10/26/08 - Pentecost 24 - 1 Thess. 3:7-13

REJOICE IN THE BLESSINGS GIVEN TO OTHERS
- Thank the Lord that he blesses others
- Ask the Lord to bless them even more

68 years ago this congregation officially began its first worship service. And 68 long years of working in God’s harvest fields later, this congregation today has a total of 49 members. Compare that to a different WELS congregation in a different town that started services only 25 years ago. Today the Lord has blessed them with over 470 members. Less than half the number of years but more than 9 times the number of members. What is the first thought that comes to your mind? Jealousy? Discouragement? A feeling of unfairness?... This congregation have been on Synod subsidy now for the better part of a decade and it doesn’t look like we’ll be self-supporting anytime soon. Compare that to a different WELS congregation in a different town that was once granted Synod subsidy just like we were. But the Lord blessed that congregation in such a way so that they went from almost completely dependant on the Synod to fully self-supporting within a five year time frame. And they are now thriving on their own. What is the first thought that comes to your mind? Jealousy? Discouragement? A feeling of self pity?... We have been in a storefront now for 8 years. But in that same amount of time the Lord has blessed a different WELS congregation in a different town to such an extent that they not only moved out of their temporary facility, but were able to buy property, build a brand new church building, call another pastor, and a staff minister to serve the growing number of people coming through their doors. What is the first thought that comes to your mind? Jealousy? Discouragement? A feeling of “why can’t we be blessed like that?”
Whenever we see how the Lord is blessing others, seemingly over and above the way he is blessing us, it is natural to be a little jealous, a little discouraged, a little confused about why the Lord is blessing them in a way he has yet to bless us. For some reason it is hard for us to be happy for other Christians when we don’t get to share in those same blessings. And so I want you to listen to the Apostle Paul as he writes to the believers in Thessalonica. Listen to his joy. Listen to his thanks. Listen to his happiness for blessings that he did not receive, but for the blessings that the Lord had given to others. “Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?” Paul was bubbling over in thanks and praise to God because of all the blessings he had given the Thessalonian church. Paul was not jealous. Paul was not discouraged. Paul was not worried about what he wasn’t blessed with. He was overjoyed with how the Lord had blessed the Thessalonians even though he himself was suffering a lot of distress and persecution at the time.
Paul wrote this letter during his 2nd missionary journey. A journey in which he was thrown in prison, beaten, and flogged in Philippi, chased out of the city of Thessalonica by jealous townspeople, and brought to court by an angry Jewish mob in Corinth - the city in which Paul most likely wrote the letter we are reading today. Paul was, without a doubt, under a lot of distress and persecution during the time he wrote to the Thessalonians. His ministry wasn’t going so smoothly and his calling from the Lord wasn’t exactly easy. But when he saw how the Lord had blessed the believers in Thessalonica, when he got word about the strength of their faith despite the attacks of the devil, when he knew that they were standing firm in the Lord - he was overjoyed. He didn’t care what was happening to him. He didn’t care that he wasn’t exactly being blessed in the same way they were being blessed. Rather Paul thanked the Lord for the work he was doing for the Thessalonians without even a hint of jealousy.
I wish I were more like Paul. Because I get jealous. I sometimes get a little jealous of the way the Lord blesses other congregations in ways he hasn’t yet blessed us. The Lord blessed one of my classmates recently with the opportunity to baptize 5 people in one service. And instead of immediately thanking the Lord - I thought to myself, “Wow. I’ve only baptized a total of 6 people in almost 2 and a half years and he gets to baptize five in one day!” I was a little jealous. The Lord blessed the work of a congregation on the east coast with a VBS of over a hundred kids last year. And instead of immediately thanking the Lord I remembered that we had about 5 kids at our VBS here last summer. I was a little jealous. I went to a wedding this past July at large congregation in Wisconsin. They had a beautiful new church addition that had an entryway with couches and tables and lamps and plants that covered an area roughly the size of our rectangular worship space right here! And, of course, I wasn’t overcome with happiness and joy that the Lord had blessed my brothers and sisters with a wonderful place to worship his name and invite the community, instead I thought, “If their entryway is this size, why are we having such a problem building something much more important?” I was a little jealous.
And you get jealous of the blessings other people receive too, don’t you? Maybe it’s the blessings given to other congregations that we don’t have, or blessings other families receive of peace at home or physical wealth or happiness that you don’t see in your family, or maybe you get jealous of the blessings of skills and talents and abilities that other members of this church seem to have in abundance, while you seem to go through life with barely a handful. We get jealous of the Lord’s love! And can there be a more unchristian attitude than that? We actually have hurt feelings when the Lord pours out his blessings on someone else other than us! We want those blessings. We want the same kind of gifts. We want just as much as our fellow Christians if not more. How much more selfish could we be that we wouldn’t want others to be blessed any more than we are? That’s such a jealous, selfish, unchristian attitude - especially compared to the attitude Paul displays here with the Thessalonians. “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?” That’s the attitude of a Christian: joyful and happy and content with the blessings God has given to others. And that is actually the same attitude Jesus displayed with us.
Because what did Jesus gain for himself by coming to this earth to that we would be blessed with heaven? He gave up his glory, his right to be praised, his seat of honor… He didn’t gain anything by becoming a human being. The only ones who were blessed because of what Jesus had become were us. What did Jesus gain for himself by going through all of the temptations and troubles and hardships of this life so that we would be blessed with peace? What did Jesus gain for himself by putting his life on the cross so that we would be blessed with the victory over death? What did Jesus gain for himself by rising from the dead so that we would be blessed with our own resurrection on the Last Day? Jesus didn’t gain a thing. It didn’t benefit Jesus at all to come down to this earth in a human body, to suffer pain and temptations, to be crucified on the cross, or to rise from the dead. Because he was already true God. He was already the Victor and the King of all creation. He didn’t have to earn anything else. He didn’t have to win anything else. He didn’t have to prove anything else. Jesus had it all and he didn’t need anything more. And so Jesus didn’t gain one single thing for himself by all of that trouble. The only reason he went through all that trouble is so that we would be blessed. And he’s happy about that! He’s actually thrilled that he could go through so much pain and suffering so that we would receive the benefits. Jesus is overjoyed that we get everything and he really gets nothing out of it. He’s content with that because he cares for his children so much. He wants us to have all the blessings. And he wants us to have even more of those blessings. That’s the unselfish love of Christ. And that’s the unselfish love of Christians.
Look again at the unselfish love Paul displayed to the Thessalonians. He not only thanked the Lord for the work God had done among them, he actually prayed that the Lord would bless them even more! “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith… May the Lord make your love increase and overflow… May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.” Paul prayed that more blessings would come to them! He wanted the Thessalonians to be blessed by their Savior even more than what they had already received! Now that is unselfish love. That is the complete opposite of jealousy. And Paul could pray that way because he remembered who these Thessalonians were: fellow forgiven children of God. They were his brothers and sisters in Christ. They were family. And so of course he prayed that the blessings for his family would increase.
Remember who your brothers and sisters are: those of us here in this building, Christian families that you know, congregations across this country and around this globe. These believers are your family. These people are fellow forgiven children of God. And so jealousy has no place when your family members are blessed. Thanksgiving has a place. Praise has a place. Prayer has a place. But not jealousy. Because these people are those whom you will meet for the first time or for the next time in heaven. You will one day be celebrating your salvation right along side these Christians. And the more God blesses them now, the more people will be brought to faith and will be gathered together in heaven then. And so forget about yourself for a second and pray that the Lord blesses his people. Pray that the Lord piles more and more blessings on those Christians who already have them. Pray that their love would increase, their hearts would be strengthened, and their ministries would thrive.
And that’s going to be a hard thing for you to do. It’s a hard thing for me to do. Our sinful natures don’t want to allow us to be happy about the blessings others receive. Our sinful natures don’t want us to thank the Lord for the gifts they’ve been given. Our sinful natures don’t want us to ask the Lord to give those people even more! But what a great thing that the Lord would bless our family members that way! And why wouldn’t we want the Lord to keep that up? And of course we would. We want him to bless our brothers and sisters - and we know that the Lord will hear our prayers every time.
The Lord heard Paul’s prayers. About six months after Paul wrote this first letter to the church in Thessalonica, he wrote the second letter to them. And by the words he uses in 2nd Thessalonians, it seems that the Lord had answered his prayers and blessed that congregation even more than before. “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers,” Paul said at the beginning of his next letter, “and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.” This is exactly what Paul had prayed for! “Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith” (2 Thess. 1:3-4). Don’t be afraid to boast about what the Lord is doing for other churches in our Synod and other families that you know and other members all around you. And don’t hesitate to include them in your prayers every night. This is your family, after all. Rejoice in the blessings given to others. Thank the Lord for the work he is doing for them. Ask the Lord to bless them even more than before. And know that those same Christians you are praying for are praying the same thing for you.
Amen.

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Thess. 5:23