A sister
and brother were talking to each other when the little boy got up and walked to
his grandpa and said “grandpa, please make a noise like a frog.” The grandpa sad “No” The little boy said
again “Please, please make a frog noise.” The grandpa said “No, now go and
play.”
Then the
little boy turned to his sister and said “Go and tell Grandpa to make a frog
noise.” So the little girl went to her
grandpa and said “please make a frog noise.”
Again the grandpa said “No.”
“Please…. Please grandpa make a frog noise.”
The
grandpa said, “Why do you want me to make a frog noise?” The little girl replied, “Because Mummy said
when you croak we can go to Disney world!”
All of us
know that one day we will die, but it’s not something most of us spend much
time thinking about. Did you know though,
that someone has invented an alarm clock which not only tells the time, but
also tells you how many days you have left to
live? It does this based on information it gathers from your social
network connections, your family history, health and lifestyle, and other
factors. The strap line for this product
which they hope to develop is “Alarmclock cares enough to tell you the
truth.”
What would happen if tomorrow your doctor called you and said "I'm very sorry, I have some bad news for
you. You have terminal illness, and there is nothing we can do for you. You only have a matter of weeks left to live." What would you do then? What if anything would you change about the
way you live?
Chances are, I suspect most of us would want to make changes in
our lives if we knew are time was limited.
We’d want to make the most of the precious time we have left, and
everything would be imbued with greater meaning and urgency, knowing that these
moments are to be our last.
Bronnie Ware spent several years working as a
palliative care nurse, looking after terminally ill people. Based on these experiences she wrote a book
called ‘The Top Five Regrets of the Dying’.
Which she listed as:
·
I wish I'd had
the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
·
I wish I hadn't
worked so hard
·
I wish I'd had
the courage to express my feelings
·
I wish I had
stayed in touch with my friends
·
I wish that I
had let myself be happier
Steve Jobs who died in October 2011 was fond of saying, “Live everyday as though it is your last …
and one day, you will be right.” How
many of us can honestly admit we live each day as if it could be our last?
Another similar question, what would we do if we knew Jesus was
going to return to earth on a certain date? Would our response be the same as
if we knew we didn’t have long to live?
Harold Camping, who ran Family Radio in the USA, famously predicted
that the world would come to an end on the 21st May 2011. Donations from loyal listeners flooded in,
and Harold Camping spent $3 million on a massive billboard and radio advertising
campaign around the world. Many of his followers believing the end was nigh, dropped out
of med school, quite their jobs, even left their wives and children, and spent
all their savings to spread the word about the Rapture.
Of course none of us can know when Jesus will return. Jesus himself said ‘Therefore keep
watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand
this: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was
coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken
into. So you also
must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not
expect him.” (Matthew 24:42-44)
So as Christians we are called to live in
that constant state of readiness for the return of Jesus – I don’t know about
you, but I find that a challenge!
In Paul’s first letter to the Christian’s in Thessalonica, he
wrote to help them grow in the faith and to comfort and encouraging them by
affirming the reality of Christ's return.
But not long after this, word came to Paul that some of the people in
the church had misunderstood his teaching about the Second Coming, and to further
complicate the situation, a letter had been sent to the church written by
someone claiming to be from Paul, saying that the day of the Lord had already
come.
It is for this reason that Paul writes this second letter to the
Thessalonians, to address the problems that had arisen within the church, and
to encourage the church as it faced a period of persecution. Paul writes “Concerning
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being
gathered to him, we
ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become
easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a
prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already
come.” (2 Thess 2:1-2)
One of the consequences of the belief that the day of the Lord had already arrived, was that
there were some in the church who had decided to quit their jobs, and put aside
all their responsibilities. But their
lack of activity was putting a burden on the church, because there was no
welfare state to look after them, so the responsibility was falling on the
shoulders of others within the church to care for them.
This is why Paul, in very strong uncompromising language writes ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every
believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.’ (2
Thess 3:6)
These people who had quit their
jobs, and set aside their responsibilities, may have thought there were being
more spiritual by not working, but their actions were having a damaging the
church. In verse 11 Paul writes that in
their idleness, they are being disruptive, and using a play on words says “They are not busy; they are busybodies.”
(2 Thess 3:11) As the expression goes,
the devil makes work for idle hand. Rather
than working, and helping to play their part within the life of the church and
wider community, they were putting their nose into other people’s business,
spreading panic, and harming the body of Christ.
Paul instructs the church to keep
away from these people, in case others might be tempted to follow their example. Instead Paul reminds the church of the
example that he and Silas set when he lived amongst them. “For
you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when
we were with you, nor did
we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night
and day, labouring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We
did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to
offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.” (2 Thess 3:7-9)
Paul was a tent maker by trade,
and he worked to support himself. He did
this for several reasons:
·
So as not
to be a burden on the church
·
To set an
example for others to follow
·
So that
he was free to preach the Gospel
o If you read a newspaper,
the political slant of that newspaper will very often reflect the political
views of the owners of that paper. Paul
didn’t want to feel bound to any wealthy benefactor, so he could preach the
Gospel without accusation of political influence.
Paul says that ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not
eat.’ (v10) This passage has to be
read in context, because in Paul’s other letters he stresses the importance of
caring for the poor, and care for the poor and disadvantaged is one of the
marks of the Christian faith. The
Apostle James writes, ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless
is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself
from being polluted by the world.’ (James 1:27) In other words to care and support those who
do not have the means to helping themselves. And in Acts 4 Luke tells us that
the believers shared all their possessions, and that there was no needy person
among them, but that they gave to anyone who had need. (Acts 4:32-35) In this passage from Thessalonians, Paul is
addressing those who can work, but refuse to do so. It’s a wakeup call to them.
So what practical application and lessons can
we draw from this passage?
Work Matters
Firstly we see that work matters to God.
We can sometimes have a negative attitude
towards work. Homer the famous Greek
writer said that the gods hated humans so much that they
invented work as a way to punish people. But actually the opposite is true,
work, and the ability to work is a God given gift. In the book of Genesis God put Adam into the
Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Genesis 2:15).
Work is a worthy pursuit, designed by God, who is
Himself a worker. Work is woven into the very fabric of creation.
One thing we need to recapture as Christians, is
the understanding that work is a gift from God – ask anyone who has been made
redundant, and is unemployed, to tell you what a blessing work can be.
When people talk about Christian service and
ministry, they often tend to think about it in terms of the jobs people do in
church. But we need to recognize we can
serve God wherever we are, we need to identify our Frontline. That is the place where we spend the majority
of our time, because it is on our frontlines that we can make the most impact
for God. For those in paid employment, your frontline will be your place of
work. For others it may be caring for
children, grandchildren or elderly relatives.
If you’re retired your frontline might be the club that you belong
to. It’s on our frontline that God calls
us to be his witnesses. For example, a
man was standing on the station waiting to go to work, when someone asked him,
what do you do, and he said “I’m a
Christian thinly disguised as an accountant.” He understood that his primary calling was
serve God in that place or work.
Paul in Colossians 3:17: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of
the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Think what a difference we could make if we
starting seeing our frontlines, our work – whether paid or unpaid, as the place
where we serve God.
One day in 1671, Christopher Wren, who designed
St Paul’s Cathedral in London, saw three bricklayers hard at work. He asked the first one “What are you doing?” to which the bricklayer replied, “I’m cutting this stone.” The second
bricklayer, responded, “I’m building a
wall.” But the third brick layer when asked the question, “What are you doing?” replied, “I’m building a cathedral to the glory of God.”
John Stott said this about work. “Work is the expenditure of energy (manual or mental or both)
in the service of others, which brings fulfillment to the worker, benefit to
the community, and glory to God”
That is why work matters, because through our
work we bring honour and glory to God, and also help serve one another and the
wider community.
Lifestyle Matters
The Second thing we learn from this story is
that how we live matters. Paul writes “never tire of doing what is good.” (2 Thess 3:13)
In Ephesians Paul says “Be very careful, then, how you live” (Ephesians 5:15). The things
we do in public, and also in private, matter.
You’ve probably heard it said before, but your life may be the only
Bible some people will ever read. As
believers we are called to ignite the fire of God in those we meet, not
extinguish the fire by our words, attitude or behavior.
People will judge the Christian faith on what
they see in us.
