The God of Revelation

August 29, 2016 in Apologetics, Bible - NT - Colossians, Meditations, Worship
Colossians 2:6-10
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
The variety of religious beliefs in the world is staggering. As a result of our rebellion against our Creator in the beginning, we have tried to hide from Him while retaining a vestige of religiosity. From the Tower of Babel to the modern secular state, we have sought out false gods to soothe our guilty conscience and receive our adoration.
Paul warns us in our text today that we need to beware falling prey to these false belief systems – systems that may have the appearance of wisdom in the traditions of men but which in fact rob us of wisdom and knowledge. Paul characterizes all non-Christian worldviews as empty deceit or vanity – emptiness. False religions make alluring promises to ensnare unsuspecting men and women – peace with god, peace with your neighbor, enlightenment, reabsorption into the One, freedom from the body, or even indulgence of bodily lusts. Like a hologram, these promises sometimes look solid; however, they are really empty and hollow. Why? Because all these philosophies are based on the traditions and speculations of men – men like you and me. Men who wet their beds when they’re little and start going senile when they’re old. Men who get sick and die. Men who have headaches and have a hard time thinking. Men who are prejudiced and make unwarranted assumptions. Men who are anything but omniscient and accurate describers of the world around them. Men who fall under Solomon’s judgment, Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity.
So what makes Christianity different from all these systems? Aren’t Christians subject to the same limitations? Yes and were we dependent upon our ability to search out and discover the truth we too would be lost. But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Our Almighty and Eternal Father considered our lost estate and sent His only Son to become flesh and dwell among us that He might seek out and save us – revealing to us His person and paying the penalty for our folly that we might not be left in futility. The Christian faith finds its origin not in the vain speculations of finite men but in the solid revelation of the infinite God in the face of Jesus Christ.
So Paul warns us – beware lest anyone take you captive through empty deceit – religious speculations which are based on the opinions and traditions of men rather than the revelation of Almighty God.

Reminded of our propensity as sinners to turn away from God’s revelation and substitute in its place our own fancies and imaginations, let us kneel before the Triune God and confess our sin to Him. We will have a time of silent confession followed by the corporate confession found in your bulletin.

Thankful to Preach

August 7, 2016 in Bible - NT - Philippians, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Thankfulness, Word of God, Worship
Philippians 1:3–4 (NKJV)
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,
As I return to the ministry of the Word today, I wanted to thank you for the time that you have afforded me year by year to sit as one of you and listen to the preaching of the Word. As a congregation, we are blessed to live within such close proximity to several sister churches from whom we can draw an array of qualified and talented men to preach the Word to us. And the opportunity you give me to sit and to listen and to meditate on the Word helps remind me why we’re doing what we’re doing. I hope also that it reminds all of you that what we’re doing is far larger than any one of us, including me. It is important to emphasize regularly that this is not “my” church but Jesus’ Church and our church. We are the body composed of many members, each serving an important role.
So during my time sitting and listening to the Word, it has been a joy to observe the work of God’s Spirit in our midst. I have witnessed the way in which folks have stepped forward and served in various roles. I have witnessed your mutual love, affection, interaction, encouragement, exhortation, and comfort. The intensity of your joy and delight in one another is almost palpable – and so, like Paul, I just sit back and “thank God upon every remembrance of you.”And the reason that I thank God is because the joy and enthusiasm and energy and love and hunger to learn and grow that are present in the congregation are gifts from Him. His Spirit is at work. So since He has given us these things, it is fitting that we give thanks.
And this is one of several reasons I take July out of the pulpit – it is all too easy for us to begin taking one another for granted, getting into a rut, and failing to let joy and thankfulness characterize our interaction with and attitude toward one another. We can become bitter and resentful or we can simply become disinterested. We begin to look upon worship as routine, fail to give the attention to the Word that it deserves, overlook the needs of others, and take for granted their acts of kindness. Taking time off helps shake things up and remind me to be thankful.
So what about you? Are you thankful? Thankful for your brothers and sisters here at Trinity Church? Thankful for the opportunity to gather week by week and worship the Lord? Thankful for friends and family gathered around the throne of grace? Thankful for the preaching of the Word? Thankful to have your sin exposed, your idols broken, and your compromises crushed? Paul was thankful and we have much for which to be thankful as well.

But as we come into the presence of the Lord, I think that we must confess that often we fail to be thankful as we ought. We often take His gifts for granted, ignore them altogether, or even view them as curses and not blessings. So as we enter into the Lord’s presence, let us kneel and confess our ingratitude.

Word and Sign Go Together

August 2, 2016 in Bible - OT - Genesis, John Calvin, Quotations, Sacraments, Word of God, Worship

“…since no living image of God can exist without the word, whenever God has appeared to his servants, he has also spoken to them. Wherefore, in all outward signs, let us be ever attentive to his voice, if we would not be deluded by the wiles of Satan. But if those visions, in which the majesty of God shines, require to be animated by the word, then they who obtrude signs, invented at the will of men, upon the Church, exhibit nothing else than the empty pomps of a profane theatre. Just as in the Papacy, those things which are called sacraments, are lifeless phantoms which draw away deluded souls from the true God. Let this mutual connexion, then, be observed, that the vision which gives greater dignity to the word, precedes it; and that the word follows immediately, as if it were the soul of the vision.”

John Calvin, Commentary upon the Book of Genesis, p. 388 (on verse 46:2)

Who is your God?

June 12, 2016 in Bible - OT - Psalms, Meditations, Sin, Worship
Psalm 4:4–5 (NKJV)
4 Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. 5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the LORD.
The call of God upon us as His people is very simple and straightforward – He wants us to serve Him, not man; to trust in Him, not in created things; to love and cling to Him, not to the idols which we create with our own hands.
Each of us faces the choice of whom we shall serve: will we serve God or will we serve some idol? And note that this is not a choice that admits of middle paths – there is no third option; no opportunity to plead that we have been placed in a false dilemma. The dilemma is real; the antithesis stares us in the face; you must choose whom you shall serve. Who will be your God? Who is your God?
Have you given yourself to the gods of this age? To glamour, wealth, power, sex, academic prestige, simplicity, health? Do you sit and worship at their feet?
Or have you given yourself to the Triune God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the fountain of true glamour, of lasting wealth, of real power, of meaningful sex, of profound wisdom, of unpretentious simplicity, of blessed health? Do you sit and worship at His feet?
It was here that David sat and he knew as one who sat at God’s feet what the Lord required and summarized it quite well –
         Be angry – Fear God, and in fearing him despise wickedness and those who practice wickedness; be indignant for God’s Name.
         Do not sin – Remember in all your indignation, that to love God is to hate evil and the ways of wickedness; and that it is not first and foremost to hate the evil out there but the evil in here, in your own heart; so in loving and fearing God, turn away from sin.
         Meditate in your heart upon your bed – When you are laying down to rest and your mind begins to go over the day, to consider where you’ve been and where you’re going, do not let your thoughts wander wildly but instead bring them into subjection to the Word of God. For it is by meditating upon God’s law, His promises and assurances of love toward us that we will be able to…
         Be still – If we meditate on the Word, if we let our thoughts race not on our own anxieties but on the Word of God then we shall be equipped to be still – God will care for me; God will bless me; God will remember me. And so it is in this knowledge of God’s care for me that I…
         Offer sacrifices of righteousness – I come before the Lord faithfully every Lord’s Day in company with His people, I serve the Lord with gladness of heart every day; I rejoice in his precepts; delight in His law; pray; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
         Trust in the Lord – Don’t succumb to the allurement of the idols – many of them are carved quite cunningly, beautiful with their gold and silver accents – but remember that despite all their cunning beauty they cannot do anything for you.
So what is God’s call upon us as His people? David tells us: Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the LORD.

As we come into the presence of our Lord to worship, reminded that our calling is to trust wholly in Him and no doubt convicted that we have failed to do so, let us kneel and confess our sins in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will have a time of private confession followed by the public confession found in your bulletin.

Word and Ritual, Proclamation and Sacrifice

June 9, 2016 in Bible - OT - Genesis, Communion, Liturgy, Quotations, Word of God, Worship

“Therefore, beginning with Genesis 4:26 and continuing through the history of the faith, true believers have proclaimed their faith to the world through their worship. With the call of Abraham to begin the covenant program of bringing blessing to the world, that proclamation became clearer, richer, and more powerful… proclamation has ever since been an integral part of worship. Now in the worship of the new covenant the preaching of Christ crucified is the necessary correlative to celebrating Holy Communion. Whenever proclamation has been lost to worship, worship loses its way and becomes empty ritual. Both the drama of the ritual and the interpretation by the proclamation are necessary for the full worship of God. The Word gives the ritual meaning, and the ritual gives visible form to the Word.”

Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation, p. 146.

A Vision of the Sublime

June 9, 2016 in Liturgy, Quotations, Sovereignty of God, Word of God, Worship

“To speak of God’s ‘holiness’ is to say that there is no one like him, that he has absolute power and perfection; to speak of God’s ‘glory’ is to say that he is preeminent in existence and that the whole universe is filled with evidence of his importance and sublimity…. to the degree that a vision of the sublime has faded from the consciousness of a religious people, adoration and reverence as well as obedience and service have also been diminished. For worship to rise above the clutches of a materialistic and secular world, the church must once again focus on such revelations of the Lord of glory. The revelations of glory revealed in Scripture will inspire all we do in the name of worship. Without them we, and our worship, will wither and fade; but with them we will be able to keep our eyes fixed on what is eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18).”

Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation, pp. 48-49.

What’s With the Kneeling, Standing, and Lifting Hands?

June 5, 2016 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Bible - OT - Psalms, Meditations, Resurrection, Singing Psalms, Worship
Psalm 95:6 (NKJV)
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
Psalm 134:1–2 (NKJV)
1 Behold, bless the LORD, All you servants of the LORD, Who by night stand in the house of the LORD! 2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the LORD.
One of the most frequent questions visitors have about our service of worship, one of the questions that you may also have, is this: What’s with all the different postures? We sit, we stand, we kneel, we bow heads, we lift hands – why all the variety?
The answer to these questions is threefold: first, God did not create us as mere spirits but as creatures with body and soul. As those who have bodies, God expects us to use them for His honor. Paul writes, “…you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Our bodies belong to God and so what we do with them is important. Our actions should should reflect our reverence for Him and our knowledge that one day Christ will return in glory and raise these very bodies from the grave. Our bodies matter.
So this leads us to the second answer to our question: why all the variety? The answer is that in worship there are a variety of things we do. We praise and thank the Lord; we confess our sins; we hear the assurance of forgiveness; we listen to the reading of God’s Word; we confess the creeds; we present our tithes and offerings; we pray; we learn from the Scriptures; we feast with God at His Table. This wonderful variety demands a variety of responses – both verbally and bodily. There is no “one size fits all” bodily posture.
And this is why, third, the Scriptures invite us to worship God with a variety of postures – standing, kneeling, sitting, lifting hands, etc. So consider our texts today from the psalms – Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. Behold, bless the LORD, All you servants of the LORD, Who by night stand in the house of the LORD! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the LORD. These are just a few examples of bodily invitations given in the context of worship.
As we consider this threefold rationale, let us also beware les we merely go through the motions. For the ultimate reason that our posture changes is that we worship in God’s very presence. He is here with us and we dare not treat Him lightly. He calls us to worship; we respond by standing to praise Him. He thunders at our sin; we respond by kneeling to confess it. He assures us of pardon; we stand to listen and enter boldly into His presence through the blood of Christ. He instructs us from His Word; we stand to give our attention to its reading. This is the drama of the Divine Service – but it’s a drama that is meaningful only when accompanied by hearts that love and cherish Him.
So what of you? Why do you stand? Why do you kneel? Why do you sit? Do you do it just because that’s what you’re being told to do? Do you kneel so you won’t appear out of place? Do you sit so you can take a nap? Or do you do all these things because you recognize with awe and wonder that the God we worship this Day has invited you into His very presence to worship?

So today as we have entered into God’s presence He has thundered at our sin – let us confess that we have often just gone through the motions of worship; and let us kneel as we confess together.

That Thanksgiving May Abound

May 1, 2016 in Bible - NT - 2 Corinthians, Bible - OT - Psalms, Easter, Meditations, Resurrection, Thankfulness, Worship
2 Corinthians 4:13–15 (NKJV)
13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
What is the significance of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead? This is the question we have asked during this time of Eastertide. As we anticipate Ascension Sunday and Pentecost Sunday in the weeks to come, I would like to close our observations on the resurrection today. In our text Paul helps us understand the significance of the resurrection. Why did Jesus rise from the dead? Jesus rose from the dead so that we might be thankful and praise our God.
To make his point, Paul quotes from Psalm 116, a psalm of thanksgiving. In this psalm, the psalmist cries out to God in the face of death: “The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow.” But the psalmist trusts God – God is capable of delivering him from death and so he cries out to God in these words: “I believed, therefore I spoke, ‘I am greatly afflicted.’” He trusted God so he cried out to God, “God help me!” And glory be to God, the Lord answers his prayer: “For you have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” God delivers him, so he does the only thing he can rightly do: praise and thank the Lord for His mercy: I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.
The faith and thanksgiving manifested by the psalmist are a pattern for us. The psalmist trusted the Lord in the face of death. When God delivered him, what was his response? He praised and thanked God. This is our calling in light of Christ’s resurrection. Even as God delivered the psalmist from the fear of death, He has delivered us from the fear of death. How? By raising Christ from the dead. Why does this give us hope? Because He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus.Death is a defeated foe; Christ is Risen, so we too shall rise. So what ought we to do? Precisely what the psalmist did: praise and thank the Lord.
You see, the end goal of Christ’s resurrection is that praise and thanksgiving might abound in all the world to Yahweh, the living God. Jesus came in order to restore rightful worship. Jesus rose from the dead in order to restore rightful worship. In other words, Jesus rose from the dead so that you would be here this morning, joining your voice with the voices of all God’s people and thanking God for his mercies, thanking God that He has delivered you from death.
So, brethren, how eager are you to be here? God raised up Jesus so that you would be here this morning; so that you would lift up your voice in company with the voices of your brothers and sisters; so that you would worship him. So how ought we to approach this morning? With sloth? With mere formality? With mumbling and inattention? May it never be! Let us join our voices week by week in thankful acknowledgement of God’s mercies toward us in Christ – Alleluia! Christ is risen! So let us worship.

Reminded that Jesus rose from the dead in order that we might worship Him together, we are also reminded how we often approach worship with insufficient joy and delight. So let us kneel and confess our sin to the Lord. We will have a time of private confession followed by the public confession found in your bulletin.

He who does not honor the Son…

January 3, 2016 in Bible - NT - 2 John, Bible - NT - John, Creeds, Heresy, Meditations, Trinity, Worship
2 John 9–11 (NKJV)
9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; 11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
Last week we learned that the Father and the Son are inseparable. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father; and he who does not honor the Father does not honor the Son. This unity of the Father and the Son is a major theme throughout the Apostle John’s writings. Alone among the Gospel writers, John records Jesus’ words to the disciples at the last Passover feast. The unity of Father, Son, and Spirit is a major theme of these words. Consider these statements that Jesus makes:
Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately… you believe in God, believe also in Me… He who has seen Me has seen the Father… Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me… the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you…when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me… He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority; but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
This inseparability of Father, Son, and Spirit explains why John takes such pains in our epistle to refute the errors of Docetism. It also explains why the Trinity was the first major debate in the history of the Church. Who is this God we worship? Who is Jesus? Who is the Spirit? The first commandment declares to us, “You shall have no other gods before me.” So who is this God we worship? He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The inseparability of Father, Son, and Spirit also explain why, as a congregation, we have prioritized reciting the historic ecumenical creeds together throughout the year. Depending on the time of year, we recite or sing the Apostles’ Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon. Each of these creeds reminds us whom we worship – we worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; we do not worship some abstract deity called “God”; we worship the God who revealed Himself in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ and who has poured out the Spirit to lead and guide us into the truth.
This morning, remember that it is this God, the Creator of all things and the Redeemer of His people Israel, who has called you here to worship. It is to Him we offer praise, before Him we confess our sins, to Him we present our offerings, from Him we receive instruction, and with Him we feast at the Table. And He is no puny tribal deity or idol, but the Living God who rules over heaven and earth.

So reminded into whose presence we have come and whom we are worshiping, let us bow before Him, acknowledging our sins and transgressions and asking Him to forgive us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Let us kneel as we confess our sins.