In his book God’s Word In Man’s Language, Eugene Nida tells
of young Belgian parachutist who was dropped into this country
during World War II to work in the underground against the
Germans. He was captured by the Gestapo and put in solitary
confinement. In the cell next to him was a Belgian pastor, and the
two men discovered that they could communicate with each other by
taping the Morse Code on the wall. On one occasion the parachutist
tapped, “It is hell to be alone with oneself.” The pastor replied, “It
is heaven to be alone with one’s Lord.” The pastor knew the young
man had deep spiritual need. He arranged with members of his
congregation to send a Bible to him. The Bible came, and with it
came the Living Word, for before he was taken to be executed he
tapped this message through the wall: “I am going out to life and not
to death.”
What evidence did he have for such confidence? All he had was
the testimony of a man and a book, and yet he was transformed and
experienced what men have been experiencing down through the
centuries every since Jesus died on the cross. The thief on the cross
had less evidence to go on than anyone. All of his evidence was
negative except for the word of Christ, but that alone was enough to
give him the same assurance and confidence that has come to all
who believe in Christ.
Even though we have tons of evidence for the historical
accuracy of the Bible, this is still not the basic reason for believing it
to be the Word of God. Neither can we say it is the Word of God
because it says so, for a thing is not what it claims to be simply
because it claims it. The primary proof that the Bible is the Word of
God is practical. All who truly believe it and have perfect
confidence in it experience its power. Paul in verse 13 gives us the
three steps that the Thessalonians went through to come to the point
of assurance concerning the Word of God. These three steps are the
three which all must pass through if they would arrive at the place
of perfect confidence.
I. THE WITNESS OF THE WORD TO THEM.
The thief on the cross, the Belgian youth in his cell, the
Thessalonians and everyone who has ever trusted in Jesus has first
of all received a witness. The Word of God must always be
communicated in the language of people before they can respond.
The communication need not be by sound, as was the case with Paul
and these people. When Paul came to them there was no New
Testament. There was no written record of the good news to hand
out, and so all was verbal. Since the word has been put into writing,
and especially since the invention of printing, the Gospel has gone
into most of the world in the language of the people. The Bible has
been translated into well over a thousand languages, and people are
working on the many hundreds left because they know that it is in
the Word of God that there is power, and where there is no witness
of the Word there is no power.
The tragedy of history and of many lives is that they do not
receive the witness at all, or not soon enough. Katherine Mansfield
in her journal tells of coming on a Bible in her mature years while
she was in the mountains fighting a losing battle with tuberculosis.
She wrote, “I feel so bitterly that I never have known these facts
before. They ought to be part of my very breathing.” The
providence of God often works, however, even when men fail to take
the Word where it is desperately needed. There are thousands of
cases on record similar to the experience of Vicente Quiroga. In
1878 after a violent earthquake in Northern Chile he was stationed
to guard a beach littered with rubble from boats which the tidal
wave had wrecked. Among the rubble was a few pages torn from a
book. After drying them he read them and was amazed at the
message. He was confused and showed a friend who told him the
pages came from a book called the Bible. He searched for a
missionary and got the whole Bible. He read it and received Christ,
and he went on to spread the word until 20 years later that whole
section of Chile had received the witness of the Word.
General Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur, which is one of the
most popular novels every written by an American, never had any
interest in Christianity before he began to prepare for writing his
book. In his autobiography he confesses, “At that time I was not in
the least influenced by religious sentiment. I had no convictions
about God or Christ. I neither believed nor disbelieved in
them....Indifference is the word most perfectly descriptive of my
feelings.” It was not until he was confronted with the Word that
things changed. He read the Gospels and as he did a light illumined
his darkness and he said, “Long before I was through with my book
I became a believer in God and Christ.” The first step in coming to
a conviction and a confidence in the Word of God is to be confronted
by the witness of it.
II. THE WELCOME OF THE WORD BY THEM.
Paul says they received the Word and accepted it. Some
versions have embraced it or welcomed it. Without this act of
reception there can never be any assurance. It is the connecting link
between the witness of the Word to us, and the working of the Word
in us. Without it there is no channel through which the power of the
Word can flow. We have all had the experience of flipping on a
switch and getting no response. Right away you think there must be
a burnt out bulb, or a blown fuse. If neither of these prove to be the
problem, you know something must be wrong with the switch or the
wiring. You never doubt the power of electricity. You always
assume that the problem is somewhere in the connections. Your
faith in the power of electricity is not shaken in the least, for you
know that its power operates according to certain conditions, and
when they are not fulfilled it just will not work.
So it is with the Gospel. When it does not work in the lives of
those who hear it we recognize that it is just like electricity. It does
not operate without rules. If it is not received, accepted and
welcomed it cannot enter the life and transform one into a child of
light from a child of darkness. Witness without welcome is
worthless. That is why Paul is thanking God because these people
welcomed the witness. Reception of the Word is what releases its
power. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set
you free, but truth must be received before it can set anyone free.
We become what we receive. If we receive the influence of the world
we will express the values of the world. If we receive the Word of
God, we will express the values of the Word in our lives.
Robert Beverly Hale of the Metropolitan Museum of Art gave
this explanation of modern art: “If our art seems violent, it is
because we have perpetuated more violence than any other
generation. If it deals with weird dreams, it is because we have
opened up the caverns of the mind and let such phantoms loose. If it
is filled with broken shapes, it is because we have watched the order
of our fathers break and fall to pieces at our feet.” In other words,
art expresses the artists concept of reality, and reality is a mess. The
world only offers confusion, but the Word offers Christ, and He is
the Lord of order and harmony. When we welcome His Word into
our lives as good news we will reflect that good news in the order of
our lives.
III. THE WORKING OF THE WORD IN THEM.
Pragmatism is not the only test, but it is a test. Pragmatism is the
philosophy that asks, does it work? That is the main thing. It is not
of any value unless it works. It is not an adequate philosophy,
however, because a thing can work and still not be the best, or even
a good thing. But the fact is, if something doesn’t work, it certainly
does not merit consideration. The point is, the Word of God works.
That is why Paul, when he heard that they stood firm in the faith,
even when they were persecuted and had their faith challenged, gave
thanks to God. He was thanking God because the Word was
working.
Charles Crowe tells of an experience back in 1947 when the
New York harbor was fog bound. All tragic was stopped. And
ocean liner was delayed 13 hours from reaching a dock just a mile
away. A harbor ferry was lost for 7 hours. Forty ships sat waiting
to enter the harbor. They did not dare to move in the thick and
dangerous fog. There was only one ship moving, and that was a
tugboat that was being guided by new radar equipment. It moved
302 railroad cars on schedule. What radar did for that tugboat, the
Word of God did for the Thessalonians. It guided them through
troubled waters when their own powers and reasoning would surely
have led to shipwreck.
David said, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might sin
against thee.” Someone has said that the Word keeps us from sin, or
sin keeps us from the Word. Without the Word we do sin against
God. We sin in being ignorant of His will, or we sin in not being
able to find an give guidance. We sin also by giving false guidance.
There is no end to the ways we can fail God by not receiving the
Word and allowing it to work in our lives. We are blind to so much
until we gaze into the mirror of the Word. Wilbur Smith said he
could wash his hands ten times a day and not need a mirror. He
could wash his feet and not need a mirror. He could take a whole
bath and not need a mirror. But if he wanted to see if his face was
clean, he needed a mirror. The face cannot be seen, and none of us
has ever seen our own face apart from a reflection. There is no
other way to see it. The most public part of our body is that which
everyone else sees but us. We can only see it with a mirror.
So it is with our soul. We have no natural capacity to know
how we look in the sight of God apart from the mirror of His Word.
It is by the Word that we are cleansed, and by the Word that we are
kept clean. Paul knew the Word was working in the lives of these
people he wrote to, and this caused him to thank God. Blessed is the
man who can look into the mirror of the Word and see how it is
actively working in his life, and then give thanks to God because it
works.
