1 Thessalonians - Leaving the Nursery

The church is not a nursery where we feed people easily and burp them and entertain them and protect them, and they never grow up. Alas, we have far too many people today who don't know how to feed themselves from the word of God.

Now we join our hearts in prayer as we open the word of God. Father, it is indeed with reverence that we come to your Word, realizing that it is not the word of men, it is in truth the word of God. Help us to receive it as the word of God and then to appropriate it, to make it a part of our lives, and then to apply it to our everyday life. As we study now, may the Word encourage us and give us the guidance that we need. I pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

During these difficult days, if we're going to serve the Lord, we need the toughness of the athlete. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, Paul writes to young Timothy and tells him how to be a tough minister, how to keep on going when the going is tough. 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7. "But reject profane and old wives' fables." Be careful what you eat, intellectually and spiritually. "And exercise yourself rather to godliness, for bodily exercise profits a little. But godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." He says, Timothy, if you want to be a tough athlete, you exercise.

We need spiritual disciplines today. Without spiritual discipline, I fear we're not going to get much done. If we would put into our ministerial work the same kind of discipline and devotion and determination that athletes put into their work, we would all have better churches, and we'd all be better pastors. The discipline of sleep and getting up in the morning, the discipline of spiritual exercise, the discipline of keeping the rules. It's rather interesting what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5. But look at this verse in your New Testament. 2 Timothy 2:5, "And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules." And the rules are given to us in the word of God. We need the toughness of the athlete.

Secondly, we need the trustworthiness of the steward. In verses 3 through 6, he talks about his stewardship. First he says, our exhortation, our message did not come from deceit. Now, there's the message. Or uncleanness, there's the motive. Nor was it in guile. There is the method. A steward must be faithful in his motives, his message, and his method. That's 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 3 through 6.

And now, verses 7 through 12, we need the tenderness of the parent. In verse 7, Paul writes, "But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children." And then down in verse 11, "As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father does his own children." So here we have the Apostle Paul comparing ministry to the work of a mother and a father. And the key thought here is that of tenderness and affection.

You see, the athlete is interested in winning the prize. He's out there on the racetrack, he's running, and we've got to obey the rules and we've got to stay in the lane God assigns to us. We need the toughness of the athlete, just to keep on going. Ministry is not easy. Ministry is difficult. I have pastored three churches. I have ministered on mission fields, though I myself have not served as a foreign missionary. I have sat on mission boards. Ministry is tough. I've taught Sunday school classes, been involved in radio ministry and writing ministry, and itinerant ministry. And ministry is tough. We need the toughness of an athlete to keep on going, the trustworthiness of the steward.

But we also need the tenderness of the parent. An athlete can be cold and detached. A steward can be so wrapped up in pleasing his master that he forgets he's working with people. We have to be have the tenderness of the parent. Now he talks about the mother in 1 Thessalonians 2:7 and 8. And he's talking here about the motherhood of God and the motherhood of ministry. This is not to deny the fatherhood of God. This is not to deny that Paul said, "I was among you as a spiritual father." Rather, there's a balance here. God has ordained that babies come into the world through mothers and fathers. They come into families where there are loving parents to receive the baby and then to nurture the baby. And so it is with God's people. We're born again into the family of God. And the local church is God's nursery for receiving the the babies and helping them to be nurtured and to grow up.

I want to say that I appreciate and thank God for faithful pastors and faithful local churches. This is the day when a lot of people are criticizing the local church. Somebody is always starting a new ministry because the local church is not doing its job. Well, there are many local churches that are doing their job. They would do a better job if people would cooperate more with each other, with the pastoral leadership and do what the Bible tells us to do. But when I was a young Christian, I was a part of the local church where people prayed for me, they disciplined me, they encouraged me, they gave me opportunities. I recall the first Sunday I stood up in front of a congregation and read scripture publicly. I was frightened, but it did me good. One of the men in the church said, "All right, you're a Christian and you plan to be a preacher. You better get started reading the word of God publicly." I remember the first time I had to pray publicly in a service. And then the first time I preached. All of these memories flood back into my mind. Going to the rescue mission under the authority of the local church and preaching the gospel, standing out on street corners, preaching the word of God. What an encouragement the local church was to me.

We need the toughness of the athlete, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-2. We need the trustworthiness of the steward, 1 Thessalonians 2:3-6. Don't stop there though. We need the tenderness of the parent. It's rather interesting in verses 7 and 8, he compares himself to a nursing mother. "But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children." Imagine Paul, the great Apostle Paul, comparing himself to a nursing mother. Was Paul saying he was a weakling? Of course not. He was showing his strength. We were gentle among you. Gentleness takes strength. Anybody can knock something down. It takes gentleness to work with living material and to help that living child of God grow in the Lord. We're gentle among you.

You'll notice in the New Testament there is an emphasis on gentleness. The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all people. Gentleness, the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. We ought to have the gentleness of the mother as well as the the exhortation and the encouragement of the father. We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. This is an interesting picture. He says the pastor is like a nursing mother. What does this mean? It means this. Just as the mother eats food and she turns that food into milk, and then she nurses the baby, imparting her own life to that baby. So the pastor feeds on the word of God, and he grows, and he is nurtured by the word of God, and then he imparts that spiritual milk to others, and that others might be able to grow.

Now I'm being rather autobiographical today, but I know my life better than I know somebody else's life. I recall shortly after I was saved, a group of people in our area started a home Bible study. I meet people who say, "Oh, we have a new thing in our church, home Bible study." We had that 40 years ago. Home Bible study, and this man who was a good teacher of the word of God. Oh, he was a fine, dedicated teacher, was teaching the book of Hebrews. Can you imagine being a young Christian, a teenager, and your first spiritual diet is the book of Hebrews? I didn't understand all that was going on, but I got enough out of it to be encouraged and to get an appetite for Bible study. And I praise God for those who were gentle with me, who imparted their very lives to me and shared the word of God.

Now, let me say a word to preachers and teachers and missionaries. You can't give to others what you don't have yourself. The nursing mother has to be there with the baby in her arms, holding that baby close to her heart. Oh, what a picture of preaching. Now, you don't get on a roller coaster with the baby and try to nurse the baby. Because the baby has to be held with gentleness and confidence. I fear there have been times in my pastoral ministry when I've gotten to the pulpit and I was not gentle. I know there are times we have to discipline, but even that must be done with love and tenderness. I was not always gentle. I did not always show affection. Notice verse 8, "So affectionately longing for you. We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel," that's evangelism, "but also our own lives," that's edification, that's building people up, "because you had become dear to us." Paul was here emulating his Lord.

Now, I can't think of a more tender picture of preaching and teaching than this one. There are people out there who need to be just lifted up gently and held close to your heart, and they need to be encouraged, and I need to impart my own life. Oh, a message is not just an outline, it's not just a lot of material on paper. It has to come from our lives.

Far too much preaching and teaching is secondhand. Look in your Bible at Isaiah 49:15. Isaiah 49:15. Here's what it says. God is speaking. "Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you." God is comparing himself to a nursing mother, and this nursing mother says, "How can I forget my child? I carried that child in my womb. I delivered that child. Now I am nursing that child. I'm imparting to that child a very part of my life." And that child is depending upon me. This is God. God takes his children whom he has begotten through the gospel. God takes his children, holds his children close to his heart. This is the motherhood of God. This is God in his gentleness and God in his compassion saying, "I will not forget you. How can I ever forget my own children?" In fact, in Isaiah 49:16, he says, "See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands." I don't just have a birth certificate in the strong box down at the bank. I have written you on the palms of my hands.

That reminds me of my Lord Jesus. He says, "You are wondering, 'Do I love you? Do I want to care for you?' Look at my hands, wounded for you." Oh, the love of the Father. Look at Isaiah chapter 66, verse 13. Isaiah 66:13. "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem." The comfort of the mother. All of us can recall when we were just little youngsters getting hurt, we fell off the bicycle or we did something we shouldn't do, and we come running in and we're crying, and who is there to help us? Mother. Not always that way today, but that's the way it was, thank God, when I grew up. Mother was there to to wash the wounds and to hug you and to say, "Well, maybe it's time to have some cocoa and cookies." The comfort of the mother. Our Father in heaven is not ashamed of his motherhood. He is like a mother who consoles us and comforts us, and this is what Paul did. Paul took these dear children, spiritual children, whom he loves so much, and he held them to his heart, and he imparted to them the very life that God had given to him.

Now that's not an easy job. Anyone who has raised children knows that raising children is not an easy job. Nor is it an easy job to raise spiritual children. I can recall in the churches I've pastored. Oh my, there were days I felt just like Moses. Did you ever notice Moses in Numbers chapter 11? The people were complaining, they wanted something to eat, they were sick of the manna. All Moses heard was complaining and weeping. And what does Moses do? Well, verse 10 of Numbers 11, a very human thing here. "Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every one at the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused, and Moses also was displeased."

You know, sometimes we as the people of God bring real heartache to our spiritual leaders. I have wept over people. There are things you can't talk about. You go to church and you smile and you pray and you preach, but oh, there are people, they're just breaking your heart. I wonder today, are you breaking your pastor's heart? Are you breaking your elder's heart, your Sunday school teacher? Maybe your parents, I don't know, your grandparents. If they knew what was going on in your life, would they be heartbroken? Here's Moses. Moses says to the Lord in Numbers chapter 11, verse 11, "Why have you afflicted your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you have laid the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child, to the land which you swore to their fathers?'" He said, "Am I supposed to be a nursing mother to all these Jewish people who are so critical and they're they're attacking me?" God says, "Yes, that's what your job is, Moses."

I confess there have been times when I have said, "Lord, if you loved me, you'd take this burden off of me." Now children are a blessing. We've had the joy of raising four children. They are a blessing. The grandchildren are a blessing. But anything that can be a blessing can be a burden. Any human being in your life who brings joy can bring sorrow. And sometimes parents and grandparents have heavy hearts because of the way people live. And here is Moses saying, "I didn't beget all these children. Why should I carry them in my bosom? I am not able." God said, "Well, I'll give you some help." And God gave him 70 elders to help him in his ministry. Well, maybe some preacher right now is feeling like that. You're ready to quit. You say, "I've got folks in the church, and they're like little children. They fight with each other, and they argue with each other."

Well, Paul had that experience. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul tells him, "You're a bunch of babies. You're babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk. I want to give you solid food, but I can't do it. You're carnal. There's strife and envy and divisions. One says, 'I'm for Paul. I'm for Apollos.'" You see what the problem is here? In the Corinthian church, the church was divided. One group was for Paul, and one was for Apollos, and one was for Peter. They had not been weaned away. Oh, they were so utterly dependent upon preachers. I am shocked to see how many of God's people today are so dependent upon preachers. They can't feed themselves. They can't wash themselves. They can't clothe themselves. They don't know how to discipline themselves. Oh, it's such a heartache. And Paul is weeping here and he says, "Why don't you people grow up? Who is Paul? He's just a servant. Who's Apollos? He's just another servant. We're all just the servants of God. Why don't you get weaned away from your spiritual childhood and grow up?"

I suppose the most difficult thing in all of ministry is weaning people away. They depend so much on the preacher, on the Sunday school teacher. I recall when I had resigned from one of the churches I pastored. The Lord had led us to do that, and one of the ladies came, and I appreciated her. She's a dear, precious soul, but she said, "Oh, what am I going to do without you? I depend upon you so much." And my answer was, "Well, you're going to find out, and the sooner you find out the better. You can't build your spiritual life on the preacher, not even a radio preacher. You can't build your spiritual life on a Sunday school teacher. You've got to be weaned away, and then go out and help other people to grow. How important it is that we grow in the Christian life. Yes, the church is a nursery, but it's a nursery where people should grow up. It's not a place to be coddled. It's a place to be matured. The church is not a nursery where we feed people easily and burp them and entertain them and protect them, and they never grow up.

Alas, we have far too many people today who don't know how to feed themselves from the word of God. All they can do is come and nurse and take in the milk of the word, and how we need to grow in the Lord. Well, our God is a nursing mother. He cherishes us and he nourishes us, and we as God's servants are nursing mothers. One of our responsibilities is to take the children of God and and hold them close to our heart and nurture them and help them to grow up. And then when the right time comes, to wean them away so that they are not weak little babies living on milk. Are you giving your spiritual parents joy today? I hope that you are. Well, let's pray together. Father, we realize as stewards, we must be found faithful. And we realize too that one day we're going to have to give an account. Oh, I pray you'll help us to be able to give a good account when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ. Help us to be faithful even today in sharing the gospel with others, in buying up every opportunity, using our spiritual gifts. I pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.