How fearing God can be a delight

Advent 2025, Week 1: Psalm 112, Part 2

Have you heard of the fashion brand Fear of God? It is a curious name for a clothing company. Company founder Jerry Lorenzo says that the name, “…‘Fear of God’ evokes a sense of reverence, acknowledging the Christian upbringing of Lorenzo’s youth. Representing the influence of faith on his work and life, it is not about being afraid, but about recognizing God’s holiness and majesty.”

How is the fear of the Lord related to Christianity?

Proverbs begins, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” A version of that phrase is repeated several times in Proverbs.  Did you know that “the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom” (or a similar statement) is also used in Job 28:28, Ecclesiastes 12:13, and in a number of Psalms?

The fear of the Lord used that often in Scripture because it is a foundational concept for understanding our relationship with God.  We are in the best possible relationship with God when we fear him.  Fear him? Fearing God can sound very odd and even wrong. Yet, that is how Psalm 112 begins, “Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands.”  How can people who fear God be blessed?

Think about all the verses in Scripture that talk about God as love, God caring for us, wanting to make his home with us, Jesus as our brother and friend, the Holy Spirit living with us.  To fear God sounds like the opposite of all that relational closeness. 

Furthermore, to be blessed is to be happy.  “Blessed” seems totally inconsistent with fear.  Until we realize that the fear of the Lord is not horror or being scared.  The fear of the Lord is proper reverence, respect, awe, honor. 

The emotions of being scared and of having awe are admittedly very, very similar.  Whether you are scared of something or in awe of something, it is usually because you respect its size, its power, its ability to affect you.  But where scared is a negative fear, awe is a positive fear.

Have you ever been in awe of the magnitude of a situation?  I’ve written previously that the moon sometimes freaks me out.  Something so big, so far away, yet we can see it clearly.  It’s craters, mountains, and moon.  I look at it, and I get the shivers.  But I’m not afraid of it.  I’m in awe of it. 

The psalmist is talking about that positive fear.  We so respect the power, the love, the knowledge of God, in a positive way, that we want to be close to him, we want to follow his precepts, as the second half of verse 1 suggests.  We want to be a part of what God is doing; it brings a deep awe, a healthy, positive fear.

That positive fear of the Lord is what motivates us, the psalmist says, to not just follow God’s commands, but to delight in God’s commands.  In addition to fearing God sounding odd, it might also sound odd to delight in his commands.  Laws, commands, and rules are not generally things we find delight in.  How many times have you ever thought, “I just love the speed limit”?  Or “I really enjoy coming to a complete stop at stop signs”?  Or “The tax code gives me delight”? 

While we generally might not feel negative about God’s laws, there are some that are tough for us, even if we know they are for our good.  Telling the truth when lying could really get us out of trouble.  Giving generously to those in need when we want to spend money on ourselves.  Most of us, I suspect, do not always feel delight in God’s laws. 

Sometimes we follow God’s ways begrudgingly, and sometimes we just don’t follow his ways.  But when we have fear, respect, awe for God, we can grow a sense of delight, truly, in following his commands and choosing his ways with our actions.  Yes, because they are good for us.  But we can not only know intellectually that his laws are good, we can grow emotional delight in following his laws.  Admittedly, though, getting to that point of delighting in his laws begins with actually doing what they ask of us, whether we feel like it or not.

And when we fear God and grow delight in his laws, what happens?  We’ll learn what Psalm 112 says about that in the next post.

Photo by SJ 📸 on Unsplash

What parents can learn about worship from youth sports

Advent 2025, Week 1: Psalm 112, Part 1

My wife and I have four children who played a variety of sports through the years.  We learned that school athletic departments don’t ask parents for family schedules before arranging the sports calendar. There were sports seasons where we had four kids on four different teams, and sometimes those teams had practice or games all at the same time. Or there were years when we just had two of our four kids still at home, and one was on the boys soccer team at the same time the other was on the girls soccer team. The boys and girls teams had games at the same time, usually one away while the other was home. We told them we’re only going to home games that season. Maybe you know the feeling. Youth sports can be a lot.

Yet, there we were at all those games, hoping our kids made a good pass, trapped the ball efficiently, had an assist, and most of all, scored a goal. We would be there hoping, praying, and super excited when they did well and when their team won. We love our kids and wanted to cheer them on! Which is exactly how we start Advent this year.

This first week of Advent 2025, we are studying one of the Hallel psalms, Psalm 112. Have you ever heard of the Hallel psalms?  What does hallel refer to?  I bet you know, even if you don’t realize it. 

Open a Bible and notice how Psalms 111, 112, and 113 start.  “Praise the Lord.”  This is the Hebrew “hallelu Yah”.

Psalm 112 begins with that famous phrase: “Praise the Lord.”  The word “praise” is the Hebrew “hallel” or “hallelu,” the act of cheering, raising a joyful noise.  It is not exclusively a religious or worship service word.  You are practicing hallel when you cheer for your favorite sports team. 

Hallel become religious when we pair it with the second word, “the Lord.”  The word “yah” is the short form of “Yahweh,” the personal name of the one true God. So the word “hallelujah” is actually a phrase, and while it does mean “Praise the Lord,” it is referring to an action, the act of joyful cheering on of God. 

It is right and good for church families to gather and sing God’s praises.  At each of our worship services, we are doing the work of hallelujah.  Again, the word “hallelujah” is not a musical word.  Singing praise to God is just one option for how we can cheer God on.  We can do so with the spoken word. 

I love this particular spoken word cheering on of God:

But it is not just music or preaching. We gather for worship one hour per week, while there are 168 hours each week.  We can also praise God with each of the 168 hours of our weeks.  How so? As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, do it all to the glory of God.” Followers of Jesus live lives of worship no matter what we do,

That’s just the intro to Psalm 112, “Praise the Lord,” and already we have a powerful principle.  Live lives filled with actions and choices that demonstrate a cheering on of God.  Compare this to youth sports. We families rearrange our schedules, drive to a variety of schools, and even pay admission to attend our kids’ games.  Why?  We love our kids and want to cheer them on.  It’s a sacrifice, and we love it. How much more should we be sacrificial to cheer the kingdom of God?

After that cheer, the psalmist moves on to the body of his poem, and he writes something that sounds off:

“Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands.”

How can the fear of the Lord be a blessing?

We find out in the next post.

How I broke our church’s candle lighter

Advent 2025, Week 1: Psalm 112, Preview

Earlier this week I broke our church family’s candle lighter.  Do you know what I mean by “candle lighter”?  I’ve searched online numerous times to learn if it has an official name, but I can’t find one.  It seems “candle lighter” is the official name.  Or “candle lighter with bell snuffer.”  In some churches, acolytes use them in every worship service to light candles each week. At Faith Church we only use it to light the candles on our Advent wreath.  The candle lighter has a wooden handle and metal pole with a retractable wick and a bell-shaped snuffer.

And I broke it.  But not on purpose.

It broke when I was trying to fix it.  So I guess you could say it was already broke, and I made it worse.  What I was trying to fix was a blockage in the wick’s retracting mechanism.  It was jammed, gummed up with wax.  As I attempted to unjam the wick’s sliding mechanism, the tab used for moving the wick back and forth broke off.  I tried numerous attempts to create a workaround, and in the process I further damaged the mechanism.

Thankfully Amazon came to the rescue, and we should have a new candle lighter with bell snuffer for this coming Sunday.  We also have matches in the kitchen if we need a plan B.

I’m telling you this because during Advent, I experience the muscle memory of an annual rhythm that not only Faith Church, but Christians around the globe, participate in each year.  That rhythm includes pulling out the Advent wreath and the purple communion table cover from the storage room, candles from the fridge, changing the floor lights to a purple hue, and of course, the candle lighter.  This coming week on Wednesday, we’ll also gather to decorate our building even more.  Why?

Because the 2025 Season of Advent begins this Sunday 11/30!  Advent is a season of preparation, during which time we ask the Spirit of God to convict of us anything we have allowed in our lives that is out of line with God’s heart.  That’s why the color of Advent is purple, like a bruise, which is a purple-colored indication of a hurt that is now being healed.  During Advent, we are being healed as we confess and repent, looking forward to the great celebration of Christmas, which reminds us that the King who came is coming again.  Advent prepares us for the return of the King.

To help guide us, we’ll be using Christianity Today’s Advent devotionals, Darkness Then Light, which includes a daily devotional, as well as weekly themes that our Advent blog series will follow.  This coming week the theme is from Psalm 112:4, “Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.”

We get started this coming Monday.

How Jesus’ upside-down view can change the world

Trust & Obey, Week 3: Luke 6, Part 5

I teach English language development classes in my community. In a recent class, the curriculum included a story about a family who immigrated to the US, worked hard, and opened a restaurant, because they wanted their son to experience the American Dream.  Around the table in my classroom, each of the people there essentially had the same story. 

Then one of them looked at me and asked, “You grew up in the USA, you don’t have an American Dream, do you?” They assumed that the American Dream was only for immigrants.  I responded that I grew up with the idea of an American Dream too.  I tried to explain to them the idea of a white picket fence and 2.5 kids, but that was didn’t translate well.  Instead, I told them about how for generations of Americans, the American Dream is to have a life that is more comfortable than your parents.  I grew up with that.

But then I said I don’t agree with that anymore.  Because of Jesus.  I now try to follow his ways.  Following the way of Jesus is decidedly different, and sometimes opposite, from the American Dream.  Through our posts this week, we have seen how differently Jesus views the world, in his blesseds and woes.  Instead of looking down on the poor, the hungry, the sick, the needy, the prisoner, we see them as blessed, just like he did.  With that new viewpoint, we followers of Jesus pursue his way of selfless sacrifice. 

We serve, help, give, mentor, love, so the oppressed and suffering might experience Jesus’ love.  This is why my church supports CVCCS and SEEDS.  This is why there is a giving tree in our church lobby for SEEDS, where people in our church can select an ornament on the tree, and the ornament lists the age, gender, and interests of a child from our community living in a hotel.  In our lobby we also have a CVCCS donation table, where our people can drop off items for the clothing and food banks.

This week, the director of CVCCS sent an email to the ministerium informing us about a local family that was going to lose their home, asking if local churches could help.  The ministerium decided to give $500 of ministerium funds, to which Faith Church makes a contribution each year. SEEDS gave $500.  Then some individual churches gave as well.  It was a beautiful act of flourishing-producing togetherness. 

How are you viewing life?  Do you need to have more of the upside-down view of Jesus?  What might it look like for you to live differently as a result of that upside-down view? 

I titled this blog series Trust and Obey.  When we trust in Jesus, we will see the world the way he sees it, which is often upside-down from the prevailing cultural view in our day.  When we trust in Jesus we see the blessed and woes as he did. And when we trust, we then obey, and we love like he did.

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash

Your physical circumstances do not reveal what God thinks of you

Trust and Obey, Week 3: Luke 6, Part 4

In Luke 6, Jesus makes the shocking assertion that the poor are in favorable circumstances, because theirs is the Kingdom of God.  The people in the crowd that day listening to his Sermon on the Plain would have been blown away by this.  Jesus’ ideas sounded amazing, but in the “too good to be true” kind of way.  Many, if not most of them, would have been thinking, “I’m poor, and that is evidence, Jesus, that I am not experiencing the Kingdom of God.  You are wrong, Jesus.” 

Poverty was seen in that era as a sign of being cursed by God, while wealth was seen as a sign of blessing.  If you had wealth, most everyone assumed God was blessing you, that you were in a position of favorable circumstances. That assumption of blessing was not just in the physical sense of enjoying worldly comforts, but also in the spiritual sense that God was the source of the blessing.  In other words, if you were enjoying favorable circumstances, it was assumed you were a shoo-in for the Kingdom of God.  You must be in God’s favor.

But if you were poor, you were considered to be outside the Kingdom, and likely with very little opportunity to get in.  You didn’t have much hope beyond scraping by in life.  The prevailing cultural assumption was that your physical circumstances in life showed you what your chances were for entering the kingdom.

Jesus, however, smashes that false idea and says, “You poor, you hungry, you weeping, you’re actually in a better position than the rich!  You are the ones who have the hope of the kingdom.” 

To show how serious he was about this, he then proclaims some woes.  Not “woah,” like a person would say to a horse to slow down.  It is W-O-E.  A woe is a proclamation of disaster.  Or to put it another way, a person who is under a woe is not in a good place.  This is the direct opposite position to blessedness.  If a blessed person is enjoying favorable circumstances, a person under woe is in disastrous circumstances.  To whom does Jesus proclaim, “Woe”?  Look at Luke 6, verse 24:

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”

Once again Jesus turns things upside-down.  He declares the opposite of each of the Beatitudes.  Each of the situations we consider to be fortunate, he now declares situations of disaster. 

What Jesus points out is the wrong assumption that a person’s physical circumstances revealed what God thinks of them.  

Of course Jesus isn’t suggesting that all poor people are automatically good because of their poverty.  And he isn’t saying that rich people are automatically bad because of their riches.  I’m sure we all know poor and rich people who are miserable, selfish, and difficult.  And I’m sure we all know poor and rich people who are loving, caring, and selfless. 

Jesus is teaching the need for his followers to see things in the upside-down way that he sees things.  In Jesus’ kingdom, there is hope for anyone in difficult circumstances.  In Jesus’ kingdom, there is a real danger that the rich will actually miss the kingdom because they are focused on their earthly riches and not relying on God 

So we as Jesus’ followers would do well to hold our earth riches and property and possessions very, very lightly.  We as Jesus’ followers need to be exceedingly clear not to put our hope in earthly riches and possessions. No, our hope and reliance is in Jesus. 

How do we actively place our hope and reliance on Jesus? What do we actually do? We find out in the next post.

Photo by Mihály Köles on Unsplash

What Jesus might say about Elon Musk’s $1 trillion compensation passage

Trust & Obey, Week 3: Luke 6, Part 3

Jesus knew what life was like for the people in the crowds that followed him, crowds such as the ones we read about Luke 6.  He knew what their lives were like because he lived that life for 30 years before he started his ministry.  Jesus was from a tiny town of Nazareth, in the region of Galilee, in Northern Israel.  He was a working man.

Though tradition identifies him a carpenter, that doesn’t fully convey what Jesus did for work. Jesus was what the Greeks called a “tekton.”  A tekton worked with their hands.  A builder.  A stone mason.  Yes, a carpenter, too.  He could probably create using any of the materials and techniques that were common in that area.  As a tekton, he knew what it meant to work hard, long hours, sweat, be exhausted, and likely not get rich as a result. 

Was Jesus’ family poor, were they middle class?  We can’t say for sure.  The general pattern, though, is that there was a wide gap between the rich and everyone else in society.  The peasant class was large.  The rich class tiny.  Jesus was very likely part of the peasantry. 

Jesus’ economic situation is similar to what we see happening in our world today.  No longer can we say that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.  What is more accurate is that the ultra-rich get even more fabulously wealthy, while the middle class shrinks and the number in poverty grows.  Consider this: on November 6, 2025, automotive company Tesla voted to give CEO Elon Musk a compensation package of company stock that could make Musk the first ever $1 trillion CEO.  That $1 trillion is entirely dependent on Tesla’s stock performance over the next decade.  But it illustrates the point. 

When we see the rich getting richer, we can sometimes despair.  We can feel it doesn’t seem fair.  We can wonder if there should be laws making it impossible for people to accumulate that much wealth.  Does any one person really need a billion dollars?  Let alone a trillion?  If Musk does in fact make $1 trillion, he alone, one person, will be making a salary that is larger than the salary of every single American elementary school teacher combined.  

Faced with that disparity, we can think, “It is wrong that one person should be so blessed! That much blessing in one person’s life?  Not fair.  Not right!” 

To that idea of blessing, Jesus says something shocking about who is blessed.  Before we hear his shocking statement about who is blessed, what does “blessed” mean?  One scholar says “blessed” means this: “pertaining to being happy, with the implication of enjoying favorable circumstances.” (Louw & Nida). Jesus is making a clear identification, therefore, of just who it is that is in favorable circumstances. 

Think about the possibility of one person making $1 trillion dollars. Sure seems like favorable circumstances, doesn’t it?  Sure seems like that person is blessed. Obviously, it is the rich, the healthy, the powerful, the popular, the gifted, who are enjoying favorable circumstances.  Right?  That conception of who is blessed is our culture’s prevailing assumption.  If we do not feel that we are in favorable circumstances, we generally want to be in favorable circumstances.  That is totally normal for just about everyone in the world. 

But to that totally normal perspective, Jesus says in Luke 6:20-22, “Blessed are you who are poor…Blessed are you who hunger now…Blessed are you who weep now…Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil.”

Jesus turns the prevailing cultural idea on its head.  It is not the rich, but the poor who are in favorable circumstances.  It is the hungry.  It is the sad.  It is those are persecuted and insulted.  All of those, Jesus says, are favorable circumstances.  Jesus looks around at the crowd that day, and he sees thousands of people just like him, peasants who have struggled all their lives with poverty, hunger, sadness, and persecution. He says, “We are the blessed ones. We are in favorable circumstances.”

Shocking, right?  How are the poor in a position of blessedness?  How are the hungry and the sad and persecuted enjoying favorable circumstances?  It seems as though Jesus is wrong here. In fact it seems that he is obviously wrong. 

But he is right.  How?  We find out in the next post.

Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash

A new kind of Beatitude

Trust & Obey, Week 3: Luke 6, Part 2

The picture above shows the text of two of Jesus’ Beatitudes. From memory, can you say any of the others?

As the picture points out, you can find the text of the Beatitudes in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which is Matthew chapters 5–7. The Beatitudes are found in Matthew 5:3–12. Turn there and read them. What do you notice?

They each begin with the same word: “blessed.”  This week we are studying the other version of the Beatitudes, found in Luke 6:20–22. What we will find in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, is that they also start with the word “blessed.” However, there is a very interesting difference between Luke’s version and Matthew’s version.  Here is Luke’s version.  See if you can spot the difference.

“Looking at his disciples, [Jesus] said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.”

What is the difference?  How are Luke’s Beatitudes different from the more familiar version in Matthew?

In Luke, Jesus teaches a much more earthy, physical “Blesseds.”  Matthew’s version is more spiritual.  Here are some examples:

Matthew 5, verse 3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

But in Luke 6, verse 20, “Blessed are the poor.” 

Matthew 5, verse 6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

But in Luke 6, verse 21, “Blessed are you who hunger now.” 

Matthew 5, verse 4, “Blessed are those who mourn.”

Compare that with Luke 6, verse 21, second line, “Blessed are you who weep now.”

I’ll admit, that Beatitude is nearly the same in Matthew and Luke. But Luke’s is more physical, visceral.  Weeping rather than mourning.  And Luke adds “now.” 

If you keep reading Matthew’s version, you’ll see his Beatitudes include some down-to-earth examples too, such as meekness, mercy, and peacemaking.

It seems to me that Matthew’s final beatitude “Blessed are those who are persecuted…insulted” is nearly identical to Luke chapter 6, verse 22, “Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude and insult you, and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.”   

Overall, though, while Matthew’s are more spiritual, the Beatitudes in Luke have a physicality about them.  Before we continue our study of Jesus’ Beatitudes in Luke, consider what Jesus might be saying by emphasizing the physical, real life stuff people are going through. What difficulties are you going through? Poverty? Pain? Sadness? Insult? Broken relationships?

In this passage, Jesus is speaking directly to you. What he says is shocking. We find out more in the next post.

Photo by K Adams on Unsplash

Setting the scene for Jesus’ surprising take on blessings

Trust & Obey, Week 3: Luke 6, Part 1

You may have heard of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  That famous passage is found in Matthew 5–7.  But have you ever heard of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain?

His Sermon on the Plain has many similar, or even the same, teachings as those found in the Sermon on the Mount. This Thanksgiving week 2025, we’re going to learn about Jesus’ surprising take on blessings in his Sermon on the Plain.

Feel free to follow along in your Bible, in Luke chapter 6. First, the context.  Look at verses 17 through 19 where Luke sets the scene. 

“He went down with them and stood on a level place.”

That level place, that’s the plain.

But who is there with Jesus on the plain?  Luke tells us.

“A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon.”

Quite a scene, right?  Huge crowds.  Notice that Luke describes two groups.  First a large crowd of his disciples.  Second, a great number of other people.  That first group, the large crowd of disciples, is a good reminder to us that while Jesus had selected twelve disciples to be a part of his inner circle, he also had a much larger group of disciples, including men and women.  Are we talking 20, 30, 100, 500?  We don’t know.  John 6 tells us that many disciples left Jesus when they found some of his teachings too difficult.  After his death, resurrection, and ascension, Luke tells us in Acts 1 that there remain 120 followers of Jesus.  Back here in Luke 6 on the plain, it is not unreasonable to suggest, therefore, that Jesus had multiple hundreds of disciples. 

In addition to his disciples, Luke reports that out there on the plain, crowds showed up.  A great number of people, Luke says.   By this point, Jesus is no longer just a nobody from a tiny town in northern Israel.  He’s got name recognition.  Word has spread as far as to the southern region of Israel, Judea.  Thousands of people come to him.  

But why was Jesus so popular?  We keep reading:

“[The crowds] had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.”

People are hearing about a preacher who has power.  Power to heal, power over spirits.  It is wild that all they needed to do was touch him, and power would come from him and heal them. Of course people from all over wanted to see him, hear him, touch him.  It was a mob scene. 

But at some point, Jesus is able to pause the crush of people, and he begins teaching. We learn what he says in the next post.

Photo by Nicholas Friend on Unsplash

Are we misunderstanding blessing?

Trust & Obey, Week 3: Luke 6, Preview

Around the tables at your Thanksgiving gatherings this coming week, will you take time to share with your family and friends what you are thankful for?  One of the worship songs we recently sang at Faith Church is perfect for Thanksgiving, “Count Your Blessings.”  There is something powerful about thinking about how we have been blessed.  The act of reflecting gratefully shapes us.

The Apostle Paul gets at the transformative nature of gratitude when he writes in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Notice the word “thanksgiving” in the center of the passage.  Paul’s teaching about gratitude, thanksgiving, of counting our blessings amid anxiety, is what is so radical about this passage, in my opinion.  Paul is suggesting that there is a uniquely Christian way to view blessing.  When we view blessing in that uniquely Christian way, it can help us encounter the peace of God in the middle of difficult circumstances.

Paul’s idea sounds amazing: gratitude that leads to peace.  Who doesn’t want peace?  Paul’s idea also seems easy.  Just be grateful, and you’ll have God’s miraculous peace in your life.  But is it that easy?  Not so much.  Many people find it difficult to count their blessings when struggling.

Furthermore, what if we don’t have the right understanding of blessings?  Have you ever considered that?  Is it possible that what many people consider blessings are not actually blessings?  It is possible.  In fact, in this final week of our Trust & Obey series, we’ll take a look at time Jesus turned the idea of blessing upside-down.  When he preached this teaching, I bet most everyone in the crowd was squinting their eyes in disbelief at his ideas.

What passage?  What did Jesus say about blessing?  This week on the blog we find out.

Photo by Ann on Unsplash

What Jesus’ kingdom looks like (hint: it’s not church buildings)

Trust & Obey, Week 2: Matthew 16 & 18, Part 4

Can you recite the Lord’s Prayer? Our Father who art in heaven…

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus not only teaches his disciples how to pray, but also what to pray for. What he taught us to pray for has everything to do with this week’s blog series. So far this week, we’ve looked at what Jesus says about church. Frankly, he doesn’t say much. Instead, he talks frequently about his kingdom.

He teaches his followers to advance the mission of his Kingdom.  Just as he prayed in the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom moves from the abstract to the physical. 

Jesus is saying that the Kingdom is real, that the Kingdom is his desire for his ways to be as much a reality on earth as his kingdom is the reality of heaven.

What does Jesus mean, “Your kingdom come?”  He doesn’t mean “build church buildings, hire professionals, and have live worship events.”  Those physical expressions of church are not wrong, but there is so much more that his “Kingdom come” refers to.

Instead of church buildings and worship services, when Jesus talks about the kingdom coming on earth, he envisions just what you would think about a king and a kingdom.  A kingdom is a place where a king rules and reigns.  So as we help to advance the mission of the Kingdom, we are participating in helping more people and places live the way Jesus wants them to live. 

The Kingdom way is a generous way of life, giving sacrificially to help people in need.  It is living simply so others can simply live.  It is caring for all stages of life, from the womb to the tomb.  It is working to tear down the structures of injustice, because in Jesus’ kingdom, injustice is not in charge.  It is working to bring reconciliation, because in Jesus’ kingdom there is neither Jew, nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free, but all are one in Christ Jesus.  Jesus welcomes not just the healthy, but the sick; he welcomes not just men, but women and children.  He has authority over evil. 

When we passionately pursue the mission of the kingdom, we are not enthralled by church buildings, church worship services, or church professionals.  Those human things can be an aid or a detriment to worshiping Jesus, to our lives becoming more like his. 

Our mission is to bring his kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven.  The question we need to ask ourselves, then, is how are we as individuals and together as local church families actively, practically, helping bring Jesus’ kingdom more on earth?  Going back to the title of the series, Trust and Obey, what are our actions revealing about our beliefs about church and kingdom? 

Have we emphasized church buildings and worship services, while at the same time neglected the actions of Jesus’ Kingdom?  Again, church buildings and worship services are not automatically wrong.  But when we trust and obey Jesus, our lives, individually and as a church family, will emphasize the kingdom work just like he did. 

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash