Fearful Worship

ESV Hebrews 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

These words fall at the end of a chapter that is breath-taking in its dire warnings against disobedience. God is the good Father whose discipline shapes us toward holiness and righteousness. This speaks to His ongoing work of sanctification.

Then there is the City of the Living God motif—the heavenly Jerusalem to which we come, a city inhabited by God, the heavenly angels and the assembly of the first born. The picture of heaven is almost frightening. This is not something we take lightly. This is the reality whose shadow the Israelites feared approaching for fear they would die.

In light of this our worship is not simply to be the light fare of easy-going God-is-my-buddy stuff. Our worship should remind every participant of the awesome and fearful God into whose presence we have dared to enter through the sacrifice of our savior. It would be like the feeling we might have if a magical spaceship could protect us and take us into the Sun’s corona without harm. Protected though we might be, we would shudder and wonder at the sight.

The experience of approaching such an awesome God should force us to our knees in humble prostration. Jaw-dropping awareness of our God would bring us to repentance and lead beyond to the deepest and most profound joy.

We cheat ourselves of so much when we tame worship to only the familiar and never the truly majestic. If our worship doesn’t make us cry out “Woe to me for I am a man of unclean lips…” we must ask. “Have we worshipped the almighty and living God or just a cardboard cutout downsized to our level of comfort?”

As we continue to plumb the meaning of abiding in Christ, it is worth our time to consider the concept of “rest.” In fact the word “rest” and the word “abide” are nearly synonymous. One who abides (remains, tarries, lingers) in Christ also rests in him.

Like John, the “disciple whom Jesus loved”, we recline with him at the table and we receive from him. Like Mary, the sister of busy Martha, we stop what we’re doing; linger at his feet and take in what he serves to us. That is rest.


In one sense, we as believers know that we’ve already entered into His rest. This is the promise of the invitation to believe. In Matthew 11:28 he says to us, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And then in vs. 29 he adds, “…and you will find rest for your souls.” That stands as an irrevocable promise.


The book of Hebrews carries an extended treatment on the subject of rest. Here rest seems to be code for the heavenly rest that awaits the believer when he dies. Rest isn’t just the current condition but it is both the current state of the soul coupled with the fulfillment yet to be experienced in eternity.


In the fourth chapter there are two verses that capture this “now and not yet” aspect of rest. On the one hand it states “For we who have believed enter that rest…” (Hebrews 4:3) Every believer has that present sense of being in the rest that Christ gives. We’ve ceased from our dead works (Hebrews 6:1) and we’ve entered into the works prepared in advance for us to do, which are by grace (Eph. 2:10)


On the other hand, there is also a sense in which we’ve not yet entered that rest. A few verses later in Hebrews four we read, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:11)


This sounds like one great oxymoron. We’re striving, i.e., working to cease from work. We’re doing this while currently resting. Talk about your conundrums! This is incredible. While not working, we must work to not work. It all seems to be nothing more than a contradiction in terms.


But, abiding in Christ is work. We do have to strive to not labor in our own strength. The easiest thing for us is to become self-sufficient and self-righteous. It takes effort to remember to abide in Christ.


Am I striving daily to take time out from my busy, Martha-like, frenzy to quiet my heart and find my cadence with him? Am I accepting the yoke that he bears with me, or breaking loose in a full gallop of my own energies. I know for me that the urge to bolt is strong. My prayer for me and for you is that we might strive more to rest more. May we keep abiding in his rest with all our strength as he enables.

My First Post

I was reading in Leviticus today. There's a show stopper of an intro. But it was actually very interesting. There was a lot of info about the various feasts God gave to the Jewish people and a lot about Sabbaths of various kinds.

In summary, God then tells His people that if they obey Him in these things that he will provide abundantly for them even with little effort on their part. In fact rest in Him will produce more than much labor done in their own strength. (my paraphrase)

ESV Leviticus 26:9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

But if they do not obey Him, and observe his ordinances and Sabbaths the reverse will happen.

ESV Leviticus 26:16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

ESV Leviticus 26:26 When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

As Christians we are not under the same ceremonial aspects of the law that were unique to the calendar and civil laws of the Jewish nation. Yet, the principles of Sabbath rest are still valid. When we abide in Christ, we are fruitful. Life may not always be easy, but God will provide. When we do not abide in Christ, our efforts are in vain.
ESV Psalm 127:2 “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”

Both covenants are in agreement. Living in the Sabbath of God’s strength is more powerful than the strength of men. From abiding comes abundance, but to disconnect through disobedience and unbelief means heartache and spiritual poverty.