“These things I
have spoken to you so that My joy may be [“abide” in Greek] in you, and that
your joy may be full.” (John 15:11). NASB
“But now I come
to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made
full in themselves.” (John 17:13). NASB
Continuing from
our last post…
Somewhere around
1992 I subscribed to receive “worship and praise” tapes every so many weeks
from one of the top Christian music publishers and producers. I enjoyed the
lyrics of the songs, the way they were presented, and the fact that they were
basic enough for me to sing along while playing them. Also, the publisher was
issuing spiral bound books of the music with cords, which made it possible for
me to play the songs on our piano. (I’m not much of a piano player, but I love
to sing to our Lord and worship Him with music.)
After receiving a
few of these tapes, and very much enjoying them, I recall reading an advertisement
about the tape series, soliciting subscriptions. I may have read it in a
Christian magazine, or it may have been included in one of the tape mailers I
received; while I can’t recall the source of the advert, I distinctly recall
its content and my reaction.
It was along the
line of, “Experience the presence of God with Worship & Praise Music’s [not
the real name] monthly worship tape series. Listening to this music will bring
you into the presence of God.”
What is your
reaction when you read the substance of what I read? What are you thinking?
I imagine that
many folks are thinking, “So what? Looks like good marketing.”
O dear friends,
what have we come to if we think that by playing a tape or a CD or an audio file
that we will experience the Presence of God? What does it mean if we have
incorporated this thinking into our theology, our way of thinking about God and
our relationship with Him? Please bear with me as I try to unpack this. (I canceled
my subscription.)
Do we really
believe that by listening to a recording of music that we will be ushered into the
Holy of Holies and that we can sell this music and create an industry out of
it? Have we become purveyors of tickets into the Presence of God?
Let me be quick
to say that the Holy Spirit certainly does use music to draw us to Himself,
that He uses music by itself, lyrics by themselves, and both together to draw
us into koinonia with the Trinity and with one another. I have experienced this
with many genres of music, from Classical to Country to popular Rock and with
others – and songs are with me every single day of my life. But I do not think,
“Let me play this music and I will be in the Holy of Holies.” I do not say to
others, “Play this music and you will be close to God.” And I would hope that
were I talented enough to be a true composer or musician, that I would not create
or perpetuate an industry which sells access to God.
This is, at
least for me, not a simple thing to ponder, and it is a difficult thing to
write about because of its complexity. Yet, the baseline should not be complex,
there ought to be something on its very face that causes us to say, “We can’t
manufacture worship, we can’t manufacture the Presence of God, we ought not to
think we can manipulate others or play the part of the Holy Spirit in the lives
of others. Christ is the Vine and we are the branches and we can do nothing
apart from Him.”
Again, the
principle involved here applies to all that we do; music (whatever its form),
teaching, preaching, counseling, financial management – for we can really do
nothing that is lasting, nothing that matters, out of ourselves – we must draw
our life from the Vine. If we do not acknowledge this in all that we do, we set
ourselves (and others) up for doing life outside of Christ, of manufacturing
our own brand of religion and supposed spirituality.
When preparing a
sermon, while I need to be a good steward of the training I have, I must submit
that training to the Lordship of Christ and His Cross, it must be put to death
and offered up to Him – I must not rely on my training, I must rely on
Jesus Christ. Am I presenting Jesus Christ, and Him crucified? (1 Cor. 2:2).
What I’m writing
about is a Way of Life, and it is a willingness to surrender our control and
pragmatism and need for “success” to Jesus Christ and His Cross. It is a
willingness to stop trying to “make things happen” and to rest in Jesus, to
trust Jesus, to truly trust the Holy Spirit to work within His People.
This is not
something I, or you, can put on autopilot. This is about knowing the Cross in
all that we do – and it will never be easy and never lend itself to a system.
We cannot replicate it – and we hate this idea, because if something “works” in
one place we want to package it and sell it to other places. If something works
for us in July, we are convinced it will work for us in October.
Do we gather together
to worship Jesus, to encourage one another in Jesus, and to share Jesus with
those who don’t know Him? Or do we gather to have a “Sunday morning experience”?
If we are
gathering to have an “experience,” then we must produce that experience every
week to satisfy the audience, and if we don’t then they will stop coming. The
larger the audience, the bigger the budget; the bigger the budget the more we
need the audience. But if we gather to worship and know Jesus, and to know one
another in Jesus, then He is our focus and our hearts will belong to Him rather
than to an experience. We will belong to Him and to one another, rather than to
an experience…and frankly rather than to a pastor or leadership…love them as we
might and as we should.
Our passage is
about joy, and if our idea of joy is amiss then our idea of worship will be
amiss, and if our idea of worship is amiss then our idea of joy will be amiss. Biblical
joy, the joy of Christ, is a joy known amid suffering as well as in good times.
Biblical worship is worship known in suffering as well as in pleasant times. In
our passage Jesus is speaking about joy knowing that within hours He will be
betrayed, tortured, and crucified…Jesus was worshipping the Father through His betrayal,
His suffering, and His death. Shall we really relegate “worship” to an upbeat
time in our gatherings and limit our understanding and experience of it?
Worship is to be
our Way of Life. The joy of Christ is to abide with us forever.
The Lord willing,
we’ll continue to ponder joy in our next post in this series.
