Three Thessalonian Songs "1. STANDING ON THE PROMISES”

Readings: Exodus 33:12-23, Psalm 99, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, Matthew 22:15-22
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on October 16th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

Standing on the Promises. I’m starting this morning a short series I’ve called ‘Three Thessalonian Songs” focusing on one of the New Testament Letters, the first letter to the Thessalonians. Hopefully along the way we’ll learn a bit about their church and the challenges that they faced, and by doing so learn some good stuff from God about our own lives and situation.

This morning what I want you to know about the Thessalonians is that they were a church facing a hard time at a point in history when Christianity was barely tolerated. It was a risky business for them to practice and proclaim their faith. It could mean imprisonment or even death. Yet they kept hanging on in there. Right at the start of this letter we are given some clues as to how they managed.

Just like the Thessalonians, we are living in an age of great change. People are asking a lot of questions, about life’s purpose and meaning, about religion and the values that belief can promote. We are surrounded by conflicting lifestyles and viewpoints, and many of them are extremely negative and intolerant of what for many years might have been considered as ‘traditional values’.

Near the beginning of the last century, in fact just after the First World War, (the so called “Great War”!), when there was tremendous loss of life and hardship, the English poet W.B. Yeats wrote a piece called “The Second Coming”. Not to be confused with any modern day Armageddon saga, the piece was a prophetic poem about approaching anarchy.

In that poem he uses the phrase; “things fall apart, the centre cannot hold”. The whole verse is about how all around him, certainties upon which people had built their lives were starting to crumble and fall to bits. He sensed that the culture around his life was disintegrating beyond repair and that there was no longer a stable centre.

His words were prophetic in that it was that very climate of confusion that allowed for the rise of the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler’s taking control of a people desperate both for answers and somebody to blame. Through manipulating people’s fears and inflaming their prejudices countless numbers became part of a regime that justified unthinkable atrocities and led within a short time to the Second World War.

But – enough of ‘Adrian’s interpretation of European History – Volume One’ –back to the Thessalonians. They, like others before and after them, were living in one of those times where stability had gone. Worse still, they were being treated as scapegoats, as though they were the cause of some of the problems rather than part of the solution.

So how did they hold onto faith when, humanly speaking, it seems that faith was a rapidly evaporating commodity? To use the words of the hymn we will conclude worship with today, they traveled through that time by “Standing on the Promises of God”. Our latter identifies three ways that they did so, three centers that they gravitated towards that kept them on the right track.

One of them appears in verse 4. They found a centering for life as they:-

Responded Positively to the Initative of God

Paul, thanking God for the Thessalonians in Verse 4 uses this phrase:- “knowing brethren beloved by God, His choice of you”. Other translations speak of God’s election rather than God’s choice, but the meaning is the same. The Thessalonians could stand on the promises because they knew they were people that God had chosen; chosen to experience His love and care.

It’s very hard to put yourself wholeheartedly into something if you’re not sure you are the right person for the job. I’ve occasionally been asked to speak at functions and the person inviting me has said, “Well, we tried to get so and so and then we tried for what-is-name, but well none of them could make it so we thought you’d do instead.” In other words “We didn’t really want you, but we couldn’t get anybody else”.

Such invitations do not cause one to approach the engagement with great enthusiasm. “Hello, I’m sorry for being here tonight. I know you really wanted to hear Pastor Very Important speaking about the influential people he associates with or Rev Too-Good- to-Be -True on his latest mission to Mars, but here I am Reverend Last-on-the-List to speak to you about a topic you’re probably not the least bit interested in – so- unless you have something more interesting to do, like go home and watch paint dry - let’s get it over with shall we?”

On the other hand, if you’re invited to something where you know your input will be appreciated, where you actually have something to offer that is going to help others along, that there is significance to what you are doing, then it makes all the difference in the world.

Those Thessalonians, they knew that Jesus hadn’t called them to be disciples because He couldn’t get anybody else to do the job. The very fact that the Holy Spirit was at work in and around their lives meant they were at the center of something awesome, that then and there they were experiencing the Kingdom of God being near.

Be aware. God’s calling your name today. Jesus wants you on the team, not because He can’t get anybody else but because you are you and there is a uniqueness and significance to your life that makes you the ‘you’ God is looking for. He didn’t make another you! You are the only one. Take a look at your thumbprint. Think about your unique genetic coding, how it’s all working together to make you into the weird creature you’ve turned out to be!

Guess what? God’s calling you to make a positive response to the initiative launched on the Cross of Calvary where Jesus died for your sins. Wake up! There’s a resurrection going on and God wants it to be going on in your life! Know yourself called and loved and cared for and wanted by God and that’s going to center your life in a way nothing else can. Then truly, we can stand on the promises. The Thessalonians knew God’s call and were therefore empowered to face hard times.

A second thing that centered them was that they:-
Concentrated on Spiritual rather than Economic Growth.

Verse 2 Paul writes “We give thanks to God always for you all… constantly bearing in mind your work of faith.” Verse 6 speaks of how the Thessalonians had received the gospel “in much tribulation”.

Reading between the lines it is clear that, in economic terms, this congregation didn’t have a lot going for them. They weren’t growing in numbers or involved in any great outreach plan for saving the city. They were just hanging in there.

It is this tenacity of faith that greatly impresses Paul. He uses the Greek Words ‘pantote’ and ‘adialeipios’, meaning ‘always’ and ‘constantly’, to express how impressed he was and how much he thanked God for their persistence and courage in remaining faithful in the midst of continuing alienation by society at large.

In church circles, where we should know better, we often measure success by worldly rather than godly standards. How big is the budget? How many attend? What’s the membership? In a book called “The Cynical Society”, Jeffrey Goldfarb comments that we believe “that if something is profitable it is true, real and good; if it is not, then it is without true meaning”.

Paul was more concerned about their spiritual growth than their economic or numerical growth. ‘The quality of our witness to the wider world, depends not on our statistics, but on our stability as people of God’ (New International Bible Commentary). We could have the fanciest church in Baldwin, the biggest membership, the greatest choir, the most on the membership roll, and still be the least godly church on Long Island.

It is significant that when Jesus set about changing the world He did so by nurturing the lives of a small group. As that small group nurtured other small groups, so the message spread. The crowds? Well they were fickle, sensation seeking and shallow. He often withdrew from them or sent them away in order to concentrate on nurturing His disciples.

It challenges us to consider what we recognize as growth. On a personal level would we feel greatly blessed to have more money in the bank, or because we have broken through to a new level in our understanding of God’s Word? Would we consider that our church was successful because we were consistently reaching out to a lot of folk beyond our doors, or because we had a reasonable congregation once a week on a Sunday?

Finally, the Thessalonians were centered because,
They were allowing God to Transform Them

What they believed was making a difference to the way that they lived. People today say that they believe in all kinds of things. In this letter ‘Belief” was an activity, not just giving assent to a number of propositions. Belief was not reciting a creed or going through a ritual to make you feel better about yourself.

To believe that Jesus came into the world to make it a better place meant going out and working to make the worlds a better place in His name. Believing that the ‘Kingdom was Near’ meant going out of your way to see that others felt it’s nearness. Believing that God cared meant caring about those God cared for. Believing in love meant loving others in practical ways. So in verse 3 Paul speaks of their ‘work of faith,’ their ‘labor of love’ and their ‘patience of hope’.

A meaningful life of faith requires active participation. It is not a round of fads and fashions or words that fail to hold up when the hard times come. It is unfortunate that many people rest their lives on things that cannot hold; on beauty that fades, on supposed truths that last only for a season. If we build our lives on things that fall apart it is impossible to maintain a consistent faith.

What was it that helped the believers in Thessalonica remain stable?

They responded positively to the initiative of God. They knew God had called them for a purpose. They concentrated on spiritual rather than economic growth. They were allowing God to transform them. It was their active response to God’s unstoppable Word that provided stability to their faith and lives.

Today that unfailing truth of God's promises can provide us with a center that holds. When everything else goes crazy, the word of God remains a ready and reliable resource. It is both a bridge and a buffer—a bridge bringing security to otherwise insecure lives—and a buffer to shield us from self-destruction. R. Kelso Carter was right to sing:

“Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling winds of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.”

Rev Adrian Pratt