Giving Thanks to Our King

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 24th of November, 2024, the Sunday before Thanksgiving and Christ the King Sunday.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, today is the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and this is also “Christ the King” Sunday on our Christian calendar.  In his 1st letter to Timothy, Paul refers to Jesus as the King of kings and Lord of lords.  This accolade is also given to Jesus twice in the Book of Revelation.

So today we celebrate our King over all kings, our Lord over all lords: Christ Jesus.  And we thank Him for all He has done for us.

Speaking of thanking our King, if you were to do a quick search through the New American Standard Bible, you will find that the two words “give thanks” appear 77 times.  While the Psalms contain 42 of those instances, another 13 are in the letters of the Apostle Paul.  One of these should be quite familiar.  In his first letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul encourages us to give thanks in all things, in good times and bad, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us.

Please listen and follow along to what Paul wrote in his 1st letter to his young protégé Timothy, from the first 8 verses of the 2nd chapter, and I’ll be reading this from the New American Standard Bible – some other scripture I’ll be quoting comes from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…

1 First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made in behalf of all people, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed as a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger and dispute. 

--1 Timothy 2:1-8 (NASB)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for watching over this church family all these years.  You have blessed us so richly, and continue to bless us in so many ways.  Thank You, Father, for Your undeserved love and mercy.  We try to do that which is pleasing in Your sight.  But the busyness of the world just crashes down on us too often.  Our spirits become wearied by all the evilness around us filling our views, all the people trying to fool us into believing what just isn’t true.  Forgive us these times, Father.  Please help us draw closer to You and Jesus.  Help us be more obedient to You and Your Son’s command to spread Your word and the Good News it bears.  Give us the courage and the will to step out into the world witnessing to the non-believers, sharing the Gospel and showing Your love.  Please forgive us when we hesitate to speak and act on behalf of You and our Lord Jesus.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand Your message today.  Help us share the Good News of forgiveness and everlasting life in our daily walk.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Listen to the words of William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony, when he proclaimed a day of giving thanks:  

“To All Ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”

That applies to us in a couple of ways.  We are Pilgrims, by name – Pilgrim Reformed Church, the Pilgrim Church family – and also because we are merely pilgrims, on a long journey to heaven, our true home.  We have remained as a vibrant family for nearly 270 years now, and I believe we can attribute that to God’s hand.

And we continue to raise significant funds to keep this church going and to reach out into the greater community offering a helping hand, which we can consider an abundant harvest.  Family, I think it safe to say that God is good, all the time.  And all the time, God is good.

While giving thanks to the Almighty has been practiced by various peoples all over the world for many centuries, Thanksgiving Day as we celebrate it is a purely American tradition.  It was established as a national holiday by numerous presidential proclamations and a joint resolution of Congress.

But did you know that Thanksgiving has its roots in English practices dating from the Protestant Reformation.  So we, the Reformed Church, as a direct offset of the Reformation movement, can stake a claim to Thanksgiving.

Now we all know that, as Paul says, we should give thanks at all times, every day, not just one day a year.  He also tells us that giving thanks and praying for all people is good and acceptable in the sight of God, and that makes it our good and acceptable service.

God wants all people to be saved - all people.  He wants them to know the truth, the real truth, not what the world passes off as truth, not the lies and empty promises Satan makes.  This is why God sent His Son Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people.  This was God’s testimony, at the proper time.  When we were lost in our sin, God sent Jesus to shed the light of truth onto this world.

This coming Thursday, or sometime this week, most of us, and folks all over the country, will sit down with family and friends around a table piled high with a Thanksgiving feast.  We’ll offer up our thanks to God for the food, for good health, for family, and for all His many blessings in our lives.  But when we get right down to it, we should give thanks most of all for our greatest blessing: God’s Son.  Christ Jesus is our King, the King above all kings.

Now something happened to Jesus that we don’t usually associate with happening to a king.  He was arrested and tried as a criminal.  The Apostle John recorded the trial for us.  Hear part of the exchange between Jesus and Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, as saved for us by John in the 18th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 33 through 38…

33 Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

34 Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?”

35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?”

36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”

37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”

Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.”

--John 18:33-38 (NKJV)

Now here’s the thing - Pilate knew the truth, and spoke the truth when he said, “I find no fault in Him at all”.  Jesus was without fault, without sin, yet He took our punishment that we might be freed from our sin.  He took our sin upon Himself and carried it to the grave.  If for no other reason, isn't that enough to be thankful for?

Pilate asked if Jesus was the king of the Jews.  Jesus didn’t answer directly, not with a yes or a no.  And we know that He is King of far more than just the Jewish people.  But He did admit to being a King by noting that His kingdom is not of this world.  His is not a worldly kingdom.  His is the kingdom of heaven.  And this is why He was born, this is why He came – to bear witness to this truth.

As we join with family and friends this Thanksgiving, let us remember our King Jesus.  Let’s give thanks to God for sending His Son to offer us salvation and eternal life.  And let’s thank Him for giving us the faith to believe.  Oh, and let’s do this every day, at every meal, even in between meals.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the King above all kings.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for all Your many blessings.  Thank You especially for sending Your Son to redeem us of our sin, to pull us from Satan’s grasp and save us from ourselves.  Please forgive us, Father, for not bearing witness to the truth of the Gospel.  Help us reach out to others sharing the truth.  Forgive us when we let the world tell us what to do and how to act.  Please help us reach out more into the world, serving You by serving others, loving You by loving others.  Help us be more like Your Son Jesus, being more forgiving and merciful in our dealings with others.  Please strengthen our spirits to do Your will and help us do a better job of sharing Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You are our Lord, You are our King.  We have all our faith in You, and we try to give our all to You.  Sometimes, though, we hold back a little.  We struggle to let go of the world and our worldly things.  We pray, Lord, that You will please help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and less on what the world holds dear.  Please help us tell everyone about You.  Help us be more like You, more considerate and caring of others, more understanding, more merciful, more giving and forgiving.  And heal the hurts that still separate and divide us one from another.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.