By Bill D. Whittaker
1 Thessalonians 2:1-12
Possibly someone shook their head in doubt when you surrendered to the ministry. Did they wonder about your future? Like the English teacher in 1894 that noted on a teenager’s report card: “a conspicuous lack of success.” That teenager was Winston Churchill. Or the poetry editor of the Atlantic Monthly in 1902 who returned a stack of poems with this note: “Our magazine has no room for this vigorous verse.” Robert Frost turned to others. In 1905 the University of Bern turned down a doctoral dissertation as “irrelevant and fanciful;” Albert Einstein wrote it.
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With ministry hopefully stretching out in front of you it isn’t difficult to find critics and doubters. When Paul came to Thessalonica he encountered the accusations of critics who said his ministry was vain — empty. Later, writing to the church, Paul used the testimony of the Thessalonian believers to support his conviction that his time with them “was not in vain.” His ministry was not empty. It was marked by courage and faith.
It would be tragic to invest our life in work and come to the end and hear it was all in vain; it was just empty, meaningless, a worthless failure. What can we do so that our ministry will not be vain?
Let’s be sure to Ground our ministry on God (1-6)
In verses 2-6 there are five references to God and one reference to Christ. There is nothing vain or empty about the God revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
You may recall the words of the Old Testament preacher, found in Ecclesiastes, following his search for meaning in philosophy, possessions, and pleasure-- “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Instead, we sing, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
The foundation of our ministry is God revealed in Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15 declares the glory of the living Lord. “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain [empty]” (v.14). But our faith and preaching isn’t vain because it rests on the Living Lord. That glorious chapter concludes with this triumphant declaration:
“Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (vv.57-58).