Pastoral Care (Part 1 of 2)

INTRO MUSIC Well then, let me encourage you to turn back to the portion that we read here in 1 Thessalonians, as we return to these studies. Now, the focus here, as we have been looking together at these verses, actually since the beginning of chapter 2, has been on the nature of Christian ministry. And in this particular section—indeed, right up until the end of chapter 3—we have a very wonderful example of how pastoral ministry should take place. The question is often asked, How should pastors treat their people, and how should people respond to those who are in pastoral ministry? And if we are in any doubt, Paul gives us a wonderful statement here of how pastors are to serve both the gospel which they proclaim and the church, which is the context in which those who have come to respond to the gospel are then discipled and built up in their faith. And Paul makes it very clear that pastors are going to have to be committed to the Word of God and committed equally to the people of God.

They are going to have to affect some kind of reasonable balance between the expressions of truth and the expressions of love. The context of the letter is that Paul has received news of the Thessalonians as a result of Timothy's visit. You can see that in the sixth verse—we didn't read it, but it's there—Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought us good news about your faith and your love. I'm looking forward to getting to those verses.

That's next time. But for this evening, we notice that Paul has been accused of various acts of insincerity. He's been accused, along with his colleagues, of having ulterior motives in ministry. And that's why in verses 2–6 of chapter 2 he addresses those issues. Also, as we saw last time, Paul and his colleagues were being criticized for their failure in not showing up once again in Thessalonica.

Somehow or another, the people were saying, Oh, they just came into town, they made a big splash, we scared them off, and they're so afraid they're never coming back again. And from verse 17 of chapter 2, Paul has begun to respond to that accusation. And as we pick it up again here in the first verse of chapter 3, we discover that he is still addressing the same issue. One character stands out to the four in these events that are described, and that is this man Timothy.

Who was he? What caused Paul to send him? What was the effect of the news he brought back? These are the kind of issues that would come to mind as we look at the text and we try to come to an understanding of it. And I've endeavored to summarize it under these three words—the motive, the man, and the mission. The phrase which opens the chapter and then recurs again in verse 5 conveys the intensity of Paul's concern. When we could stand it no longer. There's something about that phrase, just the saying of the phrase, it has a forcefulness, just the way you say it.

I can't stand it any longer. And when you read that and he says it again in verse 5, identifying himself peculiarly in that condition, you begin to understand what is the driving motive of his concern for the Thessalonians. And I outlined it, first of all, in terms of unbearable suspense. There is, in Paul's heart, a tremendous frustration. He says in verse 18 of chapter 2, we wanted to come to you.

Certainly I, Paul, did. Again and again I wanted to come to you, but Satan stopped us. In verse 17 he speaks of his intense longing and of making every effort to come and see you. They were frustrated by the fact that they couldn't get back to Thessalonica. And their frustration was compounded by the fact that there was no news coming from Thessalonica. It's one thing to be separated from your loved ones by a vast distance and over a period of time, so long as there is information filtering in. But when you're a long way away, for a long period of time, getting no news at all, you will be filled, if there is any love relationship there, with simply an intense longing. If I might be forgiven a personal illustration of this, I was sharing at our pastoral—at our staff team meeting on Thursday—I was saying an illustration of this fact, that when I wrote to Sue across the Atlantic Ocean for some four years, trying to make sure that no big, strong, muscular, short-haired American was able to secure her affections, that I would write all these letters and she would never write back—well, not as frequently as I would have liked. And there would be these periods of time, hours and hours, when I wouldn't hear from her. And eventually, it would just get to an unbearable pitch, and I would look at my meager resources, and I would see if there was a way that I could muster up a telephone call. And I would go and make a telephone call, often in the middle of the night, just to hear her voice, just to know she was there, and just to ensure that all is well.

And we can all identify with that to some degree or another. Separated from those whom we love, by distance and by time, lacking in immediate news, the only right response is unbearable suspense. Also, genuine affection. His desire to know about them was more than matched by his love for them. He didn't just want to know about them to know about them.

He wanted to know about them because he loved them. And last time we noted that they were to him, he said, his joy and his crown and his glory. When he opened the letter, he was able to say to them, I'm so glad that I can speak to you or write to you concerning your faith, which is an act of faith, concerning your love, which is a laboring and strong and intense love, concerning your hope, which produces endurance in your lives. That's in the opening two or three verses of the first chapter. His absence from them was on account of having been torn away, he says in 2 17.

Their desire to be reunited was intense. And his action that he took in sending Timothy was motivated by love. William Barclay, the New Testament commentator, writes of Thomas Carlyle, who on one occasion said of London, there are three and a half million people in the city of London, mostly fools. Not exactly what you would call high praise. Not the kind of thing that would get you invited to the prayer breakfast, the mayor's prayer breakfast, so that you could speak to the city of London. No man who feels that way about a majority of men will ever have an impact for good upon them.

Barclay immediately follows the statement by saying, the man who begins by despising men or disliking them can never go on to save them. And when we look at the heart of the apostle as we have it pulled back for us here, and he begins to explain something of his motivation, we realize that he is driven by unbearable suspense, by genuine affection, and also by pressing need. When a parent has trained a child with love and with sacrifice and with affection, the parent is always concerned, always anxious, to learn how the child is coping with the challenges and changes of life that is presented to it. Watch the events as a group of parents gather around some event where they have a number of their children involved. Watch as they all produce their video cameras and find no surprise in realizing that everybody trains their video camera on the focus of their peculiar interest. It is a very magnanimous person who uses the wide-angled lens and includes the whole orchestra.

I must confess, there's about one second of that in mind, and then it narrows down and it narrows down, and I think you may be the same way. Watch the swimming coach. Having prepared his team, stand at the side of the pool as the gun is fired and his athletes begin, watch his gaze, watch his eyes.

He swims every stroke with them, takes every breath with them. He has given himself to them, and he longs now to know just how they're doing. It is not a matter of superficial concern. It is a matter of pressing need.

He needs to know, and he needs to take action. Well, that's something of the motive. What then of the man who is sent? Brothers, when we were torn away from you, our intense longing was to see you. When we could stand it no longer, we decided we would rather be lonely in Athens and give up Timothy than have the privilege of Timothy and have no news of you. So, he says, we sent Timothy. Since Paul himself could not go, that's what we're told, the best plan seemed—and you'll notice the little phrase there, we thought it best.

We'll come to that at the end if we have time. The best plan seemed to be to send Timothy. This was a significant sacrifice on the part of Paul, who probably was actually on his own by this time. Because when he'd previously been in Athens, he hadn't had a very wonderful time. In fact, in Acts chapter 17 and verse 16, we're told by Luke that while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. There was almost a sense of oppression on the spirit of Paul in his previous experience here.

And yet, he says, we decided that we would rather be alone again in Athens and experience all that sense of emptiness and loneliness so that we could find out about you. And so we decided it was best to dispatch Timothy. Timothy. Timothy, the boy. Timothy, the one who has to be told, Let no one despise your youth, Timothy. Timothy, who was propelled into a position of usefulness beyond his natural chronological age. Timothy, who was naturally timid. Of whom Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16, when Timothy comes, put him at his ease, because he's not the kind of young fellow that is able to go into a group and immediately take charge. Timothy, comparatively young, naturally timid, physically frail. You remember he says to him, Timothy, take a wee drop of wine for your tummy's sake. I hear that you keep getting a bad stomach, son.

You better take some medicinal approach to that. I love Timothy. I love the encouragement that he is. I love the fact, don't you, that when God looks down for people to use, he doesn't look for the brightest and the best and the most obvious? He hasn't chosen to use people simply because they are naturally talented. Indeed, there are men, there is many ways in which Timothy was classically unqualified for the position that he was given. And yet God had purposed that Timothy would be his man. And Paul understood that. What a wonderful description he gives of Timothy.

How it must have encouraged Timothy to discover that he was described in this way. Because the way we're described by those whom we love and who love us means a lot to us, whether we say it or not. Oh, lots of people will say lots of things about us that we can allow to run like water off a duck's back.

Some will be accolades, some will be criticisms. We pay attention to wee a bit of it, but it doesn't worry us unduly. But to the people to whom we look, those who are over us in the Lord, we need to know what they're saying of us.

We need to know their guidance and counsel for us. We all need a Paul in our lives. And we all ought to be looking out for a Timothy. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker. It's not easy being the second guy.

That was Timothy. They tell me that the second place in the orchestra is a hard spot to fill. Second fiddle is not the one that most people choose to play. Most would like their hands on the first fiddle. And if you've ever had the privilege of playing second fiddle, you'll know that it is a challenge. Because there will be people come to you and say, You know, you could play that fiddle better than him or better than her and appeal to your ego. But you need to play your part just the way the score's written.

And also, when you play and when you minister in that second place, there will be people who say to you, What in the world are you doing here? We thought the proper fellow was going to come. If you ever read James Harriet's books, you will discover that as a young vet, many of his most humorous experiences emerged from the fact that when he showed up on the farms, the crusty old Yorkshire farmer said, Hey, old lad, what are you doing here? We wanted the proper vet. We don't want you. And he said, Well, I'm the only one you've got. They said, Yeah, but we wanted the right guy. We don't want some novice coming here.

Let me tell you something. God's men and women are put in position as he intends. And it's not for us to pick and choose who ministers to us. When it seems best to send Timothy, then let Timothy be sent."

And all the Timothys like him. Now, I know what this feels like, because I've been there. I'll never forget the situation of going to make a hospital visit at the age of twenty-three in Edinburgh, Scotland. I went to visit a man—indeed, a wife of a man. The man was the professor of cardiac surgery at Glasgow University.

His wife had just had their third child, I think it was, and had had her gallbladder removed, and she was in the Western Infirmary in Edinburgh. And my boss, Derek Prime, suggested that I should go along and see her. It was one of my very first visits at Charlotte Chapel. And I remember going along and going in and sitting down on the edge of her bed. She was half-asleep, and she woke up to find this kid sitting on the end of her bed. And I'll never forget her response. She said, "'Who are you, and what are you doing here?' And I drew myself up to my full height, and I said, "'I'm the assistant to the pastor at the thing.'"

She was singularly unimpressed by it all. We thought it'd be best to send Timothy. Are you prepared to play second fiddle all of your life, if that's the place God has for you? Do you know how many people are disgruntled in ministry because they don't have the first chair?

And do you know how tough it is in the first chair? We thought it best to send Timothy, our brother—our brother. One of the favorite designations of Paul in this letter—the man is Timothy, who is he? He's the brother. If you look quickly, you will see that the word brother comes in chapter 1 and verse 4, in chapter 2 and verse 1, 14 and 17.

I told you you'd have to look quickly. In chapter 3 and verses 2 and 7, in chapter 4 and verses 1, 9 and 13, in chapter 5 and verse 1, 4, 12, 14, 25, 26, and 27. You think brother's an important word for Paul in this?

It really is. And as I said to you before, it might equally read brothers and sisters. And he says, Listen, Timothy is our brother.

This is the thing that marks him out. This is the wonderful thing. That's the real thing about us—that we're all brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are members of the family. We haven't joined a society. We haven't become members of a club. We've been made members of God's family.

And God has no grandchildren, and he has no stepchildren. Timothy, brother, fellow worker. Whose fellow worker? He doesn't say, My fellow worker. He says, God's fellow worker. You know, it would be a great encouragement to Timothy if it had simply read, My fellow worker. I recall the first time that the Reverend J. R. G. Graham took me into the bookstore of his church in suburban London, and he said to me, Alistair, you can choose three or four books for yourself.

I'd like them to be a gift to you. And so I was in there for some time, and I took these books, and then I asked them if he would write in them for me. And he wrote in each one with care. And he wrote a different designation, a different inscription, in each one.

And I remember gathering them up and not looking at them, saving it to see what he would have said in there. And the one which brought tears to my eyes was the one that said, To my fellow servant in the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember driving home saying, I couldn't be his fellow servant. I could be his servant. And I was awestruck by the fact that he would include me in ministry in that way. But it's not simply that. Paul says he is God's fellow servant. What an amazing and wonderful statement. The particular sphere of service in which Timothy was to operate, you will notice, was in spreading the gospel of Christ. Who is our brother, verse 2, and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ. Actually, the word which is used here for servant is the word for a table waiter.

And some of you have had the joyful privilege of being a waiter in a restaurant. And that'll shape you up. You take all of that nonsense from everybody and have to say, Yes, definitely. Oh, I couldn't agree more, certainly. No, far too rare. No, far too tough. No, far too cold.

No, far too hot. You have to eat it, eat it, eat it, all the time. If you want a tip, that is. If you want to get fired, you just say what you like. But if you're gonna be a genuine table waiter, then it's a spirit of genuine service, and that is exactly what was happening here. Timothy was preparing the meals, as it were, and bringing them out onto the table, declaring, spreading out the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are discouraged tonight, believer, and you've been thinking to yourself, you know, I don't know that I'm making much of a contribution, I don't know that I have much of a part to play, let this man be an encouragement to you. Timothy, comparatively young, physically frail, naturally timid, but a brother in the Lord Jesus Christ and God's fellow servant. It's interesting that Paul actually uses that same phrase in 1 Corinthians 3, where he speaks of the fact of Paul and Apollos and Peter, and he says, For we are God's fellow workers. You're listening to Truth for Life, and that is Alistair Begg highlighting the Apostle Paul's clear pastoral care for the early church.

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We'll send it to you as our way of saying thanks. This is a book that draws from the Psalms to teach young children about God's holy and loving nature. It's a great book to help the whole family reflect on the certainty of God's promises. You can also request the book, God You Are, when you give a one-time donation at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. Hope you can join us tomorrow when we'll find out how the mission that was given to Timothy is a mission for every follower of Jesus to participate in. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.