Think about the Steven Spielberg WWII movie, Saving Private Ryan. Captain Miller goes into the heart of France during WWII to find Private Ryan, the last of the four Ryan boys to remain alive after his three brothers were killed in action. Miller's mission is simple. He didn't fight his way through hell to be affirmed by Ryan or get something from him. He was focused on one thing—saving Private Ryan, enriching his life.
That's what Jesus did for us. He gave his life to save us. That's the gospel. And Christ wants to turn us on to that same way of life, a different, more fulfilling way of life than taking from people. A gospel-patterned life, if you will. A life where we don't have to please or flatter people to get them to meet our needs. Instead we realize in the gospel, God has met our deepest needs. Not just forgiving us of our sins, but adopting us as his children, giving us eternal life, and giving our lives meaning and purpose. Because of the wealth we have in the gospel, we can relate to others out of a place of strength and abundance instead of manipulating them to get what we want.
Misuse 3: Using the gospel to get rich and seek glory.
Paul says he didn't come "with a pretext for greed,' or to "seek glory."
You could use the gospel to build a church into a giant platform for your self-promotion. You could use the gospel to build a base of donors who support your opulent lifestyle. That happens all the time, and we all know the damage that kind of thing does to God's reputation. Using the gospel to gain glory or to get rich or both has turned off thousands from ever considering the gospel.
So, distorting the message, being a people-pleaser, looking to get rich… that's how the gospel is misused. Enough of that! Let's focus on…
USING THE GOSPEL PROPERLY
Instead of misusing the gospel, Paul says when he shares it he, "speaks, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts."
Pleasing God—this was Paul's main objective when using the gospel.
Years ago I took a Russian language class. The professor was an older woman from Russia. She was not an "everyone gets a trophy" kind of teacher. She was very blunt. When she passed back tests she would chide students who didn't do well. When I earned a low score on the first midterm, she said to me, "you did not study," in front of the entire class! Needless to say, I was powerfully motivated to do better on the next exam. I worked hard to improve as the class went on. When it was time to pass back our final midterm, she paused at my desk and said, "molodetz," which means, "well done." I had earned a much higher score and received praise from someone who doesn't praise many people. It felt great!
Imagine being praised by God like that. That's what should matter most. Whatever we do with the gospel, it should be done with a view to pleasing him. He is God, after all. And it's his gospel. We'll answer to him for how we use it. And when all the dust settles at the end of history, whose praise will endure forever? Not the praise of people, but praise we receive from God.
So keeping the goal of pleasing God in mind, how can we use the gospel in ways that please him?
1. Couple your use of the gospel with in-depth personal investment.
1 Thessalonians 2:7 But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
As he reflects on his time with the Thessalonians, Paul compares himself to a mom breastfeeding her baby. I don't know too many guys who would do that!
1 Thessalonians 2:8 Having so fond an 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.
When Paul came to Thessalonica, he shared the gospel, and he kept on teaching the significance of the gospel. But he didn't stop there. He imparted his whole life to them. What did this investment involve? Lots of teaching, lots of time spent together.
As I thought about these two verses I realized, how far I fall short of what Paul describes here. If you realize, like I often do, "I don't have the depth of love and affection Paul did, and I can't manufacture it," what can you do?
Realize first your awareness that you have a love deficit is a good thing. It's an important starting point. It's good to acknowledge you lack the kind of love Paul is describing.
John Stott, a pastor/scholar/teacher who passed away in 2011, once sharedActs 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
To find the strength to love difficult people, Stott had to go back to the gospel. He had to remember that Jesus went to the cross and died for the difficult people he despised. So, using the gospel properly is not just about YOU teaching the gospel to someone else and explaining its implications. It's about you telling it to YOURSELF, reminding yourself of what God did for you so you can find motivation to love others.
Can you think of someone difficult in your life? Keep them in mind as you soak in this next verse…
Romans 5:3 "…the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."
A while back there was a news story about a baby who was discovered alive after being buried for nine hours. It was a terrible, hopeless situation. Fortunately, rescuers managed to save the baby. That's a good picture of just how helpless we were before knowing God. We were hopelessly mired-down in our sin, but God stepped in to rescue us. Think about that. That's where the motivation comes from to dearly love someone. It comes from remembering you were and are dearly loved by God.
2. Live above reproach in a hostile environment.
1 Thessalonians 2:9 For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers
Many people in Thessalonica were hostile to Paul and his message. But Paul was persuasive and won quite a few of them over to the truth of the gospel. So how did Paul's opponents oppose a persuasive messenger with a compelling message? By destroying the messenger!
If you read between the lines in this chapter, you can tell Paul's enemies described him as a deluded people-pleaser with impure motives who uses flattery to get rich and glorify himself. To keep people from discrediting him and from discrediting the gospel, Paul worked very hard to live an upright and blameless life.
For example, Paul's critics said he was out to take people's money. Paul responded by working night and day to avoid being a burden to anyone. He is very specific about this in 2 Thessalonians:
2 Thessalonians 3:8 nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you;
Paul didn't want anyone to say he was a mooch. So, apparently, if he was invited over for a meal, he insisted on paying for it. He'd get up from the dinner table, put down a $10 dollar bill, and say, "thanks for dinner!"
Paul's critics also said he was out for glory. But Paul took a menial job, probably sewing tent fabric. Imagine Paul, the highly educated Rabbi, working late into the night with his needle and thread. That's not something a glory-seeker would do.
By living an upright and blameless life, Paul's goal was to give the gospel the best chance possible to take root. That's what mattered.
Some of you work and live in environments where someone is hostile to Christianity—maybe among your circle of friends or at your job. If you are around someone on a regular basis who knows you are a Christian and doesn't like it, what should you do?
It would be easy to close your heart and shut down. But God wants you to roll up your sleeves and do whatever you can to give the gospel the best chance of sinking in.
What if, in a hostile work setting, you work harder than everyone else? What if you show up not looking to take, but ready to give? What if your goal is to leave your workplace better off than you found it, not to please our employer or to validate the things they do that are wrong, but because it pleases God? If you do all that while we share the gospel, it will be more likely to take root.
Of course, you'll need some inspiration to live that way. And for that, we can go back again to the gospel. Jesus entered a very hostile environment when he came here to earth, and he responded by humbling himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. He did it all out of love to give the gospel the best shot possible of reaching us.
3. As the basis for everything we do.
1 Thessalonians 2:11 just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, 12 so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
Throughout this letter, Paul exhorts, encourages, and implores the Thessalonians to do a variety of things—to share their faith, to love each other, to esteem their leaders, to rejoice and give thanks, to pray without ceasing.
But as they listened to Paul urge them to live the Christian life, where was their motivation supposed to come from? Simple obedience to God's commands? Paul provides the motivation right here in v. 12. He urges them to "walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his kingdom and glory."
Paul reminds them, "Your future is set. God found you and rescued you and one day will bring you into his kingdom and share his glory with you." What is that? That's the gospel. The gospel should be their basis for following God. Not just here but again and again in all of Paul's letters, he holds out the gospel as the basis for everything we do.
Paul used the gospel to do more than bring the Thessalonians into a relationship with God. He used it to provide them with a whole pattern of life to follow. That's why Paul pointed them back to the gospel, explained the implications of the gospel, exhorted them to live consistently with the gospel, and helped them draw motivation from the gospel. The gospel contains the grace and love we need to give away to each other. It provides the motivation to love others that should drive our whole Christian life!!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Is the gospel the only thing Christians need to know to grow spiritually?
Of course not. As you will soon see, in the very short time Paul was with the Thessalonians he taught them way more than just the gospel. If you want to grow, you should strive to learn as much Bible as you can.
But don't forget the Bible has a central message, a theme, a main idea that we must emphasize and continually focus on. That message is the gospel.
Are you willing to personally invest in someone?
God wants to see people come to Christ and be established in their faith. But how will that happen? It will involve YOU—at least, if this church is healthy, you will be involved! Serving others is not the exclusive role of trained clergy. The New Testament describes the church as a body with many parts. And just like no human body will ever be healthy unless each organ is performing its function, the church won't be healthy unless we are all using gospel to reach people and help them grow. That's how God designed the church to operate.
What one step is God calling you to take toward this end?
Is it to explain the gospel to a coworker? Or to invite them out to a meeting like this?
Is it to reflect on the gospel more often to warm your heart toward loving other people?
Is it to offer more of your life to help someone grow?
Is it to help people understand how the gospel provides motivation for following God?
Are you leaning into the gospel to help you invest in people?
"God did not give us His gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted. Actually, He offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps giving to us everything we need to grow to spiritual maturity. The wise believer learns this truth early and becomes proficient in extracting available benefits from the gospel each day."