Core Value: Worship
Col 1.15-20
Welcome.
We just started a series explaining our new vision statement and core values.
To ignite a gospel-spreading movement through multiple local congregations in the greater Philadelphia area and the world, so that individuals, communities, and cultures are renewed in Christ.
We have 8 core values. Our vision is driven by the Gospel, and this is reflected in our core values.
Gospel Worship
The gospel transforms our relationship with God from one of hostility, dread, or indifference to one of reverent joy and intimate love. At the heart of the gospel is the enjoyment and praise of God in worship and prayer as we behold His worth and beauty. In our services, we value worship that is God-centered and Christ-exalting, preaching that is expository (explaining the text of Scripture) and gospel-centered (expounding all biblical themes as climaxing in Christ and his work of salvation), and prayer marked by repentance (contritely turning away from sin) and faith (joyfully turning as a forgiven child of God to Christ’s grace to do his will).
You’ll notice that woven into our worship service, we have a time of repentance and assurance of forgiveness, that we try to preach expository and gospel-centered sermons, and we try to have a God/Christ-exalting focus.
“At the heart of the gospel is the enjoyment and praise of God...as we behold His worth and beauty.”
What is worship?
For me, C. S. Lewis and John Piper were very helpful in shaping my understanding of what worship and praise is: the spontaneous expression of delight.
But the most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. . . The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game. . .
How do you praise/glorify a movie, a restaurant, an iPhone? You enjoy the movie (maybe 2-3 times, buy it), eat at the restaurant, you play with your iPhone. Then you talk about it, you tell others how wonderful it is. Praise is the overflow of enjoyment.
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. --C. S. Lewis
Enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise, and the expression of it completes it.
You don’t just enjoy the movie, you tell your friends how great it is.
You don’t just play with your iPhone apps, you tell you friend, “Check this out!”
Is this how God wants to be glorified? Is “pleasure-overflow” the worship Scripture talks about?
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11
I have found life, joy, eternal pleasures! I’ve found joy. I will praise the Lord.
You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever. Psalm 30:11-12
You took my grief, heard my cry, turned my mourning into joy. I will praise you forever!
. . . And earth has nothing I desire besides you. . . But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds. Psalm 73:25, 28
I’ve seen life of the rich and famous, exotic sports cars, 5-star vacation resorts, the penthouses on NY skyscrapers. That’s nice, but what I really want is You. It is good to be near You.
Worship is enjoying Divine pleasure.
Imagine you have a medium rare filet mignon from the Capital Grill [picture]. You cut me a piece, and I put it on my hand. I put it on my head. I need to put it in my mouth, on my tongue, and then the steak overwhelms my sense with flavor and texture and smells!
What is worship? It is to put God on the tongue of your soul, and you “taste” Him, you “behold Him,” you experience Him, and He overwhelms you with pleasure. It’s not something to just understand or good things to do. It is a “tasting,” and in the “tasting” we are changed. What we want changes, what we enjoy changes. We find a new pleasure; our spiritual taste buds have found a greater delight.
What is it to become a Christian? It is to develop spiritual taste buds, to now taste and see that God is good. Before we were blind, now we see.
Worship is “tasting”/beholding the worth and beauty of Christ and expressing your pleasure.
Gospel and worship go hand in hand. The Gospel is the story of what God has done for us in Christ. Last week we talked about the Cosmic Transfer, how He has taken us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of Christ. It is the story of how He forgives, heals, cares for us. It is the display of His grace, love, power, goodness.
Worship is our “tasting” and enjoying the love and goodness of God and telling Him and others how great He is.
The Gospel is Jesus in His merciful and loving rescue of our lives. The Gospel is the perfectly cooked, medium rare, Capital Grill filet mignon. Worship is putting it in your mouth and saying, “Wow, this is amazing! Hey, you should try this!”
Col 1:15-20
So far, I’ve explained the nature of worship, that it’s about delight. But there’s a difference between talking about how we should enjoy Christ vs. talking about Christ. It’s the difference between me saying how steaks are to be enjoyed (not eaten as medicine) and giving you bite. Instead of telling you that Jesus is amazing, let’s look at Jesus and feel amazed.
Today we look at our core value of worship by studying a passage not about worship, but about Christ Himself.
This section is considered something like a hymn in the 1st century church that celebrates the supremacy/greatness of Christ. It is packed with imagery and theology, but permit me to simplify it into 4 main ideas. Jesus is
The Image of God (red)
Supreme over Creation (blue)
Supreme over the Church (green)
Reconciler of all Creation (blue, back to cosmic/creation)
15He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
16For 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.
17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18And 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.
19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his cross.
Image of God
We first need to consider the incomprehensibility of God, that He is beyond our ability to know.
We have no category/analogy on earth that we can use to capture the glory, worth, being of God. All we have are inadequate and incomplete metaphors.
When we read Revelations, it’s full of really strange images: creatures with 6 wings and eyes all over; a creature is like a lion, like an ox. Jesus’s voice is like the sound of rushing waters and out of his mouth comes a sharp double-edged sword. The Apostle John reaches the limits of human language and vocabulary to describe things that have no earthly counterpart.
For John, it was like trying to describe an iPhone to King Arthur. How would you even begin?
My first son loves science and somehow heard E=mc2. He wants to know what that means. How do you explain the theory of relativity to a 7 year old? How do you explain it when you’re not sure you know it means yourself? =)
That God is our Father—more than being literal, this is a human metaphor to describe a kind of relationship that is beyond anything else we know. Jesus is our Good Shepherd, our Bread of Life, our Living Water, our Resurrection—again, these are all limited metaphors to use describe things that go beyond earthly concepts. The Bible is “trying to describe an iPhone to a King Arthur.”
Add also that to “see” this God would kill us. We have an account of Moses seeing a glimpse of the backside of God. His face was glowing, glowing so much that the Israelites ask him to put a veil on his face because they couldn’t bear to see the afterglow of the face that saw a glimpse of the backside of God.
15He is the image of the invisible God,
19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Who is Jesus? We could never reach heaven, so heaven came to earth. God became a man and walked among us. Fully God and fully man.
The inconceivable becomes conceived
The infinite becomes finite, the invisible becomes visible
God came near in the person of Jesus.
It’s fun to see the transformation of grandparents when they see their grandkids. My parents and Janette’s parents are 1st generation Koreans, and they live in an adult world. But when any of them spend time with the kids, they do some really silly things. They’re on the floor, making funny sounds, etc. Infants and toddlers cannot understand their world, and so they come into the baby world.
Jesus is God come near.
Supreme over Creation
Notice what is emphasized: Creator of all
Repetition of “all”
Heaven & earth, visible & invisible—to emphasize the comprehensiveness of creative work
Thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities—apparently the Colossians believed in evil spirits and powers, and Paul is emphasizing Christ’s rule over these as well
Firstborn of all creation—not that Jesus was created, but that he was first (time) and first in position, rank; it is a title of supremacy over creation.
All things were created by Him, through Him, and for Him.
All things hold together because of Him. He sustains all things. If Christ “let’s go” the cosmos would disintegrate. The reason why anything exists is because of Jesus and for Jesus. Business, art, music, literature, philosophy, architecture, light, time, gravity, computers, pews, glasses—all made by and for Jesus.
The implication to the Colossians is that even evil spirits are made by and for Jesus. Even viruses, earthquakes, and wars—all are under Christ, all are made by and for Jesus.
Let’s take an inventory of our lives, and acknowledge everything is by Jesus and for Jesus.
Time, this day, this hour—by Jesus, for Jesus
Education, campus, dorms—by Jesus, for Jesus
Job, marriage, kids, email, physical bodies, oxygen—by Jesus for Jesus
Shoes, cell phones, Renewal church, Philadelphia, Milky Way galaxy—by Jesus, for Jesus
We tend to be self-centered: things are by me or for me. That Jesus is Creator of all changes our worldview. And it makes Jesus cosmic and relevant to everything.
I’ve been thinking about how I need to seed some spots on my lawn. And I recall how the Psalms say, “let the fields be jubilant, the trees will sing for joy” (110:12). My grass was made to rejoice and sing for Jesus. Grass was made by Him and for Him.
Our family has been sick a lot this summer. We had H1N1, a couple stomach bugs; I shared about how one of our sons had a diarrhea accident right before we had to come to church a couple Sundays ago. The Bible says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will honor me” (Ps 50:15), “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). One reason why we had our sickness was so that we can call on Jesus and experience His care. Everything is ultimately about Jesus, for Jesus.
Jesus is Creator, Sustainer of all things. That changes our worldview and makes Jesus cosmic and relevant to everything.
Supreme over the Church
Jesus has accomplished the great work of creation and the great work of redemption. He made us and He saved us.
Head of the church—there is a sense of (1) origin, source. Jesus is the source of the very life of the church. There is also an aspect of an (2) organic relationship, an inseparable and dependent connection. There is no church without its head. (3) He is lord, in authority.
Firstborn from the dead—points to Jesus’ resurrection and points to our resurrection. We are his brothers in resurrection, with Christ as the first.
Christ has conquered the ultimate enemy of sin and death itself and has made for himself a holy nation who are also freed from the power of sin and death, who share in his victory.
In their homeschool, Janette’s been teach our boys about the American revolutionary war. General Washington led the continental army against the far superior redcoats so that these colonies could be freed from “taxation without representation.” And a new nation was birthed.
Our general didn’t just conquer the British or the Germans or Al Qaeda. He conquered death itself, and made a new and holy nation. The Church is “the people of the resurrection,” a people for whom death has lots its grip.
Last Friday was 9/11, and we remember those who died that day. I have an uncle in hospital with some serious liver and kidney problems. Some of you also have seriously sick loved ones, or maybe your loved ones have already gone. But for those in Christ,
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 15:55-57)
Reconciler of all Creation
This returns to Jesus’ supremacy over all creation.
All things were made by, through, and for Christ. But the unity and harmony of the cosmos has been disrupted. There has been a rebellion, a rupture in the fabric of the universe. The cosmos is out of whack.
It’s like a car (you built), with all the controls, instruments, seating, lighting centered on the driver. It has the engine, suspension, the sound system, the colors, all to your desires. But the car has rebelled, and it is no longer centered on the driver. The controls don’t work, the instruments are misplaced, the mechanicals aren’t coordinated to work in sync around the commands of the driver. The car is broken, and so is our world.
The ground produces thorns, there is pain in childbirth; relationships are broken and we live in various forms of alienation; marriage, sex are distorted from their original design. Business, philosophy, email, the environment—nothing is working right. We live in a broken and fallen world.
But at the cross, Jesus reconciled, brought back, the cosmos to Himself. He restores, He fixes, He heals all creation so that it is back in alignment, back to its original design and purpose. Jesus is restored in fullness as the King of his Kingdom. He put the car back together.
The Bible says that one day,
every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
every nation, tribe, people and language will worship Christ
wolves and lambs, lions and calves will lie together in peace
Jesus will wipe every tear, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for Jesus will make everything new.
The grass and trees and rocks and seas will all be freed and celebrating Christ. He will bring everything back to Himself.
There will be no more thorns, no more tears, no more injustice or war or death. No more shame, fear, loneliness, cancer, global warming, terrorism, racism, greed, jealousy. There will be peace. Because everything will be what it was created for—for Jesus.
This passage points to the supremacy of Christ and His work. Who He is and What He’s done is beyond our understanding or imagination. Last week I said that need to see the greater fullness of the Gospel. Today, I add, we need to see the greater fullness of Christ.
Behold Him, bow and exalt one who is transcendent but near, Creator of all, the firstborn from the dead, and the healer of all creation. He has come near, and he offers to be your Savior.