1996 SINGLE SERMONS
ENCOURAGING PROMISES
DR. JIM DIXON
SEPTEMBER 8, 1996
1 THESSALONIANS 5:9-11
From 1899 to 1902, a war was fought in South Africa called the Boer War. Now, sometimes this war is mistakenly called the Boar War, but it was a war fought between the British and the Boer people. The Boers were Dutch people living in South Africa. The war was fought for the gold fields and for the diamond fields of South Africa, and the war was ultimately won by the British.
But there was one British soldier who didn’t fare so well after the war. He was brought to trial and he was convicted of war crimes. Now, this soldier, apparently, during the siege of the town of Ladysmith in South Africa, went up and down the British lines discouraging his fellow soldiers. He went up and down the British lines reminding them of the vast size of the enemy forces. He reminded them of their own meager forces, and he predicted the ultimate victory for the enemy and the ultimate defeat of their own forces. Now, after the battle and after the Boer war, those who survived remembered this soldier and he was brought to trial. And for the first time in military history, a man was convicted of the war crime of discouragement. He was sent to prison. It’s a fact of history.
Now, the Bible tells us that, spiritually speaking, there is a war going on that is global. It is a battle for the souls of men and women the world over. It is a battle between the powers of life and the powers of death. It is a battle between Christ and antichrist, a battle between the forces of light and darkness. Now, in this battle, Christians are engaged and the Bible makes it clear that we cannot afford to be discouraged. We cannot afford discouragement. And so, 62 different times in the New Testament, in 62 different passages, Christians are exhorted to encourage one another. In the book of Hebrews, we’re exhorted to encourage each other every single day. This is obviously very important.
Now, perhaps you’re experiencing some discouragement today as you seek to live for Christ in this fallen and crazy world. Perhaps you’re going through some kind of discouragement. This morning I would share with you a few passages of scripture that are meant to encourage us in our service of Christ, a few passages of scripture that are meant to encourage us as we seek to live for Christ in this fallen world.
The first passage is Matthew 28:20: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the close of the age.” Those are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the promise of the divine presence. God is Jehovah Shammah—”the Lord who is present.” And Jesus Christ says to His people this morning, “I will never fail you or forsake you. I am with you always.
Now, in the days of Christ, when Christ was living in this world in the region of Israel, the Jewish people believed that the divine presence, the Shekhinah, dwelt in the temple on Mount Moriah. They believed that the Shekhinah dwelt in the Holy of Holies of the temple. But of course, in the year 70 AD the temple was destroyed by Titus and his Roman legion as the armies of Rome swept over the city of Jerusalem. Today, on Mount Moriah, on the Temple Mount in the city of Jerusalem, there is no temple. There is a Muslim structure called the Dome of the Rock, but there is no temple.
Yet the Jewish people today still believe that the Shekhinah, the divine presence, somehow hovers or attends the Temple Mount and that mount called Moriah. In fact, most Jews in Israel today believe that God’s presence, His Shekhinah, now dwells at the Western Wall, sometimes called the Wailing Wall. The stones of that wall are from the time of Christ, and they’re from the original Temple Mount. Many Jews today believe that the very presence of God, the Shekhinah, dwells and hovers within and around those stones on that wall. Therefore, Jewish people in droves every single day go to that wall. They place written prayers between the stones because the presence of God is there and they believe their prayers will be answered there.
I think it is true that throughout Christian history, many times, Christian men and women have gone to that wall and have placed their written prayers between those stones. But as Christians, we should understand that we don’t need to go to the Western Wall. We don’t need to go to the Wailing Wall because Christ is present with us. He cares about us, and He is watching over us, and He indwells us by His indwelling Holy Spirit, and He hears our prayers. He cares about you. And we have this great promise that “I am with you always.” He wants you to know that, regardless of the difficulty that you may be going through today.
Now, this is a world of separation. We all experience loss. Last Friday, just two days ago, I amazingly lost my second wedding band. Now, 25 years ago when Barb and I were married, Barb gave me a gold wedding band. I lost it, as many of you know, some years ago. I was fiddling with it nervously while I was watching the movie Alien and somehow dropped the ring and lost it in the movie theater. I haven’t had a wedding band for many years. But then just last month, as Barb and I were in Israel (it was our 25th wedding anniversary), we decided to get a new wedding band. We had one specially made—a gold wedding band—and it was inscribed with three Hebrew words: abba, ben, ruah—Father, Son, and Spirit. The ring certainly had special meaning for Barb and me.
Somehow on Friday, either when I was at a breakfast meeting, or when I was at a lunch meeting, or perhaps when I was at a Denver Link meeting over at Colorado Community Church (I don’t know exactly where), somewhere I fiddled with it and absentmindedly took it off my finger and we can’t find it. It appears to be lost and gone. And isn’t life like that? I mean, please tell Barbara that that’s common and these things happen. But I think it is true that, in life, we lose things. Sometimes we lose things a whole lot more valuable than a ring, because sometimes we lose people. Many of you have lost a son or a daughter. You’ve lost a mother or a father. You’ve lost a brother or a sister or a husband or a wife or a friend. Many of you have experienced loss. If you haven’t, then at some time in the future you likely will.
Every night, Barb and I pray together. And of course, we pray for our children, Drew and Heather, who are both away at college now. We pray that God will protect them, body, soul, and spirit. We pray that they’ll do well in school and that they’ll have many friends. And we pray that they’ll find a special person to marry—a Christian spouse. We pray for their future family and that God would provide children. And sometimes we pray that God would show mercy and grace enough for Barb and me to live to enjoy our grandchildren. And yet really, God has not promised that to Barb and I. We don’t know the future. You don’t know the future. But we do know this: Jesus Christ will never leave us. We know that Jesus Christ will never forsake us. We know that Jesus Christ is with us—He’s with us now and He’ll be with us always. We know that nothing can separate us from His love. We know the promise of Romans 8. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “I am convinced that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor height, nor depths, nor anything else in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And we have this great promise of the divine presence: “I am with you always.” This morning, as we look at this first promise (and since it is a Sunday, when we focus on small groups) I just want to call your attention to one other little verse that’s connected with His presence. And that verse is Matthew chapter 18, verse 20, where our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Where two or three of you are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of you.” What a promise. And of course, as Christians, we know and believe that Christ is omnipresent, and we know and believe that He dwells with us individually in a special sense. But God wants us to understand that there’s yet a deeper sense in which He is present with us when we gather together with other Christians in the name of Christ. There’s a deeper sense of His presence with us as we gather together with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is really so important that we avail ourselves of the opportunity to meet together in small groups so that we can experience His unique presence in that context.
In the fourth century AD, Constantine came to the throne in Rome. The year was 306 AD. He came to power, and he came to rule the Roman Empire. He ruled the Roman Empire for 31 years. And of course, it was Constantine the Great who moved the capitol of the empire from the city of Rome to the city of Byzantium. He rebuilt the capitol and renamed it Constantinople. Today that same city is called Istanbul. It was Constantine the Great who freed Christianity from its shackle, who unchained Christianity politically. It was Constantine the Great who brought religious freedom to the Roman Empire. It was Constantine the Great who allowed Christians to worship freely and openly throughout the so-called civilized world.
Of course, Constantine’s own spirituality and Christianity have oftentimes been debated by historians. Apparently, he had, in the year 312, some kind of a mystical experience wherein he saw the cross of Christ set against the rising sun. And he heard words from heaven saying, “By this conquer.” Supposedly Constantine put the cross of Christ on his battle shields and the first two Greek letters in the name of Christ on the shields of his soldiers. We don’t know these things for sure. It is said that he was baptized in Christian baptism on his deathbed.
But what we do know for sure is that he embraced the Christian religion and he freed it up politically. And that was a tremendous change. I mean, that brought a tremendous change to the church of Christ. Some people look back on it and they view it as a triumph of the church. Some people look back on it and they view it as the most tragic moment in the history of the church, because at that moment the church of Christ began to become institutionalized. It began to be subject to political corruption as it became more visible and more open and more organized and more structured. But one of the changes that took place in the time of Constantine was this: Christians begin to build buildings.
You see, prior to Constantine, Christians met in home churches. They met in home churches because they were not free to worship openly. They could not build buildings. They met secretly in home churches. Men and women and children met in home churches in small gatherings. But with Constantine the Great, they were free now to build buildings. They began to build basilicas, and they began to build cathedrals. And there was nothing wrong with this. I mean, honestly, the Christian Church would have built buildings from the first century if they had been free to do so, because in Judaism they built buildings. The Jews built the temple, and they built synagogues in every Jewish community. And Christians would’ve done the same had they been free to do so. But there was a certain blessing that came from their persecution. They were forced into these small home churches, and they were forced into more intimate fellowship. And there was a blessing of God that came from that, because they were brought into close relationship, and they weren’t allowed to just go into a big building and be a spectator.
Well, there are 1,200 church buildings in the metropolitan Denver area today, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But we would be gravely mistaken if we did not gather together in home churches still. I mean, we can’t just be spectators. We need to gather together in Christian community with a small group of brothers and sisters to pray for each other, to experience God’s presence in that context, and to encourage each other. It’s critical. “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together,” the Bible tells us.
Well, a second passage of scripture is Romans 8:28. Even as we are to be encouraged by the promise of God’s presence with us individually and as we meet in groups in His name, so we are encouraged by this promise in Romans 8:28. “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” Now, I think most of you know this verse. You’ve heard it many times, and what a promise it is. “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.”
Now, I don’t know what you’re going through right now. You might be going through something so difficult that you can’t imagine how God could ever bring good out of it.
I want to read you a little story. It’s a short letter. It was written by a bricklayer. It’s an actual letter that this employee wrote to his construction foreman. “I arrived at the job after the storm, checked the building out, and saw that the top needed repairs. I rigged a hoist and a boom, attached the rope to a barrel, and pulled bricks to the top. When I pulled the barrel to the top, I secured the rope at the bottom. After repairing the building, I went back to fill the barrel with leftover bricks. I went down and released the rope to lower the bricks and the barrel was heavier than I and jerked me off the ground. I decided to hang on. Halfway up, I met the barrel coming down and received a blow to the shoulder. I hung on and went to the top where I hit my head on the boom and caught my fingers in the pulley. In the meantime, the barrel hit the ground and burst open, throwing bricks all over. This made the barrel lighter than I, and I started going down at high speed. Halfway down, I met the barrel coming up and received a blow to my shins. I continued down and fell on the bricks, receiving cuts and bruises. At this time, I must have lost my presence of mine because I let go of the rope and the barrel came down yet again and hit me on the head. I respectfully request sick leave.”
That guy had a bad day. And I’m sure that you’ve all had bad days. We’ve all had many bad days. Maybe you feel like your whole life’s like that, or maybe you just feel like you’re going through something right now that just feels catastrophic. I’m reminded of a little essay that JRR Tolkien wrote. I think many of you have heard of JRR Tolkien. It was Tolkien who wrote the classic children’s novel called The Hobbit. It was Tolkien who wrote the highly acclaimed adventure trilogy called The Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien was a committed Christian and a close friend of CS Lewis. Both Lewis and Tolkien were professors at Oxford University. They met together with some other Christian friends in a small group called the Inklings in an Oxford pub called The Eagle and the Child. They met together to encourage one another in their faith and to examine each other’s writings and to help and encourage each other.
CS Lewis wrote many explicitly Christian books, but JRR Tolkien, even though he was a Christian, did not. But he did write two little Christian essays. I have these essays at home. One of the essays Tolkien called Eucatastrophos. It’s a word based on Greek words that Tolkien coined. He made the word up taking two Greek words and joining them, two words that together mean “good catastrophe.” In this article, Tolkien argues that the ultimate example of a good catastrophe is the cross of Jesus Christ. He said it appeared to be a catastrophe when Christ died on the cross. It appeared to be dashing the hopes of all who believed in Him. And yet, from it came the greatest good our world has ever known. From it came the atonement and the offer of forgiveness of sins. And of course, death could not hold Him and Christ rose from the dead in power and glory. It was a eucatastrophe, a good catastrophe.
In the article, Tolkien goes on to argue that, in the life of Christian men and women, there are no real catastrophes. He goes on to argue that, in the life of Christians, all the apparent catastrophes are really good catastrophes, and we have to accept that by faith, that somehow God is working for good. And God wants you to have faith in His promise so that you might be encouraged today.
Now, there’s no meaningless pain and there’s no catastrophe in your life that God is unable to use for good. The Bible tells us that right now, as Christians, “We see in a mirror dimly”—1 Corinthians chapter 13. “We see in a mirror dimly.” The Greek word that’s translated dimly is the word from which we get the word “enigma.” It’s a Greek word that literally means puzzle. What the Bible is saying, what God is saying to us in that passage is that right now, for us as Christians, life seems like a puzzle. Even your life and the things that you’re going through right now might be puzzling to you.
You know what a puzzle is like. You’ve all worked on puzzles. At least when you were children, you worked on puzzles. I think most of us, when we become adults and after many years try working a puzzle again, we’re amazed at how much fun it is. Perhaps you’ve tried to put a puzzle together without looking at the picture. You know how hard that is when you have all the pieces and you just dump them on a table. But if you have no picture, if you don’t have a box with a picture on the cover, how hard is it to put that the pieces together? You virtually can’t. But then when you have the picture and you’re able to take a look at the picture, suddenly it’s easier to begin to put the pieces together and the puzzle becomes less enigmatic.
Well, you see, the Bible tells us that only God has the picture. You don’t have the picture, not even of your own life. I don’t have the picture, not of my own life. Only God has the picture. And what seems enigmatic to me and to you is not enigmatic to God. He knows what He’s doing, and He’s the one putting the puzzle of your life together. He’s the one putting the puzzle of my life together by the power of His Holy Spirit. And He wants us to trust Him. He wants us to trust Him that He can work for good through all situations. Our responsibility is to love Him. “All things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Our responsibility is to love Him. It is to keep the faith, to persevere, and to seek to serve His purposes—to give our time, our talent, our treasure, and trust Him for the result. We are to trust Him in the midst of the ups and downs of life to bring good as we’re faithful.
I’m reminded of one of my favorite stories. It’s the story that concerns Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Most of you’ve heard of Paderewski. He was a famous composer and concert pianist. Shortly after the turn of the century, he made a tour of the Americas. He came to North America and here to the United States, and he was in New York City to put on a great concert there in one of the great concert halls in New York. It was an incredible evening, and guys were there in tuxedos and women had evening dresses. It was a high society thing. The concert hall was packed, and Paderewski was already world renowned. He was backstage and the stage was empty as the people waited. On the stage, there was one thing. There was the great piano, an ebony concert grand Steinway piano with a leather tufted stool.
There was one woman in the audience (a mom) who had brought her nine-year-old son. This little guy was probably the only child in the place, but this mother had brought her nine-year-old son because she had forced him to take piano lessons. He really didn’t seem interested, and she thought if this little guy could just hear Paderewski, he’d have a whole new image of the piano. And so here they are. The concert hasn’t begun yet, and everyone’s talking in the hall. People are seated about and also standing and talking. She notices that her son is kind of antsy, but she gets into a conversation. Suddenly, she looked down and sees her son is gone. She starts looking around for him. And then, to her horror, she suddenly notices that her son has gone up onto the stage and is walking up towards that fancy piano.
He sits down on that leather stool, and suddenly everyone in the audience notices. This little kid sits down and begins to play chopsticks on that grand Steinway. He begins to play chopsticks. People in the crowd begin to kind of shout, “Get that boy away from there! Who’d bring a kid in here anyway? Where’s his mother? Somebody stop him.” Paderewski is backstage. He hears this and begins to understand what’s going on., so he quickly slips out onto the stage behind the child and begins to walk towards the piano. And everyone in the audience becomes silent. They all become silent as the master comes out onto the stage. He begins to walk towards this nine-year-old boy, and the boy doesn’t even know it. He’s just pounding away at chopsticks on the piano.
Paderewski quietly and gently comes up behind him and just gently taps him on the shoulder and says, “Don’t quit. Keep playing. Don’t quit, keep playing.” Then Paderewski reaches around on either side and begins to play this incredible harmony that takes this feeble offering the child is rendering and makes it majestic. The whole audience breaks into applause.
Now, if it’s true that the world is a stage (and it’s oftentimes said that it is), then I think most of us are playing chopsticks. I know I am. Most of us are playing chopsticks. But you see, if we’re Christian then we have a Master and there’s just no telling what He can do when He joins us. There’s no telling what He can do when we give to Him our humble offering (when we give to Him our time, our talent, and our treasure) and it’s joined with His majesty. When that happens there is incomprehensible good. That’s really the promise that’s in this little passage of scripture. That’s the promise that’s in this little passage. Just keep the faith and love Him, serve Him, and trust Him. Trust Him to bring great good by His majesty and by His power.
Thirdly and finally, there’s this other little verse I wanted just to take a brief look at for the sake of encouragement, and its Revelation 22:12. In this passage, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ are, “Behold, I am coming soon.” Aren’t those important words, and isn’t that a great promise? “Behold, I am coming soon.” You see, if you’re a Christian, those words are meant to encourage you. The world’s a mess. The world’s fallen. And yes, we all have a mixture of joy and sorrow, but behold, He’s coming soon. He’s coming soon.
We have the promise described more fully in 1 Thessalonians 4, where the Apostle Paul writes, “I would not have you ignorant, brothers and sisters, concerning those who have fallen asleep (concerning those who have died), that you do not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God through Jesus will take with Him those who have fallen asleep (those who have died). And I declare to you by the Word of God that we who are alive, who are left until His coming, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. But the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise. We who are alive, who are left until His coming, shall be gathered together with them in the cloud to meet the Lord in the air, and we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.”
Then again, in the fifth chapter, the very next chapter, Paul writes, “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep (whether we are alive or dead) when He comes, we will always be with Him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up.”
What this is really about is Heaven. When a Christian brother or sister dies, their body returns to the earth—dust to dust, ashes to ashes—and their spirit leaves that body and goes immediately to Heaven, into the very presence of the Lord. When we who remain alive when Christ comes again receive our new bodies, our loved ones who have passed away in prior times will receive their new bodies at exactly the same time. We’ll all be clothed with new bodies at the second coming of Christ, but what these passages of scripture are really about is Heaven itself and the promise of Heaven.
The Bible says, “Our commonwealth is in Heaven. From it we await a Savior who will change our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body by the power which enables Him to subject all things unto Himself.” That’s the promise of Heaven. Christ wants you to live every single day of your life with the promise of Heaven. With real faith—vital, living faith—you’re going to Heaven. You can’t live on Earth the way God wants you to live unless you really believe in Heaven. You can’t live a life that reflects encouragement unless you really believe in Heaven.
Steve mentioned in his prayer earlier that Jerry Thrush died a week ago. He had a heart attack, and it was sudden and it was unexpected. Some of you knew Jerry. I knew Jerry. Jerry was 67 years old. He was a friend of mine. For years I met with Jerry every month. We had lunch together, and I always left my lunches with Jerry with a smile on my face. When I saw on my calendar that I was going to be meeting with Jerry, I looked forward to it.
Jerry had been a pastor for 19 years. For 19 years he’d been a pastor in Montana. In fact, he pastored the largest Methodist church in the state of Montana. He often smiled about it because he wasn’t a Christian at the time. I mean, he was 19 years in the pastorate and he wasn’t even a Christian. He said he didn’t accept Christ as his Lord and Savior until after he left the pastorate. Then he suddenly understood the gospel, and he gave his heart to Christ. Well, he understood the pastorate and he understood some of the ups and downs of it. He was able to encourage me in kind of a unique way.
Wednesday we had the memorial service, a service of celebration for Jerry. Gene Kissinger and John Patterson did the service. As I came to the service, I of course saw Carol, Jerry’s wife. I know we all pray for her because it’s so hard to feel the pain of separation when you’ve lost your spouse. I noticed that Carol’s friends were there, of course. I noticed that her small group was there. The men and women who have known Carol and Jerry best, the people in her small group, were there. Who’s going to help see Carol through these next weeks and months? Who’s going to help her through? I promise it’s going to be people like those friends in that small group. They’re going to help see her through.
I noticed in talking to some of them that in the midst of their sorrow there was also joy. There was also joy. How could that be? It’s because of the promise of Christ, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and he who lives and believes in Me will never truly die.” That’s the promise. And so, be encouraged. Be encouraged in Christ today, because He has said, “I will never fail you or forsake you. I am with you always, even to the close of the age.” He has promised that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. And He has said, “Behold, I am coming soon.” That’s the promise of Heaven itself. Let’s look to the Lord with the word of prayer.
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your Word, which encourages us. Lord, thank You for Your many promises. Lord, if there are people here in this worship center this morning who are discouraged and down, people who know You and love You and yet they’re just struggling because life seems hard, we pray, Lord Jesus, that by the power of Your Holy Spirit You in some measure would touch their spirit and encourage them and lift them. Lord Jesus, we really look forward to the day that we will see You face-to-face. Until that day, we would be faithful, head to toe—serving You, loving You, and trusting You. We pray these things, Lord Jesus, in Your great and matchless name. Amen.