lesson.
But first, here's John MacArthur to launch his study, Leading the Charge. I invite you to turn in your Bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 1 through 6. If I were to title these six verses, I would title them fail-proof spiritual leadership. Fail-proof spiritual leadership. Everybody knows there is a great premium on leadership. And everybody realizes that there are fewer leaders than are needed. Fewer faithful leaders than are expected. We also know that leadership is very difficult. Even in the world when the team doesn't win, they fire the coach.
And when the employees don't produce, they fire the president. The question that comes to mind then is how can spiritual leaders be effective? How can spiritual leaders be successful spiritually?
How can they have a genuine and lasting impact on their charge? Is there a path to genuine spiritual effectiveness for the leader that God has identified in His church? As the leaders go, so go the people. The New Testament tells us to follow those who are over us in the faith and pattern our lives after them.
Is that a safe thing to do? How can we guarantee the effectiveness of spiritual leadership? Who can discharge such an immense responsibility effectively? And yet here we are, called, ordained, set apart, put into the ministry. And now we are held against this standard that God has established. We have such an immense range of responsibility, such a high degree of responsibility before God. With all of our weaknesses in the flesh, it is questionable whether any of us could ever succeed. And so many of us live with a fear of failure.
That's not uncommon. All of that should welcome us to this text. For in these marvelous six verses, Paul shares with us the principles for an effective ministry. He had the call of God. He had been set apart and ordained. He had been given immense responsibility, the care of all the churches, which was the greatest burden that he bore. Called to preach, called to lead, called to set the example that others could follow. He too struggled with his flesh and found himself not doing the things he wanted to do and doing the things he didn't want to do. He too battled the thorn in the flesh which continually humbled him and made him dependent on God.
And so we can learn from him because he's one of us. Follow as I read those six verses, which I trust shall bring to our hearts the principles for an effective fail-proof ministry. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak. Not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed, God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority. In those brief six verses I find the key to a fail-proof ministry.
For all of us, here is the standard of spiritual leadership laid down that can guarantee an effective ministry as God measures effectiveness. Now by way of footnote, the tone of Paul's words here is polemic. It sounds like a defense, and it is sure that it is a defense. Somehow and in some way not known to us, the church in Thessalonica was being told lies about Paul. The accusation then was being made against Paul and no doubt against Silas and Timothy who were his partners in this ministry with the Thessalonians. The attack was against their integrity and against their sincerity.
It was an effort to make the Thessalonian church believe that they were wicked intentioned men, that they were self-seeking phonies like so many others. And so Paul writes back to this church, answering his critics in a very simple, very direct way. Now let's see where he begins in verse one. This is a general statement about the effectiveness of his ministry. For you yourselves, brethren, know that our coming to you was not in vain. And he, by the use of the word our, embraces both Silas and Timothy who were with him.
He says you know our coming to you was not in vain. You yourselves know it. It is self-evident. It was your experience.
No one needs to tell you. It is obvious. In verse nine of chapter one he had said, they themselves report about you the tremendous change. Now he says you yourselves know. It isn't a report you heard from someone else.
You know it by experience. Our coming to you means our entrance with the preaching of the gospel. And he says it wasn't in vain. The word kenas means it wasn't empty. It wasn't useless. It wasn't without product. It wasn't fruitless. It wasn't pointless.
It wasn't futile. The impact was not shallow. It was deep and far-reaching, touching the world. A strong church was born. So he had a powerfully effective ministry.
But the question we want to ask ourselves is how. What are the ingredients that made for effective spiritual leadership? Let me give you five of them and we'll move through those five as rapidly as we can.
Let me just say this. You will notice that each of those five principles of leadership relates to Paul's view of God. They relate to Paul's view of God.
And let me say what is so very, very essential for you to know. How you live your life and how you effectively operate your ministry is in direct relationship to your view of God. That is the most substantive underlying foundational element of theology in the life and ministry of anyone.
Why was Paul's ministry so dynamic in Thessalonica? Because, one, he was confident in God's power. Two, he was committed to God's truth. Three, he was commissioned by God's will. Four, he was compelled by God's knowledge. And five, he was consumed with God's glory. All of us live lives that reflect our view of God.
Now let's look at these five. Number one, he was confident in God's power and that gave him tenacity. Verse two he says, But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition. Simply stated, the man had such tremendous confidence in the power of God to energize his ministry and to protect him from anything that might come against him to harm him that he had a sense of invincibility. That translated immediately into boldness and courage. The word but, Allah, is a strong adversitive. He is saying our ministry was not in vain but on the other hand our ministry came to you with great boldness and was full and rich and effective.
Why? Because we knew the power of our God and we were confident that our God was more powerful than our opposition. That's what gives strength to the ministry, tenacity.
You don't bail out. Just to touch with what he says specifically, After we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, takes us back to Acts 16, doesn't it? You remember the story of Philippi, how he wound up in jail, he and Silas. You remember that they were placed there because of the preaching of the word of God, because they had confronted the kingdom of darkness and dispossessed a girl who was demon-possessed that caused great trauma to her owners who were making a lot of money off of her. You remember that they were mistreated really two ways and that's what it indicates in those two words. The word suffered here has to do primarily with physical abuse and you remember they were abused physically and then put in stocks in the prison. The word mistreated has more to do with legal abuse and they were unjustly judged and made prisoners when they had committed no crime. So they were abused both physically and legally. You can read Acts 16, 20 to 24.
You'll find them very clearly outlined there. The term for suffering is obvious. It means just that. The term for mistreatment perhaps needs a little understanding. It means to treat shamefully, to treat in an insulting way, to treat outrageously in public, calculated to insult and humiliate. So they were publicly humiliated as well as physically abused. Physical pain, public degradation.
Why? For preaching the gospel. So Paul says, either after or although, you can translate that word either way.
Maybe we can translate it although. Although we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition. Now what he didn't say and I think I need to note this.
What he didn't say is this. Since we offended so many people in Philippi we figured we better get a better strategy. He didn't say, you know it was really rough up there and they didn't welcome us and they didn't accept us and if we're going to reach our culture we've got to make an adjustment here. So instead of just coming into town to preach the gospel we're going to be a lot more subtle than that. We've got a really clever campaign so we can reach them and they won't even know what we're doing to them.
In fact we'll get them saved before they know they're saved if we do it right. No, no he didn't say because we ran into such a terrible reaction in Philippi we've changed our strategy. He said because we ran into such a terrible reaction in Philippi we're here to do the same thing. And I have to say that the minister or the preacher's responsibility is not to minimize conflict.
The preacher's job is to expose sin, to expose the symptoms of sin and the seat of sin, to confront the fatal condition of unredeemed humanity and offer the cure for their wretchedness in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We confront sin, we preach judgment, we preach law, we preach Christ crucified and we call for repentance and often what that produces is opposition. So he says we came and we were bold in much opposition. The word opposition, agoni, struggle, conflict, fight.
The term refers to a life-death struggle, an agonizing. And in the ministry you know there's always pressure to compromise, there's always pressure to mitigate the message, there's always pressure not to offend someone, always pressure to soften the word somehow, to sugarcoat the message to make it acceptable to sinners so it doesn't offend them. But that wasn't Paul's strategy. Now where did he get this courage? Well right there in verse 2. We had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God. We had the boldness in our God. That is the source of his confidence.
His confidence is not in his flesh, it's not in his method, it's not in his cleverness, it's not in his popularity. He knew that if he preached a true message he would not be popular. But he trusted God who would hold him up and sustain him. What does it say in Ephesians 6 10? Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his what? Of his might.
Our strength is in God. And he believed his God to be mighty and powerful. And so he preached the gospel of God. That's a beautiful term by the way, the gospel of God.
It's used over in verse 8 and also down in verse 9 of the same chapter. It's used in Romans 1 1. It means the gospel of which God is the source. And the gospel of which God is the subject. The gospel of God. God's gospel. The gospel from God about God. The good news from God about what God is doing for sinners through his son Jesus Christ.
He didn't alter it. He says we boldly gave God's gospel. And our boldness came because we believed in the power of our God.
There's more to say but let's go to point 2. He was committed to God's truth. He was not only confident in God's power but he was committed to God's truth and that gave him integrity.
That gave him integrity. You see the enemy would always think he could destroy you by opposition, not Paul. Then the enemy would think that he could destroy you by questioning your integrity and having people lose their confidence in you. If he can't destroy you with sheer force, he'll try to get people to stop trusting you.
To not trust the honesty or sincerity or integrity of your heart. So that attack had come as well. And in verse 3 he says this, For our exhortation, and by the way the word exhortation means an urgent appeal with a view toward judgment, a cry, an appeal, a calling. And again it speaks of the urgency, the directness of his message. But he says our exhortation doesn't come from error or from impurity or by way of deceit.
And undoubtedly these were the things that were being said. Well he's saying things that are true. If you really knew him you'd know he was an impure man and a deceiver. He's preaching untruth. He's preaching deception.
He's a hypocrite. And so he responds. First he says our exhortation doesn't come from error. The word error is so interesting. It's the word planis.
We get the word planet from it. The word error means to wander. To roam. That's where planet came from. Error is roaming from the truth.
Wandering as it were without any standard, without anything to contain or control you. So they say look he's just teaching error. Paul says no. Our exhortation does not come from error. He was committed to God's truth.
Paul was a guardian of the truth. When you look for a church don't ask how good is their music? How good is their children's program? Don't ask how clever is their preacher?
How interesting is he? Ask this. How well do they guard the truth? How well do they take care of the treasure of truth?
That's the issue. He was a faithful guardian of the treasure of truth. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, one of the most provocative verses in all of Pauline literature. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2 17, we are not like many.
Pedaling the word of God. Huxters, kapilas, conmen, charlatans, pedaling the word of God insincerely for their own ends and their own goals and their own aggrandizement. But we are sincere from God and we speak in Christ in the sight of God.
We're not huxters, conmen, phonies. He knew his stewardship and that's why he reminds Timothy and all of us, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. The demand for effective ministry comes down to do you speak the truth. But he was not only committed to speaking the truth, look back at the verse. He was committed to living the truth. There is the integrity. Our exhortation doesn't come from error or impurity. I speak truth out of a pure life.
Now this is fascinating. The term impurity, akatharsias, we get the word katharsis from it, which is a cleansing. This is akatharsis, something that's unclean. The word can be used of a physical uncleanness, dirty. It can be used of some kind of social stigma, social uncleanness. But primarily refers to sexual uncleanness.
And let me just open the window of your understanding a little bit on this. Most often this word seems to have sexual connotations. It has always been true, it is still true, that charlatans, phonies, false teachers, false prophets are not pure in the sexual area.
That's nothing new. Many of the Greek cults, the mystery religions for sure, were associated with sexual perversion. And in most of the temples of the cults of ancient days, there were temple prostitutes. Ritual prostitution, which made the sex act with a ritual prostitute a religious experience.
Now that kind of religion would be very popular. False, wicked, religious leaders would seek converts then for the purpose of having a sexual encounter with them. What can happen in this kind of situation is they're accusing Paul of winning converts for sexual favors.
Unimaginable. Paul is no fornicator. Paul is no adulterer. He speaks truth. He speaks it out of a pure life. The third thing he says in verse 3 is that he does not come from deceit.
Here he moves from preaching to living to motive. And he says, my motive is not deceitful. The word deceit is dalas, fishook. Trap, trick, that's what it means. He's not a deceiver. The Greek false teachers would go to any length with their sorcery, their magic, their juggling, their tricks, their theatrics to gain a convert not only for sexual favors but for money. They did it for filthy what?
Lucre. Sure, 2 Peter 2, 15 to 18, Jude 11. Listen, you show me a false teacher and a false prophet and I'll show you a person who's looking for sexual favors and money.
The pattern has never changed. Go back to Jeremiah 23. The false shepherds in the nation of Israel were looking for the same thing. They were looking for it in Paul's time and the false teachers and the false shepherds today are still looking for it.
And Satan's behind it all, disguised as an angel of light and making his ministers appear as angels of light, 2 Corinthians 11, 13 to 15. There's no integrity. Paul says, in my life there's integrity. I preach truth, I live truth, and my motives are true. I don't want your money.
I don't want to be aggrandized at your expense. That's integrity. He wanted nothing but to discharge his responsibility. He spoke the truth, he lived the truth, and he was motivated truly and genuinely and not in a false way like others who were motivated purely for their own personal gain, either sexually or in terms of money. Psalm 78, he also chose David his servant, took him from the sheepfolds, from the care of the ewes with suckling lambs. He brought him to shepherd Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.
Why? So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart. And God wants a shepherd who has a heart of integrity. That's John MacArthur, chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary here on Grace to You.
The title of his current study, Leading the Charge. Now friend, back to something John said earlier today. Remember to contact the team at this radio station and let them know that you're benefiting from programs like Grace to You. And keep in mind, we would love to hear from you as well, so drop us a note when you can. Our email is letters at gty.org and our regular mailing address, Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. And thank you for remembering that we are able to reach people across the globe with verse-by-verse teaching because friends like you support us.
And the best way you can express your support is through your prayers. Pray for John, pray for our continuing opportunities to reach communities like yours with biblical truth, and pray that those who hear John's teaching would be strengthened by it. Thank you for bringing us before the Lord and also check out our website, gty.org. You can take advantage of our thousands of free resources, including 3600 of John's sermons, all of them in MP3 and transcript format. You'll also find daily devotionals, articles on the Grace to You blog, Q&As with John, and all of it free at gty.org.
Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace to You television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378. And then be here next week as John shows you how to be a spiritual leader wherever God gives you influence as a Christian. Learn the keys for fail-proof spiritual leadership in our next 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Monday's Grace to You.
