Friday, April 12

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Psalm 150:1-6

Praise the Lord. 

Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. 

Praise the Lord.

Hebrews 12:28-29

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Every week in our weekend worship services we invite people to use the tear-off portion of the weekly bulletin to communicate with our ministry staff. And every week we receive information about new visitors, requests for information about our ministries, prayer requests and, quite often, comments about worship as well.

Most of the comments we receive about worship are very positive and encouraging as people appreciate the skill and efforts of those who lead our services. Occasionally, we will also receive helpful and constructive suggestions for things that might enhance our shared worship experience. Sometimes folks will share that the music was too loud or too soft; too contemporary or too traditional (sometimes commenting on the same service!); or that they had to stand too long, or that there was too much singing, or not enough singing. And we do our best to consider all the thoughtful comments we receive because we can always learn and grow in how we lead our church family in worship. 

But every now and then we receive comments that actually cause me to grieve. We don’t get these very often at all, but sometimes people will anonymously share something like this:

“I didn’t get anything out of worship today” or “Worship was boring.”

I grieve when I see comments like that because they reveal that we have not adequately taught people what worship is and what worship is not.

For the truth is; worship is not something we get; worship is something we give.

Worship is not about us; worship is about the glory of God.

Worship is not a performance that we critique; worship is an attitude of the heart that we bring before God.

Our hearts and minds are to be turned toward God in what one writer called “joyful fear.” 

We are to be joyful in our praise because God is good and loving and generous. This is why the Psalm writer says:

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 

But we are also to have a reverent kind of fear, or respect, for God because he is holy and mighty. This is why the New Testament says:

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

And, finally, our worship is to come from our hearts. In Matthew 15:8 Jesus quoted from the prophet Isaiah:

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Matthew 15:8

Jesus is saying that it’s possible to be saying or singing the right words in worship – but fail to offer our hearts to God.

So next time you attend a public worship service, whether at FBCG or another church, resist the temptation to be distracted by any of the dozen or so things that draw your mind and heart away from God himself; sound, lighting, song selection, noisy neighbors, hard-to-follow sermon; and focus instead offering yourself in joyful fear; in reverent awe - heart, soul, mind and strength – to God in extravagant devotion. 

You might be surprised at how much you enjoy the service!

Brian Coffey

Thursday, April 11

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Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

A number of years ago the FBCG East Campus served as a polling place during an election. At one point during the morning I stepped out of my office and walked through the lobby where several people were finishing up the voting process. A man approached me and asked me if I was the pastor. When I affirmed that I was, he said, “So what are you doing in there?” nodding his head toward the sanctuary. 

I said, “Excuse me?”

He said, “I drive by every Sunday morning and there are cars all over the place; what are you doing in there?”

It sounded like he thought we might be giving away door prizes or lottery tickets or something to get people to come to church! But I just said something like, “Well, we have a lot of people who just love to worship God and hear his word.” 

He looked a bit surprised and disappointed.

My explanation wasn’t nearly as thorough or beautiful as what we read in the Book of Acts as the author describes the earliest church of Jesus Christ:

They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Now most of us have read or hear this passage dozens and dozens of times. But I want to look at it through the lens of worship. If worship is loving God with extravagant devotion; and if that devotion is to be expressed through our passions, our intellect and our actions, we see all of that in this description of the church.

The Bible tells us the early Christians were “devoted to the Apostles teaching.” That tells me they loved God with their minds.

The Book of Acts then tells us that the new followers of Jesus were filled with awe; and that they ate together with glad and sincere hearts. This tells us that they loved God with their passions and emotions; with their hearts and souls.

We also learn that they sold their possessions and goods in order to share with those in need. This means they expressed their love for God through their actions and generosity; they loved God with all their strength.

Finally we see that they continued to meet together in the Temple courts every day. This tells me that it was extremely important to early believers to share public worship together in a place of worship.

Here’s where we see worship as a community experience and not just a personal experience. 

Can I worship God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength all by myself? Absolutely! In fact, one of the great blessings of the Christian life is learning to commune with Christ in times of deeply personal prayer and worship! 

But when I join with other believers in a collective expression of worship something happens that doesn’t happen anywhere else! 

Most of us have experienced the difference between watching a football game on T.V. and being in a stadium with 50,000 other fans. Or we have had both the experience of listening to a favorite musical artist on a CD in the privacy of our home or car and attending a live concert event with thousands of others. Both are valid experiences but there is a huge difference!

Read this description of worship as the Apostle John peers with the eyes of faith into heaven itself:

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: 

“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and give him glory!” Revelation 19:6-7

When we worship our God together something happens that is much greater than the sum of each one of our parts. When we worship God with extravagant devotion together we become the body of Christ in the world; we make God’s glory known to the world; and we make the gospel visible to the world.

And notice what happens when the world around us sees the gospel through us: and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Pastor Brian Coffey

Wednesday, April 10

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Mark 10:30-31

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

I did a wedding a number of years ago where the young couple wanted to use the wedding vows from The Book of Common Prayer, which dates from 1662, in their ceremony. The language was very formal but quite beautiful, including the following from the exchange of rings:

“With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, with all my worldly goods I thee endow…”

I was struck by the use of the word worship in wedding vows. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that if worship can be described as offering extravagant devotion, then certainly marriage is one place where that kind of devotion is to be expressed! As a husband I am to be extravagantly (and exclusively) devoted to my wife; and she to me. Our love is to be expressed verbally, emotionally, physically, and is to be made permanent through the covenant of marriage. Worship, therefore, can be understood as the highest form of love. 

Jesus affirms this when he responds to a question about the greatest commandment:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31

So now we can further express our definition of worship: Worship is loving God with extravagant devotion.

Furthermore, we can begin to see what that devotion looks like. 

Jesus says we are to love God with all our heart and with our soul and with our minds and with our strength. In other words, our love for God must be expressed through our passions, our intellect, and our actions.

We love God with our hearts through personal prayer and worship. The Psalms are full of this kind of expression:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul thirsts for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2

We love God with our minds when we read and meditate on God’s word. Again, from the Psalms:

I will rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. Psalm 119:14-16

We love God with our actions when we give him our resources as an act of worship.

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  2 Corinthians 9:7

We love God with our actions when we serve others.

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40

Notice that we have not described worship as “going to church.” We’ll get to why and how we worship together tomorrow. But for now I want you to see that worship is not something we go and observe for an hour each week; worship is something we do! And we are to do it with all our hearts, with all our minds and with all our strength!

Pastor Brian Coffey

Tuesday, April 9

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Acts 17:22-23

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”

Anthropologists who study this sort of thing tell us that one of the ways they determine whether a particular archeological site contains evidence of human life is the presence of what can be called “objects of worship.” If scientists find remnants of what might have been idols or altars they can safely conclude that these items were created by human beings for only human beings create objects of worship.

That makes wonder what anthropologists in the future, say in the year 4013, might think when they dig around in the artifacts we leave behind.

Will they unearth thousands of 21^st century North American homes and notice how there is at least one room in every home where the chairs and couches are oriented toward one wall and conclude that there must have been some kind of sacred shrine or idol on that wall? When they discover remnants of millions of flat-screen TVs will they conclude that those glowing screens must have cast some kind of sacred images to be worshiped in each home?

Will they find evidence of ancient grills and conclude that each family offered burnt sacrifices on their patios and decks?

Will they excavate hundreds of cavernous stadia scattered throughout the urban ruins and conclude they were used for the observance of sacred ritual sacrifices of animals?

In the Book of Acts, Paul visits the great city of Athens and observes the pagan worship practices of the Athenians.

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.” Acts 17:22-23

If worship can be defined as offering extravagant devotion to someone or something, then it is clear that human beings were created to worship. We can’t help worshiping any more than we can help breathing air! The only question is who, or what, we worship!

Pastor Tim Keller writes:

At our deepest level, we were created for worship. But this instinct has gone awry…Sin has caused our affections to stray, propelling us to worship relationships, achievement, work-everything but God…We obsess about those things, comfort ourselves with them, fantasize about them. Biblically speaking, those things are idols…The gospel moves our affections from the idols of this world and directs our devotion to God through Jesus Christ.

The church, therefore, exists to make God known and to call people to shift their worship from the idols of this world to the God who created them and saves them through Jesus Christ.

I like to imagine that when those future anthropologists and archeologists are digging up remnants of our culture 2000 years from now they will find the toppled West Campus steeple-tower and wonder, “Who or what did these people worship? Whoever or whatever it was, they must have been quite devoted!”

As human beings we were created to worship and we are capable of offering our worship, our extravagant devotion, to all kinds of objects, people and pursuits. 

But we need to understand that the things we are devoted to become our gods and our gods determine our priorities, our behavior, and, ultimately, our eternal destiny.

So take some time to reflect deeply and honestly on these questions: Toward what object, pursuit or person(s) am I most extravagantly devoted? What is the evidence of that devotion?

Pastor Brian Coffey

Monday, April 8

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Ephesians 2:19-22

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Colossians 1:6

All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day your heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.

I have been blessed to be part of 2 major building projects at FBCG (we have also completed a number of smaller remodeling projects during my years here as well). We completed what is now the East Campus Student Center in 1994 and built the West Campus in 2004. During the construction of each phase I enjoyed walking through the sites just watching how the buildings came together. 

The foundation of each building was poured concrete and the walls were made of concrete blocks. And every one of the thousands of concrete blocks that went into both buildings were fastened to each other with some kind of mortar.

Whenever I would walk through the buildings I would find myself thinking about two things. I would imagine that each block represented a person who had been part of our church over the 118 years of our history. And then I would imagine the mortar to be that which holds us all together; the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Read again how the Apostle Paul describes the church:

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Then, in Colossians, he explains the role the gospel plays in the growth of the church:

All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day your heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.

Put all this together and we see three truths.

First, the church is born of the gospel. As Christians we celebrated Easter just last weekend. We celebrate the resurrection of Christ because the resurrection affirms that Jesus was the very Son of God whose death on the cross was the final sacrifice for our sins. We celebrate because the resurrection anchors both our forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. But the resurrection of Jesus also gave birth to the church. Prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus, there was no church. The church was born when Jesus commissioned his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Matthew 28) and then sent the Holy Spirit to empower them (Acts 2).

Second, the church is built on the gospel. When Paul refers to Christ as the “chief cornerstone” he is saying that the church is built on the truth and authority of Christ as Savior and Lord. 

Third, the church makes the gospel visible to the world. In Acts 1 Jesus commands his followers:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

On several occasions in the New Testament the church is referred to as “the body of Christ.” We put these together and we see that the church is to be the body of Christ that bears witness to the world. The church is to make Christ and his gospel visible.

While there are many ways that we, as the church, are to make the gospel visible, I want to focus on just four this week.

The church makes the gospel visible by who and how we worship.

The church makes the gospel visible through the truth we proclaim.

The church makes the gospel visible by how we treat each other.

The church makes the gospel visible by how we serve the world.

For we, as the church of Jesus Christ, are to be the gospel community.

Pastor Brian Coffey

Friday, April 5

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Luke 24:1-6

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen!”

I read the other day that Abraham Lincoln’s body has been moved some 17 times since his death in 1865. Most of the movement has been due to the many reconstructions of the Lincoln Tomb over the years as well as for security purposes. 

The coffin itself has been opened 5 times, the last time in 1901 when, some 36 years after his death, his casket was chiseled open and 23 people viewed his head and shoulders to ensure that Lincoln’s body was, in fact, still in the grave.

Today, Lincoln’s casket is encased in a steel cage 10 feet beneath the floor of the tomb and covered in 4,000 pounds of concrete.

And despite the fact that our 16^th president has been dead for 158 years now; despite the fact that his body is not preserved under Plexiglas like Vladimir Lenin’s body in Red Square in Moscow and, therefore, is not on display to onlookers; despite all this, over one million people visit Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield, Illinois every year.

Why?

We visit Lincoln’s Tomb out of respect; out of curiosity; to find some kind of connection with our history; and it’s not a bad thing to do.

But the angels in this story ask a very interesting question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

We go to Lincoln’s Tomb, essentially, because he is still there! It would take some doing but, if we really wanted to, we could dig down 10 feet, break through 4,000 pounds of concrete, open the lead-lined coffin, and look into the embalmed face of Abraham Lincoln. It makes sense to look for the dead among the dead.

But not so with Jesus.

The women had gone to the tomb early in the morning in order to anoint Jesus’ body properly for burial. That was not a bad thing to do! But, from the viewpoint of the angels, it was simply an unnecessary thing to do! And it was unnecessary for one reason, and one reason only: Jesus was not there! 

We come now to the central claim of the gospel. Paul writes: 

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

Paul is telling us that without the resurrection there is no gospel!

Without his resurrection from the dead Jesus would have been just another Jewish prophet crucified by the Romans. 

Without his resurrection from the dead we would not number our years from his birth.

Without his resurrection from the dead there would be no church.

Without his resurrection from the dead the cross would be just another ancient instrument of torture and death.

Without his resurrection, there would be no salvation. Paul says,

…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins…1 Corinthians 15:17

But somewhere just outside the ancient walls of Jerusalem there is a tomb where once laid the cold and lifeless body of Jesus of Nazareth who was charged with treason and crucified by Pontius Pilate. But his body is not there. That tomb is as empty today as it was that first Easter Sunday morning nearly 2000 years ago. 

And because that tomb is empty we rejoice in the words of the Apostle:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

He is risen! 

Hallelujah! 

He is risen!

Brian Coffey

Thursday, April 4

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Colossians 2:14-15

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.

It is sometimes said that, “everyone loves a parade.” While I’m not sure that’s always true, some parades are certainly more fun than others. Some of us are old enough to remember the victory parade of the Chicago Bears after they won the Super Bowl in January, 1986. Others may even remember the victory parades that celebrated the end of World War II. We can only imagine what the streets of Chicago would look like if the Cubs ever win the World Series!

A victory parade, whether for a championship sports team or for a successful military campaign, is always a joyous and triumphant occasion.

Paul is talking about very specific kind of victory parade in Colossians 2.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.

Paul is using an image that his readers would have recognized. It was common for the Romans to celebrate a great military conquest in what was called a “triumphal procession.” This was a kind of victory parade in which the victorious Roman general was paraded through the streets to receive the adoration of the people. But the victorious general also brought with him the conquered generals of the enemy forces. While the victorious general received the praise of the people, his conquered captives were disarmed, stripped of their armor, bound and exposed to public disgrace. 

Now to us this seems a bit like rubbing salt in the wound. It would be like the ’85 Bears making the defeated New Orleans Saints team march in their victory parade in only their undergarments. But this triumphal procession served a powerful purpose; it demonstrated to the people that their enemies had been completely defeated, disarmed, and were no longer to be feared.

This is what God is saying to us.

When Paul says “powers and authorities” he is referring to what he calls the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” in Ephesians 6:12. This is rather mysterious language but what is clear is that Paul believed that Satan is real and is the enemy of God. 

As followers of Jesus we are to be aware of our enemy and his deceptive schemes, but we are not to fear. Whatever else we may or may not understand about Satan, and there is certainly much I do not understand, we are to understand this: he is already defeated.

Paul uses the most dramatic imagery possible to show us that our fearsome enemy has already been defeated, disarmed, and paraded in shame by the victorious Christ.

This is the triumph of the cross!

Brian Coffey