We can’t practice the religion of Jesus. He didn’t have one.
A call to worship.
Themes
Worship • Presence • Gospel • God with us • Abstraction • Devotion • Incarnate Word • Revelation • Object of our faith • Truth • The Message • Christ alone • Word became flesh
He was not the medium by which we heard the gospel. He was not the herald of the gospel. He was the gospel.
Scripture reading
Matthew 18:20 Matthew 26:10 John 14:6,10
This call to worship1 is a deliberate demolition of “Christianity as a system” in order to make room for a single, consuming center: Jesus Christ Himself. We do not have “principles about God.” We have God’s own self-giving presence—God-with-us. Faith is not adhesion to ideas, causes, or even worthy duties. It is a living allegiance to a living Person who stands in the middle and reorders everything around Him. Christ is not merely the teacher of good news; He is not a detachable example; He is not a bearer of messages that we can extract and manage. He is the Message, the Gospel in person, such that forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, and every other “good thing” are real only as they are received from Him. God has spoken His Word in flesh; nothing He says can be abstracted from who He is. Worship begins when we refuse substitutes, and ends when we confess Him as “our all in all.”
To His disciples Jesus said: Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them. A woman came up to Jesus with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment and poured it on His head. When His disciples became indignent over the waste of it because it could have been sold and the money given to the poor, He responded: She has done a beautiful thing to Me. Just after Jesus predicted Judas' betrayal and foretold of Peter's denial, He said to Thomas, who had become anxious about where Jesus was going: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. And to Phillip who had also become anxious, He said: Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.
Prayer
This morning, Father, we gather not around some teachings or around a set of doctrines. We gather instead around the person of Jesus Christ. He is why we are here. He is among us. He is at the center. He is our only center. Your gospel, Father, is Jesus Christ — God with us. He is The Good News. He, Himself, is The Message — full stop. All other messages are contained within that One Message. Even the message of forgiveness, of reconciliation, of peace on earth, and goodwill toward men… these aren't the central message; He is The Message. He alone occupies the central place of our faith. Everything else takes its cue from Him alone. The message we find in Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, and John is not the religion of Jesus. He had no religion. His disciples knew no such thing as a religion of Jesus. The tenets of the gospel are not the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man and the infinite value of the soul of each person and a love that calls for neighborliness to all people as the way of serving You, Father, who made all of us dear creatures. No. This is not Your gospel. Although some elements there may seem to characterize Your kingdom, the gospel stories preserved for us are the stories of people confronted by Your very presence, stories of people called into exclusive devotion to Jesus Christ and to Him alone. Not to the poor. Not to the needy. Not to a cause. But to the person of Christ Himself, to belief in Him, to the worship of Him. All other relationships, all other duties, are given up in the face of this supreme duty: devotion to Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. And Him alone. We have not committed ourselves to an idea. Nor have we committed ourselves to Jesus as a great example, or as the Master or the Teacher. We have committed ourselves to Christ, the Christ, God Himself with us. It is not that Jesus spoke and His words were recorded for us and what He said comprises the gospel. His teachings are not isolated life lessons that stand by themselves and can exist apart from Him. It is that God spoke, and his Word became flesh within history. And so, We believe in Jesus Himself, the Son of God. He is the supreme object of our faith. He was not the medium by which we heard the gospel. He was not the herald of the gospel. He was the gospel. What He proclaimed was already present in Himself. Nothing He said can be abstracted from Himself. Every word he spoke gave testimony to Himself. Everything he said pointed to Himself. All His teachings were self-revelation. In Him was the data of Christianity. He didn't point to it. He was it. He is the gospel. Others know they are only messengers of truth, but He is the message. Others know they are only torchbearers, but He called Himself the Light of the world. Others point to truth; He said, "I am the Truth" and "Come unto Me." To the one who was seeking eternal life, He said, "Follow Me." To the disciple who wanted to see You, Father, Jesus responded, "Have you not known Me? If you know Me, you know My Father also." Who else has ever said of truth not that he teaches it but that he is it. Who else has ever said of the vision of God not that he found it but that he, himself, is the Light of men. Who else has ever said of that which supplies all needs of spiritual food or rest or strength or pardon, not that he can point to it, but that it is all in him. In the name of Jesus, our all in all, Amen.
He is the Triune God who steps into a life-altering, mind-blowing, self-giving, world-reordering, deeply personal relationship with us. He stepped into history. He stepped into Incarnation. He steps into communion. He gives Himself. Go deep. Enjoy this essay:
God does not send us data. He gives Himself.
God gives Himself to be known. And it’s personal. Really personal.
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians who gathered at Pathway Church in Beaverdam, Michigan, on June 29, 2024.