Christ's Humiliation

My studies through the Westminster Shorter Catechism continue, and I thought one of the recent questions I looked at was quite relevant to the advent season that begins this weekend. Advent is a time of anticipation as we prepare to celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ's birth.  It is important that as we enter into this Christmas season we stay focused on the incarnation.  In considering the incarnation let us not miss the consideration of Christ's humiliation.

The answer to the Catechism's question regarding that humiliation contains many steps that seem to step down lower and lower, and go from bad to worse.  Remember to look at these steps of humiliation from the perspective of being God and willingly condescending to it all.  

Being born as a man

Belonging to a poor family, having a low social status

Submitting to His own law which was given to men

Experiencing and suffering through the various miseries of this life

Suffering God's wrath

Death 

Of course our Christmas season seems to relate particularly to this first step of birth as a man. I think that some nativity scenes, plays and songs that we see and hear during Christmas time can give us the wrong impression or take our focus off the more significant considerations of Christ's birth.  Its not really about cute little baby Jesus.  G.I. Williamson references C.S. Lewis who compares Jesus' becoming man to a shepherd who becomes a lamb in order to sacrifice himself for the rescue of his flock.  But that's not even a very good comparison, because the difference between God and man is far greater than the difference between man and beast. 

Christ's birth leads directly to that next step of humiliation, being poor and of little reputation. The King of kings found himself welcomed into the world not in the world's grandest palace, not a mansion, not even an average room, but a stall for animals!  As if God condescending to become man wasn't bad enough, this newborn God-man is treated as almost less than human from the moment He enters the world.  If only that inn keeper knew that it was God's son that Mary was giving birth to.  Of course we know that all of Jesus life  on earth continued in this manner, never having material wealth and very rarely being given even an ounce of the respect and honor and worship that He deserved.  Ironic how pagan Magi from the east honored Him more than most of the "God-fearing" people of Israel at the time.  That always challenges me to check my heart on how I as a Christian value and treat people.

Can you imagine being God and having to submit to the law of Moses which was given to the people of Israel, sinful men and women just like every other human on the earth?  I can see myself in that place, I'd be saying, wait a minute I gave these laws to Moses, I am beyond them.  I created these laws for you people, and even better, I created mankind.  How humiliating.  Then think about the fact that Jesus followed the teachings and laws perfectly (of course He, did He understood them better than any human could) and yet He was still accused of breaking it many times during His earthly ministry!

Jesus experienced and felt the pain of the many different miseries a fallen world, under God's curse, has to offer.  Hunger, rejection, loss of loved ones, betrayal, physical pain and many more.  Furthermore, as the next step highlights, He bore the weight of the world's sin and was crucified.  He took the place of those who did and would believe in Him, suffering the wrath of God deserved by all of sinful mankind.  I think one thing that I learned in this book was the depth of that statement, the wrath of God.  When Jesus came under that wrath on the cross, He experienced what it was like to have separation from God ("My God, My GOd, why have you forsaken me?").  God, more than anyone else knows how great He is and how much He and everything else depends on Himself and how wonderful it is to be in relationship with Himself.  So the Son of God felt what it would be like to have separation from God so that those who place their faith in Him could instead have communion with God again.  Sadly, but justly, those who will not place their faith in Jesus Christ will still face this wrath and judgment because they are not washed in the blood of the lamb of God.  Instead of benefiting from the completed work of the Redeemer, they will face that unimaginable separation from the Author of Life.

In order to conquer death, Jesus had to go under its power first, which is what the whole three days in the grave accomplished.  Thinking again from God's perspective (because contrary to other theories out there Jesus never emptied Himself of His divinity), can you imagine submitting yourself to death?  That would be like being the best athlete in the world and intentionally losing a match to your greatest opponent even though they were no match for you.  But you knew that you were still going to come out of it world champion in the end of the tournament so you let them beat you (I wonder if for a moment Satan thought he had won?).  But as we know death did not have the victory because Jesus conquered the grave!

So, just remember as you think through this advent season, Jesus' birth was really the commencing of these steps of humiliation that He chose to submit to and endure.  Why did He do this? Because He loved His creation, He loved us, and He wanted to restore the glorious world He had made made to once again be a theater of praise for Himself.  The best gift God can give to us is Himself, and He has given that gift more than once in the history of creation despite our wickedness. 

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him...

...The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.  No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth...  

...Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.  And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

  (various passages from 1 John 2 & 3)

   

Worship and the Forces of Evil - Part 3

At the end of the book of Ephesians, we are encouraged to "be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes (6:10-11)."  Paul reinforces what I discussed in my last post, that the devil and his demons are actively involved in the world around us.  "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand (6:12-13)."

I believe that the things we choose to do, what we sing, what we pray, how we interact during our worship gatherings can be a significant part of putting on that armor of God.  The "belt of truth" is the first piece of armor listed.  Matthew Henry notes that truth in the analogy of a belt, holds all other pieces of armor on the warrior.  Like the belt analogy, one would think that truth would be central to any element of a worship service, but sadly, truth is often compromised, whether it be in a sermon, song, prayer or in the conversations that people have with one another during fellowship.  When truth is not proclaimed and upheld, Satan's deceptive tactics can abound.  When that happens the flock can go astray or people that come seeking never actually find the truth.

Here's an example of how the battle can take place when truth is boldly proclaimed in a worship service.

Consider the hymn "This is My Father's World."  This hymn declares that this world belongs to God, that He made it all, and that His creation was made to praise Him, to give Him glory.  To someone battling with or even believing Darwinian evolution theory, hearing this hymn confronts the lies that there is no God, that everything happened by random chance over an unmeasurable/undeterminable amount of time, and that man is his own god, etc.  Or how about someone that has been watching the news and hearing the latest awful thing that has happened in the world, their own life has been going really badly, and they are doubting that God is in control or are starting to think He has forsaken us.  The last lines of the song affirm that "though the wrong seems oft so strong God is the ruler yet."  When we declare the promise of God that the tribulations will occur, but that Jesus is coming back and making all things new, restoring the creation that He made, we can refute the whispers of the enemy that all hope is lost.  It doesn't mean that the wrongs go away, but it puts everything into the perspective of truth, and if we continue to remember the hope of Christ's return in our worship, we can grow in unity with God's promises and be strong against attacks, whether in our minds or in the circumstances of life.  

Another example, there are great creeds that we can declare to together like the Apostles Creed. In this creed we affirm that God is one, existing as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  We share that Jesus actually came in the flesh to earth, was crucified, and rose again and that He is coming again.  I know someone that believes in God, but not eternal life.  Hearing this creed would strike at that.  If a mormon were present, they would hear that Jesus is one with the Father, not separate, and that He is the only Son (as opposed to their belief that Jesus and Satan were brothers).

Those were just a few examples, but as you can see, especially if you keep imagining the possible scenarios, being intentional about declaring the truth in our worship can serve to guard against and/or replace the lies that the enemy has put into people's minds or is trying to discourage them with.  The truth declared might just be a much needed reminder, or it might be something totally new that a person had never been told before.  Either way, it contributes to putting on the armor of God so that we can be left standing when the spiritual forces of evil try to battle against the way, the truth and the life that we know is found in Jesus Christ alone.    

   

 

Hymn Project

For the past few months I have been working on a hymn project which I am really excited about. The idea was put forth by one of the elders at Christ's Church as part of my work as the minister of worship.  The objective is to introduce 24 new hymns into the church's regular repertoire  over the course of the next three years.  There are many great reasons for doing this.  One is that many hymns can serve to fill theological gaps that are found in a lot of today's contemporary Christian music.  So I will specifically be looking to use hymns that address such themes as the Trinity, Holy Spirit, God's Story from the beginning till now and in the world to come, Missions, Mystery.  A lot of hymns inform us about the details and truth of our faith, and sadly I don't think that the same can be said for a lot of the other worship music that is out there, at least not as a whole.  In fact some are down right wrong.

Also, a lot of today's worship music is very "me" or "I" centered as I have mentioned before in some of my posts.  There are plenty of hymns that fall into that self-centered category too, but thankfully there also lots of great ones that are very God-centered, and the church needs more God-centered worship.

So, I have gone through the hymnal we have at Christ's Church, over 600 songs and prayers!  I chose somewhere between 120 and 150 to take a more serious look at.  I was primarily focused on lyrical content, but music was taken into consideration in assessing these hymns.  The great thing about music though, is that it can be re-written while still using the original lyrics.  I've found many hymns that I loved the words to, but was not crazy about the music.  So many hymns have that same generic progression I, IV, V, I with a II to V somewhere in there (sorry more technical musical terminology).   Some people from older generations might have a hard time with some musical changes because they have known  a particular hymn a certain way for decades.  However, I think that in order to pass down these treasured songs to the next generations, it is important that we sing a new song to the Lord and connect the great theology and poetry of these pieces with the sound of today's music.  I think people like David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, and Watermark have done a great job of bringing new life into some of the classic hymns and making them relevant to younger generations. However, I also recognize that there are certain classics that just shouldn't be altered and will be sung the same way a hundred years from now, like O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, All Creatures of Our God and King, and Holy, Holy, Holy, etc.

The other great thing about this project has been that I've had a chance to get some of the people at CCA involved in it, and they've been very enthusiastic about what I'm doing. These people have some great insight into the world of hymns and are much more familiar with the library of hymns that I am.  One thing I was reminded of when meeting with one brother on the subject was that the hymns have been a link between many denominations, generations, nations, etc.  This is why its important that the hymn thread continue.  The more we share in common with other bodies of Christ, the more unified we can hopefully become.  

If you are not a hymn person I encourage you to check out Passion's Hymns: Ancient and Modern.  Perhaps the modern take on the hymns will help you to appreciate the content and truth that they contain.

Hopefully as I do some new arrangements I will be able to post them here in the blog.  So look forward to that.  Here's some hymns I've started re-arranging already, or am seriously considering. 

This is My Father's World

We've a Story to Tell to the Nations

Eternal Father, When to Thee

I Cannot Tell

The Solid Rock

Let me know if you have any suggestions for great hymns that I should take into consideration with this project.

Communion and the Estate Whereinto Men Fell

The 19th question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, "What is the misery of that estate whereinto men fell?"  In other words, What is the situation that man finds himself in after Adam sinned?  What are the consequences?  What is man's status and future outside of Eden?

Answer:  "All mankind, by their fall, lost communion  with God, are under His wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell."

That is some pretty heavy stuff to think about, though I don't think its hard for us to believe since that is the world we find ourselves in.  we don't have to look very hard to recognize death's presence in our world, or to see misery in people's lives (or perhaps our own).  Mankind as a whole is not communing with God, and many people that claim they are in relationship with a god, are in fact worshiping idols, man-made non-gods, demons and the like.  Thus they are not in any communion with God.

In revisiting this part of the Catechism today I am struck by the part that says we "lost communion with God."  Jesus has saved us from this estate of misery indeed, some of the redemption won't be fully realized till after the death of the body, but that particular element of restoring communion with God really touched my heart today.  I think it gives us cause to really consider the Lord's Supper and our participation in it.

The reality of what communion is, not just what it reminds us of or represents, is huge!  Jesus, God the Son, invites His followers to His table, to be nourished by His provision and more importantly by His presence.  He instituted in that moment that His followers should continue to do this throughout the ages till He returned.  At the time, I'm sure the disciples didn't fully understand how significant this was.  This was God himself establishing a means of intimate communion between Him and man again.  That's why I love the term communion now, because it reminds me that the lost communion with God is being/has been restored through Christ.  Communion isn't about us doing a good job of thinking and remembering Christ's sacrifice, though it does serve to remind us of the His blood shed and body broken to redeem His creation.  If we have the perspective of needing to focus on remembering, then we're trying to do the work in communion.  But in fact Jesus did all the work at the Last Supper, and the continuation of worship at the His table is no different.  If we approach it from the perspective that He will meet us there by the Holy Spirit, then we can participate in the fullness of what communion is, communing with Jesus, with God.  How deep and vast and mysterious is the love of God who restores us to Himself and invites us to His table.  It makes me want to come to the table more regularly.

Here's one of my favorite communion songs by a band called Leeland, not sure who made the video, but the lyrics paint a beautiful picture of our dependence upon the saviour and the amazing opportunity it is to come to His table.

Praise

For the past month or so, God has been revealing the hollow understanding and expression of praise that has worked itself into the current worship culture.  Here's a thought I wrote down in my journal a few weeks ago.

"How is it that when we praise another human, we can do it without even using the word praise (we praise them for the things they've accomplished and how great they are for such acts)?  Yet when "praising" God, we don't usually have much content, but we use the word praise a lot?"

Not sure if that made any sense to you, let me explain a little more.  I'm sure you have heard people flippantly say something like "Praise the Lord!" in conversation or in a worship service. Or another example, one of the last worship albums I bought has a song on it that has a chorus that keeps repeating "Give Him praise!" over and over again, and then says, "like this...Oh! OH!....Oh!Oh!" in unison with a cool guitar and bass lick.   These are great exclamations to make, but without some content they don't carry any weight and in my opinion don't really accomplish praise.  If we can praise our favorite sports star, or movie or musician correctly, which are finite and miniscule in comparison to our God and the things He has done, shouldn't we give Him right praise?

Let me use Psalm 104 as an example.  This psalm begins, "Praise the Lord, O my soul."  After that phrase, we get a wonderful poetic expression of who God has revealed Himself to be and what He has done.  Verse 5, "He set the earth on its foundations, it can never be moved," verse 13, "He waters the mountains from his upper chambers, the earth is satisfied by the fruit of His work," verse 29-30, "when you You hide your face they are terrified...When You send Your spirit they are created."  A particular verse of praise is verse 24, "How many are Your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures."

This is the language of praise that the psalms teach us.  We cry that the Lord is worthy of praise, and then we actually praise Him.  Praise Him for His mighty works, for His holiness, for His faithfulness and preservation of creation (even after the fall of Adam),  praise Him for His saving deeds and His mercy (psalm 103 has some great passages on that subject). 

Oh, and one other comment.  Our other favorite expression, "Hallelujah," is the hebrew for praise the Lord, so that too should be used in the way we just explored.  I find that I use that word after God has been praised, sort  as a closing exclamation.

I've had the privilege with some of my study time to practice this praise, and once you get familiar with some of these psalms or other passages of scripture that are helpful for praise, its a wonderful thing to put into practice in private times of prayer or worship (though I also think that in the right moment, this free form praise can be expressed in a corporate worship setting as well).  We can always use the language of the psalms as a guideline, but also consider making observations in your own experience that you can turn back to praise as well.  For example, "Praise You God, your hands painted the beautiful colors of this evening sky.  I am in awe of your power and creativity."  "God, you promised to have compassion on those who fear You, and to bring us into eternal life through Christ.  I am struggling to see anything good in this life right now, but I praise you that You are faithful to keep Your promises.  Praise you for the hope of redemption, praise the name of Jesus, the name above every name, the only name that has the power to save and make me a citizen of heaven.  How I long to be there."  I gave that example as a reminder that praise is not just about when everything is going great or when we feel like praising God.  He's always worthy of praise.  Thankfully, David showed us that God hears our joyful shouts as well as our deepest, darkest cries of complaint and despair (see Psalm 88).           

So now when someone says, "Praise the Lord," you can tell them, "go right ahead."  If they they look at you confused, you can take that opportunity to talk with them about how the bible teaches us to praise and that there's a lot more to it than just saying or singing the word praise.

Worship and the Forces of Evil - Part 2

Continuing on with the spiritual warfare topic, we're going to move forward speaking from the reality that demons do exist and that they can and do have an effect on the world around us. I think a large part of the church's ignorance of this reality and their lack of instruction on exercising God given authority over the powers of darkness in the spiritual realm is why we're not particularly strong, and why we're falling more into the patterns of the world, and why we're feeling more defeated than victorious.  So if you're still skeptical, read your bibles and ask God to open your eyes to the truth and the need for you to be able to exercise the authority we have in Christ over the work of Satan.

One key element about Satan is that he is the father of lies, Jesus tells us that in John 8:44. Knowing this helps us to recognize the business that the demonic forces are in, spreading lies, keeping people blinded to the truth, and keeping people in the bondage to their flesh (where sin resides).  So to do battle against that work, we must be able to identify lies, replace those lies with truth, and keep affirming that truth as needed, whether this attack of the enemy is in our own lives or in someone else.  My friend Tim touched upon this in his comments on the previous posts, so check that out if you get a chance.  

So we need to know the truth, we need to believe it and live in it, but please recognize the problem we have in Christianity.  We think that "believing" is enough, so to speak, and even what we "believe" half the time is incorrect or incomplete.  James told us that the demons believe that God is one, and tremble, but they are on the opposing side.  So what does it take to exercise authority over the work of the enemy?  Here's an outline of what Neil Anderson thinks it takes. 

Belief - This is a belief or faith in the authority that Christ has given you.  The analogy made is of a rookie cop who's nervous and weak in his perspective on his authority going out to direct traffic for the first time.  At the academy they told his that all he had to do was blow his whistle, step into the street and put his hands out.  Because he's not confident in this authority that he has as a police officer now, he blows his whistle a little, and lightly puts his hand out to a car that rushes right by him without noticing.  He can't even get into the road to start directing traffic.  Compare this to a seasoned officer, who takes a look around and assesses the situation, carefully but confidently steps out into the street and then puts his hands out in such a way that the cars stop at his command.  That's the difference in someone that has some head knowledge, and someone that has faith in the authority they have and exercise it.

Humility- this isn't humility that lays down and gets walked over by everyone.  Neil defines this as confidence that is properly placed.  Humility places that confidence (or belief) in our authority in Christ, the source of our authority.  Pride says, "I resisted or defeated the devil." True humility says, "I resisted the devil by the grace of God."  There's that balance of recognizing that we can do nothing apart from God (John 15:5), but that we can do and are called to do something because God has enabled us and called us to do something.  I'm sure you've met some healing type people or seen them on tv and got the sense that they were not operating out of this kind of humility. 

Boldness-  In Acts 4:31, as the apostles were going to share the gospel in Jerusalem, it says, "the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness."  The opposite of boldness as Neil puts it "is cowardice, fear and unbelief."  He shares that a lot of students who took his class come away with a new perspective, saying they used to be afraid of the demonic and dealing with it, but now that they know who they are in Christ, they're not afraid anymore and can operate boldly.  I find Neil's boldness idea and belief to be very similar.

Dependance-  the believer who has learned about their identity in Christ and the authority that comes with it is not called to be a sort of demonic ghost buster, trying to hunt down the enemy as their job.  We are to pursue the ministries that God has gifted us in and called us to such as loving, preaching, praying, worship, teaching, etc.  But, typically if you're doing kingdom work and living a life of faith, the enemy will challenge us or we will find demonic work in someone we're ministering to.  At that point we we need to deal with the enemy according to the authority we have in Christ and our dependence on Him, replace the lies with truth and remind the enemy that they are subject to Christ, and we are in Christ, so they have to back down.  Once the enemy is dealt with, we focus on the primary work again. 

You've probably met or seen people on tv that get so caught up in spiritual warfare, that they are distracted from any other more primary ministry focus.  It was Christ who disarmed the powers of darkness, so we have to be careful not think that we're called to eradicate demons from the face of the earth.  God will take care of that, He said He will.  But at the same time we need to be aware and put on that spiritual armor as we go about the work God has called us to so that we can exercise the victory of Christ in our own lives and help others who have been bound by the lies of the enemy, whenever that situation presents itself.

I know I said I'd get into how this ties in with worship, but I think this groundwork needed to be laid a little more.  I promise I'll get more into ideas about worship and the demonic in the next post.  Keep the comments coming, your different perspectives and questions are needed as we explore this issue.

IDOP for the Persecuted Church

This coming Sunday November 9th, is the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church (some hold it on the 16th). I want to encourage you to be in prayer for our brothers and sisters around the world suffering for the name of Christ. My church will be taking some time out of our service to do this, this is what we are called to especially when we gather as the body, to get beyond ourselves and pray for the world around us and to remember those who are suffering for the Lord. This video can help to give you an idea of what's going on in places like India, Iran and Pakistan.