Witness

 This last week of Advent, we begin worship with:

Luke 2:15-20
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

The shepherds, having heard the announcement, went and saw, but did not stop there.  They "made known" (diagnōrizō).  The KJV adds the word "abroad" to emphasize the scope of their conversations.  

Everyone that they knew or met heard the story and being at least two in number, gave a certain witness of the events.

Flock

This Advent week we begin worship with:

Isaiah 40:9-11

Go on up to a high mountain,

    O Zion, herald of good news;

lift up your voice with strength,

    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;

    lift it up, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah,

    “Behold your God!”

Behold, the Lord God comes with might,

    and his arm rules for him;

behold, his reward is with him,

    and his recompense before him.

He will tend his flock like a shepherd;

    he will gather the lambs in his arms;

he will carry them in his bosom,

    and gently lead those that are with young.

When the victor returns, the watchtowers ring out with the news.  The heralds trumpet the good news that their victorious army has returned.  Normally, what is driven before the army are the captives; what is pulled in their wagons is what has been looted after the battle.

But not so here.  His reward (śāḵār) [what was paid] and his recompense (pᵊʿullâ) [what was owed] are before him.  For, our Lord was sent out with a task and he will fulfill it.

John 6:38-40
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

In doing so, He will tend, gather, carry, and lead us ever so gently.

Peace

This Advent week we begin worship with:

Isaiah 9:6-7

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

The word used for “government” (miśrâ) only occurs here.  Elsewhere memšālâ is used, which speaks of one’s dominance and authority.  But our verses instead speak of the effort and ongoing burden to bring about order and peace.

For a period of 200 years Rome’s power produced an era of peace. They called it “Pax Romana” (The peace of Rome).  The peace brought by our Messiah will, however, not end.  For we are His eternal zeal (qin'â).  We see it demonstrated when Jesus entered Jerusalem:

Luke 19:41-42
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

Subject

This Advent week we begin worship with:

Luke 2:1-7

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

From the throne room of heaven to the feed trough of a stable, the King of Kings came to Bethlehem to be listed with his parents as a subject of Caesar. The one, whose finger wrote the Law of God on tablets of stone, came under the law of man.   And it was under that law, that Jesus remained subject until He broke the Roman seal on His tomb at His Resurrection.

Breath

 This Advent week we begin worship with:

Isaiah 11:1-5
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 
And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. 
He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; 
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

Up from a lifeless stump a shoot will grow, put down roots, and bear fruit.  That tree, our Lord Jesus Christ, upon whom the Spirit would come to rest, would have authority to stand as judge over all the earth. 

Yet, with all that authority, it would not be His own will that He would do.  For his “delight” (rîaḥ) would be in the fear of the LORD.  It would be like a fragrance so wonderful, He would repeatedly seek it out for His next breath. 

He would find it in judging with equity and He would execute that justice with that very same breath. 

Temple

This week we begin worship with:

2 Thessalonians 2:13

But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

We are justified by the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. But this verse speaks of something different, that of sanctification (hagiasmos). This can be understood as the opposite of profaning and it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

A long time ago we would worship in a “sancti-nasium”.  All week it was used by the school children and the scouts, then it would be transformed into a sanctuary for Sunday morning.  Only to be broken down after the evening service in the raucous tradition of the weekly stacking of the chairs.

It is the very presence of the Holy Spirit in us that pushes out the profane and sanctifies us:

1 Corinthians 3:16

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

There is no room for both. 

With Him

This week we begin worship with:

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Our Lord Jesus Christ “died for us”.

We no longer must fear the “king of terrors” (Job 18:14).  Instead, our physical death will be as if sleeping (katheudō).  From which we will be called to life, much like Lazarus:

John 11:11

After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.”

John 11:43

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”

Why did Christ die for us?  

So that we “might live with him”.  This is His desire.  This is His identity.  He is called Immanuel (ʿimmānû'ēl):

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Work

This week we start 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."

This event comes after the feeding of the Five Thousand, when Jesus blessed the lunch of a little boy and multiplied it until all were fed . . . and twelve baskets were left over. 

Intrigued by a free source of food that did not require the work of neither milling and baking, nor the planting and harvesting, the crowd sought out and found Jesus, who had left that area by walking on the water. 

When they found Him, Jesus told them:

John 6:27

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

Intrigued further, and being already burdened by the Law, they asked:

John 6:28
Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

To which He replied by dropping the “s”:

John 6:29

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Faith in Him is the only necessary work.  They continued to press him to repeat the sign of manna which Moses performed. To which he replied with today’s verse, that He was indeed the bread of life.

Let’s eat. 

Eternal

This week we begin worship with:

John 17:24
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

In this verse we hear our Lord Jesus Christ pray to His Heavenly Father. He expresses His “desire” and His will is that we be together. 

Where will this be?  When will this be?  These are questions that leap to our minds from our place in history, which is not the case with our Lord.

John 8:58
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

This glory-filled place is eternal.

Perfect

This week we begin worship with:

2 Corinthians 5:20-21
We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is not the active voice saying “reconcile yourself to God”. This is the passive voice saying “be reconciled to God”. It is so easy to misread into this verse that the command “implore you”, somehow makes us the actor. 

Omitted from order of worship is the first portion of the verse, which identifies Paul and his companions as ambassadors of Christ. They are delivering an offer of peace through exchange.

The deal exchanges sin for righteousness and thus reconciles (katallassō).  

Note too we are not receiving, but rather becoming and not righteous, but rather righteousness. We are not receiving a one time opportunity to clean up our act, which we will inevitably mess up. We are being offered a permanent peace treaty.

Acceptable

 This week we begin worship with:

Colossians 1:21-23

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard,

From alienated apallotrioō) to reconciled (apokatallassō).

From our mind (dianoia) to his body of flesh (sōma sarx).  Paul specifically uses both body and flesh.

The first half of the book of Romans, the mind and the “flesh” were at odds:

Romans 8:3-4

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

But after the reconciliation today’s call-to-worship describes, Romans goes on to describe a new kind of worship using our “bodies”:

Romans 12:1-2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Again, our call to worship says we are made “holy and blameless” through this reconciliation. Indeed so, for only as such we become an acceptable “living sacrifice”.