Category Archives: Meditation (on the Word)

“Adorned with the Word: Praise” from Colossians 3:15-17 — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.[1]

Colossians 3:15-17

Greetings Sojourners!

I am hesitantly excited about today’s Bible study. Really, I am excited about it, just hesitant to publish it because of how divisive the subject can be among church folks. The subject of today’s Bible study is worshiping through singing.

Some people are almost militant in their divisiveness regarding the subject of singing in church. There are camps made and battle lines drawn. In some cases it is “traditional” v. “contemporary”. In others, it is we only sing this or that. There are Southern gospel camps. There are hymnal camps. Sometimes, these camps draw battle lines. Articles are written. Social media posts are lobbed out like grenades. Pastors are fired or hired. Churches split. The casualty is often the act of worship itself when the object of our worship, our resurrected King – Jesus Christ, is often far from the conversation.

I want to avoid camps and battle lines here today and help us see that while what we sing matters, why we sing and especially who we sing to matters, too, and perhaps matters more.

Why do we sing?

We sing because God ordained it. In Ephesians 4:19, we see most of the same wording as our passage today in Colossians 3:16, but we see the Holy Spirit add to the letter to the church at Ephesus the words “singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart”. He moves us to sing and inspires our song. If God had not wanted us to sing, He would not have told us so. He definitely would not have “breathed out” (2 Timothy 3:16) and inspired the longest and largest book of the Bible – the Psalms – to be a song book. God wants us to sing.

We sing because we have something (someOne) to sing about. In Exodus 15, we see Moses and the people of Israel standing on the far side of the Red Sea. God had divided the sea and brought them across on dry ground with walls of water on either side of them while they were being pursued by the Egyptian army (Exodus 14:22-23). Israel made it across, and God inhibited the Egyptian army – who were marching and riding across that same dry ground – from catching Israel or retreating from Him. The entire army was terrified and cried out in fear because “the Lord fights for [Israel]” (Exodus 14:25). God told Moses to stretch his hand out over the parted waters, and God crushed the Egyptian army (Exodus 14:16, 26-29). Israel “saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians” and “feared” and “believed in the Lord” (Exodus 14:31). Moses sang (Exodus 15, cf. Psalm 106:12). God wants us to sing to Him and about Him.

We sing because God sings. There is a beautiful verse penned by the prophet Zephaniah:

The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness;
He will quiet you by His love;
He will exult over you with loud singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

God is going to sing over us. Think about the comfort a parent’s singing gives to an infant or young child. Those children are not critics of the music or drawing battle lines over the choice of lullabies. They are soothed. The sound of parental love brings peace. Mama is there with them in the midst of discomfort. Daddy is near making it safe to close their eyes in darkness. For us, Abba (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6) is singing the good news of Who He is, all He has done, and everything that will be. God wants us to sing that over each other, too.

Hear me again: God wants us to sing! But as I mentioned above, He also gives us guidance on what to sing in our worship gatherings. Colossians 3 is one of the places He gives that guidance. Lord willing, I will avoid making this Bible study into a camp or drawing battle lines. I plan on being clear where Scripture is clear and gracious in clarity here. It is my intent to offer a Bible study that helps and does not unnecessarily divide. What follows is my feeble effort to point us to Christ in what we are to sing when we gather together.

What to Sing: The Word of Christ Dwelling Richly (v. 16)

Our last Bible study focused on how the Word of Christ – the Bible – is supposed to be the substance of our preaching. Looking at the context of Colossians 3:16, we see that it is not only focused on the preaching. The Bible is where we find all that can be known about God.[2] The Bible is where we learn of God and all He has done for us in Christ. Also, as mentioned above, the Bible contains an expansive resource of songs that were sung by those in the faith who have come before us – men and women who experienced the work of God and, like Moses, turned and expressed their worship and devotion and awe of God to Him in song.

If the Word of Christ is to dwell richly in our singing, our songs must be tested against the Word. This is important because what the church sings has historically “been one of the most powerful means by which a church is taught”.[3] This can be seen in the way that Wayne Grudem includes hymns and praise songs at the end of each chapter of his Systematic Theology; he believes that the study of theology “at its best will result in praise”.[4] The praise that results from studying Scripture and forming theology should exhibit that theology. An example of this is how an old hymn from my childhood formed the basis of how I understand the atonement of Christ: “There to my heart was the blood applied; glory to His name!” Another example comes from a modern hymn that shows God’s heart toward and power to save sinners who turn to Him: “My sins they are many; His mercy is more!”

This leads on to how we should look at the contents of what we sing in the same way as the preaching that we sit under. The example of the Bereans fits here, too. They were eager to hear, but that is not what set them apart. They were considered “more noble” because they did not let their eagerness take the place of “examining the Scriptures daily” to see if what Paul was teaching matched what God’s Word said (Acts 17:11). If our songs are going to teach us theology, we need to be careful that we are not willingly singing false teaching. There are resources that can help with this like The Berean Test, but you should dig into the Scriptures yourself. At Christ Community, we work through the songs we sing and provide lists of cross-references for every song we sing and provide access to them (almost) weekly through our “Songs for Sunday” posts, but none of that is any good if no one checks the Scripture to see if these things are so.

You might be asking why this even matters or if it really is a big deal. The short answer is yes. The long answer points us back to our passage.

What to Sing: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

Here comes the controversial or at least the point where people typically begin to divide. It is the subject of a lot of conversation, more than a little bit of social media fodder, and is the basis for a lot of opinions that get shared on the subject. The issue for divisiveness here is largely due to opinion – along with tradition or preference. I have neither the interest nor the emotional bandwidth to wade through those issues here. What I am interested in is what Paul told the Colossian church. I am interested in how the content of our worship is meant to flow out of taking off the flesh and putting on Christ. I want to see praise as a response of our theology as well as seeing our theology ensuring that our praise is biblical.

Paul gives the church at Colossae – as well as the church at Ephesus (Ephesians 4:19), our local churches, and the Church from the writing of the New Testament until Christ’s return – three categories of songs for us to sing: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Now, no song is necessarily one of these categories but more likely a mixture. What I want to do here is, as I said above, to see what these terms given to us by the Holy Spirit through Paul mean and how we can use them to check the contents of our worship through singing.

Psalms

The psalms are the easiest to define because we recognize it as the name of the longest book of the Bible: Psalms. It is the collection of songs written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to exalt, praise, and worship the Lord for all He had done for Israel. The way the Biblical Theology Study Bible describes the book of Psalms is very helpful to us here:

“The book of Psalms (or the Psalter) has been the hymnbook and prayer book for countless generations of Jews and Christians over the centuries. It contains the entire range of human emotion, from the highest points of joy and thanksgiving to the lowest points of depression and loss and everything in between. The psalms are timeless—hence their popularity among believers in all times and all places. Their presence in the Bible instructs the faithful in the best ways to praise and thank God, and they model legitimate ways to grieve and to address God boldly and directly in the midst of pain and sorrow. The psalms are transparent, passionate, emotive, personal, and genuine, and they provide believers with language with which to express their own deepest emotions and passions.”[5]

The existence of the psalms gives us good guidelines for what our worship is to look like, whether it be learning to call out to God in times of distress and mourning, rejoicing when He has blessed us, crying out from a position of defeat or desperation, or worshipfully reflecting on who God is and all He has done.

The word here in Colossians 3:16 (Gr. psalmos) basically means “Songs”, while the title of the book in Hebrew (Tehillim) meant “Praises”. The Greek form of the word also carried with it the idea of singing being accompanied by music, specifically strings being plucked (like a harp) or played with a plectrum or pick (like a lyre or lute).[6]  But ultimately, what we need to understand for today is that the first (and arguably most important) category of songs for us is singing Scripture. This of course includes the 150 psalms we have in the Bible, but it also extends to New Testament passages like Colossians 1:15-20 or Philippians 2:5-11. This illustrates that, in order for the “word of Christ to dwell in you richly”, the contents of our singing is better to contain Scripture than to merely reflect or be inspired by it.

Hymns

This is going to be where some disagree because of the prevalence of hymnals, especially how important they were in churches for the last few centuries. However, there are many songs in hymnals that would fit the other categories as well; examples of this from the 2008 Baptist Hymnal include singing Scripture (psalms) like in Hymn #431 where it is the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13 to music, as well as a number of “spiritual songs” which we will get into in the next section. The word here in Colossians 3:16 (Gr. hymnos) means a “song…in honor of God” or a “direct address of praise and glory to God”.[7]

One might interpret hymns in the more modern context as songs that sing doctrine. If psalms is singing Scripture explicitly, hymns are inspired by Scripture or are used to explain what Scripture is saying. Both are important. But, hopefully, this helps us see why it is so important to sing songs that are faithful to Scripture and contain good, solid biblical theology. I will give an example of an older “hymn” and a newer song to illustrate this. The song “Just a Little Talk With Jesus” talks about a “prayer wheel”, which is Buddhist and has no ties to Christianity at any point in church history. That is dangerous. A more modern example can be seen from events recently in the meetings of the United Methodist Church where they not only abandoned clear biblical teachings on sexuality but joined together singing a “hymn” called “All Faiths Lead to God” which contradicts the Bible’s teaching that Jesus is the only Way to the Father (John 14:6).

Hymns can help us to put good biblical theology in our mouths and in our minds (or bad theology if we are not careful with some). Examples of solid hymns that come to my mind are “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation”, “It is Well”, “How Great Thou Art”, “Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy”, “In Christ Alone”, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”, or “Before the Throne of God Above”. This is most definitely not an exhaustive list, but each of these songs is an ode to God’s might and power and points to Him. These songs contain gospel truths and clear doctrine. The age of the song matters not (the songs in the list above range from the 1400s to the early 2000s) because Jesus is eternal and there are nearly 2,000 years of the Church spread out on every continent, which is how it should be because the Church is bigger than just us in our local congregation.

Spiritual Songs

In this final category, we see an example that gets to be a bit more personal. The word in Colossians 3:16 (Gr. ode) is where we get the English word “ode” that describes poems or songs written about/to someone or something. In this case, ode refers to singing in honor of what God has done and might contain confessions of what we have done in sin or praise for what God has done in saving us. These are songs of testimony. For these “spiritual songs” sung in corporate worship, they are songs of shared testimony, singing and testifying things that are common to every believer.

These “spiritual songs” carry common themes like redemption, salvation, justification, the breaking of chains, the removal of sin, repentance, etc. Every Christian to ever be born again shares certain biblical similarities in their testimonies. All Christians were dead in their trespasses and sins, but God made us alive in Him. All Christians were lost until Jesus sought us out and found us. All Christians were slaves to sin but redeemed by God and adopted as His child. These are common themes that resound with all of us. Again, some of these overlap, take “How Great Thou Art” from the list of hymns in the previous section. It is clearly chock full of doctrine, especially in verse three, but that proclamation of doctrine is also a testimony: “And when I think, that God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die; I scare can take it in. That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing; He bled and died to take away my sin!”

Another beautiful truth about “spiritual songs” is how they carry with them the idea of new songs.[8] In Revelation 5:9 and 14:3, the ode is used to talk about the “new song” sung to the Lamb and in Revelation 15:3 to describe the “song of the Lamb”. God is still saving people, giving them new life and a song of gratitude in their hearts, and people are still moved to write songs that make much of Jesus, like the descriptions of heaven in Revelation where crowns are being laid down, palm branches are being waved, and recognition of the singular worthiness of the Lamb is proclaimed constantly. This also agrees with Psalm 149:1-3 that commands God’s people to praise Him and that new songs should be sung because people are “glad” in their Maker, “making melody to Him” with instruments and voices.

So, to take the categories in Colossians 3:16 and simplify them, we are to sing Scripture, we are to sing doctrine as found in Scripture, and we are to sing as an ode to God and a testimony for all He has done and is doing for us.

Wrapping Up

Letting “the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” is no small task, especially as we gather together to worship with our local church. But no task worth doing or goal worth reaching is easy or simple. Making sure that our worship – through preaching, listening, reading the Word, or singing – is biblical is a difficult but necessary task. The result hinges on Him in whom we put our trust. Do we trust Him enough to do things His way, or will we rely too heavily on our own traditions or personal preferences? Are we willing to chuck out songs that are shallow or unbiblical just because that’s what we like or grew up on? These are hard questions, but, again, they are necessary.

It also needs to be said that writing on this does not mean that I have it all figured out or that I am not still changing and growing in this. I’m no longer a young man, and I find tradition and personal preference weighs more heavily in my mind and heart than in previous decades in my life. I find myself convicted when I realize that something I have sung or a song I have always loved and/or grew up on is not biblical.[9] But if I spend time in the Word and with the Word, Jesus, I am not satisfied with lesser songs. I need to worship God as He prescribes, not as I prefer. That is a lesson I am still learning and will likely continue to learn for the rest of my life, until I stand before Him on the throne and cast my preferences aside and all I can do is worship my Lord and King.

So, how do we apply this?

Well, most simply, we guard what we sing and test it according to the Word. In some cases, songs will need to be thrown out. In others, parts or lines can be rewritten to fit with Scripture. But, ultimately, we need to desire to worship the Lord and to have His Word “dwell in [us] richly”. We need to hunger for Him and realize that worship is all about Him and nothing of us (other than confessing our sinfulness and need for Him).

Jesus is worthy.

Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is God.

Let us make sure we worship Him for who He is and how He told us to in His Word.

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Col 3:15–17.

[2] Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 128–129.

[3] John Piper, Ask Pastor John: “When Worship Lyrics Miss the Mark”, Desiring God,  August 7, 2017, https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/when-worship-lyrics-miss-the-mark.

[4] Grudem, 42.

[5] D. A. Carson, ed., NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 868.

[6] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).

[7] Zodhiates.

[8] Zodhiates.

[9]      I want to make a specific statement regarding some of the songs we sing, but it did not fit well in the exposition of Colossians 3:16. We need to be increasingly careful of the sources of our music. Some of the most popular songs today are from churches like Hillsong, Elevation, or Bethel. In many ways, these three churches have departed from orthodox Christian teachings in certain areas and in the case of Bethel have gone to underhanded lengths to simulate or fake the presence of the Holy Spirit. We need to be careful when drinking from tainted wells.
       At the same time, we need to be vigilant in checking all of our songs. Some older songs fit that bill as well. Do your research and see if songwriters or hymnwriters are part of a local church – whether or not they have accountability as a church member with pastors and people discipling them. We need to be vigilant regarding the Word content of the songs we let in our minds because, again, it helps form the theology coming out of our mouths. We raise our children with songs to warn of danger like “Be careful little ears what you hear”; may we warn ourselves with “Be careful little flock what you sing.”

Songs for Resurrection Sunday 2024 @ Christ Community Church

Tomorrow is Sunday — RESURRECTION SUNDAY, and I am excited.

Sometimes, there can be a temptation to try and make holiday Sundays bigger, brighter, and, well, just to try and make it seem special by pulling out all the stops. As John said last week, we celebrate Resurrection Sunday every Sunday because our hope comes from Jesus’s resurrection — dead Saviors can’t save!

Every god or holy man or people who put themselves out there to say they are saviors either has or will die. Muhammed is dead. Buddha is dead. All of the false prophets who have claimed to be the messiah, both before and after Jesus, have died or will die. This isn’t an attack on other religions; it’s a clarification that religion can’t save because their founders don’t last. Jesus is something else entirely.

No, at Christ Community tomorrow, we are going to do our best to do what we always strive do: point people to Jesus!

Look at how Paul pointed the church at Corinth to Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15 — a chapter that beautifully proclaims the gospel and the importance of Jesus’s resurrection:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you — unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures….

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

Look at the language Paul used there to highlight the importance:

1. He wanted them to be reminded of the gospel (good news) that he had preached to them regarding Jesus and for them to hold fast to that truth (2 Timothy 1:13-14, Jude 3). Putting one’s faith in Jesus is not a one-time-thing but something that believers need to continually do. We trust in Him for salvation, but we continually trust in Him to continue to carry us (Hebrews 10:38-39). Those who believed were saved from the wrath of God toward sin, but as Paul says here, were “being saved” continually by their resurrected — their living — Savior who cares for them (Romans 5:9-10, 1 Corinthians 1:18)!

2. He made sure they knew that what he was preaching was “in accordance with the Scriptures” — something he says twice in v. 4. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not something that popped up new after he lived and died. His death, burial, and resurrection were foretold by the God’s prophets throughout the Old Testament (Luke 24:25-27). The gospel was not something new for someone like Paul who had studied it his whole life; no, it was the fulfillment of all he had studied (Acts 17:2-3).

2. He preached that gospel to them again: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, …He was buried, …He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”. The gospel he preached came from the Scriptures and was all about Jesus, who He is and all He had done and is doing (Acts 26:22-23).

3. He understood that the gospel is of “first importance” because that is what he “also received”. This is not a hypothetical gospel for Paul. Jesus is his hope as well (John 12:32, Romans 15:13, 1 Peter 1:3). His Ph.D. in Judaism wasn’t going to save him. The warrant given to him by when he was Saul of Tarsus the Jerusalem elite to arrest and imprison Christians wasn’t going to save him. His claims as a “Hebrew of Hebrews” and a “Pharisee” weren’t going to save him (Philippians 3:4). No, Paul knew that all of his hope was in Jesus, the same Jesus whom he had previously persecuted, and because Jesus had saved him, he understood that everything that came before was “rubbish” unable to be compared to the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” as Lord (Philippians 3:7-8).

Tomorrow, we have the privilege, just as we do every Sunday, to remind ourselves and others of the good news of Jesus Christ and get to share His gospel through preaching, reading the Word, and singing in praise and worship of our resurrected King (Colossians 3:16-17). We will lift Him up “as of first importance” because we know that if we had not “also received” Him, we would have no hope.

Dead saviors can’t save, but our God is not dead — “He is risen as He said” (Matthew 28:6).

Won’t you gather with us as we worship Him?

Here are our Scriptures and songs:

  • Song | Ain’t No Grave —
    Scripture Inspiration: John 8:34, Romans 6:6, 1 John 4:8, 1 Chronicles 28:20, 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 1 Corinthians 15:50-56, John 8:44, 1 Peter 5:8, Revelation 12:9, Genesis 3:15, Ephesians 6:11-18, Isaiah 25:8, Hosea 13:14, 2 Timothy 1:10, Hebrews 2:14, Revelation 5:5, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
  • Scripture | 1 Corinthians 15:50-57 —

50I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  • Song | Graves Into Gardens —
    Scripture Inspiration: Psalm 34:10, Isaiah 55:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3, Luke 15:11-24, Romans 6:23, John 6:26-35, Revelation 7:13-17, Matthew 11:28-30, 1 John 4:8, Psalm 51:10, Jeremiah 24:7, Ezekiel 36:26, Romans 12:2, Psalm 37:4, Exodus 8:10, Deuteronomy 3:24, Jeremiah 10:6, 1 Samuel 2:2, Isaiah 40:18, Romans 5:6-8, Psalm 138:8-9, 1 Kings 8:39, 1 John 3:20, John 15:15, Psalm 139:7-12, Hebrews 4:13, Psalm 30:11, Isaiah 62:2, Galatians 2:19-20, John 14:6, 1 Corinthians 15:20-49, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Exodus 14:1-31
  • Song | Thank You Jesus for the Blood —
    Scripture Inspiration: Deuteronomy 6:5, Lamentations 3:22-23, Isaiah 64:8, Psalm 139:16, Deuteronomy 6:7, Psalm 113:3, 2 Timothy 2:13, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 31:19, Psalm 145:9, Psalm 150:6, Psalm 107:1, 1 Kings 19:11-12, Hebrews 1:3, Isaiah 43:1-3, Jeremiah 23:23-24, John 15:14-15, Psalm 23:6, Luke 9:23-24
  • Scripture | 1 Peter 1:3-5 —

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

  • Song | Living Hope —
    Scripture Inspiration: Acts 4:8-12, 1 Corinthians 15:3-11, 1 Peter 1:3, Philippians 2:5-8, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 9:22, John 1:12-13, Hebrews 9:15, John 8:36, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, Galatians 5:1, Psalm 107:14-15, John 14:6, Acts 3:15, Revelation 5:5, 1 Peter 1:4-5
  • Song | Because He Lives —
    Scripture Inspiration: John 3:16, Isaiah 25:8, Hosea 13:14, 1 Corinthians 15:24-26, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, 2 Timothy 1:10, Hebrews 2:14, Psalm 28:7-8, Isaiah 40:29-31, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, John 14:25-27, Romans 8:38-39, 1 Peter 5:6-7, Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 2:10, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 4:6-7, Revelation 21:4, 1 Corinthians 11:26
  • Invitation | In Christ Alone —
  • Offertory | Yet Not I But Christ in Me —
    Scripture Inspiration: Genesis 15:6, Psalm 32:1-2, Romans 3:21-24, Romans 5:6-10, Ephesians 2:4-9, Titus 2:11, Isaiah 9:6, Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 1:18-255, John 3:15-16, 1 Thessalonians 1:6, Hebrews 12:2, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Psalm 119:45, Romans 8:1-4, Psalm 17:7, Psalm 36:5-7, Titus 3:4, 1 John 4:8, John 14:27, Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:14-15, Acts 4:10-12, John 14:6, Galatians 2:20, Romans 8:9-11, Galatians 4:6, Psalm 107:10-16, Psalm 118:7, Hebrews 13:5-6, 2 Corinthians 12:9, John 10:11-18, 2 Samuel 22:3-4, Nahum 1:7, 1 John 5:18, Psalm 23:4, Matthew 20:28, John 1:29, Acts 20:28, Colossians 2:14, Titus 2:14, 1 Peter 1:17-21, 1 John 2:1-2, Revelation 5:9-13, Acts 4:33, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, Hebrews 2:14, Revelation 21:3-4, Hebrews 13:6, Psalm 116:16, Romans 6:20, Galatians 5:1, Luke 21:33, Revelation 6:14, Psalm 51:10, Ezekiel 36:26, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Philippians 1:9-11, John 10:30

A Chronological Reading from the Gospels on Good Friday

It has become a tradition for us to partake in a chronological reading of the events of Good Friday from the gospels. It is one of the most humbling and worshipful parts of Holy Week for me, and I hope it helps you to focus on Christ and what He did for us on the cross and when He walked out of His tomb.

John 18:1 –

            When He had finished praying, Jesus left with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and He and His disciples went into it.[1]

Mark 14:32-45 –

            They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James, and John along with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

            Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. “Abba, Father,” He said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

            Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” He said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

            Once more He went away and prayed the same thing. When He came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to Him.

            Returning the third time, He said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

            Just as He was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowed armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders.

            Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest Him and lead Him away under guard.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Rabbi!” and kissed Him.[2]

John 18:4-24 –

            Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”

            “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.

            “I am He,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

            Again He asked them, “Who is it you want?”

            And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

            “I told you that I am He,” Jesus answered. “If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” This happened so that the words He had spoken  would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

            Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off His right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

            Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

            Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound Him and brought Him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people.

            Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

            “You are not one of His disciples are you?” the girl at the door asked Peter.

            He replied, “I am not.”

            It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep war. Peter also was standing with them, warming Himself.

            Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching.

            “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”

            When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck Him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest? He demanded.

            “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” Then Annas sent Him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.[3]

Matthew 26:57-68 –

            Those who had arrested Jesus took Him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. But Peter followed Him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.

            The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put Him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.

            Finally two came forward and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

            Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent.

            The high priest said to Him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

            “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting and the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

            Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”

            “He is worthy of death,” they answered.

            Then they spit in His face and struck Him with their fists. Others slapped Him and said, “Prophecy to us Christ. Who hit you?”[4]

Luke 22:54-62 –

            Then seizing Him, they led Him away and took Him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with Him.”

            But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know Him,” he said.

            A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are of them.”

            “Man, I am not!” Peter replied.

            About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with Him, for he is a Galilean.”

            Peter replied, “Man I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight a Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.[5]

Mark 15:1 –

            Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led Him away, and handed Him over to Pilate.[6]

John 18:29-38 –

So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”

            “If He were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed Him over to you.”

            Pilate said, “Take Him yourselves and judge Him by your own law.”

            “But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death He was going to die would be fulfilled.

            Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked Him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

            “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

            “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

            Jesus said, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my Kingdom is from another place.”

            “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

            Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a King. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

            “What is truth? Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against Him….”[7]

Matthew 27:15-25 –

            Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed over Jesus to him.

            While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him a message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him.”

            But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.

            “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.

            “Barabbas,” they answered.

            “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked.

            They all answered, “Crucify Him!”

            “Why? What crime has He committed?” asked Pilate.

            But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!”

            When Pilate saw that He was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, He took water and washed His hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

            All the people answered, “Let His blood be on us and on our children!”[8]

Luke 23:23-25 –

            But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that He be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.[9]

John 19:1-16 –

            Then Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head. They clothed Him in a purple robe and went up to Him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck Him in the face.

            Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing Him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against Him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

            As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw Him, they shouted, “Crucify, crucify!”

            But Pilate answered, “You take Him and crucify Him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against Him.”

            The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law He must die, because He claimed to be the Son of God.”

            When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

            Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

            From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”

            When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour.

            “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

            But they shouted, “Take Him away! Take Him away! Crucify Him!”

            “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

            “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

            Finally Pilate handed Him over to be crucified.[10]

Mark 15:21 –

            A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.[11]

Luke 23:32-43 –

            Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with Him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him, along with the criminals – one on His right, the other on His left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up His clothes by casting lots.

            The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at Him. They said, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”

            The soldiers came up and mocked Him. They offered Him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

            There was a written notice above Him, which read: this is the king of the Jews.

            One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

            But the other criminal rebuked Him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

            Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

            Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”[12]

John 19:25-27 –

            Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother there, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.[13]

Matthew 27:45-47 –

            From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?” – which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

            When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”[14]

John 19:28-30 –

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When He had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.[15]

Matthew 27:51-52 –

            At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of the many holy people who had died were raised to life.[16]

Luke 23:47-49 –

            The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew Him, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.[17]

John 19:31-37 –

            Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bring a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of His bones will be broken,” and, as another Scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”[18]

[1] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Jn 18:1.

[2] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Mk 14:32–45.

[3] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Jn 18:4–24.

[4] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Mt 26:57–68.

[5] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Lk 22:54–62.

[6] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Mk 15:1.

[7] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Jn 18:29–38.

[8] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Mt 27:15–25.

[9] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Lk 23:23–25.

[10] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Jn 19:1–16.

[11] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Mk 15:21.

[12] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Lk 23:32–43.

[13] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Jn 19:25–27.

[14] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Mt 27:45–47.

[15] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Jn 19:28–30.

[16] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Mt 27:51–52.

[17] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Lk 23:47–49.

[18] The Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984), Jn 19:31–37.

Songs for Sunday, March 24 @ Christ Community Church

Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day, and I’m excited!

Nearly 2,000 years ago on that Sunday — the first day of the week before Passover, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt to cries of “Hosanna!” (Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:10, John 12:13) and “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38)

Over the past few weeks at Christ Community, we have been singing songs that mirror those cries, hoping to help us see Jesus as who He is — the King of kings, Emmanuel, our God who has come and is coming again. We lifted our voices together singing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”, yearning for Jesus to return. We lifted our voices together singing the words of the songs from Revelation 4, 5 and 7, wanting to sing the songs of Heaven dedicated to the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb standing on the throne as though slain. And tomorrow, Lord willing, we will sing songs that mirror the cries heard along the streets of Jerusalem when the King came to town — as we also sing songs that look forward to the end of that week when Jesus was crucified and the beginning of the next when He rose from the grave!

One of the things I love about being able to sing these songs is that they are not merely commemorative. They are not icons pointing to a merely historic moment. They are not idols to a dead god. No, our God is alive and well — death could not keep Him! We sing these songs, and they are prophetic because Jesus has done all He promised and will coming again as He promised. We can sing “Hosanna!” (save us, O Lord — we praise You, O Lord) with the knowledge that He hears our praises just as He did the voices of those on that Jerusalem street! We can sing “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” because He is coming in the name of the Lord again!

These are not idle words (or idol words). Jesus IS King. Jesus IS alive. Jesus REALLY saves. He REALLY lives. All of this REALLY does MATTER!

Last week fired me up for Palm Sunday in a way I had not considered. Again, what we do in worship is not merely commemorative — it is active and prophetic and a present offer of praise to “our blessed hope…our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13)! You see, last week we lifted our voices together and read about a time when palm branches will be lifted in worship of the King (Revelation 7:9-12). 2,000 years ago, some of those voices lining the streets were sure to be some who also cried “Crucify Him!” a few days later. These voices in Revelation 7 will be those who have had their cries of “Hosanna!”, their cries for the Lord to save them and praising His name, those cries will have been answered. No, this lifting of palms will be from an uncountable “great multitude” of people saved by grace through faith in Jesus “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages”; they will be standing “before the throne” — standing “before the Lamb”! And with palm branches in their hands and white robes on their bodies, they will cry out at the top of their voices, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Let’s do that tomorrow!

Let’s gather in worship of the Lamb!

Let’s gather in anticipation of the coming of the King!

Let’s lift our voices and declare to our God who saves that He is worthy and acknowledge that salvation comes from Him alone!

Let’s gather and singing “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Let’s sit under the teaching of His Word and have His Spirit move our hearts to worship Him all of our days and not just for an hour or so on Sunday.

Let’s proclaim to the world that we have a God that death could not keep down and that He offers life to all who call upon Him and confess Him as Lord!

Won’t you gather with us?

Here are our Scriptures and songs:

  • Scripture | Luke 19:28-40 —

28And when He had said these things, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29When He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of His disciples 30saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.'” 32So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. 33And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35And they brought it to Jesus, throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36And as He rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37As He was drawing near — already on the way down the Mount of Olives — the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

  • Scripture | Matthew 23:37-39 —

37″O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38See, your house is left to you desolate. 39For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'”

  • Scripture | Psalm 118:25-26 —

25Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success!

26Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD!

“Adorned with the Word: Preaching” — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.[1]

Greetings Sojourners!

As I said in our last Bible study, this is a passage that I interact with regularly. It is a part of my life as a pastor. This leads us to look at something unique about interacting with God’s Word that is different from interacting with literature or other writings: God’s Word is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) and, most importantly, is interacting with us.

This is something that Christians sometimes take for granted. We do not have a holy book that merely contains rules and guidelines. No, we have a holy God who breathed out the words of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16) – a God who rules and gives guidance Himself through His Spirit and written word!

This is different than mere literature. I interact with literature every day in my job as an English teacher, but the literature does not interact with me. There are aspects of good literature that affect my life. There may even be times where something that I read has a functional impact on how I live my life or show compassion or think about certain issues, but the author is not interacting with me – the text is just words. God’s Word is different. To illustrate this more clearly, look at how Paul David Tripp explains it:

“Not only do we have the gift of God’s Word, but we also have the gift of the Holy Spirit, who guides us, teaches us, and illumines the Word for us so that we can know, understand, confess, and repent. I not only need the content of God’s Word, but I also need the help of the Holy Spirit to enable me to understand it, to assist me to apply it, to empower me to live it, and to equip me to take its message to others. God rescues me from my foolishness not just by handing me a book, but also by giving me Himself to open the wisdom of that book to me. I don’t do this as an author. I write a book and move on. It is then up to the reader to make sense of what I have written. I don’t travel to reader after reader, sitting with them as long as it takes, shining light on the things I have written, making sure they understand, and helping them to apply the content of the book to their everyday lives. But that is exactly what God does. He goes everywhere His Word goes. He patiently sits with readers every time they open His book.”[2]

God’s Word is something else!

When we take today’s passage in its correct context, it is good that God’s Word is so special – so powerfully and providentially given to us – and alive. We are still in the portion of Colossians where Paul is teaching the Colossian church (and us in our churches today) to put on Christ, to be adorned by Him in our real lives.

If God’s Word is not living and active, we have merely memorized some facts or learned some literature. Trust me that, as one who has memorized a lot of facts and read/taught a lot of literature, facts and stories are not enough to change people’s lives. More is needed. And more is exactly what we are given in God’s Word. The Bible is more than a book. It contains everything that can be known about God. Look at how Wayne Grudem explains the necessity of Scripture for the Christian Life:

“It is not only true that all things necessary to become a Christian, live as a Christian, and grow as a Christian are clearly presented in the Bible. It is also true that without the Bible we could not know these things. The necessity of Scripture means that it is necessary to read the Bible or have someone tell us what is in the Bible if we are going to know God personally, have our sins forgiven, and know with certainty what God wants us to do.”[3]

I will say it again: God’s Word is something else!

So, let us dive into Colossians 3:16 and see what it means for our churches to be adorned – dressed in, wearing – the Word of God.

The Word of God is Foundational to Christian Worship (v. 16)

It should be able to go without saying that God’s Word is part of the foundation of our worship, but throughout the millennia that Christianity has existed – and the examples from the millennia of God’s people in the Old Testament hearing “Thus saith the Lord” – it is clear that people are foolish and often do the opposite of what they should. Sometimes, sinful people – even sinful pastors (or “pastors”) – just want to teach what they want to teach, whether it is in the Bible or not. Sometimes, ignorance of what the Bible says leads to teaching wrongly. One of those is malicious, and the other is woefully dangerous, but the fact of the matter is that stepping off the foundation of God’s Word leads to trouble. We get off track. Our following Jesus is replaced too easily by personal sin and idolatry. God’s Word illumined by God’s Spirit prevents that.

As we said in our last Bible study, Colossians 3:15-17 telling us what our local churches are to be adorned in – what they are to be wearing. Just as the attributes of sin listed in Colossians 3:5-9 are treated as filthy garments that need to be taken off and the attributes of faith listed in Colossians 3:10, 12-15 are treated as clean garments that should be worn, peace, gratitude, the Word of God, and praise are garments that should adorn our churches. One could say that, rather than worrying about what folks are wearing to church, we should be worried about what our churches are wearing. One should be able to see peace, gratitude, the Word of God, and praise so clearly that it marks us like camouflage fatigues do a soldier.

Paul tells the Colossian church to let “the Word of Christ dwell in you richly”. This goes deeper than merely being clothed in the Word; we are talking about being saturated with the Word. That word that the ESV translates as “richly” can be translated “richly furnished”, describing the way a house or a room is filled or covered. It can be translated “in large amount” or “in abundance” meaning that there is a fullness or surplus. It can be translated “in full measure” meaning that there is a certain measurement that is to be given and that all of it should be put out. The Word of God is not supposed to be a mere decoration or the prooftext of a talk or what the music we like is loosely based on; it is supposed to extravagantly and abundantly saturate our churches and worship gatherings to the point where it consumes all else.

Visitors should be able to leave our gatherings and say that we only want to talk, sing, and proclaim the Word of God, pointing them to Jesus. People who want to “play church” or merely masquerade as a Christian should be so disgusted by the reality presented in God’s Word that they have to take their ball and play elsewhere. The measure of God’s Word in our preaching and singing should be such that we leave hungering for no less in our daily walk with Christ. To paraphrase an old church joke, the Word of God should be so prominent in our worship – dwell in us so richly – that if a mosquito were to bite us in the parking lot after church, it would have to sing “There’s Power in the Blood”!

The Colossian church needed to hear this because they had false teachers coming in and trying to supplement God’s Word with what is “really” needed. In truth, they were trying to replace the Word with the supplement. The gospel was all their pastor Epaphras had to offer. False teachers cried for gospel+, but Paul is calling for the Colossians to understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is sufficient on its own!

If false teaching is to have no more place in our gatherings than Epaphras or Paul wanted in the Colossian church, the Word must be central – and not just on Sundays or Wednesdays. It needs to be central in our daily lives. If we are to long for God as a deer, exhausted from being hunted, pants for streams of water (Psalm 42:1), we should desire to hear from Him, which is what happens when we seek Him in His Word. The Spirit takes the words He breathed out and penned through human hands and lights our path (Psalm 119:105, Proverbs 6:23), convicts our hearts (John 8:46, John 16:8-9), and declare the Word in our hearts and minds (John 16:13-15, Psalm 25:5).

But, just as the Ethiopian eunuch responded to Phillip’s question of whether he understood what he was reading (Acts 8:30-31), we must ask, “How can we unless someone guides us?” We should echo Paul’s question to the church in Rome, as well: How are we to hear unless someone preaches?

Let us look and see what God’s Word says about preaching so that we can ensure we are seeking to be adorned with God’s Word and dwell in it richly in our worship gatherings.

The Word of God Tells Us What Preaching is Supposed to Be

As we look at this, we need to understand that almost no church or Christian preacher (or “preacher”) is going to really come out and say that God’s Word is not enough. In fact, I encounter people posting on social media or putting out church-related content that calls for folks to get back to preaching the whole Bible and what they are calling for is how the Bible was preached when their generation was growing up or what their denomination stands/once stood for or Republican values or Democratic values or this or that. It is rare that any cry for returning to Bible preaching hails from the Bible (which should really tell us something). The question we must ask ourselves today is whether the Bible, being sufficient, shows within its pages what it is to have the Bible central in our worship gatherings – not just the preaching, but especially in the preaching – to have it dwell in us richly.

Good news, sojourner: the Bible does tell us. So, let us briefly look at a few passages of Scripture – Old Testament and New – that show us how to have the Bible central in our worship gatherings and preaching.

1 Timothy 4:13 – Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

This is something that challenged us a few years ago at Christ Community. The pastors were reading a book and diving into God’s Word together and found ourselves convicted by this command from Paul to a young pastor named Timothy. We planned and discussed how to get the practice of being devoted to “public reading” of Scripture to be something that was natural and did not seem weird or like some kind of religious exercise. We came up empty and prayed for God to make this clear for us. He did! One Sunday, we were going to read Psalm 51 as part of our musical worship. When we said, “Let’s read”, the congregation took us literally and all began reading the passage aloud together. It has become one of my favorite parts of our worship gathering, and we have seen people begin to be as excited – clapping hands and cheering, even – when we read powerful sections of Scripture that make much of Jesus!

All that to say, do not overthink this. If you want the Word to dwell in you richly, read it. Read it aloud in your worship gatherings. Have one person read it, or all read it together. I have been in some churches where they read from a Psalm or portion of a Psalm every week. It is beautiful. It is good for us. It points us away from the world and exalts God. Do it.

Nehemiah 8:8 – They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

This passage takes place after the Israelite exiles return from Babylon to a war-ravaged Jerusalem. The temple is gone with nothing but the foundations left. They have been gone for seventy years, and some of them had never heard the Word – in their case, the Law or the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). Ezra gathered up all the people and “opened the book in the sight of all the people” with them standing, and he blessed God and simply read it to them (Nehemiah 8:5-6). Listen to that again, he read them the first five books of the Bible with them standing there the whole time. Church folks would run a preacher out! But look at the hunger they had – the devotion! Wow! Not only did they read it, but Ezra and a number of others listed in Nehemiah 8:7 took the time and “helped the people understand the Law, while the people remained in their places”. Imagine a sermon on the first five books of the Bible. Again, church folks would run a preacher out (or would have already run out themselves)!

Ezra and company did more here than simply translate the Hebrew Scripture for people who spoke Aramaic or to relay what the book said; they broke it down for them. They made an “exposition or explanation of the meaning”.[4] This reflected Ezra’s heart and commitment to not only be impacted by the Scriptures himself (Ezra 7:10) but to share the Word with the people he had been called to serve.

This is a beautiful picture of what preaching – at its most simple and pure center – should be: a model for all who teach and preach the Word of God”.[5] We should read the Word – as much or as little as the Spirit prompts. We should read it clearly. If God lays a chapter on the pastor’s heart, he should not rush through it. It is the centerpiece. It is the meat at the meal. And he should give the sense. The sermon should seek to help people understand what is read and see Jesus in it! Understand that I am not talking about a lecture or a mere lesson. This is not a class – it is the Christ! There should be a passionate plea for people to look to Christ. There should be a fire inside the bones of the preacher (Jeremiah 20:9) to point people to the Lord!

Luke 24:25-27 – And He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

If there was ever a sermon I wished I could have been present for, this is it. Jesus, after His resurrection, met some men who were walking to Emmaus. They had no idea He was the Christ, and they were telling Him about what had just happened to Him on the cross. He sharply rebuked them, but what He did next is a beautiful picture of grace and the importance of Scripture. Jesus took the time with these guys and went through the Law and the Prophets to show them Him. Imagine having the Word interpret the Word for you! Remember: that is what the Spirit still does for us today!

If we want the Word to dwell richly in us, we must be content to soak in the Word – to have it drench our worship, both personal and corporate.

2 Timothy 2:15 – Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

As you know, I am a high school English teacher as well as a pastor. I can assure you that no one truly enjoys studying, at least not all the time. But think about this differently. When a young man begins courting his love, does he not study her? Does he not spend time getting to know her likes and dislikes? Does he not try to learn the desires of her heart, especially as they pertain to him? Now, think about how the level of study goes down once he passes the test and wins his bride. He should still study, but the yearning and desire has waned. It should not be so for those called to handle the Word of truth.

Study should be done to ensure that the preacher has been faithful to the Word – that it has been read clearly and the sense clearly given. Care should be taken so that God’s intentions are carried out and not man’s. To clarify, rightly handling the word of truth is to handle it correctly and straightforwardly, “not in a way that is shifty or shady” but in such a way that upholds the truth it contains.[6]

Acts 17:10-11 – The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Studying God’s Word is not limited to preachers and pastors. The Berean Christians set an example that was sorely needed during that time so that they could weed out the false teachers. It is needed even more today. TikTok theology and Facebook farces masquerading as preaching need to be evaluated by the Word of God. We need to be testing all preaching we hear by the Word – not because we should not be able to trust our pastors, but because we know God is trustworthy and infallible. You should be testing what you read in our Bible studies here.

Is this work? Yes. Is it worth it? He is worth it. Jesus is worth it. Just as we could judge the lazy husbands in the illustration above for waning in their wooing of their wives once they won them, we should take steps to ensure that our love for Christ, the bridegroom of the Church, is not waning, too! The way that Luke described the Bereans makes it clear that their interest was not waning. They were enthusiastic in receiving the Word. They simply were not going to let their enthusiasm get the better of them. The Spirit gives this example of “searching the Scriptures as a pattern for all believers” and supports the “idea that the Bible can be understood rightly, not only by scholars but also by ordinary people who read it eagerly and diligently, with conscious dependence on God for help”![7]

Wrapping Up

There was a time when God’s Word was kept out of reach for everyday people. Before the printing press, it was almost impossible for people to have or to even contemplate affording a copy of God’s Word for themselves. Hand copied scrolls in the Old Testament era and copies of letters in the era of the New Testament were accessible in major areas, but not to be held in one’s own hands outside of a synagogue, church, or library. Then, there were those throughout the medieval period who sought to keep the Word of God even out of people’s mouths. Whereas Ezra made sure a clear sense was given, priests preached in Latin and were able to make the sense whatever they wanted. But there were those, men like Jon Huss and John Wycliffe, who put their lives on the line to get the Word of God in Bohemian or English so that their flock could have access to the Scriptures.

Why is it that in the times and places where God’s Word is forbidden that people are willing to risk life and limb to have the Word dwell richly in them? Why is it that in 2024 the Word dwells more richly in churches in countries where, if the powers-that-be find them with even a page or section of Scripture (which may be all they have), believers face jail or death?

Well, firstly, we who think we are serving Christ in peacetime are fools. There is no peacetime. The war is waging all around the world (1 Peter 5:8-10, Ephesians 6:10-20). We are all too distracted by the symptoms of the Fall than in Him who has come and is going to crush the head of the ruler of this world (Genesis 3:15). And do you know why we are distracted? Sadly, it is because we do not allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly. It does not affect the way we teach and admonish one another. Thankfully, there is time for repentance to begin – “time for judgment to begin at the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17).

So, just as we illustrated what the Word dwelling richly in our churches with Scripture. We close with three passages.

Isaiah 28:13a – And the Word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept…, line upon line….

Acts 20:27 – …for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

2 Timothy 3:16-4:4 – All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His Kingdom; preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Dear sojourner, let it be that we find ourselves part of a local church that longs to have the Word dwell richly. Let it be that we find ourselves part of a local church that makes much of Jesus by preaching His Word faithfully. The world and the sinful bent of our idol-producing hearts gives us a longing to have our feelings and egos caressed rather than having God’s Word lay us out bare before a holy God (Hebrews 4:13), but God has more for us.

Find a church that is committed to preaching the whole counsel of God – literally, not just saying it but taking it “line upon line” and “precept upon precept”. You will not have to worry about worldly relevance because we are not made for this world. It is not our home (Philippians 3:20). God’s Word shows us His Kingdom and His ways. Our sinful heart’s desire to have someone make us feel better, but what we need is for Christ give us new life. We do not need our hearts lifted; we need them replaced with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26)!

And when we get in the Word together and see the world for what it is, may the Lord grant us repentance and get us busy in His Kingdom agenda rather than distracted by the world. May He give us the noble mind of the Bereans and the passion of Ezra to see our communities reached with the gospel. Oh, that our local churches would have the Word dwell so richly in them that it spills out into our streets, communities, towns, states, nation, and the world. Because, praise be to God, when the “gospel of the Kingdom” is “proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14) – then, our King will come!

If you find yourself in a local church that does not center on Jesus and His Word – or if you are not in a local church at all, it is my prayer that God will move upon your heart and move you to a place where much is made of Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, and that He would help His Word to dwell in you richly and not to be satisfied with less. May we be adorned with God’s Word. May it take the lion’s share of our worship gatherings. May it abundantly, extravagantly, and in full measure be our focus and our driving force. May it point us to our King!

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Col 3:15–17.

[2] Paul David Tripp, Do You Believe? 12 Historic Doctrines to Change Your Everyday Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 37-38.

[3] Wayne A. Grudem, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know, ed. Elliot Grudem (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 17.

[4] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ne 8:8.

[5] D. A. Carson, ed., NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 779.

[6] Douglas J. Moo, “The Letters and Revelation,” in NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 2181.

[7] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2121.

“Adorned with Thankfulness” — a Refresh & Restore Bible Study

15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.[1]

Greetings Sojourners!

I am excited for our Refresh & Restore Bible studies to be back in 2024 (even though it sure took me long enough)!

This next section of Colossians has turned out to be quite a beast for me. It is the section, specifically verses 16-17, that led me to choose Colossians to study because of how often I look to it as a source of practical theology to inform what it is we do in corporate worship at Christ Community Church in Grenada, MS. It is the passage I come to with the question of “Can we do ___?” – often “Should be sing ___?” – or to assess whether we are doing what we are supposed to in our worship gatherings. But this passage is not a beast to be tamed; rather, I am finding that God has been taming me and molding me through the study of it.

I have written at least two whole devotions on this section and started two others on this passage since Thanksgiving. One of the full devotions was written out of painful memories and experiences from years of ministry struggle earlier in life. The other was too soft. It is almost as if I have been Goldilocks trying to fit myself for a rocker or to not burn my mouth on porridge. I’ve been trying to write something that is too hot or too cold, but now, I am setting out to do it just right – to walk through the passage as I typically try to, to do as Ezra did with the Word in Nehemiah 8:8: “read from the book…clearly, and [give] the sense, so that the people underst[and] the reading”.

What follows over the course of the next few Bible studies through this section are an attempt to show us what corporate worship – that is, worship as a gathered local church – is meant to be like for those who have put on Christ, those who are saved, born again, in Christ. Lord willing, that will flow into the end of Colossians and inform what all of life is to look like for those who have put on Christ. Essentially, it is to be a basic and simple practical theology for living a life that follows Christ as a church, as a family, and as individuals.

Thankfulness is an Earmark to Christian Worship (vv. 15b, 16b, 17b)

Thanksgiving is a subject that shows up a lot in this passage. In fact, it shows up three times, once in each verse. Just as believers are supposed to put on Christ and wear/bear the fruit that comes from that, thankfulness should be part of that fruit. It seems sometimes that “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness…, patience”, forgiveness, and “love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:13-14) are big fruit that can be seen and visible, but thankfulness, while not necessarily always being visible, is to be a part of the fruit of the new life in Christ – part that adorns everything. Thankfulness is supposed to be fruit that believers wear and bear that shows the impact of what Jesus has done for them, but it supposed to especially adorn the Church – our local churches being the branches where the fruit is most visible. And the Church is who today’s passage is addressing.

In diving into the way that thankfulness shows up in Colossians 3:15-17, we are going to be able to see that we are to be thankful for the Church because of Christ and thankful as a result of Jesus saving us and giving us new life. We are thankful for Christ, because of Christ, in Christ, and with those who are growing up into Him in the body – the Church.

Thankful for the Church Because of Christ

I am thankful for the Church. I am thankful for the local church, Christ Community in Grenada, MS, God has called me and my family to join. I am not talking about a building or traditions or religious rites. I am not even talking about worship services or gatherings at this point. No, the Church is more than all of that. You can have all those things without Christ, but there is no Church apart from Him. Without Christ, there is no body.

The parts, the people, that make up the Church would still be dead in their trespasses and sins without Christ (Ephesians 2:1-2), but “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). The “together” there in those verses is not talking about the Church but the way that God in Christ saves people, giving them new life – the life that comes from Jesus alone stemming from His resurrection. While the “together” in Ephesians 2:5 does not reference the Church, there is a sense of togetherness that comes from gathering in worship of the One who brought us from death in sin to life in Him. There is a certain togetherness that stems from the shared testimony of all believers. And that togetherness should resound in thanksgiving – a thanksgiving that produces unity.

The unity of the Church, the togetherness we are talking about here, comes from all believers of all of time being knit together into a body, a “spiritual house” made of “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5) – that is the Church. And Jesus loves the Church in such a way that He calls her His Bride (Ephesians 5:32, Revelation 21:9). A bride is someone special, someone to be treasured. I have a picture of my wife on our wedding day on my phone and in our home. I even have one at work. I officiated a wedding ceremony a couple months ago, and as the groom and I were standing in place waiting for the time when we would walk up to the front, I told him to look for the moment when his bride came out of the doors – I told him that would and should be a moment engrained in his memory for the rest of his life. I still remember the moment that the back doors of Duck Hill Baptist opened and showed me Candice adorned in her wedding dress. Now, I have a vivid memory of most things, but this is different. I can smell the flowers. I can remember the feeling of my breath catching in my chest, the heavy thumping of my heart rhythm. I can hear the creaking wood of the pews as people rose. But most of all, I remember our eyes meeting across the room and being afraid to blink because I was afraid, I would miss something. I am thankful for that memory – more so, I am thankful for my bride.

If that is such a powerful memory for a foolish and fallible husband, how much more powerfully does Christ feel about His Bride, the Church? How should we feel about her?

Thankfulness is Part of the New Life in Christ

I hope you can see how the gratitude in this passage is intended to be an earmark of our worship and flows out of the context of what we have seen in Colossians so far. It is in this passage that we see how real-life flows out of taking off our sin and putting it to death. This passage begins the life application part of the letter that flows out of what we as believers are to put on when we are putting on Christ – how the new life in Christ is meant to be part of real life. As I said above, being a part of the Church, even the local gatherings of the Church, is more than religion, more than ceremony. It really is meant to be part of real life.

Imagine being in a situation where you are facing down certain death, as if you were grabbed and robbed at gunpoint. Fear and realization flood over you all at once. You know you are in mortal danger. You know there are so many ways this can go badly. But all at once you see someone swoop in and take out your assailant. What you thought was a sure and terrifying death surprisingly became a rescue. How would you react to the rescuer? How would your brush with death affect the way you live your life? Surely, it would change things. Well, our sin captured and enslaved us. Our own sin earned us death. And Jesus came in defeating sin and death and offering life. Surely, that changes things. Surely, a group of people who share a Rescuer and the good news that He has saved you will have lives impacted by the experience.

Colossians 3:15-17 show us what life as part of the Church – life of the body of Christ who have been saved by Him, rescued by Him – is supposed to look like. Jesus, because He loves His Bride, tells us the best way to live in that aspect of our lives: thankful. This sort of thankfulness changes us. It alters the way we look at things. When tempted to rail at a brother or sister in Christ because of a wrong done to us, this sort of thankfulness reminds us that Jesus forgave us when we wronged Him in sin. When tempted to be prideful in a way that forgets where we came from and who we were when we were dead in sin, this sort of thankfulness reminds us of Him who made us alive and making our boast in Him alone. This sort of thankfulness is life-altering because of the One who altered our life – who gave us Life.

It is my prayer that this feeble attempt to show you this gives His Spirit the opportunity to work through the studying of His Word and your church life changes to what He would have rather than the traditions or treachery of sin that may plague us. He has a plan for us and for us together as His body. Part of that plan will be seen we begin to look at the essential elements of worship in next week’s Bible study. Part of it will be seen the following week when we look at how worship is not relegated to Sundays or Wednesdays but meant to be an everyday, every moment aspect of our lives. As we look at these things, remember the gratitude to which we are called. How does gratitude to Christ, for Christ, and for the local church He planted us in mark your worship gatherings?

I think back to last summer when a dear part of our church family was able to be with us in-person after being out due to a long and harrowing fight with cancer. There were many tears and more than a little bit of hugging and laughter. But every bit of it was rooted in pleading with Jesus to heal her and thanking Jesus that He had sustained her and given her the strength to be there gathered with us. The time in the Word was sweeter because we were reminded of the work Jesus had done in our lives and hers. The time singing was sweeter because of the same. It was not enhanced because of her. Our local body was fully connected and looking to Jesus like we should every week in good times or bad.

As we ponder that gratitude both for the church and as the church, we need to be reminded again that Jesus is the basis of our gratitude. Yes, we should be thankful for the Church and the local church to which we belong, but I hope you see and remember that all the thankfulness is due to Christ. We are to be thankful in our worship for what Christ has done for us. We should be thankful for the Church because Jesus made us a part of her ensuring we would never be alone in our pursuit of Christ, but Jesus saving us should be the ultimate source of our gratitude. Since He is alive, we should worshipfully show our gratitude directly to Him in our personal worship, corporate worship, and have thankfulness for and to Him marking all that we do!

Wrapping Up

I have no recollection of how my parents taught me to remember to say please and thank you and pair sirs or ma’ams with my yesses and no-s other than a few vague reminders of them telling me before I went somewhere or reminding me when I received a gift. But after having children of my own, I get the picture. I believe a conservative estimate of how many times Candice and I have told our kiddos to thank people would easily be in the tens of thousands. So, my parents must have told me several thousand times, too.

As I said at the beginning of today’s Bible study, we see the reminder to be thankful at the end of each of today’s verses, paired with the importance of keeping the Word central in our worship, paired with what types of songs we should be singing, paired to a clear command to ensure that worship is central to all that we do or say, but why? Well, it is simple: we forget easily because we are easily distracted.

I remember as a kid knowing that Thanksgiving (the holiday) must be getting close when we sang songs like “Count Your Blessings” in big church. Of course, that song was sung a time or two a year other than the holiday, but it was a surefire way to mark us and remind us that we have blessings because of Christ that, were we to count them, would surely move us to thanksgiving (the response). And we do have more blessings than we could probably count if we got started. However, life is not always pleasant. The results of sin and the Fall are seen everywhere. It is hard sometimes to be thankful when terror and sadness seem to reign. Sometimes it is easier to sing “This World is Not My Home” than “Count Your Blessings”. But it is in these times that we should be the most thankful if we belong to Christ. We can be thankful amid pain and suffering and terror and strife and heartache and heartbreak and the worst effects of this world because the King is coming.

I want to close with the words of the hymn “My Heart is Filled With Thankfulness” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Listen to these words and see if your heart is not moved to worship and thankfulness:

Jesus bore our pain; He walks beside us in times of turmoil and pain; He reigns above; and He sustains us day by day.

May we meditate on Him and worship Him and be moved in gratitude to life a life that reflects Him and all He has done for us.

Hallelujah, and amen!

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Col 3:15–17.

Songs for Sunday, February 18, 2024 @ Christ Community Church

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I need to gather with my faith family.

Normally, I would describe my feelings toward the Lord’s Day as excitement or expectant anticipation, but I think need is a better descriptor.

I need to hear their voices lifted up and reading the Scripture passages that are pointing us to our “blessed hope, the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13) and how He saves and redeems us from sin and rescues us from this sin-sick and fallen world.

I need to hear their voices singing the “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Colossians 3:16), reminding me of the good news of Jesus in the midst of the truly bad news of the world.

I need to hear my pastor open up the Word of God for teaching, reproving, training, and correcting (2 Timothy 3:16).

I need to be reminded that this world is not my home (Philippians 3:20) and that there is coming a day when Jesus will return and end the tyrannical reign of Satan and of sin in this world forevermore (Revelation 21:1-4).

Over the past few months, it seems like members of our church family have faced tragedy after tragedy. Our town has been plagued with shootings. Our community has been wracked with grief over tragic loss of life that leaves deep rooted questions and sadness. Our families have received diagnoses and prognoses that paint a bleak future of sickness and pain. But in the midst of all of that sadness, all that tragedy, all that pain, God is sill “good, a stronghold in the day of trouble”, and He still “knows those who take refuge in Him” (Nahum 1:7).

Read that again. God is good despite the evil of this world. There would be no good apart from Him. God is a stronghold in the day of trouble. He is a mighty fortress in which we can retreat from pain and sorrow and discord and fear and danger and can know that He is able and willing to protect and comfort. God knows those who take refuge in Him. He is not an idle or passive fortress. He is active in comforting those who seek Him.

So, let us do that tomorrow. Let us seek Him in our sin and sadness and strife. Let us turn to Him and long for the Day that is coming when all things will be made new and all the sad things will come untrue (Revelation 21:5).

Tomorrow at Christ Community, we will not be ostriches who stick our heads in the sand and ignore the happenings of the world around us. No, we will lift our eyes to the hills and seek refuge with the God of the universe, the God who saves (Psalm 121:1, Psalm 46:1, Psalm 7:10).

Won’t you join us?

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

  • Scripture | Isaiah 61:1-4 —

1 The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. 4 They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

  • Scripture | Romans 6:4-7 —

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

  • Scripture | 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 —

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Advent Reading for December 23, 2023 | “Because He is Love” from 1 John 4:9-10

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:9-10

“Because He is Love”
by Robert Morman

Certain words in Scripture carry a massive amount of weight. One of those words is mentioned in verse 10 of I John 4. Propitiation is, as a hero of mine would say, a twenty-five-dollar word. It is huge to us as believers. It shows the amount of love the God the Father has for us. Propitiation means “appeasement or satisfaction”. These verses are discussing how God loves us. God loved us so much that, to satisfy the wrath of God, because of His holy standard, He, God the Father, sent Jesus to be the sacrifice to meet that holy standard for us. Let that sit with you for a moment. God, out of love (because He is love), sent Jesus, perfect and sinless, to be the sacrifice for our sins so that the debt of sin is paid in full for all time and we can have a relationship with God the Father. 

We must talk a minute about God’s wrath. This is an uncomfortable subject for some people. Some people even refuse to discuss it because “God is love”. Yes. God is love. But there is a wrath that is holy and sovereign. It is wrath brought on by sin and the brokenness of the world that came through Adam in the garden. But the “Second Adam” (referencing Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15:45-47) brought salvation to the world and gave us hope to have a restored relationship with God. Jesus’ love for the Father drove him to live a life of obedience even to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). This is why Jesus is Lord of all. 

There is no greater expression of love than this. The Christ child would one day suffer and die for us because of the love of the Father. He would be betrayed. He would be beaten. He would be flogged. He would have thorns shoved down on his head. He would be forced to carry His cross. He would be nailed to that cross. He would suffer tremendously and die. Why? God’s love. This Child would be the ultimate expression of that love. A love sealed with the holy blood of Christ. 

As we approach Christmas Eve, remember that Jesus was the propitiation that settled the debt between you and God. The Christ Child would one day die and pay for our sins. He did this because only the perfect sacrifice could turn back the perfect wrath of God. Thank God today for His love for you. Thank Him for sending Jesus as the sacrifice for your sins. Thank God for His wrath turned back. 

Reflection Questions:

  1. Reflecting on that beautiful Bible-word propitiation, how does understanding that Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice to satisfy God’s wrath impact your perception on His love for His people?
  2. As Christmas approaches, how does understanding Jesus as the propitiation for our sins affect our gratitude and relationship with Him? How can you express your thankfulness for Him and to Him during this Christmas season?

"Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

📖 Revelation 3:7–13We’re back!After a few months off, The King is Coming returns in 2026 with one of the most encouraging letters in Revelation — Jesus’s message to the faithful church in Philadelphia. In a world filled with opposition and weakness, Jesus opens a door no one can shut.In this episode, Keith Harris and Jamie Harrison explore:✔️ Jesus’s identity as the Holy One, the True One — God Himself✔️ What the “key of David” means and how Jesus alone opens and shuts✔️ The debated phrase “I will keep you from the hour of trial” — and how to read it biblically✔️ Why “little power” doesn’t disqualify faithfulness✔️ How being kept through the trial glorifies Christ’s strength in us✔️ What it means to be a pillar in God’s presence foreverThis church had no rebuke — only encouragement. And Jesus’s call still stands today: “Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” (Revelation 3:11, ESV)🔗 Missed earlier episodes in the series? You can click here to catch up and listen from the beginning.✍️ If you’d like to see a written version of this podcast, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.
  1. "Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming)
  2. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of Love" (Advent 2025)
  3. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of Peace (Advent 2025)
  4. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of PEACE (Advent 2025)
  5. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of HOPE (Advent 2025)

Songs for Sunday, December 17, 2023 @ Christ Community Church

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I’m excited!

I love Christmas, but over recent years, I have grown to especially love Advent at Christ Community. It’s not about lighting the candles or tradition or, well, anything I can really put into words. It’s just been special – and is special.

Tomorrow, our Advent focus will be on Joy and Love.

In thinking of joy, it seems that this season – festivities and the hustle-and-bustle nature of our calendars – really shows how much people seek after joy amid life’s challenges. This is a season for some where joy seems to be out of place, or at least out of reach. It never will be in reach if we only seek joy here on earth.

Jesus’s birth was heralded by an angel army choir as “good news of great joy for all people” (Luke 2:10) to a group who understood difficult circumstances. I mean, not many of us will be camped out on a hillside working with a bunch of dumb sheep this Christmas. But this is exactly who Jesus came for – people like those shepherds, in fact those specific shepherds: people who need Him, sinners in need of a Savior. Amid our flaws and sins, the good news of great joy stands – a Savior born to rescue sinners from sin and death was born that day in Bethlehem, and even though He died on the cross to save us from our sins (Romans 5:8), He is alive and on His throne today (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)! That’s good news – of great joy!

In our world that seems to be plunging more and more quickly into the darkness, we sometimes let that joy be eclipsed. But just as the moon (that looks big to us but is infinitesimally smaller than our sun) cannot completely block out the light of our sun, darkness cannot block out the Light – Jesus. One thing that helps that Light shine so brightly is the power of His love. Just as darkness cannot withstand the flame of a single candle, the hatred and darkness of sin cannot stand in the light of His love (1 John 1:5).

The love of God in Christ offers hope amid chaos! And that love is truly a gift, epitomized by John 3:16, showing that God loved the world in such a way that He gave His only Son. The good news that brings great joy is that there is a Savior for sinners. God became flesh to live the life we cannot live (sinless) and die the death due our sin in our place (Romans 6:23, 2 Corinthians 5:21). And anyone – all people – who confess Him as Lord and believe in Him shall be saved (Romans 10:9, 13) – those shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

If you seek joy and love from the glitz and glamour of the lights and presents around a Christmas tree, you will come up empty. No amount of gifts and trappings found on earth can satisfy – none can save. But Jesus can. He wants to save. So, amid the hustle and the bustle and the gifts and the goings, remember the gift of Christ – the Son of God offered for our salvation. May our hearts rejoice in His presence more than in presents. For Emmanuel – God with us – dispels the darkness, saves souls, produces joy, and freely gives of His love!

And if you need someone to talk to or to just listen to you or pray with you, we at Christ Community would love to point you to the One who can meet your needs. We would love to point you to Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30).

Won’t you gather with us and make much of Him?

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

Advent Reading | JOY

  • Scripture | Luke 2:8-12 —

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

Advent Reading | LOVE

  • Scripture | Romans 5:1-8 —

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

"Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

📖 Revelation 3:7–13We’re back!After a few months off, The King is Coming returns in 2026 with one of the most encouraging letters in Revelation — Jesus’s message to the faithful church in Philadelphia. In a world filled with opposition and weakness, Jesus opens a door no one can shut.In this episode, Keith Harris and Jamie Harrison explore:✔️ Jesus’s identity as the Holy One, the True One — God Himself✔️ What the “key of David” means and how Jesus alone opens and shuts✔️ The debated phrase “I will keep you from the hour of trial” — and how to read it biblically✔️ Why “little power” doesn’t disqualify faithfulness✔️ How being kept through the trial glorifies Christ’s strength in us✔️ What it means to be a pillar in God’s presence foreverThis church had no rebuke — only encouragement. And Jesus’s call still stands today: “Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” (Revelation 3:11, ESV)🔗 Missed earlier episodes in the series? You can click here to catch up and listen from the beginning.✍️ If you’d like to see a written version of this podcast, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.
  1. "Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming)
  2. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of Love" (Advent 2025)
  3. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of Peace (Advent 2025)
  4. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of PEACE (Advent 2025)
  5. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of HOPE (Advent 2025)

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

Advent Reading for December 9, 2023 | “Trusting Our Miraculous God: A Lesson in Faith” from Luke 1:26-38

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His Kingdom there will be no end.”
          34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
          35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:26-38

“Trusting Our Miraculous God: A Lesson in Faith”
by Portia Weeks Collins

In these treasured verses of Luke, we encounter the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary in Nazareth. Gabriel brings a message of great joy. Specifically, Gabriel shares with Mary, a young, humble, virgin woman, that she will conceive and give birth to Jesus, who will be called the Son of the Most High. Mary’s reaction combines astonishment and faith, illustrating both an understandable human response to a divine revelation, but also a profound trust in God’s plan.

Gabriel’s announcement to Mary is not merely news for her, but it’s good news for all who will rest the full measure of their faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Gabriel’s message to Mary is, in essence, a revelation of God’s redemptive plan and marks the inauguration of God’s Kingdom. God’s intent to intersect the extraordinary with the ordinary is displayed through his choosing Mary to bear His only begotten Son. God chose an ordinary woman, to navigate an ordinary pregnancy, and ultimately give birth to an extraordinary Savior who would redeem the world. Mary’s response shows her readiness to accept God’s will, even without full comprehension.

As we enter the advent season, let’s reflect on Mary’s example. She embraced God’s plan with faith and humility even when she didn’t quite understand. This is a call we should heed, too. Let us be fully available and submissive to God’s workings, even when they are beyond our understanding. From studying and meditating on this passage, may we be encouraged to trust in the Lord’s greater plan, find joy in the ordinary, and willingly respond to the Lord (in all things), “May it happen to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38).

Reflection Questions:

  1. In what areas of your life do you need to exercise more faith and trust in God’s plan?
  2. How can you cultivate a heart that responds to God’s will with the same openness and humility as Mary?

"Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

📖 Revelation 3:7–13We’re back!After a few months off, The King is Coming returns in 2026 with one of the most encouraging letters in Revelation — Jesus’s message to the faithful church in Philadelphia. In a world filled with opposition and weakness, Jesus opens a door no one can shut.In this episode, Keith Harris and Jamie Harrison explore:✔️ Jesus’s identity as the Holy One, the True One — God Himself✔️ What the “key of David” means and how Jesus alone opens and shuts✔️ The debated phrase “I will keep you from the hour of trial” — and how to read it biblically✔️ Why “little power” doesn’t disqualify faithfulness✔️ How being kept through the trial glorifies Christ’s strength in us✔️ What it means to be a pillar in God’s presence foreverThis church had no rebuke — only encouragement. And Jesus’s call still stands today: “Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” (Revelation 3:11, ESV)🔗 Missed earlier episodes in the series? You can click here to catch up and listen from the beginning.✍️ If you’d like to see a written version of this podcast, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.
  1. "Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming)
  2. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of Love" (Advent 2025)
  3. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of Peace (Advent 2025)
  4. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of PEACE (Advent 2025)