Adorned

 This week we begin worship with:

Isaiah 61:10

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;

    my soul shall exult in my God,

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;

    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,

    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Our rejoicing (śûś) is external.  Our exultation is internal (gîl).  The word picture is of a young child receiving a gift and when they do, all they can do is hug it and spin about exclaiming how happy they are.

The gift that we have received is righteousness.  We are not being made clean, we are declared clean.  

Imagine further that child receiving the gift of clothes that cover their filth.  Adorned (ʿāḏâ) they now go from shame to pride, a pride sufficient for them to be considered worthy to be the bride or bridegroom.

At first

This week we begin worship with:

Revelation 2:1-7

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write…‘I know your works, your toil

and your patient endurance…I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up

for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you,

that you have abandoned the love you had at first.’…He who has an ear, let him

hear."

Much ink has been spilt attempting to identify the object of their first love.  It is not present in the verse and attempts to identify it brush up against the admonition of Revelation 22:18 that prohibits adding to scripture.

So, staying then within the verse, we see they are still toiling, still being patient, still bearing up, and even still not tiring.  What you hear in these words is effort not love (agapē).  This is perfectly described in the "Love Chapter".

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Their efforts had come to "nothing", not driven by the grace-giving love, but rather by stature earning orthodox effort.  At first, when we discover that God loves us, the sinful us, it is easy to love fellow sinners.  As our efforts build God-debt (He owes us?  May it never be.), it gets harder to see why we should love a sinner.  We begin to want them to change, before we love.

The admonition, then, is to regularly return to the moment of our salvation to reconnect to our source of love.

understanding

 This week we begin worship with:

Matthew 13:12–14

For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but

from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I

speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do

not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is

fulfilled that says: “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will

indeed see but never perceive.”

Privately with His disciples, Jesus would explain a parable.  They needed the help and so do we.  Here, following the public teaching of the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9), Jesus first gives this, the meat of the parable, which is still very tough to chew on.  He then breaks it down into the baby food that they all needed (and so do we!).

Our call to worship describes two groups:

Matthew 13:19

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.

Matthew 13:23

As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

Notice please what divides the two groups.  It is not their faith, nor their works.  It is their "understanding" (syniēmi).  It is the sovereign preparation of the ground that determines the outcome.  

As we sing today "All ye who hear, now to his temple draw near", please do indeed do so with "glad adoration"!

peaceable

This week we begin worship with:

James 3:16-17

Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

The Jerusalem Council could have gone wrong, very wrong.  

There was a debate going on in Antioch as to whether the newly converted Gentiles had to abide by the law of Moses (including circumcision).  Paul and Barnabas, understanding it was not required by grace, argued against the "party of the Pharisees" and had "no small dissension and debate with them" (Acts 15:2,5).

They appealed to the elders at Jerusalem, and after much debate Peter (a Jew himself) stood up and pointed them back to the Gentile miraculous inclusion and James (also a Jew), suggested a limited set of requirements that had been recited by generations as part of the liturgy of the synagogues since the time of the Babylonian exile (Acts 15:19-21).  This ". . . seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, . . . " and a communication was sent out with the decision.

Imagine instead if, as described in here James, there was "jealousy and selfish ambition".  Imagine the "disorder" that would have occurred.  What if people were not "open to reason"?  What if they were not "impartial and sincere".

Peace is elusive.

Psalm 34:13-14

Keep your tongue from evil

    and your lips from speaking deceit.

Turn away from evil and do good;

    seek peace and pursue it.

Peace starts with our own tongue.  To "keep" (nāṣar) it, is the word picture of a watchman or door keeper.  Don't let anything out that is not "full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere".

work

This week we begin worship with:

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

There is a blueprint for man.  It is scripture.

Men and women are not born complete (or innocent for that matter).  To take on their role, to execute their responsibility well, they need to be taught.

Scripture is the primary teacher.  Those of us who write and speak would be nothing without it, like a guide without a compass or a map.

The two words here that describe the goal ("that the man of God may be") are:

• "complete" (artios), which is the skill
• "equipped" (exartizō) which are tools

The image here is of the soldier with their complete kit, skilled and ready for battle or of a plumber with their tools, certified and skilled in their use.

That said, this is not training for a single career or a singular skill.  Rather a (singular) man of God, when fully equipped, they are skilled in "every" good work!  Scripture gives you the tools and the instructions necessary for the good work sovereignly placed in front of you each day.

I would advise daily study.