Floating on Your Back
I Thessalonians 1:1-10
1 Paul, Silas and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God
the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.
2 We always thank
God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and
your endurance inspired by hope
in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4
For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with
words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know
how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became
imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of
severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7
And so you became a model to all the believers in
Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
Peter Hiett in his book Eternity Now! tells a story about a
small boat, the Andrea Gail, carrying a father named John and his six‑year‑old
daughter named Mary caught in a hurricane.
John had not checked the weather report when he
and Mary sailed off the
John realized there was no way he could swim the
six miles back to shore while holding his little girl. To save them, he would
have to swim alone. “Mary, you can float on your back as long as you want,” he
told her. She had practiced floating on her back in the pool at home. “Float
on your back, Mary. I’ll swim to shore, and I will be back for you.”
Three hours later the Coast Guard found John. For
the next hour and a half as darkness came on, they looked for the little girl
amid twenty‑ to thirty‑foot swells. Then, miraculously, the
spotlight found her. She had been floating nearly five hours.
The
guardsmen later asker her, “Mary, how did you do that?” She said, “Well, my
daddy said I could float on my back as long as I wanted to, and that he would
come back for me. My daddy always does what he says.”[1]
Mary had the same kind of faith in her daddy that
Paul saw in the church at Thessalonica that we just read about. Today
Thessalonica is the second-largest city in
There was a large Jewish presence in Thessalonica,
which gave Paul and his team an opportunity to witness, but also caused them
problems with the Roman authorities. The leaders of the synagogues had this to
say about them in Acts 17:6-7, “These men . . . have turned the world upside down . .
.” because, according to the leaders of the synagogue, they were “saying that
there is another king, Jesus”
This was treason, of course, to say that there was
another king besides Caesar. And yet,
the church at Thessalonica became one of Paul’s success stories due to the
faithfulness of the converts there. So Paul begins his letter to the church
with high praise for them. He says he “always thanks God” for them. In verse 3 he says that he continually
remembers three key things about them; their “work produced by faith,” their
“labor prompted by love,” and their “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ.”
In a sea of idolatry, the Thessalonians were
floating on their back, serving as an example to others because of these three
things. Let’s begin by considering their
“work produced by faith.”
Obviously, their faith in Christ was critical.
Little Mary was able to keep floating because she knew her daddy would come
back for her. The Thessalonians knew that Christ would not forget his own. This
is essential in any setting whether we are trying to maintain our faith in the
midst of a hostile pagan environment or we are trying to carry on in the midst
of a deep personal crisis. We all have our storms to face.
I read recently about Alex Gaines, a noted lawyer
and a committed follower of Christ in
During World War II his plane had been shot down
over the
“How
did you survive that long in the water?” Agnes asked. Gaines answered that all
he did was recite Psalm 46 over and over again. “I hung on to some scrap of the
downed aircraft,” Gaines said, “but it was the Psalm that got me through the
night. ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains
shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam . . . The Lord of
hosts is with us . . .’”[2]
How many times have you heard someone who has come
through a time of crisis say, “I couldn’t have made it without my faith.” We
are no different from the members of the church at Thessalonica. They had their
challenges; we have ours. The key to making it, regardless of the situation, is
to hold your trust in Christ. It’s best
to develop and exercise that faith while things are quiet.
The second thing Paul praised the Thessalonians
for was “work produced by faith” and “labor prompted by love.” I’m not sure we
talk enough about the labor that love requires. We have corrupted the word love
in our culture to the point that it is almost meaningless. We love our soft
drinks, our cars, our high-definition television sets. What does that mean,
that we love these inanimate objects? Does it mean that we would sacrifice in
their behalf; that we would be willing to lay down our lives for them?
In our culture, love is supposed to come easy,
particularly romantic love. Our eyes meet across the room, and we know this
will last forever. But real love never comes easy. It requires commitment. It
requires hard work.
In 1937, Wallace, an American medical student, and
Maria, a young German woman, became husband and wife. Not long afterwards, they
moved to the
When Wallace completed his medical degree and went
off to serve with the Army in 1944, Maria gave up her career to stay home with
the children. She cheerfully accepted the sacrifices common to the roles of
wife and mother.
In the late 1980s, Maria was diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s disease. Now it was Wallace’s turn to adopt her motto. He prayed
that he would use this disease as an opportunity to repay his wife for all the
sacrifices she made for him. He determined that Paul’s words in I Corinthians
would guide his attitude and his actions toward his wife.[3]
Love takes loyalty. Love takes labor.
After Albert Einstein’s wife died, his sister,
Maja, moved in to assist with the household affairs. For fourteen years she
cared for him, allowing his valuable research to continue. In 1950 she suffered
a stroke and lapsed into a coma. Thereafter, Einstein spent two hours every
afternoon reading aloud to her from Plato. She gave no sign of understanding
his words, but he read anyway. If she understood anything by his gesture, she
understood that she was worth his time.[4]
“Work produced by faith” and “labor prompted by
love.” No wonder the church at Thessalonica was so special to Paul. Thirdly,
Paul praised the Thessalonians for their “endurance inspired by hope in Jesus
Christ.”
Back in 1998 there was a film titled Life Is
Beautiful.
It was a heartbreaking but inspiring film about a young Italian Jewish father
named Guido who uses his fertile imagination to help his son Joshua survive
their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.
In order to protect Joshua from the horrors all
around them, Guido convinces him that it is all a game, that none of it is to
be taken seriously. He tells Joshua that the ride in the truck to the
concentration camp is actually a surprise for his birthday. He convinces him
that the men in uniform that run the camp are not really bad; that is simply
how the game is played. He tells Joshua that if you complain about anything
even about hunger you lose points. He tells him that quiet boys who hide from
the camp guards earn points. He further convinces the boy that, if he keeps all
the rules of the game he will win a real, life‑size tank! So, even though
there is death and despair all around them, Guido’s son Joshua sees only the
beauty of life.
Is Guido’s plan simply an ill-fated act of
hopeless futility? Not at all. All along Guido nurtures the hope that Allied
troops will come and rescue them before it is too late. He decides to
communicate his hope to Joshua rather than his fear. Most of the time, it is an
illusion, but it is the healthiest thing he can do for his son.
Eventually the Allied troops do rescue the boy. Unfortunately they are not in time to save
Guido. Guido is caught, taken away, and is shot by a Nazi guard, but not before
making his son laugh one last time by imitating the Nazi guard as if the two of
them are marching around the camp together. Joshua manages to survive.
Furthermore, he thinks he has won the game when an American tank arrives to
liberate the camp, and he is reunited with his mother.[5]
Joshua was saved literally by the power of Guido’s hope.
Now think about Paul’s phrase: “endurance inspired by hope in Jesus
Christ.” The early church suffered waves of persecution. You know the
story. Imprisoned, thrown to the lions, burned in the emperor’s gardens they
experienced their own Holocaust. But they endured. Why? Because they hoped in
Christ. They trusted that nothing could defeat them because Christ was with
them and would never forsake them. And today 2,000 years later we, like Paul,
give thanks for them.
That church gave us a pretty good formula for whatever
heartache or hardship life sends our way; “work produced by faith,” their
“labor prompted by love,” and their “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ.” Faith, hope and love.
That’s staying power. Don’t give up. Keep working,
keep loving, keep believing, keep floating on your back, and sooner or later
things will look up. This kind of endurance is possible only if you have a
reasonable hope that things will get better. We have that hope in Jesus Christ. When he died on the cross for our sins we
received the only hope that can keep us afloat in the mightiest storm.
Sermon adapted from a sermon
by King Duncan in eSermons.com
[1] 1. (
[2] 2. Agnes
Norfleet, in a paper, presented to The Moveable Feast at its 2007 meeting in
[3]“The Greatest of These,” by Wallace A. Reed, M.D.,
Guideposts, July 2001, pp. 14-16.
[4]Alan Loy McGinnis, The Friendship Factor (Minneapolis:
Augsburg Publishing House, 1979), pp. 51‑52.
[5]Bruce and Darlene Marie Wilkinson, The Dream Giver For
Parents (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2004), pp. 86-87.