The Gift Is Not The Manger, It Is The Cross

Why do we celebrate the birth of the savior? His birth is not the gift to mankind, His death and resurrection are the actual gifts to mankind from the Father.

Though His coming in and of itself was miraculous, never forget the truest meaning of the gift. Man is sinful in his nature and has no way to be accepted by the Father except for the vicarious death of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead that gives us eternal life.

Concerning Biblical Worship

There are four aspects of worship which must be examined and many who talk about cultural relevance generally tend to concern themselves with one or two aspects of worship and tend to completely ignore that worship has four very distinct aspects.

YHWH

All Biblical worship comes from or is directed to YHWH (Jehovah). If this is true, then YHWH must be examined to determine what is significant about the triune Godhead that makes Him worthy of worship and demanding of worship.

Biblically, God is eternal and not immortal. God was eternally existent through the infinity of the past and past the infinity of the future. God is Immutable, He does not change nor can He change. If God were to change He would have to change from perfection to imperfection and it is not within His character to do so. God is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent, He is all knowing, all powerful and in all places at once. God is Sovereign in that He will accomplish His will. In God is the perfection of love, mercy and care, in God is also seen the perfection of righteousness, justice and wrath. God is holy and nothing which is unholy can remain in His presence.

God has a purpose and a plan to accomplish His purpose and He will accomplish His will. He does not look into the future to see the future; He intricately plans the future to accomplish His will on the earth through the lives of men. I will recommend a book for those who want to have a more extensive, detailed instruction concerning God. The book is John Gill’s, Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity. The sections dealing with God are voluminous and detailed.

Believers

Second in this pattern is the believer or Christian. Only Christians can worship God and therefore the discussion in this section is strictly limited to Christians. This is Biblical: Christianity is not a set of laws; it is freedom from the law. There is a basic set of beliefs which are essential for a person to be a Christian. I believe that God the Father, Son and Spirit exist as three in one.I believe Jesus is the only Son of God; He lived a sinless life, was crucified, dead, buried and on the third day rose to life.I believe all humans sin and will be eternally separated from God because of their sin.I believe there is only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus.
I believe that God the Father, Son and Spirit exist as three in one.I believe Jesus is the only Son of God; He lived a sinless life, was crucified, dead, buried and on the third day rose to life.I believe all humans sin and will be eternally separated from God because of their sin.I believe there is only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus.
First, a Christian must believe that God the Father, Son and Spirit exist as three in one. Without this being at the forefront of all Christian beliefs, John 1 is null and void and Jesus is not the Son of God. Second, a Christian must believe Jesus is the only Son of God; He lived a sinless life, was crucified, was dead, was buried and on the third day rose to life. Each of these could be viewed separately, but they are all intertwined in the reality of the second person of the Godhead. Third, a Christian must believe all humans sin and are eternally separated from God because of their sin. Man is sinful in all of his ways. Sin is not allowed to remain in the presence of God, therefore man cannot remain in the presence of God without man’s sin being removed from him. Fourth, a Christian must believe that there is only one way to heaven and that is through faith in Jesus as savior and Lord. Faith is given by God to man to accept forgiveness of sin and to die to self. Dying to self is complete surrender which gives total authority over the life of the believer to Jesus to be Lord over the life of the believer.

These are the Biblical qualifications of a believer. Worship flows out of this dynamic as part of the interpersonal love relationship that individual believers have with God. It is this interpersonal love relationship which drives the intimacy of worship both in the corporate and as individuals. Intimacy of being spoken to by God and responding back to God, this is worship.

Proclamation

What is proclamation? Proclamation occurred when believers were gathered together to spend time with God. When looking at the Biblical text concerning the purpose of the church, you have to take into consideration the purpose that God had for the people gathering together as well as the purpose that the people had in gathering together. It is evident, when looking at the Biblical text, that it is appropriate to conclude that the purpose God had for the people gathering together to spend time with Him was for God to communicate to them through the proclamation of the Word. The prophets boldly proclaimed, “Thus says the LORD.” Speaking to man was God’s purpose in the gathering together of the people.

The purpose of God can be seen throughout the entirety of the Bible. Consider the Pentateuch. What was Genesis except for a basic history of God having personal relationship with people? What was Exodus except for a history of the birth of a people and their relationship with God? What was Leviticus except expectations for living in a right relationship with God and man? What was Numbers except for a basic history about the relationship of the people with each other as well as with God? What was the book of Deuteronomy except a long worship service from chapter one to chapter thirty three?

Look at Deuteronomy one more time. It is an amazing book concerning worship. Moses proclaimed the law and the truths God commanded him to proclaim. The people responded to the proclamation of the Word throughout the entire book.

Look in Isaiah chapter six (my favorite chapter in the entire Old Testament). The angels proclaim God is Holy. What was the response of man (literally in the singular – Isaiah) to the calling of God to the question, “Who should I send? Who will go for Us?” Isaiah responded, “Here I am. Send me.” Now those eight verses are worship.

God used the reading of the Law and the comments of the prophets to speak or communicate to the people gathered. This reading of the Law and proclamation of “Thus says the Lord” is the New Testament equivalent to expository preaching. The Word of the God is read and expounded upon by the preacher. It is without doubt that God chose a very specific way for His message to mankind to be proclaimed. It is with this in mind that we have to determine that this is part of the purpose for the gathering together of the people.

It is the Word of God which has the power to change the lives of people who hear it or read it. How can they believe without hearing about Him? How can they hear without a preacher? Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. We are to preach nothing but the WORD of God. The message of John 1:1 is mighty, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Proclamation has authority only in His name.

There are numerous pastors who preach the gospel of their own imagination, or the gospel of Christian philosophy, or the gospel of Christian psychology, but they never preach the Word of God. It is God’s Word alone that has the power to change lives. We must therefore proclaim the Word; because, “Thus says the Lord,” is the only way ministries have power from God. Worshiping through the proclamation of the Word of God will change the lives of believers by bringing them into the holy presence of God. We must understand that worship is part of our interpersonal love relationship with God.

Response from Believers

Biblically, worship by man of God is the response of the believer to the proclamation of the Word. Biblically, there are elements which are included in worship. These elements of worship include, but are not limited to inviting God to be present; prayer for the people; proclamation of the Word of God; reading of the Word of God; spoken response; baptism; Lord’s Supper; offerings; confession of sin; singing; playing of musical instruments; dancing; and other elements which may be determined from the Biblical text. Is every element appropriate every time worship takes place? No, but many are present when worship takes place in the Biblical text. Worship is a love relationship from God to man and from man to God for the sole purpose of bringing glory to the Son.

Worship is always about the sacrificial surrender of self to bring glory and honor and praise and majesty to the Son. As a believer comes before the throne room of God to worship the holy creator, God Almighty, complete surrender of self is required as a humble sacrifice to lie upon the altar. Complete abandonment of self either in the individual or corporate worship setting demonstrates an understanding of worship at the altar in the presence of a holy God. Have you ever noticed in the Biblical text that worship is never about the believer, but instead always about God?

The American church has made worship a spectator activity in a building instead of a selfless humbling of self before the throne of God. Biblical worship was never about the people, it was always about the one being worshipped – God. Worship is to be a meaningful relationship of sacrifice before the very throne room of God for the pleasure of God and God alone. Worship in its truest since is a complete sacrifice of self which is to be laid upon the altar in heaven as an act of surrender to the will of God. Whether we worship God, as an individual or corporately, it is how we hold ourselves accountable in our interpersonal relationship with God.

The corporate body when engaged in worship is unified in its efforts to bring Glory to the Father and Son. The unified body is essential for the bringing of worship to the Father. No corporate body containing even a single member not in a right relationship with the Father is capable to bringing sacrificial worship to the throne room of God. It is impossible for sin within the corporate body to be allowed to bring worship into the throne room presence of God. Sin must be dealt with by the corporate body during proclamation, because that is when God is proclaiming to man and the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin. If sin remains unconfessed and is allowed to remain within the corporate body during the response of the corporate to God, the sacrificial offering cannot be accepted.

When man comes to the corporate worship setting there may be sin within the life of one or more individuals. It is the responsibility of the corporate body to have a strong relationship within the membership to be able to deal with the sin and confront the person or persons with sin and have confession before the response of the body can bring glory to God. Corporate worship is where the corporate body holds individual believers accountable for their personal relationship with God. We are responsible to God as well as the entire membership of the corporate body for our personal relationship with God.

Through worship, the purpose of the church is being fulfilled. In this, the corporate body as well as individuals within the body are held responsible for their interpersonal love relationship with God. Here is where “the rubber meets the road.” If there is but one purpose for the church, what impact must this have on the church? It affects every aspect of the local church. It affects each individual as they relate to God, both individually and corporately. It affects every ministry in the church.

Our response to God through worship has Biblical precedent. There are numerous Biblical texts, mostly in the Old Testament, concerning how people worship God. This relational communication to and from God is vital in seeing worship in personal relationship with individuals as well as the corporate. This relationship is also beneficial in seeing how God holds the corporate as well as the individual responsible to Himself in the relationship.