Kingdom of Life

What are we here for?

The Bible tells us to have faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. It tells us to let the Holy Spirit transform our lives. It tells us to love our enemies and overcome evil with good.

However, sin was not always in God’s creation. Humans did not always have a sinful nature which needed transformation by the Holy Spirit. There were not always enemies or evil at hand which we needed to face.

Much of what we Christians believe has to do with what God has done for us to rescue us from the mess we got ourselves into, with what our response to Him should be, with the difference He should make in our lives, and with the difference He should make in how we treat others. But what about before humanity got into a mess? Why did God create us?

According to the first chapters of Genesis, God created humans in His likeness, and He told them to increase in number and fill the earth, and to rule over it and its creatures. According to the Genesis account they had responsibility for working the garden of Eden and taking care of it (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:15). But what was the point of all this? Did God really need us to help Him manage His creation?

Jesus, when questioned about which commandment in the law is the greatest, said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) And God is worthy of our love and devotion because, as it says about Him in Psalm 89:

The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;
you founded the world and all that is in it.
You created the north and the south;
Tabor and Hermon sing for joy at your name.
Your arm is endued with power;
your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
love and faithfulness go before you. (Psalm 89:11-14, NIV)

God’s creation is an expression of His love, and it brings glory to Him. We are a part of that creation, created in the likeness of God, with the ability to know Him and relate to Him. We are an expression of God’s love, and we are to glorify God. God’s greatest desire for us is that we experience the blessings of His love, righteousness, justice and mercy. And our greatest desire should be that God is glorified, honored, pleased and blessed by us.

Worshiping God means loving and honoring Him for who He is and for what He has done. Worship is what we were created for, and it should be our greatest desire.

Giving ourselves to God

We were designed to be in relationships — with God and with each other. Our most important relationship is with God. But even the word “relationship” probably does not do justice to what God intends. He created us for communion with him — for us to really know Him even as we are known by Him, to really love Him even as we are loved by Him.

Sin threw a wrench into that communion. We became separated from God. We became something other than what God created; we became a combination of God’s creation and sin’s effects. Among other things, both our desire and our ability to worship God were adversely affected.

Thankfully God, through Jesus Christ, made it possible for that relationship with Him — that communion — to be restored. Through faith in Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit. To the degree that we allow the Spirit to move in our lives, it gives us the desire to worship and enables us to worship. We can worship God because of our gratitude for the things He has done for us. Certainly that is a very good reason to worship Him. But, as we’ve already noted, even without those things He is still deserving of our love and devotion.

So how are we, mere humans, supposed to please or bless God? What can we give to — or do for — God?

Suppose you are looking for a gift to give to a friend or relative. They are much better off economically than you. What do you give the person who seems to already have everything?

Perhaps the best thing to give them is yourself — to give them your time, your attention; to just find something to say to them or do for them that will show them that you love them or care for them.

What do we give the God who has everything — the creator of the universe, who owns everything and really does not need anything from us?

We can give Him ourselves. We can give Him our time, our attention, our praise, thanks, trust, devotion, obedience. And it does matter to Him; it blesses Him when we humble ourselves before Him, when we express our devotion to Him.

A way of life

The best way to show God we love Him is to obey Him, as Jesus told His disciples:

“If you love me, you will obey my commandments. Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.

“I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you. In a little while the world will not see me any longer, but you will see me; because I live, you will live too. You will know at that time that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

“Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.” (John 14:15-24)

Our love for, gratitude to, and trust in God finds expression in living as He wants us to live. When we are in Christ and He is in us, when we have the “Advocate” — the “Spirit of truth” — inside of us, we are empowered to live as Christ commanded. And Christ’s commands are God’s commands.

Disobeying God, and then trying to make up for it by making some sacrifices, doing some religious things, attending a few worship services, is really just insulting to God (see Isaiah 1:10-20). God wants obedience, not sacrifice. And if we really have been saved, really have been spiritually reborn, then obedience is not a burden, it is a joy.

Worship is not just something we do on Sunday morning, it is a way of life. The Word of God has implications for every area of our lives, and our love, gratitude and trust in God can find expression in many ways. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1-2, NIV)

Tangible expressions

In addition to living to glorify God in our everyday lives and activities, there are some specific things believers in Christ can do to identify with Him and tangibly express our love to Him.

Baptism

In the centuries before the birth of Jesus, the Jews developed a practice of ceremonial washing (Greek baptismos) which was used as a rite of initiation for converts to Judaism. In the time just before Jesus began His earthly ministry, a messenger of God, John the Baptist, began preaching in the Desert of Judea. “He went into all the region around the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Luke 3:3) “People from the whole Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem were going out to him, and he was baptizing them in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.” (Mark 1:5) John was using baptism to reinforce his message that people needed to repent in preparation for the coming Savior. Many Jews were being baptized as an expression of their desire to turn from sin and rededicate themselves to God.

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John to be baptized by him in the Jordan River. But John tried to prevent him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?’ So Jesus replied to him, ‘Let it happen now, for it is right for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then John yielded to him.” (Matthew 3:13-15) Jesus, in being baptized by John, made baptism a command. In being baptized, we publicly identify with Jesus, which He said we needed to be willing to do if He was to acknowledge us before God the Father (Matthew 10:32).

Every new believer should be baptized, even if circumstances do not allow for more than a very simple ceremony. Baptism does not save us or change us; Jesus’ blood saves us and the Holy Spirit changes us. But baptism allows the believer to publicly express their desire to leave their old life behind, and to confess faith in Christ for their forgiveness. The act of baptism is not only a command, but also symbolizes our cleansing from sin by God’s grace, as well as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit — the baptism of the Spirit — which changes and transforms our lives.

Prayer

What kind of relationship can we have with someone if we never talk to them? Assuming we are God’s children, doesn’t God at least occasionally want His children to talk to Him? And does God only want us to approach Him in prayer when we want something from Him?

When Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray, the first thing He told them to say was, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9, ESV) We should honor our heavenly Father for who He is and for what He has done.

That doesn’t mean that we can never question God or express anger or frustration to God. He knows what is in our hearts and minds so it’s pointless to keep anything from Him. We are free to pour our hearts out to Him. In the Bible, the book of Psalms is full of prayers in which people were in various situations, experiencing different things, and expressing different things to God. In the process, they were showing their appreciation of God’s qualities and their desire to be near to Him.

Public worship

God’s people have long been in the habit of meeting together for the purpose of worshiping Him — demonstrating love, gratitude and trust toward Him. The ancient Israelites had rituals connected with the tabernacle, then the temple. After the exile and as Jews began to be spread further away from Jerusalem, the local synagogue came to be important. Public worship in the early church developed along the lines of the synagogue, with preaching, reading of scripture, prayer, singing and other activities.

The question that must be continually asked is: Is this public worship just a habit, or does it represent a real desire to honor and glorify God? Is the purpose of the meeting — to worship God — actually happening?

Jesus said, “But a time is coming — and now is here — when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24) “In spirit” has to be more than just going through the motions; it is really meaning our expressions of love and devotion to Him. And this is made possible by the Holy Spirit. Worshiping “in truth” is worshiping the one true God — the God who is, not some god we have conceived in our own minds.

Whether worship of God is actually taking place does not depend on the format of the worship service, what the pastor is wearing, how people are dressed, what kind of music is being played or how long the sermon is. It depends on whether people are focused on God or on themselves. It depends on whether people are seeking to glorify God or glorify themselves. It depends on whether the name of Jesus is being lifted high and on whether God’s Word is being taken seriously.

God really does not care for a religious show. Then what does He want? “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2, NIV)

The Lord’s Supper

On the night Jesus was betrayed, before His arrest, He ate His last supper with His disciples. Jesus told them that the bread was His body, which they should eat in remembrance of Him; similarly the wine was His blood (Luke 22:19-20). Christians from the beginning of the church have periodically celebrated the Lord’s Supper or Communion. Believers have found many facets of meaning in it. Perhaps the most important purpose of the meal is to remember what our Lord and Savior did for us on the cross. The apostle Paul, writing to believers in Corinth, Greece, talked about the significance of the Lord’s Supper:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

As we remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we are also proclaiming our faith in His resurrection and eventual return “until he comes.” Also, the “cup of blessing” and “the bread that we break” is a collective sharing in the blood and body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 10:16-17); therefore it is an expression of the unity of all believers as the body of Christ, as His church.

The Lord’s Supper should be approached with care. It is not for those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because for them it has no meaning. And those who do believe should carefully examine themselves before participating in it. If we are knowingly disobeying God we should not participate. But if we are willing, we can go to God in prayer and confess to him any known sin. We are then free to participate.

For this reason, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself. (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)

The opposite of the person in the last sentence above is the person who carefully distinguishes between the Lord’s Supper and any other meal and realizes the special significance of it.

Offerings

The first offerings mentioned in the Bible are in Genesis 4, by Cain and Abel:

In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of the flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard… (Genesis 4:3-5, ESV)

At this time, there were no light bills that had to be paid at the church, and there was no soup kitchen that had to be funded. There was no temple service that had to be maintained. The only reason to be making an offering was to worship God — to express, in a tangible, concrete way, love for Him, trust in Him and gratitude to Him for His care and provision. And Abel was worshiping. He sacrificed animals from among the first born of his flock. Before he knew for sure when — or whether — he would get any more offspring, he sacrificed them to God. He gave from the first part of his income and resolved to make the best of what was left, rather than taking care of himself first and giving some of what was left over to God.

We also see that God was pleased with Abel and his offering, but that it is also possible to give an offering that God is not pleased with. The difference lies in whether we are gladly worshiping God or grudgingly carrying out what we see as an obligation. It matters how we give. Paul, on the subject of giving, wrote, “Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7) While he was referring in that instance to a gift for the needy, those words apply also to any offering we make to God.

Why would God not be pleased with an offering? Suppose I decided to buy someone a gift, but that I was doing it because I thought it was expected of me, not because I really wanted to give them a gift. I actually somewhat resented the cost I had to pay, but I concealed how I felt, I gave the gift, and the recipient was delighted.

Now suppose that the recipient of my gift somehow had the ability to read my mind — and I was unaware of it. I gave them the gift. They would not be delighted or pleased, would they? They would be hurt. They would probably wish I had not given it; it would have been better if I had just not bothered.

God can read our every thought; He can see into our hearts. Whatever we give Him should be given willingly and joyfully. At times God has mandated that His people give certain offerings in certain prescribed ways. If He intends for us to do so He will let us know. Otherwise, there is no point in giving something unwillingly; it’s better to hold on to it until the Holy Spirit moves us to give it. And while our offerings are, of course, used to pay the light bill and help the needy and do a myriad of things, none of those are the purpose of the offering. For the Christian, the purpose of the offering to God is — as it was in the beginning — to worship God.

The One who was, and is, and is to come

Someday, we who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ will be in heaven, where there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain! Things will come to completion as to the fulfillment of God’s original desire for us: that we would be able to know Him and worship Him freely and fully. There will be no sin, no death, no suffering, nothing to prevent us from worshiping Him and serving Him for eternity.

That destiny is so difficult for us to grasp. And, we may sometimes have ambivalent feelings about that destiny. In this world, we struggle with our sinful nature and Satan’s distractions, with physical limits and spiritual ignorance. We have no concept of what worshiping God for eternity will be like.

The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of it, though. The apostle John, during the vision revealed to him while imprisoned on the island of Patmos, saw worship in heaven of God and His Son.

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,
who was, and is, and is to come.”

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.” (Revelation 4, NIV)

One pastor, talking about this passage, said, “Heaven is not a boring place! There is a lot of stuff going on!” An emerald rainbow, the living creatures, the twenty-four elders, the seven lamps…it is hard to grasp just what John mentions. And likely he struggled to find words to describe what he saw.

“They lay their crowns before the throne…” Jesus’ sacrifice and our faith allows us to receive the “crown of life” (1Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12; Revelation 2:10). We will someday be rewarded with every good thing God has for us. But we will not greedily receive our reward and hold it close as something to enjoy apart from God. Instead, we will ‘lay it before the throne.’ We will give it right back to the God who gave it to us. What kind of love, adoration, gratitude and devotion will compel us to do that? We can only imagine.

What we struggle to grasp and understand right now is that when we are with God, worshiping Him, we will be completely fulfilled. There is no precedent in this world for that.

John’s vision continued:

Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”

The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5, NIV)

Let us do the same. Thank you Jesus, the Lamb who was worthy and willing to die for our sins. Lord, we love you, our loving, righteous, merciful, just, almighty God.