You should not approach your church or church group on
Sunday mornings and midweek expecting to learn something new… in fact, you
should hope you don’t! That’s the way heresies begin (Heb.13.7-9). Now… that is
a bit of an overstatement, but let me explain.
You ought to approach such gatherings expecting to hear
something in accord with the gospel that has been handed down from generation
to generation and proclaimed even to you… the very gospel you believed!
If you’ve been a follower of Christ for more than a few
years… you ought to have heard it all before. The disciples only had three
years to hear the teachings of Jesus. They had years to learn the OT stories
beforehand. And they had the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended, but the
revelation of the Son of God is complete… and has been for two thousand years.
If you’ve not learned at least an introductory grasp of all Scripture… it’s
your fault, and no one else’s… especially in such a world as today. Biblical
illiteracy is a choice.*
The author of Hebrews chastises the church because they
“should already be teachers” but instead they have to “return to the
basics”—that is “Who is this Jesus guy again? What did he do? Why does it
matter?”** In other words, if you can’t point to Jesus and show who he is, what
he’s done, and why it matters… you haven’t even mastered the alphabet yet.
Righteousness comes after
understanding how Jesus is the focal point of Scripture (Heb.5.11-6.8). Indeed,
it comes only when we understand Jesus as the focal point of life (Heb.10.26).
The ‘Great Commission’ in Matthew 28 burdens every follower of Jesus with “teaching them to obey all that I have
commanded you.” Which can be summed up in “Love God… love others.” Notice that
the object of teaching isn’t the recent medical/psychological theory about
autism and vaccines; the object of teaching is obedience to the King: “Behold
all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore: Go, and make
disciples [by] baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you; and behold, I am
with you always, even to the very end of the age.” Jesus rules, therefore
reorient your entire life under his Triune glory (baptism), and love him and
others (obey) and know that he is near (behold).
Don’t Get Me Wrong
I do learn things I didn’t know before… sometimes it’s small
details like “His father was” so-and-so; other times it’s a pretty significant
reality I never quite grasped myself… like the reality that Jesus took our sinful flesh, east of Eden, inborne with
all the same bent toward rebellion and sin I
have, and marched to Golgotha and put that
flesh to death, not simply an Adamic-clean flesh, but my own. But hopefully
when I say something like that, you agree with me that the truth isn’t new… and
even the basic concept isn’t new. If anything is new it should be in the
detail. I shouldn’t have to explain to anyone who calls themselves a Christian
that Jesus is the GodMan, though I probably need to explain what that entails.
I shouldn’t have to explain that Israel sinned against God or that the Spirit
is coeternal and equal in power and glory with the Father and Son, though
perhaps I need to remind people of the truth they already know, or explain that
it does matter for true life. I
shouldn’t have to defend my argument that our Triune God is all deserving of
glory or that worshiping idols is false and life-killing, though perhaps I need
to draw connections between Isaiah 48 and John 17 or Deuteronomy 6 and Matthew
28 or Genesis 1-2 and Luke 23-24. Perhaps these are things that are ‘new’ and
something I’ve ‘learned.’ But really, isn’t it just looking at the diamond from
a different angle, or perhaps holding a mirror to it in order to see what it
looks like in its own reflection?
The facts we learn
are only valuable when they help us know God.
The reality is Jesus. The truth is Jesus. And all of
Scripture points to Jesus. And every sermon should show you Jesus. And if you
are begging to be taught something new,
then maybe just maybe you’ve forgotten your first love. Or maybe just maybe
you’ve never seen him anyway. You want instruction for marriage? I’ll give you
Christ the perfect bridegroom who loves you and made covenant with you. Obey
him in love. You want a new Greek phrase to tout? I’ll give you Christ, the
Alpha and Omega. Obey him in love. You want to know how to get ahead in your
job? I’ll give you Christ the King who took a servant’s cloth and lay down so others
could walk on top of him. Obey him in love. You want an Akkadian myth to relate
to the flood account? I’ll give you Christ, the one who endured the flood of
God’s wrath and delivers you on the other side. Obey him in love. You want to
know how to parent? I’ll give you Christ who says that he will care for you,
Christ who says you’re evil, Christ who obeyed the Father perfectly, and the
Father who gave his Son in death for your sake. Obey him in love. You want the
latest study on gender in society? I’ll give you Christ who calls people to
deny themselves and to follow him; who breaks down barriers between gender and
country and reconciles them to himself. Obey him in love.
I will not give you something new. I will not give you
relevant sermons. I will give you Jesus until you fall in love with him. And
Jesus will give you life.
Love and outworking of righteousness come only through being
overcome by the glory and love of Christ. In other words, the “do” is the
natural result of the “done.” The “be” is the response of the “is”—or more
appropriately, the “I Am.” You will only do once you see Jesus. You will only
be once you see Jesus. And yes: this probably means an insight from Scripture
colors the picture a bit, but it should never be something which is ‘new.’
And so…
You can be illumined to understand Scripture in a different
way, or its significance might be increased this time you hear that passage
because God has created you as a dynamic human being, and you’ve come with a
new load of experiences on your back. Or maybe the pastor will bring up a
recent scholarly article that gives more context to the passage in question.
Cool. All well and good. Even relatively necessary for us who are forgetful
people, but the primary purpose of Church is not learning, but worship.
CH is for Worship
The sermon should remove the fog from our sinful eyes; it
should present us with Christ, whose Spirit removes the noetic effects of the fall.
But you have been baptized in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and therefore
your life has been reoriented to the life, death, and resurrection of the Son
who is the Truth, the Way, and the Life. You now conform to him… anything ‘new’ is only on your part:
a new sin you must confess, a new child you must sacrifice, a new job you must
give thanks for. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But you aren’t.
Sunday after Sunday you must come and give yourself to him and his people.
Church is more than the sermon. In fact, that’s only the mouth doing his job.
But the Church worships in love, performing its task for the body. The ears
listen to the sorrowful, the hands work for the good of the body, the feet
return from their week of taking the gospel to the world and bring report to
its body, the blood courses through bringing oxygen and strength to the weary,
the tongue encourages. And all do so in the grace of God for the love of
others—and that is worship. Each act of worship should be participated in. And
perhaps if we focus on the many different expressions of worship in our church
on Sunday, we’ll be less disgruntled when the sermon doesn’t give me what I
want. Even this picture of esteeming Christ alone in the sermon isn’t a common
experience for many churches, for which I grieve, and for which you should too.
But let that draw us into prayerful dependence on Christ the chief shepherd who
cares for the lilies of the field… who died for his bride… what then would he
not give us if only we ask?
Unfortunately, like most of life, we expect that church
should give us something without a
reciprocal demand. But when has that ever been true? We need to start
remembering that church isn’t built for us. We are simply a stone in the
edifice! Built for the glory and presence of God. Perhaps if you start
performing your role in the church, the body will get out of the couch and
start feeding you, exercising you, and cleaning you.
As Trevin Wax recommends, let’s change the questions from
“What did you learn at church?” to “How was worship this morning?” And a
whole-natured full-spectrum worship… not a sad, isolated segment of music and
familiar songs.
*This is an indictment against peoples in the ‘modern west,’
and not a statement against the unreached/unengaged people groups… who in fact
are a second indictment against us.
**I take some liberty in this paraphrase, and it’s because I
understand that the author is specifically referring to how all the Scriptures
point to Jesus.
