Paul’s Letter to Philemon: A Story about How the Gospel Changes Lives

INTRODUCTION

As background for today’s message I want to tell you some things I have learned about slavery in ancient times.

Slaves made up a large proportion of all—or almost all—ancient civilizations.

In the Roman Empire it is estimated that one third of its population was slaves.

In the New Testament world, everyone who was of any consequence owned slaves. To own slaves was as natural as owning a car or a television is for people today. They would have been unable to imagine a world without slavery as it is for us to imagine a world without electricity.

Jews had more humane laws about the treatment of slaves than Greeks and Romans, but wealthy Jews also bought and sold slaves.

Especially in the Gentile world, slaves did the hard work. To actually have to do work was considered demeaning, at least if you could afford slaves.

Slaves worked in the mines and on the farms. Some slaves were forced to work chained together.

Other slaves had responsible jobs in the households. They cared for the children. They were household servants. Sometimes slaves managed the estates of the rich. They served as teachers and doctors. You may remember a book that you read as children Aesop’s Fables. It was one of my favorites. Aesop was a slave.

People became slaves when they were captured in wars or taken by pirates. People who had debts they couldn’t pay, sometimes sold their children as slaves. Sometimes the debtors themselves and their whole families were sold to pay the debts.

Many slaves were born slaves.

Slave masters could and did have sex whenever they wanted with their slave girls. The children of these slaves became slaves too—even though their master was their father.

Slaves could not legally marry, and families were broken up if their master decided to sell them.

In the Roman Empire unwanted children were often thrown away by being discarded with the rubbish—especially girls, who were less valuable than boys.

Archeologists found a letter from an absent husband to his pregnant wife. In it he instructs her, “If the baby is a boy, save him; if it is a girl, discard it.”

Most of these discarded babies died, but often people would rescue these abandoned babies and raise them as prostitutes or to work in the mines.

But slavery wasn’t all bad. Some slaves had kind masters. Some even got paid for their work and could save their money and buy their freedom.

The New Testament writers assumed that slavery was here to stay, and Paul instructed masters to be kind to their slaves. He reminded them that they also had a Master who was in heaven.

We read in Luke 7 about a Roman officer who came to Jesus to ask Jesus to heal a sick slave who was dear to him.

Paul often calls himself a slave of Christ. The word in some Bibles is translated “servant,” but the Greek word Paul uses means “slave.” They had another word for a servant who was not a slave. Paul gloried in the dignity of being Christ’s slave.

I. Today I’ve chosen to talk to you about St. Paul’s most intimate letter—a little one-page letter tucked in at almost the end of the New Testament. It is the letter of Paul sent to his friend Philemon.

A. These are some things you need to know to understand this letter:

Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. He may have been in Rome or he may have been in Ephesus. Paul was arrested and imprisoned several times.

 We don’t know whether he was locked up in a cell or maybe just chained to a guard in a place where he might have had more freedom.

Anyway, wherever he was, he had friends who provided for him. I have read that in ancient times they didn’t feed the prisoners. That was up to the prisoner’s friends. And Paul had friends who helped him during his imprisonments.

B. Paul begins his letter this way:

Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (vv1-3).

From this introduction we learn that Philemon was a believer. His wife was named Apphia and his son was Archippus, and they were all dear friends of Paul.

We also learn that Philemon and Apphia hosted a church in their home. In the early days of Christianity all the churches met in homes. Many New Testament churches had no more members than the people we have sitting here in this room.

C. Then Paul writes:

I thank God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may promote the knowledge of all the good that is ours in Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you (vv4-7).

Paul usually begins his letters with thankfulness for the people he addresses and an acknowledgment of their love and commitment to Jesus Christ. He reminds the people he writes to that he gives thanks for them every day.

Paul tells Philemon how much the hearts of God’s people have been refreshed through his kindness.

Is your life the kind of life that refreshes the hearts of your fellow believers?

II. Now we come to the purpose of the letter.

A. Paul is writing to ask a very hard thing of Philemon. And he does what he has to do with tact and grace, because he is asking Philemon to do something that was unimaginable in the ancient world. He writes:

Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus—I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment (vv8-10).

Now, here’s the deal. Onesimus is Philemon’s runaway slave. He has run away from Philemon, his master. Later in the letter, Paul hints at the possibility that Onesimus has stolen money before he ran away.

For a slave to run away was a very serious crime in those days. If a slave was caught and returned to his master, the master could kill him if he wanted to. He could whip him. He could mutilate him.

But Onesimus has met up with Paul during his travels, heard the gospel from Paul, and become a disciple of Jesus. He has become a valuable friend of Paul.

We might suppose that Paul would encourage Onesimus to enjoy his freedom and help him get established as a free person, and never tell Philemon about having met Onesimus.

But in that time in history that wasn’t an option. So Paul is sending Onesimus back to his master, and that is the purpose of the letter.

B. Now listen to the tactful and gracious way Paul asks Philemon to do something that would have been unheard of in the ancient world:

I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me) (vv10-11).

(Here Paul is making a play on the name “Onesimus” which means “useful”—a common name given to slaves. So Paul says that although Onesimus had been useless, now he expects that Onesimus will live up to his name.)

I am sending him back to you sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own free will (vv12-14).

Paul is putting a lot of pressure on Philemon when he says that sending his dear friend Onesimus back is like tearing his heart out and sending it away.

But Paul is so sure of Philemon’s love for Jesus and for him, that he boldly assumes that Philemon will welcome his runaway slave back without punishment.

C. As Paul writes on, he becomes more and more bold, all the while trusting that Philemon’s heart has been so transformed by the love of Jesus that he will receive Onesimus back, no longer as a slave, but as a beloved brother in Christ! Listen:

Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

I, Paul write this with my own hand. I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ (vv15-20).

So Paul tells Philemon that now that Onesimus is his brother in Christ, he should welcome him back as a brother forever. Remember that Philemon and Apphia had a church in their house. Can you picture Onesimus, the runaway slave, now sitting with Philemon’s family and the other members of the church that met in his house worshiping together as equals before the Lord?

In those days the members of each congregation took part in the worship. So Onesimus would have been entitled to pray publicly in the meetings and to share his insights into scripture—maybe to tell of his experiences and how he came to Christ through his meeting with Paul, the apostle.

(Remember, that Paul complimented Philemon at the beginning of the letter by telling him how Philemon’s love has refreshed believers. Now he invites Philemon to refresh his own heart also by doing this generous thing.)

And so Paul finishes his letter:

Confident of your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be granted to you.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit (vv21-end).

III. So how did it all work out?

A. Did Philemon welcome Onesimus back as a brother in Christ? Did he prepare the room for Paul to stay in on his next visit? Did he finally free Onesimus and send him back to work with Paul?

I think we know the answers. If Philemon had refused Paul’s plea, he would have destroyed the letter. Instead he treasured it, passed it on, and it became part of Holy Scripture.

B. We read nothing more of Onesimus in the New Testament, but later writers, including Saint Jerome, tell us that Onesimus became a preacher of the gospel and even a bishop.

Tradition has it that Onesimus was cruelly tortured in Rome for 18 days and finally stoned to death in AD 95. St. Onesimus even has his own day in the church calendar. It is February 16, two days after St. Valentine’s Day.

APPLICATION

This story shows us how God often works through things that are evil in themselves.

It wasn’t good that Paul was in prison.

It wasn’t good that Onesimus ran away and got into trouble.

But it all worked out for good didn’t it? Paul found a son; Onesimus found a Savior; and Philemon found a brother in Christ.

And we have a beautiful story that tells us how the gospel changes lives.

Philemon’s life was changed when he became a believer and opened his house to his brothers and sisters in Christ as a church.

Onesimus’s life was changed when he found Christ, and with Paul’s precious letter returned to face the master he had wronged.

Philemon’s life was changed again when he welcomed his runaway slave home and embraced as a brother in Christ.

Can you imagine the scene when Onesimus, the runaway, knocked on Onesimus’s door and handed Onesimus Paul’s letter?

I can see Philemon reading that letter and then putting his arms around Onesimus his arms around Onesimus with tears in his eyes and welcoming him back. Onesimus is weeping also.

This homecoming reminds me of the father in Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son when the waiting Father welcomes his son back from the far country.

Has your life been transformed by your faith in Jesus? Are you a different person than you would be if you had never met Jesus?

Can you forgive? Can you love the unlovable? Is the main motive of your life to please the Savior who died for you? Can you live your life as a grateful response to God’s love?

In this story we also have a parable of God’s grace illustrated by Paul’s intercession for Onesimus.

Paul tells Philemon: “If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account” (v18).

Paul brought the sinner Onesimus and his master Philemon together and made them friends—a dim reflection of how Jesus brings us sinners to God and makes us God’s friends.

Do we ever have the opportunity to draw people together who have been separated by grudges—or misunderstandings—or sins, and, like Jesus—and like St. Paul—making them friends?

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Psalm 16: 1-2 & 11: A Refuge, a Path of Life, and Pleasures Forevermore

INTRODUCTION

We live in a dangerous world.

Sometimes we think that we live in the worst of times. Every day our news sources bring us more stories of tragedies.

But the world has always been dangerous. In most ways, people in ancient times faced more dangers than we do.

Lives were short and hard.

Historians estimate that a third of the babies died within their first year of life.

Many mothers died giving birth.

People were subject to frequent famines, plagues, epidemics, wars, and raids by bandits.

Diseases that we now can cure with a pill or simple surgery were death sentences.

In Bible times, walls surrounded towns of any size, and the gates were locked at night to keep out marauders.

As you read the psalms you notice how many of the psalmists ask for protection against enemies.

I. Psalm 16 begins:

Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you” (vv1-2).

A. A refuge is a place of safety in a chaotic world—a place of quietness in a noisy, confusing, oppressive world.

The word “refuge” is a favorite way the psalmists expressed their trust in God.

In the 150 psalms, God is called the believer’s refuge 50 times. That’s not counting the times when the idea is expressed by another word that means the same thing—like “stronghold” or “fortress.”

When I got to Korea the first place where I slept was in a bunker. Our bunker was cut into the side of a mountain. Huge logs lay across the front and sandbags were in front of the logs. The roof was more logs and more sandbags and dirt.

No matter how many artillery rounds came in, you were safe inside a bunker.

When Charlotte and I visited Wales, we saw medieval castles. They were surrounded by moats filled with water and accessible by a drawbridge.

If an enemy came, the people in the village would come inside the castle walls and be safe, at least until the food or water ran out.

People still seek security from the uncertainties and dangers of life.

Some people find security in their bank accounts and stock portfolios

Some people find refuge from their fears by thinking only about today. “Let tomorrow take care of itself,” they say. I heard a woman who was over 100 being interviewed on the radio. The interviewer asked her if she ever thought about death. She said, “No, I can’t do anything about it, so I don’t think about it.”

Some people find refuge in their sense that they are better than most people. Their feeling of superiority gives them a sense of security.

But we who trust the Lord find our security in God.

St. Paul reassures his friends in his letter to the Romans:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,

or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors

through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death, or life,

nor angels, nor principalities,

nor things present, nor things to come,

nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us

from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39).

To take refuge in God means to trust in God’s goodness, to be assured of his power, and to live depending always on God.

B. The psalmist writes, “You are my Lord. I have no good apart from you.”

To him God was supreme. Apart from God, nothing could be considered “good.”

We enjoy all the good things in life—friends, food, knowledge, wealth, pleasures—as gifts from God, to be enjoyed with thankfulness to the Lord.

God is our “Lord” because he claims us as belonging to him.

The psalmist who wrote Psalm 123 wrote,

As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,

as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

so our eyes look to the Lord our God,

until he has mercy upon us.

It is not demeaning to think of ourselves as God’s servants.

As a loving master cares for his servants, so our Lord cares for us.

When we accept Jesus as our “Lord,” he takes charge of us and guides along the path of life.

Because he loves us so, it is our pleasure to make it our aim to please him in all that we do.
Christ's service is perfect freedom. In his will is our peace.

When the psalmist says, “I have no good apart from you,” he doesn’t mean that he is always thinking and always talking about “religion.” He means that God is his supreme good.

God is not in competition with other good things, but we see all the good things in our lives as good because they are gifts from God.

We believers do most of the same things that other people do, but we do what we do with the intention to honor God.

If we watch television or read novels, we choose programs or books that will nourish our souls. Often I have closed a book thinking, I’m a better person for having read this story.

Psychologists have proved that reading good fiction can give us insights into the needs of people around us and help us to feel the sorrows and joys of others.

Reading a good story or watching a good story on television can inspire us—or it can also draw us away from God. So we must seek God’s will in these choices as well as in everything else.

Some of you play cards or dominoes or Bingo. When you play games as a Christian, your motivation is not to beat someone—not to prove that you are better than someone else. You play your game because it is a way to have a good time with friends. The game can be an opportunity to offer friendship to someone who would otherwise be lonely.

Doing what we do with the intention to honor God gives purpose to life. It adds to the enjoyment of our pleasures. It helps us to see opportunities to serve others—and for us Christians, serving others is the true purpose for living.

II. Charlotte’s father came from Wales. He died when Charlotte was 2 ½ years old. We first saw his gravestone when the time came, not so many years ago, to bury her mother near the farm where she had grown up. On the gravestone was the last verse of our psalm:

Thou dost show me the path of life;

in thy presence there is fullness of joy,

in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.

A. We who have given ourselves to Jesus are on a path that leads to Life—Eternal Life. Jesus walks with us, every step of the way.

Sometimes we don’t feel him to be present, but he is with us all the same.

As Companion, he is walking with us to our Homeland.

In the mists ahead of us—we can’t see it yet—is the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, where we will live with the saints and angels and dear friends, and with our Lord Jesus himself.

Sometimes the way becomes wearisome. We may feel ourselves to be alone. Other times we feel that Jesus is very close. But Jesus is always with us. He promised to be with us, even to the end of the world.

B. In God’s presence there is fullness of Joy, in his right hand are pleasures for evermore.

The Bible speaks of heaven as entering into the joy of the Lord.

I have read that somewhere is Greece is a tombstone of an ancient believer named Atticus.

Below the name “Atticus” is written: “My soul dwells in goodness.”

We know nothing more of Atticus.

Atticus had doubtless experienced disappointment and trouble in those difficult times in which he lived.

But his troubles are now behind him, and—according to the testimony of the friend who set up his gravestone—his soul dwells in goodness.

Someone said, “In this life drops of joy enter into us; in heaven we will enter into joy.”

On this earth we experience goodness as God comes into our lives.

Someday—like Atticus—we will enter into goodness.

CONCLUSION

Some years ago Charlotte and I visited her Aunt Betty and Uncle Lloyd in Ft. Dodge.

It was near the end of Uncle Lloyd’s life.

He was lying in a hospital bed in the living room of their apartment.

That morning, as his nurse arrived, Uncle Lloyd roused himself and said to her in a loud voice: “I want to go home!”

I thought, O dear, Uncle Lloyd is becoming confused.

But his nurse understood. She said, “Now Lloyd, you can’t go home until God calls you.”

Uncle Lloyd knew—what some of us are slow to learn—that this world is not our true home.

I have read that there is Christian village in Africa where the believers never say of their dead: “They have passed away.”

They always say of believers who have died: “They have arrived.”

We’re like a seed waiting in the good earth—waiting to come up and bloom in God’s Heavenly Garden.

We are God’s creatures, and heaven is what we are made for.

We don’t know all the things we will do in heaven—but we do know that whatever we do in worship or work or play—it will be enjoyable! Yes, heaven will be fun!

Because in God’s presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Habakkuk 2:1-4 and 3:17-19: Faith That Never Gives Up

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever felt like God has turned his back on you?

Some of the heroes of the Bible also felt that God had deserted them.

They handled their distress in various ways.

Jeremiah cursed the day he was born.

Elijah prayed that God would take his life.

Job fervently wished that he had died the day he was born.

Several of the psalmists expressed their feeling that God had abandoned them.

Jesus took one of their prayers upon his lips while he hung upon the cross.

He said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

So if you’ve ever felt the bottom drop out of your life and wondered whether you could still trust in God, you are in good company.

The prophet Habakkuk wrote a little book that fills only three pages in your Bible.

He begins his prophecy with these words:

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and thou wilt not hear?

Or cry to thee “Violence!” and thou wilt not save?

Why dost thou make me see wrongs and look upon trouble?

Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.

So the law is slacked and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted.”

(1:2-4)

I. It was the 7th century B.C., a dark time in the Kingdom of Judah.

A. Everything was going wrong.

The northern Kingdom of Israel had been taken captive by the Assyrians a couple of hundred years before.

The southern Kingdom of Judah had been spared, but had struggled on and was now facing imminent invasion by the Chaldeans.

Habakkuk saw the guilt of his nation—the Kingdom of Judah. Judah was an unjust and wicked nation. Habakkuk saw judgment on the way.

These vicious invaders were having nothing but success as they rode through the world on their swift horses shedding blood.

It would be only a matter of time before they attacked Judah and carried her people away captive.

B. Habakkuk was a man of faith. He held God accountable. He cried out to God and awaited God’s answer. The prophet said:

I will take my stand to watch,

and station myself on the tower,

and look forth to see what he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

And the Lord answered me,

“Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets,

so that he may run who reads it…

They must have used great stones for billboards in those days. So Habakkuk wrote this on stones in letters big enough that even those who ran by could read it. And this is what the Lord told Habakkuk to write:

Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail,

but the righteous shall life by his faith.

II. Those last 7 words—“The righteous will live by his faith” is one of the most important sayings in the Old Testament. The words are quoted three times in the New Testament, in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews.

A. So let’s look at these important words.

Their meaning lies below the surface.

It could be translated: “The righteous will live by their faithfulness,” because “faith” and “faithfulness” are the same word in Greek and Hebrew.

There are really two meanings imbedded in this verse:

(1) Those who are righteous will live by confidence in God’s faithfulness, and

(2) Those who are righteous will live because they are faithful to God.

B. First of all, let me talk about what it means to be righteous.

“Righteousness” has gotten a bad rap because the word is used so often in the sense of “self-righteousness.” People say, “Oh, he’s so righteous,” and they mean that he thinks he is holier than thou.

The truly righteous person is one who is good through-and-through.

God is called righteous because he is fair, and merciful, and trustworthy, and truthful. God is righteous because he hates all that is hurtful to the creatures he loves.

We humans can be righteous if our lives are penetrated by God’s righteousness. Then we will be like God—kind, forgiving, gracious, truthful—hating evil, loving what’s good.

B. Now let’s look at the second part: faith, or faithfulness.

For Habakkuk faithfulness meant continuing to cling to God—through thick and thin—whether we can understand God’s actions or not.

All of us doubt sometimes. We gain the victory when we cling to God even when we can’t understand—even when our hearts cry out: “Why? Why? Why?”

Faithfulness doesn’t mean that we never question God. Faithfulness means that we never give up on God.

I’ve known people who gave up on God.

At one time in their lives they had lived a life of faith—church, Bible, prayer, doing good—and then something happened and they gave up on God. With some, they just drifted away. With others, it was a sudden decision.

A Scottish preacher in the last century lost his wife suddenly, and after her death he preached an unusually personal sermon.

He admitted in the message that he did not understand this life of ours. But still less could he understand how people facing loss could abandon faith. “Abandon it for what?!” he said. “You people in the sunshine may believe the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else.”

The meaning of life and the possibility of living a good life flow from a commitment to God—in faith and in faithfulness.

We may have started out our life of faith by believing something with the top of our heads, but now it has become a matter deep in our hearts. The reality of God in our life affects everything we do and think and say—at least, that is our intention.

III. The most memorable part of Habakkuk’s book is the last three verses—the end and climax of the book:

A. Listen to the prophet’s words:

Though the fig tree do not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like hinds’ feet;

he makes me tread upon my high places. (3:17-19)

B. Understand what the prophet is saying.

This was an agrarian society. Everything depended on the crops and animals. If the crops failed, people would starve.

We don’t worry about starving here. We know that if the crops fail in Iowa, food will be shipped in from somewhere else.

Habakkuk imagines disaster—

“Even though the fig tree doesn’t blossom…”: Figs were an important crop. If the fig trees didn’t blossom they would produce no crop that year.

“Even though there’s no fruit be on the vines…”: The fruit on the vines was, of course, grapes—the main beverage of that time.

“Even though the produce of the olive fail…”: The olive tree was the source of oil for cooking. If the olive crop failed, it meant hard times.

“Even though and the fields yield no food…”:  If the fields of grain yielded nothing, there would be no bread. People would starve.

“Even though the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls…”: The people depended on the sheep and goats and for fiber for clothing. They depended on their cattle to give milk and pull their plows. But the sheep, goats, and cattle have perished.

The prophet is saying that even if the worst happens—no figs, no grapes, no olives, no wheat or barley, no flocks, no herds—he determines to rise above it and walk on the mountain tops.

Though everything should go wrong, he chooses to hold fast to God.

And not only will he keep trusting, but he will rejoice in the Lord!

He will exult in the God of his salvation. He will find his strength in the Lord.

Notice the ending: “He makes my feet like hinds’ feet; he makes me tread upon my high places.”

Hinds are female deer.

Deer are sure-footed. They walk on the rocky tops of mountains. They don’t slip and fall, and they aren’t afraid. Does are graceful and at home on the heights.

The prophet affirms that God has given him that kind of strength as he faces the dangers of life.

Maybe we could express our determination to be faithful into words like these:

Even though my bank account would be empty.

Even though my children forsake me.

Even though I get a terminal diagnosis.

Even though my mind begins to slip—

yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

God the Lord is my Savior.

The Lord God is my strength.

He will keep me safe through all harm.

He will keep me safe as I walk in dangerous places.

APPLICATION

I have told you before of the darkest time in my life.

I felt that my faith was failing me.

I doubted God. I thought. Maybe it isn’t true. Probably it isn’t true. But I’m going to live as if it were true.

Charlotte was in the hospital, near death. The medical bills were piling up. The days stretched into weeks, and the weeks into months—two months.

I kept going to church and Sunday school. I kept up our giving to the church. I kept reading the Bible. I kept praying. I kept teaching my Sunday school class.

Our friends kept praying for us.

And finally, faith returned—stronger than before.

A preacher used this illustration:

Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose your footing and begin to fall. Just beside you as you fall is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it is more than strong enough to support your weight.

How can it save you? If your mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support you, but you don’t actually reach out and grab it, you are lost.

If your mind is instead filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out and grab it anyway, you will be saved.

Why? It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. (Timothy Keller. The Reason for God, p234)

There was once a good woman who was well-known among her circle for her simple faith and her great calmness in the midst of many trials. Another woman, hearing of her, said, “I must go and see that woman and learn the secret of her calm, happy life.”

She went, and accosting the woman, said, “Are you the woman with the great faith?”

“No,” was the answer, “I am not the woman with the great faith, but I am the woman with the little faith in the great God.”

1 Thessalonians 5:18: How to Give Thanks in All Circumstances

INTRODUCTION

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16, 17, and 18 St. Paul’s instructs us to do three impossible things.

Verse 16 says, “Rejoice always.”

Verse 17 says, “Pray without ceasing.”

And verse 18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

The last two times I was here at Village Ridge I spoke on verses 16 and 17.

I said that it seems impossible to rejoice always and to pray without ceasing.

But it is possible to have joy deep down in our hearts—even when they are broken--because we know that God always loves us. I’m not saying it is easy; I’m saying with Jesus at our side it is possible to rejoice always.

And it is possible to pray without ceasing when we remember that prayer doesn’t have to mean nonstop talking to God. To pray without ceasing means to pray earnestly and never give up.

We pray without ceasing when we keep God always in our thoughts, always ready to tell him our needs, always ready to give thanks.

Today I want to talk about verse 18: “Give thanks in all circumstances.”

I. Giving thanks in all circumstances doesn’t mean that we should thank God for bad things.

A. Many things happen that are evil.

Many people find it impossible to believe in a good God because they look at all the sorrow and trouble in the world and say, “If God is God, why doesn’t he do something?”

The truth is: this world is a battleground between God and the Enemy of our souls.

God has given freedom to the world and sometimes people exercise their freedom to hurt others.

Even nature has a certain amount of freedom, and so earthquakes happen, and floods, and typhoons, and germs and sickness and pain.

Sometimes the devil gets his way in the world, and he inflicts pain on us and people we love.

God grieves about the evil things that go on in the world.

Jesus wept at the grave of his friend.

Jesus loved the people of Jerusalem and wept because they chose to reject him and continue on a course that could only bring disaster upon them, so he wept over the doomed city.

The great thing is that God promises that he can work in all this mess of evil in the world to bring forth good for his people. Some of us can look back on our lives and see that even in our lives, God has brought good out of evil.

And if we can’t see it, we remember that “we walk by faith and not by sight.” We believe that God is working on our behalf and that if we love God, he will make everything come out right in the end.

B. So the verse doesn’t say, “Give thanks for everything that happens”; it says, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” The King James Bible reads: “In everything give thanks.”

I don’t thank God for my aching back, or that my friend has died. I wouldn’t thank God if I learned that my grandchild had cancer.

II. We thank God for the good things because all good comes from God.

A. No matter what happens, there is plenty to be thankful for:

--We thank God for our Lord Jesus…

--We thank God for our salvation…

--We thank God for those we love and who love us …

--We thank God for food to eat, water to drink, air to breathe, a warm, dry place to live in, and for those who we depend on.

--We thank God for our assurance of life with Jesus forever in Paradise.

We refuse to dwell on the bad things, the disappointments, the evil in the world.

B. One of the greatest gifts God has given us is our memories.

We may envy young people because they have so many possibilities ahead of them.

We don’t have many possibilities, but we have memories, and one of the great joys of old age is to recall the good times.

We think often of the kindnesses we have experienced from others, and we give thanks for those people who blessed us.

Sometimes when I can’t sleep I go over in my mind the many people who have blessed me in my life—by their example, by their gifts, by their encouragement, by their wisdom. And I thank God that he brought them into my life.

Sometimes I remember the good times, when I have experienced unexpected blessings—and give thanks.

C. In Ephesians 5:4 Paul instructs the Christians in Ephesus to avoid obscene, silly, vulgar talk, but instead, he says, “let there be thanksgiving.” One translation of this verse (Phillips) reads: “The key-note of your conversation should not be nastiness or silliness or flippancy, but a sense of all that we owe to God.”

I remember a friend at a nursing home I used to visit. She told me about one of the other ladies who was always complaining. She said to me: “I told her, we just can’t take that attitude.”

My friend had just lost her husband whom she loved dearly. Of course she was grieving. But she decided not to dwell on her losses. She refused to take “that attitude.”

III. I would like to share with you some things I learned from the Internet recently.

A. A psychologist named Robert Emmons at University of California, Davis, studied the effects of gratitude and put his conclusions into a book entitled Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier.

He divided the participants in one study into two groups. He asked one group to write in a journal each week about the unpleasant events they had experienced during the week. He asked the other group to write about what they were thankful for.

At the end of the study he learned that those students who had recorded things they were thankful for were more likely to have improved their grades and health goals than those who kept a record of their unpleasant experiences. They had become happier people.

B. Another psychologist studied adults with neuromuscular disease. After 21 days of writing what they were grateful for, the participants reported feeling more energetic, felt a greater sense of connection with others, and slept better than a control group that had not written about what they were grateful for.

C. A Kent State University study asked students to write one letter of gratitude to someone once every two weeks for six weeks. He found that the more the students wrote, the better they felt. Their writing letters of gratitude resulted in higher grades, fewer health problems, and decreased depression.

CONCLUSION

Just to practice gratitude has many positive benefits.

But as believers we have to take it farther. We have someone to thank.

We sing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…”

Blessings come from other people, but ultimately all good things come from God.

Expressing our thanks to God is the best way to keep connected with God and to feel him to be present in our lives.

Every morning I write a letter to God. My goal is to write at least one page. Writing my morning prayer helps me keep focused in my praying.

Usually I request a lot of things. I ask God to bless people I know and people I don’t know. I pray for you.

But I always try to include things I am thankful for.

Sometimes I try to make my letter be all thankfulness. We should thank God as well as asking him for his help.

Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran minister in Eilenberg, Saxony, about 400 years ago.

During the Thirty Years’ War, the walled city of Eilenberg saw a steady stream of refugees pour through its gates. The Swedish army surrounded the city, and famine and plague were rampant. Eight hundred homes were destroyed, and the people began to perish. The Rinkart home was a refuge for many who were homeless.

There was a tremendous strain on the pastors, who had to conduct dozens of funerals daily. Finally, the pastors, died too, and Rinkart was the only one left—doing 40-50 funerals a day. In all, Pastor Rinkart conducted almost 5000 funerals during that time—including that of his wife.

When the Swedes demanded a huge ransom, Rinkart left the safety of the walls to plead for mercy. The Swedish commander, impressed by his faith and courage, lowered his demands.

Soon afterward, the Thirty Years’ War ended, and Rinkart wrote this hymn for a grand celebration service. It is a testament to his faith that after such misery.

Now thank we all our God

With heart and hands and voices;

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom his world rejoices.

Who, from our mother’s arms,

Hath led us on our way

With countless gifts of love

And still is ours today.