Bible Text: 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 | Preacher: Pastor Arnold | Series: 2 Thessalonians | 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 The Faithfulness and Steadfastness of Jesus
There’s a new series out that I have enjoyed very much called The Chosen. You can see it on Pureflix or on youtube. It’s very well done and captures some of the historical picture during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus indeed chooses his diciples. They did not seek to become disciples. They in fact had their lives turned upside down and started over in a sense. And that’s who we are as well. We are chosen. We move from death to life. He chooses us. He then calls us. Calls us to faith. And just as the disciples would learn, we must then stand for the faith. Stand for what we believe, as taught by Jesus. We don’t get to make stuff up. We follow the Master, the Rabbi, the Teacher. No student is above his teacher, and the same holds for us his disciples. but we must remain faithful, because we have been chosen and called to do so.
Sound the alarm! I think I’m losing my mind! Have things ever been so out of control in your life you just want to pull the covers over your head and throw in the towel? Have you ever panicked about missing an appointment only to find out that it was scheduled on a different day? And you wonder how you could be so silly to get so worked up about such a thing. Stressing over nothing. Sometimes when you don’t have sufficient information or the information you have is wrong, we can get worked up, stressed out, become anxious over nothing. And this is what the church in Thessalonica was facing. And as we will find today, Paul wrote to encourage them, and to warn them and remind them that God is sovereign and all powerful. I think it’s good for us to be reminded in the same way. It’s good for us to be reminded of key doctrines and most importantly, the gospel.
Bible Text: 2 Thessalonians 1 | Preacher: Pastor Arnold | Series: 2 Thessalonians | 2 Thessalonians 1 The Coming Judgment of Jesus
As Easter is fast approaching, the Sunday before is Palm Sunday which begins the Passion Week, or Holy Week. A great way to spend this week is daily in the Word, read about the events that took place. You can find these in Matthew chapters 21-27; Mark chapters 11-15; Luke chapters 19-23; and John chapters 12-19. This morning I am going to touch on the first two events from the gospel of Luke, The Triumphal Entry and Jesus Weeping over Jerusalem.
Last time we met we talked about fear and how going through this experience in our lives, how dealing with COVID-19 has a lot of people worried. Indeed as the numbers of infections continues to increase to over 1000, and the number of deaths also continues to rise, people are wondering, “Is there an end in sight?” I just learned yesterday that Greg’s friend Lenny in Long Island, who we’ve been praying for, was one of those who succumbed to the virus. Gratefully, we can see that the virus has not targeted the young, but still there is an uncertainty during these times that can be stressful, and cause anxiety. While it seems we’ve made it past the toilet paper panic, some have begun to wonder is this judgment from the hand of God? Are we under God’s judgment? And not only us but the rest of the world? The prophetic books are helpful in these times as they were when they were originally penned. But what prophetic books are meant to do is to encourage and remind ourselves of God’s promises. We aren’t to try to figure out a road map, as if God left us a puzzle that will give us some kind of gnostic insight so we can sit back boasting in that we had the end of the world figured out. So with that in mind, let’s look to Joel and see what God’s message is for us this morning.
From the 1984 blockbuster movie Ghostbusters and pop song, I took the line “I ain’t afraid of no ghost” and titled my sermon: “I ain’t afraid of no virus!” This is one of those times in our present circumstances, when I decided to take a slight detour from our study in Leviticus and chose to address an issue that most of us in this country are thinking about. If you haven’t had your head in the sand, then you have seen the wall to wall TV coverage of the corona virus, COVID-19. Many of us in this room have already directly or indirectly been affected. The mayor of Williamsport has banned group gatherings of 250 or more. The governor has closed schools for 2 weeks. Flights, cruises, travel, and conferences are all being canceled. Major sporting events are being cancelled as well. And for crying out loud, all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer has vanished off the shelves! Not to make light of the situation, we’re in a crisis. A pandemic. And there is a lot of fear, a lot of worry, a lot of concern, on the part of our public officials, in the news media, and for all the citizens. Even my 11 year-old daughter is concerned that the mailman is going to spread corona virus to every house he delivers the mail to. I had a conversation with my father, a pastor in Houston, who remarked at how people are hanging on to every warning and heeding every instruction that the government health officials, the CDC, etc. have issued, but when we tell them Jesus is coming, that this is not only a life or death issue, but an eternal one, those warnings go largely ignored. People are on edge, some on the verge of panic. So how is the Christian supposed to think in times like these? How are we to behave? What kind of example should we set for others to take note of? Scripture has much to teach when it comes to facing illness and disease. There are many passages where we can find sound teaching. This morning I chose Psalm 91.
Hard work is HARD! If we want things to go well we have to make preparations. Want to have a fun party, then you gotta plan. Want to do well in Algebra, then you’ve got to study? Want to get a degree in school, then you have to do what it takes to get that degree. Want to succeed in your plans, then you have to do more than daydream. You’ve got to roll up your sleeves and get to work. My kids have always heard from me, get your work done, then you can play. Well that’s not to say that this isn’t some deep fatherly advice. No, it’s just common sense. The farmer has to plan, make preparations for the soil, then plant, then harvest. It’s a lot of work. Anything that’s worth doing, is going to take preparations. These are earthly things we have ben considering, but how much more the things of God, spiritual growth? Can we expect to just show up and boom, God is just going to zap us with all sorts of profound knowledge? There’s the saying that says you get out of it what you put into it. And there’s some truth to that. God has designed us and desires for us to have relationship with Him. But we have to do things His way. We can’t just fly by the seat of our pants. We can’t just go making stuff up. You wouldn’t want to go see a doctor and not have put in the tremendous amount of study required so that they can treat your condition. You don’t want just anyone putting on a white coat, strolling into the room and making stuff up on the fly. Then why we we suppose that it would be OK for us to do the same when it comes to the things of God? When we meet with God, do we really understand what we are doing? Do we really grasp who it is whose presence we have come into? If we come to church, to presumably meet with God and worship him, and we return to our homes, unchanged, might it be that we have failed to adequately make preparations?
When you buy something new, it usually comes with an instruction manual. Although more often these days, you might find a quick setup guide and be directed to the manufacturer’s website to download an instruction manual. But the point is that when you get something new for the first time, you don’t know how to use it. maybe some things are simple plug and play devices, but you can still learn a lot of useful things and get the most out of it by referring to and reading the manual. Some things are so complicated that you run the risk of breaking the thing or not properly caring for it if you don’t read the manual. It might even save you some embarrassment. I recently saw a youtube video of a dad who sent his daughter into the auto parts store to buy some blinker fluid. And of course she returned to her dad laughing his head off. But if she had read her car manual, she would’ve known there wasn’t such a thing. But how much more should we be concerned when it comes to following the things of God? God had given us a manual for how we are to conduct our lives, and for how the church is to conduct its affairs. It’s called the Bible. And since He created us, and the church, we should follow his commands. He didn’t write suggested guidelines, as if he was giving us his personal recommendations. He has given us commandments and we are obliged to follow them. And so as we continue making our way through the book of Leviticus, God is revealing his Holy nature to us in how he has established for himself a chosen people, and following his commandments is an issue of life or death. And if it’s a matter of life and death, then we ought to pay close attention to his instructions, to his Word.