Sermon Tone Analysis

“And be thankful.”

[1] Only three English words comprise our text; but the text is assuredly appropriate on this Sunday before our national Day of Thanksgiving.

It serves to remind us of one of the essential characteristics marking the person who knows the Living God.

I have often wondered how the atheist celebrates Thanksgiving.

He lives in a land of bounty and enjoys the multiplied mercies of God.

To whom does the atheist give thanks at Thanksgiving?

What a contradiction when the atheist has been spared injury and, reflecting on the providential deliverance the wretch utters the words: “Thank God.” Thanksgiving at the best must be a hollow day with mixed emotions for the atheist.

The day must likewise be hollow for the non-Christian.

Sitting down to a groaning table filled with the rich bounty of the land, the unbeliever knows he should express gratitude, but to whom shall his gratitude be expressed?

The unbeliever may utter words of gratitude to an unseen God, yet he can never know if his words were acceptable.

However, we are Christians; and we are commanded to be a thankful people.

Are you thankful?

When you sit down to a meal tomorrow, for what will you give thanks?

And to Whom? Let’s think about this for the next several minutes.

*BASIS FOR THE COMMAND* — “And be thankful.”

The heart of the command is the Greek word eucháristos.

We obtain our English word “Eucharist,” a term used for the Lord’s Supper by many liturgical churches; Eucharist comes from this Greek word.

The Meal is the Thanksgiving; and we are to approach the Table with thankful hearts.

That knowledge moves us toward the source of this command, for the word indicates an obligation to express gratitude for a favour performed.

The gratitude we express arises out of the grace of God and that which He has done for us.

Has God done anything for which we should be grateful?

Has God actually acted in our behalf in such a way that we can be thankful?

We will benefit greatly from considering just what God has done for us and the multiplied benefits for which we should be thankful.

I could speak of God’s character and point each of us to the Word He has given in order to remind us to be grateful to Him.

He is omnipotent; all power resides in Him.

If His power is displayed on our behalf, surely we should give thanks.

If He has restrained His hand from judging us as we deserve, surely we ought to be thankful.

God is omniscient; He knows all things and He certainly knows us.

Though He knows we are sinners, He still receives us, showing grace and mercy.

Surely, we should be thankful that He receives us.

God is omnipresent; He is ever with us.

When comforted by His presence, have we no obligation to give Him thanks?

God is merciful; having known His mercy, shouldn’t we be grateful to Him? God is compassionate; knowing His compassion in our time of sorrow and grief, can we be anything other than thankful?

God is loving toward all that He has made; having tasted the love of God, what sort of wretches would we be if we refused to give Him thanks?

God is good and we have experienced His goodness; we should be grateful for His goodness.

I hesitate to focus so intently on God’s character that I fail to remind us that as Christians are a blessed people.

You may well recall that the Apostle Paul, writing the Corinthian saints, challenged them to think of God’s multiplied demonstrations of grace.

He probed deeply into their consciences with his query: “Who sees anything different in you?

What do you have that you did not receive?

If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it” [1 CORINTHIANS 4:7].

In our modern sufficiency we need to be confronted with this same penetrating challenge.

If one of us has wealth and worldly goods, have we considered how we obtained our possessions?

We either received our possessions from others as an inheritance or we received strength, ingenuity and abilities from God and these have permitted us to accumulate our goods.

If we have position and power, was it not God who gave us the stamina to persevere and was it not God who gave us the strength to toil until we attained that position we hold and the power we possess?

If we have perspicuity and perceptiveness, understanding and intelligence, surely it was God who gave us insight and wisdom.

“What do you have that you did not receive?”

The ability to perceive the good creation and the ability to enjoy life and family—these are gifts from God.

Someone has rightly cautioned that if we cannot be thankful for what God has done for us, perhaps we ought to be thankful for what God has not done to us.

We surely deserve condemnation, but we have received grace instead.

Consider what life would have been had God not shown us grace.

The Apostle, writing the encyclical we call the letter to the Ephesians observed that there was a time when we were in the world.

We “were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” [EPHESIANS 2:12].

There was a time which we do not like to remember and of which few of us speak openly.

At that time we were “dead in the trespasses and sins” [EPHESIANS 2:1] and we were separated from Christ.

It was a time when we were excluded from citizenship in Israel and we were thus foreigners to the covenants of the promise.

If this were not terrifying enough, we were each without hope and without God in the world.

As Christians, that condition no longer prevails.

“But now,” begins the Apostle in order to mark the difference in bold strokes, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” [EPHESIANS 2:13].

Remember the contrast between what once was and what now prevails.

Whereas once we were under sentence of death and excluded from all access to God, now we have been brought near—near to God, near to grace, near to goodness.

We have been given a reason for gratitude.

Recall those dark words penned in ROMANS 1:18 ff., and in particular verses 18-21.

“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Notice the sequence—it is an outline of how either a society or an individual is led to utter degradation.

The wicked are objects of divine wrath—now.

The reason the lost are destined for destruction is that they know God and yet reject God.

The wicked know God exists because all creation testifies to His Being.

Mankind knows God exists because His Spirit moves and works in the world about them.

People understand that they bear responsibility to God; yet they have chosen to exclude God from their life.

Now take careful note at what point the condemned and wicked (whether an entire society or an individual) first begin to reject knowledge of God: “they did not honour Him as God or give thanks to Him.

The decision to reject God arises from an ungrateful heart.

Take heed how you respond to the grace and the goodness of God, for He is the source of “every good gift and every perfect gift” [JAMES 1:17].

Hold this thought—God is worthy to be glorified and we must show gratitude to Him.

He is the source of all that we are and of all that we possess.

Because He is God, we ought to be grateful to Him.

To fail to express gratitude to Him is to take the first disastrous step toward condemnation and to begin the slippery slide into oblivion.

*BARRIERS TO THE COMMAND* — The verb Paul uses [gínomai] implies “becoming,” “assuming a particular characteristic” or “being changed.”

The fact that he employs the present tense speaks to the need to make this a habitual action.

In short, Christians are commanded to endeavour to be grateful.

Throughout the Word are commands which upon reflection appear odd.

As an example of such odd commands consider the repeated commands to “love one another.”

I should think that love was natural and that Christians by nature would be a loving people.

Another such odd command is this command to become thankful.

Aren’t Christians a grateful people?

Don’t we naturally exude gratitude and thanksgiving?

Gratitude is difficult; but why should gratitude be difficult?

One reason thankfulness is difficult—and why we therefore require a command to be grateful—is that GRATITUDE IS UNNATURAL.

By this I simply mean that our natural state is to focus on self without being overly concerned for others.

Our first parents sinned and fell from their position of intimacy with God.

Fallen, they made a startling and stunning discovery.

Whereas God has previously been central to their lives, now “self” was enthroned and central.

Read again GENESIS 3:7-13.

“The eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’