It’s issue 27! Thanks for taking the time to subscribe and read (about five minutes) the newsletter. We’re on the third issue of our series on practical planning for worship services.
Our first issue highlighted our need for a worship service plan which helps us intentionally choose our service’s elements (like the Theme Plan, but without the hokey) and our service’s order (like the Revivalism plan, but with more pastoral insight) while allowing healthy cooperation with our preaching pastor (like the 50/50 plan, but with more than a truce). Our second issue (the most read issue in this newsletter’s history!) highlighted how the gospel provides the shape for our worship services.
But if we should glorify God every Sunday, and if we should celebrate the gospel every Sunday, then what should make this Sunday different from last Sunday?
Now for the new part. The Gospel Gathering seeks to glorify God by celebrating the gospel of Jesus Christ and its superiority over the idol of [this Sunday’s particular focus].
When planning weekly worship services, I identify a specific idol that I want to ridicule. Like a pinata, I beat a lifeless idol with the stick of gospel truth until the candy of assurance comes out. I use the gospel shape to repent and confess how I and my church have trusted in this lifeless idol rather than trusting the living God. Then, with the insight and faith that comes from the Spirit, we recognize and celebrate God’s superiority and Christ’s defeat of this idol. With God’s help, we dedicate ourselves to living for him.
That is how I celebrate God’s superiority over this idol.
Go back to Psalm 115 and notice the description of twisted idols in verse 5: “They have mouths, but do not speak.” Fake gods have a mouth which looks real, but they cannot speak. They can’t tell us what to do—how to move our lives forward. If you ask a fake god for advice, they cannot answer you. People become confused when they ask speechless gods for advice.
Verse 5 continues, “They have eyes but do not see.” Our fake gods don’t see us and they certainly can’t see the future. You cannot see clearly when following a blind idol. “They have ears but do not hear.” All prayers to fake gods go worse than unanswered; they go unheard. They have “noses, but do not smell.” Fake gods don’t even know that they stink.
“They have hands but do not feel; feet, but do not walk.” A fake god cannot pull you up with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. An idol can never run to your rescue.
Here, the idol-worshipers might protest, “Yes, but they are silver and gold! Better to have an idol you can hold than a god you can’t see!” But silver ears cannot hear any better than copper ears, and gold arms cannot rescue any better than arms made from aluminum-foil. Believer, do not be duped. “No sound in their throats” indicates how idols are lifeless. You cannot receive life from something that is dead. Just because something is shiny does not mean it can save.
Does the God of Israel speak?
Yes. And God said, “Let there be light.” And God said. And God said.
Does this speaking God see?
Yes. He sees everything. Hebrews 4:13 says that, “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Does this speaking and all-seeing God hear?
Yes! In Matthew 12:36, Jesus says that, “on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Does this all-powerful, all-seeing, all-hearing God of Israel smell?
Well, Yes! Revelation 8:4 says the prayers of the saints and the smoke of the incense rise to God.
And does this glorious God have hands and feet?
Revelation 19:15 says that, with his feet, “He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.”
He sees idolatry; he hears idolatry, he smells idolatry, and he moves to punish idolaters. Psalm 115 says, those who make idols become like them, so do all who trust in them. What a heavy, heavy truth!
Here is our only hope. When God saw how his people didn’t trust him and therefore lost the use of what mouths and eyes, ears and noses, hands and feet they had, he went all in. When Adam failed to reflect the image of God, God sent another image bearer. God sent the Lord Jesus, the “exact imprint of God’s nature” (Heb 1:3) and “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). The second person of the Godhead took on human eyes. He took on a human mouth, and ears, and nose, and hands, and feet.
Remember Jesus’ words, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And he walked throughout the land—restoring sight to the blind, straightening withered hands, and making the lame walk. Christ's healing ministry pictures his kindness toward the helpless, but also picturing Christ conquering fake gods and undoing the effects of idolatry. He’s rescuing people from their false gods. Blind people have eyes which cannot see and lame people have feet which cannot walk, and Jesus Christ gives them life.
Now we can “be conformed to the image of the Son” (Rom 8:29) and be “renewed in knowledge after the image of our creator” (Col 3:10). Now, we are saved, not by our images, but by being his images. We are saved, not by works, but by being his workmanship. And he’s come to give you life. His life.