Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
The heavenly worship of Revelation 15:3-4 is a model for us: “And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest!” As we have previously studied, “the song of Moses” is a really old hymn – almost 3500 years old. “The song of the Lamb” falls into the category of “a new song” (Revelation 5:9), celebrating a fresh display of God’s deliverance. Both focus us on God, as worship should. A contemplative Christian will see both the old and the new as essential to worship. Older hymns, older Christian writings, the influence of older Christians – all of these should be valued by the Church. We do not worship exactly as first-century Christians did, but there should be some continuity with the past. If Paul and Peter could walk into our churches today, they would see much that is different, but they should recognize it as worship of the Triune God. If they could not, we are doing things wrong. Of course, during the last 2000 years, God has continued to do new things: each person saved is a new act of God deserving of “a new song.” May the blending of the old and the new that we find in heaven occur in our worship here.