Category: Articles

As a pastor, there are many things that I always thank God for about Redeemer as a church or church family.  One of them is hospitality. Redeemer’s act of love and hospitality was one of the Church’s attractive qualities that drew me and my family to humbly accept the pastorate at Redeemer. Before and after we came to Redeemer, the hospitable and loving hearts and hands of you, the saints at Redeemer, has been overwhelming to my heart and the hearts of everyone in my family.  And so that you know, this testimony about the hospitable nature of Redeemer is not only the testimony of your pastor’s family. Recently, one of our new members told me that one of the reasons why he decided to become a member at Redeemer was the warm and gracious hospitality that he received from one of our members in the flock. How I thank the Lord for that hospitable member in the hospitable Church.

Hopefully, from my hearty testimony about the hospitable character of Redeemer in the preceding paragraph, you now realize that the intent and desire of my heart in writing to you an article on the ministry of hospitality in the Church is not to suggest to you in any way or form that hospitality does not exist in Redeemer, or to address you as beginners in the School of Christian hospitality. No, that is not the purpose of my article. And that is because you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, have proven by your own actions that you love hospitality and you always render it to guests and visitors joyfully.

Nevertheless, what has been said so far about Redeemer’s admired quality in hospitality does not mean that we are perfect in the area of biblical hospitality. It doesn’t mean we don’t need to be taught on how to cultivate excellence in providing hospitality in the Church to those who need it. As growth and increase is required in every aspect of the Christian life, Christian hospitality also demands an ongoing learning and growth so that whenever it is done it would display the grace of God to strangers.

With that thought in mind, I then would like to share some important matters of biblical hospitality in the Church.  But first, let’s ask the obvious question.  What is hospitality? As a general definition, hospitality is to welcome or receive a stranger (someone who does not belong to your home or Church) and make him feel at home.  In the context of biblical and Church hospitality, Christians in the household of faith (Church) receive and welcome strangers, not primarily on behalf of themselves or the Church to which they belong, but on behalf of Jesus Christ, who paid the ultimate price of dying on the cross in order to save them from the power of sin and eternal death and bring them into God’s redeemed community— the Church.

You remember the language that our Lord Jesus Christ uses in Matthew 25, the chapter in the New Testament in which he addresses believers about the purpose and motive of providing hospitality to the needy— the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, prisoner? Well, the qualifier word that he uses for why his followers welcome and help strangers is, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). Thus from Jesus’s explanation of what Christian hospitality is all about, the first component of biblical hospitality that we need to understand is that Christians show hospitality to strangers and the needy for the sake of Christ, or as if it is done to Christ.  That’s why Jesus uses the important pointing words, “You did it to me.”

Before we depart from Jesus’s call to genuine and practical Christian hospitality in Matthew 25, I want you to think about why Jesus refers to the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and prisoners in his compassionate heart and mind as his brothers. Why do you think Jesus calls strangers brothers? Think about it biblically and from Jesus’ perspective, my friend.

 The amazing answer to the question is that before the disadvantaged group in Matthew 25 that Jesus calls “my brothers” became his brothers, they were strangers towards him and the Father who sent him to find them and bring them home.  That’s the exact picture that Paul uses for those who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ in Ephesians 2:12-13, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the common wealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

So what do we learn from these words of the Holy Spirit through Paul in relation to biblical hospitality?  This is what we learn. Before our conversion, all of us who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and brought into the membership of Christ’s Church were strangers to God. And when God saved us by his Sovereign grace and through faith in his son Jesus Christ alone, he was receiving and accepting strangers and aliens into his own community or Church.

Hence, biblical hospitality originates not in the heart and kindness of men and women in the Church but in the eternal love and grace of God, who transformed their hearts and minds by the power of His Spirit, made them partakers of his divine nature and built them up as his house (Church) on earth.  Therefore, all the work of hospitality that the people of God offer in the Church must be the reflection of God’s gracious and loving character (disposition) towards people who have been alienated from him because of Sin.       

So every time believers in the Church provide hospitality to visitors (greet and welcome visitors to worship, help visitors in worship to feel at home and familiarize themselves with what goes on during worship, translate for them to avoid language barrier, provide nursery to infants and toddlers so parents can attend worship, sit with visitors during fellowship meal to share more of Christ and encourage visitors to come back to worship the Lord, invite visitors over to their house for a meal and Christian acquaintance and strategic evangelism) they act and behave in the same way that their heavenly Father acted toward  them when they were still strangers to him in order to draw them to himself by his loving and caring heart.  

That was the identical instruction that the Lord gave to the people of Israel after he delivered them from the hands of the Pharaoh of Egypt, “Love the sojourner therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19). By this command that the Lord gave to the people of Israel to be hospitable toward aliens and strangers in their land and home, he was reminding them that they themselves were strangers in the land and homes of the Egyptians but that the Egyptians and their king did not receive and welcome them as friends but as slaves and abused them in cruelty and harshness. But He (the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) came down from heaven to deliver them from the cruelty of the Egyptians and the bondage of their false gods and provide gracious divine hospitality to them.

What divine hospitality? The divine hospitality that started with delivering a people under the power of Egypt (which represents Sin) and who were strangers to the true God of Israel, then continuing by leading them through the wilderness, feeding them with manna from heaven and protecting them from all encumbrances on their way to Canaan, the land of the promise, that the Lord promised them as a resting home.  Moses has summarized this hospitable character of God for His people in a powerful and beautiful way in Psalm 90:1 when he said, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”

 In a sense Moses was declaring that God indeed has been very hospitable to His people.  And it is because of that eternal and unconditional love and care that God showed to us who were strangers to God’s salvation and family, that the Lord calls us to be hospitable toward all who are strangers to Him and His Church.  A brief recap of how God demonstrated His saving and fatherly hospitality to us former aliens would help us to put things in their proper perspective.

As you know from Scripture, the key to the unfolding of God’s gracious hospitality to us was God becoming human through the birth of Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary. In Theology we call that Incarnation.  And Incarnation is the process through which the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, took human flesh and became like us, through the conception and birth of a Virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now keep this in mind: for God to become human and identify Himself with us sinners, He first had to leave His comfort zone in heaven above.

What God did for us through the incarnation of His son Jesus Christ and then the death on the cross in order to change our status before Him as strangers and aliens to God’s redeemed and holy people, was a sacrificial act of love and hospitality. All the humble and kind deeds that our Lord Jesus Christ performed during His earthly ministry (eating and drinking with sinners in order to call them to faith and repentance, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, helping the poor, showing compassion to the widows and bereaved, sharing a common room with His friends, loving the children unconditionally) were a living and striking examples of what a biblical and sacrificial hospitality is and should look like.

 Notice how Paul gives us a description of it in 2 Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” This, my friends, was Christ’s act of priceless hospitality, and while doing all these things to strangers such as you and me, our Lord Jesus Christ never (ever) saw them as elements of inconvenience in His earthly ministry but fulfilled it graciously, unreservedly and without any word or sign of grumbling.  

If you, my friend, want to do hospitality in the Church and outside of the Church for God’s glory and as the prime expression of God’s gracious character towards undeserving sinners, Christ Jesus (and all who followed His model in offering biblical hospitality to strangers and lost sinners) are examples for you to follow.  Let me share with you some of the patterns and ways on how to follow their examples in showing hospitality effectively:

1. By the grace of God, provide hospitality to believers in the Church who need it and visitors in God’s worship with your Agape kind of love. The Agape type of love is the kind of love that Christ demonstrated to sinners by His death on the Cross. Relating to biblical hospitality, it means a sacrificial love. Remember, this is not just brotherly love, “phileo love”, which is exhibited in a close relationship, like between Christians in the same Church, but the highest form of love, “the love of the Cross”, that Christ showed to us by His sacrifice upon the Cross.  The good example of an Agape type of hospitality is the loving and sacrificial hospitality that the Good Samaritan extended to the Jew who fell among the robbers (Luke 10:25-37). The compassionate hospitality that the Good Samaritan showed to the Jew was an Agape type of love and care provided to a stranger. So let us provide hospitality that resembles the love of the Cross.

• By the strength that Christ gives us, let us leave our comfort zone in order to love and serve others in the love of Christ.  “Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:5)

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than    yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3)

• Guard your heart that you do not view Christian hospitality in the Church as a matter of inconvenience.  Always remember Job. In the midst of his long and awful trials, the one thing that he never stopped doing was showing hospitality to strangers (Job 31:32). Isn’t that worth noting, my friend? In the case of Job, he was welcoming and entertaining strangers in his home at the time that he was inflicted physically and his situation was not suitable for providing hospitality to strangers passing by his house. So every time you are called to provide hospitality in the Church, consider Jesus leaving his glorious home in heaven, lying in a manger and washing his disciples’ feet, and Job being stricken and wounded but saying to the aliens who passed by his house, come inside and be refreshed in my house. Following the examples of Jesus and Job in the area of fulfilling biblical hospitality in the Church will help you not to see the ministry of hospitality in the Church as an inconvenience.

• Do hospitality primarily as a matter of the heart and to reflect God’s gracious love to the strangers, not as a technique or a task. Be mindful of this all the time, my friend. Biblical hospitality is not about our house or a smiling face to visitors but about our heart. The heart is the abode of an authentic and genuine hospitality and the authentic hospitality is rooted in the love of the Cross reigning in our hearts.  This means if hospitality is Christians acting to reflect the love of Christ to the strangers whom the Lord brings to them, it must flow from the heart and must be linked to the underserving and unmerited grace of God in our life. It was for that very reason that Paul exhorts believers about their love for one another and all people in this way, “Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9). You see, according to Paul, providing hospitality merely as a task or performance lacks effectiveness that comes from the love of Christ filled in the heart of believers, and can always be exposed to the frustration and discomfort that the flesh provokes inside of God’s children. So guard your heart from that. 

To summarize all the things that I have been telling you about a hospitable Church and how biblical hospitality should be understood and be done in the Church, let me restate to you what Christian hospitality is for God’s people.  For the people of God, the duty of hospitality comes right from the center of who God was for His people— that He made a home for His people and brought them there by His mighty and hospitable hand.  Then based on that, His people are called to reflect and extend His grace to others (strangers and outsiders) by providing hospitality for the glory of God and for the purpose of strategic evangelism.  

Again, I am thankful to the Lord that you, my brothers and sisters, are part of a hospitable Church. But still, because your ongoing spiritual growth in all aspects of the Christian life, including the ministry of Christian hospitality, is a matter of my pastoral goal and prayers for you all, I would like to encourage you to read this article prayerfully and with readiness to start doing the things that you haven’t started doing yet in the area of Christian hospitality in Christ’s Church.

In the name of the great and hospitable Shepherd!

Your friend and Pastor

Zaki

“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” (Prov 19:17)

The Pastor who proclaims the word of God to the congregation from the pulpit every Sunday is the herald of Jesus Christ.  And who is a herald? In ancient times, a herald was a messenger who brought a message from the king to the people under the king’s subjection or rule.  In the New Testament, John the Baptist was known as a herald. But he was not a herald (messenger) of an earthly king but a heavenly King, who was Christ Jesus.

The Gospel writer John introduced John the Baptist in John 1:6 as a man sent from God to bear witness to the light and through whose message (heralding) about the light (who was Christ- the light of the world) people would believe and be saved.  From that language, we can conclude that a person who is called to the gospel ministry to stand in the pulpit of Christ’s Church every Lord’s day to preach and teach the whole counsel of God stands in the pulpit as a herald (voice) of Christ to instruct, encourage, comfort and perfect worshipers on the Church pews.

Additionally, in the New Testament, preachers who represent Christ in the office of the ministry of the Word are called Christ’s ambassadors who implore (beg) people to be reconciled with God (2 Corinthians 5:20). Thus, when a Pastor stands in the pulpit and preaches the Word of God to Christ’s flock, he does that as a herald and ambassador of Christ (the heavenly king and ruler) to deliver a message of repentance, salvation, peace and reconciliation to sinners. Consequently, this biblical truth about the King’s herald who stands in the pulpit every Sunday should call us to solemn duty.

We must hear and love the Word that is preached and is going to be preached to us each Sunday as a message from our King and Shepherd Jesus Christ through his herald (ambassador) the human preacher.  The preacher from the pulpit is a human instrument through which the Scripture is heard and received by God’s people.  That’s the reason why the pulpit is considered as a place of authority from which the preacher declares the whole counsel of God from God’s inspired and infallible Word.  The herald’s work from the pulpit is not suggestive but declarative.  And the duty that God has given to every hearer in the sanctuary is to hear the voice of his king and great Shepherd Jesus Christ through the mouth of his herald standing in the pulpit.

Do you recall how Christ distinguishes his own sheep (believers) from those who are not his sheep (unbelievers)?  We find the answer in John 10:3, “The Sheep hear his Voice” So, the distinguishing mark of true Christians is that they hear and believe the truth of the gospel.  In John Chapter 10, our Lord Jesus Christ makes it abundantly clear that the relationship between himself and his people is like a relationship between the Shepherd and his Sheep. And the distinguishing mark that defines that relationship is “they hear his voice”. They hear it, they believe it and they love and obey it.

In this week’s article I would like to talk to you all from my heart about how we all should hear the voice of our Shepherd Jesus Christ through the Word that is proclaimed to us every Sunday from the pulpit.

What do you think are the biblical characters of a good spiritual listener?

 I will share four good characters that the Lord has taught me in my life with you all.

To hear obediently:  In the gospel of Luke 8:18 the Lord Jesus Christ himself has given us the following exhortation.  “Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

This sobering exhortation to the hearers of God’s Word comes directly from the King (Jesus Christ) and is related to how the preaching of God’s Word must be heard and be received by God’s people.

And by this serious exhortation our Lord Jesus Christ was saying “You need to be a good spiritual listener” which means, because it is a message from the heavenly King, you are bound to listen to it obediently. Consider with me what Paul said in Romans 1:5, “Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.”

You see, the Call that Paul is referring to in this verse is the Call of the Gospel or the preaching of the Word of God.  And according to Paul, God has given grace (favor and ability) to the one who preaches the Word of God to call unbelievers and believers to obey God by faith.

And where does faith come from, my friend?  Romans 10:17: “So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ”.  So what produces faith and obedience in the life of God’s people is the proclamation of God’s Word.  And you know what? God has promised a blessing for those who attend the preaching of His Word with obedient heart.  

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” John 14:23.  

What a glorious blessing! When you hear the Word of God from the pulpit and obey it, the blessing that the Lord has promised you in his word is that you will be like a home in which God dwells as God the Holy Spirit, to fill you with every spiritual blessing that you need in life.  

So every Sunday before you come to Church for Worship say to yourself, “I will go to Church to hear the voice of my king through his herald and by the grace of God I will obey.”

To hear appreciatively:  Every time you seat in sanctuary to hear the Word preached to you, do you listen to it appreciatively?  You see, you hear obediently because obedience belongs to the essential nature of the Word of God that the preacher proclaims to you. The message originates from King Jesus and demands obedience from the Redeemed under his Lordship.  Then the preached Word must be received with deep appreciation and longing for divine visitation, nourishment and blessing by the hearer.

 Remember how the Psalmist appreciates the Word of God in Psalm 119:72, “The Law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” As you my friend know, gold and silver are the highest expression of the most expensive and valuable possession. Those who possess them in life suppose that they have got what are the most precious and excellent things.

Is that how we treat the Word of God that we hear from the pulpit every Sunday?  It is it more precious and valuable than gold and silver for you? And how is the preached Word more glorious and precious than gold and silver? Because however precious and pure gold and silver are, they are among the things of this world that are perishable (1 Peter 1:18) but the preached Word is eternal and by faith in the eternal Son of God, it gives eternal life (Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:24-25).  We all appreciate receiving gold or silver as a gift from someone who loves us. And it is a proper thing to do. But what about the gift of the preached Word from the pulpit which is imperishable and has eternal value?

So come to the sanctuary to hear the voice of Jesus appreciatively.  

To hear dependently:  When we hear the Word preached from the pulpit we are highly advised by the Scripture that we should never depend on our ability and intelligence to understand what is delivered to us from the human herald in the pulpit. We must come to Church to hear and understand our God speaking to us through his messenger (the preacher) depending on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle Paul makes the indispensability of the Holy Spirit in hearing and perceiving the message of God’s Word very clear in 1 Corinthians 2:13, “And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”

 In a sense, Paul is telling us that what the preacher does from the pulpit in the sanctuary (the preaching of God’s holy word) is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit through the instrument of a human preacher. And the same Spirit gives to the hearer the ability to enjoy and understand the preaching of the Word.   That was the reason why Paul in 1 Corinthians 2: 10-12 said, “These things God revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depth of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the Spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”

You see, my friends, our ability and insight to understand the preached Word comes not from us but from the Holy Spirit. Hence, every time we leave our home for worship, let’s take a moment to pray for the illumination of the Holy Spirit on us to understand the truth of God’s Word. Remember, the hearer without the Spirit cannot accept and understand the things that come from God (1 Corinthians 2:14).  So always depend on the blessed Spirit as you hear the voice of your great Shepherd from his under-shepherd, the preacher from the pulpit.

To hear responsively:  Isn’t that what our Lord Jesus Christ said? “My Sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27) “They follow me” means they hear me and do what I tell them to do. On another occasion Jesus also said “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” (John 14:15) 

So according to Jesus, the distinguishing mark (quality) of Christ’s sheep is responding to the preaching of the Word of God with readiness and willingness to do his will being presented to you in the preaching from the pulpit. In the Parable of the Sower, our Lord Jesus Christ spoke about the kind of soil that produces nothing (hard soil, rocky soil and thorny soil) and the good soil that produced thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold. Then he explains the difference between the soils that produce nothing and the soil that is productive based on how the preached Word was heard and received.

According to Jesus the difference between the heart that produces nothing and the one that is productive after hearing the Word preached was the good soil (heart) that responds to the preaching of God’s Word in obedience and love, like Samuel who said, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears” (1 Samuel 3:10).

And as we know, Samuel heard but he also did all that the Lord commanded him to do by the strength that God gave him. And it is the same with you, my friend. You can respond to the preaching of God’s holy Word from the pulpit obediently, appreciatively, dependently and readily.  Just remember and believe in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him (Christ) who strengthens me.”  

Friend, at Redeemer the Lord has given you two wonderful opportunities to hear the Voice of his Son Jesus Christ through his heralds each Sunday, the proclamation of his Word from the pulpit during worship, and the teaching of his holy Word during Sunday school hour.  In the love of Christ I encourage you all to come and listen to his voice in both times obediently, appreciatively, dependently and responsively.

May the Lord grant you his grace to do so!

Your friend and Pastor,

Zecharias

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.” Ecclesiastes 5:1  

There are many things in life that we do, and enjoy them without any preparation. Things like watching a football game, cycling race, or watching a movie come to mind when I think about things we don’t need to go through a time of preparation for. And the reason why we don’t need to prepare ourselves for them prior to enjoying them is that we just want to be entertained by them. Things like that are designed for our entertainment and temporal amusement in life.

However, the worship of God is not one of them. An act of religious worship by the people of God requires a solemn and sincere preparation by the worshipers before the actual worship service in God’s house.  

Unfortunately, in most churches, today worship is viewed and treated as a means of entertainment to the people in attendance.  Its ultimate purpose is to make the people feel good about their life, with the music played in the service and by what the preacher says to the people from the pulpit. And because of that distorted understanding of worship, many people come to Church on Sunday unprepared and only as spectators.  

They come to the worship of the almighty God with a similar attitude that people have toward going to see a sport event. They go, but they go with their hearts saying, “Entertain me, move me, show me something amazing, or if you are a lousy preacher you will make me suffer.” That is the general attitude that people have towards worship today. Worship is about them, about what they need and what makes them feel excited and happy.

 Is that how you understand and treat worship, my friend? With no preparation at all or with an attitude that says, “Because it is my tradition to go to church on Sunday I will go, and I will go to be entertained by what goes on at the service, but if things become boring I will endure.”? Does this sound familiar to you from your own experience and how you observe people talking about their opinion on religious worship?

The above attitudes to worship should never be the characteristics of true worshipers of the God of the Bible. As you, my friend, join me in thinking and reflecting on how to prepare for worship through this pastoral article, the first principle of Christian worship that I want you to keep in mind and be convinced of is that Christian worship is regulated by God Himself, not man.

It is God who sets the rule for how He must be worshiped in the gathering of His people in the church, not the people who have been created by Him in order to be under His sovereign power and subjection.  Where do we see that? What is our ground for that? In the Bible, which is our only source of authority and rule for doctrine and practice.

It is in the Bible that we see God not only commanding his people whom He created and delivered to worship Him, but also to come to His worship prepared.  And there are many verses in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that attests to that, but the two main portions of the Scripture that I have chosen to show you God instructing His people on preparation for worship are:

1. Exodus 19:1-20, from that section the two main instructions that I would like to point out are:  Vs 4-6 “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”  Then Vs 13-14, “When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments.”

In the first instruction that the Lord gave to the people of Israel on how to approach His presence in worship, you should notice two important reminders:

1. The God to whom God’s people come in worship is the God who delivered His people from the power of sin in Egypt, the nation in the Old Testament that represents sin. In worship, the God who saved Israel (and you) is praised and glorified. For worshipers to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for God means for God’s people to consecrate themselves for God or separate themselves from things that entangle believers in sin in order to worship the holy God aright.
2. Because worship is a meeting between a holy God and sinful people who have been redeemed and forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, the people who come to the presence of God in worship go to the throne of God in prayer prior to the day of worship to ask God the Holy Spirit to sanctify their hearts, minds, and motive to offer a pleasing worship to the Lord.

   This is the reason why Moses gives us the picture of the Israelites washing their garments before their meeting with God, as an outward symbol of the inside washing away of our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ and the cleansing of our Christian consciences by the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14, 10:22).

• 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.”  

In the second instruction that Paul gives to believers about worship and the importance of preparing ourselves for the worship of God, the Apostle describes the Christian life as both God’s work of mercy and as worshipful.  This means before we even think that the Christian life has everything to do with being merciful to people, we need to realize that it has everything to do with being worshipful toward God.  Do you see Paul exactly doing that? “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.” By this Paul is showing you that before you give yourself away in mercy to other people, God first desires and requires you to give your whole being to Him in worship.  And for you to present your bodies, minds and hearts as a living and pleasing sacrifice to God who is holy and perfect, you need to wash the garments of your heart before you come to the sanctuary on Sunday to worship the Lord.

And how do you prepare your heart for worship before Sunday? What are the things (depending on the enabling grace and spirit of God) that you need to do prior to Sunday worship, in order to worship God according to His terms, not yours?  There are things that will liberate you from becoming a mere spectator in the assembly of God’s people for worship and help you to participate in worship using the elements of the Order of Worship in your hand (written on the Church Bulletin). Let me share them with you.

1. Prepare to meet with God: Many make a great mistake by viewing the Sunday Worship as an occasion for people who belong to one local congregation to meet on a weekly basis to just sing praises to God, hear a preacher teach and preach the Word of God and use the opportunity to meet friends in the Church.  Now bear with me, I am not saying that the things that I just mentioned above are not or should not be part of our Sunday Worship. But I am saying that the primary meaning and purpose of Sunday Worship is “a meeting/encounter between God and His redeemed people”. And people who enter into the presence of a holy God should do some preparation before they come to their maker and deliverer for worship.  Every time we receive an invitation to a wedding reception or an inauguration of a high rank official to a special office, we prepare ourselves ahead of time with what to wear for the occasion and how to appear before the one who invited us. We do all our preparation having the person who invited us in view. We start thinking about what pleases or might disappoint our host ahead of time. Frankly speaking, we take preparation for a reception or party very seriously. All that for an earthly invitation or encounter with a human host!  What about the invitation of a heavenly host? An invitation, not for a temporal earthly enjoyment, but a blessed encounter with the Maker of heaven and earth, to bless us with His presence, favor, spiritual food, hope, joy, and guidance for the future? I believe we should do much more preparation for such an invitation from our God. Especially when we keep God in view—His majesty, holiness, lovingkindness, forgiveness, eternal word, provisions in the means of grace (the sacrament of the Lord Supper), and power to protect and guide— we will be more encouraged and motivated to prepare ourselves to meet with our God. So pray beforehand that God would give you all that you need to meet with Him in a worthy manner (Romans 12:1-2).

• Prepare to listen: One of the distinguishing characteristics of God’s children is listening to the voice of Christ His son (John 10:27). In worship, God speaks to His people through the call to worship, the Scripture reading of the day and the preaching of the Word of God by the one who proclaims His word to the people. When God speaks to you through these means (His Word) you need to prepare yourself to listen to His voice humbly and eagerly. As the Lord’s Day approaches, you need to pray to God to enable you to listen to Him. And as you do that, go to the church’s website and read the selected Scripture Reading and Sermon text for the following Sunday prayerfully. That will help you to come to God’s Worship to listen to your God (Proverbs 2:1-5).

• Prepare to participate:  Christian worship is participatory. In the worship of God, worshipers are not passive, but must participate in the act of worship actively. How do you do that? You do that being led by the Holy Spirit and aided by the elements of worship that the Church puts for you on the Order of Worship. What you see on the Order of Worship every Sunday is prescribed for you by God in the Scripture.  The Call to Worship, Prayer, Scripture Reading, Confession of Faith, Singing, the preaching of the gospel, Offerings, the Sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, Fellowship and Benediction, are Scriptural (Psalm 100:1-2, Philippians 4:6-7, Acts 2:42-47, Ephesians 5:18-20, Romans 10:17, Malachi 3:10, Psalm 32:1, Hebrews 10:25, Numbers 6:24-26). And all the elements of worship are for you to participate in the worship of God by listening, praying, reading, confessing, praising God in singing, heeding to the preaching of God’s word, giving to the work of God’s kingdom locally and beyond, benefiting from the Sacraments, and receiving God’s benediction. If you come to Worship being prepared to participate in these elements of Worship you will not be passive, or a church-goer who comes to be entertained, but a joyful and active worshiper.  Prior to Sunday, pray that the Lord would bless you with a participatory heart in Worship (John 4:23-24).

•  Prepare to receive: Before Sunday you need to prepare your heart to receive God’s blessings humbly and instructively. Yes, we worship God because of who He is and what He already has done for us in a saving manner, not to get things that we want from Him.  Nevertheless, God also has promised to bless those who will worship Him aright and with a right motive (Isaiah 58:13-14, Matthew 11:28-30). In worship, God blesses you with His presence, guidance, instruction, joy of salvation, assurance, exhortation, and spiritual nourishment. You need to come prepared to receive all these things from God humbly and with a desire to grow spiritually (Romans 8:32).

• Prepare to give: The worship of God gives you an opportunity to obey and please God in giving from what the Lord gives you to the work of Christ’s church in the form of offerings, tithes and diaconal gifts (1 Chronicles 29:9, 1 Corinthians 9:7, Acts 20:35). Thus, before Sunday, prepare your heart and hands to participate in God’s worship through giving a portion from what the Lord has given you to support the Church’s work of evangelism and shepherding.

• Prepare to fellowship: Worship also gives you an opportunity to spend your time with your fellow believers in the body of Christ for the purpose of mutual encouragement and edification (Hebrews 13:1-2, Romans 16:16, Acts 2: 42-45). The greeting that believers exchange with one another after worshiping together, conversations that carry on among worshipers in the sanctuary following worship, the fellowship meal, and providing hospitality to worshipers at your home after worship are part of participating in the ministry of encouraging and edifying God’s children (Colossians 3:16).

You see, beloved, Sabbath worship is not a time that you attend church to watch one or two men performing religious rituals. But it is a public gathering of God’s people. You are to be part of it to praise and glorify God through active preparation and participation of the above aspects of Christian worship.

These qualities of true worship will help you in fulfilling Ecclesiastes 5:1, which calls you as a worshiper of God to guard your steps before you go to the house of the Lord for worship, so that you will not offer the sacrifice of fools to God.  In the love of Christ, I encourage you, my dear brothers and sisters, in Christ to use these things that I shared with you regarding preparing your heart for worship before Sunday arrives, so that you continue to grow in how you worship and exalt the Lord each Sunday.

In the love of the great Shepherd,

Zecharias

From the Heart of the Pastor: Teach us to Number Our Days

By God’s gracious providence, you are days away from entering the new year of 2019. And as divine providence leads you toward welcoming another new year in your life, and you continue doing what you have planned to do and accomplish in the year 2019, how does your approach towards receiving a new year looks like? Are you taking the winding up of the old year (2018) and the entering of the new year of 2019 for granted?  Do you live as if the law of nature or chance makes it possible for you every year, or as if you somehow manage to stay alive through a good habit of eating and physical exercise in order to advance from one year to another year?  

As a fellow believer who confesses the God of the Bible as the creator of the World and everything in it— including the years, days and times that we take part in— you would agree with me that without the Creator’s will and approval, all helpful human efforts that we do in life such as balancing our diet, visiting our doctor regularly, gymnastics, managing our savings well and becoming a law-abiding citizen will not guarantee the preservation of the days of our lives in order to move from an old year to a new one.

I am sure you are familiar with the story of Job. After Job lost everything he had, including his own children, under the attack of Satan but the hidden will and permission of the Sovereign Lord, for God’s glory and Job’s sanctification, Job uttered these instructive words, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)

 What do we see in Job’s righteous response?  Job understood that God was the source and giver of life. Not only that, the Lord gives life (breath) and when He wants to do so He takes it away in the year, day or time that He appointed before eternity. Like many unbelievers and skeptics today, Job was not a fatalist who believed in a god of chance or a universe that was created by a supernatural God but after he created it he detached himself from it and left it to take its course by itself. No, Job believed in the God of the Bible who created the whole universe by the power of His word and one who governs and preserves it and everything in it till the end.

What Job recognized and declared about God who gives life and dispenses it to people as He wishes was also acknowledged by a pagan king. After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon saw the mighty power of God delivering Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, from the burning fiery furnace into which he throw them he bowed down before the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and declared God to his entire kingdom with these words, “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation: all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, “what have you done?”

 As you can see in the testimonies of both Job as a confessing believer and King Nebuchadnezzar, at first a heathen but then a repentant king whom the Lord humbled to give God glory due to His creating and governing power over the life, days and years of the inhabitants of this world (which includes you), the years of our lives are in the hand of the Sovereign God.

The Evangelist Luke confirmed this truth to us by the words of Acts 17:28, “For in him we live and move and have our being.” Because of this biblical truth, as you enter the new year of 2019, you really need to pray the prayer of Moses the servant of God in Psalms 90: 12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.” According to Moses, what does numbering our days mean? In that remarkable prayer that Moses presented to God, we see that Moses acknowledged the Lord as the ruler of life and to whom we will give an account on how we lived out our life here on earth. In his prayer Moses first teaches us that the days and years of our lives are the gifts of the Creator to us, and that the Giver, on the day of judgement (reckoning), will have us stand before His throne to give an account on how we used them for His glory and the good of our souls.

Because of this, we should count every day of our lives in relation to eternity and the God of eternity. Towards Him we are answerable. But what does counting your days mean?  It does not mean that you count them to know how many they are. No, because you don’t need divine instruction in order do that. You just need to know your math. But even if you know how to count days, that was not what Moses meant, because being a mathematician doesn’t give you knowledge and insight to know how many years you will have here on earth. No one except the Creator knows that (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

And that is the reason why we need wisdom and instruction from God on how to count our days, and again, not to know how long we will live in this world, but to understand its value, and by the grace of God make it a life well lived.  To count our days means to count and treat our days as if they will be the last ones.  As if they will be days on which the Lord will require our souls from us. That is the first lesson that Moses teaches us through this petition.

The second valuable lesson that we must learn from it is knowing that life is a precious gift from God, and as we don’t know how long we will live here on earth, we should always ask the Lord in prayer to give us wisdom to count every day of our lives in relation to God and eternity. King David did the same thing in Psalm 39:4-5 when he prayed this prayer to the Lord “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!  Behold, you have made my days a few hand-breadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!”

You see, my friend, all the godly that we are considering: Moses, David, Luke, Solomon and even the pagan king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar, were not being solicitous to know from the Lord the mystery of how many years they will live on earth in order to boast about their tomorrow and forget and live their lives without worshiping and honoring God. But they were very serious about meditating and reflecting on the shortness of their days and how they should glorify God with the brief time that the Lord gave them here on earth.  

Are you like them, my friend, as you now approach the receiving of another new year in your life? Are you boasting about it, saying, “Yes, I made it to the year 2019!” or “Lucky I am, I am about to enter to a new year and I am going to enjoy life more than I did in 2018!” Well, James calls this kind of approach to receiving a new year in life— PRIDE. Let me refresh your mind with James’s exhortation on this very issue, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes, instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-16).

According to God’s word, to approach and receive a new year with a boastful heart and attitude is sinful. But we are to welcome and receive it with a thankful heart that recognizes God as the giver of it and embrace it as a tool given to us by the Creator to be used for His glory and the well being of our own lives and all people around us.

My dear friends, after reading this article, if you ever wonder on how to receive the year 2019 as a gift from the Lord, to be used for his glory and your happiness, consider putting these godly habits on your plans for this coming New Year.

1. Fearing the Lord— which is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10)
2. To treat prayer like breathing— pray unceasingly (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
3. To love corporate prayer with the saints in your local Church (Acts 2:42)
4. To grow in your life of private and public worship (Psalm 42:1-5)
5. To dedicate your whole Sabbath for the worship of God (Exodus 20:8, Isaiah 58:13)
6. To read and meditate on the Word of God daily (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2, 1 Timothy 4:13-15)
7. To pray for your earthly and spiritual leaders faithfully and often (1 Tim 2:1&2, Heb 13:7)
8. To partake the Lord’s supper faithfully (Acts 2:42, 1 Corinthians 11:25)
9. To grow in your love for the preaching and studying of God’s Word (Psalm 119:97, 1 peter 2:2)
10. To allocate time for personal witnessing (Mark 5:19, Matthew 5:16)
11. To love the saints, show hospitality and assist the needy (Hebrews 13:1-3)  

I pray that the Lord would give each one of you a heart of heavenly wisdom that Moses prayed for to consider applying the eleven qualities of the Christian life that I recommended above in your own daily Christian walk in the year 2019.

A very blessed and productive new year of 2019 to you all!

Your friend and Pastor,

Zecharias  

From the heart of the Pastor

Festivity VS Incarnation

Being festive is not sinful or wrong.  There is nothing wrong with people, as families, friends, or co-workers, coming together to enjoy the celebration of a certain holiday or get together for a party to have fun and renew friendship. In fact, it was God Himself, as the Creator of the entire universe and everything in it, who prepared a beautiful garden for our first parents, Adam and Eve, to dwell in, to enjoy life and everything that God created for their happiness, without a limit. Of course, after Adam sinned against the Lord by eating the forbidden fruit, the unimpeded jubilation and entertainment that Adam and Eve had been enjoying in God’s created world was negatively impacted by God’s ruling over man to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow.

Nevertheless, it does not mean that today man cannot or should not allocate a free time from the days and times of his labors to relax and do things that he enjoys, including enjoying his time with family and friends in a holiday season such as Christmas.

That being true and good for all people, there is one scenario in which holiday festivity, like what people do to celebrate Christmas, becomes wrong and man-centered. And that is, when the activities of people in celebrating Christmas ignore the Creator and his greatest gift to humanity, which was the incarnation of his son Jesus Christ, and make their focus entirely on eating, drinking and partying.

In 1 Corinthians 10:31, the Apostle Paul calls all people, especially believers, to do all things for the glory of God, including their eating and drinking. To do all things for the glory of God means to acknowledge all that you have and do as free and gracious gifts from God, and honor and exalt God openly and publicly because of them.

But things that we enjoy in life, things like eating, drinking, shelter, clothing, festivities, etc., are the lesser gifts from the Creator.  In Matthew 6, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself mentions these things as the lesser gifts of God for the created human beings, and then the gift of eternal life as the greatest gift from God the Father (Matthew 6: 25-34). And the object of God’s gift of eternal life has been portrayed for us in what is called the “theme verse” of the Bible: John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In John 3:16, the object of God’s love (and the gift of eternal life) is Jesus Christ our Lord. And who is Jesus Christ?  The eternal son of God who was born of the virgin Mary and became fully man without sin, in order to accomplish the salvation of God’s children by a death on the cross (John 1:14).

You see, my friends, without John 1:14, the eternal word of Christ (which was Christ Himself) becoming flesh (by the power of the Holy Spirit but through a human virgin birth) there would not be John 3:16. There would not be the man Jesus Christ as the gift of eternal life on whom people believe and have everlasting life. In theology, the virgin birth, through which Jesus Christ took human flesh and became fully man— “The God man”— is called Incarnation.  And, as you now can see from the connection we just made between John 1:14 and John 3:16, your entire salvation and final glorification depends on the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

 Hence, when people (particularly true followers of Christ) commemorate the historic birth of Christ in Bethlehem by ignoring and neglecting the worship and proclamation of the preexistent divine Word (Logos) (John 1:1-2) which was Jesus Christ Himself- the light of the world, by just dwelling on the sentiments and characters of Christmas such as Angels, Shepherds, a baby in a manger, exchanging of gifts, partying, it will be a Christmas without the real Christ, who can satisfy your deepest need in life (forgiveness and everlasting, uninterrupted joy). All the temporal elements of outward Christmas festivities will never give and secure this for you.

 In order to clarify what I mean by this further, let me quote what Paul said about Christ, who was the greatest gift of God the Father, in relation to other things that we want and should enjoy here on earth. “He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32.

Let me unpack this wonderful reminder verse from Paul briefly.  First, because God so loved the world, He did not withhold Himself from letting His only begotten son Jesus Christ leave His heavenly home and glory to be born from a poor virgin from Nazareth. He let Him grow as any other child in the world grows up and fall into the hands of wicked men (whom He created by the power of His word) and let them crucify Him on a tree as a blasphemer in their sinful opinion. But in the eternal plan of His Father, He delivered the people of God from the power of Sin and eternal death. 

For that reason Paul said God the Father did not spare His son but gave Him up to death on the cross.  So His birth (Incarnation) was a journey to the cross, and the cross was the greatest manifestation of God’s love for you. But then, interestingly enough, Paul adds something else (a bonus from God, if you will) which actually is attached to the Father’s greatest gift, who was Christ.  The additional advantage (benefit) that Paul mentioned was “all things”, which meant with Christ, God graciously gave us the other things that we possess and want, to enjoy them for our happiness in this short life that the Lord gave us here on this earth.

And the “all things” of Paul includes all the things that you have at your disposal to be enjoyed and cherished all the time, including during holidays as you are having now— Christmas.  But the point I am making, with the help of Paul, is that you, as you celebrate the birth of Christ, can’t separate all these things from Christ (through whom you have them from God) or exalt them as more valuable and abiding than the Christ of Incarnation.

Remember, God the Father, through and with his Son Jesus Christ, gave you all things that you have in life— family, friends, job, time, resources, knowledge, festivities— for you to celebrate and enjoy them by making Jesus Christ, who was born, lived, died and was resurrected for your sake, the focal person and reason of all that you do in life, including celebrating Christmas. Keep the exhortation of the Apostle Paul in mind as you remember and celebrate the birth of your Savior with family and friends.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Will your festivity this month ignore the Creator and His greatest gift for you, eternal life through the incarnate Son of God, or elevate the Christ of Incarnation above all other things that you will do with your family and friends? I am earnestly praying that we all will do the latter, for the glory of God and as our testimony for Christ, who is our greatest and main reason for Christmas.  

A very blessed and joyous Christmas to you all!

In the love of the great Shepherd!

Your Pastor and friend,

Zecharias

From the Pastor’s heart

Your Sunday OR God’s Sunday?

It is common for people to make a reference to Sunday as a day of their own. We often hear people say “This is my Sunday and I just want to enjoy it for myself.” But the question that I want you to join me in asking and reflecting upon this week is, can a truly Bible-believing and worshiping Christian claim Sunday as a day of his own, to be spent according to his own personal preference or liking? In other words, is Sunday as a day (the whole day) yours or God’s? Of course, all days have been created by God (Genesis chapters 1 & 2) and they all are God’s gracious gift for all people whom God created here on earth.

But among all the seven created days of the week, there is one specific day that the Lord God appointed and preserved to be consecrated (set apart) by His redeemed people for public worship in the Church.  I know every time the issue of dedicating one specific day in a week for the purpose of worship comes up, many contend hastily and zealously to make an argument that God must be worshiped every day, not just once in a week on a Sunday. Personally, I can’t agree more with anyone who makes that case. God should be worshiped and glorified by all His children every day and all the time (1 Corinthians 10:31).

But I also want people to understand and appreciate God’s appointment of one specific day of the week, which is Sunday or “the Lord’s day”, for holy worship, and also both physical and spiritual rest for his own people based on the will and teaching of God Himself in his word, not based on man’s independent interpretation and notion.  So let’s do that. After delivering the people of Israel from the bondage in Egypt, God gave them the Ten Commandments to serve them as a perfect reflection of God’s character and standard of their holy living before the Lord. And as the Israelite (and you and I) learned from God’s holy Word, the first four commandments of the moral law teach us how to love God, largely, how to love him in worship on the day of His choosing. You see, it is very important for you to understand the fourth commandment in the term and spirit that God Himself prescribed or dictated it in his Word.

What does the fourth Commandment say?  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). It was a clear command on and for God’s worship by his delivered people.  At the giving of this command on worship, the Lord was addressing the people of Israel as one assembly (gathering) to remember one day out of the seven days in a week in doing one thing: in setting apart (setting aside) the day to be part of the gathering of God’s people in the temple (God’s house) to praise and worship the Lord, and to do that by resting from all the physical labor that they were doing during the six days of the week (Exodus 20: 8-11) for the spiritual refreshment of their souls.

So you see, the first aspect of Sunday which really should sink into our minds, is the fact that Sunday is a day of worship, the personal property of God, something the Lord gave to his people as a gift for them to gather together, to praise and declare his glory with acts of worship.  Even God the Creator Himself, “the one who never becomes weary and never dies”, had to rest on this day.

But why did He rest? He did not rest because He was tired and was in need of relaxation after six days (Isaiah 40:28) but to enjoy the completion and beauty of His handiwork on the created universe (Genesis 2:1-3) and set an order (ordinance) for His people to enter into physical and spiritual rest on this day, in order to take a delight in the finished work of God’s creation and redemption worship.  That, my friend, makes the Sunday a creation and redemption order to be continued, starting from the day it was created to eternity.

There are people today who argue that God’s people are no more bound by the fourth Commandment because Christ came to fulfill it— and the whole Law— for us so that we will not be condemned by not doing it. Yes, my friend, Christ indeed has fulfilled the law for us to satisfy the demands of the Law for perfection in the sight of God. As Paul beautifully puts it in Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” So Christ kept the law for us, to rescue us from God’s condemnation of us by the law, and trust in Christ alone for our justification.  The death of Christ on the cross, which was the satisfying of the demand of the Law, was never meant to make the moral law, including the fourth commandment, useless or irrelevant to today’s day of worship.

Remember what our Lord Jesus Christ himself said in the gospel, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them”, which means not to tell you to ignore and treat them as non-existent, but to do them as the expression of your honor and worship to Him, your Creator and Redeemer. The phrase “Do not think” is highly important. It meant, do not assume or have your own human conviction that it is the case. Listen to what I have to say about why I fulfilled the Ten Commandments for you.  It was for the purpose of freeing you from their condemning power, and you should, not involuntarily, but gratefully embrace them to use them to present a living and pleasing worship to God the Father.

We see this being reiterated by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself when He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Did He then mean, “Show your love for me by keeping my commandments, but hey, about that fourth commandment on the Sabbath? No worries, you don’t need to be concerned or feel obligated about it because it’s no longer binding.” No, that was not what Jesus meant. But He meant, “Express the love that you have for me by keeping all the Commandments, and when you do all of them, including the one on public worship on Sunday, it will never be burdensome.”

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His Commandments. And his Commandments are not burdensome.” So you see my friend, to have a high regard for and acceptance of the Commandments of God but with the exclusion of the fourth Commandment, or with a low view of that one, would be a misunderstanding of the relationship between the gospel and Law. Because in the gospel, believers are united with Christ by faith as one body to declare the praise of God the Father in worship, and then live out their Christian life for the glory of God by loving and keeping His Commandments.

Now let me bring you back to the true aspect of Sunday as a day of Worship in our day or in the New Testament Church. To build upon what I started earlier, unlike the other six days of the week on which we are free to work, earn our living and enjoy all the things that the Lord has given us for ourselves through our leisure time and recreation in a way that honors God, Sunday is the personal property of God that the Lord gave to His people as a gift to enter into His spiritual rest and blessings through a day of worship. And this is not the teaching and call of the Old Testament only. But even the New Testament points us to this day as a creation and redemption order to be continued as God’s unchangeable law, that requires the observance of a day of rest for the purpose of worship and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is also known as the Lord of the Sabbath.

Keep this in mind, you and I are not Lords of the Sabbath. It is not us who do whatever we want to do on a Sunday, but the Lord Jesus Christ himself in our midst. As worshipers, we benefit from all that He does for us as the Lord and the owner of the day (Matthew 12:5-8).

In the New Testament we see the seventh day of the Week (Sabbath) continue as the first day of the week (the Lord’s Day) because it was the day on which Christ was raised from the dead to finish the work of our redemption (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2). That makes this day the order of creation and redemption, the day of rest. Not just rest, but rest in order to worship the risen Lord the whole day.

God’s rest on the seventh day is the pattern for our own Sunday (day of worship). Just like the Lord, we are to cease one day a week from our worldly labors and enjoyment to celebrate our accomplished redemption, as we all together, through a public worship of God’s people, look forward to its completed application in the eternal Sabbath (rest) that is waiting for us in heaven.

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fail by the same sort of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4: 9-11)

Beloved, what we do in the house of the Lord every Sunday is a foretaste of what is waiting for us in heaven. However, many struggle, and, heaven forbid, disobey the command of God to make it to church on a Sunday to worship God.  That’s why the writer of the Hebrews used the term “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest” because the Israelites were having a hard time in sacrificing their own pride and worldly pleasures to enter into the day of rest through Christ’s finished work of salvation in worship which was the foretaste of heaven.

The writer’s exhortation in Hebrews 10:25, “Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near”, was to show believers the strong connection between the Christian Sabbath here on earth and the one that we will have in heaven, in perfection and with Christ physically, and to urge all of us to continue growing into a worshiper of God, through a faithful attendance to the worship of God in the visible local Church and the benefit of the ordinary means of grace.

Well then, what about you, my friend? What do you think after reading this article from your Pastor’s caring heart? Is Sunday yours or God’s? Are you spending your Sunday on pursuits of God’s choosing or your own preference?  In the love of Christ and through this article, I would like to encourage you to reflect on your own personal understanding and conviction of the Lord’s Day, and how it should be sanctified by you for God’s worship for the purpose of doing what is pleasing to the Lord concerning this day.

In the love of the great Shepherd!

Your friend and Pastor!

Zecharias

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N.B After reading this article, if anyone of you would like to have more discussion with me on this subject, my Thursday counseling times are open for you all or we can pick another time that would work for both of us to meet and talk.  

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Have you ever wondered about why God commands His people to worship Him? Is it because God is needy? Does worship mean the gathering of God’s people to add to God’s glory and praise that He lacks or doesn’t have?  To ask the question directly and in a different way, is worship doing God a favor?

The answer, of course, is no.  According to the Scripture, God is a self-sufficient God (Acts 17:24-25) and does not stand in need of any creatures which He has made to derive any glory from them (Job 22:2-3)

Hence, when His people worship Him they don’t make Him more glorious than He is already. Man cannot make God glorious, for He is not capable of any additional glory because He is infinitely glorious in Himself. “If you are righteous what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?” Job 34:7.  Again, the answer is nothing, because God gets no advantage to Himself by the best works of men.  If that is true, why then does God demand worship from His people? If He doesn’t get any advantage from the worship of His people, then why worship? And what happens in worship?

First, God’s people worship God because God is worthy to be worshiped. The moment a person is saved by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ alone, the salvation (new spiritual life) that he receives in his life produces the worship of God inside of him.  In other words, the reason you have been saved is worship.  Wasn’t that what the Lord did after he delivered his people Israel from the hands of the Egyptians? Following their redemption, He commanded them to worship Him— and Him alone (Exodus 20:1-7).

It was the same in the New Testament. In 1 Peter 2:5 we read, “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” So you see, both the Old Testament and New Testament shows you that the reason why God saved you was to worship him. To leave (forsake) all other false gods, including yourself and your worldly desires, and worship him over all other things. The only difference was, in the Old Testament the people offered to Him bulls as a sacrifice of their worship, but now the sacrifice of worship of God’s people is the praise of their lips to God in Christ Jesus. We see that reality in Hebrews 13:15, where the writer said, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” Therefore we worship God because, as our Creator and Redeemer, He is worthy to be worshiped by us and also the Scripture commands us to worship him.

Let me share two portions from the New Testament that attest to this reality about worship.

1. John 4: 23-24, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth”

This is what our Lord Jesus Christ told the Samaritan woman. And what was it that our Lord was instructing the woman about worship?  That God the Father seeks or desires people to worship Him, and the way He wants them to worship Him is not through the sacrifice of an animal or based on a special place, but in spirit and truth. That means through a true spiritual worship that excludes the worship of false gods, worshiping God in a wrong form not prescribed in His word, and with a wrong attitude of heart.  True spiritual acts of worship are acceptable in the sight of God and are done in the knowledge of what the Holy Spirit teaches about who God is and how He must be worshiped, and the truth of who Christ is (Christ being the way, the truth and the life).

2. Romans 12:1, “ 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”

Here Paul teaches and exhorts believers not to offer an empty and superficial worship to God, but true and renewed inner spiritual worship which is not conformed to the things of this world.

Everything that I have been pointing you to so far makes worship the number one priority of a true follower of Christ.  Scripture calls for worship as the priority.  That’s why your salvation made you to a worshiper of God. Every Sunday that you join the gathering of God’s people for worship, you declare the glory and majesty of your heavenly Father to your own life and the world around you.

In worship God meets with you to bless you with His favor, protection and leading. But remember, your motive for worship should not be to get something from God, but to declare His glory over all things.  That’s why Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)  And what does seeking the kingdom first mean? It means to put God and all his spiritual blessings for you first and above all things in life.

My friend, is this what you do every Sunday?  Seeking the worship of God above all other things that you do from Monday to Saturday?  Is your heart’s desire every Lord’s day to call the Sabbath a delight (Isaiah 58:13), to be with God’s people morning and evening in the business of worshiping the Lord, and giving Him what is due to Him?

Your Pastor’s heart wants to encourage you read this article on the importance and priority of worship for prayer, reflection and action where action is needed.

In the fellowship of the good Shepherd!

Zecharias

Dear Redeemer family,

“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream, then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, we are glad” Psalm 126:1-3

Are the words of the Psalmist written above part of your thinking, reflection and joyful response to the Lord this week?  Like the Psalmist in the words above, are you glad? Maybe some of you are saying, “Why should I be glad? Is there any specific reason why I should join the Psalmist in gladness this week?”

Yes there is!  This week we as a local Church, Redeemer Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA, are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the formation and organization of our local Congregation as a Congregation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of the South East.

As we celebrate this milestone in the life and history of Redeemer, we are also celebrating the loving, powerful and preserving work of God’s grace over the spiritual journey of Redeemer as a Church for the past 50 years.  As the history of the Apostolic Church and all the Churches that follows its footsteps would confirm to us, the spiritual pilgrimage of Christ’s Church often involves trials and tribulations for the honor of the name of Christ and the sanctification and strengthening of the saints in it. In the past 50 years, the Lord has been pleased to accomplish many good things through the ministry and testimony of Redeemer in Atlanta area and Presbytery level. But along with those joyous and fruitful days, there were those days and times of hardship and spiritual turbulence that the Church went through. Nevertheless, as you as the body of Christ went through the fiery trials which shook your existence as the Church, the Lord protected and preserved you and your unity as members of Christ’s body through His Word and Spirit. As the Lord through his Prophet Isaiah promised you in Isaiah 43:2, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you”, He indeed was with you all individually and as a Church. He is indeed a Covenant-keeping God and for that he must be honored and celebrated by His people.

For the Psalmist in Psalm 126:1-3, the reason for his celebration and gladness was the hand of His sovereign God that delivered him and the people of Israel from their sins and was still saving and strengthening them through their strenuous Christian pilgrimage.  It was for that gracious and loving heart and hand of God that the Psalmist suspended other things he was doing, or planning to do, to direct his mind and heart to celebrate the goodness of God on his own life on the Assembly of God’s people.

Would you do the same thing this weekend as we all are joining our hearts as a Congregation to celebrate the hand and love of God which created us as a Church and preserved us thus far through good and rocky times to continue as a Church?

Be here at Redeemer, and with your fellow sojourners in it this weekend, as we will acknowledge and celebrate the lovingkindness of God on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Redeemer OPC!

Happy anniversary and looking forward to celebrate with you all!

In the love of Christ!

Zecharias

THE MERCHANT TEACHES US TO PUT OFF ALL ELSE SO THAT WE MIGHT OBTAIN THIS ONE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
“Who…went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord tells us that if our eye offends us pluck it out. While he is not literally saying to remove our eye that sins, so Jesus is not literally telling us to sell everything we have, leave all worldly possessions to others and take him. We know this from many other portions in Scripture – “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” (I Timothy 5:8).

But just as there is a very real spiritual truth in the Sermon on the Mount so the meaning here is very truly spiritual and may in fact become physical if the Lord wills. We must, like Paul, count all things as loss if we are to gain Christ. Christ is not received partially with the things of the world. We cannot have God and mammon. We cannot hold on to the pearl of great price and the pearls of low price hoping that the combined value will get us something greater. Jesus Christ shares his glory and honor and riches with no one else. Our hopes, joys, love, strength, peace, and refuge must be in Christ alone and Him crucified, dead, risen, and ascended up into heaven. The merchant in this parable understood this clearly. All in the Kingdom of Heaven have put off all else and obtained this one pearl.

My friends, if you put all aside to gain Christ, your treasure is very great. It will never be taken away, and you will never find anything greater. If you do not gain Christ, the pearl of great price, though you have the whole world it is already lost. It is in the present good for nothing. For if you die and go to hell what good is anything now? But if you have Christ today, you shall have Him always, He will be your guide from this life through death and to eternal life. For this is Eternal life, to know God the Father and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. Put all else aside, do not rest, do not stop, do not be content until you have Christ, are found in Him, and have in Him life Eternal. When the merchant found Christ, the pearl of great price, he sold all and bought the pearl. He is no fool who sells that which he cannot keep to buy that which he cannot lose. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”

Ben Stahl, Elder