The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

Sermon: The Holy Trinity Pt. 1 - Trinity Within Me (John 14:15-17)

The Holy Trinity Pt. 1 – Trinity Within MeSunday, June 1st, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WAJohn 14:15–17
Prayer
O God, we thank you for fashioning us in your image, and that through reflection upon your image within us, we may come to understand in some very partial and imperfect way who you are as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so as we undertake this task now, of faith seeking understanding, give us light and life and grace, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
When you first became a Christian and received the washing of baptism for the forgiveness of your sins, whether you knew it or not, you were born again into the very life of the Trinity. Ever since that day, when the name of God was spoken over you, in accord with what Jesus says in Matthew 28:19, “baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” from that day onward the Trinity of Persons came into you and made you their own.
The Apostle Paul says to those naughty Corinthians who were baptized and yet committing grievous sins, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Cor. 6:19).
Jesus says here in John 14:17 that the Spirit, “dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”
He says later in John 17, “I do not pray for these alone [referring to his disciples], but also for those who will believe in Me through their word [that’s us!]; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me…I in them, and You in Me” (John 17:20-21, 23).
Have you wondered, what in the world does that mean? What does it mean for the One God to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and then for that Trinity of persons to indwell our soul? Christ in us, the Spirit in us, the Father who is in the Son within us. How does all this work?
This is a little bit like asking, How does breathing keep you alive?
We are all breathing. We all know how to breathe, but very few of us could draw an accurate diagram of the lungs, or explain how oxygen and carbon dioxide get exchanged, or how the autonomic nervous system makes us to inhale and exhale even when we are asleep.
Explaining how breathing keeps us alive can be done, but it requires some work, some study and exploration of the human body, it requires you to learn a specialized vocabulary so you can identify different organs, and muscles, and chemical compounds. This is similar to becoming personally acquainted with the Holy Trinity.
If there are unbelieving scientists who have dedicated their whole life to studying the human body, how much more should believing Christians give at least a little portion of their life, to knowing the God in whom we live and move and have our being? Even the very Trinity with us.
It is a good and wonderful thing to study God’s creation, especially the human person. We are complex and fascinating creatures! But it is far greater and more glorious task to know the Creator and Maker Himself. If human beings are as intricate and glorious and mysterious as we are, how much more the one who designed it all?
It says in Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me.”
Jesus says similarly in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
Understanding and knowing God is the highest of all human pursuits. So much so that Jesus says it is eternal life to know Him.
And so if God is the supreme source and object of all human happiness, the very end for which we were created, and if He has revealed Himself in Christ and His Word, how can we not count all things as loss for the surpassing worth/value of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord? (Phil. 3:8).
This is the reason and the motivation for the hard work of our faith seeking understanding. Of believing the Word of God and then trying to understand that Word we already believe and breathe.
The Church Father St. Augustine says at the beginning of his treatise On the Trinity, “in no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable.” In other words, if you want to know God, it is going to cost you something, indeed cost you everything, but the cost is worth it.
Or Jesus says in Matthew 13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” The Trinity is like the treasure hidden in a field you already own. It’s yours, you are the field!
And so lest those words from St. Augustine daunt us or discourage us from trying to explore this great treasure, I want to remind you that if you are a Christian, you have already been breathing Trinitarian oxygen from the moment you were born again. From the moment the Holy Spirit opened your eyes to trust Jesus to justify your soul, you became a Trinitarian Christian, even if you still cannot draw an accurate diagram of the Trinity.
It is not our ability to explain the mystery that saves us, it is the believing, the breathing, the confession of that mystery that effects our salvation.
Paul says in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
So when you confessed Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, what were you doing? You were breathing and speaking the Holy Trinity.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”
And so my goal for us in this series of sermons on The Holy Trinity, is simply to help us become a little more aware of the spiritual oxygen that has been giving us life. Or, if you do not yet know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, perhaps you might inhale this breath of life for the very first time.
So with that as our goal, this morning I want to introduce this reality that is The Trinity, by considering these three verses in John 14. And I want us to consider these verses with an eye to what is distinct and unique about each person in God.
So the outline of our sermon is answering three questions.
Outline
What is unique to the Father?
What is unique to the Son?
What is unique to the Holy Spirit?
Q#1 – What is unique to the Father?
Notice first that Jesus directs his prayer to the Father.
According to his humanity, the Son who is God and who answers prayer, teaches us who are human to direct our prayers to the Father.
As man Jesus prays to the Father, but as God Jesus answers prayer with the Father.
What then does Jesus say the Father will do in response to his prayer? He shall give another Comforter.
Now if we were to gather up the rest of Jesus’ teaching about the Father (especially in John’s gospel), we would learn that the Father is the one who sends the son. And because of this sending of the Son, the Father is sometimes called by various names such as, Principle, Source, Author, Fountain, Head, etc. And what we mean by all those names is nothing else but that the Father is that from which another proceeds.
The Father is Principle of the Son, not as Cause to Effect, but only as Begetting the Son all that the Father has. And what does the Father have? The Divine Essence, Deity.
So when we call God Father, or Principle, or Fountain, we are not making the Son lesser or different in nature in any way.
The only distinction between Father and Son is that the Father begets the Son, and the Son is begotten from the Father, nothing else! Any other image or symbolic name must be reduced to that. There is no inequality, no hierarchy of power, the only order between them is that of relation of origin.
If you look at the picture on the back of the bulletin, this is represented visually by the Procession called “Generation,” from which we name two different Relations, 1) Paternity and 2) Filiation, Fatherhood and Sonship.
In God there are only two Processions, from whence we speak of 4 Relations, and from those 4 Relations we distinguish 3 Persons. More on that in a future sermon.
Summary: So we call God Father of the Son, and even Principle of the whole Deity, but without importing any inequality, or any difference of nature, or any real priority of being between Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all together eternally the One God.
And so returning to our question, What is unique to the Father? Jesus says He is: Giver of the Comforter, and Sender of the Son.
And so we might say (by appropriation), it is the Father’s unique personal property to be Generous, to be a Giver, to overflow and abound with goodness.
To speak improperly but still truly we could say that the Father cannot help himself, He just “has to” bestow lavish and wonderful things upon those He loves. He can’t help himself; it is His very nature as Father to give.
Isn’t this how Scripture speaks elsewhere of a good father’s character? Think of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son and how the father runs to his son with rejoicing and showers him with gifts, a ring, new clothes, and then throws him a party. Is that the portrait of God as Father that you have in your mind? Because that is much closer to reality than the stern and frowning face God that too many people have.
Or consider James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
Observe, not only is the Father said to be the source of every gift, He is an unchangeable and unceasing source of perfect goodness (“no variableness, neither shadow of turning”).
Yes, there may be dark and brooding clouds over your life, sin and suffering that obscures your vision of what is true, but behind that storm is always and ever the shining face of a Good and Generous Father, who is pure unchangeable love.
Don’t you want to have that God as your Father? Don’t you want to have assurance that behind all your pain is a Father who permits no evil to touch you unless it works for your good? A Father who permits no evil to take place in this world unless it magnifies His grace. A Father who permits no temptation to ensnare us without providing a way of escape. Because that is what the Fatherpromises to those who love Him (Rom. 8:28).
So what mental image do you have of the Father? And does it match what Jesus tells us about Him?
What we learn from Jesus here, is that the Father is the one to pray to, and the one to go to for help. The Father is like the Missionary Hub, the Central Headquarters, from which all Divine Comfort shall be sent. He sends the Son, and He sends the Spirit. He is the sender and source of the two divine missions that save the world.
That is who we are addressing in prayer, when we say, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” And if it is the Father’s unique property to be Principle, to be the Source from whence even the other uncreated Divine Persons proceed, of course He is also the giver of every good and every perfect gift we receive. And so this should be motivation for us to pray. Our Father wants to answer.
St. Augustine says in another work on prayer, “Our good Lord often does not give us what we wish, because it would really be what we do not wish for.” In other words, Our Father knows better than us what is good, and when we ask for something that is actually good for us, He will certainly and always give it.
Or as Psalm 84:11 puts it, “No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.
That is the Father, do you know Him?
Q#2 – What is unique to the Son?
To start with the obvious, the Son is Jesus Christ. And unlike the Father and the Spirit, the Son alone has joined a human nature to His Divine Person.
Moreover, we observe in these verses that the Son is the one teaching. Jesus says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Jesus speaks with God-like authority.
And earlier in John 14:1 he says, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
And then he says to Phillip, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10-11).
So notice there is both equality and distinction between Father and Son, they are both God in whom Jesus tells them to believe, they both indwell one another, and yet Jesus says, “the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me.”
And so the fact that Jesus is the one teaching and speaking what the Father tells him, from this visible ministry is reflected what Jesus is invisibly according to His divine nature, namely the Son, Word, and Image who proceeds from the Father. These names, Son, Word, and Image are the unique/proper names of the Son.
This is of course how John’s Gospel began, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
The book of Hebrews begins likewise by emphasizing the Son as Word and Image of the Father. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:1-3).
Because Jesus is Son, Word, and Image, he can say to Phillip, “if have seen me, you have seen the Father.” That is, if you have seen the Son’s divine nature, you have seen the Father’s divine nature also, because it is identical. We are both the one God.
So to give you a human example for comparison. Imagine there were two perfectly identical twins, who had not the tiniest feature or freckle to distinguish one from the other. Even their voices sounded exactly the same. You could truly say that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen the other, no visible difference between them.
However, the Father and the Son are an even more perfect unity than that, for while human twins nature (humanity), they are also two different beings with two distinct existences. This is not so with God. The Father and the Son are distinct persons who have One Existence, One Being, One Undivided Essence. We say God’s essence is His existence, and this the Father, Son, and Spirit have together as One.
The only real distinction in God is by opposition of relation. The persons are not distinct from God, they are God. The persons are only distinct from one another in their relations of origin. The Father is from none. The Son is from the Father. And the Spirit is from Father and Son together as one principle.
Summary: So what is unique to the Son?
He alone became incarnate, to die and rise for our salvation. He alone has joined a human nature to His Divine Person.
But what is unique to Him as a Divine Person?
He is the Son of the Father. The Father is His eternal origin. He is the Word the Father has spoken, and the perfect Image of what the Father is. Their essence is One.
Q#3 – What is unique to the Holy Spirit?
Next week we will explore this in much greater depth, but for now just observe that Jesus calls the Spirit by the names Comforter and Spirit of Truth. We also learn from Jesus that the Spirit is sent from both Father and the Son.
Jesus says a few verses later in verse 26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
And then in John 15:26, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.”
So whereas the Son is begotten from the Father (proceeding by Generation), what is unique to the Holy Spirit is that his eternal origin is by way of procession (or what we call “common spiration) from Two Divine Persons, Father and Son.
For this reason the Spirit is sometimes called the “love bond” or “breath” of Father and Son. He is portrayed at Jesus’ baptism as a dove descending from Father to Son. Other images of the Spirit we find are that of wind and fire and healing oil. The Spirit is the joy and delight of Father and Son, and therefore the unique personal names of the Holy Spirit are Love and Gift.
Here in our text, we will focus on this name of the Spirit which in Greek is παράκλητος (Paraclete), and is translated as Comforter or Helper, or Advocate.
The idea here is that the Spirit is going to help and comfort and advocate for the disciples when Jesus is no longer physically present. The Spirit is the spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Father and Son, and he will animate and move the disciples to accomplish God’s will.
We also learn from these names Comforter and Spirit of Truth how God likes to help us and console us.
Conclusion
So let us conclude with a few reflections on how the Holy Spirit helps us in our daily life as Christians. And this is a place where knowing the Holy Spirit is a lot like becoming conscious of your own breathing. You usually recognize His presence only after He has worked in you, or when you are sinning and feel his absence. So three ways the Spirit helps us:
1. The Holy Spirit helps us by moving us to pray.
Whether from habit or routine, or from some sudden and urgent need, whenever we are moved to pray, it is the Holy Spirit who has moved us to pray.
Paul says in Romans 8:28, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness,” and in Ephesians 6:18,“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”
So a life of prayer is a life lived in the Holy Spirit, and this is why Paul says, “pray without ceasing” and don’t quench the Holy Spirit.”
2. The Holy Spirit is the internal teacher of truth.
There are many external teachers of truth, among which are pastors, teachers, theologians, books, and even Scripture itself. But what makes that external hearing of the Word real and true inside our hearts, is the Holy Spirit teaching us.
Jesus says to his disciples in John 16:13, “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.”
And in Romans 8:16 it says, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
And 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
So whenever you read the Bible (the external teacher), and understand what it says, that internal process of judging what is true and what is false, is a work of the Holy Spirit leading your spirit into truth.
The same Spirit who inspired the written word of God, is the one makes that word to come alive within us. So to be full of the Spirit is to be full of the Spirit’s Word, to know the truth.
So the Spirit helps us to pray, and the spirit consoles us with truth, and then third and most importantly…
3. The Holy Spirit moves us to love.
And it is this movement to love God and keep His commandments, and to prefer spiritual things to worldly things that most reveals the Trinity Dwelling Within Us.
It says in 1 John 3:23-24, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”
And so if you love Jesus, you love him because He first loved you, and He gave you the Holy Spirit to help you love Him in return.
And so the most evident sign of the Trinity alive within us is a heart that is alive with love. The world does not know this, and the world cannot produce this, only the Trinity within us can.
St. Gregory the Great once said, “the Holy Spirit inflames everything he fills with a desire for invisible things. And because worldly hearts love only visible things, the world does not receive him, because it does not rise to the love of what is invisible. For worldly minds, the more they widen themselves with their desires, the more they narrow the core of their hearts to the Spirit.”
So what do you most desire? Visible things, or invisible things? Sensible goods or spiritual goods?
If you are full of the Holy Spirit, then you have already beheld by faith the supreme object of your affections. For as David in the Spirit declares, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides You” (Ps. 73:25).
May God grant this to be the yearning of your heart, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The Divine Liturgy Pt. 7 - Tongues & Interpretation

The Divine Liturgy Pt. 7 – Tongues & InterpretationSunday, May 25th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA1 Corinthians 14:1-40
Prayer
O Holy Father we ask that you would now cleanse our tongues and lips from every impurity. Remove far from us vanity and lies, that we might become valiant for the truth on earth. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
For the last two weeks we have been studying the topic of Charismatic Grace. And thus far we have seen from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, that God has given some measure of Charismatic Grace to every person that is united to Jesus Christ, and then each of us are called to steward that grace, our gifts, for the building up of Christ’s body.
We said that a good way to identify our gifts is by looking for where our Desire, our Ability, and the Needs of others all align. Because as members together of one another, our gifts are not given primarily for our own personal benefit, but rather for other people’s benefit (for the common good).
So while Sanctifying Grace is given by God for our own individual salvation, Gratuitous/Charismatic Grace is given to bring other people to salvation.
And this is why in between 1 Corinthians 12 and our text of 1 Corinthians 14, the Apostle Paul dedicates an entire chapter to extolling the spiritual gift that is superior to all others, the best gift, which is charity, or supernatural love.
Charity is that most special love which comes down from God, leads us up to God, unites us to God, and makes us to desire God for everyone else. God is THE GIFT we want to share.
So charity is one of those gifts from the Holy Spirit that is both a Sanctifying Grace to us personally, but it is also the grace that is given to inform, guide, and animate all our lesser gifts.
So while we have been studying the importance of the gifts of Prophecy, and this morning Tongues, we must not forget that these charismatic gifts are a temporary means to an eternal end, whereas Charity is both a means and an end in and of itself. Charity is the best gift to pursue.
This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” And then he says a little later in verses 8-10, “Charity never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.”
Meaning, when we see God face to face, when that perfect vision of God comes, there will be no need for prophecy, or tongues, or preaching, or miracles, or apostles, or evangelists. Because we will have arrived at God who is our destination and First Love. And the charity which unites us to God in this life, will continue to unite us to God in the next. So even faith and hope will pass away, but charity/supernatural love shall remain.
Paul says something very similar about the importance of physical exercise in comparison with spiritual exercise in 1 Timothy 4:8, “For bodily exercise profits a little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
Summary: So in this life we are to be up early busy in God’s gymnasium, cultivating and exercising our spiritual gifts, our virtues, and most of all love which makes us God-like (godly). If love for God and loving people for the sake of God is what your whole life is aimed it (if that is the reason for your existence), then you will know how to use and steward lesser gifts, like prophesy, tongues, or whatever other gifts you may have.
So with all that by way of review and introduction, let us now consider the gifts of Tongues and Interpretation.
Outline
So there are three questions I want to answer in this sermon:
Q1. What is speaking in tongues?
Q2. What is interpretation?
Q3. In what sense are these gifts operative today?
Q#1 – What is speaking in tongues?
As we saw with the gift of prophesy, to speak in tongues can refer to multiple and different activities. And if we survey the Scriptures, we discover there are two main senses in which someone can be said to speak in a tongue. One is supernatural, the other can be merely natural.
1. First as a supernatural gift is what we find at Pentecost in Acts 2. There, the disciples suddenly and miraculously are able to speak in foreign languages.
Let me read to you verses 1-11 of Acts 2 and notice as I read that these are all real human languages they are speaking which other people can understand and interpret. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”
Observe, this is a sudden and miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit, where without any previous study, these Galilean disciples can now speak in the native tongues of other Jews who had been scattered across the empire for the last 700 years (since the exile and diaspora). And because of that scattering, most did not know Hebrew, some of them knew Greek, but each of them was born and raised speaking their own local dialects, whether Aramaic, Persian, Babylonian, Latin, etc.
Observe also the content of what they speak. They hear these disciples speaking the wonderful works of God. The gift of tongues makes you to testify of the gospel and grace of Christ.
Summary: The gift of tongues in the most proper sense is the supernatural ability to speak a new foreign language, without previous study, and the content of what you speak in that language is the wonderful works of God, Christ and His gospel.
Pentecost is of course a fulfillment of what Jesus promised to his disciples in Mark 16, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature… In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues.”
So the whole reason for God giving the disciples this miraculous gift, is so that they can preach the gospel to the ends of the earth as quickly as possible. Christ by His divine power overcomes the natural language barrier between his unlearned Galilean fishermen disciples, and the rest of the known world.
The language barrier that once separated and divided all the nations at Babel (and was a mercy to prevent them from uniting in an evil cause), is not obliterated into everyone speaking one language (Hebrew/Greek/etc.), but rather God gathers in every nation, tribe, and tongue, and sanctifies them.
This is God’s pattern in redemption. He remakes us by using our natural materials. He is the potter; we are the clay. God breathes supernatural life into our soul so that we become pleasing to Him.
So that’s the first and most proper sense in which speaking in tongues is a supernatural gift. You can suddenly speak a new foreign language.
2. And then there is a second and much broader sense in which the Bible describes speaking in tongues, and that is what we find here in 1 Corinthians 14. Here, the Apostle expands the definition of tongues to include anything that is spoken without understanding.
To speak in a tongue is to say anything that is not understood, either by you, or the person hearing, or both.
So notice this definition of tongues can include someone using their supernatural gift of tongues, but it extends to anyone saying anything that is not understood.
We gather this definition from what the Apostle Paul says in verses 9-11, “Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.”
Notice the example Paul gives is of himself hypothetically talking to someone that does not speak the same language as him. They are trying to have a conversation, but they are as barbarians to each other. Perhaps you have experienced this if you have ever traveled to a foreign country.
We find further on in verses 23-24 that to speak in a tongue includes even speaking to someone in the same language but using words or concepts that they do not understand. He refers to two kinds of hearers there, 1) the unlearned (ἰδιώτης) and, 2) the unbeliever.
So the principle is that wherever there is a deficiency or lack of understanding, there the person speaking is as one who speaks in a foreign tongue (whether supernaturally or naturally). And where there is this lack of understanding, the church is not edified.
To illustrate this point, let’s say you received from God the sudden and miraculous ability to speak Hebrew and understand Hebrew. And because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, you can now talk and think and dream in Hebrew like the prophet Isaiah. However, just because you can speak your native tongue, English, and this new language Hebrew, that does not do you any good if the church you are visiting only knows Spanish.
Yes, you have the gift of tongues, and yes you are edified when you speak and pray to God in Hebrew, but that does not do the Spanish-speaking church any good. Which is why Paul says in verse 13, “Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.”
So that was the situation in Corinth. You have multiple churches within the Corinthian church/presbytery, with a bunch of prophets, pastors, teaching, and saints who have these diverse gifts, and also different native tongues within the congregation. And so you have to choose how to conduct a worship service that is decent and with good order in this multi-linguistic environment. Which language are we going to use?
Moreover, Scripture itself was written in three different languages Hebrew, Greek, plus a few sections in Aramaic, and so even reading and hearing Paul’s letter to them probably needed translation to some of those who did not speak Greek.
We see in Acts 21:37 that not everyone spoke Greek in the ancient world, for the soldier questions Paul as to whether he can speak Greek.
Or remember how Pontius Pilate wrote The King of the Jews above Jesus head in three different languages. Because some could speak only Hebrew/Aramaic, some only Greek, some only Latin, etc. And that is normal in large cities even today, they are international hubs, and Corinth was one of these hubs in the ancient world being a port city on the Mediterranean.
So that’s the situation in Corinth that Paul is addressing, a multi-linguistic church that also has the supernatural gift of tongues. And if you have ever visited a church that worships in language foreign to you, you know that the language used in worship is a big deal for whether you can be edified or not. You might be able to catch certain words like Amen, or Hallelujah, but beyond that, you don’t know what you are saying Amen to.
This is what Paul is referring to in verses 14-16 when he says, “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the unlearned say “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say?”
So while tongues is a great and supernatural gift, unless the person you are speaking to understands what is said, they are not built up.
This applies in a similar way for speaking words that you yourself don’t understand. For example, there are Psalms we sing in worship, and passages of Scripture that we hear and read in English, and when we pray and sing our spirit (will) is active, we are saying the words, but unless we understand the Scriptures, our mind (intellect) is unfruitful.
So this is where words are good, reading and speaking and memorizing the Scriptures are good activities, even if you don’t yet understand what you are hearing or saying or praying. That’s where we all start as baby Christians.
But Paul says don’t stay there, “Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”
And so what grows us up into mature Christians is hearing God’s Word, from people who can speak with understanding. People who have the gift of interpretation of prophecy, and can explain the Word to us our who are less learned.
The great and sad irony of the modern Pentecostal redefinition of tongues into a personal prayer language that neither you nor anyone else can understand, is that everyone in the church already speaks English. And then they introduce confusion, by telling people, you are only “spirit-filled” if you can start speaking in gibberish. And then you go to a prayer meeting to “speak in tongues,” and then someone comes up and pretends to interpret by praying in English.
And I say pretend, because nobody has ever taken two Charismatics who claim to have the gift of interpretation, and one person who claims to have the gift of tongues, put the two interpreters in separate rooms, and have them right down what the person speaking in tongues is saying, and then compare their interpretations.
Paul says in verse 10, “There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without signification.” Meaning, if it is really the gift of tongues, then it can be consistently translated by someone else. There is a grammar and syntax and a lexicon we can use. But no such lexicon exists for those claim these gifts.
And so while many in these churches are simply ignorant and well intentioned, it does great spiritual harm to people to tell them they are not really full of the Holy Spirit, unless they can speak in a language no one can understand.
That whole practice is properly speaking non-sensical and it is exactly contrary to what Paul teaches in this chapter.
G.K. Chesterton, who was alive when Modern Pentecostalism was just beginning (early 20th century, Azusa Street Revival was 1906-1915), said of his era more generally, “The eighteenth Century thought itself to be the age of reason; the nineteenth century thought itself to be the age of common sense while the twentieth century can only think of itself as the age of uncommon nonsense.” In many ways he spoke truly.
Summary: There are two kinds of speaking in tongues that we find in Scripture. One is a supernatural ability to speak a new foreign language, and the other is saying anything to anyone that they do not understand.
And this brings us to the need for the gift of interpretation.
Q#2 – What is the gift of interpretation?
This is a much simpler gift to define, because it is what it sounds like. The gift of interpretation is the supernatural ability to interpret, understand, and translate from one language to another.
Paul says in verses 27-28, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God.”
So in Corinth there were people who had the gift of tongues, but not the gift of interpretation. And if they had the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation, then they would be functioning like a prophet, speaking and explaining to others the Word of God.
This is why Paul begins this chapter by saying, “I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification” (vs. 5).
So tongues + interpretation cashes out to prophecy and as Paul says in verse 3, “He who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.”
So when you think of the gift of interpretation, just think of being able to translate from one language to another, or from something hard to understand to something easy to understand. That is a great gift that Paul wants them to have.
Q#3 – In what sense are these gifts operative today?
To answer this, we want to distinguish the way the Bible distinguishes, and that is between sudden and extraordinary gifts of the spirit, like we see at Pentecost in Acts 2, and then the more ordinary and natural gifts that we have also from God to speak, communicate, translate, and give understanding to others.
As for the extraordinary and sudden gift of being able to speak or understand a new foreign language, I am not personally aware of anyone who has received this gift today, but I don’t know every Christian, and I have heard stories from others about missionaries being able to communicate in seemingly miraculous ways.
So as with the gifts of miracles and healing, you don’t ever want to tell God what He cannot do. And God has not said in His Word that miracles or healing, or tongues and interpretation were only for the apostolic age, or only until Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, or only until the Canon was closed. Some have tried to argue for each of those positions, but I don’t think they stand up to scrutiny.
What the Bible does tell us is that the Apostles and Prophets (in the proper sense) were a one time and unique phenomena that laid the foundation of the church, and miraculous signs accompanied their ministry to confirm their divine authority.
It says in Acts 5:12-13, “And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly.”
Paul says in Ephesians 2:20 of the church, “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.”
And then he says in 1 Corinthians 3:11, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
So the outpouring of the spirit at Pentecost was a unique event to help lay the foundation for the church, and you only lay a foundation once. That foundation was laid 2000 years ago, and today we are now building upon it, trying to grow up into mature manhood in Christ.
And so we might ask ourselves, what is more miraculous? What brings more glory to God? That you can suddenly speak a new language, or that you are patient and kind to people who are rude to you.
Jesus says in Matthew 12:39, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.” And so we need to be careful to make God’s priorities our priorities, and it brings glory to God when you work the miracle of charity, of loving people who are not naturally lovely.
Now there is I think a more ordinary sense in which these spiritual gifts are operative today. And that is in the many Christians who are working to translate the Bible from Greek and from Hebrew, or from English, into languages that do not currently have the Scriptures in their native tongue.
According to Wycliffe Bible Translators, there are 7,396 known languages in the world.
756 of those languages have the whole Bible in their native tongue.
Another 3,000 have either the New Testament or some other portions of Scripture that have been translated.
The people who are doing this painstaking, difficult, and sometimes dangerous work, are using their God-given gifts to study, learn, and translate between languages, so that every tongue can speak the wonderful works of God.
So it is in this more ordinary sense that tongues and interpretation are being used today.
Conclusion
The incarnation and death of the Son of God is the greatest act of charity the world will ever know. And God did this because He wants to communicate with us, and he knows we are hard of hearing. He knows we are ignorant and unlearned, and as Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?”
And so Jesus did by His actions, what our words struggle to express. And as John says at the very end of his gospel, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”
So behold upon the cross the death of Christ for sinners. Behold the empty tomb that justifies the ungodly. For that is the content, the message and the wonderful work of God that purchases our salvation. And may every tongue confess this truth, to the glory of God the Father.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Sermon: The Divine Liturgy Pt. 6 - Prophets & Prophecy (1 Corinthians 14)

The Divine Liturgy Pt. 6 – Prophets & ProphecySunday, May 18th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA1 Corinthians 14:1-40
Prayer
Father, we ask now that by the preaching of Your Word, we may grow up together in maturity, thoroughly equipped for every good work. We ask for Your Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our understanding, and we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Last week we considered the gift of Charismatic Grace, and we observed that all Christians who are united to Christ Jesus, receive from Him some spiritual gift (or gifts), which are intended to build up (edify) Christ’s body, the church.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.”
And in Ephesians 4:7, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
And again in 1 Peter 4:10 it says, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
And so we learned that all of us have some spiritual gift to steward for the good of others, and we can try to identify our gift (or gifts) by asking: Where does our Desire, our Ability, and the Needs of others all line up?
Where does my 1) Desire to bless others, 2) my Ability to bless others, and 3) the Need for someone to blessed all find harmony? Because that is where spiritual gifts most frequently reside.
God has so designed the body to function as a diversity within unity, as distinct members with different functions who are all united together for the common good. This is what Christian community should look like.
And so Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 13 to describe that bond of unity, which is supernatural love, also known as charity.
Unlike natural and ordinary love which even unbelievers have for themselves and their children, charity has God as for its object and loves other people for the sake of God. Charity is supernatural love in that we receive it from above as a gift of grace, and by it we can are able to love people who are not naturally loveable.
And this is why Paul says that charity is the best of all spiritual gifts, and without it all the other charismatic graces profit us nothing.
He says in 1 Corinthians 13:2-3, “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing.” And then he concludes his exaltation of love in verse 13 by saying, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
So where there is supernatural love animating our spiritual gifts, there you will find peace, order, and unity. But where there is envy, pride, and selfish desire, there you will find confusion, disputing, and every evil work (James 3:16).
So Paul is writing to correct and instruct the Corinthian presbytery, the churches in Corinth, in how to use their spiritual gifts. And having established the primacy and superiority of love as the best gift, he then dedicates all of chapter 14 to explaining how the gifts of prophecy and tongues are to be used in the church.
And so this morning will consider the gift of prophecy, and then next week we’ll consider the gift of tongues. And we will not actually spend very much time in 1 Corinthians 14 this morning because we need to do quite a lot background work in other parts of Scripture before we can rightly interpret it. So this sermon will be setting the stage for addressing tongues and other spiritual gifts next week.
Outline
So there are three questions I want to answer in this sermon:
Q1. What is a prophet?
Q2. How is a true prophet distinguished from a false prophet?
Q3. In what sense if any may someone be called a prophet today?
Q#1 – What is a prophet?
We read in 1 Samuel 9:9, “(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: ‘Come, let us go to the seer’; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.)”
So the Bible itself gives us an origin story for why prophets are called prophets. And it was because they had a supernatural ability to see, with sight being a metaphor for knowing.
So a seer receives divine inspiration that lifts up the eyes of the mind, and then they receive divine revelation to understand what they saw.
And so a seer was a person with knowledge (intellectual sight) of things divine. And thus, before they were called prophets they were called by this action of seeing, they were seers.
Now what exactly did these seers see? When we study the writings of the prophets (whether Moses, or David, or Isaiah), we discover that there are two unique senses in which they have supernatural sight.
1. They can see events far off in the future that only God could know and reveal (e.g. the destruction of Jerusalem, the virgin birth, the kingdom of God, etc.).
2. And/or they can see truths that surpass the powers of human reason to know (things like how the unity of the divine essence is Triune, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or how the Son of God would become incarnate, the hypostatic union, or the plan of salvation, etc.).
So knowledge of future events and/or knowledge of things that surpass human reason are the basis for which seers/prophets get their name.
DEFINITION: A prophet in the widest and most basic sense is someone who receives from God supernatural knowledge. And then usually that knowledge is preached or taught and communicated to others for their edification, and in some special cases, that knowledge is written down such that it became what we now call Scripture.
Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
And it says in 2 Peter 1:19-21, “We have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
Summarize: What is a prophet? A prophet is someone who sees/knows things by supernatural revelation. They do not speak from their own personal/private opinion but are mouth pieces for God. This is why they usually begin their prophecies with some form of, “Thus saith the Lord.” Or, “the word of the Lord came to me.” Or, “Hear now what the Lord says.”
So a prophet speaks as an ambassador and messenger of heaven. And insofar as he prophesies, He is inspired and infallible, but insofar as he speaks not in the spirit, he is just another man and can err.
For example, David was an inspired prophet who wrote many Psalms, but that did not make his decrees as a king infallible, and in fact he often sinned and sinned grievously despite being a prophet. The same could be said for Solomon who also wrote Scripture but fell into idolatry. So it possible for a man to be a true prophet, and also fall into grievous sin, and yet that sin does not nullify the truth of what he spoke by divine inspiration.
This brings us to question 2.
Q#2 – How then is a true prophet distinguished from a false prophet?
Answer: God himself gives various tests to determine a prophet’s authenticity.
In the New Testament we have Jesus saying in Matthew 7:15-16, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
And the Apostle John says in 1 John 2:22, “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
So here are two initial criteria to judge the true from the false: 1) they have fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc.), and 2) they acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ and eternal Son from the Father.
By those two criteria, are excluded a bunch of false religions (like modern Judaism, Islam, atheism, secularism, etc.), and many sub-Christian cults like Mormons, Jehovah’s witnesses, oneness Pentecostals, and other heretical sects that claim to be Christian but are not.
Moreover, we have also in Deuteronomy two others tests for whether a prophet is true or false.
We heard earlier in the service from Deuteronomy 18:21-22 which says, “And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
And then earlier in Deuteronomy 13:1-5 it says, “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.”
So those are the tests for a prophet’s authenticity:
1. Does what he prophesies come to pass like he said it would? If not, false prophet. And by that criterion alone hundreds and thousands of so-called prophets, TV preachers, and charlatans are excluded. Do not listen to them.
Now if what they foretell does come to pass like they said it would, still there is a second test.
2. Does he speak of and lead you to the one true God (Jesus the Christ) or does he entice you immorality, or to worship other gods?
Only the person who can both tell the future accurately and leads you to the one true God are true prophets. The rest are liars or deceivers or presumptuous and according to the Law of God, worthy of execution, “purge out the evil from your midst.”
Notice how seriously God punishes false prophets. Under the law of Moses, it was a criminal act, a civil crime worthy of the death penalty to speak lies in the name of the Lord.
Listen to what God says to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 13, “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’ ” Thus says the Lord God: “Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!” They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord!’ But the Lord has not sent them; yet they hope that the word may be confirmed. Have you not seen a futile vision, and have you not spoken false divination? You say, ‘The Lord says,’ but I have not spoken.” Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you,” says the Lord God. “My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God.”
So the irony is that these false prophets are receiving from Ezekiel true prophecy, and the true prophecy is that they are false and going to be punished for their lies.
So there are true prophets like Ezekiel with morally upright lives, there are true prophets like David and Solomon who sometimes fall into grievous sin, there are false prophets who are evil and speaks lies, and then there is this other category of people who are also called prophets, but they don’t write Scripture, some of them aren’t even believers, and yet they are called prophets in some analogous and derivative sense. And this brings us to our third question which is…
Q#3 – In what sense if any may someone be called a prophet today?
If you were to lookup every single instance of the word prophet and prophecy in the Bible, and then organized and categorized all those instances, you would discover that there are four main senses in which someone may be called a prophet. And we distinguish them according to 4 qualities. A prophet in the truest and fullest sense has all 4 of these qualities, but some are called prophets who only possess one or two of these qualities. So what exactly are those qualities? As we have seen already:
1. A prophet receives Supernatural Revelation.
2. A prophet is given Understanding of that revelation.
3. A prophet Communicates/Speaks that knowledge to others.
4. A prophet Works Signs or Miracles to confirm that God has spoken through them.
To give some you some examples of this range of people called prophets in the Bible, let’s start with someone who has all four of these qualities, namely Moses.
God himself distinguishes Moses from other lesser prophets by saying to Aaron and Miriam (who were challenging Moses authority), “Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:6-8).
And then the book of Deuteronomy concludes with this later postscript about Moses saying, “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, In all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.” (Deut. 34:10-12).
So Moses is what we would call a capital P Prophet. He is the greatest of the prophets before Christ, and He possesses all four of these qualities in great measure.
1. Moses received Supernatural Revelation directly from God, which we now call Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses received, wrote, and edited the first books of Scripture.
2. He was given understanding of that revelation such that the Lord Jesus could say in John 5:46, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” In other words, Moses understood he was writing about Christ.
3. Moses had courage to communicate God’s Word to Pharoah, to Israel, to many people who did not actually want to hear what God had to say.
4. Moses worked many signs and wonders and miracles as Egypt was destroyed, the red sea was parted, food came from heaven, water came from the rock.
Now if Moses as greatest of the prophets has all four qualities, consider some men who are also called prophets, but lacked some of those qualities.
Take some of the minor prophets for example, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Habakkuk, or even John the Baptist. These were men who received divine revelation, understood what they saw and preached it to others, but performed no miracles.
Or take Joseph, who also worked no miracles, but he was given a special ability to interpret/understand other peoples’ dreams and then foretell the future. It says in Genesis 41:16, “So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, ‘It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.’”
Daniel likewise was a prophet who did not work miracles, but was given visions and dreams, some which he could interpret, and some which he could not.
He says in Daniel 8:27, “I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it” and in Daniel 12:8, “I heard, but I understood not.”
Or to take a more strange example consider the prophet Nebuchadnezzar. He is the proud and unbelieving king of Babylon. He has dreams and visions he cannot interpret. But God turns him into a beast for a time, converts him, and then he authors a chapter of Scripture describing his conversion and giving glory to God. Daniel chapter 4.
Summary: There are prophets who just see things but don’t understand. There are prophets who do understand but don’t see things in a vision of dream. There are prophets who write Scripture and there are many prophets who don’t. All Scripture is inspired prophecy, but not all prophecy becomes Scripture.
And if that was not complicated enough, you then have at the bottom of the barrel people who are called prophets but only derivatively or by distant analogy. These prophets have only 1 quality and it is that they speak divine truth (often without understanding what they are saying).
These are people like King Saul, Balaam, (we might also add Balaam’s donkey), Caiaphas the High Priest.
It says in John 11:49-51, “And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation.”
So notice, the Bible calls one of the men who wanted Jesus dead, a prophet.
Balaam likewise was a man who had no love for the Lord, he was a prophet for hire and was hired by Balak King of Moab to curse Israel. However, God made Balaam to prophesy truth, blessing, and the coming of Christ which Moses then wrote down and included in Scripture (see Numbers 22-24).
And then you have King Saul, who even in the midst of hunting down David to kill him becomes a prophet. It says in 1 Samuel 19:22-24, “Saul asked, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah. And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Summary: Not all prophets are created equal. There are capital P Prophets and there are lower case p prophets. Some are called and ordained to the office of Prophet, like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. And then some like Caiaphas, or Balaam, prophesy truth, but as Jesus says in Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
So this difference of degree and gradation of prophets and prophecy helps explain what we find in 1 Corinthians and the rest of the New Testament.
And so to answer our question directly, “In what sense if any may someone be called a prophet today?”
To this we may answer there are two senses in which someone may be called a prophet today, and both are by way of analogy and participation, and not by identity. If you forgot what an analogy is, it is naming one thing by way of likeness to another.
The Bible does this all the time, even with a name like God/Elohim. Elohim in Hebrew is grammatically plural, but in English we translate it in the singular as God when God is the one speaking or acting. But there are many places where Elohim refers to created beings like angels, or kings, or judges in Israel. The Bible calls all of them Elohim, with God being the true and proper Elohim, and then angels and men only by analogy or participation.
So what are the two senses in which someone may be called a prophet by analogy/participation today?
1. All Christians may be called prophets by analogy inasmuch as they speak the Word of God to others. Just as Scripture calls many people prophets who only speak the Word of God just so we may call those prophets who have received the Scriptures, speak the Scriptures, sing the Scriptures, and pray the Scriptures.
To this we could also add that every Sunday all the saints prophesy when we recite together the Nicene Creed. For in it we foretell future events, “He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end,” and “I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” When we confess that we foretell the future truly!
It is in this broad sense of prophetic inspiration that Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” And Moses speaks of the new covenant age when he says in Numbers 11:29, “TOh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”
When you speak of Jesus as the Scriptures speaks of Jesus (as Lord and Christ, and future judge of the world), you are speaking in the Holy Spirit the very Word of God, and in that sense all Christian who recite God’s Word are in that moment infallible prophets.
2. The second sense in which someone may be called a prophet by analogy is as someone who possesses the spiritual gift of interpreting, explaining, and preaching the Word of God to others.
And this is the sense in which Paul is describing prophets and the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14.
We know this because earlier in 1 Corinthians 11:5, he says, “But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head.” But then in 1 Corinthians 14:34, he says, “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.”
So how is it that a woman can pray and prophesy in church and has to wear a headcovering when she does, but she is also not permitted to speak? Is Paul contradicting himself? No. He is just using prophecy in the same two senses I just listed.
A woman prays and prophesies with everyone else as she participates in the singing of psalms, the responsive reading of Scripture, the praying of Scripture, and so forth. Woman is a coheir together with man in Christ (1 Peter 3:7). But what she is forbidden to do is exercise the office of a public prophet who preaches in the church.
For as Paul says also in 1 Timothy 2:11-12, “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.”
And Paul knows that some people will think he is being too patriarchal or chauvinistic, so right after he prohibits women prophesying as public teachers, he says in 1 Corinthians 14:37, “If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.”
So if a woman today wants to claim to be a pastor or preacher or prophet, Paul says, then let her acknowledge what the Lord has commanded, because if she was a true prophet, she would know better.
These are hard words for our egalitarian age to hear, and yet these are the words of the Lord, His inspired and infallible commands.
Conclusion
The Apostle John who was the last and final capital P Prophet to author Scripture records in Revelation 19:10 that, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” And so while we might be tempted to take offense that women are not allowed to exercise the gift of prophecy in the church, remember what the whole point of this gift is for. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:3, it is for edification, exhortation, and consolation.
By hearing about the person of Jesus we are edified. He is our cornerstone.
By hearing his instructions in morals and how to order our life we receive exhortation.
And by hearing his promises that he will never leave us or forsake us and is preparing a place for us in His Father’s house, we receive heavenly consolation.
And so I close with the words of Romans 15:4-6, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And Amen.

Sermon: The Divine Liturgy Pt. 5 - Charismatic Grace

The Divine Liturgy Pt. 5 – Charismatic GraceSunday, May 11th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA1 Corinthians 12:1–31
Prayer
O Father, we praise You for Your Son, and for His mystical body into which we have been baptized. We praise you because Your church is fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works, and that our soul knows very well. Remove from us now all sin and ignorance, grant to us knowledge and virtue, that we might be good stewards of your grace, for we ask this all in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Children, I have a true story to tell you. When I was little, maybe 7 or 8 years old. I went to church with my parents, and I was sitting in the pew, just like you are right now, listening to the pastor talk. When all of a sudden, the pastor tore a page out of his Bible, crumpled it up, put it in his mouth, and then ate it! Now is that crazy? I think it’s crazy. I thought it was crazy back then, and I still think it is crazy today. And yet, sometimes God tells His prophets and apostles to do crazy things.
The prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:1) and the Apostle John (Rev. 10:9) were both told to eat the word of God while they were in a vision. And so while they did not literally have to eat a scroll or a book, what they did have to do was understand and digest and become one with God’s Word so that they could preach it to others.
Now there were other times when the prophets did have to literally/really do some uncomfortable things. And that was their special job and assignment from God. For example:
Isaiah had to walk naked (at least partially naked) and barefoot as a sign of warning and judgment (Isaiah 20). It says in Isaiah 20:2-4, “At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, And put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot Three years for a sign and wonder Upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, Young and old, naked and barefoot, Even with their buttocks uncovered, To the shame of Egypt.”
So sometimes, God tells the prophet to do something crazy in order to get his message across. Isaiah’s nakedness was a sign of future judgment upon Egypt, and a warning not to trust Egypt and their nakedness, but to trust God instead.
Likewise, God told the Prophet Ezekiel to shave the hair off his head and his beard and then burn it. And this was to be a sign of God’s fiery judgment on Jerusalem (Ezekiel 5). Ezekiel also had to lay on his left side for 390 days, and then lay on his right side for 40 days, as a sign of the siege warfare to come upon Israel and Judah (Ezekiel 4).
The Prophet Jeremiah had to take off his undergarment (his loincloth or girdle) and hide it in the hole of a rock. And then after many days, God said to him, “Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing” (Jer. 13:6-13).
So sometimes God tells his prophets to do crazy things, but He always has a good reason for doing so. The Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:8), and that He desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). Therefore, in addition to the grace that sanctifies us, and makes us into Christians, God also gives to his saints another kind of grace, a grace that we call charismatic grace, which is given to lead other people to repentance and salvation.
The Old Testament Prophets are just one example of such extraordinarily gifted saints, and what we find in the New Testament and in our text of 1 Corinthians 12, is that God has given a measure of grace to everyone that is a member of Christ’s body. This charismatic grace often goes by the name of spiritual gifts, and it is those gifts that shall be our focus this morning.
And so as we conclude our series on the The Divine Liturgy, our study of worship, I want us to consider three questions that arise from 1 Corinthians 12 which is all about charismatic grace.
Outline
Q1. What is charismatic grace (or the charismatic gifts)?
Q2. How does God intend for our different gifts to work together?
Q3. How can you identify and steward the particular gifts that God has given to you?
Q#1 – What is charismatic grace (or the charismatic gifts)?
Note first the purpose for which Paul is writing 1 Corinthians 12 (and the chapters that follow). He says in verse 1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.”
Meaning, although the Corinthian church already had and were using spiritual gifts, still they were ignorant of God’s intention and purpose for bestowing them. And therefore because of their ignorance and immaturity, they were actually abusing and misusing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What God had given to build up and unite them, was being used to destroy and divide them.
So Paul is writing to reform the Corinthian church’s use and understanding of the spiritual gifts.
Now where do we get this word charismatic from?
Well, our English words charisma and charismatic come directly from the Greek word “χάρισμα,” and its plural form, “χαρισμάτων.”
In Greek, Χάρισμα signifies a gift freely given, or a favor that is bestowed.
For example, in verse 4 of our text, Paul says, “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” And there the Greek word for gifts is just this plural form of charisma, χαρισμάτων.
So when we use this phrase charismatic grace, or charismatic gifts, we are emphasizing the gratuitous or gracious nature of the gift that was given (it is gracious grace). And indeed, our English word for grace is how we translate the Greek word χάρις in the New Testament.
For example, in John 1:16 it says of Christ, “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” In Greek it says, “καὶ χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος.” So if your name is Karen, or Karis, those are both derived from this Greek word for grace.
So when we say charismatic grace, or as Paul says in verse 4, the χαρισμάτων from the Spirit (Πνεῦμα), spiritual gifts, we are emphasizing that this is a grace given over and above the grace of salvation that we all received at conversion.
Now what exactly is grace? Grace at the most basic level is God’s action in man that leads to salvation. And what we see from Paul in verses 4-6 is that while grace is one in essence since it comes from the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, still there are a diversity of effects that result from receiving this one grace.
And so unlike the grace/gift of faith, which is common to all the elect, and without which none can please God (Heb. 11:6), the grace of which Paul is speaking here is not given to everyone. These are gratuitous gifts that are given over and above what is necessary for own salvation.
Indeed, the whole purpose of these gifts is not primarily to benefit us, but rather to benefit and build up others. Charismatic grace has an outward focus on the common good of the whole body, whereas the Corinthians were using them to show off and distinguish themselves in pride.
Paul describes this outward focus in verses 4-7, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.”
That phrase, “profit withal” is just King James for “the common good.”
To Summarize: There is one grace of the Holy Spirit even as there is One God from which all blessings flow. However, we distinguish this one grace according to the diversity of its effects. For example:
All believers receive the same and common grace of faith to believe on the Lord Jesus, and so we call that Sanctifying/Saving Grace. Grace that saves us as individuals.
Charismatic Grace on the other hand is grace given over and above Sanctifying Grace, and it is given to lead other people to salvation and to build up Christ’s body.
Sanctifying Grace saves us, Charismatic Grace is used by God to save others.
And so Paul wants the Corinthians (and us) to acknowledge this common unity of source, this unity of grace’s essence as coming from the same Holy Spirit, even though on the ground and in the church and in each person, the effects of grace can often look very different. This is a feature of grace and not a bug.
And so he goes on in verses 8-11 to describe that diversity within unity, how grace is one in essence but diverse in its effects. And this leads us to question 2.
Q#2 – How does God intend for our different gifts to work together?
In verses 8-11 he describes some of the different charismatic gifts. And then in verses 12-27 he develops this analogy (this picture) of the church as Christ’s body. And so the way God intends for us to use our diversity of gifts, is just like how the body is one but is composed of many different and essential parts (ears, eyes, nose, feet, etc.). And then after he gives this analogy of the body, he describes in verses 28-31 the hierarchy and order of how God has arranged the body, first apostles, then prophets, then teachers, and so forth.
And so while we don’t have to time to explain this whole chapter, I want us to look at just some of the charismatic gifts in verses 8-11 so we can understand their purpose and function in the body. And note, this is just a partial list, not a comprehensive list, and we know this because in Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4 we find other gifts mentioned.
So starting in verse 8 Paul says, “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom.”
This word of wisdom (λόγος σοφίας) refers to the ability to teach others supernatural truths (the Trinity, the Incarnation, the sacraments, things that are above reason).
Jesus speaks of this gift in Luke 21:15 when he says to the apostles, “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.”
And the Apostle Paul who was preeminent in this gift amongst the apostles says in 1 Corinthians 2:6-7, “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.”
So this word of wisdom is the supernatural ability to persuade others and explain to the saints (especially the mature), the highest form of wisdom: namely knowledge of God, or as we call it today theology. The theologian is the one gifted with this word of wisdom.
He then says also in verse 8, “to another the word of knowledge [is given] by the same Spirit.”
This word of knowledge (λόγος γνώσεως) most likely refers to knowledge of created things, or what we might call natural revelation.
Calvin comments on this verse saying, “Let us then take knowledge as meaning ordinary information, and wisdom, as including revelations that are of a more secret and sublime order.”
St. Augustine likewise says, “Wisdom refers to the knowledge of divine things, and knowledge to human science.”
So the person with the word of knowledge can deploy their knowledge of creation to lead people to knowledge of the Creator. This might be the Christian biologist, the Christian historian, the Christian philosopher, grammarian, novelist, artist, musician, chemist, etc. who has a special gift of communicating, teaching, and persuading others using knowledge they might have acquired from decades of careful study.
To use an Old Testament idea, this is the Israelites spoiling the Egyptians. God takes the good things that Egypt had acquired but then purifies and sanctifies those natural gifts for use in His Holy Tabernacle.
For example, Paul prior to his conversion, was the most zealous and learned of all Pharisees, a certified genius. And when God converted Paul, he did not wipe and erase his memory or remove his zeal, instead he gave him these gifts of wisdom and knowledge and then sent him back out to use his learning and zeal in service of the Christians he formerly persecuted. This is God’s way of redeeming and using even our old life in service of His glory. To some he gives the word of knowledge.
Next in verse 9 he says, “To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit.”
Here the gift of faith is not saving faith which is common to all Christians but is either the ability to teach and “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3), or alternatively it is the gift of extraordinary faith by which signs, wonders, and answers to prayer are accomplished.
We might think of Jesus words to the woman in Matthew 15:28 where he says, “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”
Or we might think of Elijah, of which James 5:16 says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
And of Joshua who had faith to tell the sun to stand still. It says in Joshua 10:12-13, “Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; And thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, Until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.”
And so to some in the church God gives this extraordinary faith, faith that believes God for great and mighty things, things which give glory not to the person, but to God.
Now the rest of the gifts listed here are mostly straightforward, so I will not explain all of them.
The gift of healing is the special ability to heal. Both Peter and Paul possessed this gift (Acts 3, Acts 5:16, Acts 28).
In verse 10 it says, “To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues.”
And what I want you to notice is that contrary to many Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, who insist that all believers need a “second blessing” to speak in tongues, this special ability to speak in other languages is not given to all believers.
Paul says this very explicitly in verses 29-30, “Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” These are rhetorical questions wherein the answer to each of them is No!
It is good to desire these gifts, and indeed we are encouraged to desire them. But remember that God is the one who distributes to each according his ability, to each a measure of grace. And this leads us to our third and final question which is…
Q3. How can you identify and steward the particular gifts that God has given to you?
First of all, note that if you belong to the body of Christ, if you have been baptized (1 Cor. 12:13), the Bible says that you have received some measure of charismatic grace. It might be a tiny measure, or a great measure, but it is a measure, nonetheless. Every Christian has some gift to use in service of the body.
In 1 Peter 4:10 it says, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
In Jesus’ Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:15 it says, the master gave to his servants, “each according to his ability.”
And so in the Old Testament, the prophets received more than anyone this charismatic grace, and often it came with the burden and duty of doing crazy things for God, usually resulting in persecution and/or martyrdom.
So if you want to be gifted in an extraordinary way, there’s a good chance you are also going to suffer in an extraordinary way. This is the testimony of Christ who had the fullness of the spirit and all the gifts, and it is the testimony of the apostles who in the New Testament received extraordinary gifts and were therefore set first in the hierarchy of the church.
And so while God does call and equip certain men for the ordained offices of Pastor, Ruling Elder, and Deacon, still the officers in the church are not the whole body, they are members just like you with a unique gift and ministry assigned to them. We all need one another and will have to give an account to Christ for how we stewarded His grace.
And so how do you identify your spiritual gifts? Or we might say, how do you get in touch with your charismatic side?
Well, there are three questions you can use to take inventory. And they revolve around Desire, Need, and Ability.
1. What good do I desire to do for others?
2. What are the needs of others that I tend to notice?
3. What ability do I have to meet those needs?
And when the answer to all three of those questions are in harmony, there is a good chance you have discovered your spiritual gift.
Let me give you a few examples of how this might play out.
Let’s say you have a desire to make things beautiful. And you notice that this church is not the most beautiful building in Centralia. And so you notice there is a need for beauty at Christ Covenant Church, and while you would like to worship in a beautiful cathedral with stained glass windows, you don’t have $20 million to spare. But what you do have are some flowers in your garden. And so you cut some flowers, put them in a vase, and bring them to church.
What spiritual gift is that? We would probably say that is the spiritual gift of hospitality, or generosity. And if you are ever unsure about what to call your spiritual gift, Paul dedicates a whole chapter (1 Corinthains 13) to the best of all spiritual gifts which is charity.
So if you are not sure what to call your gift, read 1 Corinthians 13 and see if it meets the rubric there for charity. Charity is the gift that God intended to actually animate and inform all the other gifts. Paul goes so far as to say, “without charity I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2). And elsewhere he says, even our faith works by love (Gal. 5:6).
To give you another example. Let’s say you have a heart for the downcast, for the hurting. You want there to be more joy and life and peace in the church. Moreover, you have walked with the Lord through many hard trials of your own, and like Job, have seen the good end God intends for all his saints. And so when someone in the church has a baby that dies, or receives a terminal cancer diagnosis, or is just having hard time at work, or in their marriage. You have the ability to come alongside them, and as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:4, “comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
You are the person with the gift of encouragement. You are like Barnabas, whose name means “son of consolation” (Acts 4:36).
A final example, consider the men who volunteer in the sound booth every Sunday. They have a desire for the church to be able to hear the sermon, hear the prayers and singing, and Scripture reading. That’s a good desire and we all have that need, some of us being harder at hearing than others. And while none of these men have a master’s degree in audio engineering, they are willing to learn, willing to try, willing to serve, and it is that willingness to come early and sit at the booth, that is a great gift to all of us. They are special set of ears for the body.
Conclusion
Not everyone is called to be a prophet and to do crazy things for God. And for that we can be thankful that God has given extraordinary charismatic grace to some for our benefit and example.
But we must not overlook that we also have received grace upon grace. We are members of the same body, who are united to the same Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus, and we have received from the same Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son some measure of grace of which we must be good stewards.
So ask yourself those three questions: Where does your desire, the need, and your abilities line up? And then start to cultivate those gifts, desire more gifts, and as it says in 1 Peter 4:8-10, “And above all things have fervent charity for one another, for charity will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
May God grant us this charity to build each other up in love, even as Christ has loved us, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The Divine Liturgy Pt. 4 - A Theology of Singing (Colossians 3:16)

The Divine Liturgy Pt. 4 – A Theology of SingingSunday, April 20th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WAColossians 3:16
Prayer
O Father, we thank You for the new life you have given us in Christ. Teach us to put off the old man with his sinful ways and put on the new, as elect of God, holy and beloved. We ask for your merciful Spirit to be among us now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Every Lord’s Day we sing ten songs in our worship service. Ten. And I think, that’s a lot of singing because my voice is usually tired by the end (or depending on the songs sometimes halfway through). But then add to those ten songs our monthly Psalm Sing. On the first Sunday of every month, we sing ten songs here in the service, and then we go over to the Fellowship Hall and Joe teaches us to sing some new songs, we sing old favorites, and sometimes we even try to learn parts (emphasis on the try)!
Recently the teenagers and the children have decided that all this singing is not enough, and so they have requested (and been given permission) to have another Psalm Sing of their own. And so these Psalty Youngbloods, as they are called, meet in the sanctuary after service and sing some more.
Add to that also the CKA school choir, their morning Capella, the men’s Reformation Roundtable, and even our Ladies Fellowship has some singing at it. When the elders gather every Tuesday morning for our elder meeting we begin with a song.
Why all this singing? Why so much of it? The answer is: Because we are Christians. And Christians are the people who have resurrection hope. We were dead and now we are alive. And so really the question ought to be: How can we not sing given all that God in Christ has done for us?!
It says in 1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
It says in Psalm 30:11-12, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, To the end [for the purpose] that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”
And so, when God’s mercy grabbed hold of you in your pitiful miserable state, His mercy begot you again to a living hope. And so for the Christian, the question is not Why all this singing?, the question is, How can we not sing given all that God has done for us in the past, is doing for us in the present, and has promised to do for us in the future?
It says in 2 Peter 1:3, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.”
Paul says in Romans 8:32, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
So when you have been given and promised everything good in the whole universe, and when you have the Supreme Good in whom all other goods live and move and have their being, you cannot help but sing to the Lord with joy and thanksgiving and praise.
And so, because singing is such an essential element of our worship, and an essential quality of the Christian life, it is most fitting that on this Resurrection Easter Sunday, as we are in the middle of our series on worship and liturgy, I give to you A Theology of Singing. The what, the why, and the how of singing Psalms unto the Lord.
Outline
1. First, I will answer the question What is singing? And more specifically the singing of Psalms.
2. Second, we’ll consider the Why of Psalm Singing, why do we prioritize the singing of Scripture and the Psalter instead of other songs we might sing.
3. Third, we’ll consider the How of Psalm Singing. In what manner does Scripture tell us to sing psalms unto the Lord?
Question #1 – What is singing?
At the most basic level, singing is glorified speech. It is words elevated and set to music.
And so just as our words when directed to God are called prayer. So also, music and singing that is directed to God is prayer glorified, prayer set to music.
St. Thomas defines a song as “the exultation of a mind, dwelling on things eternal, breaking forth aloud.” So just as prayer is the ascent of the mind to God, so singing is the ascent of the mind, together with music, breaking forth in praise.
David sings in Psalm 141:2, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense.” And so to apply this image to singing, our words are like the spices, and the music and singing is like the fire that causes those spices to ascend to God as a pleasing fragrance.
Now recall from last week that our whole worship service is a back-and-forth dialog between God and man, between Christ and the Church, between Minister and Congregation. And since all our worship is initiated by God and a response to what God does first, that means God is a singing God. God is singing to us as we are singing to Him. Indeed, this is what the Scriptures explicitly tell us.
God says in Zephaniah 3:14, 17, “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; Be glad and rejoice with all the heart…The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”
Likewise in Hebrews 2:11-12, the risen Lord Jesus is identified as the cantor (or Chief Musician) in the church. It says, “For both he that sanctifieth [referring to Christ] and they who are sanctified [you and I] are all of one: for which cause he [Jesus] is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.”
And so Jesus Christ is the one who sings to his brothers within the congregation, and we are his instruments. And so just as it is Christ who preaches through the minister, so also it is Christ who is singing through our Chief Musician, and in all who respond to his voice “in Christ.”
Earlier in Hebrews 1:3, it says that Christ is “the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of his person, and [he is] upholding all things by the word of his power.” And so if singing is words glorified, and Christ is the word of God and the Lord of Glory, it is most reasonable to imagine that it is God’s singing that is presently upholding all things in their being. The whole cosmos has been formed by the divine logos, and that logos is the glorified and sung Word from the Father.
It is interesting that both C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, Christian authors who created fictional worlds, Narnia and Middle-Earth respectively, both describe the creation of their worlds as being sung into existence.
Tolkien describes this I think very beautifully in the Silmarillion where the Ainur-Holy Ones (angels) sing the themes that Iluvatar-The One (God) assigns to them. And then evil comes when Melkor (the chief of the Ainur), starts to interweave his own thoughts and ideas into the music that was assigned to him. And so evil is described as a kind of musical discord between angelic beings, it is a war of sounds. And the people who are good are those who know how to sing their part assigned by the Creator. They are participating in the music if God.
That is very helpful way (I find) of thinking about singing. It is learning to sing in tune with the angels, rather than following the discord of the devil.
God says to Job at the great climax of that book, Job 38:4-7, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
And so if God says there was singing from the angels at creation, when the foundations of the earth were laid, it should not surprise us that the same Spirit that created the world, is now recreating us through singing.
Recall that prayer is how our will becomes conformed to God’s will (not my will but Yours be done). And therefore, glorified prayer, singing, is where we say in essence, “not my song, but Yours be sung.” Conform the melody and music of my heart to Yours O God. Tune my heart to sing thy praise.
Summary: So singing the psalms is prayer glorified, it is a re-creative, regenerative action of God’s indwelling Word and Spirit. Moreover, singing is how we participate in God making all things new. We sing God’s thoughts after Him.
So if that is the what of singing, let us consider further the content of our singing, why do we sing the psalms more than anything else?
Questions #2 – Why sing the psalms?
Colossians 3:1616Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:18-1918And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;19Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
Notice there is this triad in both Ephesians and Colossians of, “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” And while you might be tempted to think that the psalms refers to the 150 Psalms, and then hymns refers to Christian hymns like Amazing Grace, and then spiritual songs refers to, I don’t know, Bethel, Hillsong, modern worship music, that simply cannot be what either of these texts are talking about, and this can be proved with great certainty.
First of all, note that Paul says in Colossians 3:16, “let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” and then the rest of the verse is an explanation of how the Word of Christ gets inside of us, it is by singing to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
And so whatever this triad refers to, it has to be inspired by God such that it can be called “the Word of Christ.” In other words, you have to find these songs in either the Old or New Testament.
Now Paul wrote Ephesians and Colossians while imprisoned in Rome in AD 60, about 30 years after Christ’s resurrection. And yet you will notice that in the New Testament, there is no new book of songs for us to sing. There is no book in the New Testament called, “Hymns for Christians and Spiritual Songs.” And so Paul has to be referring to the Jewish Psalter which the Colossians could actually sing, and not to songs that are yet to be written for another 1800 years.
Indeed, we find within the Old Testament book of Psalms, the same three Greek words that Paul uses, ψαλμοῖς (psalms), ὕμνοις (hymns), and ᾠδαῖς (odes/spiritual songs), in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Psalter.
To give you just one example, the heading of Psalm 76 reads in English, “To the Chief Musician. On Stringed Instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.”
In the Greek translation of Psalm 76, it says: “Εἰς τὸ τέλος, ἐν ὕμνοις, ψαλμὸς τῷ Ασαφ, ᾠδὴ πρὸς τὸν Ἀσσύριον” Literally, “to the end, in hymns, a psalm of Asaph, a song against Assyria.”
So for Greek speaking Christians (like the Colossians and Ephesians) who used the Greek translation of the Hebrew Psalter, here in Psalm 76 we have what is called, “a psalm, hymn, and spiritual song.” And that is what Paul is commanding them to sing.
Now it is not for redundancy that these different titles are used, psalm, hymn and spiritual song. Each of those words emphasizes or signifies something different.
For example, it is most likely that a Psalm refers to song that is to set to the psaltery, which was a stringed instrument.  
For example, it says in Psalm 81:2, “Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, The pleasant harp with the psaltery.” And Psalm 33:2 says, “Praise the Lord with harp: Sing unto him with the psaltery, an instrument of ten strings.”
And because music set to the Psaltery is most common and prominent, the whole book became known as the Book of Psalms, as Peter calls it in Acts 1:20.
So a “psalm” in the most proper and narrow sense is a song set to the psaltery, an instrument.
A hymn on the other hand most likely refers to a song of praise. So while “psalm” signifies the music or instrument that accompanies the words, a “hymn” signifies the contents or mood of the song, which is to emphasize praise of God.
For example in Psalm 40:3 it says, “He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God.” And the Greek psalter translates the Hebrew word for “Praise” (תְּהִלָּה) as “hymn” (ὕμνον).
In the gospels we read that Jesus and the disciples, “sung an hymn” together after Passover meal, before going to the Mount of Olives (Matt. 26:30). Most commentators think that what they sang was either the Hallel/Praise songs of Psalm 113-118, or Psalm 145, which is called, “A Praise of David,” and then goes on to extol God as King.
As for a “spiritual song/ode,” this most likely refers to a song of rejoicing in future hope, or one that has elements of exhortation and history as its content.
For example, the title of Psalm 66 is “To the chief Musician, A Song. A Psalm. (Εἰς τὸ τέλος, ᾠδὴ ψαλμοῦ).
Psalm 92 is also a Song/Psalm. It says, “A Psalm. A Song (Ψαλμὸς ᾠδῆς) for the Sabbath Day. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night, On an instrument of ten strings, On the lute, And on the harp, With harmonious sound.”
So just as we have different categories in English to organize the different songs we sing according to mood, occasion, tempo, instrument, so also the Psalter itself has its own musical instruction for instruments, occasion, content, and the spirit in which that song is to be sung.
So that is the textual-biblical reason for why we sing so many Psalms in our worship service, because God tells us to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and that is a reference to what we call The Book of Psalms.
However, there is another reason for us singing the Psalms, and that is simply that the Psalms are superior to anything that you or I could ever come up with from our own heads.
Unless you want to claim divine inspiration equal to the Prophets and Apostles, God’s Word is always going to win out because He wrote the Psalms, He inspired the Scriptures, and therefore whatever we sing ought to be as close to Scripture and as faithful to Scripture as can be.
For most of the history of the church, this looked like chanting the Psalms straight of the Bible, rather than singing metrical versions that rhyme, because in order to make most Psalms rhyme, you have to tweak the translation a little bit. Which is okay, and we could settle for that, but if we want to grow and mature in our singing of God’s Word to one another, we need more through-composed songs that are us singing straight Scripture.
So those are two major reasons for why we sing the Psalms, or at least songs taken straight from the Bible (The Lord’s Prayer, The Sanctus, etc.), because 1) God wrote them and therefore they are superior to anything we could write, and 2) God commands the church to sing these songs.
And just to illustrate this point about God being a better songwriter than us, consider Psalm 15.
We recently learned a through-composed version of this Psalm (Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle), and what this song teaches is that you cannot dwell with God if you backbite with your tongue, if you do evil to your neighbor, or put out your money at usury.
Now who amongst would ever think to write a song and include a line about good lending practices in it, not taking interest on a charitable loan. None of us! And now that we learned this song, I get to hear my 4-year-old singing about usury. “God’s ways are not our ways” indeed!
And this leads us to the reasons Paul gives in Colossians for why sing the Psalms in particular, he says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…”
So singing is not only prayer, and for the expression and stirring up of our own private devotion, it is also for teaching and correcting one another.
When we sing the psalms, we are singing to God, yes, but we are also singing to one another. God does not need to be reminded of what He wrote down in His Word (he did not forget), but we need to be reminded, we need to be taught, we need to be admonished.
And the way that God says teaching and correction happens within the church, is by us living in the Spirit, with the Word of Christ dwelling within us, using psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
And so for good reason, the church has found the Psalter to contain the entirety of Christian doctrine. Everything in theology is in the Psalter: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration, Consummation, Christ, Sacraments, Morals, History, Comfort, Grief, Joy, Sorrow, the whole range of possible human emotions, everything is in the Psalms. Theologians call the Psalter, the Bible in miniature.
So add to the fact that God told us to sing psalms to one another, that all that we need for life and godliness is found in them.
If you only had one book of the Bible that you could bring with you on a desert island, this is the one to bring. Maybe one of the gospels, but the Psalms are longer.
Third and finally…
Question #3 – How should we sing the Psalms?
Paul says in Colossians, “singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” And in Ephesians, “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
And so while God tells us elsewhere to “sing with understanding” (Ps. 47:7), and to “play skillfully” (Ps. 33:3), more important than musical skill, or the ability to sing well, is that your singing is done with grace in your heart.
And that means having God Himself as the Soul of your soul and the Life of your life, who animates your words, actions, and desires.
Jesus rebukes those who are hypocrites in their worship saying, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matt. 15:8).
And so if you want to get near to God, if you want your heart near to His, then begin all of your prayers and singing with gratitude.
Right before Paul tells the Colossians to sing to one another he says, “be thankful” (Col. 3:15).
In Ephesians, he appends thanksgiving directly to the singing when he says, “making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:19-20). And then immediately following is the charge for wives to submit and husbands to love, like Christ and the Church.
In other words, a marriage that is abundant with prayer and singing to God is a marriage where you will find respect and submission, love and sacrifice.
So husbands are you leading your home by praying and singing? Wives are you submitting and following the direction your husband is leading?
If not, you are humming the devil’s tune, you are subverting the beauty and harmony God intends for your marriage.
We have a motto in our church that if you cannot sing good then sing loud. Where did we get that motto? From these verses in Paul where he prioritizes grace in the heart over skill with the voice.
Whatever the sounds we are making, we aspire to be good and in tune and pleasant, but God sees the disposition of your heart, and he knows whether the songs you are singing are hypocrisy and lies, or whether they proceed from a humble and willing heart.
And so if you want grace to reside within you, always begin with thanksgiving. This is the essential how of singing, and the soil in which all the other fruits of the spirit grow.
Psalm 136 says, “O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, for his mercy endureth forever.”
Psalm 100:4 says, “Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”
Psalm 119 declares, “Seven times a day do I praise thee Because of thy righteous judgments.”
And then it goes on to list some of the gracious benefits that follow: “Great peace have they which love thy law: And nothing shall offend them. Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, And done thy commandments. My soul hath kept thy testimonies; And I love them exceedingly… I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; And thy law is my delight. Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; And let thy judgments help me. (Ps. 119:164-166, 174-175).
Conclusion
Why do we sing the psalms with grace and thanksgiving?
Because we have longed for God’s salvation, and have received it through Christ.
And so remember the resurrection hope and inheritance (the all things) into which you were reborn. And then join the song of heaven, the song of new creation, the song of God Himself, who concludes His inspired songbook saying in Psalm 150:6, “Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.”
So may we! In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon: The Death of Divine Absence (Good Friday 2025)

The Death of Divine AbsenceFriday, April 18th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Galatians 2:20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Prayer
Father, we thank for you Good Friday, for this day of special remembrance of Christ’s passion, and the innumerable graces that you bestow upon your people through the death of Christ. Furnish us anew by the power of your Holy Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Have you ever walked into a house that was completely empty? No pictures on the walls. No couch in the living room. No place to sit. No table or chairs in the dining room. No beds in the bedroom.
If you intend on buying an empty house, well for starters you are going to need a lot of money, but if you want to make it a beautiful and pleasant place to live (a home), what else will you need?
You’ll need some imagination, a vision and a plan. You need some good aesthetic sense for how a room flows, what colors coordinate, so that you know what furniture to buy, what carpet or rugs to get, and how to match those with the curtains.
If you are a man, you need a woman’s touch. She comes in and starts putting plants and flowers and pretty things everywhere. If we had it our way, the whole house becomes a man cave. Or in my case, the house whole becomes a library.
The Greek scholar Erasmus once said, “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” We all have our different priorities.
The theologian St. Thomas Aquinas (who was himself a walking library) says, “Homes are not beautiful if they are empty. Things are beautiful by the presence of God.”
He said this while reflecting upon Psalm 26:8, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, And the place where Your glory dwells.”
Where does God’s glory most desire to dwell? Within you. Within His people. Already the heavens are declaring the glory of God, and the sky above his handywork (Ps. 19:1), and so how much more those who are made in His image?
It says in Psalm 84:1, “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” What are those tabernacles (plural!) that the Psalmist is referring to? The people of God. The saints, the holy ones, the living sanctuaries in which God’s glory dwells.
And so just as a home is not beautiful unless it is adorned and furnished with good things, just so a soul is not beautiful, unless it has been enlightened and furnished and is inhabited by the holy presence of God.
And so tonight, I want to set before the eyes of your soul that which can make it beautiful. I want to offer you a piece of spiritual furniture from which you can derive strength and healing, courage and hope, grace to help in your time of need.
That image is none other than Jesus Christ and him crucified. If your soul is a house, you must make the cross of Christ the centerpiece. That which everything else gets organized around.
And so the outline of my sermon is very simple.
First, I will tell you how Christ dwells within His people,
And then Second, I will paint for you a mental portrait to take within your soul.
How Does Christ Dwell Within Us? – A Gloss of Galatians 2:20
The Apostle Paul says in our text of Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: [that is to say, Christ has taken up residence in my soul, He has made me into His home, He has the keys, he knows where everything is, all that I am now belongs to him, therefore…] the life which I now live in the flesh [in this mortal and not so beautiful body] I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
And so the Apostle Paul is describing here his own spiritual union with Christ. He is describing how God’s presence has made him beautiful by renewing his inner man day by day, even while his outward man is wasting away, perishing, dying (2 Cor. 4:16).
This living union with Christ is described as if Paul and Jesus are both nailed to the cross together. When Paul thinks of the cross, He sees Jesus and himself in Jesus.
And so although Paul, like you and I, never saw Jesus literally hanging on the cross dying (like the Roman soldiers did), the risen Lord did appear to him and taught him the truth of faith, and so Paul had, also like us, a mental image of Jesus Christ and him crucified that allowed him to say, “I am crucified with Christ.”
And so Paul’s spiritual union with Jesus is a union that comes by knowledge and by love.
By knowing the truth that Jesus died and rose for him, Christ dwells and lives within the mind of Paul, He has the mind of Christ.
And further by knowing the love of Christ, which is most evident on the cross, the words of Romans 5:5 have become true for Paul: “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given unto us.”
And so by hearing and believing the truth, Christ dwells within our mind/intellect/spirit, and then by loving Him who as our highest good, Christ dwells within our will/desire/our affections/out wanting faculties. And this is the most intimate union you can have with God, on this side of glory.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
The Apostle John says the same in 1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides (dwells/lives) in love abides (dwells/lives) in God, and God in him.
Summary: It is by knowledge and by love that we are united to God on this side of glory. That union takes place when our mind apprehends the One who is Truth itself, and loves the One who is Good itself. God is First Truth and Supreme Good. Truth takes up residence in the mind, and The Good takes up residence in the will, in our heart’s desire.
This is the same spiritual union that Paul is describing in Galatians 2:20, and it is that same union that we should all desire to experience in ourselves. And so here is the image I want you to take into the home of your soul.
Christ and Him Crucified
Imagine first the wooden cross.
At the top is a place for Christ’s head to rest, and there a crown of thorns upon it. And above the head of Christ what is written in three languages? “The King of the Jews.”
Next, look to the arms of Jesus spread out and nailed on each side. Look at his right hand and see a nail hammered through it. Then look to the left hand and see also a nail through that. And see that Jesus has chosen to die with arms extended, spread out, and opened wide to embrace the whole world.
Next, descend in your mind to the feet of Christ, where there also his feet are fixed, nailed together, his heel bruised and bleeding.
And then finally, look to the heart of Christ. See his bosom. His side. And see that after he has breathed his last, a soldier’s spear pierces him, and as it says in John 19:34, “blood and water poured forth.”
Have in your mind those 5 locations on the cross. Five wounds: His head, right hand, left hand, his feet, and his heart.
And then hear what Holy Scripture says about each of those places and what they signify for you.
#1 – The Head
So starting at the head, place there the verse from 1 Corinthians 11:3, “the head of Christ is God.”
This is no mere man that is being crucified. This is the eternal Son of God who so desires to come near to us, that He joined to His divine person, in an inseparable union, our humanity with his divinity. Jesus Christ is one divine person with two natures, human and divine.
As it says in Colossians 2:9-10, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
So when you behold by faith the head of Christ, you are beholding the one who is God. The one who is not only “king of the Jews,” but king of kings. The one who is first principle, fountain and source of all other principalities and powers. As Jesus himself says to Pilate, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11).
Jesus is the one who gave Pilate the power to crucify him. And this is why Jesus says earlier in John 10:18, “No one takes my life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” No mere man can say that, only the Son of God.
What is the head of Christ? The head of Christ is God (1 Cor. 11:3).
The head of Christ is his divinity which elevates our humanity.
The head of Christ is perfect knowledge that heals us of our ignorance.
The head of Christ is wisdom and yet a wisdom without Adam’s pride, for what is upon his head?
A crown of thorns, the curse of Adam, the one who caused our misery. And so Jesus Christ the Last Adam, is the ram caught in a thicket, and he offers his head for ours.
As it says of Christ and the church in Song of Solomon 2:1-2, “I am the rose of Sharon, And the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, So is my love among the daughters.”
So when you feel the effects of the curse pressing down upon your skull, the migraines, the headaches, the ignorance, the fear, the sweat upon your brow as you groan with all creation, think upon Christ and His head wearing that crown of thorns. For you are being crucified with him, and by patience endurance becoming a “partaker of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
So the head of Christ is God.
#2 – The Right Hand
The second place I draw your mind to is the right hand of Christ. And there nailed to the wood, place these words from Psalm 16:11, “At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
In Scripture, the right hand signifies power to create, strength to wage war, an artist’s skill to craft.It says of wisdom in Proverbs 8:15, “Length of days is in her right hand.”And in Psalm 118:16, “The right hand of the Lord is exalted: The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.”
When Jacob blessed his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, the right hand signified the greater blessing, the right of the firstborn to inherit.
And so behold in the right hand of Christ, His power to save, His skill to refashion you like an artist crafts a holy vessel. Behold in his right hand innumerable blessings, the eternal inheritance he offers to all his adopted sons.
The right hand of Christ is mighty to save, and when you follow his path, where does it lead? It leads to the cross but does not end there.
For as it says in Psalm 16:10, “You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
So cast aside the evil works of your right hand. As Jesus says in Mark 9:43, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell.”
Choose instead to forsake sinful and fleeting pleasures, for lasting and eternal ones. Because that is what the right hand of Christ crucified holds out to you and offers: “At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Now in your mind’s eye move over to the left hand.
#3 – The Left Hand
In Scripture the Left Hand is the lesser hand and so signifies support, assistance, defense, and the unexpected.
And so place next to the left hand of Christ, the words of Song of Solomon 2:6, “His left hand is under my head, And his right hand doth embrace me.”
The left hand in Scripture commonly signifies assistance in battle we see that the left hand holds the shield to defend, while the right hand grasps the sword in offense.
It says in Ezekiel 39:3, “I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
In Judges 5:26 we see that Jael uses her left hand to hold the nail, while her right hand holds the workman’s hammer, “And with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, When she had pierced and stricken through his temples.”
And earlier in Judges 3:26 it says, “And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into Eglon’s belly.”
The left hand of Christ is where you can expect to find surprise blessings, a hidden dagger to conquer and gain victory in your trials.
For the Christian who loves God, and has the promise that all things work for our good, the left hand of Christ becomes for us the light behind the stormy clouds.
While right-handed blessings are greatly to be desired, health, strength, vitality, vigor. Left-handed blessings are more frequent in this fallen world.
What is a left-handed blessing?
A left-handed blessing is cancer. It is the death of a loved on. It is your house burning down. It is a miscarriage, it is sickness, and the sorrows of this life that make us grieve and long for a new heavens and a new earth where there is no more pain and every tear is wiped away.
And so the only reason we can call any of these grievous evils a “blessing,” is because Jesus Christ turned with his left hand, the greatest of all evils, his own death, into salvation for the world.
And so if God can turn the murder of an innocent man at the hands of sinners into the very instrument through the which those same sinners can be saved, then He can certainly wield our evils for our good.
Romans 8:28 is no lie, and as it says in James 5:11, “We count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job [who received many left-handed blessings], and have seen the end [intended] of the Lord; that the Lord is very compassionate, and full of tender mercy.”
So look upon the left hand of Christ and remember Song of Solomon 2:6, “His left hand is under my head, And his right hand doth embrace me.”
#4 – The Feet
Descending now to the feet of Christ, we cannot help but recall the promise of Genesis 3:15. For there God says to the serpent, “He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
The feet of Christ are where we find peace, reconciliation, and mercy.
Paul says in Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
And then later in Romans 16:20 he says that, “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”
Recall that it was at the feet of Jesus, that Mary sat peacefully and heard his teaching (Luke 10:39), while Martha was busy in the kitchen.
And it was the feet of Jesus that the woman in Luke 7, washed with her tears, wiped with her hair, kissed with her lips, and anointed with oil. And because of this Jesus says, “her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.”
And so beneath the feet of Christ are the serpent, our sins, our own enmity with God. For he must rule, till all his enemies are subdued beneath his feet, and at the feet of Christ is found mercy for those who love him.
So when you think upon Jesus’ feet, nailed to the cross, think upon the woman who loved much and for such love was forgiven. Think upon the promise that through the seed of the woman, the serpent’s head would be crushed. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”
#5 – The Heart
Fifth and finally, behold the wound inflicted after Christ died.
It says in John 19:34, “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.”
Just as God formed woman from Adam’s side, just so God formed the church, the bride, from the side of Christ.
When a baby is born there is blood and water. And so it is when we are born again through the death of Christ.
His blood cleanses our heart from impurity.
His water washes our filth.
And so the words of Proverb 5:18 are most fittingly spoken to Christ, “Let thy fountain be blessed: And rejoice with the wife of thy youth.”
That is to say, from the blessed fountain of Christ’s broken heart, comes great rejoicing in his people. For we are his body, his bride, his tabernacle, his home, and things are beautiful by the presence of God.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The Divine Liturgy Pt. 3 - Liturgy As Love Story

The Divine Liturgy Pt. 3 – Liturgy as Love StorySunday, April 13th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WASong of Solomon 1:15–2:4
BRIDEGROOM:15Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; Thou hast doves’ eyes.
BRIDE:16Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: Also our bed is green.17The beams of our house are cedar, And our rafters of fir.1I am the rose of Sharon, And the lily of the valleys.
BRIDEGROOM:2As the lily among thorns, So is my love among the daughters.
BRIDE:3As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, So is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, And his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4He brought me to the banqueting house, And his banner over me was love.
Prayer
Father, we thank you for the gift that is worship. The gift of hearing your voice, of being given in Scripture the words to respond to your voice in faith and in love. And so teach us now to become true worshippers of the true God, for there is none other than You. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
What was the very first thing that God said was not good?
It was Adam alone in the garden. It says in Genesis 2:18, “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; [therefore] I will make him an help meet for him.” Other translations say, “I will make him a helper comparable to him” (NKJV), or “I will make him a helper corresponding to him.”
The idea is that Adam needs something, someone, that is like him in certain respects, but also unlike him in other respects. Adam needs a helper that is suitable, fitting, and complimentary to him, someone that can supply and make up for what he lacks. And so, God puts Adam into a deep sleep, a happy death, and he takes one of his ribs, and He builds/forms/creates from Adam’s side Woman.
Now what kind of help is Eve to Adam?
First of all, she is his physical compliment. Without woman’s reproductive organs and powers, there are no children. There is no you and me, there is no “be fruitful and multiply,” there is no future for the human race.
But Woman is not merely Man’s physical compliment, she is also something more because humanity is something more than what is physical. Unlike plants and animals that also generate and procreate each according to their kind, man is made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27). That is to say, man and woman have an immortal, spiritual, intellectual soul that is capable of knowing God, speaking to God, and even being united to God.
It says in 2 Peter 1:4, God has “given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
This participation in the divine nature (union with God) is the chief end of man. It is our telos, the ultimate why for God creating Adam and fashioning woman from his side.
God did not want Adam and Eve to just have physical offspring, he wanted them to have spiritual offspring (disciples!). God wants the world to be filled with living breathing knowing images of the Holy Trinity, who exercise dominion and authority and bring the beauty and glory of God to all creation.
As the very last line of the Psalter declares, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 150:6).
And so the spiritual reason God created woman, was so that Adam could have a liturgical companion. Someone to talk to. Someone to talk about God with. Someone who could join Adam in singing praises unto God for giving them being. Adam needed a wife so that together they could worship God in a more glorious way than Adam could have alone.
God says, “it is not good that man should be alone.” Heneeds someone to sing the high notes, a helper to sing in unison at times, and to sing the harmony at other times, someone to sing responsively back and forth, to give to God the glory due unto his name in the beauty of holiness (Ps. 29:2). That is the ultimate spiritual reason for the creation of woman, so that humanity could more fully glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
In our text this morning we have illustrated for us this back-and-forth love song between Bridegroom and Bride. In its original historical context these words are placed upon the lips of Solomon and His Shunamite bride, but of course what Solomon and the Shunamite woman are actually singing about is Christ’s love for the Church, and God’s love for the human soul.
And so traditionally you were not allowed to even read the Song of Solomon until you were a grown and mature adult, who had already mastered all the other books of the Bible. And the main reason for this is because the Song of Solomon is describing the most intimate spiritual union with God, using ideas, actions, and images taken from the most intimate physical union that can be: marital love.
And so I have chosen only a sample of verses that are (I think) appropriate for public reading, to illustrate this one point: that our worship service, our liturgy, is a love story that is told in myriad ways. Our worship service is a divinely inspired love song. It is the drama of creation, fall, redemption, restoration, and consummation. It is the history of Israel, it is the story of the gospel reenacted and set to music. It is the sacrificial system with its order of offerings, with its procession from the outer court to the altar, to the holy place, to the holy of holies. It is the ascension of Moses to God on Mount Sinai. It is the descent of heavenly choirs come down to renew and remake the earth.
Like the Song of Solomon, our worship service is a back-and-forth dialog between Bride and Bridegroom, between God and Man, between Christ and the Church, between Minister and Congregation.
This is the most basic pattern for Christian worship that the Bible gives to us from Genesis to Revelation. There is a call, there is a response, and there is invitation to eat together.
And so the purpose of my sermon this morning, is to help you see and notice just a few of these biblical patterns in our worship.
The amazing thing about imitating God’s patterns is that they naturally form connections you never saw before, connections that interlock and interweave and mutually indwell interpret one another. And so it is not just one pattern that you can find in the liturgy, there are like Ezekiel’s vision of God’s glory, wheels within wheels, patterns within patterns, gospel all the way down.
And so I want use the rest of our time to give you a narrative tour of our liturgy. Why do we worship the way we do, with the words we do, in the order we do?
Covenant Renewal – An Overview
So let’s start with an overview of the broadest organizing principle that we use to order our worship, and it is what we call Covenant Renewal. And if you look at page 11, I have listed for you there the 5 basic steps of the Covenant Renewal Pattern.
1. Call to Worship: God calls us into His presence. We enter with joy and singing.
2. Confession: God cleanses us of sin. We repent and profess our faith in Christ.
3. Consecration: God teaches us His Word. We hear and obey.
4. Communion: God feeds us. We commune with Christ and one another.
5. Commission: God sends us back into the world renewed. We go forth to conquer by faith.
And you should notice that in all these instances, God is active doing something to us or for us, and We are also active responding to Him and for Him. As image bearers of God, our job is to mirror back to God in our own creaturely way what God has first given and spoken to us.
Now where exactly do we find this pattern of covenant renewal in Scripture? There are many places, but I will highlight for you just four examples:
1. Exodus 19-24 where God first enters into a covenant with Israel at Sinai.
2. Leviticus 1-9 where God describes the sacrificial offerings and ordains the priests to ministry.
3. 2 Chronicles 5-7 where Solomon dedicates The Temple.
4. The whole book of Revelation, which is itself a vision of the heavenly liturgy that John sees in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.
Now to help us get this pattern in our mind, let me walk through just one example of it from the Levitical sacrificial system. Recall that Leviticus is all about, How do you get close to God without dying? This ritual begins with…
1. God calling Aaron and his sons to worship Him (Lev. 8).
2. God cleanses them by washing them in water and anointing them with oil. There is a baptism and a christening.
3. God consecrates them through a series of animal sacrifices.
First a sin offering (Lev. 1:4),
Then a burnt offering, which is better translated as an ascension offering (lit. “a going up offering”). The idea is that the whole person is burned up and ascends as a living sacrifice and is transformed into smoke so that he can be united to God’s glory cloud. He joins the cloud of witnesses.
Third, having ascended to heaven in the burnt offering, you can now move to the 4th stage of covenant making and renewal which is the eating.
4. God communes with Aaron and his sons through the Peace Offering. This is the one offering the ordinary Israelite worshipper actually gets to eat together with God (and the priest).
5. God commissions Aaron and his sons to the ministry.
We could also note that those three main sacrifices, the Sin offering, Ascension offering, and Peace offering, are a miniature form of the covenant renewal pattern.
The Sin offering signifies Confession.
The Ascension offering signifies Consecration.
The Peace offering signifies Communion.
This is that pattern within pattern, wheels within wheels idea.
So with all that in mind, and now that we are alert to this pattern, let’s turn together to page 3 in our bulletin and walk through our own form of this covenant renewal service.
#1 – CALL TO WORSHIP
Worship begins with God’s Minister calling out to the world, M: Let us rise and worship the Triune God.
As it says in Psalm 122:1, “Let us go into the house of the Lord”
This is the primordial call to all creation to prepare themselves to hear the voice of God.
In response the people stand up. For as God says to the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2:1, “Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.” And as God says to Moses before causing His glory to pass by him, “Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock.” (Ex. 33:21). And is it says in Psalm 122:2, “Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.”
So now standing and ready within the gates of the New Jerusalem, we hear God’s voice. And what is the first word that God speaks to us when we are assembled?
M: Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Grace is the beginning of the Christian life, and Peace is the end of a life marked by divine mercy. And so in this opening blessing all the goodness of God’s works are comprehended, and all the persons of the One God are declared: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Having received this blessing from the Triune God, we then enter into dialog with Him using His own divinely inspired songbook and prayerbook which is the Psalms.
From the earliest days of the church and even going back before to Jewish worship prior to Christ, Psalms were selected and sung according to a Liturgical Festival Calendar.
Depending on which Christian tradition you are a part of (Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian), the calendar might be more or less prominent in how the Psalms are selected.
Our practice at present is to follow the Lutheranlectionary which has selected Scripture readings for all the major Christian festivals (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, etc.).
For example, today is Palm Sunday, the day in which we remember Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem before his passion, and in the gospels we read, “And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest” (Matt. 21:9).
And since that song of praise comes from Psalm 118:26, the church has customarily sung Psalm 118 on Palm Sunday.
Now the Psalms are songs remember, and God intended for these words to be sung, not necessarily just read back and forth to one another. And so in some congregations that are more musically mature than us, the Minister and the Congregation will actually chant these words back and forth to one another.
Or a cantor will sing one line, and the congregation will sing the other. We are not there yet, and I don’t know if we will ever get there, but given where we are as a congregation, we at least begin with reading God’s Word back and forth to one another, and then we sing a song that we do know after the prayer.
I should also note here that many of the Psalms are clearly written for this specific purpose of being sung back and forth to one another. Think of the constant refrain of Psalm 136, “For his mercy endures forever.” This is part of the divine dialog between Christ and the Church, the lover and the beloved. The first line gives the thought, and the second line responds to that thought and glorifies it. This is that mirroring that God embedded into Creation and into His Word.
After we get God’s Holy Word onto our lips and into our mouths, I then offer an opening prayer of invocation based on whatever the Psalm is. And then that prayer concludes with a Trinitarian reflection that is also based on the Psalm.
Sometimes I compose these prayers myself, and other times I use or modify prayers from the ancient church.
After the prayer we have our opening song. Joe Stout is our Chief Musician and together we set the music for each week. I probably need to a do a whole sermon on music and singing later in this series to explain the biblical principles that guide our song selection.
For those who have been around for awhile, you know that we prioritize heavily singing the Psalms, and if we are not singing a Psalm, we are singing other portions of Scripture or hymns that closely paraphrase the Scriptures. This morning we sang Isaiah 2:2-5.
So that is the first part of Covenant Renewal Worship, and the mood we want to set is summarized by Psalm 100:4, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” So usually our first song will try to emphasize these elements of praise, thanksgiving, and blessing.
#2 – CONFESSION
This section begins with a word of exhortation that is as God washing us, cleansing us, and sometimes anointing us with a rebuke.
David says in Psalm 141:5, “Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.”
So this is the time for you to cleanse your mind of impurity, to unburden your conscience before the Lord, to let God rebuke you, correct you, and pour oil upon your head.
Many charismatic and Baptist churches have an altar call at the end, but we place our altar call here, and all of us do it! This is the call to repent and believe the gospel, kneel down and say the sinner’s prayer.
Every week we recite a portion of David’s great prayer of repentance after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah. And so Psalm 51 is our great reminder that no matter how great our sins might be, God’s mercy is greater, and if we confess our sins and accept the consequences, God delights to put away our sins, and restore to us the joy of his salvation.
After our altar call, I announce to you that “the enemies of God are brought down and fallen,” and that includes the sins you just confessed.
And so now with “a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5), you can get up and say the words of Psalm 20:8 in boldness, “we are risen and stand upright.”
To this I then assure you of God’s love and forgiveness. To which you then respond with “Thanks be to God” and then we all sing the Doxology.
If we compared our liturgy with the liturgy of heaven in Revelation, we would find that immediately after God calls the seven churches to repentance, John looks up and sees an open door in heaven, and 24 elders singing praises to God. That is the heavenly choir that we are joining when we sing the Doxology.
We lift our hands because Psalm 134:2 says, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the Lord.”
And again, in Psalm 63:3-4, “Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.”
Now after we praise God for his grace and forgiveness, we remember the words of Romans 10:10 which says, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
And so it is not enough to just confess our sins and believe in our hearts, we need to “confess the Lord Jesus” (Rom. 10:9). And so together we profess our faith publicly, openly, and with one voice.
Jesus says in Luke 12:8, “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God.”
And likewise in Matthew 10:32, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
And so because we want Jesus to confess us before His Father, we confess Him before all.
Moreover, by using the words of the Nicene Creed, we distinguish ourselves from the many heretical sects that use the name Jesus and profess to be Christians, but which are in substance nothing of the sort.
The Nicene Creed (written 381 AD) is also the most universally recited creed, and it connects us in spirit and in truth with our brothers and sisters around the globe who are also on this very day professing the same faith.
This is one of the ways we obey Ephesians 4:3-6, which says, “endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
We want our children to grow up with the truths of the Creed inscribed upon their heart because this is as Jude says, “the common salvation…that [we] should earnestly contend for, the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3).
#3 – CONSECRATION
Having offered to God our Sin Offering by Confession, we then proceed to the Burnt Offering/Ascension Offering, which is where God consecrates us by His Word.
Remember that the Ascension Offering involves killing the animal with a knife, cutting it up, washing its inward parts, and then placing it into God’s consuming fire to be transformed into smoke.
We learn in Hebrews 4:12 that this is what Christ through His Word does to us: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
The readings from the Old and New Testament, the Preaching of the Sermon, and the recitation of the Ten Commandments are God’s knife cutting us open and discerning our inward thoughts.
The prayers of thanksgiving and petition are how God washes our minds from impure desires and teaches us to desire and want what He wants.
The prayers of intercession for our civil leaders, religious leaders, and those suffering affliction around the world are a plea for God to rearrange, convict, comfort, and consecrate all creation.
And so it is in prayer and through prayer, by hearing the Word read and sung and preached, that God changes us and consecrates us, but only if we are good and fertile soil.
Remember Jesus parable about the seed and the soil (Mark 4, Matthew 13, Luke 8). The seed is the word, your heart/mind is the soil.
Of the four different soils in which the seed is sown, only one bears fruit 30, 60 and 100-fold. The rest have the seed stolen by the devil, they forget. Some have the seed choked out by the weeds of worldly desires and distractions. And some spring up with enthusiasm for a moment but then fall away when life gets hard.
So this time of Consecration can be a fruitful time but only if you are good soil. And if you are not, sometimes this time becomes how God changes you from bad soil to good soil.
So if you want to experience this consecration that leads to abundant fruitfulness, to being assimilated into God’s glory cloud, then heed Jesus’ parable of the soils. It’s one of those few parables that is included in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, so it is of triple importance!
The Sanctus/Benedictus
Now the final two steps of Covenant Renewal are Communion and the Commission, and since those are more self-explanatory, I will leave to you to meditate on how they correspond to the various sacrifices and patterns in Scripture. But in closing I want to introduce and explain a new addition to our liturgy which forms the bridge between the Consecration and Communion, and that is the Offertory and Sanctus.
Our usual custom has been that after the Ten Commandments (pg. 11) we sing an Offertory song (pg. 12), during which Kirby, one of our deacons, walks down the aisle carrying the Offering Box. We then ask for God’s blessing on our tithes and the offerings and transition to the Communion Homily.
This morning, we are going to be adding the singing of the Sanctus (which we have recently learned), after that offertory prayer. So you will see at the bottom of page 12 we will remain standing after I pray, “in Jesus’ name, Amen.” And then the piano will begin, and we’ll sing the Holy Holy Holy of Isaiah 6 that is followed by the Benedictus from Psalm 118, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord…”
And then while we are singing, the elders and deacons who will be distributing communion are going to process down the aisle with the bread and the wine and set it here on the pulpit (Word and Sacrament).
And the symbolism of this procession is that of Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday while these very words of Psalm 118 were being sung. Why is Jesus coming to Jerusalem in the name of the Lord? So that he can offer his body and blood upon the altar of the cross for our salvation.
One of the amazing things about theSanctus is that the church has been singing this song at this moment in the service right before communion for over 1,600 years.
We find it in the Ancient Greek Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom, of St. Basil, of St. James. We find it in the Latin Liturgies, we find it in the English liturgies. Even Martin Luther the great liturgical reformer placed the Sanctus here in the German liturgy.
And that is because Communion with God through the death of Christ is the high point, the climax, of our worship. Therefore, we ought to have a song of praise as loud and as glorious as the Sanctus here to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s coming to dine with us.
Conclusion
The Life of Jesus is a life of covenant renewal. He came to bring us the New Covenant! And so not only does our worship service mirror the Levitical sacrificial system, it also mirrors the life of Jesus:
1. The Call to Worship corresponds to the birth of Christ. For Jesus is the very Word from the Father, and the one who of whom it says in Matthew 1:15, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”
2. The Confession of Sin corresponds to the circumcision and baptism of Christ, who undergoes these ritual cleansings not for any sins of his own but for us and to fulfill all righteousness.
3. The Consecration corresponds to the ministry of Christ, his teaching, his preaching, his praying, his healing and consecrating those in need.
4. The Communion corresponds to the Last Supper, to His Passion and death and triumph over the grave.
5. The Commission (with its charge and benediction) corresponds to Jesus’ Great Commission and His ascension on high, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. For as it says in John 20:21-22, “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
So behold Jesus everywhere in the worship service. Because there is no true worship apart from Him. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The Divine Liturgy Pt. 2 - Living Sacrifice (Romans 11:34-12:3)

The Divine Liturgy Pt. 2 – Living SacrificeSunday, April 6th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WARomans 11:34–12:3
Prayer
Father, we thank you for the measure and diversity of your gifts, through which the church is built up and perfected. Teach us now by Your Holy Spirit, to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable in your sight. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Imagine for a moment that you are an ancient Israelite, and you live in a tent in the middle of the desert. However, unlike those naughty Israelites, who complain all the time and grumble about the food and their living conditions, you are a good Israelite. You are like Moses and Joshua, an Israelite with faith. And so as a believer, you know that God is a spirit, He does not actually live in a temple made with hands, He does not have a body that gets hungry or tired and needs to eat. You know that God is the Most High, the Creator, and that the worship He desires is a spiritual soul that clings to Him in love.
God says in Psalm 50:12-14, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High.”
So as a true and believing Israelite, as a spiritual Israelite, you want to worship God in spirit and in truth. And that means first and foremost thanking God, paying your vows, offering to Him your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. That is your spiritual worship. But it also means manifesting those interior/spiritual affections of the soul with external/bodily actions. And at this time in history (1,500 years before Christ), what external act of worship does the law of Moses require? You have to kill one of your animals.
Now depending on what kind of sacrifice you intend to offer, there are four basic features that you need to observe if God will be pleased with your worship.
First, your animal had to be brought to the priest alive.
And that meant, transporting your living animal from your house to God’s house. And depending on what tribe you are from, and how far your tent is from the central Tabernacle, you might have to walk a good distance with your animal. We call that a commute to church.
Second, the animal had to be holy and without blemish.
That meant knowing the state of your flock (Pr. 27:23) and then finding the best and healthiest animal among them (the animal you prize the most). Usually this would mean finding a male from the herd, a year old, without any blemish. It might be an ox, or a sheep, or a goat, or if you are poor, you could offer a turtledove or a young pigeon. But whatever the animal was, it could not have any defects, it had to be holy.
Third, the animal had to be killed, usually by you (here’s the knife, cut the throat, drain the blood). And then the priest has his duty, he takes the blood and sprinkles it on the altar, he divides the animal into pieces like a butcher, he washes the inward parts and then places it on the altar to burn.
Notice that you are not a passive spectator in this act of worship, you are involved. The priest has his role, and you have you yours. You have to get your hands dirty and even a little bloody. You are slaughtering something of value, something living, something that belongs to you, and you are offering that to God’s consuming fire. Worship of this sort is work; it costs you something. And when that work of sacrifice is done in faith, that is what pleases God.
The fourth and final feature of worship is that the sacrifice had to be seasoned with salt.
It says in Leviticus 2:13, “You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
So not only does God demand the first fruits of your labor, the best and firstborn from the herd, he also wants it to taste good. God likes salt with his meat. He wants flavor and savor in every bite.
And in this sense, the ritual act of worship is a kind of cooking for God. Worship is meal prep for the King in the king’s kitchen. God has recipes. He specifies the kinds of ingredients he wants, fine flour, oil, frankincense, salt. These animals and not those animals. This part of the animal and not that part. You burn this up completely, you cook that part and you eat it, or the priest eats it.
So God’s house of worship has rules, manner, and customs. His house has a throne room, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen.
And of course, because you are a good and faithful Israelite, you know that all of this house and furniture and ritual and ingredients and cooking, is really about the Messiah, his people, and the matters of the heart. You know that all these external physical actions are but signs and means to spiritual ends.
And so to worship God in spirit and in truth as an ancient Israelite, meant meditating upon the law of God day and night. It meant reflecting upon these four main features of worship and all the details in between. It meant asking that most important question when reading the Scriptures: What is the spiritual reality that these words and things signify?
Jesus says to the Pharisees in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” And he says to Nicodemus, “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” (John 3:12).
And so if you cannot see Jesus in Leviticus, in the descriptions of the tabernacle, the priestly garments, the sacrifices, the calendar, the cooking of God’s food, then the Apostle Paul would say, you have yet to become spiritual. You are still reading Moses with the veil like a Pharisee.
He says in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”
What is the American Church but a carnal church. We are divided. We are envious, contentious, and proud. We are as ignorant babes in Christ. We believe in Jesus, or at least say we do, but our ambitions in worship Him are hardly spiritual, transcendent, or for growth in maturity.
Instead of worshipping God in fear and reverence as Hebrews 12:28 commands, we have turned Sunday into a show, into entertainment and in many places into sacrilege and a mockery of what is holy.
Some churches have made it their whole purpose and mission statement to make the unbelieving world feel at home in Christian worship (“to belong before they believe”). Whereas in the New Testament, what does the Apostle Paul say should happen when the unbeliever wanders in and observes our worship?
He says in 1 Corinthians 14:25, “the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.”
Is that the goal of Christian worship in America today? To so sing the psalms and say our prayers and proclaim the word so that unbelievers who visit us fall down prostrate and acknowledge that God is among us? If not, then our priorities are different than God’s, and when our priorities are different than God’s the Bible calls that sin, idolatry.
Jesus warns in Matthew 15:9, “In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
So have we forgotten that worship is sacrifice, and that a sacrifice by definition costs us something? Where is the spirit of David who would not receive Araunah’s threshing floor for free but said, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24).
Where is that mindset in the American Church? Where are the living sacrifices?
Where are the saints who say with Psalm 95:6, “O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.”
Where are the Christians who say with Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
Where are those who say with Psalm 27:4, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”
Jesus says in John 4:23, that the Father is looking for the true worshippers, those who worship God in spirit and in truth. So are you numbered amongst them? If you are not, or if you are unsure, the Apostle Paul is here to help you get there.
For here in Romans 11 and 12, Paul gives us the spiritual substance, the true realities, of which the ancient Israelite types and shadows pointed to. For here we have the same four features of Old Covenant worship, but in their New Covenant garb. So let us consider more closely this text before us.
Division of the Text
Our text divides into two sections:
In Romans 11:34-36 we have The Basis/Reason for Sacrificial Worship.
And then in Romans 12:1-3, we have The Four Essential Features of Christian Worship.
Verses 34-36 – What is the rationale for why we offer sacrifice to God?
34For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller?35Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?36For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Recall from our first sermon on worship, that Worship is giving to God the glory due unto His name. And the thesis or principle I gave you was that Worship is a matter of justice.
We see this same principle again here. The Apostle asks three rhetorical questions about whether a man can ever put God in his debt. And the answer is, No, on the contrary, man owes God everything, because everything we have comes from him. “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”
So all things exist to give glory to God, and therefore it is a matter of cosmic justice that man gives glory to God with all that God has given him. And it is this lavish generosity of God’s mercy to create us and sustain us and convert us, that becomes the basis for his appeal in the next section. How does Romans 12:1 begin?
Verse 1
1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
What mercies is the Apostle referring to? The ones he just mentioned, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.” Creation is a work of mercy. Providence is work of mercy. Restoration to the image of Christ is a work of mercy.
It says in Psalm 145:9, “The Lord is good to all: And his tender mercies are over all his works.” And then in the next verse it says, “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; And thy saints shall bless thee.” Notice again that the just response to mercy is praise and blessing of God.
Justice is founded upon and answers to mercy. Which is another way of saying that grace always precedes and animates our righteousness.
So there is nothing unreasonable about offering your body as a living sacrifice to God. Because who gave you that body? Who died and rose to resurrect that body? To whom does that body belong?
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
And so it is the most reasonable service (λογικὴν λατρείαν), logical latria, rational worship, reasonable reverence, to offer your body as a living sacrifice to God, because that body is God’s temple.
And that is, as we saw earlier, the first essential feature of worship. The sacrifice needs to be alive.
So are you alive to God with a faith that works by love? (Gal. 5:6).
Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh [in the body] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
And so this first essential feature of a living sacrifice, is that you have faith formed by love. Or as James says in James 2:26, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
So just as the physical body is alive by the spirit, just so your faith is alive when it works by love.
So if you would become a living sacrifice and not a dead sacrifice, then good works and genuine love must proceed from your faith. Put another way, Jesus has to live within you, because remember Jesus is the beauty of holiness in which we give glory to God (Psalm 29:2).
So if you feel dead, the prayer you ought to pray for yourself, is what the Apostle prays for the Ephesians.
He says in Ephesians 3:17-19, I pray “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
God is life by His very essence, and so when God is within you by faith rooted in love, you become alive. And it is only a living sacrifice that pleases Him.
As Paul says in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
So that is the first essential feature of Christian worship. You need to be alive with the life of Christ.
The second essential feature of worship is that the sacrifice needs to be holy and without blemish.
So just as God desired the lamb without blemish, the animal without defect, the first and the best, so God desires the same from us.
And of course this second feature follows upon the first in that if Christ is alive within you, and all worship is offered in Jesus’ name, then God reckons you as holy in His Son.
Paul says in Romans 11:16, “if the root is holy, so are the branches.”
Jesus says in John 15:3-5, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Without Jesus, we are nothing. Without Jesus, none of us are holy. But with Jesus, his holiness becomes ours. We are his body; he is our head.
And so if you are unsure about your ceremonial status (am I clean or unclean?), heed the words of Jesus. Make sure that His word has cleansed you. You have been baptized. Make sure that he is the vine in which you abide, to which are you connected. Make sure that you are bearing fruit and are not dry wood or a dead branch.
The Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1:10, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.”
So to be holy is to be completely devoted to God. Just as Jesus came not to do his own will but the will of the Father who sent him, so also we must surrender our will to God and devote ourselves exclusively to doing His will. That is where holiness come from.
This is why Jesus says in the very next verses of John 15, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
When your will is conformed to God’s will, your prayers get answered. So are you holy and devoted to God? That is the second feature of Christian worship. God wants living sacrifices who are holy and dedicated to Him.
Now the third essential feature of worship is that the sacrifice has to die. It has to be killed, cut up, and placed on the altar. Of this we read in verse 2.
Verse 2
2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
So for the Christian, death is not the end. For the Christian, death is transformation. And for Christian alive with faith, in whom Christ dwells and lives and has made holy, death means being transformed from one degree of glory to another.
Paul speaks of this death to the self in many places.
He says in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily.”
He says in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
He ends his letter to the Galatians saying, “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”
So there are many ways in which each of us must die daily. But for now it suffices to know that if following Jesus feels like death, like a sword is cutting you into pieces, then you are probably making progress.
He did after all tell us, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).
And so what exactly your particular cross is, I leave to you and the Holy Spirit to work out (if you are unsure you can ask me), but all of us have a cross to bear, and all of us have death to die daily, all of us have an altar upon which God is asking us to lay down and die and trust him.
And while death is painful, and some of us feel too weak to even climb up upon the altar, remember what happens to the worthy sacrifice: God’s consuming fire transforms it into smoke. And as smoke, the sacrifice can now ascend to heaven.
That is the old covenant image of what Paul is describing here. He says, “And be not conformed to this world [below]: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
And so when you die to the world and to the flesh, when you refuse to be conformed into the world’s image and likeness, God transforms you by the renewing of your mind.
Unlike your body which cannot fly to heaven, your mind elevated by grace can ascend to God. Grace makes you fly. Grace transforms and renews your very nature (Col. 3:10, Eph. 4:23-24).
That is how Paul can say in Colossians 3, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God…Therefore put to death [slay/sacrifice/kill] your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
He says the same in Ephesians 4:23-24, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
So if you are struggling to deny yourself, if you are hesitant to climb upon the altar and count everything as loss, remember where living sacrifices go. The earthly part is burned up, and the spiritual part, the soul, the mind is transformed and ascends to God in love.
Is that your great ambition in life? To be united to God. To be able to say with Apostle, “I have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).
Now do you remember what the fourth and final feature of all sacrificial offerings is? Salt. You need the salt to go with it.
Jesus says in Mark 9:49-50, “For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”
So according to Jesus, salt signifies that which makes for peace. Peace with God, peace with one another, peace within oneself.
Paul says likewise in Colossians 4:5-6, “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”
And again, in Ephesians 5:2, “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”
So salt signifies the grace that makes our life savory to God. The grace of peace. The grace of wisdom. The grace of discretion in our words. The grace of walking in love.
And so we find this fourth feature of worship when Paul says in Romans 12:3…
Verse 3
3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
So the particular salt that will make the Romans a pleasing sacrifice to God, is the grace of humility. Of not thinking too highly of themselves, which would be a special temptation for those living in the urban capital of the empire in the 1st century: Rome.
But every church, every person, every living sacrifice, needs the salt of divine grace. Without grace, there is no savor. Without grace, there is no peace. Without grace, there is no wisdom, discretion, or walking in love.
And so do you have salt within yourselves as Jesus demands? Are you cultivating the grace of God at work within your soul? When God tastes the offering of your life, will it make him happy, or will he spit you out of his mouth for being lukewarm and unclean? Jesus says, “Have salt in yourselves.”
Conclusion
If the aim of your life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, the joy will come when you stop thinking of yourself more highly than you ought, and when you start to think of God more frequently and more highly than you presently do.
And so heed the words of the theologian Ben Sirach who said, “When ye glorify the Lord, exalt him as much as ye can; for even yet will he far exceed: and when ye exalt him, put forth all your strength, and be not weary; for ye can never go far enough.” (Sirach 43:30).
May God grant you to extol His infinite greatness now and forever, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.