Radical Gratitude! Thoughts for this Thanksgiving

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

It is easy to understand the call to pray without ceasing in this world we live. But, how do we rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances? With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us and the tension of current events surrounding us, for some it may be difficult to express our gratitude. Could it be that Paul just missed this one? Could it be that he meant we should rejoice when things are good and give thanks when things go our way? Or could it be that he meant exactly what he wrote – that it is God’s will in every circumstance to express joy and gratitude?

It might be easy to dismiss these bullet point commands given at the close of a letter. But, these aren’t just pleasantries offered to fill space and make us feel warm and fuzzy. On the contrary, this call to radical gratitude is expressed across the pages of Scripture:

• Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! (1 Chronicles 16:34)
• This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)

Paul especially emphasizes this in his letters to churches:

• Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:7)
• And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)
• Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. (Ephesians 5:4)
• Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20)

Christian, through the Gospel, we have been both equipped for and called to this radical gratitude and rejoicing.

It might be easy to dismiss Paul’s closing words to the Thessalonians as too simple or in need of qualification based on the current events in which we find ourselves. After all it is another passage of Scripture that tells us there is a time for everything; a time to mourn and a time to cry (Ecclesiastes 3). But there is danger in letting our circumstances define our joy and gratitude. To not exercise this radical gratitude for all that God has done is to determine that our losses are greater than our victories, or that the blessings of the Gospel are just not enough for us. To do anything other than express our radical gratitude exposes our belief that we deserve more than God has provided.

Paul’s words don’t compete with Solomon’s wisdom. Rather they inform it. Paul is not saying we should never grieve, but instead as we grieve we cling to our great hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). For the Christian, according to Paul this man who suffered much for the cause of Christ, there will be times to cry and mourn, but the time for rejoicing and gratitude never ceases.

As Thanksgiving Day comes and goes and the parades go past; as the cheers of stadiums go silent and feasts finish; as life gets back to normal and the sun shines the following day – regardless of the current news cycle, no matter what circumstances surround us, Christian, you have great reason to be grateful. Because the Gospel will always be true, our victory will always be much greater than any loss. So…

 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Effectual Call and Irresistible Grace

Why would Matthew get up and leave a lucrative, albeit highly unappreciated, vocation? Why would Peter and Andrew, James and John leave behind the windfall of fish they had just hauled in to follow Jesus? Why would you for that matter, why would anyone? If the call to follow Jesus is, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it, “a call to come and die? Or as Jesus stated Himself, ““If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matt 16:24 ESV) Why? At least in part, the answer lies in these two components of Jesus’ Gospel Mission – Effectual Call and Irresistible Grace.

Effectual Calling

Jesus had just come out of a house in which he had healed a paralyzed man as a demonstration of his authority to forgive sin. He sees Matthew, a sinner in everyone’s eyes, He approaches and calls Matthew to follow Him. Matthew gets up and leaves his tax booth for good. What could Jesus have said that would be so convincing? Certainly, if we could replicate these words, we would be able to market this, right? Wrong.

It isn’t what Jesus said as much as who Jesus is. Matthew was surrounded by religion. He was surrounded by a culture of competing idols. He worked for the Romans and lived among the Jews. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the opportunity to follow other paths, but the path Jesus called Matthew to follow was behind Him. What Matthew heard was not the call to just any religion but a powerful call to follow the Good Shepherd.

What we are seeing in Matthew’s response is the most natural response and it is exactly what Jesus is referring to in John 10:27 when He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Or again, in John 6:44 as Jesus taught He said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”

What we are witnessing in Matthew’s life, and every other Christian’s for that matter, is a response to God’s effectual call to salvation. God’s effectual call is much different than our general Gospel call. In a sermon many years ago John Piper said, “The call of God is effective; it creates what it commands.” Gods call to sinners to come to Him not only sets the expectation but empowers the positive response. We proclaim the Gospel and may or may not see someone respond positively. However, God effectively calls those that He has foreknown, predestined and justified (Romans 8:28-30).

Matthew got up from the tax booth and followed; Peter, Andrew, James, and John left behind the miraculous catch of fish and even you followed Jesus first and foremost because He powerfully and effectively called you in grace to follow Him from death to life.

Irresistible Grace

This second component is vital. After all, this effectual call is an act of grace. God is not obligated to us. We don’t deserve nor could we earn our place before Him or any access to Him. Yet in this effective call to follow Jesus that is exactly what we are being given.

Matthew was likely very familiar with Jesus by the point he heard Jesus’ call. He likely knew that Jesus had taught with great authority, healed many people from disease, and cast out demons without even breaking a sweat. He may have even been present to witness it with his own eyes. It is even possible when the paralyzed man that was carried to the house and lowered through the roof walked out carrying his mat and glorifying God that Matthew saw it. Now this man, Jesus, was standing there in front of him calling him to follow.

We often misunderstand the meaning of irresistible grace as removing our ability to freely respond to God. But that is a complete misrepresentation. We voluntarily get up and leave our “tax booths” and other pursuits, not because He forced us to do it. Instead, in effectively calling us out of “darkness and into His marvelous light,” He has enabled us to see, know and understand the truth. When we know the truth about what we deserve and in contrast what He has offered to us, there seems to be only one right and good response.

Matthew knew he didn’t deserve this. He knew that Jesus wasn’t obligated to him. He knew that he would never be able to pay this back. But, he also knew he would be foolish not to follow. It wasn’t that Matthew couldn’t have said no, but why would he? Why would anyone. When they are given eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to believe the truth about this gracious God who has called them into His presence and granted access to Himself. Why would anyone say no?

Why would anyone say no to eternal life and inheritance? Why would anyone say no to being in the presence of their great, glorious, good and gracious Creator? Why would anyone say no to being the beneficiary of God’s eternal power and being united with Him in peace? Why would anyone say no to being made a part of His Kingdom and adopted into His household?

Anyone that has been powerfully and effectively called out of death into a life of following Jesus, wouldn’t say no because we know it would be foolish to say no to such amazing and glorious grace.

If you are following Him in life it is because He called you powerfully. If you are telling others about Him they won’t follow because you convince them or answer all their questions. They will only follow if He calls them. So rest easy, take confidence that you can endure in the Gospel because He has made you able and others will believe your Gospel proclamation when He calls them to follow Him!

Isolation and Solitude

There is a difference between solitude and isolation. Okay, I get it. Webster’s Dictionary might not completely agree. But, I think there is a great and even necessary reason for us to make a distinction.

Isolation is what the leper in Luke 5:12-14 would have known as a result of his being unclean. The Law commanded that lepers live alone outside the camp (Leviticus 13:46).  Taken literally, as some have, this means they are cutoff from the rest of society and other lepers. This would mean their lives are lived absolutely isolated and alone. As I mentioned this last Sunday, and referenced numerous studies, this isn’t good for anyone – loneliness is deadly. When Jesus healed the leper, He didn’t just end the disease, He ended the leper’s isolation. 

But after Jesus healed the leper, the passage ends with one final ironic twist.

Luke 5:16 (ESV) But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

It’s ironic because in touching the leper in verse 13, Jesus allowed the man to experience human contact. It’s ironic because in cleansing the man’s leprosy, Jesus made it possible for him to be reconciled to family and friends. It’s ironic because by sending the leper to the priests, Jesus was reuniting him to the covenant community and corporate worship. It’s ironic because this miracle, is a parable of the power of God through the Gospel to reconcile us to Himself and one another and yet Jesus withdraws.

The truth is this isn’t just ironic. But is a profound illustration of how desperately we need healthy rhythms of both Christian community and times alone with our Father in Heaven. Both are vitally important for our Christian life.

It is here in the midst of the differences between the leper’s isolation and Jesus’ solitude that we find an important distinction that should be made. Consider the contrast…

The leper was always alone. He was cutoff not only from God’s people but also approaching God where God might be found. He wasn’t welcome in the Temple or the Synagogues of the day. He was unclean and remained unclean until he was determined to be clean by the priests. Before he could participate in Jewish holy days or corporate worship, he had to be rid of his leprosy. Until then, he truly was all by himself. The leper was isolated.

Jesus was never alone, even in solitude. Nor, was it His purpose in withdrawing to be by Himself. Jesus knew the importance of others and how we were created to “do life” together. It was Jesus that set the tone for our unified lives together. He is the one that showed us that it is within the Christian community we are able to know and be known, serve an be served and encourage and be encouraged. When Jesus withdrew, it wasn’t to be alone, it was to be alone with God.

Jesus withdrew to spend intentional and concentrated time in pray and communion with His Father in Heaven. He knew it was this time alone with God that we are made ready to be a part of His people; loving as we have been loved, serving as we have been served, forgiving as we have been forgiven. If He needed this, how much more do we?

There is a difference between solitude and isolation – one is life giving the other is no life at all.

So, leave the phones, tablets, and distractions behind. Get your Bible and maybe a journal and go be alone with your Father in Heaven, you need this, we all do.

Who Are You Following?

We all follow something or someone. As independent or free as we feel, it just isn’t possible. Intrinsic to humanity is our dependent nature, our need for one another and our need to be led. This has always been true and will always be true. But now, because of the Gospel, we are finally able to see that there are really only two directions to go, towards life or death.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once  lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV)

Apart from Christ, we have no hope of doing anything other than following a path in death to death. We are bound to follow Satan’s path, the world’s path even the path established by the desires of our sinful nature.

If this were the end of the passage or the only truth the Bible shared, we might as well close it up and enjoy life as we know it. Thankfully it isn’t the end. In verse 4, Paul sets the contrast immediately, “But God.” Paul goes on (Ephesians 2:4-10) to reveal to us that as a result of God’s power, love, grace and mercy we have been united to Christ in life. He closes this passage with the revelation that this new life gives way to new works. To say it another way, this new life follows a new path; a path He has planned for us.

The call of Jesus on each of us who have been made alive is to turn from following Satan, the world, and our sinful nature in order to follow His plan and His purpose. He is the prize and following Him is the greatest priority.

We all follow something, every action, every decision, every pursuit of our life is moving in one of two directions under the leadership of drastically different leaders. The contrast is striking, to follow Christ is to turn towards Him and begin swimming upstream against the flow. Also, the destination is incomparable as incomparable as life and death.

What or who are you following?

Do you need more reason to follow Jesus? Do you want to know more about His plans and purposes? Listen here. Then if you want to know more, contact us here.