Blessed Be the Tie that Binds By Jim Howe

 

Everyone that has been deeply involved in church life has seen the under belly of human nature.  The fighting, power grabbing and cruelty of pettiness. When Christ is not enthroned in the lives of his people, sin creeps in and suggests we turn life together into a carnival of man-made religion. This was a problem that the great apostle Paul faced as well as the common believer in Thessalonica. As I think back over the years, I have seen people almost going to blows over their vision for what the church should be.  I was often caught in the middle as the pastor.  Pastor’s that are humble, faithful and called by God are a gift to the church, but when they get side tracked into making religion a circus, they, too, become part of the mob that opposes Christ, the gospel and his kingdom rule. Individuals come to gather with the church for all kinds of reason besides to glorify God.  They may come to find ways to meet their own needs for power, control, and manipulation. No wonder people talk about the church being full of hypocrites when they have seen such ugliness.

Young Timothy just arrived with good news as we pick up the line of thought in 1 Thessalonians.  The good news is literally gospel about the congregation in Thessalonica.  It is the only time in the New Testament that gospel, good news refers to something besides the saving work of Jesus Christ, as Leon Morris points out. When I think of the congregations I have served and other churches now in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in the north state and across the west coast, this very personal and transparent report of Timothy to Paul about the love of the church is profoundly good news.  It is living proof that Jesus Christ is at work. Read 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13:

⁶ But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— ⁷ for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. ⁸ For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. ⁹ For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, ¹⁰ as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? ¹¹ Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, ¹² and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, ¹³ so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

What congregation would not be thrilled to be described in such a way? The love of the apostle for the congregation, the love of the congregation for one another, and for Paul is tangible.  No wonder Paul’s heart was overflowing with joy. Literally, Paul was rejoicing with joy (v. 9).

This is not a rose-colored vision of the church either.  There were disgruntled hearers of the message proclaimed about Jesus Christ that the ancient church opposed.  People who gathered once with Paul to hear the message had become his worst enemies.  They were everywhere the gospel was preached. Preaching that is focused upon Jesus Christ does not leave people feeling warm and nice all over.  It is used by the Spirit of God to raise some people to life and to expose the darkness of sin in others who are hardened in unbelief.  Those who turn away become rivals to the gospel though they are often deeply religious. This kind of religious enemy made life miserable for Paul and had caused an uproar and inflicted suffering upon the congregation. Today, people who do not like what they hear at one church go church shopping for a message that suits them.  Consumerist religion stands in opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The real faith of healthy churches centers all attention upon giving glory to God.   The divergence from the gospel has led to a situation in America where we have “churches” which no longer are gospel centered.  They make a show of spirituality >that lacks the Spirit of God. Congregations and pastors suffer violence of a different kind today, but it is still the ugliness of man-made religion battling with the God given gift of his Son.  Building healthy churches that stand under the Word of God and are shaped by the gospel of Jesus Christ is truly a miracle of God’s grace.

What kind of clues does Paul give as to what goes on in such a congregation so that we can be the kind of Christians who display together the gospel of Jesus Christ?  There is a drawing together and knitting together of lives around Jesus Christ that displays the genuineness of the faith of those in Thessalonica.    The root of it all is the love Christ displayed for those who believe at the cross. He loved us not because we were good but, in our rebellion, and unbelief. Our love for others is too often reciprocal. If people are nice to us, meet our expectations and like us, we love them.  But Jesus loved us when we rejected him, denied him and as he suffered our punishment under the curse of our sin.  In one of my last sermons preached in Redding, we considered Christ’s words to his disciples who would that very week of his passion, deny and reject him.  What did he say? He did not say he was done with them, rather he said, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end John 13:1 ESV .”

In a small way, we suffer as Paul did and as the church in Thessalonica did. It is faith in Christ’s work that erupts in being overwhelmed with the love of Christ that serves as the wellspring of our love for one another.  When a new pastor arrives at First Presbyterian, or your current pastor disappoints, the love of Christ binds us together.  When another member of your congregation is obstinate, unruly and picky about the way things go and occasionally turns mean, the love of Christ offers healing and connects us together.

What Paul describes in 1 Thess. 3:11-12 is an overwhelming flood of love. Read how Eugene Peterson translated it: “May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you. “

Pickiness and pettiness can kill a church.  It blocks love’s lavish flow from the cross through the Spirit to us. I have seen it happen. What color carpet is best, the way the pastor speaks or how long he preaches, the fact that the church isn’t growing as expected, the way so and so looks at us.  Any reason can be enough to create anger, kill love and destroy the witness of a congregation.

But love for one another that washes away all complaints and gripes shows that Christ is at work. May you come to Jesus daily for such overwhelming love so that you can display that love to one another.  Jesus put it this way as he prayed for us: John 17:20–21 (ESV)  “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

If we stand in the good news that Jesus’ love for the Church, for us individually never let’s go, we will love one another.  Because the love of Christ overflows when we live by faith in Christ who loved us and gave himself for us.  Differences are easily set aside when we remember that the brother or sister who hurt us is one for whom Christ died. Are you having a difficult time loving someone in your church? Then take up the challenge to pray for them for a month.  See what will happen. I will guarantee you that bringing your brother or sister before the throne of grace will heal all hurts and open the flood gates of Christ’s love and compassion.  You may even find that you cannot remember the reason for your past bitterness.  The love of Christ is like a mighty ocean of love that complaints and grudges cannot withstand. The great thinker of the church, Augustine, described the way love binds the Trinity as love (the Father), loving (the Son) and loved (the Spirit).  From God’s very being which is love, we are to be swept into the unity of love as we put our faith in what Christ did for us.  The apostle Paul centers the relationships of the church in Thessalonica in this love that flows from Father, to Son, by the Spirit to us. Consider what Christ won for you and the love He displays as he poured his love by the Spirit into your heart the next time you are tempted to criticize, condemn or be angry at one another.  Let your heart be a channel of God’s blessings.

May God bless the tie that binds our heart together in Christian love. May you be blessed as a congregation to welcome a new pastor, to celebrate thankfully the pastor who serves us.  May you love one another as the world cannot comprehend.  Let the blessing of this new version of an old song bless you: https://youtu.be/gcYFtihSg_8

A Sacred Longing of the Heart

By Jim Howe

When we lived in the former ways of our heart, our only inclination was for ourselves.  We lived according to the flesh. Whether we lived as decent people being nice, neighborly, and keeping our nose clean or we lived a wild rebellious life, it was lived for the person we crowned Lord: ourselves. The gospel brings salvation, not by making us “a better me,” but by raising the dead to life.  In the Bible “flesh” is not a physical life in our body so much as a life focused upon our self. Jesus who is rich in mercy came to raise us from the dead. What does it mean to live in Christ, to love God and others?

Paul is a picture of a man who had his heart changed.  He was like his Lord and Savior because he lived for others.  If we are honest with ourselves, we know that the core of our sin problem is rooted in this orientation toward “self”.  In these times of fires, pandemic, and political tension it is easy to become self-protective, self-gratifying, and self-absorbed. We are all more isolated than we have ever been. But the gospel offers another way to live life in Christ.

As Paul cared for people, he did so with a new heart.  Paul began his ministry in Thessalonica with great success. Many came to faith in Jesus Christ, but a mob also arose that forced him to leave the newly planted church that met in homes in the city. He was painted by his enemies as being a wild revolutionary who defied the decrees of the Roman emperor.  He went through Berea and then on to Athens where he anticipated news about the newly found church (Acts 17:1-16).  Read the text for this week carefully and pay attention to the way Paul displays the heart of Christ for the people:

1 Thessalonians 2:17–3:5 (ESV) ⁷ But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, ¹⁸ because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. ¹⁹ For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? ²⁰ For you are our glory and joy. ¹ Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, ² and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, ³ that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. ⁴ For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. ⁵ For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

Even though he was separated in person, he was with them in heart. This is not mere sentimentality; it was the driving force of his pastoral care for the people in Thessalonica.  He was not focused upon himself. He easily could have been concerned about his reputation, his comfort, and the fact that he was left alone.  If he had not been confronted by Jesus Christ, that is what he would have done.

We all face the temptation to be inner focused, but if you know Jesus Christ, then there is a new affection at work in you. It may be discovered in a desire to show compassion to a neighbor, a family member, or friends at church.  Paul shows us that this longing in his heart drove him to want to be with the believers in Thessalonica. “Again, and again,” he made plans to be in face to face contact.

There is something else that displays the transformation of Paul’s heart and that is a surrender to God’s providence. He understood Satan was at work attempting to harm God’s mission in the world (2:18). And he sacrificed his own fellowship with Timothy for the sake of caring for the people of God. He sent him to further “establish and exhort” (3:2) them.  It would have been easy for him to feel sorry for himself as a victim of Satan’s ploy.  Instead, behind the events of his life, he saw by faith the providence of God and surrendered to God’s bigger purpose.  Read again how he responded:

1 Thessalonians 3:3–4 (ESV) ³ that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. ⁴ For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.

This is a total rejection of what today is called the health and wealth gospel.  Here in the north state Bethel and some other neo-pentecostals simply assume that faith that is genuine will lead believers around such suffering.  Bill Johnson denies that Paul’s thorn in the flesh ( 2 Corinthians 12:6-7) is physical suffering when he suggests that it was associated with the attacks upon him from antagonists. Paul, however, sees beneath the attacks of false teachers, Satan’s assaults to God’s sovereign determination. The word translated “destined” in the ESV is the Greek word keimai. It means to set or place, or figuratively it can refer to being “appointed, set or destined for something.”[1] 

Paul longed with all his heart to be with the congregation, but even more deeply he longed to be in submission to the sovereign will of God. God was in control as He always is. We are brought to our knees by the circumstances of life and face the same opportunity to see God at work.  Our attitude to the facts of life reflects our deepest faith in the work of our sovereign Lord. Christians will suffer both physically and emotionally from the attack of the Evil One. We are not immune.  But our Father is guiding us, sustaining us, and caring for us as he did Paul and the congregation in Thessalonica. When we turn our eyes off of the turmoil around us and focus on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are given the hope that Paul had that his work was not “in vain”.

So, the big take away from this text is that our hearts are in God’s hands. What an encouraging reminder as we struggle to continue ministry in these socially distancing times. Behind the rioters, the governor mandates, and the fires there is a Father who is merciful.  He is totally committed to our progress in the faith.  Our tendency to wonder where God is in all this is self-defeating.  Faith that is rooted in the promises of the God who is in control gives us comfort and assurance in the face of all that is going on around us. 

Dane Ortlund relays the story of the Scottish hymn writer and Old Testament scholar George Matheson:

O Love that will not let me go
I rest my weary soul in thee
I give thee back the life I owe
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be
O Light that foll’west all my way
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be
Stabilizing lines, especially for those in darkness.
Do you know the story behind it?
At age 20 George Matheson (1842-1906) was engaged to be married but began going blind. When he broke the news to his fiancée, she decided she could not go through life with a blind husband. She left him. Before losing his sight, he had written two books of theology and some feel that if he had retained his sight he could have been the greatest leader of the Church of Scotland in his day.
A special providence was that George’s sister offered to care for him. With her help, George left the world of academia for pastoral ministry and wound up preaching to 1500 each week–blind.
The day came, however, in 1882, when his sister fell in love and prepared for marriage herself. The evening before the wedding, George’s whole family had left to get ready for the next day’s celebration. He was alone and facing the prospect of living the rest of his life without the one person who had come through for him. On top of this, he was doubtless reflecting on his own aborted wedding day twenty years earlier. It is not hard to imagine the fresh waves of grief washing over him that night.
In the darkness of that moment George Matheson wrote this hymn. He remarked afterward that it took him five minutes and that it was the only hymn he ever wrote that required no editing.
O love that will not let me go. Heartening hope for you and me.
Here’s the last stanza.
O Cross that liftest up my head
I dare not ask to fly from thee
I lay in dust life’s glory dead
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be[2]

Listen to Christ Rice sing this old hymn: https://youtu.be/bRVP3Q4tR0k

Father, we praise you that your hands hold us each day.  Truly, your love will not let us go. Remind us in the midst of life of your loving providence.  Grant us faith to trust you even in these times.  Renew our hearts that so that we might love you more and love our neighbors as ourselves. In Christ’s name, Amen.

  

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[1] Bauer, Arndt and Gingerich, A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament.

[2] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/o-love-that-will-not-let-me-go/