Who’s in Charge Here, Anyway?
I forgot one announcement that I need to mention before we move ahead; On the
way to church this morning, I saw Elvis walking along the road picking up
aluminum cans. Does anyone here believe what I just said? I wouldn’t think so. But
the rumor mill is alive and well in the 21st century. There are Elvis sightings around
the world, alligators in NYC sewers, cow tipping, and atheist Madelyn Murray
O’Hare is circulating a petition to ban religious broadcasting from TV.
In 1887 the coffin of Abraham Lincoln was pried open to determine if it contained
his body. What makes that act so remarkable is the fact that Lincoln’s body had
rested in that coffin for 22 years. Yet, even more amazing is that 14 years later a
rumor circulated again that Lincoln’s coffin was actually empty. The furor so
gripped the land that the only way to silence it was to dig up the coffin--again. This
was done and the rumor silenced when a handful of witnesses viewed the lifeless
body of Abraham Lincoln.
Here’s one for you: When a stretch of street swelled, cracked and then returned to
normal within 20 minutes last summer, one city official joked that it was the work of
a giant earthworm. Fire Dept. spokesman Charlie McCafferty, who made the quip,
later chalked up the 20-foot-long bulge to a natural gas accumulation and forgot
about it. Until Tuesday, when he learned that the weekly National Examiner carried
the headline, “20-foot earthworm terrorizes city,swallows dogs.” The story told
readers about a “top-level investigation ordered into the horrifying sighting of a
giant earthworm.” McCafferty said he heard about the article when two frightened
women phoned him about a creature “eating up dogs” they’d read about in the
magazine. The tabloid quoted unidentified city officials and witnesses who said they
saw the worm grab dogs and swallow them whole. Cliff Linedecker, news editor for
the West Palm Beach, Fla. weekly, said the paper got the story from Frank Kendal,
a stringer who “has given us some pretty good stories. It was a very good story and
I saw no reason to question it,” he said. “We run into a lot of really unusual stories
here.” When asked if he believed in such giant earthworms, he said, “Well I do
now. When you’re dealing with the printed word. All I had to deal with was the
printed word.”
Unfortunately, those tabloids, like the Examiner and, of course, the National
Enquirer perpetuate these “rumors”. Many times they succeed because there is a
very,very tiny kernel of truth in the story. For example, in the previous story, it is
true that the sidewalk buckled and cracked. But that’s about where the truth ended.
The internet is a wonderful tool but has more than it’s share of “not quite truthful”
stories making the rounds. There are websites determined to squelch these rumors
called urbanlegends.com and snopes.com I think rumors are here to stay, though.
Rumors are one of the biggest threats to confidence that we face. Just ask workers
when a rumor starts that the company is going to lay people off or shut down.
Before most of the workers were confident and secure in their jobs, but that rumor
produces uncertainty, insecurity, and anxiety. That kind of rumor can destroy morale
and productivity in the workplace.
It’s been said, "Some people will believe anything if its whispered to them." But
rumors on a larger scale can cause even greater insecurity. Some of you might
remember the panic that came from H. G. Wells’ radio broadcast "War of the
Worlds" on Halloween in 1938. Some people were persuaded that we really were
being invaded by Mars. Hysteria has a way of overcoming reason, and lots of
people panicked.
Now we read today the rumor circulating among the Thessalonians that "the day of
the Lord" is already here. According to this rumor, Jesus’ return, this judgment of
God on rebellion and evil had already happened. Yet here the Thessalonians found
themselves still suffering from government oppression because their faith in Jesus,
still rejected by family and friends. Paul doesn’t want them to become unsettled or
alarmed by this rumor because it simply isn’t true.
So, how are we supposed to respond to rumors? We respond to rumors with
spiritual confidence BY KEEPING OUR HEADS.
Our capacity to think and reason is a gift from God, and when we lose our head in
the face of rumors about the end of the age, or anything else for that matter, we’re
no longer anchored to God’s gift of clear thinking. People today lose their heads in
the face of rumors the same ways the Thessalonians did. "Prophecies" have been
around for years claiming to predict the second coming of Jesus. Many churches use
this as a scare tactic to recruit believers. We know Jesus is coming back but can’t
allow ourselves to be arrogant enough to think we know when that will happen.
“Gary” was approached by a preacher from a church whose goal was to convert
Gary to his congregation. The preacher asked: “if Jesus came back today, would
you go to heaven?” “Gary” wasn’t sure. That preacher proceeded to cite Gary’s
uncertainty as proof that he was not saved. That preacher started the “rumor” that if
you didn’t believe your salvation was eternally secure, you weren’t a Christian.
“Gary” had no self-confidence. You know, we hear a lot about that these days .
Self-confidence, we’re told, is the key to succeeding in the world. We use cliches
like, "If it’s going to happen, I’ve got to make it happen." We place success
squarely on our own shoulders, relying our own talents, our own efforts. If we just
believe in ourselves, we’re told, there’s no limit to what we can achieve.
Of course, there’s that very tiny kernel of truth again in that approach to life, but
everyone has doubts sometimes. Sometimes the optimist may have days where it
feels like the cup’s half empty. Even the most confident person sometimes has
feelings of inferiority. If our success in life is dependent on our own self-confidence,
then we’re going to be up and down more than a yo-yo. And it causes even more
problems when we apply this principle of self-confidence to our spiritual lives. If
everything depends on us in the spiritual life--our obedience, our efforts, our
performance --then our faith in God is going to go through some tough times.
I love to read westerns. Now, those were tough times, right? Hostile Indian bands
roaming around; lawless gunmen waited, ready to shoot anyone who crossed them;
and entire towns could be wiped out overnight by plagues. The old west seems like
a time when life was filled with great danger.
Evidently, that danger hasn’t gone away. Innocent tourists are kidnapped and held
hostage for months, and even years. AIDS threatens us. Children murder their
parents over trivial issues. Seemingly safe office buildings are targets for terrorists
in flying bombs. People are afraid to open their mail because of Anthrax. People bar
themselves into their homes and live in fear and terror.
Faced with these conditions, many question faith in a God of love, power and justice
is crazy. They ask, “Where is God?” My answer is - God is still here with each one
of us. He is still in control of this seemingly crazy world, although evidence points
otherwise.
We, as Christians, might be asking, “How can we be sure that God will finish what
He has started in our lives?” Because, once we accept Jesus, once God has started
working in our lives, we have begun a journey. So that’s a fair question to ask.
“How can we be sure that God will finish what He has started in our lives?” What is
the basis of our certainty, the foundation of our assurance? Is our assurance rooted
in our own efforts, or is there a greater foundation for assurance that God will finish
what He’s started in our lives? Our next section will offer the proof that God will
finish what he’s started in our lives.
Verse 13 starts with a corner word. BUT. But signals that the Paul is about to shift
from the bad news to the good news. He is saying that no matter how bad things
become in the world, Christians are expected to be different! And he tells us how
that happens.
After warning the Thessalonians not to worry about rumors about the end of the age,
Paul once again expresses his gratitude for what God is doing in their lives in vv.
13-14. Here, however, Paul’s gratitude focuses in on God’s choice of the
Thessalonian Christians for their salvation. From the very beginning, before the
Thessalonians came to Christ, God had chosen the Thessalonians to be the objects
of his love. This is the same thing Jesus was talking about when he said, "You did
not choose me, but I chose you…" (John 15:16). This is what Paul talks about in
Ephesians 1:11, when he says, "In him we were also chosen, having been
predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity
with the purpose of his will."
The Bible clearly teaches that every person who comes into a relationship with God
through Jesus was first chosen or elected by God. This is called the doctrine of
election, and theologians love to debate how God does this. But Paul doesn’t tell us
how here; he merely asserts that God’s election is a fact. But he does tell how this
election in eternity translates into our salvation from sin. Salvation comes through
the influence of God’s Spirit to bring us into a saving relationship with God through
Jesus. I think this is what Jesus meant when he said, "No one can come to me unless
the Father who sent me draws him…" (John 6:44).
Based on what he’s said so far--"so then"--Paul commands us to stand firm and hold
fast. To "stand firm" means "brace yourself". Kind of like digging in for a tug of war
contest. Knowledge that our salvation depends on God should lead us to dig in, so
we stand firm. To "hold fast" means to grab ahold of something and grip if firmly.
While our feet dig in, our hands hold on.
Then in v. 16 Paul starts praying, asking God to give us with what we need to stand
firm and hold on. He asks God to supply our hearts with the encouragement we
need. This encouragement, this assurance, strengthens us so we can stand firm and
hold on. God commands us to stand firm in our faith in Jesus and hold onto what the
Bible tells us, then He supplies us with the resources we need to do this. Without
God’s strength, the inner assurance he gives us by grace, our knees would buckle
and our hands would lose their grip. Because let’s face it: None of us is strong
enough to stand firm and hold fast ourselves.
There was a pilot, Henry Dempsey, who was flying his plane one day. At 4000 feet
he heard a noise in the back where the rear stairs are. He turned the controls over to
his co-pilot and walked back. The plain hit turbulence knocked him against the door
and it fell open. He was sucked part way out, fell face down on the steps and
grabbed for something -- anything that might save his life. He caught a railing and
held on.
The co-pilot thought he had fallen out and diverted the flight to a nearby airport.
When he landed they found him with his face 12 inches off the runway and with his
hands so tight around the rails that his fingers had to be pried open. That life and
death grip with which Henry Dempsey held on to the stair railing at the back of that
plane is the kind of grip we should have on the teachings of the apostle Paul handed
down to us in the New Testament.
So how can we be sure God will finish what he started in our lives? Because it
ultimately depends on God, not ourselves. Our salvation, our spiritual progress, our
effectiveness in ministry, and even our ability to obey depends on God. We’re not
puppets, with God pulling the strings & God’s not playing a cosmic game of chess
with us for his own amusement. We are responsible to place our faith in Jesus, to
stand firm and hold fast, to do our very best in ministry, and to obey, but our
capacity to do all those things comes from God, not from ourselves, because we
can’t save ourselves, we can’t make ourselves grow, we can’t serve God effectively
and we can’t obey God rightly without God’s help. So when circumstances arise
that alarm you, and when the winds of rumor start to shake you, the key is to take
hold of something and to hold it fast. That something is God. He’s still in charge.
