Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church is a portrait of a
God-centered church. We have great need to rethink and reform our broken churches upon this
model in our own day. If anything,
the
church has a tendency to be self
-centered and man centered. This is, of
course not unique to our own age, for this has been the constant struggle of the church ever since she was born on the day of Pentecost. The Galatian and
the Corinthian churches are examples of this. The pull is ever downward – as indicated by the law of gravitation. The tendency is always
towards decay, towards disorder – towards
a state of entropy – as illustrated by the second law of thermodynamics [1].
So too it is with the church.
One of my favorite
poets is T.S. Elliot[2] has expressed himself
powerfully on this subject:
Of all that was done in the past, you eat the fruit, either rotten
or ripe.
And the Church must be forever
building, and always decaying - and always being restored.
For every ill deed in the past we suffer the consequence:
For sloth, for avarice, gluttony, neglect of the Word of God.
For pride, for lechery, treachery, for every act of sin.
And of all that was done that was good, you have the inheritance.
For good and ill deeds belong to a man alone, when he stands
alone on the other side of death,
But here upon earth you have the reward of the good and ill that was done by those who have gone before
you.
And all that is ill you may repair if you walk together in humble
repentance, expiating the sins of your fathers;
And all that was good you must fight to keep with hearts as
devoted as those of your fathers who fought to gain it.
The Church must be forever
building, for it is forever decaying within and attacked from without;
For this is the law of life; and you must remember that while
there is time of prosperity
The people will neglect the Temple, and in time of adversity
they will decry it.
T.S. Elliot says that the church is in need of constant
reformation, for she is constantly subjected
to sin and decay. Every
generation of believers must understand
this, and every generation of believers
must rebuild her walls that are being constantly assailed. We
cannot live on borrowed capital. We cannot
presume that our fathers yesterday have done a good work. We must work
today and contend for the faith as it
was delivered to us by our Lord Jesus today (Jude 3). This is why I must preach the
Word to you. The first letter to
the Thessalonians is an example of
a God centered church, and I must hold
this model before you to imitate.
Here is yet
another aspect that is
characteristic of a God centered church, and it is found in verse 10 : The Thessalonian church was
waiting for God’s Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus who delivers us from the wrath that is to come!
This church was waiting
for the return of the Lord Jesus.
The word translated as “wait” in the ESV
(Gr. anameno - ana - “up” and meno, “to remain”) indicates
an expectancy concerning a future
event, which is eagerly anticipated or
waited for. Think of a parent who “waits up“ at night , eagerly awaiting the
return of a child from a late
night event. The Greek tense is present,
which indicates a present and ongoing waiting!
This church was waiting
diligently.
In Matthew 25: 1- 13 Jesus
told the parable of the 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom
and his bridal party to arrive
for a marriage feast . He is, of course
talking about His second coming. The
bridegroom took his time, and so they had to wait for a long time. Five were prepared for
his coming and the other five were not.
The five that were not prepared (who did
not ‘ remain up’) for His coming missed
the marriage feast and were not admitted to the marriage feast. Jesus
frequently reminded His disciples (and therefore His
church) in the Olivet discourse
(Matt 24 & 25) that they had to stay awake, be ready, and watching for His coming.
So, is this
really an important
characteristic of a God centered
church – to wait for the coming of Christ ? There
are some who have
warned us “not to be so heavenly minded , that we are of no earthly good“. Others over the
centuries have said impatiently: “The Lord is slow to fulfill His promise” (2
Peter 3:9). For some this impatience
of waiting for the Lord’s coming has led
them to embrace the health wealth and
prosperity gospel which assumes that our
heaven is on earth. Is it worth
waiting any longer? See how Peter counsels us in 2 Peter 3: 8-13.
Yes, waiting for Jesus is an essential characteristic of a God
centered church! The fact of
the matter is that we must live with our eyes on the return of Christ amidst the often harsh realities
of our earthly existence. I, as a pastor for one would not know what I would do if I
did not possess the “hope of heaven”. The one
thing that keeps us going in the
midst of
so many challenges and trials is precisely
the fact that we know that there is a heaven ahead of us. There is a place
of rest (Hebrews 3 &4) waiting for
the people of God (Hebr. 4:9). There is a city that has
foundations whose Designer and Builder is God (Hebr. 11:10)… a homeland (Hebr. 11:14)… a better country that is a heavenly one
(Hebr. 11:16). The
Bible for this reason sometimes calls believers pilgrims,
aliens, strangers, or sojourners because they are
not going to stay here! They are on their way to their heavenly city.
We need to compare this to the attitude of those who do not have this view. There is a category of people in the book of Revelation who in the Greek text are literally called “earth dwellers”[3]
. Their whole lives are centered on this life on this earth without any thought of the
future. The Lord Jesus
warned His disciples about being overly anxious with respect
to their “earth dwelling needs”, such
as clothing or food. He warned such
that excessive
attention paid to the
pursuit of food and clothes
was tantamount
to accumulating “ treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy and where thieves break in and steal”. He exhorted them to accumulate
treasures in heaven, … “for where
your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:19-21). Where is your
heart rooted? What is
your future desire? These
questions will tell you much as to whether
you are waiting for God’s Son
from heaven or whether you are an
“earth-dweller”.
The Bible has much to say about the future state of man.
Jesus regularly spoke about man’s eternal prospects in one of two destinations : heaven and hell. We must take Jesus’ teaching very seriously and prepare
ourselves accordingly. The Thessalonian
Christians were waiting for His Son from heaven… who delivers us
from the wrath that is to come!
Now there is a real danger
that you would misunderstand the focus on heaven, without the centrality of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There
are many people who set their hope on heaven
simply because they cannot bear the thought of hell. Nobody likes the
thought of hell , but this does not necessarily
mean that we seek heaven.
Here is the corrective statement which I now
wish to make: There can be no proper hope of heaven without a living hope
in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ! The
Thessalonians Christians weren’t just waiting for heaven. They were waiting for
God’s Son from heaven, who would take them to heaven (John 14:1-4)! The focus
is on Jesus who takes us to heaven – who makes it possible
for us to go to heaven! Verse 10 is
full of important information as to
why it is possible for us to go to heaven:
We can go to heaven because
He is the Son of God
and He is Jesus, the son of man. In the incarnation He is both
God and man in one person. These two natures of Christ are important to understand.[4] As a man He could experience manhood. He could represent us on the cross and
die for our sin. As a man He could be tempted, but as God
He could not give into temptation and therefore He
would not sin. As man He could experience the pain of death and the agony
of soul in his separation from God, but
as God death could not
keep Him in the grave. As a man He was raised, and He
is the basis for a living hope (1 Pet. 1:3)
for in His resurrection is the hope of our resurrection to eternal life. As a
man He went to heaven because He was the
eternal God. In heaven He sits as our representative and from
heaven He comes again to judge
the living and the dead.
He is Jesus who delivers
us from the
wrath that is to come. The wrath of God will be poured out on all who
have not trusted in Christ in this life[5]. The great white throne judgment will be
that occasion (Rev. 20:11-15).
Conclusion:
In our day one of our greatest
needs is to disengage ourselves from being mere ‘earth dwellers‘ and to
live in greater anticipation of our
meeting of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether by our death or by His second
coming. This is a vital part of being a
God centered Christian , and it follows the long history of the church in which faithful men and women have
longed for the return of Jesus in their own generation ,
and have said, “ Maranatha” – Even so ,
Lord Jesus , come ! This is a
normal Christian desire , and if it is
not there, you have every reason to
question yourself as to whether you are “in Christ”.
[1]
The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth, by Henry
Morris: (p. 14) All
processes manifest a tendency toward decay and disintegration, with a net
increase in what is called the entropy, or state of randomness or disorder, of
the system. This is called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. ; Scientific
Creationism, edited by Henry Morris: (p.25) The Second Law (Law of Energy Decay)
states that every system left to its own devices always tends to move from
order to disorder, its energy tending to be transformed into lower levels of
availability, finally reaching the state of complete randomness and
unavailability for further work.
[2]
T.S. Elliot : Chorus from the Rock
[4] See
the definition of the Council of Chalcedon ( 451 AD)
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