Have you ever thought about how Jesus would use the manner in which you handled your divinely ordained afflictions and use it as a means to bestow wonderful blessings upon His followers many years later? Let’s have a show of hands. That’s exactly what I expected. Not a single one of you have. The thought just never occurred to you.

I wonder if the Lutheran pastor named Martin Rinckart (1586-1640) would have thought God would use the manner in which he responded to his horrible afflictions to bestow wonderful blessings upon the followers of Jesus in future generations, including you and me. In his excellent book, “Under The Influence, How Christianity Transformed Civilization,” Alvin J. Schmidt writes:

“Rinckart served in the little Saxon town of Eilenburg during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48). The town had been ravaged three times by invading armies. In addition to the dead from the war, pestilence and famine struck the town, resulting in the death of some eight thousand residents. For a while, (especially in 1636 and 1637), Rinckart was the only pastor in town to bury the dead. Some days he buried fifty people; within two years he buried over four thousand people, one of which was his wife, who died in 1637. Despite the dire long-lasting pestilence, God spared his health.”

“Rinckart did what most people would find unthinkable. He wrote “Now Thank We All Our God,” a spiritually uplifting hymn that has been sung by countless Christians ever since, in recent years especially at Thanksgiving Time. (A)

Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God With hearts and hands and voices
Who wondrous things has done
In whom His world rejoices
Who from our mother’s arms
Has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love
And still is ours today

O may this bounteous God
Through all our life be near us
With ever joyful hearts
And blessed peace to cheer us
And keep us in His grace
And guide us when perplexed
And free us from all ills
In this world and the next

All praise and thanks to God
The Father now be given
The Son, and Him who reigns
With them in highest heaven
The one eternal God
Whom earth and heaven adore
For thus it was, is now
And shall be ever more

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“The year 1714 was an anxious time in England, the death of Queen Anne. “Her death halted the enactment of the Schism Act that would have suppressed Dissenters (of whom a certain man was one) and would undoubtedly have brought persecution upon them.” “He wrote a hymn based on Psalm 90, accenting the fleeting nature of time and the brevity of human life in contrast to the everlasting nature of God. Christians have often sung this song, and still do, at the end of the calendar year or sometimes at funerals, to remind themselves of the ephemeral nature of time and life, while remembering that God is the one thing that is constant and their only “hope for years to come” (sixth stanza).” (B) There’s no way Isaac Watts would have thought that God would have used the manner in which he endured his ordeal as a means of bestowing blessings upon future generations of Christians hundreds of years later.

O God Our Help In Ages Past

O God, our help in ages past
Our hope for years to come
Our shelter from the stormy blast
And our eternal home

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure
Sufficient is Thine arm alone
And our defence is sure

Before the hills in order stood
Or earth received her frame
From everlasting Thou art God
To endless years the same

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun

Time, like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all its sons away
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day
O God, our help in ages past
Our hope for years to come
Be Thou our guard while troubles last
And our eternal home. (C)

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I’m indebted to Word-Wise-Bible-Studies.com for the following. “Few things in nature seem as awe-inspiring as thunder and lightning. For the Christian, the flash and echoing din are a reminder of the greatness of our
God. That is how it was for Carl Boberg, one day in 1886. Carl Gustaf Boberg (1859-1940) was a Swedish pastor, and later a senator in the Swedish parliament. He went for a walk one summer day and got caught in a sudden thunderstorm. The rolling thunder and torrents of rain, followed by the return of the bright sunshine and the singing of the birds overwhelmed him. He dropped to his knees in worship. Later, out of that experience, Pastor Boberg created a lovely poem about the greatness of God.”

“Though he did not realize it at the time, that poem would one day become one of the most popular hymns of the latter part of the twentieth century. But before that happened, the song was to pass through many hands, and cross many national boundaries. Several years after he penned the words, Carl Boberg attended a church service and was surprised to hear them sung by the congregation to an old Swedish melody. Shortly after it was introduced in Sweden, the hymn was translated into German. Then, in 1907, the German version was translated into Russian and published in a Russian hymn book in 1922. That is how it came to the attention of English missionary Stuart Hine a year or so later. He and his wife were serving in the Ukraine when they heard the song, and they began using it as a duet in evangelistic services.”

“When war broke out in Europe, in 1939, the Hines had to return to England. There Mr. Hine translated Boberg’s hymn into English, adding a fourth verse of his own about the return of Christ. In 1949, the song was printed (with his English translation) in a gospel magazine produced by the Hines for Russian war refugees then in Britain. So many requests came for a copy of the hymn, from all over the world, that Stuart Hine had it printed in leaflet form. One of those leaflets was given to song leader Cliff Barrows, in 1954, and he introduced the “new” hymn to an appreciative audience at Billy Graham’s Toronto Crusade, in 1955. There soloist Bev Shea, assisted by a large volunteer choir, first sang the stirring words of “How Great Thou Art.”

“By 1974, it was voted the number one hymn in America.
God Himself is infinitely great, so that is bound to characterize all He does. Job says He does “great things, and unsearchable, marvelous things without number” (Job 5:9). One of the most wonderful displays of this is found over our heads on any clear, starry night. “Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power” (Isa. 40:26). As the psalmist says, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised” (Ps. 48:1). And “His greatness is unsearchable” (Ps. 148:3).”

“The believer has access to this omnipotence by faith. “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.” And “those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isa. 40:29, 31). In times of difficulty and distress, it is encouraging to renew our faith in the greatness of the Lord. Problems that seem overwhelming shrink before our awareness of the One we serve. In the words of our hymn, “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder / Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, / I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed! / Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee; / How great Thou art!” (D)
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A man named “John Rippon was pastor of Carter’s Land Baptist Church in London for more than half a century.
Rippon loved hymns, and his hymnal, A Selection of
Hymns from the Best Authors became a best seller among Baptist churches in England and America.”

“In most hymnals, quotation marks enclose all the words except verse 1. That is because most of the words are quoted from the Bible-a line from here and a line from there. The hymn relates a series of Godly assurances. “Fear not, I am with thee,” it says-and then promises, “when through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.” –Copyright 2007, Richard Niell Donovan, (D)

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How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said—
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
“Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.

“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

“The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”

Those of you who are well versed in the Bible know that each of the hymn’s I mentioned in this message are saturated with Scripture. We ought to pray these hymns and sing them too just as Jesus did. Wouldn’t you loved to have heard Jesus singing hymns to God just as He did when He instituted what is known as The Lord’s Supper?

25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Mark 14:25-26 (ESV) (also Matt. 26:30).

I wonder what kind of a voice He had. The absence of any mention of it in the Bible inclines me to believe His singing ability wasn’t anything special.

His first followers always had a song in their heart. For instance, while he was awaiting execution by being beheaded, the great Apostle Paul penned the following inspiring words to the first Christians who were experiencing awful suffering in the midst of great tribulation.

18…be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, Ephesians 5:19 (ESV)

26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 1 Corinthians 14:26 (ESV)

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16 (ESV)

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16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. 1 Timothy 3:16 (ESV)

An unknown author reminds us of the enormous impact Jesus made towards the advance of civilization. Speaking of Jesus, we read:

“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in an obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty, and then for three years he was an itinerant teacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never traveled, except in his infancy, more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompanies greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

While he was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through a mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth, his seamless robe. When he was dead, he was taken down from the cross and laid in a borrowed grave through the courtesy of a friend.

Nineteen (now twenty) wide centuries have come and gone, and today he is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of all human progress. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever were built, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has this one solitary personality.”

The following quotes are from the dust jacket of Schmidt’s insightful book. Think about them and discus them with one another as you have the opportunity.

“The impact of early Christians’ care for throw-away babies, the sick, the poor, and the elderly on the surrounding, inhumane Greco-Roman Culture

How Jesus and His followers gave unprecedented dignity, equality, and freedom to women

Christianity’s founding of hospitals and health care in the fourth century, and the genesis of orphanages and charitable organizations

The Christian inception and promotion of universities and higher education

The contributions made by the early Christian pioneers of science, theory, and research

How the concern for human rights, equality under the law, and economic freedom are deeply rooted in the Christian ethic

Why slavery might well have remained an institution until today were it not for Christianity
The enormous debt of art, music, and literature to Christianity”

Just as He did with those Hymn writers a long time age; it wouldn’t surprise me if many years from now God will glorify Himself and bestow blessings upon countless Christians through the manner in which a remarkable woman courageously combated her HORRIBLE physical and emotional PAIN. Allow me to ask you folks this question: Would you have thought God would accomplish this through our sister in Christ, Carroll Rossi? That’s what I thought you would say.

Lord willing, next week I’ll continue with part two of, “Would You Have Thought..? I think I’m going to name it “An Eyewitness.” Time will tell.

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(A) Under The Influence © 2001 by Alvin J. Schmidt, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530, Pg. 333.
(B) Ibid. Pg. 334.
(C) Word-Wise-Bible-Studies.com