“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20, NASB).
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Contents:
1) Things to Bring to Worship (Mike Wilson)
2) Jesus, the Amen and the Beginning (Terry Wane Benton)
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Things to Bring to Worship
Mike Wilson
It’s another Sunday morning, and you are fighting to get everything and everyone ready on time. The kids are screaming, and someone is honking the horn. Most families know the feeling. As you come staggering to the car at the last second, did you forget anything? Do you have a checklist of things you must bring to church?
Most of us would do well to ponder every day, and especially every Lord’s Day, what it means to worship God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. If we listen to the word of the Lord reverently, we will find many reasons to be humbled at the very thought of the awesome grandeur of the One who is the object of our adoration. We will not approach Him lightly or frivolously. And when time for worship approaches, whether it is collective or private, we must take certain attitudes with us to His heavenly throne.
A Willing Spirit
King David wrote, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’” (Psalm 122:1). The psalmist’s attitude stands in stark contrast to that of the begrudging priests addressed in the book of Malachi. God charges them with despising His name, offering blemished animals, and saying to themselves, “My, how tiresome it is!” (Malachi 1:6, 13-14). Amos rebukes the Israelites of the mid-7th century BC because of a similar disdain for worship. They couldn’t wait for their religious obligations to be satisfied so that they could get on with business: “When will the new moon be over so that we may buy grain, and the Sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, to make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, and to buy with dishonest scales…?” (Amos 8:5). If you have any inclination to be spiritually minded, read Psalm 63 and make this prayer your own. With these words alive in your heart, you will never be able to permit the service of God to degenerate into a burdensome chore again. Worship time should invoke a spiritual adventure: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law” (Psalm 119:18). Going through the motions without heart involvement produces worship that is “vain” (Matthew 15:8-9).
A Reconciled Heart
Jesus says, “If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering” (Matthew 5:23-24). If there is hatred and strife in your heart as you look horizontally down the pew, how can there be love in your heart as you look vertically up toward God? (I John 4:20-21). Dietrich Bonhoeffer comments, “If we despise our brother, our worship is unreal, and it forfeits every divine promise. When we come before God with hearts full of contempt and unreconciled with our neighbors, we are, both individually and as a congregation, worshipping an idol” (The Cost of Discipleship, p. 144).
Holy Hands
“Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension” (I Timothy 2:8). Although Paul’s words might have implications for a common posture of prayer for early Christians, they say more about the posture of the heart. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8). There will always be hypocrites in God’s church, but their prayers are not heard. How can any child of God devote himself to filth on Saturday night and then sing “Purer in Heart, O God” on the Lord’s Day morning? It is an abomination! We are all sinners, but God has graciously given us the opportunity to repent and confess our sins (I John 1:8-9) rather than continue in the lie (I John 1:6).
Absolute Submission
True worship must be “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). It not only must express the genuine intents of the heart, but it must accord with “reality, which men grasp on the basis of revelation” (Dictionary of New Testament Theology, p. 891). God will look “to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). Every true worshiper experiences inexpressible joy when he praises God for the marvelous blessings He has so graciously given to us. However, this joy does not rely on artificial stimulation or anything external that is intended to induce a certain mood. It comes from trust in God and hope in His precious promises. These promises are made only to those who are willing to humbly follow His word, as laid down in the New Testament (John 8:31-32). This is why we do not burn incense, dance, clap, or blow trumpets in our church assemblies, even if all these things were done in the Old Testament period. The Old Law was only a shadow of what we now have in Christ (Hebrews 10:1; John 1:17). We are now obligated to remain within the parameters of the New Testament, as mediated through the apostles and prophets of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2; Acts 15:24).
When you worship God, do you bring these things with you?
— Via Articles from the La Vista church of Christ, January 6, 2024
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Jesus, the Amen and the Beginning
Terry Wane Benton
“These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God” (Revelation 3:14).
The Amen
Jesus is the Amen, the One who validates us. When we say “amen” at the end of a prayer, we are validating our support for that prayer. Jesus validates us. He is our amen when the world will affirm how wrong they think we are. Jesus is the only amen we need. Jesus also validates our prayers. We can pray in His name, and the prayer now has validation in His name. Jesus does not validate the unbelieving until they repent and believe obediently in Him. The Jews who denied Jesus were adversaries, enemies, and persecutors of the early disciples of Jesus, but Jesus’ miracles, teaching, and resurrection proved them wrong and gave amen to the side of the disciples. The Romans were often involved in appeasing the Jews (Acts 12:1-3) and attacking, killing, and harassing the Christians. The government might not validate, honor, and protect the Christians, but Jesus is the Highest validation we can have. He is the amen that trumps all our opponents. We don’t need any higher validation than Him.
The Faithful and True Witness
He is also the “Faithful and True Witness.” He is God and has seen God the Father in all His reality and glory. So, His testimony is true, and cannot be trumped by any unbeliever’s efforts to cast doubt in His reality. How can a non-witness trump a witness? Jesus was there, and they were not. He also is a true witness of the reality of resurrection and the reality of heaven. He was “demonstrated” to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection (Romans 1:4), and of course, He came from heaven and was seen ascending back to heaven. So, heaven is real! Who has greater testimony about such realities than Jesus? His testimony as a true and faithful witness trumps all words of doubt and unbelief.
The Beginning of the Creation of God
Jesus is also “the beginning of the creation of God” which means He was the One who began the physical creation (Genesis 1:1ff; John 1:1-4). Nothing was made without Him. But Jesus is also the author of the greater creation, the antitype of the physical creation, the spiritual creation, the church (II Corinthians 5:15; Ephesians 2:10; 4:24). To “begin” a creation means that He has a plan that will carry it to its intended climactic purpose. He did not abandon His creation and will not abandon His spiritual creation.
The Beginning and the Amen
He is the “author” and “finisher” of our faith, which means He is with us to help us finish our mission (Hebrews 12:2). Thus, He is the “beginning” and “the Amen.” The implication is that creations that are important enough to “begin” are important enough to sustain and see to the objective end. This is very satisfying to know that this is the One that is for us, so “who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). Who are such enemies in comparison?
— Via Articles from the Lavista church of Christ, January 10, 2024
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The Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation
1) Hear the gospel — for that is how faith comes (Rom. 10:17; John 20:30-31).
2) Believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (John 8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent of sins. For every accountable person has sinned (Romans 3:23; Romans 3:10), which causes one to be spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1) and separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2; Romans 6:23). Therefore, repentance of sin is necessary (Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30). For whether the sin seems great or small, there will still be the same penalty for either (Matt. 12:36-37; 2 Cor. 5:10) — and even for a lie (Rev. 21:8).
4) Confess faith in Christ (Rom. 10:9-10; Acts 8:36-38).
5) Be baptized in water for the remission of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1 Pet. 3:21). This is the final step that puts one into Christ (Gal. 3:26-27). For from that baptism, one is then raised as a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17), having all sins forgiven and beginning a new life as a Christian (Rom. 6:3-4). For the one being baptized does so “through faith in the working of God” (Col. 2:12). In other words, believing that God will keep His word and forgive after one submits to these necessary steps. And now as a Christian, we then need to…
6) Continue in the faith by living for the Lord; for, if not, salvation can be lost (Matt. 24:13; Heb. 10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet. 2:20-22).
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Tebeau Street
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1402 Tebeau Street, Waycross, GA 31501
Sunday: 9 a.m. Bible Classes and 10 a.m. Worship Service. Congregational Song Service: 5 p.m. for every first Sunday of the month.
Wednesday: 7 p.m. Bible Classes
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (912) 281-9917
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com
https://thomastedwards.com/go/all.htm (This is a link to the older version of the Gospel Observer website, but with bulletins going back to March 4, 1990.)