Tag: Providence Reformed Church

            Two Thoughts on Wise Communicatione we hit Proverbs 10, we run into that cool section of the book where most of the verses are two related lines. Very often, the lines are antithetical parallels, they offer opposites that are related. These are helpful for us to show us the difference between right and wrong.

 

As I was looking at Proverbs 10, two verses stood out to me. Both of them relate to how we communicate. Both of them reminded me of specific people I have known. And both of them are a challenge for any of us to be wiser as we speak.

Proverbs 10:8 – 

 

The wise of heart will receive commandments,

but a babbling fool will come to ruin.

 

This verse compares the wise to a fool. And the contrast in the verse is how each listens, really listens, when others are speaking. One major flaw that we want to avoid in communication is being the person who, as others speak, does not attend to them enough to actually understand what they are saying. Perhaps we are thinking about what we want to say next. Perhaps we are simply focusing on other things. But it is a huge mistake to let your life become marked by being a person who does not listen.

 

And, yes, I have a couple of people I know in mind here. [And, no, I will not name them for you.] The people I am thinking of are good people, sweet people, people you want in your church or circle of friends. But the most frustrating thing about talking to these folks, I have noticed, is that it is easy to tell that they are just not listening, not really. They will nod or give you a “uh huh” in the conversation, but they are not taking in the content of what you say. So, at the end, when the conversation is over, you feel like you have just talked to yourself and they have missed whatever it is that you wanted to tell them.

 

Let me simply suggest, Christians, don’t be like that. Check yourself. Look to see if you are a listener, or if you wander when you are being spoken to. Are you the kind of person, when a conversation is not focused on you, looks for a way to change that? Be real here. Do you actually not value other people and their thoughts? Wise people receive commandments, they listen. Babbling fools, those who can’t stop themselves from talking, come to ruin.

 

Proverbs 10:12

 

Hatred stirs up strife,

but love covers all offenses.

 

Now we see the difference between being loving and hateful, at least one difference. Hateful people stir strife. Loving people cover offenses.

 

We have to be careful with this one. Solomon is not here telling us to let big, dangerous problems go. He is not suggesting we turn a blind eye to sin. But, if you are honest, I doubt you thought that was behind this verse to begin with.

 

A little common sense here would tell you that this verse is again about communication and relationship issues. This time, it is the difference between a person who takes a small conflict and blows it up and a person who is gracious and lets it go.

 

Again, I know people here. I know people who simply cannot look at others with grace. If they offend others, these people expect the benefit of the doubt—“Obviously I didn’t mean it that way; you should know that.” At the same time, these people cannot look at others with that same favor. They must take everything as a deep, personal insult. Every time they are slighted, every time something is said in a way they do not like, they bristle and have to bring it out.

 

It is wise and loving to give others the benefit of the doubt in the area of personal offense. It is wise, very wise, to let small offenses go, to cover them up, and to not make them bigger by stirring up strife. In the end, building conflict when it is over small, personal issues or personality conflicts is damaging to friendship, to families, and to churches. Wise and loving people will develop the character and class to learn to just let certain things, small things, go.

 

And let me say, as an honest confession, that I know I have been the wrong person in both of these issues. I can think of times when I have been in conversations and then looked back, remembered how they went, and know that I interrupted others while speaking, I focused on my own agenda, and I simply did not listen. And there are times when I have taken a small offense and spread it, sharing with others what I should have covered. So I know I’m not coming at this from a position of perfection. But the Proverbs are not about us flaunting our own wisdom. The Proverbs are about us learning to live in a way that is wise, that honors God, and that works best in the real world. So may we learn from these verses to listen well and to avoid spreading strife on unimportant issues.

One of the greatest proofs of the claims of Christianity is the unbelievable change in the courage of the disciples. Consider that, on the night of Jesus’ arrest, the disciples ran and scattered. They were not ready to stand and die with Jesus as they had claimed in the upper room at the last supper. But then consider how the disciples behaved just a month-and-a-half later.

 

Acts 4:5-12

 

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

 

Set the stage for this conversation in your mind if you really want to get it. The disciples, the men who had been hiding in the upper room, are pulled into a meeting of the Jewish rulers. Annas and Caiaphas, the two main Jewish rulers who had Jesus put to death, are right there leading this inquest. If ever the disciples should have been utterly scared speechless, it is now. They are facing the men who had Jesus beaten, who took him to Pilate, and who scoffed at the Savior on the cross.

 

With that kind of terror in mind, look at Peter’s response. There is no hint of fear in Peter. There is only boldness, only confidence. Peter speaks like a person taking a test who has been given the answer key.

 

What gives Peter all this confidence. I think it is the simple truth that Peter knows that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Peter points out the fact that, yes, you leaders crucified Jesus. But God raised him. Jesus is alive. And now that Peter knows Jesus is alive, he does not fear the Jews. He does not fear a trial. He does not fear death.

 

Peter has enough confidence, in fact, to make the glorious declaration in verse 12 that there is no other way to salvation other than Jesus. There is no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved. It is only the name of the risen Jesus, because of the finished work of Jesus, that can lead us to true salvation. The death and resurrection of Jesus has changed the world, and Peter and the other disciples are willing to stand strong.

 

How does a man who ran and hid on Good Friday suddenly stand so strong before the priests? The only way that this makes sense is if Jesus really is alive. But if Jesus really is alive, nothing else would make sense for them to do other than to honestly, boldly, gloriously proclaim the gospel.

 

Friends, Jesus is alive. Yes, he died. But God raised him from the dead. He walked out of the tomb and showed himself to the disciples and to crowds of hundreds. His resurrection appearance convinced the disciples to give up their lives for the sake of the gospel. And his resurrection is our hope too.

 

Because Jesus is alive, we can have confidence that his sacrifice was enough to pay for our sins. Because Jesus is alive, we can have confidence that all who have trusted in him have eternal life. Because Jesus is alive, we can have confidence to stand and share the gospel in a world that thinks we are nuts. Because Jesus is alive, we have eternal life, and that life is all we really need.

In Proverbs 9, the lady wisdom and the lady folly both call out to passers-by. Each lady cries to the simple, the ones in need of guidance, and they invite them to come to them. And the calls are strikingly similar.

 

I think that the Lord, in this passage, is showing us that, when you live in the fallen world, it is often difficult to distinguish between wisdom and folly. In society, the cries of either woman may sound alike. We who are simple and needy folks have no hope, on our own, of figuring out what is the difference. That is, if God does not give us his word, we would have no hope.

 

In Proverbs 9, lady wisdom tells us the difference between herself and lady folly.

 

Proverbs 9:10

 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

 

Do you want wisdom? Fear god. That is the beginning of wisdom. Do you want insight, yield to God and his word. If not, you will not know when you are headed for right or wrong thinking.

 

One thing that I am seeing much of in the world right now is the way that so many of us think that we can figure out the ways of God. Many of us think we can sit in judgment over the decisions and the commands of god. We act as though we could, in our wisdom, get things right where God has gotten them wrong in his ways of salvation or of providential care of the world.

 

God is infinite in his perfection. He is holy. He is omniscient. He is omnipotent. He is omnipresent. He is always, absolutely always, right in all of his ways. And when we do not understand his ways, we should not dare to raise ourselves up and demand his answers, or even worse, accuse him of wrong.

 

Folly and wisdom both cry out to us. They both call us to their sides. And the difference, the beginning of the difference, is the fear of the Lord. May we fear god rightly so as to walk in his wisdom.

When I grew up, four-letter words were those bad words that would get a kid in trouble and which a polite and civilized adult would avoid saying most of the time. We now live in a world where hate is considered more of a four-letter word than any expletive that would have gotten a kid’s mouth washed out with soap. As far as many in our society is concerned, hate is the ultimate sin.

 

How does God’s word speak of hate? Does God tell Christians, above all, not to hate anything at any time in any way?

 

Consider the words of personified wisdom in Proverbs 8. Tell me if you feel something counter-cultural.

 

Proverbs 8:13

The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil

and perverted speech I hate. 

 

Notice that godly wisdom declares to us that the fear of the Lord—the beginning of knowledge in Proverbs 1:7—is also the hatred of evil. God’s word is clear, and it has always been clear, that the people of God are to hate evil. Hate, therefore, is actually part of what it means to love righteousness.

 

There, of course, is a difference in being a person full of hate, of anger, of cruelty, and of malice. That is not what God calls his people to be or to do. We are not to be nasty, violent, militaristic and conquering people. We are to be kind, gracious, loving, gentle, poor in spirit, peacemakers, and all the rest. We are to model the grace and love of Jesus.

 

The problem is when we allow society to tell us that all things that sound like hate, anger, or condemnation are wrong. The problem is when we allow our society to tell us that any speech that condemns sin as sin is somehow more sinful than the sin condemned. If we give in to that kind of talk, we will miss what the Proverb here says is the fear of the Lord.

 

To love God includes hating evil. To love God is to hate sin. We cannot get around that. God hates evil. God hates sin. God hates the things he calls abominations. And we have no right as a people, or as a society, or as local churches, or as denominations to say that God is wrong for hating what God says is evil.

 

Think about some of the things that have made the headlines in the past year or so. We have seen mass shootings at concerts and school buildings. We have seen terrorists do incredible violence in the world. We have seen people attacked simply for the color of their skin. We have heard the gut-wrenching testimonies of young girls who were sexually abused by a doctor they trusted. If we remove hate from our vocabulary, if we remove hate from our religion, we have no proper word to express how the righteous should feel toward these things. We hate what has been done. We hate the sin. And we dare to call the sin evil, because evil is what it is.

 

At this point, most would amen the thought. But now we have to go further. You see, god has not limited the definition of evil to the things that our society agrees is evil. Yes, all those things I mentioned in the previous paragraph are evil. But so too is it evil when a husband watches porn, when a wife walks out of her home and into the arms of another man, when a person shakes his fist at God and declares God to be either not there or not righteous. Evil is that which opposes the holiness of God. Evil is that which God declares to be evil. Thus, evil is the sin in my heart and life. And evil is the sin that you commit. We must recognize that the beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord, is to know God and to thus hate that which opposes God.

 

What would it look like in your life if you stopped excusing your sin with a flippant, “Nobody’s perfect,” and instead asked God to help you hate it? How would it be different if the people of God were willing to hate evil enough to call it evil, even if that caused our churches to shrink some or our standing in our communities to be weakened? How would our world change if we were honest enough to call evil something hateful instead of using softened terms to make sin socially acceptable?

 

No, dear friends, hate is not evil. No, do not be a hateful, cruel, prejudiced person. Do not be nasty. Treat others with love and respect as people created in the image of God. But do not shrink back from what the word of God says. God says he hates evil. God says that hating evil is the fear of the Lord. And so you and I are to love God and hate evil. And you and I must know that evil is that which opposes the Lord. We do not enact personal judgments—the Lord has told us that he is the one who will judge. But we do rightly, honestly hate that which God says is evil.

When we think of different types of human sin, we often take our minds to the most gruesome of acts in order to declare what sins are the worst of the worst. But, as we get to know the Lord in his word, we will find that some sins that may look small to the modern man are actually huge human rebellion against the Lord.

 

Exodus 32:4-5 – 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”

 

Picture the scene. Israel is at Mount Sinai. Moses is up on the mountain top getting the tablets of the law establishing the covenant between God and Israel. And as Moses is away from the camp, the people get restless. They decide that God is taking too long. And so they take action.

 

Aaron, the priest and Moses’ brother, gets gold from the people. He has an idol fashioned. And then, in perhaps the ugliest moment of all, he declares that idol to be the LORD, the God who led them up out of Egypt. The God who declared in the Ten Commandments that the nation was not to fashion any idol, he is the one whose name they are stealing to credit a golden calf for getting them out of Egypt.

 

This is an example of the kind of sin that stirs God’s wrath in a major way. This is the kind of sin that moved God to threaten to wipe out the entire nation and start over with Moses, though the lord did not do so—nor did he really plan to do so. This is a major problem.

 

And since we do not fashion statues to worship in our own lives, we may think we are fine, safe from making that mistake. But I wonder how often we walk dangerously close to calling something by the name of God when it is not God. I wonder how often we do things in our own way and then try to say they are the actions of the Lord. I wonder how often we do things that dishonor God, serve ourselves, focus us in the opposite direction of our Creator, and then declare our acts divine.

 

You may say we do not do such things, but think carefully. If your life is not governed by the word of God, you will run the risk of making up a law of your own, christening that law as righteous, and then assuming that your standards are the standards of God. If you make up your own laws apart from the revelation of God, you are most likely to end up like Israel, dancing around the golden calf of your own self-image and home-made morals. When we think that we have the ability, apart from the Lord, to make determinations as to what pleases the Lord, we are much like the people who threw their jewels in the fire and then bowed down to the shape that came out.

 

It is a very dangerous, very deadly thing to declare something to be God that is not God. It is dangerous to make up our own rules and then use the name of God to establish them. Our standards must be those of the Lord. Our way to know God and his ways is the word of God. We must be a people submitted to the word of God, or we will be a people who bow to our own imaginings as Israel bowed before the calf. That sin, to turn your back on your Creator to bow to something of your own making, that is a sin that is utterly terrifying.

When God led the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, he called them to do some pretty amazing things. Moses was told by God to follow a particular blueprint to construct the tabernacle. This was an artistic marvel of costly cloth, woodwork, gold, silver, bronze, and precious stones. The garments of the priests, the altars, the lamps, the sacred vessels, and so much more had to be made.

 

How would this happen? Moses was not a goldsmith. Nor was Moses a construction worker. God had to provide other men, skilled men, to make the job get done.

 

Exodus 31:1-5 – 1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.

 

As we look at the Lord’s word to Moses, we see that God knew of the need. And God had already taken action to meet the need. God had set aside a man who had in himself a gift from God, an ability to design and to craft. And that man had the ability to lead other craftsmen to produce the items the Lord required.

 

This should remind us that the Lord uses many people with many different skills and gifts to accomplish his will. In the church, we need all sorts of people. We need people who are solid teachers. WE need people with the personalities that are strong enough to confront the wayward. WE need people who are gentle enough to comfort the hurting. We need people who are shaped to serve others and people who are wired to lead.

 

The beautiful thing is that God always prepares his people for what he wants them to do. God will put in the local church body the people with the gifts that they need in order to do the ministry to which the lord is calling. Just as God would not have commanded a tabernacle be built without also gifting a man to mold gold, God will not call a church to a ministry that he does not also gift the members of that body to accomplish.

 

So, how have you been gifted? What unique personality and skills has the Lord given to you that are for the body? Are you gentle and able to comfort the needy? Are you particularly skilled at music, at art, at financial management, or at taking care of little ones? God has shaped all people differently. When we come to faith in Christ, God also gives us spiritual gifts that he intends that we use for the benefit of the church. You, if you are a Christian, are gifted by God. Find out how. Pray about it. Ask other Christians to tell you how they think you are gifted. Serve, and see where you are uniquely equipped to serve well. Find your gifts and use them for the glory of God and the good of the church.

In Proverbs 2, we see a picture of a man being protected by godly wisdom from dangerous and destructive personal sin. Wisdom keeps godly men from joining in with the evil and violent. And, in the same proverb, we see that godly wisdom turns a man away from the tempting adulteress.

 

Proverbs 2:16-19

 

16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,

from the adulteress with her smooth words,

17 who forsakes the companion of her youth

and forgets the covenant of her God;

18 for her house sinks down to death,

and her paths to the departed;

19 none who go to her come back,

nor do they regain the paths of life.

 

Notice, as you look at that text, how significant is the sin of adultery. This is a big deal, a very big deal. The author of Proverbs tells us that the adulteress forgets the covenant of her God. We see that she and her house lead to death and destruction.

 

There are many sins out there. All sin, of course is significant. But how pressing on our consciences should be the accusation of forgetting the covenant of our God? Such a thing should not happen. Such a thing should never be.

 

Of course, all sin can be forgiven in Christ. But, we must understand at the same time that a person who can willingly forget the covenant of their God is in grave spiritual danger. To willingly see the command of God, ignore his covenant, and violate his ways so willfully, so dramatically, so destructively should be terrifying.

 

Christians, adultery is a big deal. We are to be people who make and keep our marriage vows. God will not lead us into violation of such a sacred commitment. God wants Christians to grasp that the violation of the marriage covenant or the breaking up of a marriage is simply not what we do.

 

Of course, when dealing with this topic, hard cases always come up. No spouse should be subjected to abuse. God does not demand that a spouse put up with being the victim of adultery. But the beautiful thing is, if you are part of a solid church with a commitment to God’s word and to biblical church discipline, there is help and hope. God provides a path of confrontation toward restoration that is clearly prescribed in Scripture. Forgiveness and restoration will, of course, look different depending on our circumstances. I believe, though godly people disagree here, that God has provided avenues of response to certain sins against you as a spouse where divorce is allowable under his word; but those circumstances are not nearly as broad as our culture has chosen to make them. And I certainly believe that any Christian considering divorce must do so with the counsel of the elders of his or her church.

 

What is not a solution, however, is to leave your spouse for another person. This is simply not part of Christian character. And the word of God is clear that this is an issue of great weight, as the covenant of God is central to our behavior in this setting.

 

So, Christians, let this little part of Proverbs, a part we do not talk about much, ring out to you. Let it call you to see that adultery is a big deal. Let it call you to make your marriage and its preservation a priority. Let it call you to turn from any sort of media a or other forms of influence that might drag you away from your commitment to your spouse before the Lord. If things are hard, reach out to your elders in your church to ask for help, for counsel, or even for biblical church discipline if your spouse is in sin.

 

And if you have been guilty here, repent. Own that your choices were dishonoring to the Lord. Express genuine sorrow. Seek to do all that you can to obey the word of God as you attempt to make things right. Jesus has mercy and grace for all who are truly his. But I must add that all who are truly his will not take his grace lightly, for granted. We mourn our past sinful choices as we seek to do all we can to remember the covenant of our God and honor him through all our future behavior.

How many of our debates seem unsolvable? In our culture, there are people who have vastly, massively different conclusions that they draw about so many issues. Political and moral issues divide us as a culture in a way that we have never seen before as a society. But why does this happen?

 

The question, I would suggest, may boil down to a question of the starting point for our thinking. What is your worldview? When you are analyzing your own opinion on issues of life and morality, where do you begin? What things do you assume are true? What things do you declare to yourself are universally true? How do you make those determinations?

 

Again, go back to the starting point. Right there is going to be a major fork in the road that will divide people on a tremendous number of topics. Is the universe a closed, naturalistic system? Or is the universe the creation of Almighty God? No bigger question sits at the heart of all that divides most of our society.

 

Proverbs 1:7

 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction. 

 

What is the beginning of knowledge? It is the fear of the Lord. If we want to know how the world works, how our lives are to function, what is the reason for our existence, we have to have a solid starting point. And, as should be no surprise, the Bible tells us that the right place to start is with the knowledge that God is and the proper respect for, fear of, him.

 

The alternative, the denial of the presence and purpose of God, is what the Bible calls folly. To turn from the Lord, in Proverbs, is said to be a denial of wisdom and instruction. Why would that be? If God exists—which he does—to turn from him and try to think from a position of denying his existence simply cannot work. WE do not do physics while trying to start from the assumption that there is no such thing as gravity or energy. We do not write music from the starting point of believing that there is no such thing as harmony. WE do not start cooking with the assumption that there is no such thing as a recipe. And we ought not try to figure out life and morality from the assumption that there is no God.

Do you ever wonder why the Lord has commanded certain things? Have you ever tried to figure out the rationale behind his commands? Sometimes we can see it clearly. Sometimes it is not so simple. The command not to murder is an obvious one. The command for Israel not to eat certain foods during a certain period of the nation’s existence, that is tougher.

 

But we get an insight into some commands of God in the thing that God says to Moses just before the Lord begins to provide miraculous food for the people in the wilderness.

 

Exodus 16:4 – Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”

 

God told Moses that he was about to start raining down food on the people, providing for their needs on a daily basis. But notice that this provision is also a test. The provision is an opportunity for the people’s hearts to be displayed. Will they love and trust God enough to obey his command to the letter or not? Will they respect the Lord enough to do what he says in the way that he says it or not?

 

Of course, the test is not for God’s benefit. He knows the hearts of men. But the test is for the sake of the people. God reveals to them their own hearts as they either obey his word or disobey.

 

The same is true for us in many ways. The Lord has given us commands. Some of his commands are out-of-step with the society we live in. What will we do? Why would we still do things in the way prescribed by Scripture?

 

The answer to why we obey is not pragmatic. Not all of God’s commands will make our lives easier. The reason we obey, however, is the same as the reason the Israelites were to obey. We obey in order to demonstrate that our hearts are yielded to the lordship of Christ. We obey in order to declare that we belong to Jesus and he is our Master. We obey to show the watching world, the watching angels, and the always-present God that the Lord, he is our lord, and we will obey him as our king.

 

Consider how easy it is for us to want to look at an unpopular commandment in Scripture and put it away. We see the way that God has told humanity marriage is to work, for example, but that is no longer socially acceptable. Biblical standards of sexual morality are not in step with our culture. How easy it is to want to tell people that anything is OK so long as you do not hurt another person. But the Lord shows us that his commands, besides being good, are a test for our hearts. The question is not whether or not certain behaviors are harmful; nor is the question whether or not those behaviors are natural. The question actually is, “Will you obey the Lord?” If God is your God, if the Lord is your master, then you obey his commands in order to demonstrate your submission to him.

In Exodus 24, we see the ratification of the covenant between God and Israel. In chapter 19, the people had agreed to submit to what the Lord commanded. In chapter 20, God gave the Ten Commandments, the basic terms of the agreement between himself and Israel. Then, from 20-23, God gave a set of laws that are examples of how Israel would obey his commands.

 

By chapter 24, the people were again willing to affirm, now for the third time, that they want to be God’s people, under his rule and protection, and they want God to be their God. And so the nation takes part in the covenant ceremony. Animals are sacrificed. Sacred elements are sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice. Even the people have the blood placed on them, the blood of the covenant.

 

Then look at what happens next:

 

Exodus 24:8-11 – 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” 9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

 

As was common in those days, the confirming sacrifice of the covenant ceremony is followed up by a meal between the two parties entering into the agreement. This time, the meal is stunning. Representative leaders from Israel climb up Mount Sinai to eat a meal in the presence of God. Here these leaders have some form of a glimpse of the glory of the Lord, they dine in his presence, and they live. That is amazing, since to see God in his holiness would, under most circumstances, lead to their death—God is holy and men are sinful after all.

 

This passage is fascinating, but if we only stop there, we miss something very important to our Christian lives. This passage is fascinating, and it reminds us of something. This reminds us of the night of Jesus’ betrayal and the institution of the Lord’s Supper.

 

Think about it. Jesus sat with his disciples. He declared to them that a New Covenant was being made, as Jesus would pour out his own blood for the forgiveness of our sins. When Jesus held up the cup, he called it the blood of the covenant. And this was all done in the context of a shared meal. The disciples ate a meal in the presence of God the Son as they looked to the institution of the New Covenant.

 

And that is not fascinating enough. Jesus commanded that this ceremony be repeated in the life of the church. For some it is week-to-week. For some it is monthly, quarterly, or some other time interval. But, on a regular basis, Christians gather together for worship and they remember the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus. Not only do we remember, we eat and drink in commemoration. And we do so together, as the body of Christ, in the presence of the Lord. WE share a covenant meal in the spiritual presence of God, and we look forward to a meal that we will physically share with the Lamb of God at the great marriage feast upon his return.

 

Christians, let this stir your heart to love and treasure Lord’s Supper. This meal is not a magical ceremony. It does not infuse you with more grace. The elements remain bread and wine. It is commemorative.

 

At the same time, the spiritual life and blessing of this meal is more than a memory. Something sacred is going on, something mysterious, something glorious. People who are redeemed by Christ, under his covenant grace, are united in remembering his death on their behalf as they look forward to his return. And The Holy Spirit of god, the Spirit of Jesus, is with us at that moment. This is not just an empty ceremony of memory alone. It is dining together in the presence of God as we fellowship together. It is longing for his return. It is looking forward to an eternity beyond this sin-filled life. It is a glorious time of refreshing the soul. And it is certainly to be a major highlight of the Christian’s worship.