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How many Christians today can delineate the ways in which New Covenant worship differs from the old, and why? Of course, most would say that we no longer offer bloody sacrifices, and quite right it is to say so. But there’s much here to uncover. We’ve learned this summer from Pastor Thacker’s Sunday School class the patterns of worship in the scripture, and particularly in Leviticus that inform all of worship. And now in chapter 2 of The Theopolitan Vision in Pastor Shade’s class, we’re spending some time on Biblical Worship. New Covenant worship is (or should be), patterned on the worship of scripture, but there are distinct differences. There is no longer a veil to separate us from the Lord. As we’ve heard over and over again, we are saints, and this means we have sanctuary access. The sanctuary is where we find the source of life in Christ.

You may note that in the Old Covenant, there were priests to mediate the relationship between God and the people, who had no sanctuary access. The priests represented the people before God. But in the New Covenant, our Lord Jesus has become the great high priest, and we have direct access. That’s one reason why we tend to use the nomenclature of minister or pastor. That role is related to that of priest, but not the same. These ministers of word and sacrament no longer go between us and God, but they instead minister in the name of God, leading us in the liturgy as we are lifted up into heaven itself to receive life through the means of grace. We then are equipped to bring this source of life to the world. That then, is our calling and mission: to heavenize the earth! Go therefore, all the more boldly, and give God thanks!

The Revelation of Jesus Christ. So says verse one of the book of Revelation. So what do we learn of Jesus, our husband, just in that first chapter? Many revealing things!

First, we see that our husband speaks to us, his bride, with symbols, which reach much further into our souls than just prose: “…which God gave Him to ‘signify’ to his servants the things which must soon take place.” Symbols convey meaning and depth on top of, or below, the facts.

Second, we see that Jesus ensured the symbols get promulgated by sending them through a trusted servant, John. He wanted the churches to hear what he said, because it would be a blessing to them.

Third, we are greatly comforted, even emboldened in our lives as ambassadors for Jesus, to find out that Jesus is a “faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the land.” Jesus is the model of faithfulness in trusting God our Father; he rose from the dead, ensuring us that death can no longer hold us captive by its power; and, not only is Jesus faithful and alive, but he has been enthroned by his Father as King of the rulers of the land. In other words, Jesus can do what he promises will happen in the symbols to come!

Fourth, Jesus ransomed us from our sins by shedding his blood on our behalf, becoming a sacrifice for us, and through that action has made us a kingdom of priests to his God and Father. Jesus is a king that has a people; us, the church, his bride, washed white as snow and enabled to die for others as priests and kings as he died for us.

That’s quite a revelation of who our Lord is in this first chapter, and there are still fourteen verses to look at!

Peter Leithart, in his Theopolitan Vision book, spends a few pages debunking the idea of the “invisible church,” and for good reason. The scriptures never speak of an “invisible” church; it is always presented as a visible community among the communities of men. The church always consists of real, visible, fleshy people that you can touch, talk to, exhort, rebuke, love, and worship with on the Lord’s Day. There is no “Spiritual” element of life added on top of the “natural” life; in fact, all of life and all of Creation is a gift from God! Redemption transforms and fulfills nature, and is not a detached addition to it. The church is only invisible empirically: we can’t see all of it at once!

But keeping the church “visible” is also a great help to us as Christians and members of the visible body. If the church is visible, then what we do is visible, and needs to be seen, and will be seen. If we think worship is “invisible” between Jesus and me out in the woods, then I have an excuse not to get out of bed and join God’s real and sometimes difficult, crusty people, in being served in worship and serving others in worship. If the Christian life is “invisible,” I don’t have to serve others; I can just pray for them or hope the Spirit will help them. If the Christian life is “invisible,” then I’m left to my own imaginations of what it means to be spiritual, since nobody around me is speaking to me, and the Spirit I can always dismiss or ignore in my head. If the church is invisible, I can just escape it and be on my own. But that’s a recipe for immaturity: I never grow into maturity by dying for others, as Christ died for me!

If you are looking for a great paedo-communion passage to talk with your friends about, Exodus 12 is it!

First, God invites His people to a feast — a saving feast. The Passover feast! They didn’t earn their place there; they were granted it. Invited! The whole household was (v. 3).

Second, there was a lamb or goat for the whole household; for the number of persons (Hebrew ‘souls’) in the household (v. 4). Do young children not have souls?! They are part of the household. They eat what’s on the table with everyone else. Or else they starve.

Third, they are there. God says to the Israelites, “You shall observe this rite as a statue for you and for your sons forever” (v. 24). Those sons ask, “what do you mean by this service” (v. 25)? Why are you doing this feast, daddy/mommy? And the answer includes them; “…when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses” (v. 27).

Lastly, we know all the children ate of the Messiah in the older covenant! The Apostle Paul makes that clear in 1 Cor 10.1-4. The whole congregation was baptized into the type of Christ, Moses, and all ate the same spiritual (of the Spirit) food, and all drank the same spiritual (of the Spirit) drink. How so? “For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (v. 4).

Nobody earned any of these blessings; it’s all of God’s favor! God’s goodness and kindness towards sinners, inviting them all to sit down at table with Him. Just like the praise song says, “God and man at table are sat down!” Old, middle, and young!

Admittedly, this is a PTL Weekly Perspective. For what am I praising the Lord? For Pastor Thacker!

While I was gone for eight weeks I visited four Presbyterian churches. What was good to see at each was weekly communion, though at least two did not pray over the bread and the wine like Jesus did. None of them, of course, allowed the youngest children to commune, though some are moving in that direction.

What was also rewarding was each of the four churches followed the biblical pattern of worship, of Covenantal Renewal Worship. In two of the churches the service was casual, not only in dress, but also with the speech of the pastor and in using ladies and children to read the scriptures in the service. Two were liturgically like St. Mark, where the pastor wore a robe (though black).

With regard to leading worship and preaching, this is where Pastor Thacker shines. Not only does he lead the service like a man, but he takes charge and honors Christ as a man. He understands he is Christ’s representative. He reads the whole text of scripture. He is loud, not soft; he looks at you directly, not in an apologetic manner, and he preaches and applies the text to us. He teaches God’s word! Two sermons I heard were on ONE verse, and the whole verse wasn’t even dealt with. Another used a thirteen-verse passage, but focused on one phrase, never mentioning the rest of the passage!

In conclusion, remember that while St. Mark is not perfect, the Lord has blessed you with a man who knows his role, which is to honor Jesus. So keep praying for him and be thankful for him. I know I am!

Often when you hear a sermon or teaching on Romans 16:3-16, it’s called the “Greet One Another” passage and a lot of hay is made of how we should great one another in the church. You hear this sermon in church plants, encouraging everyone to greet visitors so the church will be friendly and they will return because the place is so warm and loving.

But that’s missing the forest for the trees! It’s not just a command to say hello often and nicely, but it’s a catalog of saints in various churches and a catalog of how we ought to be relating to one another — of what kind of saints we ought to be! Paul is saluting a faithful bunch of people, people that we should emulate. People he regards highly.

For example, three times Paul mentions “fellow workers in Christ Jesus,” or “fellow prisoners,” or “fellow workers in the Lord.” Paul is in a Christian body that works together; how often do you strive for that? Four times Paul mentions greeting a “beloved” saint. Paul wants greeted those who “risked their necks for my life,” a woman who was a “mother to me as well,” and twice those who “worked hard for you” or “worked hard in the Lord.” Mothering and hard work don’t go unnoticed by Paul! And there are whole churches, relatives, and friends in the Lord he wants greeted on his behalf. Finally, he instructs them to greet one another with a holy kiss! This is a warm body that exemplifies serving in the Spirit of Christ!

So the next time you greet someone in the body, think about how blessed you are to commune with such people, and strive to serve like those that Paul commends.

We have seen in Pastor Thacker’s sermons how God makes a fool of His enemy, Pharaoh. We see how Pharaoh’s schemes make less and less sense. His ramblings seem almost those of a mad-man as he defies God in the face of the plagues bringing greater and greater disaster upon the land.

God laughs at his enemies. It’s plain enough to see in the passages of scripture. And believe that God is currently in the midst of making sport of the godless even today. While we may rightly pray for the salvation of those enemies, that’s not always God’s purpose, just as it was not His purpose with Pharaoh. And as we face the godlessness of our current culture, it can be difficult to see what is really going on from our vantage point. That’s why we need the lens of Scripture. “The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming … But the wicked shall perish; And the enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away.” — Psalm 37:12–13;20

Open your eyes of faith and see what Yahweh our God sees: the ramblings of madmen intent upon their own destruction. Their cries of, “believe the science,” clash with their own actions. Their war against the unborn belies their claim of care for women. God uses their own ramblings to bring them to shame. Remember that you serve the one who made all things. You are on the winning side. Laugh at God’s enemies with Him.

The signs of life abound in our congregation with the births this year both past and upcoming. And what a joy to welcome these dear ones to our midst, as the waters of baptism bear witness that they belong to Christ. This is the life of the church as we look around at our congregation and see folks from all stages of life.

In Matthew 18, as part of our Lord’s discourse on who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, He said to his disciples, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 18 points us to the truth that children are very important in the life of the church, and, indeed, in the kingdom of heaven. And, we do well to remember that we, even as adults, are likened to children all the time as “children of God.” In our infants in particular, we witness their faith in us as they look to us for their care. As we nourish their bodies, physically, we are also instructed to nourish them spiritually as they grow. And, paradoxically, what is commanded to us for the nourishing of our own faith? To become like children. And if we do not, we will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

As we receive these children in the name of Christ, we receive Christ, and we become even as little children. Thanks be to God for His good gifts and the way he points us to riches of eternal life through the children he entrusts to us!

The Church’s life is one of hope because all of her activities express and nourish hope. The word gives hope, prayer nourishes hope, singing expresses and builds hope, and baptism certainly nourishes hope as we contemplate the union with Christ that we “hope” will be but the conduit to joyful eternal life, beginning in this sin-infected life. After all, Jesus didn’t do all those things that we hear recited in the prayer from the French baptism liturgy just to let the baby die in infamy! No, that Jesus claims that baby as his own, or the adult, gives us great joy and hope for their lives. And it should! All of the church’s activities in fact create hope because they are avenues of communication with God. This makes sense because the Trinity created mankind and made us in his image that we might enjoy fellowship and eternity with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are adopted into his family, and all these churchly activities are but fellowship with God in his family. And that familial fellowship is one of hope because God himself is a God of hope. “In the communion of the Trinity, the Father anoints His Son with the eternal Spirit, in hope that the Son will re-bestow the Spirit on the Father. In Jesus, we are brought into that circulation of joy, glory, love, loyalty, and hope” (Leithart, God of Hope, 84) that exemplifies the divine life. Your hope burns and shines when you keep in close communion with the God who is hope. And how do you do that? By keeping the church and her communion life close to your heart!

You must come to worship every Sunday! Not just because God commands you to in the fourth commandment and the example of the church meeting on the first day of the week, but because worship builds hope in you. When you sing praises to the Lord, when you remember His works in ages past, when you remember that He sent Jesus to cleanse you of your sins, when you pray and thank the Lord for all His blessings (along with those next to you), when you hear His word and are encouraged that He is moving and active in your world, when you sit at His table and eat and drink of him, and remember that He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and thereby unites us to the Father, then your confidence and trust is built up in the Lord. When you remember and do all these things, you are given hope for the future; because there is nothing that God hasn’t done and can’t do! If we can be reconciled to God almighty, certainly we can be reconciled to one another! What are our sins against each another compared to sinning against the Godhead who lives for eternity? Yet we have peace with both God and man! And it’s at worship that you are commissioned by the Lord to take the Good News that Jesus is Lord and tell it to everyone you meet and apply it in everything you do. Without worship, you have no hope and no expectation of blessing or happiness in the future. Worship is but the nursery of hope!

Throughout each year in the life of Israel, the blood of dead animals was spread on the furniture of the sanctuary so that the sanctuary bore the guilt and impurity of the worshipper. The priesthood, and the High Priest, ate of those purification offerings, and so bore the sins of the people in themselves. On the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16, the blood of the bull for Aaron and his family, and the blood of the goat for Israel was brought into the very throne room of Yahweh and sprinkled on his feet, on the covering of the Ark. These Purification offerings brought the very sins of the people and laid them upon Yahweh; he bore the burden of her sin, of his bride. So in two ways the Priesthood (and Israel) was cleansed and revitalized; the purification offerings and the transferring of the sins of Israel that the High Priest bore to the scapegoat.

But Israel’s life with God was at a distance, since the blood of bulls and goats cannot give life. We not only need the removal of sin; we also need holiness to live with God. This all points to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who removes sin from us by bearing it upon himself, but who also rises from the dead and unites us to himself by washing us and giving us to eat of himself. Hence Paul’s encouraging words about Jesus in Romans 4.25, “who was delivered up for our trespasses AND raised for our justification/ righteousness.” In him the veil of separation is torn down and we are brought into God’s presence!

“Remember Lot’s wife.” That’s what Jesus tells his disciples to do on the day when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17). He’s warning his disciples to flee from the coming destruction of Jerusalem just as Lot and his family was warned to flee the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19.15ff). He warns them not to “turn back” and then mentions Lot’s wife, who “looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” The inference to the disciples is that if they look back, if they think about staying with the old covenant and the old system tied to the temple, they will become like Lot’s wife who looked back to the old life of Sodom and was reduced to a pillar of salt. But what does it mean that she became a pillar of salt? Why “salt,” and not granite or sandstone or lime? Why salt? The answer has to do with how salt is used in the scriptures: it’s a seasoning. It’s applied to the sacrifices that Yahweh will eat; if it loses its flavor, it’s “not good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet (Matthew 5.13). Paul says “let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt…” (Col. 4.6). Jesus’ instruction to them, and to us, is not look back at the old satanic life that you left when you became His slave; if you do, you’re no good to Him and the new life and new Jerusalem that you live in. Instead, keep your eyes on Jesus so that you season the church and kingdom for greater taste, inviting others to “taste the Lord and see that he is good.” Don’t leave others with a bad taste in their mouth!