Nineteenth Sunday after
Pentecost
James of Jerusalem, Brother
of Jesus and Martyr
October 23, 2011
If you open a present and it’s empty you’re let down. There’s supposed
to be something in there. But if someone hands you an empty jar and tells you
to stuff as many ten dollar bills as you can into it, well, that empty jar is
suddenly a very good thing.
The word Paul uses for his having come to the Christians of
Thessalonica is literally ‘empty’. He says it was not empty. As the version we
have it in our bulletin says it, it was not in vain. That’s the way it is when
you come with the Gospel. It’s never in vain. Paul’s march to Damascus to stamp
out Christianity, that was in vain. God turned him around. Not literally around
so that he found himself on his way back to Jerusalem. Spiritually. God turned
Paul around. Now Paul was marching, on a mission, to stamp out unbelief. His
weapon was the Word of God. His sword was the Gospel. These weapons are never
used in vain. They never come up empty.
When Paul was opposing Christianity he saw results. But never like he
did when he was proclaiming Christianity. Results that come from the Word of
God are results that God brings about. Paul declares that his proclamation of
the Gospel was not in vain, despite receiving harsh treatment for doing so. His
conviction that the Gospel did not come up empty was boldly asserted in the face
of opposition to that Gospel. Paul came to this conviction because he very
quickly saw in his new call from God that it was to God that he would answer,
not people. He quickly saw that it was an amazing thing, this new life God had
given to Paul. Forgiven of his assault on Christ and the followers of Christ. He
was now given a new call: to preach the Gospel to those Christians as well as
to all who would hear. There was also this amazing thing: God entrusted Paul
with the Gospel.
Paul knew the Scriptures. He was a Pharisee. The Pharisees knew the
Scriptures. Paul could argue and discuss and motivate as well as anyone. Now
God was giving to Paul something simple. The Gospel. It was as though Paul
stood there with an empty jar and God filled it with the Gospel. Entrusting him
with it. “Here. Go with this. Make it known. Bring it to others. Proclaim it. Wherever
you go, proclaim this Gospel.” His motives for bringing the Gospel to the
Thessalonians were not for his own benefit but rather, as he says, “…our appeal
does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as
we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak, not
to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.”
This had a profound impact on Paul. He now saw Christians not as
enemies of God but as the people of God. He saw that they were people who were
in need of this Gospel. This thing to which he had been entrusted was the very
thing that would change their lives just as it had changed his. How would he be
among them? He says, “…we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking
care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were
ready to share with you not only the Gospel of God but also our own selves,
because you had become very dear to us.” He loved them as God had loved him. He
cared for them as God had cared for him. He made known the Gospel among them as
God had made known the Gospel to him.
He was with them as one who was there for them, not for himself. He was
among them not because he had a job to do but because God had called him to
love them and care for them spiritually and it grew into a relationship that
was more like family.
What kind of an effect does this have on those who are the recipients
of such action and love and proclamation of the Gospel? We all know people who
very politely tell us that they’re not interested in hearing about the Gospel
and Jesus and His love for them. Many of us probably know of people who are
nasty in their making known to us that they want to hear nothing of the Gospel
or Jesus or His supposed love for them. Closer to home, we ourselves at times
may harbor doubts about the Gospel and Jesus and His love for us. Some of us
may wonder if it’s all really true. Some of us may wonder how it all makes sense.
This is opposition. Our sinful flesh opposes what God brings to us.
This is what Paul said about his making known of the Gospel to the
people of Thessalonica: “We had boldness in our God to declare to you the
Gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.” What do you suppose that conflict
might have been? Ever been in a congregation that had conflict? I’m not sure if
there’s anyone who could say they’ve been in a congregation that did not
experience conflict. We probably know of several congregations that have had or
are experiencing conflict. As if it’s not enough that we are sometimes
conflicted with our family members at home or our co-workers at work or our
neighbors down the street, we show up here at church and sometimes we go
through it all here.
Part of this is due to the Gospel. The Gospel naturally stirs up
opposition. Sinners do not like hearing the Gospel. Sinners like hearing how
good they are. Or what they can do to be good or to get better than they
already are. Sinners don’t want to hear the Gospel. The sinful flesh is opposed
to the Gospel. Here’s a test of this. What do you hear when you hear the words
of the Lord in the Old Testament reading? “Be holy for I the Lord your God am
holy.” “Be holy. Be perfect. No more sin. No more selfish desires or actions.
Have your mind set on Me, the one true God. The holy God.” The sinful flesh
rails against this. I don’t deserve to be demanded upon by God. I should be
able to go about my way and be the good, decent person I generally am. And
besides, nobody’s perfect, so why should God demand that of me?
The sinful flesh doesn’t want to hear the Gospel. The sinful flesh
wants safe harbor in its own merit. The sinful flesh does not hear those words
of the Lord as they ultimately are—not as a command, “Be holy!”, but as a
statement of what God brings about. Namely, holiness. When God says, “Be holy”,
He brings it about. He makes it happen. He speaks it into existence. When He
says, “Be holy”, what happens is that He is declaring you, and thereby making
you, holy. You are His. You are a person created in His image and now
re-created in the image of His Son, in holiness.
That’s how the proclamation of the Gospel works. It pierces through the
hardness of the heart of the sinful flesh and brings about holiness, newness of
life. It’s true, that this comes hand in hand with the Law of God. The Law
hammering through the heart of stone. But the Gospel nevertheless does the
effective work of making sinful human beings into the people of God. It is
never in vain. The Gospel never comes up empty.
That’s why it’s not an overstatement that Paul says, “And we also thank
God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God, which you
heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is,
the Word of God, which is at work in you believers.” Paul can thank God
constantly because of the effects of the Word of God. The Word that was made
known to them was the Word that always goes forth from God and there was all
the more reason to rejoice in their receiving it as the Word of God.
Paul was talking to the Thessalonian Christians but we’re listening in.
We hear the very same Word proclaimed. What do you hear when you hear the words
of your Lord as He spoke them in the Gospel reading? “You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall
love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law
and the prophets.” Do you hear a burden placed on you that you can’t achieve?
Or do you hear the words of your Lord that release you from your own attempts
at convincing yourself that you’re a pretty decent person? Because loving the
Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind is really the best way to go.
The First Commandment is nothing other than fearing, loving, and trusting in
God above all things. If you really did this things would go so much better for
you than you could ever realize.
The amazing thing is, you really do. In Christ. In Christ you do. On
these two commandments, loving God and loving your neighbor, depend all the Law
and the Prophets. What has Christ done? He has fulfilled all the Law and the
Prophets. He has loved God perfectly and in holiness. He has loved His neighbor
as Himself, selflessly and perfectly. He is holy for He is the Lord. He is the
one who paid the penalty for not being holy as the Lord God is holy.
Why this is is because of what Paul says to the Thessalonians: they were
receptive of the Word “not as the word of men but as what it really is, the
Word of God, which is at work in you believers.” This is the crowning glory of
what Paul is talking about and what he rejoiced in. The Word is at work. It is
never in vain. It doesn’t come up empty. It goes forth and accomplishes the
purpose for which it was sent. The reason you fear, love, and trust in God
above all things is that the Word of God is at work in you. You are in Christ.
Jesus works substantially, not abstractly. His work in you is of substance. You
are an actual new creation in Christ. You have actual new life in Him. You
actually “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind.” The Word is at work in you. God brings this about in you
through His Word. You in actuality “love your neighbor as yourself.” The Word
is at work. God brings it about in you.
Think about this statement that Paul uses: the Word is at work in you.
It sounds kind of cool. It’s a little catchy. The Word is at work in you. You
could think of that phrase in your head throughout the week: the Word is at
work in you. But once you think about it a little you might find yourself thinking
that it’s also a bit strange. What exactly does it mean that the Word is at work?
How is the Word at work in you? It’s cool and maybe even catchy, but what
exactly is going on?
What’s going on is God at work. God is not just God. Anybody can talk
about God or think about God. But God is active. He is at work. And He is primarily
at work through His Son. Jesus is the way God is at work. He became flesh. He
dwelt among us. He fulfilled all the Law and the Prophets. He suffered at the
hands of men and the punishment we deserve at the hands of God. He rose on the
third day. He is at work. He is God who became man. Jesus is the way the Word
is at work in you because He is the Word made flesh. When you receive the Word
of God you aren’t receiving the words of men but what it really is, the Word of
God which is at work in you. Amen.
SDG
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