It seems that over the past week, every time you turned on the tv there was some news about the big game – It was all over the local news channels. They were reporting all of the things that were going on around town as people were anticipating the game, what was going on in Ann Arbor and of course there were reports from Coach Tressel about what his team was doing to get ready for what is for the Buckeyes the biggest game of the season. He talked about the Wolverines and the kind of things he was anticipating that they would come up against in the game as well as some of the things he was hoping that his players would accomplish both offensively and defensively. The over all message was that he felt if the Buckeyes would stick to their game plan and be successful in the things that they were trying to accomplish they would have the opportunity to come out of the game with a victory. As you are all aware, they did. They Buckeyes beat the Wolverines by a score of 14 to 3, for all practical purposes dominating every area of the game. The planning and preparation worked. The team carried out their game plan and they were successful in gaining the victory.
In our Epistle lesson for today, the Apostle Paul discusses his game plan for the Christians in Thessalonica. As we saw last week, one of the occasions that Paul mentioned in writing this letter was preparation for the end times. He talked to them about the events that would occur as they waiting for Jesus to come back. He mentioned the coming of the man of lawlessness. He talked to them about the great apostasy or rebellion. These things were mentioned in the interest of preparing the church for the things that they would face as they lived out their lives waiting for their eternal inheritance in God's heavenly kingdom. Paul had the enemies play book. In fact, God the Father had already set into motion and had planned for the outcome of the game. He knew what would happen and he was warning these Christians so that they would know and be prepared.
After laying out the plans of the enemy, Paul encouraged the Christians to be faithful. Satan would attempt to infiltrate the church so that he could lead the faithful away from God's revealed truth in his word. He would establish a rebellion. Paul encouraged the Christians to stand firm in their faith and hold to the game plan. In our text today he reminds them of what that game plan will be. He says: “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you.”
Paul's command to the church, his “game plan” as they look ahead to their inheritance in heaven is that the church in Thessalonica be “diligent in prayer”. He commanded them to pray. And he informed them as to what they should pray for. They should pray for Paul and those who were with him. And this prayer for Paul was not merely a general prayer that he be protected or that he be okay or that God bless him. Paul's command for prayer was not so much even for him. His prayer was for the Word of God; that “the Word of the Lord would speed ahead and be honored.”
From time to time people will submit prayer requests of various kinds. We pray for specific things, such as illnesses, comfort for those who are mourning some loss, strength for those who are undergoing some kind of a trial. These things are all good things to pray for. It is good when we come before God in faith to let him know the things that we need.
Yet, often these things for which we pray are reflections of our human will. We pray for the things that we want, the things that concern us in our small corner of the world, the things that provide for us comfort. These things are certainly good things that God is concerned for, however they are limited in their reach. They are limited by our fragile human understanding of what is good and what is necessary. On the other hand, God's will is much greater and God's will is much better.
In the explanation to the 3rd Petition of the Lord's Prayer, the Catechism reminds us that “God's Will is done when he breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the Devil the world and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God's name or let his Kingdom come and when he strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.”
There are basically two things that the Catechism identifies as the Will of God. 1. God breaks and hinders the evil purpose and plan of the devil. The Devil's plan is to devour and to destroy the church. The devil's plan is to infiltrate the church and water down her faith. (That is the work of the Antichrist who we heard about last week. He will lie to us hoping that you and I will believe that he is the true god and that we should set aside the true doctrines of the church and believe in him.) The world around us and even our own sinful nature works against God and doesn't want to obey him. Yet Jesus works in the world to destroy evil. He accomplished this when He died on the cross to save us from our sin. Jesus death destroyed the work of Satan. All of the sins that we could commit had been paid for with one decisive action. Satan's greatest act had been undone. Jesus continues to oppose the work of Satan. Every time an unbeliever hears the true Word of God preached and comes to faith, every time a baby is baptized according to the Word of God, every time you and I sing the Words of scripture in our hymns and songs of praise to God the work of the devil is broken. God does this through his Word. As our text reminded us last week, when Jesus comes again in glory, the work of Satan will be destroyed once and for all when he is judged by Christ and when he receives his final punishment in hell. This is the first aspect to the will of god. 2. The second is that He strengthens us in our faith and he keeps us strong and firm in our faith. Jesus does this again by means of His Word, he does it through the Bible. When Christians hear the Word of God preached to them, the Jesus is at work keeping us secure in the faith. He is strengthening us and he is encouraging us so that we do not fall away, so that we don't turn our backs on him and become someone who used to be a Christian. In the Lord's Prayer, God calls us to pray for these things.
The prayer that Paul commands the Thessalonians to pray – that they pray that the Word of God would speed ahead and be honored, there is no difference between that prayer and the prayer that Jesus commands us to pray in the Lord's Prayer. We pray for God's kingdom to come – it comes in his Word – we pray for God will to be done – God's will is that his word be preached and proclaimed – Paul's commands to the Thessalonians to pray is only an echo of the prayer that Jesus commanded his disciples to pray. Paul is commanding them to pray for him that he continue to preach the Word of God, that he continue to preach Jesus crucified and raised again for forgiveness for us sinners.
Last month it was published in the Newsletter that October was Pastor appreciation month. During that month, I was privileged to receive many very nice cards and gestures of your gratefulness and thankfulness to me and to my family for our service among you. I was very appreciative of those notes that were sent. It is always encouraging to know that your efforts have been appreciated.
But if I may be so bold, I would ask that you continue to pray for me even beyond the month of October. Just as Paul commanded the church to pray for him that he preach the Word of God and that it be honored, you also pray for me, your pastor who is called here to preach the Word of God to you. Pray that I preach faithfully. Pray for St Paul's, yet do not that it would grow in its reputation and respect among the community – while this is good, what is better is that God's Word would grow and be honored in the community.
The word of God proclaims Christ. It preaches Jesus who died on the cross for sinners. When the Word of God is honored, that means no more and no less that than Jesus has been preached as the Man who came from heaven, who was God himself in the flesh to die on the cross to save sinners from their sin. There is no better word to be spoken and there is no better sermon to preach. A sermon that delivers Jesus is a sermon that prepares Christian hearts for the struggle that they are sure to face as they spar with the devil and with the spirit of lawlessness, the Antichrist.
Paul, while he writes to command their prayers for the preaching of the Word of God, he also writes to commanded them regarding a secondary concern. It seems that as a result of the false belief that Jesus had already returned, there were some Christians who had taken that as an excuse to quit working. They were lazy. They thought to themselves, “if Jesus is here, than I won't need money, I won't need to continue on in my job. I can quit doing all of those things in my life that I didn't really want to do anyway and I can sit around and wait.”
Paul was highly critical of this attitude. To begin with, this attitude was lazy. God wants us to work. God has planned for us to work. Even when Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden they had a job to do. They were caretakers of that garden. Certainly in the world as we know it, every single person has a job that they have to do. If you don't do your job, it is left undone. While you have the strength and the energy to work, it is pleasing to God that you use your god given strength to do your job.
Paul used himself as an example. When he was with the Thessalonians even though it was not necessary for him to do so, he found a job. He earned money to pay for his room and board. Paul was a pastor in the church. It was certainly within his right to accept from the churches that he served some kind of an income, but he refused it. Paul did not want anyone to be able to make the claim that he was a preacher who was only interested in making a dollar, that he only cared about money. Since Paul earned his own living this was an accusation that simply could not stick. Sticking to Paul's example, the church was to also be diligent in doing their work and not give in to an attitude of laziness.
Instead of laziness or “idleness” what Paul suggests to the Thessalonians is that they never weary of doing good. That they always be ready and active and willing to dive in and do whatever good work needs to be done.
Now I need to commend the members of our congregation. There is a spirit and an attitude of willingness to pitch in and to do the work that needs to be done. There are lots of examples of this.
Only last week we finished up our final home game for the 2007 football season at the concession stand down at Ohio State. That fund raiser is a tremendous commitment. It requires the efforts of a lot of people. And those people were there. Many of you willingly gave up your Saturday to go down to the stadium to help. You worked hard and put in a good days work for the benefit of the school and the church.
And of course there is the turkey supper. Only one week ago our congregation was busy with activity as every one of you pitched in and did your part., working along side each other to serve a turkey dinner to somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 people. That is astounding. That too is a tremendous commitment and it takes a lot of work, yet the workers were here: planning and preparing, setting up, cooking, serving, cleaning up, putting everything back in its place. The turkey supper is a success because of the hard work of the members of St Paul.
Yet despite our many successes, we are still sinners. We still struggle with that attitude of idleness or perhaps entitlement. At times we will tell ourselves that we have done enough and that we shouldn't have to work any more or any harder. Sometimes we do our work but then begrudgingly look around at those who have not done as much as we feel like they should have. At times we are critical of the work that others have done and we feel like they should know better and work harder. God doesn't call on us to be critical, to offer any kind of judgment or evaluation of our neighbor's work. God simply calls upon us to be willing servants, to do the work that is presented before us and to gladly do the Good works that we are able to do.
Along these lines and because of the tendency that we have to struggle with our own sinful flesh and sinful nature our board of Stewardship has offered to us the opportunity to make commitments this Sunday. We have all received in the mail cards to fill out, that we can take to church and keep here in our sealed envelopes for the year, we have the cards that we have filled out to keep with our weekly offering envelopes. All of these things have been prepared for us so that we don't falter in our willingness to do good, so that we don't make excuses for ourselves towards inactivity and idleness, so that we continue to tirelessly do good without growing weary of it.
The message here in our text is quite plain. As we plan for and anticipate the coming of our Lord on the last day, we need to be ready. He has made us ready as we have received from him the forgiveness of sins that he won for us when he died on the cross. That gift has been given to us through the faithful preaching of his word. It is our prayer the faithful preaching of God's Word continue to those who need to hear so that it might receive the honor and glory that it deserves as God's holy Word. In the mean time as God's word is being preached we are to continue on in our faithful service to him – being faithful in our administration of the duties that god has given to each of us as workers in his heavenly kingdom.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment