This call to worship1 jolts us out of the illusion that we are the center of our Christian life. It is Jesus Christ who is the living center of that life.
Jesus didn’t do something in the past and then leave us to continue the work. Instead, the risen and ascended Christ keeps on being the active one. He is the true worshiper, worshiping and taking our worship into His. He is the ceaseless intercessor, interceding for us. He is the servant who ministers; He ministers to us, and then invites us to participate in His ministry to others. He is the mediator who gathers us into His own life before the Father.
Our Christian existence is not a project we undertake, but a participation by the Spirit in the ongoing life of Christ before the Father.
The idea that faithfulness rests on the sufficiency of our own faith, our own prayers, our own wisdom, our own sincerity, or our own effort is exhausting. Instead, our confidence is in the vicarious humanity of Jesus—His life lived and offered to the Father as our own life, much like His death offered as ours—it is His faithfulness that is the foundation of ours, His prayer which fulfills ours, His obedience which restores ours, His worship which brings ours, and His ministry which comes before ours.
The Incarnation, the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension are not just beliefs we hold. Rather, they are the living architecture of reality itself within which our lives have been placed. We do not manufacture communion with God, nor do we invent ministry for Him. Communion is given, in Christ. Ministry is participation, not invention. The Spirit invites us to inhabit what Christ has already made real.
The Christian life does not begin in our life offered to God. The Christian life begins in Christ’s life shared with us. Worship is the awakening to this reality, the resting in what is already alive, the participation in the life that Christ shares with us.
Themes
Participation in Christ • The living Christ • The vicarious humanity of Christ • Mediation • Intercession • Communion with the Father • Freedom from self-reliance • Christ’s faithfulness • Liberation • Beloved children • Incarnation • Participation • Christ’s Work • Ministry • Worship
We’re not here to continue His ministry because He is absent. We get to participate in His ministry because He is present and He is active.
Scripture reading
Hebrews 7:25 John 15:4–5 Galatians 2:20 Colossians 3:1–3
What if our Christian life is not at all about what we do for Jesus, but about what the living Jesus is already doing—right here, right now—and our being invited into that?
The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that it is Jesus who intercedes. He is the one who is taking action on our behalf. He wrote: Consequently, Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He lives to intercede for them. Jesus himself tells us that we live from Him. John recorded these word of Jesus: Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me... Apart from Me you can do nothing. Paul teaches us that it is Christ who lives in us. To the Galatians he wrote: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And to the Colossians Paul wrote that our whole life is in Christ. He wrote: Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God... For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Prayer
Father, we come to You this morning because Jesus Christ, Your Son, has opened the way for us to do so. It’s not that He showed us the way. It’s that He is Himself the Way. He became human. He made the journey we couldn’t make for ourselves. And He has taken us with Him all the way back into communion with You. He is something far greater than an important person in history. He is risen. He is alive. He is present with us right now, and even now He lives to intercede for us. His ascension didn’t mean that He completed all His work and then withdrew. As the risen and ascended Christ, He is our Mediator. He lives to intercede for us. The same Jesus who prayed for His disciples, who healed the broken, who received and ate with sinners, who offered Himself to the Father, is the same Jesus who ministers to us right now. And so, Father, we acknowledge we’re not here to continue His ministry because He is absent. We get to participate in His ministry because He is present and He is active. Lord Jesus, we confess that we live as though everything depends on us— on our strength, on our faithfulness, on our wisdom, on our ability to get things done and to get them done right. Free us from that burden. Your gospel, Lord Jesus, turns our eyes away from ourselves. We can let go of all the exhausting examinations: Is my faith strong enough? Are my prayers sincere enough? Have I done enough? You have instead turned our eyes toward You! And although our responsibility isn’t diminished; it sure is liberated! We have been freed from the impossible job of making ourselves acceptable, so that we may now finally and simply respond as Your beloved children. Teach us that our life is found in You. You live in me! We live in You! This isn’t a devotional feeling. You have bound Yourself to us in the Incarnation. You have taken our human nature into Your own person, You have healed it through Your obedient life, You have carried it through death, You have raised it in resurrection, and You have brought it into the Father's presence. Whatever our existence now is, it cannot be understood apart from You. Our life is participation in Your life. So, then, where our faith is weak, help us to rest in Your faithfulness. Where our prayers falter, draw us into Your prayer. Where our love is small and pathetic, help us to participate in Your love. Where we are tired of serving, remind us that we are not alone; that we are actually serving through You. Holy Spirit, open our hearts to this life we have in Christ. Open our eyes to see where Jesus is already at work. And give us the freedom to not manufacture ministry, but to join joyfully in His. As we worship, draw us out of ourselves and into the life of the Son, who brings us to the Father. May our songs become participation in the praise He is already giving. May our prayers become participation in His already-intercession. May our lives become participation in His love for this world. Father, receive our worship in and through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A call to worship given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on August 23, 2026.