The Route Is the Same

Posted by David on March 14, 2004 under Sermons

Allow me to begin by calling to your attention two commonly held views regarding worship prior to Jesus’ resurrection. These views are relatively “modern” views.

View one: worship prior to Jesus’ resurrection could only be described as primitive acts by primitive people who were showing just how uneducated and uninformed they were. Their whole concept of priests, the slaughtering of animals, the blood rituals, the preparation of parts of the carcasses for burning, the following of different sacrificial rituals for different needs all scream out just how primitive they were. In Jesus Christ we moved away from such primitive, uneducated worship forms.

View two: worship as it exists under Jesus Christ as Lord and worship as it existed prior to Jesus’ resurrection are totally different. Those two forms or expressions of worship could be compared to two parallel lines with a lot of distance between them. They have a lot of similarities. They are going in the same direction. Yet, basically, they are very distinct and quite independent of each other. While it is okay to look at their similarities, they should never be considered as connected or as a continuation of each other.

I want to begin our thinking with view two and then focus on view one.

Should we who are Christians in the twenty-first century look at worship prior to Jesus resurrection as something totally different and never a continuation or extension of each other?
1. Should we look at them as parallel lines with a wide distance between them?
  1. Should we see Jewish worship coming to an abrupt halt when people are converted to Jesus Christ?
  2. Should we see Jewish Christians deliberately separating themselves from Jewish communities because they were in total disagreement with them about everything including worship?
  3. I want to share some things with you this evening that I shared with you previously.
    1. I do not seek to get you to agree with me, but I do ask you to think.
    2. As you think, I want you to keep focused on scripture instead of what you always just accepted as fact.
2. You are very familiar with the fact that people who were not Jews were not required to convert to Jewish practices and customs in order to become Christians.
  1. That is very obvious in scripture, and it is something that most Bible students have long understood.
    1. We were taught that understanding.
    2. Two sources of scripture that make this very obvious are Acts 15 and the letter of Galatians.
  2. We understand and accept this without question because most of us are gentiles.
3. I call to your attention another fact from scripture that is just as obvious, but we either have been taught it is unimportant or taught to be blind to this fact: just as gentiles did not have to become Jews to be Christians, neither did Jews have to become gentiles to be Christians.
  1. A Jew did not have to abandon Jewish culture and Jewish rituals in order to become a Christian who accepted the resurrected Jesus as Lord.
  2. There is obvious documentation of this fact in scripture.
  3. After Acts 2 and the conversion of 3000 Jews and proselytes, the first incident Luke records in Acts is two apostles, Peter and John, going to the Jewish temple to pray.
    1. This is an infinitely Jewish act at an infinitely Jewish place that observed the Jewish time table for daily afternoon prayer in the temple area.
    2. Much of what occurs in Acts 4 and 5 has to do with this Jewish temple incident.
    3. The point made is (1) “Jesus is what God promised us and what we as Jews should focus on” not (2) “Judaism is an evil thing with which Christians can have no association.”
  4. When the non-Christian Paul wanted to arrest Jews who as believers belonged to Jesus Christ, where did he go? Listen to Acts 9:1,2:
    Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
  5. When Paul began his work among the gentiles, the relationship between Jewish converts and gentile converts became a major religious issue, the “hot button” issue in the community of Christians.
    1. When he and Barnabas came back from their first mission trip to the first known, sizable gentile congregation [in Antioch], an enormous debate was in progress: must gentiles become Jews in religious practices/perspectives to be Christians? Must they be circumcised and follow the customs of Moses?
    2. The issue is not Jewish Christians abandoning Jewish ways; it is “must gentiles do things the way Jews do them.”
    3. Note verse 19 says that gentiles who are turning to God should not be troubled with doing Jewish things Jewish ways.
    4. Also note what verse 21 reads:
      For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.
    5. This is Christian leadership among Jewish Christians affirming the work and purpose of Jewish synagogues in maintaining Jewish ways among the Jewish people–it is not a rejection of Jewish synagogues but an affirmation of them.
4. When the Christian Paul went to a new city, where is the first place he went?
  1. He always went to the Jewish assemblies at the synagogue.
  2. Why?
    1. Early in my life I was taught these were the reasons:
      1. This is the place that people knew and studied scripture [that is true, but that is not the reason scripture gave].
      2. This is the place where people knew the living God [that is true, but that is not the reason scripture gave].
      3. If he convinced the Jews that Jesus was the Christ, there would be an immediate, great force of teachers [that is true, but that is not the reason scripture gave].
    2. Then what is the reason scripture gave?
      1. Consider the words of Paul himself:
        Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
        Acts 13:46 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
      2. Consider the words of Peter spoken to Jews in Acts 3:25,26:
        It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
  3. In Acts 18:18, long after Paul became a Christian, long after he did mission work among the gentiles, we read this statement about Paul’s actions:
    Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow.
    1. The Jewish Christian, Paul, who was a missionary to gentiles, did a very Jewish thing–he took a Jewish vow.
    2. The cutting of the hair was a key element in the Nazarite vow.
    3. Paul did not bind Jewish behavior on gentiles, but as a Jew he was free as a Christian to continue to follow Jewish behavior.
  4. In Acts 21 the Christian Paul gave a report on his work among the gentiles to the Jerusalem elders and leaders. Listen carefully to the reaction of the Jewish church leaders to a matter that concerned them.
    Acts 21:20-24 And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law; and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law.
    1. The Jewish church leaders were concerned because Paul was accused of teaching Jews to forsake circumcision and Jewish customs.
    2. That accusation was very serious. Thousands of Jewish Christians were zealous for the law.
    3. This was the Jewish leaders recommendation: be the sponsor of four Christian men who have taken a Jewish vow.
      1. Purify yourself with them [Jewish purification code], and pay their expenses to take the vow.
      2. Then everyone will know the accusation is false: though you teach gentiles about Jesus, you continue to be [personally] true to Jewish customs.
  5. Just the evidences in Acts confirm that Judaism and Christianity are to be seen as a “continuous” line, not “parallel” lines that are never connected.
If you think that worship before Christ was at best primitive and uneducated, and that worship of the resurrected Jesus has nothing in common with Israel’s primitive, uneducated worship, I would like you to consider some emphasizes from scripture.
1. Just like Israel, we depend on a high priest.
  1. A high priest represented Israel to the holy God.
  2. A high priest represents us to the same holy God.
  3. Listen:
    Hebrews 2:14-18 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
    Hebrews 4:14-16 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
    Hebrews 5:7-10 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
    Hebrews 7:26-8:2 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever. Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
2. Just like Israel, we are dependent on God’s tabernacle and a gift of blood.
  Hebrews 9:11,12 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
  Hebrews 9:24-26 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
3. Just like Israel, we are dependent on a sacrifice.
  Hebrews 10:10-14,18 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 18 … Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.
4. Just like Israel, we have relationship with the holy God because of a sin offering.
  Hebrews 13:10-16 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Worship in Israel was never based on the primitive, but on an understanding of the holy God. Worship among Christians is based on the same understandings of the same holy God.

To Others, Unbelievable; To Us, Reality

Posted by David on under Bulletin Articles

“Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:1, 2

Those experiencing life among peoples in other nations are awed at the way they “see” American prosperity. In third world countries, the American lifestyle and home equipment is beyond comprehension–power, cooking stoves, refrigerators, air conditioners, hot water, etc. In many European nations (including Eastern Europe), people cannot comprehend the affordable food available to typical Americans. In numerous cultures only the extremely rich can afford to eat as the average American eats.

Thus a third world parent who loves his/her child dearly might beg a returning American, “Take my child to America with you!” Or, a well-to-do Eastern European recipient of “southern hospitality” here cannot respond “in kind” when the American visits.

Their common perspective: “Americans are incredibly happy because they have so many material things.” Try to explain to people in unimaginable poverty or to people who never have things available we take for granted the reality of pain in America. It is impossible! They, as too many Americans, think happiness is found in possessions. They, as too many Americans, think possessions and lifestyle make unhappiness impossible. They, as too many Americans, conclude the key to happiness is material well being. They, as too many Americans, think, “If I had all I want, I would be happy.” Often they, as we, want to fill empty lives with things. We know the emptiness, and we are confused because “things” do not fill it.

There is so much pain and hurt in America! What pain and hurt? The pain and hurt of failed relationships (marriages in misery; divorce; alienation between parents and children). The pain and hurt of mortality (ask any older person–aging is not a joyful experience, even if you get rid of arthritis and wear Depends!) The pain and hurt of sickness and death (being sick is no fun, and dying hurts many people beside the one who ceases to live physically). The pain and hurt of injustice (there are tons of ways to make victims). The pain and hurt of loneliness (feeling like no one cares is awful!). Lengthen the list: hopelessness, injuries, addictions, failed expectations, disappointments, etc.

Christians have a unique voice too rarely heard in our culture. We should be (must be!) the community who cares! We have a way to love and be there for each other because God teaches us how to love and be there. Want to see God’s love and concern? Look at Jesus! Through Jesus, God reveals life’s true focus. Being a Christian, being a part of the Christian community, does not remove all hurt and pain. It shows us how to care for those in hurt and pain. In that community, God Himself shows His people how to love and care. This is the courageous voice we must share with America–and beyond!

Jesus: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.” Luke 6:32

The Two Aspects of Worshipping

Posted by David on March 7, 2004 under Sermons

If Christians from the first century world were to worship with us today on Sunday mornings, they would find those worship assemblies quite strange and unfamiliar. Christians of the first century would feel as uncomfortable and “out-of-place” in our worship assemblies as we would in theirs about 2000 years ago.

Our four-part harmony in singing would be strange to them. As I understand it, having different parts and having what we regard as harmony among those parts is relatively a “new” development. Among Christians around 2000 thousand years ago, what we regard to be harmony did not exist. Many of us would not even find their songs melodious. To us it would sound more like a reading or even a prayer. While the sounds made in their music would be strange to our hearing, the sounds made in our music would sound strange to their ears. [Even were it all in English.]

The focus and subjects of our songs compared to the focus and subjects of their songs are different. In the few songs we have from early churches, the focus is primarily on Christ and sometimes on God. Some of our favorite songs focus on us, our dreams, our hopes, our anticipations. Likely they would find that a strange focus.

The purpose of our songs would be strange to them. To us, songs are primarily inspirational. To them, songs were a means of confessing their faith in Christ or teaching others about Christ.
They would find our communion quite strange. Let’s just say that the emphasis they placed on communion and the ways they took communion were likely quite different from our emphasis and the way we observe communion.
They would find assembling in a church building quite strange. In the Roman empire, Christianity as a religion was illegal. In places where Christians were considered undesirable and dangerous, Christians of necessity had to be quite cautious about where they gathered. Where there was little or no opposition to them, they could be more open.

They gathered in a variety of circumstances for worship. If you were converted from a Jewish background and history, you might gather in a Jewish home or in a synagogue. If you were a Christian converted with a pagan background and history, you might gather in a home, in a synagogue, or in a secretive place such as the catacombs.

Since the major issue about Jesus among Jews was, “Is he the Messiah God promised?” and since the scriptures of the first century church were the Hebrew Bible [Old Testament to us], it was compatible for converts with a Jewish background [Jews, proselytes, God-bearers] to gather in synagogues since that would be the depository of scripture and the center of Jewish discussion about Jesus’ identity.

To me, the bottom line is this: first century Christians would not feel like they had worshipped if they came to our worship assemblies, and we would not feel like we had worshipped if we attended their worship assemblies. The differences in each setting would distract the visiting group.

There is a significant change between then and now that has a powerful influence on our perception of Christianity and Christian worship assemblies.
1. Christians existed in the first century as an identifiable community who took care of each other.
  1. They fed the widows (Acts 6).
  2. They adopted widows for total care when they had no family to care for them (1 Timothy 5:8-12).
  3. They took care of orphans (James 1:27).
  4. They opened their homes to each other (2 John 9,10).
2. That situation reminds me in many ways of the small rural church of my childhood.
  1. I can remember when several families pooled together their Sunday lunches and had their own “small group meetings” on Sunday afternoon.
  2. I can remember when we “were there” for each other, doing what we could to be of help in times of crisis.
  3. I can remember the strength of the bond that tied us together as a functioning community of Christians who cared about each other.
If this sense of community with its bonding and closeness is to exist, at least two things must be true.
1. The congregation must be a community, not an institution.
  1. We must know each other.
  2. We must care about each other.
  3. We must help each other.
  4. The bond of genuine love must be strong among us.
2. As a congregation, we individually must maintain a strong relationship with God.
  1. We must feel a joyful dependence on God–and see our dependence as a good thing!
  2. We must want to be Christians–we are attracted to God’s holiness!
  3. We are committed to being Jesus’ disciples–we willingly let Jesus teach us who we are, how we live, and how we think.
  4. We as a people are committed to being a particular kind of people, not just doing certain things.
  5. Our highest priority in life must be to walk in God’s paths, to behave like God’s people.
How does this relate to worship? We offer God worship in two basic ways.
1. We worship God collectively, together, as a people.
  1. That obviously occurred in the New Testament among Christians.
  2. It began in Acts 2 and continued to be reflected in the epistles–groups of Christians met together to gladly praise God for His gift of Jesus Christ.
  3. For the sake of illustration, I call your attention to 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.
    1. Read with me and note one thing–the importance of their sense of togetherness in taking the Lord’s supper.
    2. Verse 17: the Corinthian Christians being together caused problems–their assemblies made Christians weaker, not stronger.
    3. Verse 18, 19–their worship actually emphasized and advanced their divisions.
    4. Verses 20, 21–instead of their being together affirming their commitment to each other and God, it only stressed their differences.
    5. Verse 22–their agenda in being together failed to emphasize their closeness as a people in Christ [despising the church of God is despising ourselves as Christ’s body].
    6. The purpose is not to satisfy a physical need for food, but to affirm your sense of community as God’s people.
    7. Verse 33–you cannot achieve God’s objective in the Lord’s supper if you do not care about each other being a part of the remembrance.
  4. Communion had two objectives:
    1. To remember what God and Jesus did for us in Jesus’ death.
    2. To affirm our relationship with each other in Christ.
    3. The Lords’ supper was to affirm a sense of belonging among ourselves, a sense of caring and togetherness, a sense of community in Christ.
2. We as Christian persons worship God individually on a continuing, daily basis.
  1. Read with me Romans 12:1,2
    Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
  2. My personal understanding is this: they collectively were urged to accept a personal responsibility.
  3. This presentation of the physical body to God is to be on a daily basis–the injunctions that follow in Romans flows from this presentation.
  4. I make the presentation because I am moved by the enormity of God’s mercy.
  5. I make my physical body a holy sacrifice–I consciously climb up on the altar to sacrifice myself every day.
  6. By my desire, God redefines who and what I am.
  7. He gives me a new way to think and His will becomes my priority.
  8. God helps me define what is good, what is acceptable, and what is “on target” in life (focuses life).
3. Thus worship involves two considerations in a Christian’s existence.
  1. It is a collective act in which I appreciatively declare my dependence on God and my oneness with God’s people; it is my commitment to the community of Christians.
  2. It is a daily individual act in which I surrender myself to God.
    1. All my obedience flows from this surrender to the holy God.
    2. This worship defines who and what I am in all my relationships and all interactions with other people–those who are Christians, and those who are not.

There are two questions each of us should focus on as Christians:

What do I declare in my group worship?
Every day do I climb on the altar and surrender myself as a holy sacrifice to God?

Focusing On Our Purpose as a Congregation

Posted by David on February 29, 2004 under Bulletin Articles

Permit me to begin by asking some questions we do not often ask. What are the purposes for convincing men and women that they should “enter Jesus Christ” and have “Christ in them”? What purposes do men and women who are “in Jesus Christ” have? Why do we exist as a congregation? Are there purposes in being a congregation? Are those purposes ours or God’s? Do they exist because of our concerns or God’s priorities?

Do we exist as Christians merely to exist? Do we exist as a congregation merely to exist? Is the purpose of being “in Christ” no more than staying out of Hell? Is the purpose of being a congregation no more than survival?

If those questions seem trivial, “too thoughty,” or too concerned about issues you never consider, may I give you a guarantee? The guarantee: any elder who takes serious his role of leadership in a congregation never regards any of those questions trivial, “too thoughty,” or focused on insignificant matters.

This Sunday morning as we consider God’s importance to our lives in the worship of our physical and spiritual Creator, our shepherds/leaders will challenge us. It will not be a business meeting. It will be worship. These men thought long and hard about God’s purposes in us as individuals and a congregation. They want to briefly share their thoughts with us. Their sharing will be in the form of challenges rather than the form of directives. They will seek to lead us rather than control us. They will focus on our purpose and our goals to the glory and honor of God, Christ, and the Spirit.

Our Purpose:

Making disciples for Jesus who are eager to serve others.

Our Goals:

To daily focus on Jesus and His Cross.
To nurture spiritual growth to transform all into God’s holiness.
To increase love and godly behavior.
To recognize our spiritual gifts and use them to glorify God.

To proclaim a biblical worldview that is obedient to Christ.

These men sacrifice much to be our shepherds. They want to share with us what these things mean to them. They want us to think and focus as we make God the core of our daily lives. They want us to think and focus as we seek to be God’s people-nothing more and nothing less. See you Sunday as we honor God by thinking about who we are!

“Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds?” (Hebrews 10:24)

The Moods of Worship

Posted by David on February 22, 2004 under Sermons

Those of us who are older have long accepted as fact that there is only one appropriate worship mood. The only appropriate mood is solemness. Anything other than being solemn in worship is a human invention that is unknown to God.

People are to approach God with reverence. In the Churches of Christ [and in many other churches as well] in the 20th and 21st century, reverence meant solemn. Any worship mood that failed to be solemn was declared totally inappropriate for worship. The common opinion: proper worship is founded on death [sacrifices, and Jesus’ crucifixion]. There is only one appropriate mood to be associated with death. That appropriate mood is solemn.

Jesus’ birth as recorded in Luke 2 was a time of celebration, but we have no occasion for celebration in our worship. Jesus’ presentation as an infant at the temple was a moment of joyful thanksgiving for Simeon and Anna in Luke 2, but we have no occasion for joyful thanksgiving. The baptism of Jesus an occasion of joy in which God Himself declared that He was well pleased, but we have no occasion for expressing joy in worship.

I have difficulty believing that the marriage feast at Cana or many of the healings were not occasions for spiritual celebration and joy. God acted in wonderful ways! It is difficult for me to imagine that a leper being healed, or a blind man seeing, or a lame man walking, or a demon possessed person being freed, or a dead person being raised to life would produce only solemn spiritual thoughts. It is impossible for me to see these people worshipping God in anything but joyful thanksgiving for the great blessing received.

One of the earliest Christian miracles occurred in Acts 3. When Peter by Jesus’ power gave the gift of walking to a man lame from birth, the man stood up with a leap and entered the temple walking, and leaping, and praising God. He was in the holiest place they knew, but what he did was not solemn. Neither was it irreverent. God enabled this man who had never taken one step to walk, and he was thrilled beyond words! He had to praise God for his gift!

The fact that worshipping God includes many moods comes from God Himself.
1. Jewish expressions of worship were either commanded by or sanctioned by God.
  1. Some of their special occasions of worship included these:
    1. Passover and the feast of unleavened bread.
    2. The feast of weeks, also known as the feast of harvest or the day of first fruits.
    3. The feast of tabernacles, also known as the feast of booths or the feast of ingatherings.
    4. The Sabbath occurring on the seventh day of each week.
    5. The day of blowing the trumpets.
    6. The day of atonement.
    7. The feast of Purim.
    8. Jubilee
  2. Most of these were feasts that involved worship centered around sacrifices and eating with joy.
    1. God commanded His people to have occasions of celebration as they honored and praised Him–a part of remembering was celebration!
    2. The idea and thought of people joyfully praising and glorifying Him have never been foreign to God.
2. We truly need to distance ourselves from the human idea that God is offended when His people worship Him in the joy of gratitude for His kind and gracious gifts and blessings.
  1. All the men of Israel made pilgrimages from all over the land on special festival days, which we would call occasions of worship.
    Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.
  2. It was a sight unlike anything we have ever seen as thousands and thousands of people flooded the roads to the Jerusalem temple.
  3. As these thousands and thousands of people made their pilgrimage, they sang as they neared Jerusalem and the temple.
    1. Their songs were know as the songs of Ascents.
    2. As thousands of Israelites sang as they “went up” to Jerusalem, these songs echoed through the valleys with increasing volume as they neared their destination.
    3. Psalms contains some of those songs, and those songs reflect a variety of moods–and one of those moods is joy.
    4. Listen to some of the words in those songs:
      Psalm 121:1-4 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From whence shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.
      Psalm 122:1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
      Psalm 126:1,2 When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, We were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter And our tongue with joyful shouting; Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” (Probably a song sung after the captivity.)
      Psalm 135:1-3 Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord; Praise Him, O servants of the Lord, You who stand in the house of the Lord, In the courts of the house of our God! Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; Sing praises to His name, for it is lovely.
I want you to think and consider as we note some of the holiest Jewish occasions of worship.
1. The Passover and feast of unleavened bread:
  1. The Passover primarily was a time of remembrance in Israel when they celebrated the fact that it was God with His great power who freed Israel from slavery.
  2. Think about it! It celebrated the wonderful things God did for them, not the horrible things they did to God.
    1. God acted powerfully on their behalf–that is not a mournful, downcast memory.
    2. God ended their existence as slaves–that is not a mournful, downcast memory.
    3. God made them a nation–that is not a mournful, downcast memory.
    4. God led them to a country of their own–that is not a mournful, downcast memory.
  3. Listen:
    Exodus 12:14 Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.
    Exodus 13:11-16 “Now when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, you shall devote to the Lord the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the Lord. But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘With a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and as phylacteries on your forehead, for with a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
  4. Passover was about the joyful memory of God’s deliverance through God’s powerful act.
    1. They are to never forget what God did for them.
    2. The feast of unleaven bread was a continual memorial to remind every Israelite yearly of how quickly Israel left Egypt.
    3. It was a feast, a meal, not a fast.
    4. It remembered how deeply indebted Israel was to God.
2. The feast of weeks [also known as the feast of harvests or the day of first fruits]:
  1. Notice again that this is a time of feasting.
  2. It was held at the completion of the spring grain harvest.
  3. Listen:
    Deuteronomy 16:9-12 You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as the Lord your God blesses you; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite who is in your town, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
3. The feast of tabernacles [also known as the feast of booths or the feast of ingatherings].
  1. Again, notice this was a time of feasting.
  2. This was a festival that occurred at the end of the harvest which also marked the end of their year.
  3. It was a week of joyful remembrance: God brought us out of Egypt; God preserved us in the wilderness; God gave us this harvest; God is our Provider Who Protects us.
  4. Listen:
    Leviticus 23:39-43 On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
4. The day of atonement (Leviticus 16):
  1. I want you to notice the contrast.
    1. Passover, the feast or festival of weeks, and the feast or festival of tabernacles were occasions of joy combined with feasting which celebrated the powerful acts and blessings of God.
    2. The day of atonement was a day for the nation to focus on their sins, their failures, their unholiness before the holy God.
    3. There was no feasting; only a remembrance of their failures and their need for atonement [forgiveness].
    4. The high priest cleansed himself, then cleansed the sanctuary, and then cleansed the nation.
  2. Listen:
    Leviticus 16:17-31 When he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides. With his finger he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times and cleanse it, and from the impurities of the sons of Israel consecrate it. When he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there. He shall bathe his body with water in a holy place and put on his clothes, and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. Then he shall offer up in smoke the fat of the sin offering on the altar. The one who released the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water; then afterward he shall come into the camp. But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their refuse in the fire. Then the one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body with water, then afterward he shall come into the camp. This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is to be a sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute.
I focus your attention on this fact:
1. There is no “refocusing” of the concepts of worship in the Christian age–worship of God was worship of God.
  1. Forms for expressing worship changed, but worship as a concept did not change.
  2. Lessons learned from the concepts God gave Israel for worship are truly relevant for our Christian concepts of worship.
2. In worshipping God, there were occasions to joyously celebrate the gifts and power of God–by God’s own choosing and direction!
3. In worshipping God there are occasions to mourn our sinfulness–by God’s own choosing and direction!

The basic understanding in worship is simple. If the focus is on God and His powerful acts and blessings, the mood is a joyful celebration. If the focus is on us and our sinfulness, the mood is somber. This is what God revealed, not what we decided.

Joy

Posted by David on under Sermons

I want to focus our thinking by reading Hebrews 12:1-3.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In modern America, in the church, we have taken much of the brutality and violence out of Jesus’ crucifixion.
1. Crucifixion was a common method for executing people who were not Roman citizens.
  1. Jesus and the two thieves who were crucified on the same occasion were only three of hundreds of first century Jews crucified by the Romans.
  2. Nor was this method of execution used by the Romans only with Jewish people–it was a common means of execution by the Roman troops.
  3. It was a very violent, brutal, cruel way to die.
2. Twentieth and twenty-first century Christians have removed much of the violent brutality and cruelty from Jesus’ crucifixion.
  1. We tend to be much more comfortably focusing on artist’s renditions of the crucifixion which are “pretty” but not violent or cruel.
  2. We know Jesus suffered when he died, but we much prefer to focus on his enormous love rather than his real suffering.
  3. Many of us are just plain shocked when we are confronted with the violence and cruelty of Jesus’ execution.
  4. It was a brutal execution witnessed by a crowd of onlookers, much like the crowds that witnessed hangings in our western movement.
  5. It was a contemptible, disgraceful way to die–the intent was to disgrace the execution victim by destroying his humanity in death.
A question I asked myself for many years was this: “How did Jesus do it?”
1. He made no physical attempt to avoid it when he knew before the event it would occur.
  1. In fact, he consciously did the things he knew would lead to crucifixion.
  2. He knew it was coming.
  3. He knew it would involve enormous suffering.
  4. Yet, he did not run, did not hide, did not defend himself.
  5. How is it possible to do that when you are not guilty of anything?
2. The “how” is addressed at least twice in New Testament writings.
  1. One is given in 1 Peter 2:23.
    And while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.
    1. As Jesus endured enormous injustice in his death, he used his strength to focus on being [in suffering!] the person God wanted him to be.
    2. He did not have the strength [nor do we!] to focus in suffering on the injustice and on being the person God wanted him to be.
    3. So he entrusted the injustices to God to let God care for them.
    4. He just focused on being the person God wanted him to be–he did not let injustice distract him!
    5. That is one of the “hows!”
3. The other “how” is given in the reading we shared at the beginning (Hebrews 12:1-3).
  1. That “how” was this: he was motivated to endure the cross and despise the shame for the sake of the joy in front of him.
  2. Our reaction is, “Joy? What joy? What possibly could be worth going through that experience?”
For a moment, I want you to focus on joy.
1. “What joys did Jesus know that were ahead of him that made the experience of crucifixion endurable?”
  1. I am certain I do not know all of them.
  2. I am confident that they included:
    1. Being the means through which God’s promise made much more than a thousand years earlier was kept.
    2. The resurrection.
    3. Being enthroned by God on God’s right hand (kingly language).
    4. Being made Lord of lord’s and King of kings by God Himself.
    5. Interceding for every man or woman who trusts him and his death.
2. Here are my questions to us.
  1. If Jesus found joy in being our ransom by giving his blood for our redemption, do we find joy in being ransomed?
  2. If Jesus found joy in becoming our Savior, do we find joy in being saved?
  3. If Jesus found joy in making our forgiveness a permanent reality, do we find joy in being forgiven?
  4. If Jesus found joy in the right to intercede for us, do we find joy in realizing that is what he does for us every day of our lives?

How do we respond to this great gift provided in the brutality of his execution? Surely, in many ways. Yet, one of those ways that must not be absent is with joy! Our joy to be alive in Christ must be real and must be expressed! How do you express this joy?

Making Disciples Eager to Serve Others

Posted by David on under Bulletin Articles

I express my personal thanks to all who made our banner possible! To make it required enormous work by a lot of people! Ladies, thank you for all the time and skills you dedicated to it! Personal schedules had to be coordinated for months. Since it is so large, finding a place to work on it was not simple (this is a very used facility!). Hanging it from the rear balcony area was a major task (thanks Mark Hite, Denise Lusby, Martha Walker, Debbie Belote!). In such a large room, it is large enough to be seen, but not an “overpowering” display. It is simply a readable reminder as we leave our worship assemblies.

A few months ago our elders suggested to us as a congregation that our purpose statement be, “Making disciples for Jesus who are eager to serve others.” That is a statement reflecting an understanding of our purpose as declared in Titus 2:14.

We exist to make disciples who follow Jesus. We seek to call people to Jesus as Lord and Christ. We want these people to enter Christ because they want to follow Jesus as their teacher. We want them to allow Jesus to guide them in a Christian lifestyle.

We exist to encourage every Christian to make discipleship in Jesus a core purpose in every area of personal life. We want every one of us to follow Jesus in the personal desire and commitment to allow him to remake us. We are to do more than seek to escape the consequences of our evil. We want Jesus to teach us how to live in ways that reflect God, our Creator, in our lives as we serve others to God’s glory.

Our commitment to Christ is not a selfish commitment. Just as he lived, died, and was resurrected to serve, we as his followers want to have his eagerness to serve. Just as we benefit from Jesus’ commitment to service, we want others to benefit from our commitment to service. Just as he became our Savior through giving and serving, we want to be his followers to God’s glory through serving and giving.

Now, each week as we leave after assembling to praise and honor God for His gifts to us through Jesus, we are visually reminded to (1) be disciples of Jesus and (2) eagerly serve others. We want to be a people whom God can use to make differences in the lives of others and each other. We exist as God’s people in order for God to use us for His purposes. That is our purpose just as it is Jesus Christ’s purpose.

If we are on the journey to live with God as an eternal part of His family, a physical lifestyle can never define us, nor can this physical existence ever be our home. We seek the faith to be like Jesus in the ways we live and the courage to allow Jesus to be Lord.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

The Creator God

Posted by David on February 15, 2004 under Sermons

The Bible opens in Genesis 1 with the creative act of God. The entire first chapter of the Bible is devoted to the acts of the Creator God. Basically it says that everything Israel saw and knew began with the creative acts of the Creator God.

In my life time [and certainly not confined just to the period of my life] Genesis 1 has been analyzed, dissected, debated, and refocused in terms of our concerns. Most of our analysis, dissection, debates, and refocusing have been about our modern, scientific concerns and issues, not about the expressed concerns of Genesis. We have spent a lot of time seeking answers to questions that (a) are not in the book of Genesis and (b) were not a part of the concerns of the original Israelite recipients.

Neither Genesis nor chapter one was written to address 20th and 21st Century concerns about our scientific questions and issues. To me, efforts to make Genesis chapter one [or the book] about our questions and issues miss the primary message of that chapter and the book.

This is my conclusion: if we make Genesis one and Genesis about our questions and issues, we will either miss or misunderstand God’s message in Genesis one and the book. The result is that we hear ourselves speaking for God and not hear God speaking for Himself.

When the Israelites who first received the Genesis message heard it, there are certain questions they did not ask. They did not ask, “What do you mean by the word day, and how long was this period of time?” They did not ask, “What method was used to create, and what process did the creative acts follow?” They did not ask, “How are we to look upon and explain strange life forms?”

To them, the information addressed two simple questions: (1) “How did we as human being and as the nation of Israel come into existence?” (2) “For what purpose do we exist as the nation of Israel?” The answers: “We came into existence as people and as Israel through the intended, direct, creative acts of the Creator God. We exist as a nation to serve the Creator God.”

They had a clear, foundational understanding: “We owe everything to the acts of the Creator God. It is only right that we belong to Him, listen to Him, and serve Him.”

I accept as fact that the original recipients of Genesis were Israelites, perhaps the Israelites who left Egypt.
1. What was Genesis’ messages to these original recipients?
  1. “You are to understand that your origin is in the Creator God.”
    1. “The God Who created brought people (including you!) into existence and gave them life.”
    2. “The God Who created brought you into existence as human beings and as a nation.”
  2. “You live as human beings because in God’s goodness and kindness He did not destroy human beings when they rebelled against Him.”
    1. “The reason you have difficulties is found in human rebellion, not in the Creator God.”
    2. “When the Creator God finished this physical creation, everything–including humanity–was good.”
    3. “Human rebellion through human choice gave evil a place in human existence.”
  3. “You exist as Israel because of God’s great love for Abraham, the man of faith.” (Consider Deuteronomy 4:37-40; 7:6-8)
  4. “You do not exist because you are wonderful–you are not wonderful! You are forgiven because it is the nature of the Creator God to be merciful and kind. You are Israel because the merciful, kind Creator God loved Abraham, your forefather who was a person of faith.”
    Deuteronomy 9:4-6 Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.
  5. “Because you owe your existence in every dimension to the Creator God, you have every reason to belong to Him and serve Him. It is right that you listen to Him and obey Him.”
2. I want you to focus on something quite simple–yet extremely important.
  1. If God creates it, it is good.
  2. If Satan or evil perverts what God has created, it is bad (sinful, evil).
  3. Satan cannot create, only pervert.
  4. We humans cannot create, only be perverted.
  5. The only hope humans have of moving toward goodness is moving toward God.
  6. We were “good” when the Creator God brought us into existence.
    1. By our choice, with our permission, humans moved from their created goodness to evil’s perversion.
    2. The only hope humans have to move toward their original goodness is an act of God in their individual lives. [God is the power source, not they themselves.]
3. With that understanding, I want you carefully to listen to two New Testament statements given by Paul to Christians in the first century.
  1. The first statement is given to Christians at Ephesus:
    Ephesians 4:20-24 But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
  2. The context makes this statement both fascinating and insightful.
    1. Paul wrote to Christians, men and women who already have come to Christ, who because they believed already have been baptized into Christ.
    2. He said, “Understanding Christ means understanding a specific message that is consistent with what and who he is.”
    3. “You may think you understand Christ, but you surely have missed an understanding of the message.”
    4. “If you understood the message, you would not live the lives you live or behave in the manner you act.”
    5. “Truth is found and understood by understanding Jesus the Christ.”
    6. “This is the simple message:
      1. “There was a way that you lived and acted prior to coming to Christ.
      2. “When you come to Christ you do not live and act that way any more; you cannot continue to live and act as you did when you were a Christless person.
      3. “That way of living was based on being deceived by your perverted desires–you must intentionally abandon that way of life.
      4. “Instead of having a deceived mind, you are going to have a renewed mind.
      5. “You must be a new self which is dedicated to God and seeks to reflect God’s likeness–others will not look at the way you live and act and be deceived about Who God is or what human behavior is when it is consistent with the nature and character of God.
      6. Please carefully note: “This new self exists because the Creator God has created this new self in righteousness and holiness of truth.”
    7. If you place this passage in a larger context of what is said both before and after it, Paul’s point is simple: “You cannot continue the behavior and lifestyle of people who do not know God because God has created you to be righteous and holy as is He.”
    8. What a powerful commentary to those who have transformed worship into a physical presence at a church building and transformed communion into a ritualistic act!
  3. The second statement is also given by Paul to Christians at Colossae:
    Colossians 3:1-10 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.
  4. Again, the context makes this passage insightful and fascinating.
    1. Again, Paul wrote to Christian men and women.
    2. “Belonging to Jesus Christ refocuses your entire life.
    3. “Before you were Christians you were focused on your desires; after you become a Christian you are to focus on Jesus Christ.
    4. “If you want to be ready to receive Christ at your resurrection with joy and glorious anticipation, you set your mind (thinking) on spiritual realities in the place where Christ is, in heaven where he is at God’s right hand (the choice place of the one whom the King favors).
    5. The new attitudes of the person who is in Christ:
      1. “I have died, and my life is now hidden in Christ.
      2. “I will not worship immorality, impurity, a passion for evil things, or evil desires–letting those things rule my life amount to idolatry.
      3. “Nor will I be a person controlled by anger, wrath, malice, slander, or abusive speech.
      4. “All those things characterized who I used to be, not who I am hidden in Christ.
      5. “I will treat people with mercy and kindness, just as the Creator God treats me.
      6. “I will deliberately abandon the life I lived before I believed in Christ.
      7. “I will put on the new self which is God made, not continue in perversions produced by evil’s deceptions.
      8. “I will renew this new self through the true knowledge which imitates the Creator God.
      9. The Christian has this new self because the Creator God through a creative act gave it to him.
    6. There is a striking contrast between their behavior and values prior to knowing Christ (in verses 5 and 8) and what their behavior should be as people who have been created by God in Christ (in verses 12, 13).
Think about these factors:
1. Only God can create good in human existence.
  1. In Christ God creates us to be the new humanity, those people who choose to belong to God.
  2. As those who choose to belong to God, our entire lifestyle (which includes our thinking) is dedicated to reflecting the nature and character of God.
2. We are in Christ because we choose to be new selves, God’s new humanity.
3. Some obvious observations:
  1. There is a direct coupling between worshipping God and living lives that reflect the character and nature of God daily–neither can be substituted for the other.
    1. To disconnect the way we live from our worship of God is to be deceived.
    2. The dedication of our daily lives to ungodliness will make our worship an insult to God.
  2. Only the creative acts of the Creator God can provide us a new self that allows us to honor the God Who created humans and Who created us to be His people.

We are God’s new humanity. We need to learn to worship and act as the people who belong exclusively to God.

Consequences and Blessings

Posted by David on under Bulletin Articles

I often wonder, “Why do I always have to learn so many things the hard way?” What does that mean? For most of us, it means “I have to make a huge mistake before ‘it gets my attention’ and causes me to realize ‘uh-oh! That was dumb!'” I find neither comfort nor delight in realizing that “the hard way” is the precise formula many, many others follow in “learning life’s difficult lessons.”

So, why do so many of us learn “the hard way”? Allow me to suggest some responses to that “why.”

Reason # 1: we are humans, not God. As humans, we prefer falling prey to imagined deceit rather than learning from truth. As humans, we like to pretend we are god. As humans, we like to believe we are “the masters of our own fate” [when we are, commonly it is bad, not good!]. For those who prefer deception, for those who consider themselves god, for those who think they “know best” about most things, the only way to learn (and remember!) is by learning the “hard way”! Others’ mistakes mean nothing! Our hard experiences mean everything!

Reason # 2: we remember what we live through and survive. It is almost like we have internal juvenile arguments with ourselves: “Is too! Is not! Is too! Is not!” The fact that someone we know already learned the “hard way” means nothing to most of us. “We” are different! That experience would not produce the same outcome and results in us! We are [take your pick] wiser, more alert, more gifted, more intelligent, more discriminating, have better judgment, etc., than “they”! Only when we repeat their failure do we “own” the consequence! What a crash when we finally realize we really are not different!

Reason # 3: some of our richest, most appreciated blessings rise from the ashes of our failures. It is true that “we do not know how to appreciate what we lost until we lose it.” Learning the “hard way” teaches us to appreciate what we take for granted. In fact, blessings we consider curses suddenly become invaluable treasures. We know how to appreciate what we lost–if we get it back!

Reason # 4: learning “hard lessons” from horrible experiences equips us to (1) use those experiences to teach the few who will listen [if we are willing to share our failures] and (2) be an invaluable source of encouragement to those who need to rise above their mistakes.

The downsides of learning the “hard way”: (1) the mistake may destroy us before we learn the lesson; (2) the education hurts others as well as ourselves; (3) it is a wasteful way to learn; and (4) it leaves God’s wisdom and guidance out of our learning process.

Fortunately, the Christian belongs to the God who produces blessings from mistakes–even big ones! His biggest blessings are discovered in allowing Him to guide us away from the “hard way”! Unmade mistakes are invaluable!

The Difference Between Worshipping God and Worshipping Idols

Posted by David on February 8, 2004 under Sermons

In last week’s lesson, we read over thirty scriptures in understanding that God first acts, then calls for our response. A primary form of our response is worship. Christians worship and serve God in response to what God had done in acting in human history.

Tonight I want to make application of last week’s reading by noting three distinctions between God and idols that are evident in the contrast of worship of Jehovah God and worship of idols.

There is a distinction! Christians must realize there is a distinction! A failure to understand that distinction can [and often does!] misdirect our worship and our the way we live our lives.

First, you must understand the contrast throughout the entire Bible is the contrast between Jehovah God and idolatrous gods. The worlds of the Old Testament were worlds of idolatry. Israel often was attracted to and caught up in the focus of those worlds. Every time Israel was caught up in idolatry, they forgot the contrast and they lost memory of Who God is. We as Christians must never forget the basic contrast in the Old Testament is the contrast between the living God and the gods idols represented.

The world of the New Testament was a world of idolatry. The call of the New Testament is to see the living God in His distinctiveness, to see Him in contrast to the gods represented by idols. If we fail to see that contrast, if we lose memory of Who God is, just like Israel we will lose contact with God. The contrast did not change when God gave the gift of Jesus in his incarnation, his death, and his resurrection.

Second, you must understand that it is very easy for us to lose sight of the contrast because the common idols of 21st century America are quite different to the idols of the Bible worlds. Our idols exist in secular institutions and pursuits, not in religious temples dedicated to nonexistent deities. While their idols represented those nonexistent gods they worshipped, our idols usually exist in secular forms that encourage us to worship ourselves. Our idols are greed, jealousy, self-indulgence, selfishness, pleasure, addictions, pride, arrogance, injustice, hate, anger, and such like. Our symbols of nonexistent gods take forms like money, controlling power, drugs used for pleasure, alcohol, abusive speech or acts, exploiting the weak, and such like. Because we see our idols only in a secular context, we too often do not recognize them as spiritual forces.

In the worlds of the Bible, people commonly associated the same attitudes with idolatrous forces. Commonly the characteristics of our secular gods were the characteristics of their religious gods. Where we make artificial distinctions between what we declare secular and spiritual, they did not make such distinctions. For them, the secular was merely an extension of the spiritual.

This evening I want you to consider three basic contrasts between the living God and idols. It is in seeing these contrast that we can understand another basic truth about the concept of biblical worship of the living God.

Contrast # 1: the living God acts in human history before He calls for a response from people.
1. Let me challenge you to consider two illustrations:
  1. The first is found in Exodus 19, 20 with Israel.
    Exodus 19:3-6 Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
    1. This statement occurs just before God spoke from Mount Sinai and gave Israel the ten commandments.
    2. Why? Why did God make this Exodus 19 statement first and then give the ten commandments to Israel in Exodus 20?
      1. Remember the exodus from Egypt was history–God delivered Israel.
      2. Remember the crossing of the Red Sea was history–God delivered Israel.
      3. Remember all the nurturing/preservation deeds in the wilderness were history–God delivered Israel.
    3. God declared Exodus 19:3-6 to remind them that Israel had reason to respond to Him.
      1. Please note it is their choice to see and respond to what God did.
      2. Please note they had reason to respond positively to God.
    4. He already had acted in delivering them from Egypt.
    5. He asked them to respond to Him on the basis of what He did for them.
  2. The same emphasis is seen in the New Testament.
    1. In explaining the concepts of righteousness and justification through faith in Jesus Christ, Paul wrote these words in Romans 5:6-8.
      For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
    2. Before we were righteous, God acted on our behalf.
    3. While we were helpless, God acted on our behalf.
    4. While we were sinners, God acted on our behalf.
    5. God intervened in human history for our benefit.
    6. How? He sent Jesus. He permitted Jesus’ death for our sins. He raised Jesus from the dead.
    7. Our worship and our service is in response to what God already has done.
    8. God acted for our benefit; we respond to His action.
  3. The first contrast between the living God and idols is that God acted in history for our benefit before He asked us to respond to Him.
Contrast # 2: the living God cares and expresses His caring; idolatry commonly was based on fate.
1. The concept of fate in regard to the action of idolatry’s gods is a concept of inattentiveness and unconcern–a general disinterest.
  1. It is the basic view of “what is going to happen will happen”–good or bad.
    1. Thus if something good happened to you, the gods smiled on you for whatever reason.
    2. If something bad happened to you, it was going to happen and you could not prevent it.
    3. Your behavior or decisions had nothing to do with the outcome.
    4. Fate determined the outcome.
  2. To me, one of the best revealing of the attitudes common to the Baal gods in the region of Canaan is declared in Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18:25-29.
    So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, “O Baal, answer us.” But there was no voice and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they made. It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.” So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.
    1. Context:
      1. The ten tribes of northern Israel rarely worshipped God but frequently worshipped Baal.
      2. Elijah wanted them to return to God and abandon completely Baal.
      3. He proposed a contest of sacrificial worship.
    2. Listen to the words of Elijah when the prophets of Baal received no response from their god.
      1. “He is a god” (gods are disinterested).
      2. “Use a louder voice” (you do not have his attention).
      3. “He is occupied” (you are not his priority).
      4. “He is gone somewhere” (he is too removed from you to hear you).
      5. “He is asleep and you need to wake him up” (he has no consciousness of you).
    3. Gods are inattentive to human concerns even if humans seek to worship them.
  3. Compare those statements to what is declared about God.
    1. David, Psalm 139:7-12: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.
    2. Jeremiah, Jeremiah 23:23,24 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord, “And not a God far off? “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.
    3. Jesus, Matthew 6:25-32 For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
    4. Paul, 2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
  4. The gods functioned on impersonal fate, but Jehovah God functions on constant awareness.
Contrast # 3: Jehovah God is compassionate; the gods of idolatry are indifferent.
1. My term for worship objectives in idolatry would be manipulation.
  1. “The gods do not care what happens to you.”
  2. “First, you must get their attention.”
  3. “Second, you must get them concerned about your problem.”
  4. “Third, you must convince them to act in your behalf.”
  5. Thus commonly the idol worshipper tried to do those three things:
    1. Get the gods attention.
    2. Get the gods concerned.
    3. Get the gods to act in their behalf.
2. In contrast with the idolatrous gods indifference, Jehovah God is compassionate.
  1. Consider two examples:
    1. Example one:
      - The story of Jonah, ending in this statement: Jonah 4:9-11 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” [God is compassionate even when His people are not.]
      - 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. [God does not wish to destroy people.]
    2. Example two: Jesus Christ.
      1. The coming of Jesus shows how compassionate God is.
      2. The death of Jesus shows how compassionate God is.
      3. The resurrection of Jesus shows how compassionate God is.
      4. The role of mediator and intercessor that Jesus Christ serves shows how compassionate God is.

Romans 8:31-34 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

We as Christians worship God as a response to His acts which rescued us. He acted in Jesus Christ, and we in worship respond to His actions. We worship Him because He is the God of involvement, not a god of fate. We worship Him because He is the God of compassion, not a god of indifference.

Thus Christian worship is inherently a declaration of gratitude.

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