Feast and Follow with Knollwood

First Things: What is Right Worship?

Before I was a pastor, I was a photographer. I remember one of my first weddings I did, I was assisting a friend. The wedding was to take place on this beautiful outdoor venue looking out over a mountainside. Lovely location in the middle of a state park. There was one issue, however. The GPS didn't know where it was. We had no clue what it looked like. The wedding was starting in 45 minutes. And we were lost. Thanks to my friends confident driving (and his beautiful Chevy Camaro's roaring engine), we finally came across it (in time!). But we would have much rather had a guide. 

While missing a wedding would have had consequences for us, there are far higher stakes when it comes to worship. Displeasing a bride on her wedding day is a sad thing, but it is a sadder thing, and actually much scarier thing to displease God. 

As you know we are in the midst of a series on worship. We saw that worship simply defined is bowing down in awe and joy before God. Having felt that awe and joy, what should we do with it when we are all gathered together? That was the question we left off with last time. 

Seeker-Sensitive Worship

If you could improve one thing in your life right now to make your life so much better what would it be? I think for many this time of year, the answer to that question is health related. If we could just lose weight, moving and pain would be eased. Or maybe it is financially related. If only I could make/save more money live would be easier. But even if we do those things it only does that, makes life a little easier. It doesn't make it a life worth living. What makes life worth living? 

Have you ever resolved to become a better worshiper in the new year? I'm not talking about being busier at religious things, reading more chapters, attending more small groups, adding Sunday Night, per se. I am talking becoming better at worship. How does one do that? In order to answer that question, we have to remind ourselves what worship actually is, a question we will explore in a moment. 

The One Constant

The decade thus far hasn't been known for its predictability. With everything changing around us every day is there something that stays the same? 

On this episode of Feast and Follow, we explore exactly what this one constant is out of Lamentations 3. 

Jesus: The Savior

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the various, individual offices of Jesus. We have seen Him as Prophet, Priest, and King. But there is a more common title that we use for Him that in some way wraps all of these titles together, Savior. Now, like all church terms we have some sense as to what they mean, but if we are actually stopped in the street and asked to give a definition, we might have to think about it for a minute. Once we have supplied that definition, we are then given the task of saying what precisely we mean. A great example of this is the word “Holy.” I think if you were to ask your average church goer what “holy” means, you’ll get something like “sin free” because we know that God is Holy, Holy, Holy, because that is how the song goes! It actually means, “separate.” God is “different” from us. Certainly that includes not sinning, but that is only part of it.

 

The same thing I think applies to the word “Savior.” What that word means and how we are supposed to respond to it will be the focus of our time together here.

 

Our main point is Jesus, Our Savior, delivers us from sin.

Jesus: The Priest

Have you ever wondered why Jesus came so long after Genesis 3? “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” has the line “late in time, behold him come.” We know that Jesus isn’t one of those folks who has a hard time getting out the door on time. So why wait? Could it be that Jesus coming down was Plan B? Let’s think about that possibility. I mean we do see this elaborate system of worship in the Old Testament. Worship was done in a particular place and in a particular way. Leviticus is an entire book dedicated to outlining Sabbath as well as daily worship. There were daily sacrifices, thanksgiving offerings, sin offerings, vows, things that took place, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, as well as a litany of health regulations and prescriptions for daily life. All of this was meant to guide and maintain a relationship with God. There was an entire tribe of people who’s sole job was to help the people maintain that relationship, helping them sacrifice, teaching them, maintaining their temple, and even helping them with some of their physical disease as well.

 

Why have this entire system that, at the end of the day, according to verse 11 of our text, “can never take away sins?” Was this a system that if the people just did it a little bit more faithfully it would have worked but since they didn’t Jesus swoops down and just does it? Is Jesus like a parent trying to let their child do something on their own, realize it is never going to happen, and just does it for them?

 

No. God knows everything. God plans everything from before the beginning of the world. Acts 2:23 tells us this: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” It was always the plan that Jesus would die for the sins of the world. But in order for us to understand what that actually means we need the Old Testament to compare Jesus’ sacrifice to. It is like trying to point out the difference between a million and a billion. A million seconds is 11.5 days. That’s a while! But a billion seconds? Why that’s over 31 years! I’ve only been alive for a little bit longer than a billion seconds.

 

In the same way, we look at Jesus’ ministry and ultimately dying on the cross and ask, “What am I really seeing here?” The Old Testament is the background to that answer, and for today, we will look at the office of Old Testament priests. That is what we are going to look at today when we see that Jesus is the ultimate priest.

Jesus as priest makes us perfect.

Jesus: The King

Jesus as King is probably the hardest part of Jesus’ identity for Americans to understand, much less submit to. The only king we ever had we threw off with a cup of Boston Harbor tea. Ever since, we’ve built our national identity on the concept of self-rule, by the people, for the people, able to swap leaders every four years, potentially handicap their authority every two, and, at least in theory, impeach at any time. Since the only permanent authority we must pay homage to is the electric company, it will be helpful to remind ourselves what a king even does. Or at least we will remind ourselves of what a king was supposed to do. No king but One ever fulfilled the royal law perfectly.

 

Our main point is Jesus as King Rules All of Life with Care

Jesus: The Prophet

Who is Jesus? Who is he fully? There has been a recent survey that's gone out. 

It's called the State of Theology Survey, where they're asking people, both your average everyday Americans and even your regular churchgoing folk, a series of questions as to what is the Bible? Who is Jesus and this sort of thing. And one of the things that was amazing is when they asked the question, who is Jesus? 

 

Is he just a great teacher? And what we found was that at least, I think it was 20% of even church going folks, would say that yes, he's just a teacher. He's not God. But is meant to give us an example as to what we're to follow. Well, like most lies that are damaging, there is a bit of truth. Yes, Jesus has given us an example. 

 

Yes, he was a great teacher, but that's not all he was either. We can also make the mistake, especially when we come to our seasons of Advent, when we see little manger scenes everywhere that we see Jesus as the baby. The harmless little thing that we've all come to worship and adore. 

And we forget that there is a lot more to this baby as well. In theology, there is a term that's given that Christ occupies three offices, which is just a fancy way of saying that God has the Son of God Jesus, has three titles, three things about him, three jobs that he occupies to help us in our Christian life, to show us the way. And those three offices are prophet, priest, and king. 

Thankful Lives

What do we think about saying, "Thank you"? Is it just something that we are expected to do, or is there more to it than that? As we look at 1 Thess. 5, we will see that thanksgiving is an essential foundation of the Christian life. 

Christian Feasting

The more modern the world gets, the more relevant passages like this are. I know it doesn’t seem that way at first reading, but if you follow along with me, I think you will see that this is a very interesting passage with a critical concept for us to grasp. That concept is regular times of celebration before the Lord.

 

One of the challenges of modern life is a loss of the sense of time. I don’t mean we are all so busy now, I mean that we live as if we aren’t as bound to it anymore. Let me give an example. When our phones could get email, a little over 15 years ago, suddenly we could be working anywhere, anytime. The idea of “office hours” vanished and suddenly all of life could look the same. Any day could became Monday just in the time it takes for your phone to chime. This is just an extension of what has happened in the last 50 or so years when a lot of people’s work stopped being dependent on what time of the year it is. Farming is very dependent on the month of the year. Email works the same whether it is June or January, so many have lost the connection to the natural rhythms of the world.

 

I came across a quote from Dr. Ross, my old Hebrew teacher, that sums up what I’m hoping to preach about today: “Only when worshippers begin to see how creation and redemption inform their use of time will they fully appreciate what it means to enter into the Lord’s rest and enjoy fellowship with the holy God, and with one another in Christ.” (Recalling the Hope of Glory, 240). Let’s unpack that.

 

In this section of Scripture, and in other places in the Old Testament, we see feasts or celebrations to God that correspond to certain seasons of the year, the creation. They were times that called for everyone to stop and remember the past, recognize the present, and rejoice for the future. Each one is filled with meaning not only when it comes to what is happening in the world, but even more so what is happening in redemption.

 

Our main point is to embrace the opportunity to celebrate, knowing that you always have reason to do so.

Epilogue

Today, we look at the final passage in Genesis. It has been quite a journey. We’ve watched God create a world, see Adam ruin it, yet a promise of care in the very same chapter. We’ve watched the world flooded yet out of that a sign of the covenant written in the sky to this day. We’ve seen the rise and fall of Babel, divine blood oaths, and stairways to heaven. Yet we’ve also seen the humdrum waiting. Yet in each one of these chapters, we have been exposed to yet another demonstration of the sovereignty of God.

 

It all wraps up here with yet another reminder of God’s sovereign control of the world. Though here, we have a unique application of that doctrine. It is one thing to flatly say, “God is in control.” That’s good and true, but has been said so often we begin to become overly familiar with it. This passage says, “Since God is in control, there is an obligation on your part: forgiveness.” We will see how this occurs in our passage and our main point: God’s sovereignty requires us not to seek revenge.