Category: Lord’s Day Liturgy

We are the un-named woman in Zerephath. We are the diseased Naaman. When we think about who we are in the story of the Lord, among many needy widows we’ve received the oil of grace. Among many lepers we’ve received the cleansing of the Spirit.

There had been a multi-year famine in the land, many were suffering, and the Lord sent help to a woman who no one expected to find at the top of the deliverance list. She was an outsider to the covenant, she was a single-mom drain on society. And yet her heart was humble before the prophet. She received his word, and she received grace.

In another case, a man was proud but desperate. Based on the word of a slave girl he traveled to another country in hope that his nervous system could be healed, his limbs and skin made whole. Though he initially resisted the prophet’s prescription, he did humble himself and obey and dip in the Jordan River, and the Lord gave him new life.

We can see the spiritual hunger around us. We can see the spiritual insensitivity and the ruin of men’s lives around us. But we’ve received grace in Jesus. We’ve been given the Spirit of Jesus. We have bread and wine in abundance, we have the light of truth. We, who did not deserve anything from the Lord, are being renewed day by day.

We’ve received grace upon grace, the Spirit has been poured out within our hearts. So we commune together in great joy in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is worth repeating that the devil is shrewd, cunning, and a master manipulator. It’s also worth remembering that he is just as irrational, short-sighted, and a great fool.

If you’re going to go after someone, you better be sure you can win. The devil was going after his own Creator. What was he thinking?

After the three great temptations from the devil as Jesus was about to begin His ministry, the devil “departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). We don’t hear about the devil directly again until Jesus was about to finish His earthly ministry.

Jesus and His disciples were gathered together for the passover supper. Jesus was about to wash their feet, then repurpose the bread and wine as a new meal in remembrance of Him. “And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot…to betray him” (John 13:2).

Later that same evening Jesus told Peter that Satan had desired to sift Peter like wheat (Luke 22:31). The devil continued his pursuit to destroy Jesus and His men. But he was too small-minded and foolish to see his own defeat in Jesus’ death.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14b-15)

Now all of us who believe in Jesus have life! Now we have a high priest who has been tempted but who remained faithful, who gives us confidence to draw near to the throne of grace.

In answering the devil’s temptation to get glory by serving the devil, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:13 about serving the Lord. And right after that, Moses reminded the people that the Lord is a jealous God, who will be angry with those who go after other gods.

This is all true. Worship and serve God alone or there will be trouble.

But the context of the reminder includes more truth. The exhortation to fear and serve and swear by the Lord’s name follows after a list of a bunch of good things that the Lord would give His people.

They were headed into the promised land. They were about to inherit cities they hadn’t built, houses full of things they did not fill, cisterns they did not dig, vineyards they did not plant. And they would eat and drink and be full (Deuteronomy 6:10-11). And in this context of abounding good they would be tempted to forget the LORD (Deuteronomy 6:12). He had delivered them from slavery, He was providing them with good.

The Lord gives good things, and we are tempted to forget. The point at this Table is to remember and give thanks and worship and serve our God.

When your kids ask, Why do we need to obey? Because Jesus died and rose again. Why do we have the Lord’s Supper every Sunday? Because the Lord has set us apart in order to feed us and to unite us together in Christ. Why do we sing? Because no other gods have eternal life.

I don’t have a verse for it, but because we can see patterns in the devil’s work, this is not mere speculation. The devil hates our worship, and we shouldn’t be surprised at how he twists and tempts Christians to get it wrong at the Lord’s Table.

In previous generations the devil caused such conflict that professing Christians killed each other over the nature of the elements in “communion.” Having strong convictions about what is true is good, executing others for whom Christ died is quite the opposite of communion.

In recent generations the devil has caused Christians to come so casually to the Table that they will use almost anything for the elements, Pop Tarts and Sunny Delight. The bread and wine don’t need to be expensive, but a devil-may-care attitude isn’t the right way either.

Jesus became bread for us. He said, “I am the bread of life that came down from heaven” (John 6:35). The devil doesn’t want us to have that bread. We receive it and we rejoice in thanks. The devil tempted Jesus to meet His own needs apart from the Father, to turn a stone into bread. We need to receive Jesus for sake of coming to the Father, and feed on Him as true food (John 6:54). That faith is a loss for the devil.

One time after I preached about becoming complete in Christ from Colossians 1:28, an older lady gave me some feedback. She didn’t quite say that what I had said was completely wrong, but that’s what she meant. She said that all the work, the struggling and laboring mentioned at the end of chapter 1 wasn’t necessary since Colossians 2:10 states that it’s already finished.

She was actually working from the NASB which translates it Colossians 2:10, “in Him you have been made complete.” So which is it? Is complete done, or is complete incomplete (1:28)?

They are actually different ideas.

• Colossians 1:28 is the telos, the final form (τέλειον ἐν Χριστῷ).
• Colossians 2:10 is the presence, the filling (ἐστὲ ἐν αὐτῷ πεπληρωμένοι).

It is more accurately translated: “you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

We are united with Christ, and we will be perfected in Christ, Christlikeness. You do not have only part of Christ, you have all of Him. All the material, so to speak, is now there, even as you are forged in time into Christ’s form.

I bring it up now for sake of your faith. Christ does not need to die again, it is finished, your sins are covered. The Spirit does not need to overcome your spiritual death again, He has caused you to be born again and He indwells you as a seal of your eternal inheritance.

In such confidence we eat and drink as His table. In such confidence we worship with thanks and praise and joy. In such confidence we share together in this salvation, in the glory of Jesus whose name is above every other name, and we await His return and our glorification.