Sunday School Lesson: Pleasing to God

Purpose: To explore the conflicts and connections involved in pleasing God and pleasing people.

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 2

In 1780 John Wesley published a pamphlet titled “Directions for Renewing our Covenant with God”. For Wesley one part of what it meant to be a mature disciple of Christ was the joining together of Christian believers in a covenant "to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul."

He urged his Methodist followers to renew, "at every point, our covenant, that the Lord should be our God."

Many churches use a variation of Wesley’s Covenant Service for the first service of every new year or on Ash Wednesday. A modern version of the service is in the United Methodist Church Book of Worship.

In Wesley’s Covenant Service we find these words:

Christ has many services to be done. Some are more easy and honorable; others are more difficult and disgraceful. Some are suitable to our inclinations and interests, others are contrary to both.

In some we may please Christ and please ourselves. But then there are other works where we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.

It is necessary, therefore, that we consider what it means to be a servant of Christ.

Do you agree that often our desire to please God comes into conflict with pleasing ourselves and others?

When have you experienced a conflict between pleasing God and pleasing others?

When have you suffered because of your faith?

Paul answered that question in today’s Bible Lesson.

You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.

(1Th 2:1-2 NRSV)

What indignities had Paul suffered at Philippi?

That incident is described in Acts 16:12-40. Paul had cast a “spirit of divination” out of a slave girl. Her owners had used this girl as a source of income. Upset over the loss of their money maker, the owners took Paul and Silas before the civil authorities with charges of “disturbing our city”.

The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

(Act 16:22-24 NRSV)

When the authorities learned that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they released them and apologized. But they still asked them to leave Philippi.

Verse 1. “You yourselves know..” Paul uses this phrase nine times throughout the letter to the Thessalonians. (1:5, 2:1, 2:2, 2:11, 3:3, 3:4, 4:2, 4:4, 5:2)
Paul is encouraging the Thessalonian believers to use their own faith experience as a testimony to the reality of the gospel.

“declare to you the gospel of God”

What is the gospel of God?

Gospel translates literally as “good news”, not “good advice” or “good ideas” or “good rules to live by”. The gospel announces the act of God in Christ for human salvation. God is both the content and the source of the good news.

What kind of welcome would Donalsonville give to a new preacher in town when word got out that he had just been released from jail and asked to leave the last town he was in?

What was Paul’s visit to Thessalonica like?

Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

(Act 17:4 NRSV)

Some, but not all:

But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar…..

(Act 17:5 NRSV)

Paul was forced to flee Thessalonica as well. So why does he say that “our coming was not in vain”?

What would have had to have been true for the trip to be a failure?

What does failure and success mean in following God?

At 7 p.m. on October 20, 1968, a few thousand spectators remained in the Mexico City Olympic Stadium. It was cool and dark. The last of the marathon runners, each exhausted, were being carried off to first-aid stations. More than an hour earlier, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia—looking as fresh as when he started the race—crossed the finish line, the winner of the 26-mile event.

As the remaining spectators prepared to leave, those sitting near the marathon gates suddenly heard the sound of sirens and police whistles. All eyes turned to the gate. A lone figure wearing number 36 and the colors of Tanzania entered the stadium. His name was John Stephen Akhwari. He was the last man to finish the marathon. He had fallen during the race and injured his knee and ankle. Now, with his leg bloodied and bandaged, he grimaced with each hobbling step around the 400-meter track.

The spectators rose and applauded him. After crossing the finish line, Akhwari slowly walked off the field. Later, a reporter asked Akhwari the question on everyone's mind: "Why did you continue the race after you were so badly injured?"

He replied, "My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it."

Only quitters are failures at following God.

Can you think of examples of people who failed and went on to succeed greatly?

On August 6, 1999, a major-league baseball player stepped up to the plate and made another out—the 5,113th of his professional career.

Was the player discouraged that night? No. Did he think he had failed himself or his team? No. You see, earlier in the same game, in his first plate appearance, that player had reached a milestone that only twenty-one other people in the history of baseball have ever achieved. He had made his 3,000th hit. That player was Tony Gwynn.

Tony Gwynn averages one hit for every three at bats. In baseball one in three is huge.

When you hear the words charlatan and huckster, what behaviors come to mind?

For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

(1Th 2:3-8 NRSV)

Behind verse 3 there are no fewer than three charges and Paul seems to be on the defensive:

1. It was possible that some charged that Paul’s preaching came from delusion or deceit. Anyone with a truly original thought runs the risk of being called mad. There was even a time (Mark 3:21) when Jesus’ friends came to take him home because they thought he was mad. Christian standards are so different from the standards of the world that those who follow them with enthusiasm can appear to be out of their minds. John Wesley was accused by some of being an “enthusiast” for which he responded with a sermon on the dangers of “enthusiasm”.
2. It could have been said that Paul’s preaching sprang from impure motives. The word translated as impure was often used to describe sexual impurity.
3. Paul may have been charged with trickery or attempting to delude others. Charismatic personalities have been known to trick folks into following false beliefs. If a lie is repeated often enough and loudly enough it may become accepted as truth.

Verse 4. Why was Paul entrusted with the gospel?

What do you think Paul meant when he said that God “tests our hearts”?

Verse 5. Why didn’t Paul use flattery? Why is it wrong to use flattery?

A flatterer is a person who manipulates rather than communicates.

Are you honest and straightforward in your words and actions? Or do you tell people what they want to hear in order to get what you want or to get ahead?

Verse 6. Have you ever found yourself looking for praise of men? Have you ever seen a preacher or teacher who gave you the impression that he was only seeking praise for himself rather than giving praise to the only one worthy of praise?

Verse 7. Here for the first instance in Christian literature we have the word “apostle”.

What is an apostle?

Apostle literally means “one sent with a particular commission” such as a deputy or one’s legal representative with power of attorney.

What is the difference between “apostle” and “disciple”?

Disciple means student. All followers of Christ who progress in the faith are disciples. Disciples would necessarily be a much larger group than apostles. We commonly think of the Twelve Apostles, but Paul, James, and other New Testament figures considered themselves and were considered by others as apostles as well.

Verse 7. Who has been an example of gentleness for you?

Why is gentleness important?

Verse 8. Why is it important that we share our lives as well as the gospel?

Paul not only shared the gospel, which many of us want to do, but he shared his life as well. This involved sacrifice; looking out for others' interests and not just his own (Philippians 2:17); and close personal involvement, not impersonal clinical detachment. He loved them—entering into their lives, their joys, and their struggles.

To be effective in reaching people, we must share ourselves person-to-person. When a person feels cared for, he or she will be open to listening to us share about our faith.

You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers. As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

(1Th 2:9-12 NRSV)

Why were the missionaries willing to give their very lives for the sake of the Thessalonians? (v. 8)? How did they support themselves (v. 9)?

Love shaped by the gospel is never just a matter of feeling. It always translates into action. The missionaries had such a yearning love for the Thessalonians that they were willing to give not only the gospel but also their very lives for them (1 Thess. 2:8).

Paul now cites an obvious demonstration of his love for the Thessalonians: he supported himself by working as a tentmaker rather than accepting money for preaching to them (v. 9). Paul will later explain in 1 Corinthians 9:1–18 his practice of self-support. There he asserts that he has the right to expect to be paid for his preaching, no less because he is an apostle of Christ. However, he willingly surrenders that right so that his support will not be a burden for those to whom he preaches or an impediment to their listening to the gospel. It is a practice that imitates Christ’s own loving self-sacrifice.

How did Paul summarize the missionaries’ behavior among the Thessalonians? (v. 10)

The minister’s behavior was not just an expression of their lives before God. It also provided the example that shaped the lives of the Thessalonians. It is often said that the gospel is better “caught” than taught. Paul demonstrates that truth in this section.

What did the fatherly care of the new believers include? (v. 11)

How is maternal love different from paternal love?

Can one person embody both kinds of love?

Having previously compared themselves with a nursing mother (v. 7), Paul now compares them with a father counseling his children. He says we urged and encouraged them, stressing an urging on toward a goal, in this case a righteous life. With the word pleaded Paul expresses that his teaching had been urgent and insistent.

Stressing that they had acted this way toward each of you, Paul reminds the Thessalonian Christians of their individual attention and concern for them. Just as a good father treats his children as unique individuals, so the ministers deal with new Christians as unique individuals.

Which of the two images Paul used (nursing mother or counseling father) is more meaningful to you and why?

What does it mean to lead a life worthy of God?

His point is to urge Christians to conform their lives to the character of God as revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we know God as the God who entered the world as a human being to die for unworthy, rebellious sinners, we are compelled to submit to His authority and become conformed to His image. We want to grow in Christlikeness in response to the wonderful gift we have received.