THANKSGIVING
DR. JIM DIXON
PHILIPPIANS 4
NOVEMBER 28, 1982
It was John D. Gluck, who in 1914 in the city of New York organized the Santa Claus Association and in conjunction with the United States Postal Service arrangements were made for little children all over this country to be able to write letters to Santa Claus through the mail and to have those letters answered. This service has been offered now for 68 years, but some people at the Santa Claus Association are concerned. They’re concerned because through the years, tens of thousands of letters have been written by little children before Christmas asking for various gifts, for various presents. Yet many years after Christmas, they only received one letter from all over this country expressing thanks or gratitude for gifts received. Maybe it’s no big deal since Santa Claus doesn’t exist anyway, but it seems to reflect a lack of thanksgiving even in the hearts of little children.
Right after World War II, a soldier who had served under the command of General George Patton wrote a letter to General Patton. In that letter, he thanked him for his guidance, for his direction and for his protection during those years when he had served under Patton’s command. To his surprise, he got a letter back from General Patton. In that letter, General Patton said that in 31 years of military service, that was the first thank you letter he ever received from any of his men. He said, “I’ve always tried to serve my men and I deeply appreciate your expression of thanks.”
It’s a sad thing when little children are ungrateful, even to an imaginary Santa Claus, but it’s a more serious thing when we as adults do not give thanks to people who have helped us. Yet the Bible tells us that the most serious mistake of all is when we do not give thanks to God.
On this Thanksgiving Sunday, I’d like to share with you three simple teachings regarding the place of Thanksgiving in the life of the Christian. The first teaching is this: thanksgiving is a debt. It’s a debt that we owe God. It’s the only debt that we owe him. God has given us many gifts. He’s given each and every one of us many blessings. We could never repay him. He does not expect that. He does not want that. But there’s one thing he does want, one thing he demands, and that is that we have grateful hearts.
The Bible tells us in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of Luke that on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus passed along between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers met him and standing at a distance they lifted up their voices and they said, “Jesus, master have mercy on us.” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and began thanking God and came and fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and he thanked him. Now he was a Samaritan. And Jesus said, “Did I not heal ten? Where are the nine?” He said, “Was no one found to return and give thanks to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Rise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Where are the nine? You see, Christ waits for us to return and thank Him for the blessings that He has given to us.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica and he said, “I am bound to give thanks to God for you.” The Greek word for bound is the word “opheo” which means indebted. This is the one debt we owe to God, that we would have grateful, thankful hearts.
The second teaching concerning thanksgiving and the life of the Christian is this: thanksgiving is an attitude. It’s not merely something that we express one day a year. It’s not something that we only say to God in prayer on occasion. It’s an attitude that is to permeate our heart and our thought every moment of every day. The Bible says, “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
The Jews had many days of the year that they set aside to give thanks. Early in the year around March, sometimes in early April, the Jews celebrated Passover. On Passover they thanked God for His deliverance, mindful of that time when their ancestors dwelt in Egypt and the angel of death passed over their homes sparing their firstborn. At Passover, they celebrated God’s salvation as they were brought out of to Egypt and brought into the salvation of the promised land of Palestine. But you see, as Christians, we’ve been given far greater blessings. For we have received deliverance, not in the sense of bondage to Egypt, but we have received deliverance from bondage to sin and death. We have been given a salvation that is infinitely greater than that given the Jews. We have been given access to heaven itself, how much more should we give thanks.
50 days after the Passover, the Jews celebrated Pentecost. On Pentecost, they thanked God for the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. As Christians, of course, we’ve been given a far greater blessing and a far greater revelation as we have received the will of God as expressed in the Old and New Testaments. And as Christians, as those who have been born anew through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of life, we have actually been given the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and write His law and His will on our hearts. How much more should we thank God for Pentecost?
Then later in the year, there was another very special feast, and it was the Feast of Tabernacles. On this day, the Jews thanked God for their homes and for their dwellings. They commemorated the ancient days, the times long ago when their ancestors had dwelled in tents as they lived as nomadic tribes wandering in the wilderness. But as Christians living in America in the 20th century, how much greater are our homes than those tents in which the nomadic Jewish tribes dwelt? How much greater are our homes than the homes which the Jews dwelled in in Palestine all these years? How much more should we thank God?
Five days before the Feast of Tabernacles, the Jews celebrated Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. On that day, of course, was a time when the Jews thanked God for forgiveness. They thanked God for their cleansing. As you well know, it was on that day that the priest went into the Holy of Holies in the temple into the innermost court, and there in the presence of God, he sprinkled the blood of animals upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, symbolically expressing forgiveness and atonement. Then the priest, as you know, placed his hand upon the scapegoat, symbolically imparting the sins of the people upon that animal. Then the scapegoat was led into the wilderness, symbolically expressing the concept of the removal of their sins from them. But you see, we have been given a far greater blessing because Jesus Christ has not merely removed our sins symbolically. He has removed our sins in reality and in truth. He has offered his own blood in our behalf, in the heavenly sanctuary of which the earthly tabernacle was a mere copy or shadow. We have been cleansed and forgiven, all of us who believe in Him as Lord of life. He is our scapegoat, and He has removed our sins from us as far as the East is from the West. How much more should we be thankful to God?
At the end of the year, the Jews celebrated Hanukkah, an intertestamental feast sometimes called the festival of lights. At Hanukkah, they thanked God for the temple. They were mindful of its dedication, of its cleansing that took place in 165 BC under Judas Maccabeus. The temple was cleansed from its previous desolation and sacrilege that had taken place under the Syrians and the Seleucids and Antiochus Epiphanes, and they thanked God for the temple and its, of course, cleansing.
But you see, as Christians, we’ve been given a far greater blessing because God has made our very bodies His temple. He has come to dwell within us by His Holy Spirit. We have been cleansed and dedicated under the kingdom of Christ and the work of the ministry. How much more should we be thankful? The three great Jewish feasts, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles were also celebrations and thanksgiving for the fruit of the earth and for the planting and the reaping. Yet no people that have ever lived on the face of this earth, no generation that lived in any part of the earth, was ever more blessed than we are blessed with the fruit of the earth living here in the United States. How much more should we give thanks? So you see, God calls upon us to have thankful attitudes day by day. In the midst of every circumstance of life, He would have us focus on our blessings and not upon our problems.
You see, there’s one thing that God cannot stand in the Christian, and that is grumbling and complaining. We’re told in the Bible in the third chapter of the book of Hebrews, and in the 95th Psalm, we are told that God was very provoked with the children of Israel. He had brought them out of Egypt, but He was provoked with them because they were grumbling and they were complaining. In the midst of all of the blessings that He had given to them, they had ungrateful hearts. He had brought them miraculously out of the hand of Pharaoh, and He had brought them through the Red Sea as if upon dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do the same, they drowned. He had surrounded them by His presence, by the Shekinah glory, as the glory cloud was before them and behind them, you’ll recall, He gave them the supernatural drink as they drank from the supernatural rock. He gave them supernatural food as manna fell from heaven. He raised up leaders, He guided them, He protected them. And in spite of all of His blessings, they grumbled and they complained.
We’re told in the 14th chapter in the Book of Numbers that even as the Israelites were being brought towards the promised land, they sent 12 spies into Palestine to see what it was like. And those 12 spies came back and they said, “It is indeed a land of milk and honey, just like the Lord has said. But there’s one problem. There’s giants in the land, there’s Nephilim, the sons of Anak. We were as grasshoppers in their sight. All the multitudes began to grumble and complain saying, “Why did we leave Egypt? Why did God lead us out of Egypt? We would’ve been better there. At least we would’ve been safe.” And only Joshua and Caleb wanted to continue on into the promised land. So God was provoked with them and He sworn his wrath, that that generation would never enter His rest. You may have giants in your life. You may be grumbling and complaining, but you see God doesn’t want you to focus on those. He wants you to focus on His promises. He wants you to have a thankful attitude.
You’ve probably heard about the woman who was in a restaurant. She was grumbling and she was complaining, nothing pleased her. She complained about the food, she complained about the waitress and the service. The food was pretty good and the service was pretty good, but she was just complaining. She went to pay her bill and she went to the cash register and she complained about the amount. When she was all done, the woman at the cash register said, “Have a nice day.” She said, “I’m sorry, I got other plans.”
Some people are like that. They just approach every day with a negative attitude. As you’ve heard, I’m sure, some people light up a room whenever they go into it. Other people light up a room when they leave it. The choice is ours. God has given us that choice. He has called us to have thankful hearts.
There’s a fruit in Africa called the taste berry. According to legend, if you eat this taste berry, everything else that you taste in the next couple of three hours after that tastes good and sweet. The taste berry is so sweet that it just kind of flavors your mouth and you can even eat bitter things afterwards and they taste good. God wants us to know that Thanksgiving is like that. When you begin to taste of a thankful heart, when you begin to partake in Thanksgiving, every circumstance of life suddenly seems a little better. It suddenly seems a little brighter. That’s what God has called us to. He’s called us to have thankful attitudes.
In the scripture passage which we had today, the Apostle Paul said, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there be any excellence, if there be anything worthy of praise, think on these things.” So that’s what Christ has called us to: thankful attitudes day by day.
Thirdly, and finally, thanksgiving is a behavior. The Bible says that as Christians, we are to conduct ourselves as reflects grateful hearts. Two weeks ago was Drew’s birthday, and Drew was five years old and he was really excited about it. In fact, the night before his birthday, it was in the middle of the night, we heard noise in his room. Barb and I went into his room and it was 3:00 AM and he was on the floor playing with stuff. Barb said, “What are you doing?” He said, “I’m cleaning my room.” She said, “Well, what are you cleaning your room at three o’clock in the morning for?” And he said, “Well, I don’t want to have to clean it on my birthday.” So he stayed up the rest of the night, which we weren’t real excited about. The next morning as I left (we had agreed to open his presents in the evening) he was just standing there looking at his presents and you could tell he could just hardly wait.
Well, that night he opened his gifts and one of the gifts we gave him was a little suitcase to keep his Legos in. Now you all know what Legos are, little things you build things with. So we gave him this suitcase and two days later we heard this pounding noise in his room. We went in there and Drew was jumping all over his suitcase like it was some kind of a trampoline, and he broke it. So we took his Legos away from him for a week and we told him that when we give him things, we expect him to be thankful and we expect his thanks to be expressed in the way that he treats them.
God is like that you see. He gives us many blessings. He gives us many gifts, but He expects us if we’re truly thankful, He expects that to be reflected in our behavior in the way we treat them. If you’re really thankful for your wife, if you’re really thankful for the woman that God has given you, then it’s going to be expressed in a special way you treat her. If you’re really thankful for your husband or for your children, if you thank God for them, then that’s going to be reflected in your behavior and you’re going to spend time with them and you’re going to, you’re going to rejoice in them. If you’re thankful for your body, then that’s going to be reflected in the way you treat your body, you’re not going to abuse it. If you’re thankful for forgiveness, if you’re thankful for God’s grace and God’s mercy, then you’re not going to go out and sin willfully and blatantly because you see, you are thankful and you don’t want to presume upon God’s grace. If you are thankful for the message of salvation, if you are thankful for the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, you’re not going to hide that message, but you’re going to begin to share it with your loved ones and people you come to know and care about.
So thanksgiving is a behavior that is reflected in the way we treat things. In the Bible, in the 10th chapter of the Book of Mark, we’re told that Jesus was coming out of Jericho with multitudes all around him. There was a blind beggar sitting at the gate of the city. This blind man called Bartimaeus heard all these multitudes passing by, and he asked what it meant. The crowds told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He began to cry out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.” The crowds rebuked him and they told him to be silent, but he began to shout all the louder “Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me.” Over all the noise of the multitude and the crowd, Jesus heard him. Jesus commanded that he’d be brought to Him. The people who were around the blind man said, “Take heart, the master is calling you.” The crowd split and the man was brought to Him. Jesus said, “What would you have me to do for you?” The blind man said, “Lord, if you will, that I might receive my sight.” Jesus said, “I will, receive your sight” and he was healed. The Bible tells us that that man began thanking God and following Jesus because you see, if we’re truly thankful it begins to be reflected in our behavior.
There’s no greater expression of thanks than that we could ever give the Father than this: that we follow His Son, that we would be willing to be His disciples. So we have these three teachings from the scriptures concerning the role of thanksgiving in the life of the Christian. Thanksgiving is a debt. It’s the only debt that we owe God. We could never repay Him for His gifts and for His blessings, but He demands one thing: that we have grateful hearts. The second teaching is that Thanksgiving is an attitude. God can’t stand grumbling and complaining. In the midst of every circumstance of life, God calls upon us to reflect a thankful attitude.
Finally, thanksgiving is a behavior. It’s reflected in the way we treat the things that God has given us. It’s expressed supremely when we follow Jesus Christ and we willfully become His disciples.
This is Communion Sunday. Communion is called many things throughout the Church of Christ but one title that is given to communion is the title, the Eucharist. The title, the Eucharist, comes from a Greek word meaning “eucharisto,” which means thanksgiving. Because you see, communion is a time when we give thanks to God for all that He has done for us, for His many blessings on our life, perhaps blessings that we’ve taken for granted. Most of all, it is a time when we thank God for the gift of His Son and for the gift of forgiveness and for the expression of mercy and grace that are offered through Christ.
So as we come to the communion table, we would invite all of you who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of life to join in, to receive of the bread and the cup. We do have many children with us today. The third graders through the sixth graders are with us this morning. They learned about communion and the meaning of communion last week, and they’re here to join in today, and we welcome them. If you have little children with you and they’ve reached an age of understanding and they understand what it means to partake of the body and the blood of Christ, and if they’ve asked Christ to be their Lord and Savior, then you should welcome them to partake. But if they don’t understand, then you should have them wait. Before we share communion, let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.