There is something about the approach of Easter — of Resurrection Sunday — that stirs something within me. There is hope in the emptiness of the borrowed tomb that is unlike anything this world has to offer. Well, the world cannot exactly offer empty or borrowed tombs, can it?
I think about Israel around that time. They had experienced Babylonian (and Mede-Persian) exile because of their sin. Their return home never quite met the luster or glory of the former days. But there was a promise — a Promised One, in fact, who would come and rescue them. They sought rescue from worldly oppression and wicked rulers and regimes, but this Promised One would rescue them from the wicked idolatry and sin that reigned in their own hearts. They would just have to wait for that rescue.
And they waited.
And waited.
In the silence of no more “Thus saith the Lord”, they waited about 400 years for this Promised One. Empires changed. The Persians were displaced by the Greeks, the Greeks inevitably by the Romans. They waited until the silence was broken by the cry of an infant.
God had promised that the Messiah (Promised One/Anointed One/Greek: Christ) would come — that He Himself would come. Emmanuel, translated God-with-us, would be born of a virgin. This child, this Son, would be given to bring Light and rescue to God’s people. They were desperate. They were helpless. They had no way to save themselves.
It is not hard to empathize with that kind of desperation. The effects of the Fall, sin and death, are all around us. Wickedness is rampant. Death is rampant. Idolatry is rampant. Hope seems to be in small supply. But we do not have to wait in silence! Emmanuel has already come, and He is coming again! His Spirit is with His people! His Word has and is and will continue to speak hope of rescue and salvation — of grace and mercy — of the good news of Jesus!
That’s what we are singing about tomorrow.
We are going to pour out our hearts and long for the return of Emmanuel, God-with-us. We are going to praise God for the finished work of Jesus. We are going to praise God for His steadfast love. And we are going to cry out — through the pain and sorrow and fear and longing — “Come, Lord Jesus”!
Won’t you join us?
Here are our Scriptures & songs:
Scripture | Isaiah 9:2-7 —
2The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has Light shone. 3You have multiplied the nation; You have increased its joy; they rejoice before You as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over His Kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
9In 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. 10In 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.
***NOTE: We are revising the lyrics of this song to better reflect the love of God — that which we read about all through Scripture, that which was “made manifest” as we read in the verses above. Many might be familiar with the Greek word agape that describes the unique love of God; the Hebrew word for that type of never-ending, never-failing, never-stopping, never-giving-up love is chesed. It is often translated “steadfast love” in the Old Testament. This is a word God uses to describe Him and His love over 500 times!
This is an opportunity for the theology of what we sing to more specifically reflect the Scriptures, and therefore more accurately reflect the love of God as He shares it with us in His Word. The word “reckless” in the original lyrics was meant to show that God lavishly pours out His love for us. He does! He has poured out His love on us and made it manifest through the gift of Jesus Christ for our sins. Let’s praise God for and sing about His steadfast love!
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.
This Sunday, we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper together at Christ Community Church. This is a beautiful part of Christian worship that was instituted by Jesus Himself (Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:18-20) and intended to help us to look toward His return (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
Rather than write out something to point our hearts toward Jesus, I would like to share with you a prayer from Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers, on the Lord’s Supper. Lord willing, this will help you to prepare your heart to eat of the bread, drink of the cup, and look forward to the Day we commune with our resurrected King, Jesus Christ, face to face!
“The Lord’s Supper”:
GOD OF ALL GOOD,
I bless You for the means of grace; teach me to see in them Your loving purposes and the joy and strength of my soul. You have prepared for me a feast; and though I am unworthy to sit down as guest, I wholly rest on the merits of Jesus, and hide myself beneath His righteousness; When I hear His tender invitation and see His wondrous grace, I cannot hesitate, but must come to You in love. By Your Spirit enliven my faith rightly to discern and spiritually to apprehend the Saviour. While I gaze upon the emblems of my Saviour’s death, may I ponder why He died, and hear Him say, ‘I gave My life to purchase yours, presented Myself an offering to expiate your sin, shed My blood to blot out your guilt, opened My side to make you clean, endured your curses to set you free, bore your condemnation to satisfy divine justice.’ O may I rightly grasp the breadth and length of this design, draw near, obey, extend the hand, take the bread, receive the cup, eat and drink, testify before all men that I do for myself, gladly, in faith, reverence and love, receive my Lord, to be my life, strength, nourishment, joy, delight. In the supper I remember His eternal love, boundless grace, infinite compassion, agony, cross, redemption, and receive assurance of pardon, adoption, life, glory. As the outward elements nourish my body, so may Your indwelling Spirit invigorate my soul, until that day when I hunger and thirst no more, and sit with Jesus at His heavenly feast.
What a beautiful picture of what Jesus has done for us! What a beautiful picture of how our hearts should yearn for Him in worship — every day and not just on Sundays.
Won’t you gather with us to worship Him?
Here are our Scriptures & songs:
Scripture | 1 Peter 2:4-10 —
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This weekend was our youth’s CCNow – our very own D(isciple) Now weekend filled with service and worship and studying God’s Word. I love to get to watch these kiddos and their leaders worship and serve the Lord and to get to share in that with them.
The messages this weekend have been from the book of Daniel and looking at what God did in and through four young men who suffered much but worshiped God more! As John was preaching through Daniel 1 and in the young men’s small group after, emphasis was given to the fact that these young men were faithful in the small things before there was faithfulness in the big things — that their relationship with God did not begin in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3) or in the lion’s den (Daniel 6) but before Babylon and at the king’s buffet.
It is clear in the Bible that persecution and suffering have been historically and are still being “experienced by [the] brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:9) and that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). What Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael went through was clear, too (Psalm 34:10, Isaiah 43:2). This can be a scary prospect — truthfully, it is a scary prospect. But here is the foundation of Daniel’s faithfulness, the foundation of the boldness to turn down the lavish buffet of forbidden food at the king’s table for vegetables and worship (Daniel 1:8-16), the boldness to respectfully refuse to bow to the king rather than God (Daniel 3:16-18), the boldness to walk freely into the burning fiery furnace with assurance in the worthiness of their God (Daniel 3:23-26), the boldness to kneel in prayer as he always had even though the powers-that-were decided to make it illegal (Daniel 6:10), the boldness to descend into the den of lions rather than kneel to forsake the God who had been faithful for decades and onward into eternity (Daniel 6:16-23): the foundation is God’s faithfulness. Those four young men could stand or kneel — whatever the need called for — because they could be sure that the LORD their GOD, “the Holy One of Israel”, their Savior had redeemed them (Isaiah 43:3). He alone is worthy of praise. He alone is worthy of service. He alone saves. He alone sustains. He alone strengthens.
These young women and men who follow Christ will indeed face persecution. The older women and men who are leading and discipling these younger ones will, too, and already are facing some. But the worship of Jesus in the little things – in the random Mondays and CCNow weekends and regular, everyday life – will lead to worship when the chips are down and the call to bow to false gods is raised and the furnace is stoked and the angry jaws of our adversary who is already prowling “around like a roaring lion, seeking” to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus is worthy now. He is already worthy for then. Let us desire Him and seek Him and serve Him. Let’s lift our hearts and bow our knees to Him now and remember – just as Daniel and his friends did – that “He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).
Hallelujah, and amen!
Here are our Scriptures and songs:
Scripture | Psalm 34:1-10 —
1I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. 3Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together!
4I sought the LORD, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.
8Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! 9Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! 10The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
Song | Jesus Messiah — Scripture Inspiration: 2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 2:8, Psalm 136:1, Acts 17:3, Luke 2:11, Philippians 2:9, Job 19:25, Isaiah 44:24, Matthew 1:23, Matthew 28:20, Isaiah 61:1, 1 Timothy 2:6, Philippians 2:10, Luke 22:19-20, Romans 5:5, Matthew 27:51, John 3:16, Romans 5:3-4, 1 Peter 1:3, Jude 25, John 8:12, Isaiah 59:1-2
Song | The King of My Heart — Scripture Inspiration: Isaiah 9:6, John 12:15, 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Revelation 17:14, Revelation 19:11-16, Deuteronomy 33:29, Psalm 3:3, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, John 4:10, John 7:37-39, Psalm 40:3, Psalm 91:1, Matthew 20:20-28, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 23:6, Lamentations 3:25, Nahum 1:7, Luke 18:19, Psalm 19:12-13, Psalm 139:1-4, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Acts 2:3-4, Romans 5:4-8, 2 Peter 3:9, Psalm 30:5
Scripture | Isaiah 43:1-3a —
1But now thus says the LORD, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, you Savior.
Song | Forever Reign — Scripture Inspiration: Psalm 73:1, Nahum 1:7, Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, 1 John 4:8, Romans 5:8, 1 John 3:16, John 1:4-5, John 8:12, 1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 2:24, Deuteronomy 33:27, Luke 15:20, Ephesians 2:4-5, Proverbs 3:15, Philippians 4:6-7, John 14:6, Philippians 4:4, Habakkuk 3:18, Psalm 13:6, Job 23:11-12, Psalm 16:2, Romans 1:19-20, Colossians 2:9-10, Matthew 28:20, Psalm 138:1, Acts 4:12, Philippians 2:9-11
Song | King of Kings — Scripture Inspiration: Proverbs 4:19, John 3:19-21, Ephesians 2:1, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 5:17, Isaiah 7:14, Luke 1:31, Isaiah 9:6-7, Luke 2:7, Psalm 3:3, Psalm 8:1, John 1:14, Psalm 136:3, Matthew 28:18, Revelation 19:16, Matthew 13:24-52, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Isaiah 53, John 3:16, Romans 5:6-10, Galatians 3:13, Colossians 2:14, Titus 2:14, Acts 4:33, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Matthew 27:52-53, Luke 15:7, Acts 2:1-4, Matthew 24:35, Ephesians 1:7, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11
Invitation | Battle Belongs — Scripture Inspiration: Romans 8:37, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, Psalm 23:4, 1 John 4:18, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 27:1, 2 Corinthians 10:4, Ephesians 6:18, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Corinthians 15:57, 2 Corinthians 2:14, 1 John 5:4-5, Revelation 12:10-11, Romans 8:31, Genesis 18:14, Jeremiah 32:17, Jeremiah 17:9, Isaiah 61:3, Galatians 2:19-20, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:14-17, Ruth 2:12, 2 Samuel 22:3-4, Psalm 3:3, Nahum 1:7, Psalm 107:10-16, Luke 1:79, Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
I am immensely thankful that God brought my family to Christ Community Church, and I count it a joy and a privilege to get to be one of the pastors. “Songs for Sunday” is part of that pastoral work.
Worship is not isolated to Sunday mornings. Yes, that is when we gather together to worship corporately, but our worship is not limited to an hour or so on Sunday mornings. “Songs for Sunday” is an effort to help you and yours prepare. It is an effort to help you and yours deepen that time of corporate worship — to help lift our hearts and minds to the Lord rather than going through the motions.
So, here are three reasons why I believe “Songs for Sunday” can be good for us:
It matters what we sing. If you look below each song, you will find the Scriptures that are either sung verbatim or that have inspired the lyrics of the songs we sing. The apostle Paul told a young pastor named Timothy that he and his church should “devote [themselves] to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Timothy 4:13). We do that. It is one of the aspects of our worship gatherings at Christ Community I love the most. That extends to what we sing as well. Paul told Epaphras, the pastor of the church at Colossae, the important elements of worship; the first is to let “the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). Well, what we sing is a part of that.
The songs we sing are sources of our theology. They stick in our minds better than other sources of information — the lyrics “dwell in you”. If we sing unbiblical songs, our theology is unbiblical. If we sing unbiblical songs, we have something other than the Word dwelling in us richly. Every song we sing at Christ Community is vetted Scripturally. The verses that inspired the lyrics — new song or old — are listed so that you can check it for yourself (which you should do).
It really matters what we sing. The passage Paul wrote to the church at Colossae is important for Christian worship practice. Colossians 3:16 (see #1 above) tells us the importance of the Word in our worship. Colossians 3:17 applies that truth to the types of songs that we sing. Paul gives three types of songs that should be sung in our churches, which are ones he gave to the church at Ephesus, too (Ephesians 5:19): psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Here’s a simple breakdown of those three types of songs.
Psalms are singing Scripture. Think about how important this must be if the longest book of the Bible is devoted to this category. We have 150 songs that God’s people sang. This also shows the importance of singing songs of the faith that are older, like in Psalm 137, to remember what God did and that our faith is historical with roots deeper than changing trends. It also shows the importance of continually being inspired to write and sing new songs, like in Psalm 150, to remind us that God is bigger than a musical movement in our favorite era.
Hymns in this context are songs that sing doctrine — songs that teach us about the faith. Hymns, modern or older, are means by which we learn how to voice what we believe. Like I wrote above, the songs we sing stick with us. We want to sing songs that teach deep and beautiful biblical doctrines like salvation, atonement, redemption, justification, and many more. This puts these truths deep within us. Philippians 2:5-11 and Colossians 1:15-20 are examples of the earliest hymns of the Church. We should follow in that example.
Spiritual songs are songs of testimony. These songs show what it is to have been saved by Jesus and follow Him. Those sung in our corporate worship gatherings share the aspects of faith that everyone who has been saved has experienced. When we hear the voices of our brothers and sisters singing this testimony along with us, it reminds us of what Jesus has done and is doing in our lives. We need to be reminded because we too easily forget.
These three categories are not isolated but most likely blended in and through our songs. As you look through the songs below, think about how they sing the Scripture that inspired the lyrics (psalm), what they teach us about the faith (hymn), and how they testify to the work of the Lord in our lives (spiritual song).
It can remove distractions and deepen our worship. If you were to be planning to go hunting, you would prepare. If you have something you need to bring to work, you lay it out. If you have something important, you carve out time and preparation specially because it’s important. Our worship is no different.
You may have found yourself fumbling along with a new (or new-to-you) song that you don’t know yet. With “Songs for Sunday”, you can prepare ahead so that the new song is an asset to worship the Lord rather than a distraction. This can help you worry less about singing along to lyrics and focus more on Christ. Your brothers and sisters are needing to hear your voice proclaim these Scriptures and doctrines and testimonies to them.
Take some time and check it out below!
Here are our Scriptures and songs:
Scripture | Psalm 30 —
1I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. 2O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. 3O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
4Sing praises to the LORD, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy name. 5For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
6As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” 7By your favor, O LORD, you made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face; I was dismayed.
8To You, O LORD, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: 9“What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it tell of Your faithfulness? 10Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!”
11You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, 12that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
This Sunday is the first Lord’s day of 2024, and guess what: Jesus is still alive! More importantly, it serves as a reminder of why we call Sunday the Lord’s Day and why we gather: He is risen as He said.
1 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”
You might be surprised how many times I have been asked and continually get asked about what the deal is with the sabbath and why we gather on Sunday instead of Saturday (which is the sabbath day). A lot of times, people have them confused.
The Sabbath day was commanded in the OT to be observed as a “day of solemn rest, a Sabbath to the LORD” (Exodus 16:23). It recognized the rest that God Himself took on the 7th day of the Creation week (Genesis 2:1-3). Once Jesus came and fulfilled the requirements of the Law (Matthew 5:17-19, Galatians 4:4), He did something that no human being could ever do: fully obey and keep the Law. He was perfect and sinless — the opposite of all humankind. The Law, however, was never meant to save us. God revealed His righteous standard through the Law and pointed to our need for a Savior. Then, in Christ, He became flesh and made a Way for us to be made righteous — by grace through faith in Christ (John 1:14, John 14:6, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 2:4-9). Now, that Christ has come those things that were meant to point people to Him, those “shadows” pointing to Christ, the “substance”, we are not to be judged on our keeping of the Law or even the Sabbath but on faith in Christ alone (Colossians 2:16-17). Resting in God’s work and faithfulness was, after all, the point of the Sabbath; we can rest in the finished work of Jesus, knowing full well that His work is and will be completely finished (John 19:30, Revelation 21:6)!
Now, that is a very streamlined explanation, but it gets right to the point of the Lord’s Day: it’s all substance and no shadow. It is not a place holder of a thing but the thing itself. It is not merely pointing to Jesus the Messiah’s coming; it is pointing to the fact that He has come, showing that “He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). He is risen. He is risen as He said.
So, let’s get a good focus on the Lord’s Day and remember what He has done for us — on the cross, of course, but especially through the empty tomb. Our worship hinges on the tomb being borrowed. Our faith is founded on the Savior who defeated death, hell, and the grave. Our Savior is alive and well! And since He is alive and well, our worship is important because we don’t worship an idol or a figure but a real-life living Savior. He sees and knows and receives our worship.
And, Lord willing, that is our plan this Lord’s Day. We are going to make much of Jesus. We are going to worship Him by singing about/to Him, reading from His Word, and proclaiming His gospel. Our hope is in Him saving us, and we look forward to Him saving others. We hope to point ourselves and others to Him alone!
More than that, we gather in anticipation of His return. And He is coming — just as He said (Revelation 22:7, 12, 20)!
Won’t you gather with us?
Here are our Scriptures and songs:
Scripture | 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 —
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Christ Has Come – Week 3Episode Title: The Promised King & His Gift of JoyLuke 1:39–56In this Advent episode of Christ Has Come, Keith Harris turns to Luke 1 and invites us to slow down and listen to the joy that begins stirring before Bethlehem. Long before angels sing to shepherds, joy breaks the silence in the hill country of Judea—through a Spirit-filled confession, a leaping child, and the worshipful song of a young woman who trusts the promises of God.Together, we explore:What biblical joy is—and what it isn’t, distinguishing it from fleeting happiness or emotional highs.How joy appears before the word is even spoken, as John the Baptist leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb at the presence of the unborn Messiah.Why Mary’s joy is rooted not in circumstances but in God’s mercy, as she magnifies the Lord and rejoices in God her Savior.The meaning and message of the Magnificat, a Scripture-saturated song that celebrates God’s great reversal—lifting the lowly, filling the hungry, and humbling the proud.How Mary’s joy points beyond herself to Jesus, the promised King who fulfills God’s covenant promises and secures lasting joy through His saving work.This episode reminds us that joy is not something we manufacture—it’s something we receive, and it grows wherever Jesus is trusted. Advent teaches us that true joy is found not in having life figured out, but in the presence of Christ and the mercy He brings.If you would like to see a written version of this study, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.
This Sunday is the first Lord’s day of 2024, and guess what: Jesus is still alive! More importantly, it serves as a reminder of why we call Sunday the Lord’s Day and why we gather: He is risen as He said.
1 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”
You might be surprised how many times I have been asked and continually get asked about what the deal is with the sabbath and why we gather on Sunday instead of Saturday (which is the sabbath day). A lot of times, people have them confused.
The Sabbath day was commanded in the OT to be observed as a “day of solemn rest, a Sabbath to the LORD” (Exodus 16:23). It recognized the rest that God Himself took on the 7th day of the Creation week (Genesis 2:1-3). Once Jesus came and fulfilled the requirements of the Law (Matthew 5:17-19, Galatians 4:4), He did something that no human being could ever do: fully obey and keep the Law. He was perfect and sinless — the opposite of all humankind. The Law, however, was never meant to save us. God revealed His righteous standard through the Law and pointed to our need for a Savior. Then, in Christ, He became flesh and made a Way for us to be made righteous — by grace through faith in Christ (John 1:14, John 14:6, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 2:4-9). Now, that Christ has come those things that were meant to point people to Him, those “shadows” pointing to Christ, the “substance”, we are not to be judged on our keeping of the Law or even the Sabbath but on faith in Christ alone (Colossians 2:16-17). Resting in God’s work and faithfulness was, after all, the point of the Sabbath; we can rest in the finished work of Jesus, knowing full well that His work is and will be completely finished (John 19:30, Revelation 21:6)!
Now, that is a very streamlined explanation, but it gets right to the point of the Lord’s Day: it’s all substance and no shadow. It is not a place holder of a thing but the thing itself. It is not merely pointing to Jesus the Messiah’s coming; it is pointing to the fact that He has come, showing that “He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). He is risen. He is risen as He said.
So, let’s get a good focus on the Lord’s Day and remember what He has done for us — on the cross, of course, but especially through the empty tomb. Our worship hinges on the tomb being borrowed. Our faith is founded on the Savior who defeated death, hell, and the grave. Our Savior is alive and well! And since He is alive and well, our worship is important because we don’t worship an idol or a figure but a real-life living Savior. He sees and knows and receives our worship.
And, Lord willing, that is our plan this Lord’s Day. We are going to make much of Jesus. We are going to worship Him by singing about/to Him, reading from His Word, and proclaiming His gospel. Our hope is in Him saving us, and we look forward to Him saving others. We hope to point ourselves and others to Him alone!
More than that, we gather in anticipation of His return. And He is coming — just as He said (Revelation 22:7, 12, 20)!
Won’t you gather with us?
Here are our Scriptures and songs:
Scripture | 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 —
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Christ Has Come – Week 3Episode Title: The Promised King & His Gift of JoyLuke 1:39–56In this Advent episode of Christ Has Come, Keith Harris turns to Luke 1 and invites us to slow down and listen to the joy that begins stirring before Bethlehem. Long before angels sing to shepherds, joy breaks the silence in the hill country of Judea—through a Spirit-filled confession, a leaping child, and the worshipful song of a young woman who trusts the promises of God.Together, we explore:What biblical joy is—and what it isn’t, distinguishing it from fleeting happiness or emotional highs.How joy appears before the word is even spoken, as John the Baptist leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb at the presence of the unborn Messiah.Why Mary’s joy is rooted not in circumstances but in God’s mercy, as she magnifies the Lord and rejoices in God her Savior.The meaning and message of the Magnificat, a Scripture-saturated song that celebrates God’s great reversal—lifting the lowly, filling the hungry, and humbling the proud.How Mary’s joy points beyond herself to Jesus, the promised King who fulfills God’s covenant promises and secures lasting joy through His saving work.This episode reminds us that joy is not something we manufacture—it’s something we receive, and it grows wherever Jesus is trusted. Advent teaches us that true joy is found not in having life figured out, but in the presence of Christ and the mercy He brings.If you would like to see a written version of this study, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.
Just Keith Harris 