GS 1965 ARTICLE 1: Opening

On behalf of the convening church of Edmonton, Rev. J.T. Van Popta opened the meeting. He had Psalm 84:1, 2 and 3 sung, after which he read 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 and lead in prayer.

He then spoke the following opening words.

 “Beloved Brothers in the Lord,
We read together a portion of the Word of our God in 1 Cor. 15. In particular, I now draw your attention to the last verse:
 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”
This Apostolic encouragement was chosen by our brother G.Ph. Pieffers as the text for the sermon, with which he would minister the Word of the Lord in the prayer meeting that took place last night.
The council of the convening church had asked him to lead that prayer meeting. Rev. Pieffers had decided with great joy to accept this invitation.
Unfortunately, he was unable to execute that decision. He suffered a light stroke last week and had to be hospitalized again. We rest in what our faithful God and Father does, and our supplications rise to Him, to comfort and restore our brother, and to be near to his wife and children and also his old father with the immeasurable riches of His infallible grace.
Colleague Pieffers had already written the sermon, and it is with his approval that I use his sermon as my opening speech. So we are taught, encouraged, admonished by our colleague, shepherd and teacher of the church of the Lord at Coaldale, with these words:
 “Paul was not what you would call an easy gentleman. Not at all. For example, if he became aware a different preaching other than the one Christ and the apostles had brought, he could even become and be very difficult.
Nowadays there is a lot of talk about tolerance, but Paul knew nothing of that sort of tolerance.
If, contrary to the teachings of the apostles and of himself, things were proclaimed that were completely wrong, he was mercilessly sharp, and in so doing very merciful.
No wonder he starts spewing fire when he hears that there are those who preach, that there is no resurrection of the dead. It’s as if he flies up from his chair and asks in seething anger: What! No resurrection of the dead? People, understand well how terrible this preaching is. For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has of course not risen either, and then our preaching is without substance; for what is there for us to preach if Christ were not resurrected?
And then, O Corinthians, your faith is without substance.
Paul then takes this further and preaches to the Corinthians that Christ IS resurrected.
He then takes the opportunity to say some important things about your resurrection, my resurrection. After all, now that Christ has risen, one thing is certain, namely that we will rise too. Rise in glory. For Christ has acquired for the Father the number of His children.
And when he talks about Christ’s victory over death, it becomes almost too much for him and he sings it out: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, WHERE is your victory?
Death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
No, no, those are not words of an overexcited mind, words you should not put on a silver platter. Not at all, because Paul was a very down-to-earth man.
But Paul was also a man whose heart was on fire for the Lord and His cause, and whatever fills the heart will overflow from the mouth.
We Christians sometimes say that we are too calm, too sober to speak such words. That may well be, but then it is high time that we became more excited.
For all the water of the sea cannot wash away this, namely, that the Lord asks us to be on fire for Him and for His cause.
After all (in the words of a hymn), His Name must receive eternal honor, Praise Him early and late. Let the world hear and follow my song with Amen, Amen.
A General Synod has no other task than to serve the Lord in HIS preservation and maintenance of HIS church.
He asks nothing else from synod members, nothing more, but above all nothing less than the willingness to serve Him with all his heart in his work.
Synod members are asked to do what is asked of all the children of God without the slightest exception, namely, that they are willing and able to put themselves aside. Or really simply wanting to put themselves aside. If so, the Lord will give the ability.
Paul points out to the Corinthians :

• 1) what they should become,
• 2) what they should be,
• 3) what they know.

. “Therefore, my beloved brothers.” That word “Therefore” indicates that the apostle reaches back to what was said before and now draws the conclusion from it. He has fulminated against those who deny that there is a resurrection of the dead and demonstrated to the Corinthians the consequence of this denial, for then the Christ would not have been resurrected either, and we would still be in our sins.
He also demonstrated the richness of the meaning of Christ’s resurrection and at the end he, as it were, begins to sing. After all, thanks be to God in Christ Jesus, we are more than conquerors today.
And now he can move on to the word “Therefore”: that’s because one thing is certain, namely that God gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. THEREFORE, my beloved brethren, be steadfast…
So in that word THEREFORE he presents the brothers with the consequences of what he has said AND with the demand that now comes to them.
And he does so in the most urgent way in order to find good acceptance for his words, and says: my beloved brothers.
In those words, my beloved brothers, Paul is not as generous as it may seem. There are people who easily say “beloved brothers”. Paul doesn’t. Therefore, when Paul does use them, those words have all the more value. Then you taste and feel Paul’s true love for the brothers.
He had important things to say to the Corinthians, and he wanted to burn those words on their souls, and so he says, therefore, my beloved brothers. He wants to penetrate into the hearts of the addressees with what he has said and what he still has to say, and hence that saying: Therefore, my beloved brothers.
Oh, it’s very easy to repel a brother, there are many, many Christians who don’t have the slightest problem with it. It’s immensely harder to attract a brother.
We will only be able to do this if we ourselves have become very small before the Lord and have learned to live in all humility.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast.” Be steadfast. But that’s not really what the original text says. It does not say: BE steadfast, but BECOME steadfast.
And that’s something else. “Be” can have the meaning of: whatever happens, persevere, beset, show steadfastness. Then the man is already steadfast, but he must be so in all circumstances. He is then resurrected to SHOW that STEADFASTNESS as well.
But BECOME steadfast tells us, that they are not yet, that they have yet to become it, still have to learn.
It is not for nothing that Paul wrote about so many important things to those Corinthians. Just think of the resurrection of Christ. Several of them were immediately deluded by the claim that Christ had not risen. For there was no resurrection of the dead.
As a result, some people had already completely lost the plot.
These people had not proved steadfast. They were fooled by others.
That is why Paul admonishes them and says, become steadfast. So, not “be” but “become”. They were not, they had to become it. Learn to hold on to what you were taught by the apostles and NEVER let it go. Under no circumstances.
Become steadfast, an admonition to which we should listen very closely today. Today more than ever. Because more than ever in this world, everything is out to put our steadfastness to the test. And more and more Christianity is showing that it no longer knows of steadfastness.
More and more Christianity illustrates that well-known saying: as the wind blows, so blows my jacket.
The thought these days is: participate, whether you want to or not. You can’t stay behind. The church too needs to radically change course. At least, if the church does not want to lose its grip on the people.
Paul has a different view of this and says: be steadfast, no, become steadfast. Especially at a time when everything is crying out for renewal, broadening, expansion, one should expect the church to become more and more steadfast, to cling more and more to the doctrine that is according to the Holy Scriptures.
The General Synod can only do right in all that is put on the table, in all judgments that are asked of it, in every decision it has to make, in all considerations and so on if they act in keeping with this word of Paul: become more and more steadfast.
Do not be led astray off the right path, but let it be that you become more and more steadfast, for then one thing is certain: then decisions will be made which are a rich blessing to the churches. But only in this way.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, become steadfast and become ever more immovable.
They must become immovable. That is also the intention here. They apparently aren’t yet, but they have to become it. The call to become immovable indicates that they were often moved.
And no wonder. For again and again they hear all kinds of errors proclaimed, all kinds of things that the apostle did not teach them. And, truth be told, it’s the nature of the beast that errors are consumed like cake. Even overbaked, there are always those who eagerly reach for it.
And there were also those in Corinth who were fooled by those errors. That is why Paul says: do not BE, but BECOME immovable. And you can only do so if you live close to the Lord and ask of Him in sincerity of heart: to MAKE you immovable by His Holy Spirit.
That Christian immovability, which is nothing but God’s grace in Christ Jesus, must be found in abundance at a synod. No, not persistence, not stubbornness, but true Christian immovability, which, for Christ’s sake and for the sake of His church, purchased with a costly price, must be present at the Synod.
Then, but only then, can this synod be a rich blessing to the churches.
So Paul said what the Corinthian Christians are to become. And when they have become steadfast and immovable, count on the Lord taking them further.
Then He will make things so that they abound in the work of the Lord all the time.
The Greek word here that has been translated by with ABOUNDING (overflowing) really couldn’t have a better translation. For the Greek word indicates that it runs over the edge all the way around. It’s more than full. It overflows. This is how we are to work now, to be engaged in the work of the Lord, in the service of the Lord.
Of course, Paul was sober enough to understand that in the lives of the Father’s children there were more things that demanded attention. But he does ask that the work of the Lord should have our full attention. Not just from some pastors or elders or deacons, but from ALL Father’s children without the slightest exception. No one has the right to withdraw from that work.
No one, no member of Christ’s Church, has the right to sit and twiddle their thumbs in the Lord’s service. We must abound in the work of the Lord. One in a very important position, another in a less important one, as long as we remember correctly that ALL positions in the service of the Lord’s work are most important positions.
The apostle understands by the work of the Lord all the work that is done in the service of the Lord, for the expansion of His kingdom, for the building up of His church, for the edification of His children on earth.
And now it says that it has to be done “always”. It must always continue; it cannot be paused for a moment.
It is sometimes said that all abundance harms. Maybe so, but with this exception: the child of God can never be too busy in the work of the Lord. Certainly, it is sometimes said, it would be better if that man was less busy for the church and had more attention for his family. But let us understand that the proper care of the family in what is included what is here called the work of the Lord.
Tomorrow, our brothers delegates will go to work. A respectable number of pieces have been put on the table. They are asked to work a lot in the first two or three weeks.
They are indeed asked to abound in the work of the Lord all those days.
But this is their rich knowledge: in the end, it is the work of the Lord. Certainly, that also imposes a great responsibility, of course. And those brothers will be aware of that. But it is a consolation that, after all, it is the work of God and not their work.
Criticism will, of course, be levelled at it. Reformed people cannot live without criticism. It is completely impossible to strive to do the work in such a way that no one can fault it. All you can do is ask for the will of the Lord, dedicate your work to the Lord, and then do quietly as you think you should do it.
As long as your work is such, that ALSO thanks to that work, in the church of Christ one can continue to sing with joy:

• O LORD of hosts, almighty King,
• the praises of your house I sing.
• How lovely is your habitation!
• Your holy courts I yearn to see;
• faint with desire, I long to be
• where pilgrims join in celebration.
• My heart and flesh with joyful shout
• to you, the living God, cry out.
• Psalm 84:1.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren (and these words came directly from Paul’s heart), be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”
It is not for nothing that Paul ends with these words: knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
He wants to encourage believers to keep up their work, to do in their position what the Lord has commanded them to do. Their positions were not always easy, especially in those days. The hatred of Christ and His Church was already great at that time. In every possible way, life was made difficult for all of Father’s children.
And that certainly won’t get any better over the years. That is why Paul wants to encourage the church and says: knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.
That knowledge must always excite Father’s children to do their task, the knowledge that in the Lord their labour is not in vain, not without fruit.
Not in vain. Actually: not empty. That your labour is not EMPTY in the Lord. Paul is not thinking first of all about the fruits of labour. As if to comfort them with the words: do not think now that you are working in vain.
He says, knowing that your labor has SENSE, has a true purpose.
Your labour, brothers, so he says, is not a display, but holy earnestness, and as such is judged by the Lord. Your labour makes sense, the labour you do in service of the Lord.
Difficult? Sure, but still more than meaningful. Pushing your strength to the limit? So be it, I will not contradict it. But of the utmost importance for the good of Christ’s church.
There’s no room for recreation when working for the Kingdom of God. That’s true. It’s plod and toil, strive and struggle.
Don’t fret about the fruits of your labour. Leave that to the Lord. “You labour,” says the apostle, “in holy earnestness and prayerfully looking to the King of the Church, and then I, THE LORD, will make it so that you must marvel.”
Did you really think that I, the Lord, did not know what material I was dealing with? Don’t worry. Your labour cannot be in vain in Me, the LORD, for I, the Lord, have called you to this work, and if you now do that work prayerfully, you must leave the rest to me.
Look, my brothers and sisters, could not all of us do the task that the Lord has placed on our shoulder? Certainly, if all is well, Father’s children will have to work a lot harder than the children of the world. But where there is true love, it is done with joy.
People will say: there’s no shame in work. Indeed. This is what the Christ teaches us, for He trembles in saying: My Father is working until now, and I am working. As is the Father, so is the Son.
 What do you think, could not the Synod work like that? So no matter how much it asks of them, and how dissatisfied the brothers themselves may be afterwards, know that one’s labour, done prayerfully, looking to the Father of lights, CAN never be empty in the Lord.
Not asking for people’s favor for you may have it today and have lost it tomorrow. Today people say “Hosanna” and tomorrow “Crucify Him.”
Just ask what the Lord wants you to do.
May the Lord our God, Who is our Father in Christ Jesus, bless the Synod and make it a rich blessing.
So that the church of our Lord Jesus Christ may sing in pure gratitude:
Blest be the LORD, who on our way
Provides for us and day by day
Upholds us by His power.
Amen.”

With these words I declare the fourth General Synod of Canadian Reformed Churches opened.