Exalting Christ

In my previous bogs, I shared to you that the apostle Paul used the extended metaphor of Jesus as the Head of His body, that is the church (Ephesians 1:22ff; 4:15; 5:23; Colossians 1:18-19; 2:19). And expanding further our thinking on the said metaphor and making a sort of taking that body apart a little bit by dissecting it into parts that I called in this series of blogs as the "Spiritual Physiology of the Church," that made up of the (a) skeleton; (b) internal system; (c) muscles; and (d) flesh or the skin.

Then I shared to you about the skeleton, or the "Framework of the Church," which is made up of five things that the people in the church must experience. This things includes (a) worship of God; (b) exalting Christ; (c) presence of purity; (d) the Divine Truth; and (e) spiritual authority. And we learned that the primary occupation of Christians is to worship God and that the Father seeks true worshipers, those who do it with their hearts and not merely in form.

The only way that we can come to worship God is through Jesus Christ. We could never begin to worship God unless we came to Him through Jesus Christ as 1 Peter 2:5 says, “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (NASB) and in a very familiar statement found in John 14:6 where Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

We will find in Revelation 5:6 that John is looking at the throne of God and says, “And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.” Obviously the Lamb standing is Jesus Christ and verses 7 to 12 clearly told us that heaven is engaged in the worship and exaltation of Jesus Christ.

If we are going to heaven down on earth, we not only praise, worship, and exalt God, but we must do the same for the One who is God incarnate, the second member of the Trinity, who is our Lord Jesus Christ for He is equally worthy of our praise.

The Need to Exalt Christ

In Colossians, Paul reminds us to give thanks to God the Father for what He has done for the believers through Jesus Christ (1:12-14), the very Creator Himself and the pre-existent Deity (1:15-17), the head of the church that is His body (1:18a), the firstborn in resurrection (1:18b) that is a sign that all believers will be resurrected, and He was made the supreme and preeminent in all things (1:18c). In other words, Jesus is the supreme one, worthy of all our praise, and worthy of all our worship.

If we want to bring heaven down, then we must be concerned in exalting Jesus Christ. When the church meets together, Christ should be exalted and echoing what the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

Exalting Christ in our Lives

Look what Paul says in Philippians 3:8, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

The phrase “I count” is a business term for “forfeit,” meaning all Paul had previously trusted in for righteousness (could refer to his family, his inheritance, his religious merit and/or his rabbinical training) or what he had previously considered valuable suddenly “loss” all its value for the sake of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus. The word “know” in Hebrew means intimate personal relationship. This implies that we must have intimate personal relationship with Jesus until we become like Him.

Galatians 4:19 says, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you –“ The word “formed” in Greek was used in a medical sense for fetal development and interpreted as the believers’ development into the likeness of Christ. As Christians, this must be the focus of our lives so that we could also confidently say what Paul had said in Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” because “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Paul met Christ on the Damascus road but it was already 30 to 35 years after when he wrote his epistles to the Philippians but still Christ is his passion.

Framework of the Church

Updated November 9, 2014

In my previous blog, I shared to you that the apostle Paul used the extended metaphor of Jesus as the Head of His body, that is the church (Ephesians 1:22ff; 4:15; 5:23; Colossians 1:18-19; 2:19). And expanding further our thinking on the said metaphor and making a sort of taking that body apart a little bit by dissecting it into parts that I called in this series of blogs as the "Spiritual Physiology of the Church," that made up of the (a) skeleton; (b) internal system; (c) muscles; and (d) flesh or the skin. Today I will be sharing to you the first one that is the skeleton.

Without the skeleton, all you will have is a heap of tissue lying somewhere with an inability to operate. It is absolutely essential and crucial to any kind of functioning body. It is the skeleton that is the framework to which everything is attached and upon which everything finds its proper place. The internal organs are all attached to that framework. The muscles are all attached to that framework and the skin is wrapped around that. It gives the form and provides the foundation for the body and for the life of the church.

At the very heart and soul of the body of Christ, there are five things that constitute the framework and set the structure of the church in its place. These things are the basic foundational truths that are non-negotiable and fundamental to the church to be able to function. Its concept is found in a very familiar section of the Scripture which most of us have memorized and even sung of it and, maybe, have gone across our lips a hundreds or even thousand times through the years since we became a Christian. It is part of the Sermon at the Mount by our Lord Jesus and part of His teaching on how we should pray. It is found in Matthew 6:9 and 10 that reads, “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed by Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’” (NASB).

The statement “on earth as it is in heaven” supports those three prior statements: “Hallowed be Your name,” “Your kingdom come,” and “Your will be done.” This implies that Jesus wants us to pray that whatever is going on in heaven will be done on earth.

Where on earth God’s Name, kingdom and will be done?

It will happen only in one place and that is in the church. No other human institution can fulfil that prayer. It is an essential part of our duty as a church to be the answer to that very plea for we are citizens of heaven and not of this world. We have been translated into the kingdom of God’s Son. We are a kingdom of priests and we belong as subjects of the living Christ in a very unique identity. We are heavenly people living on earth and when we gather together, we bring what goes on in heaven down on earth.

And if we are going to do on earth what is being done in heaven, then the following should be experienced in the church:

1. Worship of God. We find in Revelation 4:8 how the four living creatures set the tone for heaven wherein they praise and worship God day and night because worship is the primary occupation of heaven.
2. Exalting Christ. Revelation 5:6-12 clearly tells us that heaven is engaged in the worship and exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Presence of purity. Revelation 21:27 describes that no unclean person, and no one who is practicing anything that abominates God, or dishonors Him, will ever enter in heaven for heaven is a holy place.
4. The Divine Truth
5. Spiritual Authority

I will discuss each of the above in my next blogs.

Spiritual Physiology of the Church

The word "church" represents in the New Testament the Greek word ἐκκλησία, ekklesia (Latin, ecclesia). The term is probably derived from the Greek kuriakon (i.e., "the Lord's house") that was used by ancient authors for the place of worship.

Pre-Christian History of the Term Church
Although ekklesia soon became a distinctively Christian word, it has its own pre-Christian history. Throughout the Greek world and right down to New Testament times (see Acts 19:39), ekklesia was the designation of the regular assembly of the whole body of citizens in a free city-state who are "called out" by the herald for the discussion and decision of public business.

The Septuagint translators had used the word to render the Hebrew kahal, which is the Old Testament that denotes the "congregation" or community of Israel, especially in its religious aspect of the people of God. In this Old Testament sense we find ekklesia employed by Stephen in the book of Acts where he describes Moses as "the one who has in the congregation in the wilderness..." (v. 7:38).

The word thus came into Christian history with associations alike for the Greek and the Jew. To the Greek it would suggest a self-governing democratic society; while to the Jew, a theocratic society whose members were the subjects of the heavenly King. The pre-Christian history of the word "church" had a direct bearing upon its Christian meaning for the ekklesia of the New Testament is a "theocratic democracy," that is a society of those who are free but are always conscious that their freedom springs from obedience to the King.

The Term Church was Adopted by Jesus Himself
The name ekklesia was first applied to the Christian society by Jesus Himself when He said to Peter "... upon this rock I will build My church..." (Matthew 16:18). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia said that Jesus employ a new name for the society that He came to found as the "kingdom of God" or the "kingdom of heaven" - a designation which had its roots in Old Testament teaching and which the Messianic expectations of Israel had already made familiar - into church when it was clear that Jesus was to be rejected by the Jewish people (see Matthew 16:21).

The adoption of the term "church" did not imply any abandonment of the ideas suggested by the conception of the kingdom for in Matthew 19:19, "the kingdom of heaven" is employed in a manner which at least compels us to regard them as closely correlative and as capable of translation into each other's terms.

The comparative disuse by the apostolic writers of the name "kingdom" together with their emphasis on the church only shows that they had followed their Master's guidance in substituting for a name and a conception that were peculiarly Jewish.

The Use of the Term Church in the New Testament
The word ekklesia occurs in the Gospels only twice and that is in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17 of the same Gospel where the questions of discipline were to be decided by the collective judgment of the members of the church, which shows that the church possess the powers of self-government.

In the book of Acts, ekklesia has come to be the regular designation for the society of Christian believers and is employed in two distinct senses. First in local sense to denote the body of Christians in a particular place or district, e.g., in Jerusalem (5:11; 8:1), in Antioch (13:1; 15:22), and in Caesarea (18:22), a usage which reappears in the book of Revelation in the letters to the Seven Churches. Then in a wider and what was be called a universal sense to denote the sum total of existing local churches (9:31) that are regarded as forming one body.

In the epistles of apostle Paul, both usages are frequent and even been applied to a single Christian household or to little groups of believers who were accustomed to assemble in private houses for worship and fellowship (see Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2).

The Ideal Use of the Term Church
In Paul's epistles to Ephesians and Colossians, he has another use of ekklesia peculiar to himself, which may be described as the ideal use, where he used the extended metaphor of Jesus as the Head of His body, the church (Ephesians 1:22ff; 4:15; 5:23; Colossians 1;18-19; 2:19).

Spiritual Physiology of the Church
As we look at Christ as the head of the church, His body, we see a number of details that can come out of that metaphor in which we are going to expand our thinking and make a sort of taking that body apart a little bit by dissecting it into parts that I called in this blog as the "Spiritual Physiology of the Church." This includes the following:

1. The Skeleton. It is those things that give the body its shape and form. It is absolutely essential and crucial to any kind of functioning body. It is where the internal organs are hung, the muscles are attached, and the skin wraps around it. It is the obvious framework upon which the other parts or systems of the body depends;
2. The Internal System that is the organic life of the church has;
3. The Muscles that is the activities the church engages in; and
4. The Flesh or the skin that is the outward form that it takes.

People in churches everywhere all across the world struggle with temptation, sin, old habits, confusion, trust, circumstances and suffering. The objecting of this series of blogs is to help and guide believers to be victorious over the things where they struggles and to present the church to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2), that is to be everything that God wants it to be.

Presenting Our Soul To God As An Act Of Spiritual Worship

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1,2, NASB UPDATED)

In my previous blog entitled "A Living Sacrifice," I shared to you that we, Christians, are a kingdom of priests whose goal is to offer up spiritual sacrifices - like prayer, praise, giving, and service - but there is one act that is the supreme and all encompassing and all effecting act that a believer must do in his life as a true worshiper and that is to offer himself as a living sacrifice, that is for a new covenant believer to present his soul, his body, his mind, and his will. Today I will be sharing to you the one of the elements in presenting oneself as a living sacrifice, and that is the soul.

Let us examine the first part of Romans 12:1, "Therefore I urge you, brethren,..." The term "brethren" implies  that the recipient of this message are believers whose souls have already been given to God in salvation. Therefore, this is a call to a regenerated soul to make a proper offering. This is not something that a person can do unless they're redeemed. Nothing else can be offered to God if the soul hasn't been offered.

WHY AN UNREGENERATE PERSON CANNOT OFFER HIS BODY, MIND, AND WILL TO GOD?

The very reason why an unregenerate person cannot offer his body, mind, and will to God is because he cannot respond to God at all. 1 Corinthians 2:14 explains why, "...natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised" (NASB UPDATED). In other words, there's no way that Scripture would ever appeal or the Holy Spirit would ever appeal to an unregenerate person to make a supreme act of dedication to God. So the implication here is that the soul must come first.

Paul tells us another reason why in Romans 8:8 that says, "and those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (NASB UPDATED). To be in the flesh means to be unredeemed, therefore, an unredeemed person cannot please God. This means that if I am not one who possess the love of God then all my acts of self-sacrifice are worthless.

HOW DOES THE SCRIPTURE DESCRIBE AN UNREGENERATE PERSON?

In the parable of the sower found in Matthew 13:3 to 9, Jesus, talking about the different kinds of soil, said that there was a soil that had rock bed underneath the ground. When the seed went into it and the roots hit the rocks, it couldn't go down - though it certainly flourished for a while - and when the sun came out, it was burnt and withered away. The LORD explains that this is the one who hears and listens to the message but when tribulation comes or when persecution comes - because they have no real root - they die. The idea here is that these are people who make a joyful and immediate response to the truth about Christ but it's never genuine as proven by the fact when it calls for sacrifice, they die. The situation is the same with the soil that was filled with weeds - representing the riches and cares of this age - that choked out the seed.

The Scripture also tells us a story about the rich young ruler who, when was told by Jesus to sell everything he have and give it to the poor, went away because he was not willing to make such a sacrifice and that he was not willing to obey the LORD for he was not a redeemed soul.

A REGENERATE PERSON IS ONE WHO RECEIVED THE MERCIES OF GOD

The mercies of God are everything that God has done for the believer as listed in chapters 1 through 11 of Paul's epistles to the Romans like God's love; that nothing can separate us from the love of God; Grace; the Holy Spirit; that the Holy Spirit dwell within us;  Peace and elsewhere it says we've received peace; faith that was repeated over 20 times; comfort; power; hope; patience; kindness; glory and honor and righteousness and forgiveness and reconciliation and justification; security and eternal life; freedom; resurrection; sonship; and intercession... all of those are the mercies of God.

So what Paul is saying is that we have received all of these marvelous things from God. We don't deserve any of these but because of the work of Jesus Christ we experienced the mercies of God. And since we received the infinite, unending, and eternal mercies of God, we should, as an act of instant response, give ourselves to God as a living sacrifice.

Therefore, when we say that we are to present ourselves a living sacrifice, that has to begin with the soul. And that is to come to Christ and receive Him as Savior and LORD and receive the salvation that He offers - that's were it starts by giving your soul to God.

In my next blogs, I will be sharing the other elements in presenting oneself as a living sacrifice, that is the body, mind, and will.

A Living Sacrifice

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1,2, NASB UPDATED)

In my previous blog entitled "The Supreme Act Of Spiritual Worship," I shared to you that we, Christians, are a kingdom of priests whose goal is to offer up spiritual sacrifices - like prayer, praise, giving, and service - but there is one act that is the supreme and all encompassing and all effecting act that a believer must do in his life as a true worshiper and that is to offer himself as a living sacrifice.

Today I will be sharing what the phrase "a living sacrifice" mean, which is the central concept in Romans 12:1 and 2. As mentioned from 1 Peter 2:5, we are spiritual priests offering up spiritual sacrifices and the primary sacrifice we are called to offer , as Paul says in these verses, is ourselves.

THE OLD TESTAMENT OFFERING OF SACRIFICES

In the Old Testament an offerer would come to God bringing his lamb or his turtledove, whatever it was he was going to sacrifice, he brought that sacrifice to the holy place. It was given over to the priest and the priest took it, slew it, put it on the altar and as it were, offered it to God.

But look what the prophet Samuel said in 1 Samuel 15:22, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams" (NASB). This means that it was not the dead animal that was offered but instead a living soul. The dead animal was an outward symbol of the offering of the heart and the soul. This is the same idea found in Psalm 51:17 that says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (KJV). And also in Psalm 141:2 that says, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (KJV).

In other words, these Old Testament Scriptures tell us that an Old Testament Jew who offered a dead animal was not offering a dead animal instead he is offering himself; his action is only an outward symbol of the inward reality of which he was also committed and that was offering his own heart.

THE NEW TESTAMENT OFFERING OF SACRIFICES

That system of offering has come to an end for God no longer desires that dead animals be offered to Him. Now what God wants is living sacrifices, that is living men and women. The central act of a new covenant believer is the presentation of his heart, his soul, his mind, all that he is as a living sacrifice. The outward sacrifices have ceased and God calls only for the living sacrifice - that is, a call of dedication and commitment.

The elements that are included in the presentation of a believer as a living sacrifice includes the soul, body, mind, and will. I will discuss these elements in detail in my next blogs.

Spiritual Act of Worship

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1,2, NASB UPDATED)

The key to spiritual victory and powerful living is not getting all you can get, but giving all you have. There are people flocking into churches to get more of God when the issue is not what they need to get but what they need to give.

After Paul concluded eleven chapters of profound and thrilling doctrine that defines what God has done for every believer, he does not say, "Now here's what you need to get." But he rather say, "Now here's what you need to give."

WHAT DO WE NEED TO GIVE

Jesus said in John 4:23 that the Father seeks true worshipers - those who will worship the Father in spirit and truth. He redeemed us in order that we might give Him glory, that we might give Him ourselves. This is the reason why Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, defines a Christian as one who worships God in the Spirit, who rejoices in Christ Jesus and has no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3).

1 Peter 2:5 says, "you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (NASB UPDATED). This means that we are a kingdom of priests whose goal is to offer up spiritual sacrifices.

And what are these spiritual sacrifices? The Scripture talks about the fact that we can offer the fruit of our lips, which is praise and thanks unto God (see Hebrews 13:15). The Scripture also says that we can offer God our petition and prayer. We can also give to God the substance of what we possess. Serving others is also an act of worship. But above all these things - prayer, praise, giving, and serving - there is one act that is the supreme and all encompassing and all effecting act that a believer must do in his life as a true worshiper and that is to offer himself as a living sacrifice.

Most Christians never really come to that place fully. They flirt with the world and with the flesh. They flirt with their own personal indulgences and desires. They become victims of the philosophy and psychology of the world around them. They buy into the world's bag. They entertain themselves with the world's mode of entertainment. They think along the lines the world thinks. And so they never really come to the place of total commitment that is discussed in these two verses and therefore they forfeit the fullness of the blessing that God would have for them.

In my next blog, I will be sharing to you what does the phrase "aliving sacrifice" mean.

Worship of God

Updated November 9, 2014

In my previous blogs, I shared to you that the apostle Paul used the extended metaphor of Jesus as the Head of His body, that is the church (Ephesians 1:22ff; 4:15; 5:23; Colossians 1:18-19; 2:19). And expanding further our thinking on the said metaphor and making a sort of taking that body apart a little bit by dissecting it into parts that I called in this series of blogs as the "Spiritual Physiology of the Church" that is made up of (a) the skeleton; (b) the internal systems; (c) the muscles; and (d) the flesh or the skin.

Then I shared to you about the skeleton, or the "Framework of the Church," which is made up of five things that the people in the church must experience. This things includes (a) worship of God; (b) exalting Christ; (c) presence of purity; (d) the Divine Truth; and (e) spiritual authority.

Any look at heaven is going to show you the centrality of God. Whether you get Ezekiel’s glimpse in Ezekiel 1 or whether you get John’s glimpse in Revelation 4 and 5. All of heaven is doing one thing around the throne of God and that is worship.

Revelation 4:2 states that God is sitting on the throne and then it describes the throne. Down to verse 8 of the same chapter, the four living creatures who are apparently angelic beings set the tone for heaven. “And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, ‘HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.” It is a never-ending praise and worship, day and night.

The rest of those in heaven: the living creatures (v. 9) and the 24 elders (v. 10), they all gather and say “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” The succeeding chapters of the book of Revelation continue to give us a glimpse into heaven and what is going on is unceasing praise (see 5:13; 11:16; 15:3; chapters 19 and 22).

Worship is the primary occupation of heaven. Forever and ever we will praise and worship God. Now if we are to do on earth what is done in heaven, then we must make the church the place where God is worshiped.

True Worshipers

Philippians 3:3 gives us the definition what a Christian is: “... who worship in the Spirit of God...” The Gospel of John will help us understand this definition. In chapter 4 of the Gospel of John we can see that Jesus was having a dialogue with a Samaritan woman where He confronted her about her sin. She was so convicted that she wanted to do what was right and she wanted to get forgiveness and she wanted to go before God and ask for mercy. And she doesn’t know where to go because she’s a Samaritan and they worship up on Mount Gerizim whereas Jesus is a Jew and they worship at Jerusalem (v. 20).

It implies that she understood that coming to God is an act of worship, praise, falling on your face before God, honoring Him, exalting Him, recognizing Him for who He is and asking for His grace. That’s exactly what happens when a person is saved – they come seeking to worship the true and living God.

In the story we find that Jesus asked the woman to call her husband (v. 16). Jesus knows that the woman is committing adultery and what He wants at that time is for the woman to confess and repent for her sin (vv. 17-18). This implies that the Father requires that they confess and repent of their sin and respond in faith to His Son as the sacrifice for their sins and He, on that basis, accepts them as true worshipers (v. 23).

True worshipers are those who truly and sincerely worship the God. They do it with their heart and not merely in form. The word “spirit” refers to the mind, the soul, the heart and that is not locally or physically based. Spiritual worship is that where the heart is offered to God, and where we do not depend on external forms for acceptance.

On other hand, the word “truth” was used in the Greek world to speak of a mental concept while the Hebrew background was that of faithfulness or trustworthiness. To worship in truth means that we properly understand who He is.

Therefore, the church is a group of people redeemed by God’s grace to be worshipers. It is a group of worshipers who come together just like they do in heaven to exalt God. God must be continually lifted up until our hearts are so satisfied with Him that nothing else has any competing appeal.

To learn more about worship, please read my series of blogs about "Spiritual Act of Worship."

Being Ready for Heaven

A.W. Tozer said, "I can safely say on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for Heaven." People who are turned off with worship are people who do not know God.

We gather together to exalt God and to lift up Jesus Christ. We should not be ashamed about that for we find no other priority but to worship God. You should not be turned off by worship for that’s what you’re going to do forever.

In my next blogs, I will be sharing to you the other things that composed the "Framework of the Church."