Title: Our Crowns / 1 Thessalonians 2:17-20
1 Thessalonians 2:17-20
our crown
Today's text is a short message, but it speaks well of the end of our Christian faith. At the appointed time of God, our Lord Jesus Christ will return. Then people will be rewarded and punished according to their deeds. And Christians who have kept their faith to the end will be given a crown.
What is Paul's crown? And what will our crowns be today as we run after him, fighting the good fight he fought, looking only at Christ as he did?
The crown is, first of all, God-given children. Our children, who are growing in faith in our home, are the crown of our family and our crown.
It is said that in the old days, noble ladies of Rome visited each other's houses, admired the treasures hoarded in their homes, and took pleasure in boasting about their treasures.
One day, the ladies who gathered at Cornezia's house and boasted of their recently purchased items as if competing with each other begged them to show them the treasures and items they had stored in the Cornezia's house. After a while, the hostess of the house, who gladly agreed, appeared holding the hands of her young son and daughter. And he spoke quietly but confidently. “The treasure of our family is these children.”
I don't know how precious these words are. But we believers have nothing more to say. This is because we Christians are the ones who live with God, the source of life, as the invisible master of our homes. For Christians who have children, God-given children are our crown.
In Proverbs 17:6, it says, “Grandchildren are the crown of the old.” Psalm 127:3 says, “Children are an inheritance from the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”
But this doesn't happen by itself. As God commanded in Deuteronomy 6:7, teach your children the laws of God, always preaching when they rest at home, on the way, when they go to bed, and when they get up. It is possible when you can receive it.
Therefore, Christian parents should be more devoted to the religious education of their children. We must make sure that our humanity and society are blessed and God is glorified because of them.
It is not desirable, either in the past or today, to leave children alone as troubled children and to wear them on their bodies and to boast in triumph as if they were of great status. We believe that children become parents' crowns when they can be grateful for the fact that they are growing well in the faith.
But if I end my talk here, there will surely be some who will be discouraged. This is because there are some people who do not have children, or even if they do, they suffer greatly because of their children.
But there is nothing to despair. There is one more crown we can get. It is because the person who believed in Jesus and was saved because of me is our crown.
Because Paul was single, he had no children. However, the fruits of evangelism that believed in Jesus and were saved because of Paul were many. Paul refers to the fruit of such evangelism as his crown in verse 19 of today's text. And Philippians 4:1 says, “Therefore, brethren whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, my beloved ones.”
Therefore, those who do not have children should not feel sorry for it. Rather, it is a task to evangelize and bear fruit. Also, if you have children, but the children are problematic, you should not be discouraged because of that, but lead them well and put more effort into evangelism so that you can acquire many children of faith.
Then they will be our joy and pride in our lifetimes, and they will be our eternal crowns in the sight of Jesus Christ, who returns in the latter days.
To do that, we must keep in mind that as 1 Timothy 2:4 says, God's greatest desire is that all people will be saved and come to know the truth. We must also preach that God does not perish but all come to repentance. And as 2 Timothy 4:2 says, we must keep in mind that our greatest task is to focus on preaching the gospel at all times and out of season, and to focus on making disciples of Jesus of all nations.
Nevertheless, there are some people around us who live the way Jesus rebuked us. There are some who are blocking the gates of heaven so that neither themselves nor others can enter. Also, there are those who make every effort to get one member of the church, but when they do, they turn them into children of hell that are twice as evil as themselves. It's really sad.
In John 12, Lazarus of Bethany made many people believe in Jesus because of him. There are countless people in our Christian history who share Christ with others because of me alone.
Who has come to believe in Jesus because of me today? How many people? We need to count it out. These are our crowns.
But even here, there may be disappointments. Even though evangelism has worked hard, it is true if there is still no one who can present the fruits of evangelism. But even so, it will not disappoint. Because there is another crown for us Christians. That crown is God Himself.
To Thomas Aquinas, a medieval theologian, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream and said, “Beloved of God, the Lord will grant you. What is your greatest wish?” When asked, Aquinas is said to have replied without hesitation, “Lord, I can only hope for God.” It is truly a beautiful and precious wish.
We acknowledge that our Korean church is a very zealous church. They are zealous in worship, zealous in prayer, zealous in the giving life, and zealous in evangelism. However, it seems that our Korean church is a bit far away from Aquinas' answer.
When we pray, God, be gracious to us, bless us, show us love and compassion, we ask, but we often forget that God Himself is our blessing and our reward. There are many times when we seek and ask for something that belongs to God rather than God.
God said to Abraham, the father of faith, “I am your exceedingly great reward” in Genesis 15:1. David said to God, “You are my Lord, and I have no blessings except you. God is my inheritance and the portion of my cup.” Psalm 16 confesses.
The Apostle Paul was the one who gave himself completely as a burnt offering on the altar for missionary work. But what is the reward returned to him? Poverty and disease, contempt and disdain, persecution and tribulation were treated like the dregs of all things.
However, life in prison was always rejoicing, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in everything. It was also his wish that believers outside the prison would also live like that. What was the secret to living like that? For him, the best blessings, rewards, and crowns were God Himself.
Today, we, believers, who live in the modern age, want too much, want too much, and enjoy too much, so we need to examine ourselves to see if we are living without knowing the true meaning of the hymn “Only the Lord is satisfied” is. That is why we may not be living in poverty in abundance, and living dissatisfied in abundance.
Now, what really is my crown? What is my joy, pride, and hope? We'll have to look back. As the Bible says, my children are my crown, the fruits of my evangelism are my crown, and God Himself is my crown.
Our church group came to the dedication service at the Chobyeongsan Gonggongga Church in China last week. Truly, this church cannot but be the crown of our church celebrating its 30th anniversary.