Answered

Today we begin worship with:

Mark 12:33

To love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

This is Christ’s answer to the question ‘Which commandment is the most important of all?’.  This question was not like the other trick questions asked of Him that day.  The Herodians and the Pharisees argued over paying taxes. The Sadducees  and the Pharisees argued over the resurrection. They came to Jesus with questions that would, regardless of the answer, would put Him on the wrong side of some political aisle.

But this time a lone scribe, “seeing that he answered them well”, asked from his heart, after memorizing and attempting to keep hundreds of laws, what is the most important. 

I imagine he hated the response. 

Keeping the law is black and white. Love is not.  Laws can be kept by doing nothing. Love cannot. Law is applied the same in all circumstances to be just. Love should not. 

May wisdom go with us today as we apply this, this greatest commandment.

Redeemer

This Easter morning, we begin worship with:

Job 19:25

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

 Through the tragedy that struck Job, He came to understand that:

• There needs to be an arbiter between us and God (Job 9:32-35).
• That a celestial witness must speak on our behalf (Job 16:19-21).
• That God must be the one to pay the pledge (Job 17:3) for our trial.
• That, as our verse today reads, our Redeemer lives and will raise us up and redeem us (Job 19:23-27).
• That God will be our judge (Job 21:22-26).
• But we can be confident even in our indictment (Job 31:35-37).

He is Risen.

Salvation

 This week we begin worship with:

Revelation 7:9-10

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

This is a continuous cry of praise over our salvation and its source.  This is not any victory, this is the victory of our God.  This is not any weapon, this is achieved through the precious blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ.  There is no reason for this choir to stop this praise, for the victory does not end.

Bread

This morning we begin worship with:

John 6:35

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."

Yes, Lord we need out daily bread (Matthew 6:11)!

Family

This morning we begin worship with:

Luke 8:19–21

Then [Jesus'] mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

 We are told in John that His family had rejected Him:

John 7:5 

For not even his brothers believed in him.

In fact, none of Jesus’ brothers were at the crucifixion, when Jesus (the first-born) gave responsibility for the care of Mary to His disciple John (John 19:25-27).  But our verse today appears to include rather than simply exclude.

Romans 8:14-17

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

 We, who believe, are family!

Body

 We begin worship this morning with:

Colossians 1:27

God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

"This mystery" is mentioned also in the previous verse.

the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints

Paul demonstrated this mystery in the following:

Colossians 1:24

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 

So inmate his relationship to Christ that his own suffering is an extension of Christ's suffering.

But the mystery itself is so beautifully written as:

Colossians 1:18-20

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 

 We are both in Him and He in us, as we are His body, and He is the hope of Glory.

Beautiful

This week we begin worship with:

Isaiah 52:7

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

The sky may fill with grey clouds to the point that we would call it dreary. But come sunset, they become a brilliant collage of red, yellow, and orange.  We call others to the window to show them how beautiful it is.

This verse is not talking about beautiful feet. 

It is talking about the effect that a person has, the transformation that occurs, when they use those feet to spread the Good News. That walk to a neighbor, that walk to comfort a friend, that providential conversation on a plane, can turn a life around. It can make them a new creation, to which we say “How beautiful!”

Silence

 Today we begin worship with:

Habakkuk 2:20

The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.

We don’t like silence. But we complain when it is too loud that we can’t hear ourselves think. Well that is just it, when we are silent we can hear ourselves think. And when we think we ask questions to which only God is the answer. 

There will be a time when heaven will be silent.

Revelation 8:1

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Every celestial singer, every musician, every ministering spirit, will be silent.  In awe and expectation they will watch as the Lamb opens the Seventh Seal to finish what He started.

Revelation 21:5-7

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

 Amen, come Lord Jesus. 

Permanent

 Today we begin worship with:

Hebrews 7:20–22

For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’” This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

In the old covenant the consecration of a new priest was done through a series of sacrifices. The priest was not bound to the office in any way and due to the fragility of man, his office could end due to age, illness, or even a change of mind.

We have a permanent priest, a permanent intercessor.  

He is not unfamiliar with our condition.  He knows our lifetime of prayer and circumstances.  He has heard every mournful groan and every gleeful shout.  He need not be told the backstory, only the petition of the moment.

Matthew 6:11

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Fellowship

This week we begin worship with:

1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Faithful. What is promised is delivered. 

What is promised? A completed call.  

But there is often a considerable distance between faith and sight.  During this time we are in fellowship (koinōnia) with those who also long for Christ’s return.

We have all sinned.  We have all cried out to God in need of a Redeemer.  We all regularly stumble and reach out for an arm to steady us.  We all have similar scars of battles fought.  

We all feast at the table together.  

Please, pass the salt.

Distinction

This week we begin worship with:

Acts 15:8-9

And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to [the Gentiles], by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

It is a beautiful play on words that the word used here for distinction (diakrinō) is often translated as “doubt”, such as when one is divided in one’s own thoughts.  When doubt is erased by faith, we are cleansed. 

God’s title in this verse is “Knower of the Heart” (kardiognōstēs).  When the Gentiles were also cleansed, God bore witness not “to” them, but of their transformation, by also giving them the confirming presence of the Holy Spirit. 

When God unifies us by faith, James calls out any attempt to divide us as sin.  Sin that is sufficient to have broken the whole of the Law.

James 2:8-10

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.