MESSAGE 12 - 1 THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 5:18 – GIVING THANKS IN EVERYTHING; REJOICING WITH THANKSGIVING
{{1Thessalonians 5:18 “In EVERYTHING give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”}}
[A]. WHAT IS EVERYTHING?
That is challenging. “Everything” is everything. We all know that it is not hard to give thanks when we are happy, and the immediate future looks quite cheerful. It is when things are against us that thanksgiving becomes very difficult, especially when it involves personal relationships like a wife or a wayward kid, or family tragedy, or some disaster. We can’t give thanks but we can be critical. It started way back with Adam – {{Genesis 3:12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate.”}} Yes, Lord, it was the woman YOU gave me! That was the trouble.
If you want to evaluate people’s lives, then it is easy to see Paul had one of the most difficult lives anyone has been called on to live. We know from what he wrote, that he exalted in his tribulation, thanking God that he was in God’s will. When a man is in the will of God, the happy and unhappy incidents; the joy and the cursing of man – all these are points of thanks, because the will of God is central. There was an early Christian father called Ignatius of Antioch who was sent by the Romans to be executed in the arena about 110 AD, and on the way there, he wrote 7 letters to churches, and in those, he spoke of his coming martyrdom with delight, and was thanking God, even to the extent of saying he would welcome the lions and put his head in their mouths for them to crunch him.
Quotes from Ignatius: [[“I am God's wheat, ground fine by the lions, teeth to be made purest bread for Christ.” “No early pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire. The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. Do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being. Give me the privilege of imitating the passion of my God.”]]
[B]. Thanks in the New Testament
There are many scripture references to thanks in the New Testament, and they cover a number of circumstances. Do you know you can thank God wrongly? See here – {{Luke 18:11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer.”}} You can give thanks in a general way – {{1Timothy 2:1 “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and THANKSGIVINGS, be made on behalf of all men.”}}
Prayer is not a list of requests, but incorporates thanksgiving – {{Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.”}} There is a position where prayer and supplication are helped along by thanksgiving, and this is the verse – {{Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known to God.”}}
When writing to the Ephesians, Paul uses a concerning word for some Christians, the word “always”. Here is that verse – {{Ephesians 5:20 “always giving THANKS FOR ALL THINGS in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father,”}} and he says something similar to the Colossians – {{Colossians. 3:17 “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”}}
The giving of thanks is actually a sacrifice as this challenging verse would teach us – {{Hebrews 13:15 “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a SACRIFICE of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”}} Of course, we should always be giving thanks to God for our fellow believers as Paul always did for all the saints, and this is just one of those verses – {{Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, GIVING THANKS through Him to God the Father.”}}
[C]. IS THIS THANKSGIVING?
Consider these verses – {{Acts 5:40 “They took his advice and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them to speak no more in the name of Jesus, and then released them. Acts 5:41 They went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.”}} How much difference is there between rejoicing and thanksgiving? Remember last week we saw there is a close connection with rejoicing, grace and joy. They had joy and recognised the grace of God. Surely that led to the giving of thanks. How would we fare in that circumstance?
How thankful do you think Paul and Slias were? {{Acts 16:22-25 “The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them, and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods, and when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely, and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and SINGING HYMNS OF PRAISE TO GOD, and the prisoners were listening to them. Feeling miserable for oneself, and recounting all the hurt, and being filled with regrets, is so typical of us, but it will not give way to thanksgiving. In that prison cell there was singing of praise and that had to be associated with thanksgiving.
[D]. THE GIVING OF THANKS – FACT OR MAYBE
The trouble with us Christians is that we know the theory and we can sign all the sheets and tick off all the verses, but when the rubber hits the road, what then? What then? We have a great head knowledge but how does knowledge become faith in action? What is the connection? Consider this gospel example from Luke 8 –
The Lord wanted to cross the Sea of Galilee with His disciples after a busy day. Now imagine this – before they all got into the boat, if the Lord had sat by the sea and asked the disciples about the power of God, and God being in control; asked them about trust and obeying; asked them if they were in the middle of God’s will - they all would have given the correct answers. They had seen Jesus’ power . . . BUT . . . How many of us have the ability to be thankful in trials and danger and hardship? {{Luke 8:22-25 Now it came about on one of those days, that He and His disciples got into a boat and He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake,” and they launched out, but as they were sailing along He fell asleep and a fierce gale of wind descended upon the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. They came to Him and woke Him up saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” and being aroused, He rebuked the wind and the surging waves and they stopped, and it became calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” and they were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?”}}
VERSE 23. Luke’s portrayal of Jesus was as the perfect man and the consistency of his gospel confirms that. He is careful not to conceal the human desires of the Lord. Thus we had Jesus being hungry, the Lord being angry with the money changers in the Temple, and here we have the Lord, tired after full days of ministry and no doubt after long times in prayer each day, presumably early morning in His Father’s presence, before all that ministry took place.
Now He fell asleep and the disciples sailed on for the opposite shore, but the weather conditions were changing, and with apprehension, they beheld a worsening of conditions with rising winds, increasing till fierce gales were upon them but the Lord slept through it all. The boat took a wave, then another and another and soon the vessel was filling with water. They were in huge danger of being swamped.
They were reluctant to wake Him so they battled on by themselves as best they could to fight their own way out but all the time things were becoming more and more desperate. Perhaps they thought to awaken Him might be admission of failure but I am inclined to believe that they considered He would not really be able to help them in their plight. After all they were the ones who had the vast experience upon difficult seas. They were the ones who knew the right moves to make. All that to no avail, however, so in absolute desperation and as a last resort they woke Him. I don’t think in all things they were giving thanks!
We can identify readily with their behaviour in this episode. In trial or in conflict we use all our human resources and human contacts to try to solve the problems. We rely on our experiences, and on each other; we battle all we’re worth and we exhaust our strength. We forget about being content and thankful in the will of God. Throughout, we are not resting confidently in the heart of God, but often only because of sheer desperation we finally turn to Him in our dilemma and wonder why we waited so long. This approach ought not to be. “Come unto Me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”
We are as they were - seemingly alone in our own boat in the midst of the storm but the revolutionary fact is that the Lord is in the boat with us. That is the secret. In the will of God, He is always with us. We have a Companion who will never leave us or forsake us. On every occasion He is there riding through life’s storms with us, but so often we suppose Him to be distant from the situation, unknowing of it. The writer of the small chorus, “With Christ in my vessel, I can smile at the storm...” certainly had his finger on the underlying truth of this incident. Yes, even thankful FOR the storm.
VERSE 24. The journey had been entrusted to the disciples who should have been more than capable of concluding that entrustment, but alas, like us in so many ways, they failed in that small area. The Lord slept through the storm, and the peacefulness of His own soul ensured He did just that, for He was in God’s will. Real rest in God, faith in His overall control as we recognise the God of Circumstances, will allow that settled repose. No matter how black the night, how fierce the lightning, how loud the roaring of all nature or of the opposition, there remains a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God. That place Jesus fully knew; His disciples did not. He knew the will of God. They did not. The Lord, for their sakes, rebuked the howling wind and the sea, and the surging waves obeyed. Wonder of wonders!
Verse 25. One would question why they woke their Master. What did they expect Him to do, if anything? The Lord placed His whole authority on the source of their problems, and by doing so, He confirmed His lordship over His own creation. The result of all that was a becalmed sea, an instant reversal of its death-threatening rage. A reversal passed over the disciples also. This scared and despairing party of men became fearful and amazed in wonderment, for they still did not comprehend His all-encompassing power, as their perception was very limited because they did not understand His divinity. He was the Mighty God, but they were still battling with their comprehension of Him as the Messiah. It was not until after the cross they began to understand the limitlessness of His power and the full extent of His divinity.
Now His power extended into the very elements themselves. The power of the sky and the weather was overwhelming to finite man. Who can control the gale, the wind, the thunder, the waves, yea even the very storm itself? The time had come for the Lord to teach His disciples that He is Lord even over these things.
Never limit the power of God. He is in control of the rushing winds of spite and hate that come against your life; the thunderous roar of accusations that come your way; the waves of trouble that nearly swamp you; the lightning flashes of hurt that pierce you; the rains of opposition that sometimes pelt down but above all, He has control over the storm. He will not just deal with symptoms - His power and concern will go right to the heart of the storm. What a wonderful lesson for these disciples to learn - the whole of nature obeys Him. He is Omnipotent. When we are in God’s will and have that assurance, then we can give thanks in everything.
Jesus reprimanded the disciples with, “Where is your faith?” Were they then wrong in waking Him, in asking Him? It seems here the critical factor is faith and the band of men did not have it, thus the reprimand because they had seen the demonstration of faith from the Lord many times prior to this and should have known better. Faith would have rested in God immediately but with them God became the last resort. We must ask Him, not in panic; not in despair; not in disbelief, but in faith. That is the secret.
The Christian culture is rich in hymns and choruses that are sung with gusto and determination but often there is a gap between poetic sentiment and the furnace of practicality. When the skies are blue and the light winds of contentment carry the warm scented air, it is so easy to sing choruses in a detached way, even to sing them with a certain amount of feeling and meaning. Choruses such as these
“With Christ in my vessel, I can smile at the storm,
Smile at the storm, smile at the storm.
With Christ in my vessel, I can smile at the storm
Until the day is done.”
But when the greying skies deepen and the tempest is nigh, and we find ourselves removed from our safe, sheltered area of contentment; we hear the thunder roll; see the lightning pierce the sky, then we forget our chorus or we feel far removed from its message. We forget about being thankful for God’s will. We know the scriptures say, “In everything, give thanks,” but when the time arrives, we don’t or can’t. Christ is in my vessel but I can’t smile at the storm. In fact often I can’t even know that Christ is in my vessel. What should we do then? “Oh ye of little faith.” Pray for that faith which can hold onto the Lord’s promise and presence throughout all the tempestuous episodes of life.
When you know the Lord has His finger on the eye of the storm, there is for you a calm in the hollow of His hand. That was the experience of Noah. The fury of the storm of God’s wrath beat all round but Noah knew that storm was totally under God’s control. For him, then, it was a privilege to rest in the calm of God’s peace while trouble and fury beat all around him.
Calm in the midst of storm! Thankful in the midst of storm! That is a marvellous situation to be in, so what limits us? It is our faith! “Where is your faith?” Reach out to Him in faith; hold on to His person and works and know who He really is.
[E]. A QUICK LOOK AT THANKS IN PAUL’S LIFE
(a). {{Colossians 1:12 “GIVING THANKS TO THE FATHER who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”}}
A glorious future awaits us just a few years away. We have an inheritance that is incorruptible reserved with our God, purchased for us by the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. If we can’t give thanks to the Father for that then there is something wrong with us. All thanks must rise to the Father because He loved us and sent His Son into the world.
Note also in the verse the expression “who has qualified us to share,” and this is also special. What qualifies us? What did we have that was worthy? We were reprobate sinners with no goodness whatever but God’s grace was poured out to us to redeem us and give us the Lord’s righteousness. It is all of God. He made us fit for heaven, and nothing to do with us. God qualified us in every way. How can you not thank Him for all He has done!
Paul was the chief of sinners so he, above all people, could thank God for His abounding gift to him.
(b). {{Romans 16:3 “Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, Rom 16:4 who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give THANKS, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.”}}
I suppose there are a lot of Christians each of us can be thankful for because of what they have done for us. We are not always aware of the impact they have had on our lives. In turn we should be available to help other Christians. One man who was my first Sunday School teacher when I could remember was Don Adams, certainly with the Lord now. I was about 9 years old. After that he went to Kerala, India as a missionary. What impact did that have on me?
Paul was particularly thankful for Prisca and Aquila who were prepared to endanger their own lives to assist Paul. What a lesson there is here for us. We too should give thanks to those who have done so much for us.
[F]. GOD’S WILL FOR US
The “will of God” is mentioned 23 times in the New Testament and “God’s will” is mentioned 1 time. When I looked over the references briefly it suggested to me a very rich study but not today.
Note – it is God’s will. We do seek to know God’s will and here is one aspect of it
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
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