Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church     
 
Pastor Tim Janiszewski - "Reason to Be Glad!"

Links:

 

Messages of Grace

(Past Recorded Sermons) 













 
This Sunday
June 26, 2016



Sermon Title:
"Reason to Be Glad!"



Scripture:
Psalm 122
Picture
June 23, 2016
 
Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:
 
Psalm 122, our Psalm of Ascent for the sermon this Sunday, begins with the words, "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!'" These simple words have been employed as the Call to Worship in countless Christian worship services for hundreds and even thousands of years. With joy, we are invited to join together in God's Presence when we worship on Sunday mornings in particular and at other times, as well.
 
Why heed this call to joy-filled worship on the Lord's Day? After all, we can imagine that there are plenty of Sundays when we might want to sleep in or sip another cup of coffee or head to the local park or get our kids to sports events that take place during Sunday morning worship. What encourages us to be glad about going up to God's house for services in a way that surpasses these competing pleasures?
 
To help us understand, let's realize that the words of Psalm 122:1 were spoken to Israelite pilgrims as they set out from their homes to travel to Jerusalem for any one of the three great annual festivals celebrated at God's house, the Holy Temple. These three feasts were (1) the Feast of Passover or Unleavened Bread, (2) the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, and (3) the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. Each one of these celebrations coordinated with a major theme in God's saving work among His people.
 
The Feast of Passover or Unleavened Bread refers to how God mightily delivered the Hebrew people from oppression and bondage under Pharaoh. On the night that the Death Angel killed the firstborn of every house in Egypt, the Hebrews took, blessed, broke, and ate unleavened bread. They painted on their doorposts the blood of the lamb that they had with the unleavened bread. And death passed over their homes, leaving none harmed. On Sunday mornings, we likewise remember that "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7), and therefore the power of death has been broken in our lives, too. Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, shed His blood to cover us (John 1:29). As theologian John Owen wrote, we experience "the death of death in the death of Christ." Because Christ arose to deliver us from death on the first day of the week, we have reason to gather gladly in His name on Sunday mornings.
 
The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost was the second great worship gathering for Israel in Jerusalem at the temple. Israel regularly associated this feast with the story of the conquest of the Promised Land. The Lord promised to be with the Hebrew people, and they would succeed in securing the land only because God's Spirit went before them. They did not prevail by their own power; no, it was only by depending on the power of God that they overcame their foes. We Christians know that at the Pentecost festival of A. D. 30, the Holy Spirit alighted on the first believers. He gave them power to live the victory of God. He imparted gifts to them in order to do God's work. And the Spirit directed them on a mission that filled them with purpose as they spread the gospel message to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. When we gather on Sunday mornings, we are renewed in the Spirit with strength for living, with God-given good works to do, and with purpose for why we are here. This too is reason to rejoice!
 
The third and final festival was Tabernacles or Booths. In Bible times, the Jewish people actually would build small shelters out in their fields or outside the walls of Jerusalem at harvest time. There, they would celebrate the God who provides. The Lord sent sun and rain to produce a harvest that would keep them through the winter months. And so the people of God designated a time to be glad in the God who sustained them. This reminds us of the wonderful words of thanksgiving penned by Martin Rinkert, "Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining; ordaining, maintaining His Kingdom divine. So from the beginning the fight we were winning. Thou Lord wast at our side; all glory be Thine!" Sunday morning is a time to be glad to go to the house of the Lord, because our God provides.
 
Our God delivers us. Our God sends His Spirit with victory and power for living. Our God provides for us. These are three wonderful reasons to be glad to come up to the Lord's house at MLEPC each and every Sunday. They are more than enough reason to defeat the temptations of sleeping in, sipping a latté, heading for the park, or putting a leather ball in our kids' hands in the place of worship.
 
So, if you are able, I conclude by saying to you, "Let us go to the house of the Lord" this Sunday morning. I hope that you'll be glad . . . and will come!
 
Pastor Tim

**** 

Having Trouble Viewing the Clip Art?

 

If you are having trouble viewing the clip art on this Pastoral E-Letter, please go to the top of the page and click where it reads "Click Here." If you have Outlook, please right click in the image block and "download pictures."