Scripture: Acts 14:1-20
That great theologian, Snoopy (picture), had some powerful words about Thanksgiving. In one strip, Snoopy is getting dog food for his Thanksgiving Day dinner and he’s aware that everyone else in the family is inside having turkey. He gets a thoughtful look and says to himself: “How about that? Everyone is eating turkey today, but just because I’m a dog I get dog food.” He trots away and positions himself on top of his doghouse and concludes: “Of course, it could have been worse — I could have been born a turkey.”
Those options are the two opposite possibilities when it comes to viewing our personal situation. Two people can be in the same family, in the same household, with the same parents, with the same economic, physical, and spiritual advantages, and assess their situations in different ways. One will complain, and the other will give thanks.
We’re in the Thanksgiving Season. This morning before we get caught up in the Turkey Trot, we want to stop and prepare our church and our hearts for thankfulness. It’s sad that we relegate gratitude to one day. Even then, our culture is moving away from any gratitude. There is a lot of evidence that in our country our spiritual insight has grown dim. We lack the great eyes of our Pilgrim fathers, who not only endured great adversity and declared the first Thanksgiving, but also set the precedent of having athletic events along with their turkey.
When the Lions and Packers run out onto Ford Field (picture) on Thanksgiving, they’ll be carrying on a tradition that has its roots in Plymouth, where games became part of the holiday very early on. During the week-long Thanksgiving celebration both the Pilgrims and Native Americans competed by playing sports. One competition consisted of the men target shooting to determine who was the best shot.
Today football is our Thanksgiving game. In 1916, one particular football game gave the players a chance to combine thanksgiving and adversity. If you’re a football trivia fan, you may know that the most one-sided football game in college history involved Georgia Tech. That year they played little Cumberland University. The Tech team was a mighty football powerhouse and rolled over Cumberland by a score of 222 to 0.
That was where the thanksgiving came in. Cumberland was very thankful when the game was over. Tech beat the Cumberland players to a pulp. The game wasn’t actually completed due to the Cumberland players being unwilling to take any more, and sometime during the fourth quarter the game was ended by mutual consent.
While they were still playing, the Cumberland quarterback, Ed Edwards, fumbled the snap from center. As the Tech linemen charged into his backfield, the ball began to get kicked around on the ground. Edwards yelled to his backs, “Pick it up! Pick it up!” Edwards’ fullback, seeing the Tech monsters rush in who’d been battering him all day, yelled back, “You dropped it! You pick it up!”
Thanksgiving and adversity aren’t strangers in life, nor in that microcosm of it we call football. It’s wise to recognize that when times are hard and you have nowhere to turn but up, you discover that up is the place you should have been turning from the start.
Of course, we’re no longer permitted to be as thankful as we once were, at least not in the public square. It’s politically incorrect to be grateful to Someone you can’t see. It’s why instead of Thanksgiving, it’ll be referred to as “Turkey Day.” Personally, I doubt the turkey is thankful.
I heard about a fourth grader who stood up to give a report concerning the origins of Thanksgiving. But the boy was acutely conscious of church and state issues, so he said: “The pilgrims came here seeking freedom of you know what. When they landed, they gave thanks to you know who. Because of them, we can worship each Sunday you know where.”
Well, we are you know where, and for this Sunday I want to call your attention to an event in Acts 14, and the subsequent thankful reflection on the same event made years later by the Apostle Paul. What we are looking at is the best use of the tongue. It’s Tuning your tongue to thankfulness.
In Acts 14 Paul is on one of his missionary journeys. Now what happened during these events is what some people would call a bad day. Being stoned and left for dead isn’t exactly a fun experience. Nonetheless, what Paul made of this later on shows that it’s not what happens to us that matters, it’s how we look at what happened. There are always two ways of looking at the same episode. If you’re taking notes…
Option One: Complaining. Complaining is one way to handle life. It’s one many of us feel we have a right to. It’s part of being an American. In fact, it takes something unusual to keep us from expressing our complaints.
Out west, a cowboy was driving down a dirt road, his dog riding in back of the pickup, his faithful horse in the trailer behind. He failed to negotiate a curve and had a terrible accident. Sometime later, a highway patrol officer came on the scene. An animal lover, he saw the horse first. Realizing the serious nature of its injuries, he drew his service revolver and put the animal out of its misery. He walked further around the accident scene and found the dog, also hurt critically. He couldn’t bear to hear it whine in pain, so he ended the dog’s suffering as well with a well-placed bullet. Finally, he located the cowboy—who had suffered several broken bones and was bleeding profusely—off in the weeds. “Hey, are you okay?” the cop asked. The cowboy took one look at the smoking revolver in the trooper’s hand and quickly replied, “Never felt better in my life, officer!”
God takes a dim view of complaining. The Bible teaches complaining is a sin. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14-15). Later, in referring to the events as the Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, when God took the lives of several thousand people in one day, Paul explained that God did so because of the sins these people were engaging in, which were so terrible as to merit that loss of life. He specifically enumerates five sins that the Israelites were engaging in. They were: • Craving evil things • Idolatry • Immorality • Tempting the Lord • Complaining. The first four we might expect; but God thinks that complaining is right out of the same pit.
Paul wrote the Corinthians, “But with most of [the Israelites] God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not…complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer” (1 Corinthians 10:5-11). God actually took the lives of some of His people because of their bellyaching, since He’d proved His faithfulness over and over again and they were never satisfied.
You might say that we complain when we forget two things: first, what God has done for us in the past, and second, that He hasn’t been kicked off the throne just yet. Or, as someone put it: “Don’t grumble that you don’t get what you want. Be grateful you don’t get what you deserve.” God prefers that, instead of grumbling, we engage instead in a better option.
Option Two: Giving of Thanks. Some thirty years after the events of Acts 14, right before his death, Paul looked back on them in his commendation of his young friend Timothy: “But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra — what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.” (2 Timothy 3:10-11). The key words are “out of them all the Lord delivered me.” He says this out of his concern to encourage his friend, who will have to face many of the same things. I want you to remember that expression: “Out of them all the Lord delivered me.” Paul is grateful for how God delivered him, to begin with…
From the slander of misguided people (Acts 14:1-7). The ministry of Paul and Barnabas produced fruit greater than they could have imagined.
Acts 14 tells us that “they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed.” They shared the gospel and people believed. There were many conversions in Iconium. That’s when the trouble started. They immediately began to be slandered by those who hadn’t believed. It made the work harder. The response from this missionary team was to stay in the city long enough to have their work vindicated by God: “Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.”
At the beginning their work was just hard, but after a while the city became polarized. On every street corner people were choosing sides. Finally, they fled for their lives. They took the counsel of Jesus, who said, “When you are persecuted in this city, flee to the next.” This isn’t cowardice. Paul and Barnabas had already amply demonstrated their great courage. This is utilitarian. It takes twenty or thirty years to grow a live missionary to replace a dead one. When we have a choice, we avoid taking unnecessary risks that will slow the progress of the gospel. So, Paul’s memory includes the deliverance from the slander of a misguided people. It also includes…
For delivery from the blasphemy of deceived people (vss. 8-18). The danger here was cooperating in what was blasphemy. After the lame man was healed, the people drew a horrible conclusion: Paul and Barnabas were the pagan gods they worshiped in Lystra and were paying them a visit.
If this seems like an extremely odd conclusion to draw, you should know that there was a legend in Lystra that helps explain it. The people in Lystra believed that Zeus and Hermes had visited the city once before. The story said that these gods, seeking hospitality, came to the area and were rejected by the population except for one poor elderly couple named Philemon and Baucis. These people not only took Zeus and Hermes into their own home but gave up their small supper in order to serve it to the deities. The gods were so appreciative that they transformed the couple’s humble cottage into a magnificent temple with a gold roof. They then turned on the rest of the city and punished them by sending a flood upon their homes.
It’s apparent that if sincerity of belief is all that is required to make something true, these Lystrans have the truth. They’re opening their hearts and their checkbooks. They really believe in their religious traditions. It’s difficult to say anything negative about sincerity. Sincerity is important.
A young mother was once trying to impress upon her small son the importance of going to church each Sunday. It being near Thanksgiving, she pointed out a famous painting of the Pilgrims going to church and said, “See how the little Pilgrim children went to church with their mommies and daddies. They liked to go.” “Oh yeah,” replied the unconvinced little fellow, “then why is their daddy carrying that gun?”
Sincerity doesn’t establish truth. Sincerely drinking Draino while thinking it’s medicine won’t save your life. These Lystrans were very sincere, but misguided. They didn’t want to be flooded out again, so they were open to the possibility of a re-visit by Hermes and Zeus.
Of course, Paul and Barnabas were horrified at this. They were so grieved that they rushed into the crowd and urged them not to offer sacrifices.
They were speaking Greek, the common trade language, so the crowd, at least some of them got the message. While they’re doing this, they use it as a vehicle to bear witness to the true and living God. So, Paul was grateful for God’s deliverance from the slander of misguided people, and from the blasphemy of deceived people. He was grateful as well for deliverance…
From the violence of hateful people (vss. 19-20). The danger came from people in Antioch and Iconium who made it a point to bring persecution on the messengers of the gospel. “Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.”
Notice the fickleness of the crowds. One week they’re hailing Paul and Barnabas as gods, the next they’re trying to kill them. These people from Antioch and Iconium were serious. Antioch is a hundred miles away. Imagine walking a hundred miles just to take part in a stoning. Barnabas apparently wasn’t around when the stoning took place, or he would have been left for dead, too.
The response in this case was to just keep on with the work, and move to Derbe, the next city. “When the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.” Do you remember what Paul said later to Timothy? “What persecutions I endured! And out of them all the Lord delivered me.” This is delivered thirty years after these events to a young man named Timothy, who would have been familiar with these things himself.
Do you know where Timothy grew up? Lystra. Timothy knew these events as well as his own history. So, Paul looks back and remembers his deliverance from these crises. But it’s apparent that he regards “deliverance” in a different light than you and I usually do. I usually think of being delivered from something as not having to go through it, or at least being rescued before the worst of it has happened.
Paul, however, went through all these hardships. He suffered the cruelty and abuse of the people in Iconium, both when he was there and when he left to move the ministry over to Lystra. He suffered the great discomfort of having pagans identify him as a god and attempt to offer sacrifices to him. He was stoned by those same people after they turned on him.
So how was he “delivered”? He wasn’t spared the experience; he was spared through the experience. He lost a comfortable life, but he gained a comforted life. Paul knew that the critical thing about gratitude is not just the return God gets from it, but the effect it has in your own heart.
The Pilgrims, after sailing across the Atlantic on the Mayflower, landed in what became Massachusetts in December of 1620. The Pilgrims lived off of their provisions through the first hard New England winter, but about half of them died. They planted a communal garden in the summer, but the settlers didn’t know how to plant Indian corn and the crop was small.
In November 1621, more pilgrims arrived without adequate provisions. Governor William Bradford was worried when he calculated that the food would only last about three months, or about six months at half rations. After the second hard winter another ship arrived in May 1622, with seven more pilgrims and some letters, but no food. The food supply was almost gone, and these early settlers were starving.
In the summer of 1622, another ship arrived which brought some food. The ration was now a quarter of a pound of bread each day per person. Because of their hunger, some of the ungodly among the settlers were going to their community garden and stealing the food. The thieves were dealt with severely when caught, but the food supply kept dwindling.
The communal garden idea wasn’t working, so in early 1623 the settlers decided to parcel out the land to families and let all families tend their own crops. Governor William Bradford (picture) wrote that everyone worked harder under this plan. “The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn, who before would allege weakness and disabilities; whom to have compelled would have been through great tyranny and oppression.” Hunger is a powerful motivator.
After planting their seed in the spring of 1623, they’re deeply concerned that the crops might not grow. Governor Bradford noted that all the families prayed, “Lord, give us this day our daily bread.” When the next ship arrived in the summer of 1623, the passengers were shocked and frightened by the look of the starving pilgrims.
In the fall of 1623, however, the harvest of the pilgrims’ private gardens was a great success. In this spirit of deep gratitude to God, Governor Bradford declared a day of thanksgiving. Harvests were plentiful in the years to come, but the pilgrims put five kernels of corn by their dinner plates each Thanksgiving to remind them of the great suffering endured by the first settlers. Thanksgiving is always in order for Christ-followers. Complaining is not.
Conclusion: If we’re going to tune our hearts to speak words of thanksgiving rather than words of complaining, we must have Three Tuning Principles firmly in mind.
Don’t let prosperity dictate your beliefs; let biblical truth interpret prosperity. The Pilgrims didn’t wait until the crops came in to decide whether God was good or not. Their theology informed their attitudes. That’s what it takes to be a thankful person. You can’t wait for events to unfold before you decide if God is good or not. There will always be events that will permit us to conclude that God is harsh and severe and hurtful. We can’t be so foolish as to wait for prosperity to decide our theology. We have to let biblical truth help us interpret our prosperity. The Bible teaches us that if we are prosperous, God is good; and that if we are not prosperous, God is still good. We make up our minds on the basis of truth, not experiences.
We must realize that the gospel is the source of joy and gratitude. The gospel is good news because it brings a person into the everlasting and ever-increasing joy of Jesus Christ. He is not merely the rope that pulls us from the threatening storms. He is the solid rock under our feet, and the air in our lungs, and the beat of our heart, and the warm sun on our skin, and the song in our ears, and the arms of our Savior. It’s why Christ-followers should be the most joyful and grateful individuals in this world.
Maybe you’re wondering, what’s the gospel? The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over His enemies, so that there’s now no condemnation for those who believe, only everlasting joy. That’s the gospel.
Deliverance means being saved from shallowness as well as from suffering. It was a lesson Paul learned early. Gratitude must not be based on what we’ve escaped in this world. It doesn’t have to be limited to what we’ve avoided. It can be because we’re different people than we would have been had we not learned that God can comfort us after hardship just as well as He can prevent us from going through it. Deliverance can mean being saved from suffering or can mean being saved from shallowness. That’s a principle especially important when we begin to remember those things that we can praise God for and all we have to be grateful for.
Dennis Prager (picture) has spent a great deal of time studying people who are happy and why they are that way. He wrote a book entitled, Happiness is a Serious Business. I don’t know where Dennis Prager is spiritually. He simply discovered this by observation:
“I’ve spent years studying happiness, and one of the most significant conclusions I’ve drawn is this: There is little correlation between the circumstances of people’s lives and how happy they are. A moment’s reflection should make this obvious. We all know people who have had a relatively easy life yet are essentially unhappy. And we know people who have suffered a great deal but generally remain happy. The first secret is gratitude. All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it’s truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.
The second secret is realizing that happiness is a byproduct of something else. The most obvious sources are those pursuits that give our lives purpose—anything from studying insects to playing baseball. The more passions we have, the more happiness we’re likely to experience.
Finally, the belief that something permanent transcends us and that our existence has some larger meaning can help us be happier. We need a spiritual or religious faith, or a philosophy of life.”
He’s right! As Christ-followers, we have something eternal that transcends us and this short life. True gratitude begins with personally experiencing God’s grace! Because of that we have a purpose and confidence that our lives are part of something so much greater than ourselves. As believers, we’re so blessed even in suffering because we know Who is in control and that it’s all temporary! It’s why we must tune our tongues to praise God! Christians must be known as the most grateful individuals! Christ-followers must tune their tongues to thankfulness!