Thanksgiving: God’s Will for Us (1 Thess. 5:16–18)

Series: Thanksgiving SermonsText: 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

By: Shaun Marksbury Date: November 19, 2023

Venue: Living Water Baptist ChurchOccasion: AM Service

Introduction

This week our country celebrates Thanksgiving, though it isn’t necessarily a priority in our minds. Even though we often associate it with family, it seems like it’s become little more than a hiccup between the Halloween and Christmas seasons. Black Friday sales have increasing crowded out the holiday, with businesses increasing their hours, preventing retail workers from having time off for the Thanksgiving holiday. Moreover, in the last few years, we even saw tyrannical governors try to halt it (as well as Christmas) in the name of a disease that has a 99% survivability factor; many gathered on Thursdays in 2020 and 2021 not for turkey, but in private protest. Even so, the larger cultural shift is definitely away from seeing Thanksgiving as a substantial holiday.

Perhaps this is because of what Thanksgiving represents. If we are giving thanks, then the question immediately follows, “To whom are we giving thanks?” As such, this holiday isn’t primarily cultural or American but Christian. It can be nothing else, as we gather and acknowledge the Giver. This is ultimately why people even complain about the history of the holiday — not because they are concerned about supposed injustices, but because it implies a higher morality than they are willing to accept.

We talked about the history of the holiday last year (and the sermon is online if you missed it). As we noted then, the first Thanksgiving was a day the Pilgrims celebrated the providence of God and friendship with the Wampanoag Indian tribe which had helped them survive. If you are unfamiliar with that, allow me to give a quick review of that history.

The Pilgrims had left England looking for religious freedom, and they eventually landed in Plymouth here in the New World. The winter they found in the New England area was so harsh that half of them died. Things didn’t look good for them. In March 1621, though, a friendly Native American strolled into camp. He surprised them with a greeting in English, introducing himself and asking whether they had any beer! They were long-since out, but they welcomed him with some brandy, cheese, a biscuit, and some roast duck.

This man’s name was Samoset, and he learned English when an English ship captured him years earlier. He picked up English there from the fishermen. He also loved to travel, and he later served on another English ship as interpreter. He wasn’t the only Indian who knew English, and he returned to the Pilgrims a few days later with someone who spoke English even better than him.

His name was Squanto, and he had learned English — and of Christ — as a slave who had been since released. Sadly, he eventually returned to find most of the surrounding Indian tribes wiped out by plague. Remember that this was years before germ theory — no one anticipated diseases and viruses coming from one continent to another would be a problem. However, as he explained, one of the tribes in Plymouth was so murderous that it would have slaughtered the Pilgrims once they stepped off the ship, and its disappearance was a sign of God’s providence.

These men and the Wampanoag tribe helped the Pilgrims fish for eels and taught about the best times to plant their crops. Even though the coming winter would again be difficult for the Pilgrims, this time they could meet it with a bountiful harvest of corn, wheat, and the like. The Lord used them to save the rest of the settlers’ lives.

The colony governor, William Bradford, would write of Squanto in particular as “a special instrument sent of God for their good, beyond their expectations.” Because of the provision of the Lord, he announced a special commemoration. This time of thanksgiving would be a three-day feast, and it included these good neighbors! In fact, the warriors of the Wampanoag tribe outnumbered the Pilgrims at the feast, but they didn’t come empty-handed, bearing plenty of venison with them. Bradford’s hunting team also had brought in wild boar and, yes, turkeys. During the festivities, there was plenty to drink and a firearm competition. This very American holiday was in November of 1621, a year from their landing and just over 400 years ago.

I encourage you to go back and listen to last year’s sermon for more on the history, but people looked back on this time as a picture of good and the providence of God, which is why it was eventually enshrined as a holiday. Again, it’s not just a civil holiday — it’s a uniquely Christian one. Christians should celebrate thanksgiving, which is what we see in texts like this one.

Christians should engage in thanksgiving, not because it’s a holiday, but because it’s a command of the Lord. We should be a thankful people, giving thanks to the Lord at all times. As we consider this command, we want to answer two questions: What is the act of thanksgiving, and what is the scope of our thanksgiving?

What is the act of thanksgiving?

In a word, thanksgiving is gratitude. It’s a natural expression of thanks arising in our hearts to God. As one Bible dictionary puts it, thanksgiving or gratitude “is not a tool used to manipulate the will of God. It is never coerced or fabricated in one’s mind; rather, gratitude is a joyful commitment of one’s personality to God.” It is a response to the work of God on our behalf, whether in salvation or provision or love.

This is what makes Thanksgiving such a uniquely Christian holiday, and one so odd to our unbelieving cultural kinsmen. Thanksgiving is not natural to the unredeemed; as Scripture says, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom. 1:21). Falsely religious people may give thanks, but in a self-serving way, just as the Pharisee thanked God by hypocritically assuming he was better than other people (Luke 18:11). Only the Christian who has wrestled with his sinfulness and received full pardon from the Lord understands cause for giving thanks!

We can see thanksgiving in the offerings of the Torah. In Leviticus, it serves as part of the peace offering given to the Lord, a sacrifice both seeking the Lord’s blessing and to celebrated His provision, and a man and his family could eat a good portion of the meat of the sacrifice. It would be given “by way of thanksgiving,” a “sacrifice of thanksgiving” (7:12). The next verse says, “With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving, he shall present his offering with cakes of leavened bread.” When discussing the proper sacrifices, the Lord later says, “When you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted” (22:29).

Of course, there were other feasts and reasons to be thankful, often connected to food. The Reformation Study Bible on Leviticus 3:1 says, “Eating meat was a rare luxury in ancient times and was usually something of a celebration. Moses prescribed that every animal killed for food must be offered in sacrifice first… so at least during the wilderness period every meal involving meat was preceded by a peace offering.” It is right to recognize the provision we have from the Lord and to thank Him for it.

In the New Testament specifically, we see thanksgiving attached to the concept of grace in Jesus Christ. The Greek word for grace is χάρις, charis, which we find in a semantically-connected range of words. The Lexham Bible Dictionary (among others) points this out, saying this includes “the noun ‘thanksgiving’ (εὐχαριστία, eucharistia), the adjective “thankful” (εὐχάριστος, eucharistos), and the verb ‘to give thanks, be thankful’ (εὐχαριστέω, eucharisteō).” So, the Holy Spirit providentially connects grace thoroughly to the concept of thanksgiving.

This grace, again, is specifically in Jesus Christ. After the Lord rose from the grave and then ascended into heaven, we read that they “were continually in the temple praising God” (Luke 24:53). As Paul is struggling with his unredeemed flesh, he exclaims, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25). He also says that he thanks God for the gift of grace (1 Cor 1:4; 2 Cor 9:15). In this letter, he says of the Thessalonians, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father” (1 Thess. 1:2–3). The thanks is always connected to Christ.

Here, he links thanksgiving to both rejoicing (v. 16) and prayer (v. 17). He instructs Christians elsewhere to “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6), and, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2). This tells us that thanksgiving should always be on our lips, whether in prayer or praise, bringing us to our next point:

What is the scope of our thanksgiving?

And he tells us here, “In everything give thanks.” This obviously includes thanks for the grace that comes in salvation. We as sinners do not deserve such grace, but God offers it through Jesus Christ anyway. Thus, if you are a Christian, one who has trusted in Christ the Lord for salvation but who has also had a rough year, you can at least thank God for the grace that comes in salvation.

But, of course, that is not the only grace that He gives. He also gives that grace in everyday provision. We’ve already seen a bit of this in the Word, which is why the Jews developed the habit of giving thanks before meals — even today, the traditional prayers often begin Baruch Atah Adonai Elohaynu Melech ha-olam, “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe.” Whenever we see Jesus gathering others for food and drink, like with the feeding of the 5,000 or at the last supper, He first gave thanks. It’s no accident that in Christian circles, we often pray before meals and call it a blessing — we’re not communicating any grace into the gravy, but we are thanking the Lord for the grace keeping us out of the grave.

And He tells us, “In everything give thanks.” What else might this entail? Thanksgiving arises from a variety of circumstances. We can praise God for His attributes, like His holiness (Psa. 99:3), for His works such as making us (Psa. 139:14), and His steadfast love (Psa. 63:3). David gave thanks because God delivered him from his enemies (Psa. 30:1). Isaiah also thanked God because, as he said, “For although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me” (Isa. 12:1). God’s Word itself is a source of thanksgiving, for Psalm 119:62 says, “At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous ordinances.” Many divine provisions of safety and blessings from the Lord prompted the praises of His people.

We even see thanks given in song. Of course, all the thanksgiving psalms model this; for instance, Psalm 100 is specifically called “A Psalm for Thanksgiving” in the inspired text, and it is a call for all people to praise and thank the Lord. David even appointed some Levites specifically to praise God (1 Chr 16:4). In 2 Chronicles 31:2, we read that Hezekiah “appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord.” When the exiles returned to Israel, they offered praise and thanks to God (Neh. 11:17), as they did with the dedication of the wall around the city of Jerusalem (12:24, 27). Many examples of both the personal and the communal thanksgiving abound in Scripture.

Thanksgiving in everything isn’t just when things are going well. The Thessalonians here were a poor people. So, for Paul to say that they should give thanks in everything was to ask a lot. Yet, this is the Christian attitude.

Consider how Job reacted to his circumstances. He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). The text then says, “Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God” (v. 22). This certainly gives us an example of how we should respond to difficulties in life, even to the point of giving thanks in the midst of trouble.

We wonder about the state of the economy and the world. We are often tempted to anxiety when we read or listen to the news. We’re tempted to complain the more as we see New Year’s approaching over the horizon of this holiday, but the truth is that we should take this opportunity to redirect our thoughts.

God gives us more than we ever recognize, more than we ever realize, and tend to forget. We pray for Him to provide in some specific way, He answers that prayer, and we overlook His blessing. Praise God that He is so longsuffering, giving us air to breathe and provision in countless ways every day, and we neglect to notice. This is a day to notice it!

There have been numerous examples of this in history. We could consider the Christian martyrs, for instance. Cyprian suffered martyrdom in Carthage in 258. As one resource notes, “When the sentence of death was read to him he said, ‘I heartily thank Almighty God who is pleased to set me free from the chains of the body.’ ” He thanked God for his coming death for the sake of the gospel.

Thankfully, many of our lives are not quite to that point, though they could be. We never know when we may be martyred for the gospel. As I prepared this, a Christian in Arizona is fighting for his life after, while preaching the gospel on the street, a gunman shot him in the head. While we pray for him, and we know that he wouldn’t have desired to experience being shot, we also know that he is also thankful to be a witness for our Lord.

We can be thankful, even in the midst of our troubled circumstances. For those of you gathering with family, you can consider another aspect of this. We often joke about how difficult it is to be with family, with an argument about politics possibly on the horizon. It seems like the political landscape has become more polarizing over recent years, as well. What should families keep first in mind?

We are gathering to give thanks to the Lord Most High. We might call the holiday Thanksgiving, but we tend to lose focus on such matters. In fact, those of you tempted to score political points this year need to keep in mind the greater politics of eternity. It’s not that you can’t discuss these things, but strive to bring the discussion back around to the gospel for lost family members. Communicate thanks to God in Christ and love for one another above all else.

We need to keep this in mind even if our families are in substantial agreement with us theologically and politically. We may be tempted to complain about the evils around us, but that isn’t ultimately why we’re gathered. Strive this year to focus on the blessings that God has provided and allow that thankfulness to give you hope for His continued provision next year. He is always in control.

That’s easier said than done for some this year. People have lost a lot this year — jobs, opportunities, loved ones. That’s why it is so important for Christians to be around one another as much as possible, even over the phone. Sometimes, that presence is enough to encourage others, and this is doubly true as we reflect upon the many blessings of the Lord.

Times can be rough, but we can still trust in God. As Richard Sibbes said, “Whatsoever our condition be, let us never limit God. God’s people should never be better, the times were never worse. Where we be bad, God is good. Times are bad, God is good. He can alter all. When there is no hope of escaping, no likely issue, God can make it good.” Let us consider ways in which He’s provided and give thanks to the Lord.

In fact, in everything give thanks!

We can also thank God for this church. The psalms record the praise of the people as they would enter the congregation; “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name” (Psa. 100:4). As I think about this church, and am thankful for my family here — obviously my wife and children, and I am thankful for them. They are not my only family, though; I thank God for the all the members and regular attenders to this church. God has gathered us by His grace, the same grace in which we are grounded, and I am thankful.

Of course, that brings us to a point of thanksgiving we must discuss. With the giving of thanks often comes the act of offering in Scripture. The New Testament talks about thankful worship through financial giving, something I don’t talk about often because I don’t want to apply fleshly pressure on anyone concerning this topic. Still, Scripture prescribes this in 2 Corinthians 9:7 — “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” As we near this year’s end, I’m only asking you to prayerfully consider what God may purpose in your heart for a regular commitment in the coming year, whether as a weekly or monthly donation. This is yet another way we express thanks to Him.

Conclusion

Thanksgiving is activity that God calls us to engage in, regardless of our circumstances. To sum this up, as one Bible dictionary explains, “Praise and thanksgiving in the ot and nt involves both personal and corporate prayer, musical expression, singing, exhortation, exaltation, and literary expressions of gratitude and worship to God for who he is and for what he has done for creation, his covenant people, and ultimately for every tribe, nation, and tongue of the world through Jesus Christ.” We can find plenty to praise Him for, and we can engage in many modes of thanksgiving.

So, both today and on Thanksgiving Day especially, let us be thankful for all things the Lord has given us this year. He gave us grace in the glorious gospel of salvation, and He’s working innumerable graces toward us in His providence. Let’s praise and thank Him.

As you thank Him for all things this week, please keep our church in mind. Continue to pray for us as we seek further the gospel of Jesus Christ in the valley, in our state, in our nation, and throughout the world. May we glorify Him next year as we see the many ways in which He gives continues to give us grace.