1 Thessalonians 1:2

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you

Target Date: Sunday, 21 November 2021

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Thanks – eucharistomen – where we get the term “Eucharist” for the Lord’s Supper – an expression of thanksgiving to God.

Constantly – unceasingly, without stopping.

Thoughts on the Passage:

This is the first of three expressions of thanks in 1 Thessalonians:

For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. – 1 Thessalonians 2:13

For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account - 1 Thessalonians 3:9

WE – the giving of thanks here is in the plural – WE are constantly giving thanks.

It is wholly legitimate to come together to offer thanksgiving to God for people He has brought to Himself.

It is legitimate to pray for salvation in the hearts of those who are yet cold to the gospel. So were we all once – cold and dead to the gospel – until God made us alive through faith in Jesus Christ.

The thanks Paul gives to God for the Thessalonians indicates God’s instrumentality in these actions and in their salvation.

There would be no need to thank God if He were not the one causing these things to occur in the hearts of those He called.

In giving thanks to God ALWAYS, Paul is providing the example of constant prayer he will later urge the Thessalonians to:

Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We see these elements in this verse, the joy Paul has in them, the constant thanksgiving.

This constant state of prayer does not simply mean never saying “amen”, but that he lived his life in a continual communion in the Holy Spirit.

His amen was not so he could go off and do his own thing (as so many times it is for us); his amen was a change in subject in a constant conversation with God.

Prayer for the believer is not an addition to our day, or an interruption to our life. It is the point of our life – to live in communion with God.

That was the communion broken at the Fall and restored at Pentecost – the return of the Holy Spirit into the sons and daughters of God.

What a glorious message for the church today – rejoice in each other. Rejoice that they have been called to Christ. Rejoice when they walk in the way they ought. Rejoice in the love they display for others. Give God the glory that your brothers and sisters in Christ love Him quite as much as you do.

And we do this all because it pleases God, and that IS our life and purpose.

Last week, I mentioned that the apostolic team had been concerned about the Thessalonians, who had received only rudimentary instruction in the faith due to the time the team was allowed to serve in Thessalonica.

What we find in the remainder of this epistle is the faithfulness of God to complete in them the work He had begun through this team.

His thanks to God is that He has held the church in His hand, keeping them in the midst of great trial.

The older I get, the more amazing it is that anyone comes to Jesus.

Not because He is unworthy.

But because people are so selfish and evil.

Sermon Text:

I am not above changing the order of sermons to coincide with events around us that claim our attentions.

Those things like holidays, major news events, and the like…

But trust me when I say we have arrived at this message of thanksgiving (small t) on this Sunday sheerly because it is the next phrase in the passage we are considering.

And so we shall take it as God’s timing, providing us a reminder during this week of preparation for giving thanks, that we look at this passage.

This week we will focus on the beginning of this passage in the context of the whole: We give thanks to God always…

When do YOU give thanks to God?

Think about the last dozen or so times you have stopped in prayer and given God thanks.

What were the circumstances of that moment of thanks?

For many of us, the easiest to recall is when we give thanks for our meals right before we eat.

There are some who would dismiss this as “true” thanksgiving since it is regularly remembered and done.

They would minimize these moments of thanks as habitual or pro forma.

In fact many commentators dismiss Paul’s thanksgiving in this passage today because he has a similar thanksgiving in every letter he writes to every church, with the sole exception of the epistle to the Galatians.

You will recall that letter was written to a church Paul himself had planted, but who had “moved beyond” faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and sanctification,

And had sought “another” gospel based on the erroneous idea that following Jesus put them even more firmly under the Law, so they were bound more completely to obey the Law.

To them, Paul has no word of thanksgiving at all, but only words of stinging rebuke:

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? – Galatians 3:1-3

 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” – Galatians 2:21

There was nothing in this abandonment of faith and return to the Law that Paul felt or expressed the least bit thankful for.

But for every other church, Paul indeed gave thanks to God.

But just because this is a common occurrence does not make it meaningless.

That is the error of those who oppose a weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper.

They argue that with such regular practice the specialness might be lost.

They argue that it would become simply a dead work, a ritual that we go through rather than a habitual practice we do in our worship before God.

There is nothing wrong with habitual obedience, nothing at all wrong with it.

I pray that we all are building such habits into our lives to make the obedience we practice because of our love for Christ that much stronger.

We must indeed make sure we do not forget the meaning of those practices, because if we do, we will be guilty of practicing hollow ritual.

Any spiritual practice could suffer from that:

When we practice reading our Bible each day, but find that we do not pay attention to the words we read, but simply allow our eyes to scan the page while our minds are on other things – that would be hollow.

When we are called to prayer, but we simply bow our head and close our eyes, but do not make the least petition to God during that time – that would be hollow.

Rather:

Read your Bible, even smaller sections at first, to gain insight into how you can apply that passage of Scripture to your life.

How you can be a doer of the word.

And if you find the application slow in coming, cling to the Scripture with all your effort, declaring “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” – Genesis 32:26

Because the truth is that God is not unwilling or coy to bless you,

But until you seek that application with that kind of fervor, you will give up before you receive the lesson that leads you to understanding.

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord - Jeremiah 29:13-14

So even in our regular and habitual times of thanks, keep them meaningful – let them be real thanks.

I was given such a good tutorial in that just yesterday, when I took my youngest son to see a college football game.

It was a grace I gave him, not because I owed him anything or he earned the privilege – it was simply a pleasure for Amy and me to make that gift.

We got to the stadium a couple of hours prior to the kickoff, and in that length of time he gave me the most heartfelt thanks I have ever received. More than a dozen times.

In fact, if our conversation stalled or if there was something happening on the field as the teams warmed up,

He would turn to me again and say, “Thank you, Dad, for bringing me here.”

It’s times like those I learn more from my children than I teach them.

A heart that is full of gratitude, overflowing in spontaneous expressions of thanks – I wish I had more of THAT in my heart.

When I know that I am in Christ through no goodness or worth of my own, but only by the gracious gift of God,

Who called me when I wasn’t looking for Him.

Who made me alive when I was content in my sin.

Who made me to see my true condition by shining His light into my darkened heart,

How am I not constantly breaking from my earthly pursuits and diversions to cry out in thanksgiving to God for the miraculous things He has done for me?

And while I am confessing, I ask you if your heart regularly overflows with gratitude to God for the great and sweet things He has done for you or for those you love?

Too often, our eyes are only on what we don’t have,

what we can’t do,

what we cannot afford.

Instead of being thankful for what we have received from God, which, by the way, is always given to us freely from the loving hand of a holy and all-powerful Father,

We are too often instead petulant children who turn our noses up at the blessing of God because it wasn’t what we asked for.

Or because it wasn't enough to satisfy our cravings.

Even worse, we completely ignore God’s loving work in our lives because we have some degree of discomfort caused by our fleshly desires;

God is showering us with diamonds, but we simply want more mud to play with.

Some might be so buried in their own self-righteousness that they might declare:

Lord, I thank you that I am not like other people (Luke 18:11) – that You have made me better than that.

You can be sure God has no use for that kind of thanks.

Often I hear people exclaim “Thank God”, and I am pretty sure that is not what they are doing.

In fact, on the lips and in the hearts of many, it is no more than a violation of the Third Commandment.

When we – believers – give thanks to God, let that thanks proceed from a heart of gratitude, not from a vulgar expression.

Let it flow out of our mouths because our heart overflows –

There is no repayment we can make, or we would do it.

There is no earning of the grace, or we could claim it.

When we cry out in thanksgiving, it is because God has dealt graciously with us, more than we could possibly deserve.

The words of David in Psalm 103 can help us understand our great debt and God’s great forgiveness:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;

3 Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;

4 Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;

5 Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

6 The Lord performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed.

7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.

8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

14 For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

16 When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer.

17 But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children,

18 To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them.

19 The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.

20 Bless the Lord, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word,

Obeying the voice of His word! 21 Bless the Lord, all you His hosts,

You who serve Him, doing His will. 22 Bless the Lord, all you works of His, In all places of His dominion; Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the reason for Paul’s thanksgiving here.

Like we saw the last two weeks, the Thessalonian church had just been formed, and was in the process of being trained when Paul, Silas, and Timothy were forced to leave town because of the Jewish opposition.

And we will see later in this epistle the great concern they had for these believers who had received only the most basic teaching in Christ.

But after hearing of their perseverance through the persecution and the continued growth in Christ, Paul is here thanking God.

He is thanking God for the work of the Holy Spirit in completing the work of salvation in the hearts of the Thessalonian church.

Paul isn’t thanking the Thessalonians in this – he is thanking God in all this.

For their calling.

For their salvation.

For the works that prove their faith.

For the works that flow out of their love.

For their continued hope in Jesus Christ, remaining in Him rather than taking the easy way back to Judaism.

The power of this church was not in the people, it was in the Holy Spirit.

As he would say in a later epistle: The one who started the work in them was faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6).

And Paul said he was constantly (always) thanking God for what He had done in them.

This constant prayer is something he will remind them of toward the end of this letter when he tells them in 5:17: Pray without ceasing.

For Paul, the “amen” at the end of his prayers were not a signal that he was finished doing his “Christian” stuff, and now could move to “his” stuff.

The amen he spoke simply meant that he was moving to the next prayer, whether it was one accomplished in private or one that carried him into his next work.

We see an example of that in between the 3rd and 4th chapters of Ephesians 3:20-21:

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Unceasing prayer was not simply something Paul DID – it was the point, the source, of everything ELSE Paul did.

Far from something that took him away from the things he was doing,

Prayer was what propelled him in all the things he did.

In His life, Jesus Christ maintained constant communion with the Father and the Spirit.

And it is through the Holy Spirit He gave His people that we can have constant communion with God.

That communion, broken to dust at the Fall of man in the Garden,

Now restored through the gift of the Holy Spirit of God, freely given to His people.

And it is that nearness, that communion, that puts us in a position to turn to our Heavenly Father and say “Thank you”.

Thank you for Your priceless gift – Jesus Christ, who was crucified for my sin and raised for my salvation.

Thank you for bringing these brothers and sisters alongside me to teach me and hold me up.

Thank you for the goodness You have lavished on me in spite of my sin and guilt.

O God, let us in every day not close our eyes to Your mercies and Your gifts.

And let us, with the faith of a child, carry our thanks to You on our lips.