1 Thessalonians and chapter 2. I'll read the first 12 verses. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing 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 dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labour and toil, for labouring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe, as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. Again, let's seek the face of God. Most gracious Lord, this is your truth and we are your people. We who know this Christ long to know more of him and to see more of him, both in the scriptures and then in our life as a church. We pray, our Father, that those who are still outside of your kingdom might see something of the love of God in Christ this day and that you would draw them to yourself. Lord, teach us, we ask, how to walk in your ways, for we ask it through Christ our Saviour. Amen. Several weeks ago, back before the Easter holidays, we began looking at this question of a faithful man. Paul was such a man, Silas or Silvanus was such a man, Timothy was such a man, and they are the ones who stand behind this letter. Paul primarily, and then these two fellow servants with him, Silas and Timothy. And we have been looking primarily at chapter 2, verses 1 to 12, at this portrait of a true pastor. We've done so for various reasons. One is so that you know what I teach if I'm going to some of the pastor's conferences, and this is material that is adapted from a recent one. It is so you understand what it is that I am supposed to aspire to, and then by extension, that you know what to look for and expect in any man who would minister as an under-shepherd of the flock of Jesus Christ. but it also helps us to see something for ourselves in terms of our life as Christians in this world, especially in terms of the models that Paul holds up for the way that he conducts himself as a servant of God and a minister of the gospel. So we considered firstly this question of pastoral trustworthiness. And we said that Paul is very conscious of the pressures that need to be resisted and rejected. There are pressures that are in part the same challenges that every Christian will face in this world and they come distinctly to him as a minister of the gospel because he must continue to stand fast in the truth. So he cannot afford to give in to the pressure to dilute or to deceive, but he must hold fast to true doctrine. With regard to his motives, they must be pure and not unclean. He must be a man of honesty and transparency rather than guile. And he is to be a straight talker and not a flatterer or a fudger. By contrast, rather than what is essentially a man-centred, self-serving and cowardly ministry, Paul is to pursue a God-centred, spirit-sensitive and courageous ministry. This isn't just about natural bravado or charisma. He is a man who is to live and serve as a herald of God, conscious, as he will later say to Timothy in 2 Timothy, as we've just been reading, that there's a charge that has been given to him. He must be faithful. He's setting a standard. He's establishing a pattern so that Timothy can follow him and that others then can follow Timothy. And this is part of Paul's seminary instruction, if you will, to Timothy. You've carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, what persecutions I endured. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. So Paul says, Timothy, this is what it is like to serve as a minister of the gospel. And you must resist the pressures. You must reject the pressures. You must pursue purity as a man who fears the Lord, marked by Christ-like integrity, sincerity, humility, and purity. And Paul says then, Timothy, that's going to look like two things. That's going to look like a real mother and that's going to look like a real father. Now, notice my qualifier. A real and godly mother and a real and godly father. and there's a danger for us as we approach these things that we will think in terms of the experience that we may have had of sinful and sometimes grievously sinful mothers and fathers and we might say well who would want to be mothered or fathered by anyone. Paul is setting a different kind of standard. He's saying in effect that you can look at how he pastors and learn what it is to be a true and godly mother and what it is to be a true and godly father and that godly mothering and godly fathering have this parallel then with the pastoral ministry. In the same way we need to be very careful that we don't say well I'm a mother like this or I'm a father like that so this is what Paul either is or ought to be. Now we need to be corrected by Paul and trained by Paul and instructed by Paul because too easily we bring our own opinions and expectations and we say well this is what it should look like. Paul is incredibly helpful to us here by not just saying I was like a mother, I was like a father, but by explaining what he means we can see what mothering and fathering are truly like. Now, Paul, notice, doesn't feel any kind of embarrassment about saying, I worked like a mother, any more than he feels any shame or embarrassment about saying, I worked like a father. This is not any threat in any way to Paul's gender identity. This does not express any confusion in his sexual identity. Paul is a man of God. but he is not ashamed to take to himself, in their proper place and sphere, some preeminently feminine virtues, not exclusively, but preeminently, and neither is he afraid to take to himself some preeminently masculine virtues, because mothers and fathers are not the same. We live in a society where we've bought into this notion of co-parenting, where everybody does everything. Parents, Mothers, your children need you to be mothers to them. And fathers, your children need you to be fathers to them. It is not a mix and a match where you're all doing everything and everything gets lumped together. There are going to be some distinctive maternal investments and some distinctive paternal investments. Now, I'm not saying that this is, you know, somewhere you can divide everything down and every time anything happens in the home you're going to ask, is that for the mother or is that for the father? There's a lot of mixed labour here. But Paul still says, I was something distinctively maternal in my approach and something distinctively paternal. And we began to look at this maternal affection. And the image is one of gentleness. Look again at verses seven and eight. We were gentle among you. Now, I don't think that that is a particularly appreciated or pursued pastoral virtue today. But you read already in 2 Timothy chapter two, Timothy, Not, I want your boldness to be known to everybody. Not, I want your cleverness to be seen to everybody. Not, I want your aggression to be manifest to everybody. Not to everybody see that you're the new archetype of the bold Christian warrior. But Timothy, I want your strength to be manifested in gentleness. Because I, Paul, was gentle with the Thessalonians like a nursing mother. Not like a childcare provider, not like a nursery worker even, but like somebody who's carrying their own child at their breast to care for them and feed them. You've just seen a stunning example of that. Have you been watching the news in the last couple of days? Who is the victim of this stabbing attack in Sydney who's been at the very centre of the media interest? It's a mother whose last act was, as I understand it, literally to throw her baby to somebody to keep the child out of harm's way as much as possible as she herself was assaulted. Now whatever else may have happened there, whatever else has taken place, whatever is taking place with that child who it seems was badly injured, you have there an example of what it is to love like a mother. Cherishing her own children. Affectionately longing 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 dear to us. there is such a thing as common grace in this world. And we can look at some of the essence of true motherhood as it's seen in many different places and cultures and say, this is what Paul is pointing to when he talks about the tenderness of a true pastor. It's not professional interest. It's personal affection. It's not shoving the baby off into the distance while you do something more important. It's an investment and a regard. And it's marked then by these three things. by concern, by generosity, and by sacrifice. And we've already looked briefly a couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago now, at this question of concern. As a mother cherishes her own children so affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you the gospel of God and our own lives. Underlying this pastoral disposition is a profound attachment to people and a personal interest in them. We were well pleased. We were deliberately committed. Everything in our hearts was directed toward doing you good. And if you remember, Paul had been accused by these false teachers in Thessalonica of being interested in getting as much as he could from the Thessalonians. Paul wants you, said these teachers. They're trying to undermine him. Paul wants to get a grip upon you. And Paul says in effect, absolutely I do. But not in order to take, but rather to give. For the best reasons, I am affectionately longing for you. I want to bless you. There's this profound sense of concern that is like a true mother with her nursing children. Let's move on then, with that brief review done, to the second element of maternal faithfulness and pastoral tenderness, to this generosity. We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children, so affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased, there's the concern, to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. What was Paul's great concern to the Thessalonians when he turned up having been beaten and imprisoned, when he limped into Thessalonica with the threat hanging over him that maybe this city will be just like the last one, where he might have been tempted to say, I'll bring a slightly different message or I'll bring it in a slightly different way. I'll dilute it. I'll restrain it. I'll see if I can find a way of doing this that doesn't get me into harm's way. No, says Paul, I loved you and therefore I was generous toward you. I imparted the gospel to you like a mother would to her nursing child. What's the imagery here? Well, a nursing mother is going to provide what is needful and what is best. And so Paul, out of love for these saints, is going to bring what is most needful and truly best. He is going to tell them the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is spiritually sweet and nutritious food. And Paul is going to make sure that these spiritual children get this spiritually sweet and nutritious food. Now, I imagine some of the illustrations are obvious, aren't they? I have this conversation. parentally and pastorally over and over again and it often goes utterly unheeded. There is a big difference between what your children want and what your children need. Do you feed them what they want or do you feed them what they need? Let me put it this way. Do you love them enough to feed them? Good start. Do you love them enough to feed them what they need and not just what they want? My kids, they don't do vegetables. They don't want fruit. They'll only eat these things. What do they need? They need a healthy and balanced diet. Paul is not saying here, nursing mother, breast is best or whatever it may be, but from infancy, A child needs the best food. And as that child grows up, it continues to need the best food. And frankly, too many mothers cripple their children by indulging the child's appetite for what may not be healthy, rather than providing the child with what is needful. And Paul loves the Thessalonians too much to hold the gospel back from them. He loves like a gentle mother. Do we actually believe that parents know best? Our society's turned this on its head, hasn't it? Well, baby knows best. Baby gets to say what it wants and when it wants and how it wants and whenever it wants, and dad and mum run around like headless chickens trying to pander to baby. Paul says, mother knows best. I hope that's true for us. It doesn't mean that mum gets everything right any more than it means that a pastor always gets everything right. But Paul can at least say this, that in the same way as a true mother is committed to this spirit of generosity, I will give you what is best for you in the same way a true pastor is committed to maternal generosity. You are a giver, you are an investor, you are a feeder, to impart to you the gospel of God. Brothers and sisters, if you're members of this congregation, or if you're members of any congregation, you should expect the pastors of that church to hold fast to the gospel in all its beauty, in all its glory. Remember, this is not just about preaching another Calvary sermon, if I can put it that way, it is about ensuring that in all things, the Christ who came, the Christ who lived, The Christ who died, the Christ who rose, the Christ who reigns, and the Christ who will return is the focal point of the life of every child of God and the church as a whole. If I don't do that, it means I don't love you. That's what you should expect. That's what you should demand. What did Paul say to Timothy? Again, in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Timothy, be a worker who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. Do you want a sermon this morning? on the recent eclipse and how it's coincided with some curious incident of the sacrifice of a red heifer and how the attack that was made on national Israel geographically in the last 24 hours is a sign of the imminent end of the world. And if it's not quite World War III, then at least we need to start preparing for the apocalypse. And I can tell you by calculating all the numbers in the book of Revelation, what's going to happen, when it's going to happen, and this is what we need to do politically, and we need to start arming ourselves, you need to start priming yourselves. If you haven't got a cupboard ready for survival when something close to the zombie apocalypse happens in the next week or so, we're all in trouble. Is that pastoring? I can point you to places where you'd get that today. Paul says, I was a minister of the gospel. Now, brothers and sisters, we live in the real world, don't we? We live in a world where Psalm 37 has got some bite, where 2 Timothy chapter two means something, where we're not neglectful or ignorant of the things that are happening around us, where we mourn over wickedness and we respond, how? As gospel men and women. And Paul says, because of my commitment to you, I was going to make sure that the first thing that you always got was the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not political or philosophical soundbites or opinions that the church of Jesus Christ needs. It is always the good news as it is in him and he as the centre point, the anchor point, the linchpin of the whole, influencing all our thinking, all our feeling, all our acting. Paul says as a mother, is marked by concern for her children, so I was marked by concern for you. As a mother is marked by generosity toward her children, so I was marked by generosity toward you. And as a mother is marked by sacrifice for her children, so I was marked by sacrifice toward you. well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives because you had become dear to us. Now if you are a mother with young children or have been the mother of young children or have seen the mother of young children you might be saying but it's not just about the food is it? It's not just about getting something on the table three times a day or putting baby to your breast or to the bottle eight or however many other times a day it is. This is never ending. Isn't that what it feels like to be a mum? I'm just on the treadmill. It's like running on the hamster wheel. My life seems to revolve around this baby or these children. I am constantly being poured out. It feels like a thankless task. I never seem to have any time or energy left over for myself. What do you think this is? Paul says it's called mothering. Paul says this is what it's like to be a mum. to be pouring yourself out constantly, especially in those early years. What's the cry that goes up today? Where's my me time? Paul would have said, I thought you were a mother. There isn't very much me time. And dads can't be mums, can they? And they shouldn't be. It's not, I'm done with the mothering for a bit. You take over some mothering for a while now. I can do fathering. But mothering is sacrificial. Paul says that's part of its very essence. When a baby is at the breast, they're literally drawing their sustenance from you. They're sucking life out of you. And it feels like it sometimes. And it goes on feeling like it. And Paul says, if I'm going to be a pastor to you, then I need to care for you with the sacrificial love that a mother has for her children. Yes, it's going to cut across my wishes, my whims, my expectations. Yes, if I think in the world's terms that I'm just going to get in the rat race and I've got my career, I've got my expectations, I've got my trajectory, and I don't want these children to get in my way, Is that mothering? Not according to the Apostle. He says it wasn't just the gospel I was ready to give you, it was my very own life. I poured out my strength, I poured out my time, I gave myself to you. Paul says of himself, of Silas and Timothy, to those who would serve in the church of Jesus Christ, you need to recognise with the price that you will pay of serving as a gospel minister. Because you will find your life drained in your care of those whom God has put under your protection. It will drain you. It will exhaust you. It will at times demand more strength, more energy, more hours than you think there are in you and in the week. You will be poured out in caring for your spiritual children. That's exactly the language that Paul uses to the Philippians and then to Timothy. Philippians, if I am now being poured out, it's the language of the drink offering, the upending of the cup. When he gets to the second letter to Timothy, I am now being poured out. This is the last sacrificial act of a life of sacrifice. I hope, sisters who are mothers, that you will be encouraged by the fact that Paul would be able to say, I get it. I understand what it's like because it's how I feel also. I hope you'll be encouraged by the fact that to some extent I should be able to say the same thing. that there is a maternal dimension to a pastor's care of a congregation that at least gives some kind of sympathy and empathy for the kind of sacrifice of a mother for her child. It's painful, isn't it? Perhaps a mother might say, well, why should I have to live like this? Have you heard the people who describe children today as parasites? Parasites from the womb, getting in the way, draining away your strength, your energy, taking your life from you, stopping you being what you want to be and doing what you want to do. Would any of you ladies who are married say to your husbands, that's not what I want you to be toward me. Sacrifice is the same thing that Paul says husbands should be toward their wives. The model for this is ultimately who? It's Jesus Christ. I don't hear many wives saying to their husbands, even in godly marriages, I'd like you to back off a little bit on the sacrifice, please. I need a little less of you. And perhaps the temptation is to think in terms of the occasional or the spectacular, whether it's a husband sacrificing himself for his wife or a mother sacrificing herself for her children. And we might say, I hope that if I were in that position that that woman was in, in that shopping mall in Sydney, I hope that I would have put my body between my child and that knife man. And I hope that we would. but it's typically not death by a couple of thrusts. This life of sacrifice for most of us is the death of a thousand cuts. It's day, after day, after day, after hour, after hour, after hour. It's the constancy over time that drains us and draws us down. Paul says that as a minister of the gospel, that is what, not just I wanted to be, but that's what I was. And you know, remember how again and again he says, you've seen this. You can see from the way that I've lived and served that my spirit toward you was like that of a nursing mother, gentle, cherishing her own children, affectionately longing for you, well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives. So Paul, as a pastor says, that his example in this respect of maternal tenderness, of true ministerial gentleness was modelled on what a true mother is and ought to be. Deeply concerned for her children, generous toward them with an eye to what is truly best and sacrificial in giving not only good things but even your very life. And you have to ask what sustains that? What helps a mother go on being like that toward her nursing children? What enables a pastor to go on being like that toward the people whom God has committed to his care? Paul tells us in very simple language, very sweet language, because you had become dear to us. What lies behind this concern? Love. What lies behind this generosity? Love. What lies behind this sacrifice? Love. Christ-like love. You would become dear to us. We sometimes degrade that language a little bit, don't we? How are you doing, dear? I think you're still allowed to say that. You might need to be of a certain age. It might need to be a certain context, but you might have someone behind the counter at a shop who says, oh, is that all you need, dear? Paul's not just using this as an offhand expression of passing affection. You would become precious to us. you would become beloved to us. And because you'd become precious, because you'd become dear to us, because we had begun to esteem you at your God-given value as the blood-bought children of the living God, the purchase of Jesus Christ, no labour and no sacrifice is too much for us to bless you. Again, you see over and over how Paul's ultimate example and model is Jesus Christ himself. He's saying, in effect, if Christ so loved you, if Christ gave himself for you, if the great shepherd of the sheep laid down his life for the flock, then what ought the under-shepherds to be? That's the example. It's the example for maternal tenderness. It's the example for pastoral care. You'll find it, for example, there's beautiful imagery. Let's just look at a couple of illustrations in Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 13. Notice again that the Lord himself takes this example of motherhood as a way of emphasizing his care. Isaiah 66 and verse 13. Let's go back to verse 12. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then you shall feed on her sides, you shall be carried and be dandled on her knees as one whom his mother comforts. So I will comfort you and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. We get examples of that every week here. You've got examples of it here and now. You've got babies being carried on hips and dandled on laps. And if they get stressy, then mum takes them out or dad takes them out, deals with the situation, brings them back, gives them comfort. God says, that's what I'm like towards my people. And that's what I want my shepherds to be like toward my sheep. Or you'll find a similar illustration in Psalm 27 and verse 10. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me. Paul is saying, in effect, following on in the footsteps of the Lord God himself. Can you imagine? And tragically, the answer is yes. Can you imagine the closeness and the affection of a father and a mother being crippled and coming to nothing? Can you imagine a mother turning her back upon her children? God says, yes, that can happen, but it will never happen with me. Even if the closest and most normal and natural affections that ought to sustain in this world get broken down, I will still be God to you. Could a mother forget her nursing child? Yes, you can conceive of it, but you cannot conceive of God forgetting his people. and you should never be able to conceive of a faithful pastor or preacher turning his back upon the people of God any more than you would look for a godly mother ignoring, neglecting or abandoning her child. Now again, we've said before and I say it again, this is not the negligence of modern mothering, this is not the indulgence of modern mothering, and this is not the aggression of modern mothering. This is not mere sentimentality. See the question again, not just for mothers here but for pastors, is not do we love I think any mother here would say, of course I love. My question is, do you love enough? Do you love enough? Do you only love enough to indulge your child? Do you only love enough to have your kid around? Or do you love enough to show this kind of concern, this kind of generosity, this kind of sacrifice? to be to a child, not just what the world thinks you might have to be, but what God desires you to be. What a privilege that you should be able to say in effect, do you know what God is like to his people? You look at my mothering and you'll see something of that. That's the honour that God has put upon this relationship. That's the honour that Paul himself steps into. Paul, like a nursing mother with children, discerns and desires what is truly best for these spiritual infants. Why? What is the love that sustains this kind of bond? For the Apostle Paul, they are beloved for Christ's sake. The bond that a mother has with her nursing child is primarily a natural one. The bond that a pastor has with God's children is primarily a spiritual one. Christ has laid down his life for you. That's why we love one another. It's one of the reasons why we love one another. And it's why the ministers of the gospel love God's people. You are beloved, Paul will say elsewhere, for God's sake. Ultimately, the service that we render is to God and to you for his sake, that you are Christians, the blood-bought people of God. He has loved you. Now, where do you learn love? Is it not by being loved? Is it not by looking to the God who gave his only son, who loved enough that the son of his love would be laid down? Is it not by looking at a Christ who comes into this world, who suffers and dies in the place of his people? You might have said, Paul, what does this look like? Where will I really see concern and generosity and sacrifice of this kind? Where might a godly mother look to learn what maternal love looks like? Where might a godly pastor look to see what pastoral affection looks like? And Paul will say, you know that gospel, it's there. It's in the death of Jesus Christ. There's the man who lays down his life. There's the man who gives what is best and brightest. There's the man who knows what his people need, even though it is not what at first they may want. There is the man who loves us enough to keep on loving us in the face of all our resistance and rebellion and tension and distance. It's as if Paul says, you cannot stop God loving you and you cannot stop me loving you. The blood-bought people of God. My friends, do you understand what love is? Don't listen to this world's songs. I want to know what love is. Is it meatloaf? I'll do anything for love, but I won't do that. Paul would have said, I will give myself because of love, because that's what Christ did. Now, do you know what it is to be loved by such a saviour? Have you entrusted yourself to Jesus Christ and to his God and Father? Do you understand for your soul, his generosity in giving himself in the gospel, his sacrifice in laying down his love for you. This is the first step. to come to Jesus Christ as he is offered in the gospel, you will never find this kind of love outside of him. You'll see echoes of it, you might catch reflections of it, but the most Christ-like love is still not Christ's love. Mothers and fathers will fall short of his glory. Pastors will not be what they ought to be, but Christ will never fail you. And if we learn to follow him, then we will learn to love like him. Mothers, do your children know that you love them? Do they hear it? Do they see it? Do they feel it? Notice that's not, do you always give them what they want? It is, do you love them enough to give them what is best? And I have to ask, do you know, if you're a member of this church, that I love you? I'm not sure if I've said this earlier on, The Banner of Truth Ministers' Conference is coming up and it's not distinctive in this, but there's a great danger at a Ministers' Conference of a constant stream of complaint. How are things with you? Oh, you wouldn't believe the year I've had. I've got to deal with this person. I've got this family that's acting like this. I've got this group in the church. I've got these things going on. I'm just exhausted. I'm wearied. Tragically, too many pastors can simply sound morose and bitter and angry and sour and frustrated. we can sound constantly as if we're scolding or berating God's people. We can be bitter and complaining and resentful. If you heard a mother saying, I'm fed up of these kids. I don't want anything to do with them anymore. All they do is take, take, take. There's no thankfulness. There's no appreciation. There's no warmth. It's all them, them, them. And it's about time I got some me, me, me. What kind of mother would you think that was? Would you want to sit at a table at a pastor's conference and hear all that transposed into a pastoral key? The antidote to that is Jesus Christ. You should know, God helping me, I do love you and I will love you. Shockingly un-British, isn't it, to say something like that? But that's what Paul wanted the Thessalonians to know. And he was willing to point back to the closest bonds of natural affection and to the highest expression of spiritual affection and to say, I'm going to love the way a nursing mother loves her children. I'm going to love the way Jesus Christ loved his beloved people. He is the ultimate pattern of sacrificial love, and he will secure for his people the greatest blessing. My friends, I hope you will believe and embrace that my desire is not just to love you, but it is to love you enough, enough like Jesus Christ, that I will not love like a negligent mother, I will not love like an indulgent mother, I will not love like a strident mother, that I'll love like a Christ-like mother, that I will seek to be to you what Paul wanted to be to the Thessalonians, and that you should be able to expect that my disposition toward you and you should demand of any other man who comes into office in this church that he should be marked by a Christlike concern, a Christlike generosity, and a Christlike sacrifice because of love, because of God's love toward us, because of God's love toward the minister, because of God's love towards all his people. May God so help us to serve.