All of this movement, from Adam to
Jesus, can be thought of as examples of exodus (along with appropriate
applications of exile), which is the way that God effects His purposes.
God reveals Himself, through the example of those that He has ordained to
represent Him, as a God of “going-out”---as a God of exodus. This, of
course, is why Scripture and its story exists---to represent God. They
exist not primarily to serve man and to inform man how to live, but rather,
they exist primarily to reveal God, and in that revealing, to bring Him
glory. This revelation for the purpose of knowing God is given so that
those who are supposed to bear His image might be able to do so rightly.
This, of course, is why we undertake and so highly value theology, for we
cannot serve our Creator God with a knowledge of His purposes for us if we do
not know Him.
We do not approach the Scriptures
so as to first learn about ourselves, or to gain encouragement for ourselves,
or to find out what God has for us. All of these things take place as
secondary results. We approach the Scriptures in order to learn about
God. Because we are made in His image, it is in learning about God that
we learn about ourselves. This is encouraging because we learn that God
has a purpose for us as His image-bearers, and the Scriptures provide us with a
hope that He is at work, quite faithfully, to bring about those purposes in us,
for us, and through us. If we ever take a moment to consider why it is
that we gather together as Christians, in church, it is in this that we find
the answer.
The author of the letter to the
Hebrews is adamant about the regular gathering together of those that call
Jesus Lord, as he writes, “And let us take thought of how to spur one another
on to love and good works, not abandoning our own meetings…encouraging each
other” (10:24-25a). When looked at on the surface and from the outside,
by those that do not yet call Jesus Lord, we would have to be compelled to
admit that our regular (predominantly Sunday) gatherings as individual church
bodies is quite the peculiar practice. Naturally, it is as peculiar as
the very message upon which the church is built, which is that of an eminently
shameful and ghastly crucifixion, the extraordinarily ridiculous notion of a
man’s resurrection from the dead, and the somewhat ludicrous idea that those
two things, taken together and then punctuated by an ascension, prove that the
crucified man was the very embodiment of God and is the sovereign and ruling
Lord of all in a kingdom that has been inaugurated on earth and awaits its
final consummation in the coming together of God’s realm of existence (heaven)
and man’s realm of existence (earth).
So why do we do it? What is
the primary function of “going to church”? Is it for ourselves? Of
course it is. Why? We do it to escape the pressures of the world
for an hour, as something akin to a temporary rescue from foreign subjugation
within our larger rescue from foreign subjugation. We gather to be
encouraged by a message of God’s love in Christ. We come together to sing
songs of praise as a correct response to the grace of God. We gather to
hear the preached Word of God. First and foremost, we gather to hear the
Word preached in some way, shape, or form, that we may learn how to play our
parts in the grand drama of God’s creation and new creation project. All
other reasons take second place, for it is the divine proclamation that is of
paramount importance.
We can see the evidence of this
throughout Scripture. God speaks and brings the created order into
existence. God speaks to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,
Moses, and so forth. The prophets make proclamations. John the
Baptist proclaimed the near advent of the kingdom of God. Jesus fused His
doing with teaching. Jesus sends His disciples out to tell His
message. The church springs into existence and thousands are ushered into
the kingdom when Peter and the disciples begin to preach the message of the
Gospel. Paul points out the crucial elements of hearing and preaching as
the way that faith is implanted and the power of the Resurrection takes root
within the hearer. Revelation is a series of pronouncements. One
could go on and on. It is in the proclamation of the Word of God that God
is revealed, and this is the fundamental and primary purpose of the church’s
gathering.
The preacher preaches (the teacher
teaches) so that God may be made known. The preacher preaches so that his
hearers can learn about God and know more about God. Knowledge about God
is transmitted so that those that are made in the image of God, who are called
to be covenant bearers, might be able to correctly and effectively bear that
image and covenant, so that they might be a blessing to all peoples, that God
may receive the glory that is due to Him for His mighty acts. While God
is acknowledged through our praises, knowledge of Him is conveyed through
preaching. The primary subject of proclamation in the time and places of
regular Christian gatherings for worship must be God, and the primary activity
must be proclamation. Yes, in accordance with the way and the story by
which the Creator God is revealed to us, the primary activity that must take
place at these regular appointments must be preaching and teaching, for it is
in this that the power of the Resurrection is sent forth, and it is in this
that knowledge is seated.
This instruction in knowledge,
which has and always will require great discipline and diligence, is of
paramount importance, and should not only inspire the hearers to a constant
desire to learn more about God, but also to live lives of praise to God.
Living this life of praise will not result in a withdrawal from the world
around them, into a self-imposed and ungodly exile that has the believer erecting
their own temples. If learning more about God causes the hearer to
retreat from the world, in separation, isolation, and condemnation fostered by
an “us versus them” mentality, then that preaching has gone woefully astray
from that which is modeled by Jesus, and springs not from a diligent study of
Scriptures so as to learn more about God, but from a subjective and
self-satisfying interpretation of Scripture designed for little more than the
gaining of personal control over the lives of the hearers and the all too
familiar pursuit of power. Instead, living a life of praise will result
in the erection of tabernacles, as a symbol of constant exodus, in which, like
the one claimed as Lord, the believer goes out to show forth the blessings of
God’s kingdom to “tax collectors and sinners,” to the sick, to the thirsty, to
the hungry, to those lacking clothes, to those in prison, and to the places
where pain and evil are corrupting God’s creation and thwarting the advance of
His kingdom.
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