Have you ever had that awkward situation when you were talking about someone to another person and then you suddenly had this realization the person you were talking about was right behind you? One of my favorite TV shows is NCIS and often in the show one of the characters, Tony, will be talking about the boss, Gibbs, to another person and suddenly Tony will stop and say, “He’s right behind me isn’t he?” To which he receives a swat on the back of the head from Gibbs who was standing behind him. It has even come to the point where tony will sometimes go, He’s standing right behind me isn’t he and actually Gibbs is not, but he reacts as if he is.
Presence and awareness of presence changes things. We talk different and act different if certain people are around. I get this quite often, “Oh it’s the pastor we can’t say this or we can’t do that.” If I was not there how different would people be? Makes me wonder sometimes. Presence does make a difference. Just think back to high school, or think about high school, and having your mother along on a date! Or at the high school dance as a chaperone. Changes the dynamic of our actions. Presence makes a difference.
Last week we looked at the importance –the essential key reality for Christians –God raised Jesus from the dead (I Peter 1:21). Take this truth, this reality, out of the equation and as Paul says we are still in our sins, we are preaching useless as is our faith (I Corinthians 15:12-20). This truth, this reality of Jesus being raised from the dead changes everything for us, for he is indeed with us always, in our midst, where we gather, when we pray, as we walk, when we witness, as we worship –he is present, he is Immanuel –God with us!
And that is a great comfort to us, but it is also a great challenge, a challenge I think many Christians struggle with and probably just plain don’t grasp. Immanuel –God with us. If we really grasped this, if we really understood this it would radically change just about everything in our lives. Jesus standing with you when you write a test –look at the next desk? Jesus with us when we do our taxes (yes it is coming to that time of year!). Jesus with us when we watch TV or movies. Jesus with us when we are on a date. Jesus with us when we drive in Winnipeg traffic. Oh we take great comfort in the fact Jesus is with us in times of struggle or heartache, times of loss. We use the words, God be with you! But the rest of the time? How much would it affect our language, our jokes, our purity, our honesty, our integrity, our treating of others? How would his presence affect our obedience to him? Oh, that is a tough one!
Obedience! Just picture yourself cruising along nicely on your way to Winnipeg doing a comfortable 120-125 on those empty stretches between Falcon Lake and Prawda. Oh, there’s never a cop there. Obedience to the speed? Oh I can push it a little! But suddenly in your review mirror or just up ahead you see the telltale bar across the top of a vehicle and suddenly your more obedient! Presence makes a difference. Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at several areas that would be transformed with this awareness, this Immanuel awareness.
Let’s start with one area that we experience today that will be carried into eternity. Stand and read with me Revelation 4:2, 8-11. Pray.
The first area that we will look at is worship. Worship is a sometimes, well, often, a contentious issue. I know of very few churches (in fact none) where there is not some conflict expressed over that 75 minutes we spend together as God’s people each Sunday morning. The music is too loud, I can’t hear it, too long, too many songs, no enough singing, sermon is boring, too many announcements, organ is off tune, guitars are to twang-ee, it’s too hot, too cold, pews are too hard, can’t see, too much, too little, too…Sometimes the concerns expressed are legitimate, but more often they are expressions of preference based on “me.” I know –I’m one of those “me’s!” We have become so deluged in our culture that we are consumers rather than worshipers. We approach worship much like we do a shopping experience or a restaurant. We look for what we want and if it is not there we complain or go somewhere else. If we don’t like it we take it back.
But look closely at Revelation 4. Who is the focus? The one sitting on the throne! He is holy, He is worthy, He is Lord and God. When God is present, things change –there is a whole different dynamic going on.
And we see this right from the beginning of creation. Adam and Eve had taken the forbidden fruit, they had sinned against God. Now God shows up in the garden and what happens? They hide! The very presence of God makes them aware of their short-coming and His glory.
Moses walking in the desert making sure the sheep are okay comes across a burning bush- Take of your shoes you are on holy ground, why? Because of the presence of the Lord!
The people of Israel chosen and led by a cloud of fire and he settled over the tabernacle and then during the time of Solomon when the temple was built he settled in the holy of holies –God in the midst affected them as a nation and people. Jesus when he walked this earth powerfully affected people through his presence –even on the cross as he gives His life the centurion announces surely this is the son of God! After the resurrection Jesus appears to the disciples and what a change overcame them! They went form a cowering hiding group of mourners to a force that shook the foundations of the whole Roman empire. Jesus appears to Saul and profoundly affects this once enemy to now proclaimer of the good news. His presence affects us!
Isaiah cries out “Woe is me of unclean lips”, John falls as dead, Shadrach Michack and Abednego walk in fire, Daniel sits with lions, demons are cast out, blind are made to see, life is given to the dead, Paul is struck blind, and angels cry out Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty! This is the cry of worship that surrounds the One who sits on the throne-the one who is present.
Imagine being a part of that –well, you will. But let us look at bit closer at something worth noting. In this chapter, chapter 4 we see that the living creatures never stopped saying Holy holy holy (vs 8). And then verse 10, the elders lay their crowns before the throne and say, You are worthy. But then something exciting, something incredible happens –the lamb who was slain enters –the one who is worthy. And the elders now each have a harp and we read in the NIV –they sang a new song! Did you catch the difference? The presence of the Lamb, Jesus moves the elders into song. Before they said, now they sang! “You are worthy…” Even the angels, untold numbers, see this incredible thing and burst out –IN SONG, “Worthy!” And then we see all of creation, every creature, every one Sings, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and power and glory forever and ever!”
Yeah, but that is all in the future, that is not now. Well let’s stop and take note of a few things.
The worthiness of Jesus is not for the future. He is worthy now because he has been slain and he has been raised from the dead. All authority and power and honor are his now, not in some future time or when we get to heaven. Every knee will bow, every confess Jesus is Lord. Paul writes that Jesus has been lifted up into the heavenly realms and all is put under his feat –not a yet to come but a here and now.
And because God has raised him from the dead, Jesus can and does keep his promises, his word –where two or three gather I am there, I am with you always even to the ends of the earth. He is Immanuel, God with us! When we worship, when we pray, when we sing, when we praise, when we gather, when we listen, when we come into this place or gather in a small group –He is there –He is here! He is with us!
It is interesting and somewhat sobering to see that most of the time when God, and each time Jesus speaks of being with us, it is when we are two or more –in a group, a gathering. Our culture has pushed us, I think too far to the individual aspect of faith. “I have a personal prayer time, I have a personal worship time, I have a personal time with God” These are all good, we need them, Jesus exemplified them.
Yes he comes and meets with us and fills us with His Spirit, but those times when Jesus says I will be with you always, or where two or more are gathered, it is in the plural –the group. Leslie Flynn in his book “Worship: Together we celebrate” says, “The Lord pledges every time we assemble in His name, He is present in a way He is not present in individual’s private worship. This added spiritual dimension makes church service not a take-it-or-leave-it affair, but a divinely scheduled appointment which should draw us irresistibly to corporate worship on the Lord’s day.”
Rather than something we anticipate, that we delight in, that we look forward too, all too often corporate worship is looked at as an option, a chore, a duty, a habit. More and more we see the gathering together as secondary to everything else. I heard one man, I hope jokingly say, If I have another better to do I’ll see you in church on Sunday.” I didn’t see him, so…
Granted church can be boring. It can be a habit. And yes a duty or chore. And some of that rests on those who are leading. But that is not the real concern for me. The real concern is that most people do not come expecting to encounter God, to meet him. They would surprised like, well, like having someone suddenly appear behind you that you were talking about. D we come expectant, do we come prepared to meet God in one place e said e would be –where two or three are gathered in His name?
I cannot image not going to church. I am not saying that as a pastor, but as a person who loves church, loves coming to get together with God’s people, to sing about His grace, to hear about His love, to rub shoulders with those who are struggling or are praising just as I am. I look forward to meeting God, I expect Him to be there.
If I miss church I miss something valuable and essential in my life. When we go on holiday we do our best to find a church to attend. It has a priority in my life –why –because I love it. yes, it may not always speak to me, yes the music might not always be what I like, I may not even sing because it is in a different language, yes the pews may be too hard and the pastor too long winded, but if I am not there I miss out. Mostly, I believe, it is because I have failed in keeping a covenant arrangement with Jesus.
A covenant is an agreement, a promise. Jesus said I will be there, He says he will be in the midst, He will be with us. And I cannot approach church as if he is not there! My focus is to sing to him, to pray to Him, to serve Him, to speak his words and listen for His voice why? Because He is there! I often imagine when I come into worship that I am entering the throne room and he is seated there in the throne. I can hear the brush of angels wings, I can hear the “holy” chorus. I see the hands and feet that were nailed-the scares deep and visible. I cannot look at his face, it is too much, but those hands, those feet! He Is present and when I sing, I sing to Him, when I pray I pray to Him, when I listen I listen for His voice. Immanuel, God with us.
God has raised Jesus from the dead. He is here. He comes and joins with us when we gather in his name. When we sing-do we sing in His presence? When we pray in His name, do we bow in adoration and look at the scars in his feet? When we give our offerings do we place them in His hands? When we listen to the message, do we wait for His voice –his challenge, His comfort, His guidance? Do we come and enter His presence?
The resurrection changed everything in our relationship with Jesus. One key area it has changed is our worship. He enters in and is a part of it. His presence makes a difference!
Prayer, Lord I am sorry for the way I have made worship –so often it is about me. I have failed to see your presence. I have talked about you but not to you, I have even acted as if you were not even here. How it must sadden you to see this. I know I am forgiven, but please Lord, guide me in how I can worship you. Open my eyes that I may see, open my ears that I can hear, open my heart to receive your presence, you blessing, you words. And yes Lord, if I have been talking about you and you are there behind me slap my head and wake me to your presence.
Father, as church that we will be keenly aware of your being here –that we will hear the chorus of angels singing your praises and join with them. Lord that we will be a church that truly comes together as your people called by your name to glorify you and be touched by you –that we may experience the moving of your Spirit. Father, you have raised Jesus from the dead and he is here with us, as he promised. Lord Jesus be honored today.
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