SERMON: Thanksgiving: God’s Will for Us (1 Thess. 5:16–18)
Thanksgiving: God’s Will for Us
(1 Thess. 5:16–18)
Series: Thanksgiving
Sermons Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date:
November
19, 2023
Venue: Living
Water Baptist Church Occasion:
AM Service
I.
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?
II.
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.”[1] 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).”[2] 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:
III.
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.’ ”[3] 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.”[4] 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.
IV.
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.”[5] 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.
[1] Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, 1988,
1, 900.
[2] Chris McKnight, The
Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2016.
[3] Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia
of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times, (Garland, TX: Bible
Communications, Inc., 1996), 787.
[4] Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, Eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the
Puritans, Pastorum Series, (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).
[5] John Frederick, Lexham
Theological Wordbook, 2014.
