Glorifying Jesus
2 Thessalonians 1.11-12
Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
This is what I want you to think about today - these words from the Apostle Paul: "that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." When I was in college I liked to sing a song written by Bob Kilpatrick titled "Lord, Be Glorified." It has a very simple message: "In my life, Lord, be glorified, be glorified. In my life, Lord, be glorified today." It's a nice song and easy to play on the guitar, however it doesn't really say what it means to glorify God. But it is actually similar to the song the angels sang at the birth of Jesus, and which we sang already in our service, the Gloria in Excelsis. It is also very simple: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom He is well pleased" (Luke 2.14). In either case, if we want God to be glorified in us, it is important to know what it means and how it is done. That's my goal in this message today.
What Does "Glorify" Mean?
Let's look at some examples of the glory of God in the Bible. Moses told the children of Israel they would see the glory of the LORD when He provided them with manna and quail from heaven (Exodus 16). A few chapters later Israel saw the firey glory of the LORD on Mt. Sinai, and then upon the Tabernacle, and later the Temple. David said that "The heavens declare the glory of God..." (Psalm 19.1). The Apostle John began his gospel by telling us: "The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (1.14). Jesus said that people would see the glory of God when He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11.40), and when He himself died on the cross and rose again for the sins of the whole world (John 12 & 17). One of the ways we glorify God is to see His great works and to praise Him for them. We see the glory of God when we see the great works of God, especially His work of salvation in Jesus.
But there is another especially important part of glorifying God. We don't just glorify Him like spectators glorifying a winning team. Remember the Blues fans singing the song "Gloria" on their march to the Stanley Cup! Because this is God we're talking about and not man; no one can glorify God and His works without being affected by God and His works in their personal life. Imagine that for a moment. Can you think of anything so great that by looking at it or reading about it, it will completley change your life forever? That's the glory of God! This is why Paul says that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified in us! Paul also said, "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10.31). Peter said: "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ..." (4.11). To glorify God begins when we see the glory of God, but it continues when we become part of those great works ourselves. So let's look at some of the ways we see the glory of God today, and glorify Him by being a part of those glorious works of the Lord ourselves.
Conversion
What is the first glorious work of God that we experience in our lives? It is our conversion. Paul spoke about the conversion of the Thessalonians in his first letter. He had come there and taught them for only three weeks. But in those three weeks the Thessalonians were dramatically converted. Every day, when the people of this Greek city looked up across the sea, they saw the famous Mt. Olympus. This was supposedly the dwelling place of the gods like Zeus, Poseidon, and Aphrodite. But after hearing about Jesus, and another mountain, Calvary, they, in Paul's words: "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come (1.9-10). They saw the glory of God, and became part of the glory of God in their conversion!
How has that happened in your life? How were you turned from idols to serve the living and true God? For me it happened early in life when I was a baby. My Christian parents brought me to Jesus in baptism and taught me about Him every day after that. I can honestly say that I can't remember a single day in my life that I didn't know and believe in Jesus. However, that doesn't mean that my early conversion made things easy for me. I was constantly and still am afflicted with temptation. Sadly, there were many times when I wasn't living, as Paul says, "worthy of this calling." But an early conversion is always followed by God's many promises of preservation. I am so thankful for that - thankful for the countless times God has, as the Catechism says, "broken and hindered every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world and the sinful nature which do not want us to hallow God's name or let His kingdom come."
Your conversion may have come later in life like the Thessalonians or Paul on the road to Damascus. He was going to imprison and kill Christians when it happened - A glorious, blinding light, knocked him off his horse. This light was Jesus in His glory, and He called Paul out for his sins and gave him the gift of forgiveness. Martin Luther was baptized as a Christian, but he wasn't taught the forgiveness of sins. Because of this he feared God and entered a monastery in the hope of pleasing this "unforgiving God." This God was really an "idol" created by the scholastic theologians of the church in the middle ages. In desperation he turned to a friend who simply told him to read the Bible. There he began to see the glory of God when he read, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith''" (Romans 1.17-18).
Whether your conversion happened early in life or later, it was the glory of God coming into your life to save you from your sins. If you believe that, you are glorifying God, and His name is glorified in your life.
Persecution
How else do we glorify God? Remember how Jesus said He would be glorified in His death and resurrection? The glory of God is the opposite of the corruption of evil. When God preserves us in our faith, even when we are surrounded by evil, He is glorified in us. One of the reasons Paul wrote his two letters to the Thessalonians was because they were being heavily persecuted. You can read about this in Acts chapter seventeen. For three weeks Paul preached the good news of Jesus in the synogague at Thessalonica. Many Greeks believed, and among them was a man named Jason. Jason had allowed Paul and Silas to stay at his house. But those who didn't believe what Paul was preaching formed a mob and attacked Jason, dragged him to court, and accused him just as Jesus had been accused of proclaiming another king, contrary to the decrees of Caesar. The mob approach to things people don't like is nothing new.
What would happen if you were attacked by a mob for your Christian faith? Mobs are irrational. They aren't seeking justice because justice requires reason, debate, and democracy. Their purpose is to incite violence and to overpower their opposition by force. Mobs are the work of the devil, or another name given to that fallen angel in Revelation, "Apollyon," which means "destroyer." There is no way for a Christian to stand up against a mob. But there are two things that God does give the persecuted Christian: An insurmountable faith to be saved, and the wrath of God upon the persecutors. We need to keep these two things in mind at all times in this violent, mob-driven world.
Right now in Nigeria thousands of Christians are being killed by radical Muslims. It is a true genocide, and yet the world largely ignores it. Governments don't want to get involved. Who wants to face the wrath of the Jihad? But don't be discouraged. God gives us a faith that He preserves even unto death as we have all acknowledged in our confirmation vows. Yesterday was All Saints Day. This day was established in the 700s AD by Pope Gregory III. By that time so many Christians had been killed for their faith that no one could keep track of them all. All Saints Day remembers the martyrs "known and unknown" throughout the world. It is good for us to remember that kind of faith in the martyrs and pray for it ourselves.
But the other side of persecution is Judgment Day. While many persecutions may be ignored or forgotten by the world, not a one is forgotten by God. Paul's words are clear. He will bring tribulation and flaming vengeance upon those who persecute Christians when He comes to be glorified in His saints. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and will never see His glory. It is not our job to return evil for evil. Instead we've got better things to do.
Doing Good
This brings me to the last thing in our reading from Paul that shows us how the name of Jesus is glorified in our lives. It is doing good. Paul calls it fulfilling "all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power." Paul gave thanks to God for the Thessalonians because they didn't go out and start a riot to destroy all the pagan temples. Instead he said they "abounded in love." Just as we glorify God by believing in Him and being converted from our idols to the living God; Just as we glorify God by faithfully enduring persecution and leaving the vengeance to God; So we also glorify God by doing the good pleasure of God and the work of faith with power. Jesus said this: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5.11). This has been the legacy of the Christian faith from its beginning. Help for the poor, hospitals, public education, universities, modern science, the ending of slavery, protection for the unborn and elderly - all of these are undeniably the fruit of the Christian faith and the glory of God in His true church.
The glory of God in us is fulfilled when a we simply ask, "How can I do good?" and when we pray to God to help us do good. We heard Isaiah say in the first lesson today: "learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause" (1.17). Psalm 34 says, "Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry" (v. 14). This is one of the simplest things we can do, and it goes right to the core of who we are by the grace of God.
The summer I got married I worked for my father-in-law on his farm. He paired me up with one of his farm hands. Here I was a college graduate on my way to the seminary working side by side with a farm hand that couldn't read or write and probably couldn't count much past ten. What could I learn from him? I learned one of the most important lessons of my life that summer. I learned how to do good. Allen didn't have many skills beyond those of a low-level laborer, but he had some virtues that I will always remember. Allen never complained and never criticized, and most of all, he never did less than he was asked to do. He always did a little more. He did the good that he was able to do as humble as that was.
Many people preach the ethics of doing good, and I'm glad for that. I'd rather people try to do good than try to do bad. But without faith it's impossible to do the good that glorifies God. Without faith in God's word we don't even know what "good" is, let alone have the power to accomplish it. But remember all that Paul has been talking about here - how to glorify God in our lives - is a prayer. He said, "Therefore we also pray for you..." Doing good is a command - a good command. But getting it done is matter of grace. And that is exactly how Paul ends this chapter, "according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Always remember that everything God tells us to do, He also empowers us to do. That's how grace works, and also how God is ultimately glorified in every way.
Conclusion
There have been many glorious events in the history of the world. The creation was glorious, the rainbow after the flood was glorious, the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai was glorious, the birth of Christ was glorious and sung by angels. The resurrection of Christ was glorious. Pentecost was glorious. Judgment Day will be glorious. But what about today? What about tomorrow? Will they be glorious? Can they be glorious? They certainly can. Pray for the glory of God in your life - in your baptism and conversion, in your enduring persecution if need be, and in simply doing good. "In my life Lord, be glorified, be glorified. In my life, Lord, be glorified today!"
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