Tag Archives: Singing

Redeeming the Time – Sermon on Ephesians 5:15-21 for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

Ephesians 5:15–21

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Shout & Sing for Joy – Sermon on Isaiah 12:1-6 for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Isaiah 12:1-6

1 You will say in that day: 

     “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, 
for though you were angry with me, 

     your anger turned away, 
that you might comfort me. 

2   “Behold, God is my salvation; 
I will trust, and will not be afraid; 

     for the Lord God is my strength and my song, 
and he has become my salvation.” 

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day: 

     “Give thanks to the Lord, 
call upon his name, 

     make known his deeds among the peoples, 
proclaim that his name is exalted. 

5   “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; 
let this be made known in all the earth. 

6   Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, 
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.[1]

The day of salvation that Isaiah speaks about is today (1 Cor. 6:2). Because Christ has died and risen for you, now is the day of salvation. God was angry with you because of your sin, but now His anger has turned away. Jesus lives and reigns in heaven. He is your salvation. God is your strength and your song. And here, today, you will draw water from the wells of salvation which will never run dry.

So, “Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,” (i.e. you Christian), “for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” The Scripture readings today have called you – in fact, they have commanded you – to sing to God five times (Ps. 98:1, 4; Is. 12:5, 6).

Now, why does God command us to sing; isn’t speaking good enough? Apparently, no. There is a great passage in Zephaniah 3:17, listen to this, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” It is an absolutely beautiful picture. But the reason I mention this passage is that this is the one place in all the Scriptures where God sings, and the reason He sings is His joy over you. When God expresses His joy over you who have been redeemed by His beloved Son, God sings. He sings because nothing else will do.

Music and song is the only thing capable of expressing the joy that God has because of you. God sings in joy over you, Christian. So you join with God and sing back to Him for joy. This is why we sing in church. We don’t have music in our services to make them more interesting or entertaining. The music may do that, but it isn’t why we do it. Instead, we sing because music and song is, in fact, a form of spiritual warfare that fights back against the sin, the devil, and demons.

Remember how God removed His Spirit from Saul because of Saul’s disobedience. In place of the Holy Spirit, Saul was regularly tormented by a harmful spirit. Some of Saul’s servants suggest that someone come and play music to drive that harmful spirit away. One of Saul’s servants is familiar with David and suggests that he come to play music for Saul. And whenever the harmful spirit tormented Saul, David would play, and the evil spirit would depart (1 Sam. 16:14-23). And this isn’t the only place in Scripture where music and singing is a weapon against the enemies of God’s people.

In 2 Chronicles 20, faithful King Jehoshaphat is ruling in Judah, and his kingdom was threatened by the armies of the Moabites and Ammonites. The king doesn’t know what to do, so he calls all the people of Judah to come to the Temple to pray. While they are praying, a prophet comes in and says that the people don’t need to be afraid of the armies that are coming to fight against them. That prophet says that Judah’s army won’t even need to fight because the Lord will fight for them. When the people hear this, they all bow down with their faces to the ground. Suddenly, two clans of priests, the Kohathites and the Korahites, stand up and begin singing loudly. Those two classes of priests had been appointed by King David years earlier to be the singers in the Temple. Basically, they had been appointed to be the church choir.

The next morning, the battle lines are formed. And Jehoshaphat appoints the front line to be – guess who – the Kohathites and the Korahites, the choir. Since the Lord was going to fight for them, why not have the singers be the first into battle? The army marches out behind the choir and listen to what Scripture says, “And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon [and] Moab… who had come against Judah, so that they were routed” (2 Ch. 20:22) Through singing, God defeated the enemies of His people.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas have been beaten with rods, arrested, and thrown into prison for preaching about Jesus. While they are there in that dark, dank, stinky dungeon, guess what they do. Of course, they prayed, but then they began, you guessed it, to sing hymns (Act. 16:25). Now, they wouldn’t have had a hymnal with them, so this impromptu hymn sing would have been from memory. They weren’t worried about the other prisoners hearing them sing. In fact, Acts tells us that the prisoners were listening to this powerful witness of song in the dungeon. Paul and Silas sing, and God acts. God sends an earthquake that opens all the prison doors, and the shackles of all the prisoners in that jail fall off.

So, we have several examples of singing as a means through which God’s power is active, and Scripture says similar things about music. The end of Psalm 96 says this, “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it!” and listen carefully now, “Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness” (Ps. 96:11-13). Here, and several other places in Scripture, give us a picture all creating singing at the return of Christ to make all things new.

I included a quote in your Scripture insert from Peter Leithart about music and musical instruments.[2]Leithart says something there that I think is very insightful; he says that musical instruments are a foretaste of when Jesus will come and make all things new because, at His return, all creation will be turned into an instrument of praise to God for what Christ has done through His death and resurrection. Remember how the Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke His disciples for singing His praise as He rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, but Jesus responded, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Lk. 19:40). Every time a musical instrument plays, it is a sign and reminder of the New Heavens and Earth becoming an instrument of praise. Now, when a guitar or cello or piano or flute is crafted from wood and metal and makes music, it is a foretaste of your eternal life with God in the new heavens and earth because creation is being turned into an instrument of praise.

Dear saints, I hope you see from Scripture that music and singing is powerful in the fight against the devil and the demons. So, it isn’t surprising that Satan uses all sorts of tricks to keep all of us from singing and making music. He uses our culture to get men to think that singing in church is for women and children. Men, don’t believe that lie. The most important thing you can do for your family is to daily spend time with them in God’s Word. And it is good to have that time in God’s Word also include both prayer and singing. And let your singing be songs that are richly filled with the very Word of God that speaks clearly and powerfully of Jesus and the victory He has won on the cross because that is what the Bible says our Christian songs and music should do (Col. 3:16).

If Satan tries to get you embarrassed of your voice or ability to sing, get over it. God doesn’t care how good of a singer you are. He gave you the voice and ability you have. He’s not looking for Grammy winners or finalists from American Idol or The Voice. Just sing.

Sing when you are happy. Sing when you are depressed. Sing when you are apathetic. Sing of Jesus. Sing of His victory. Sing of His deliverance and forgiveness. Sing how His right hand and holy arm have rescued you. Sing because the battle belongs to the Lord, and He has won the victory over Satan, sin, and death. Sing and watch the devils flee. Amen.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] This sermon was reworked from 2019.

[2] “A musical instrument is a real presence of the eschaton, an effective sign of the destiny of all things, creation transformed into an instrument of praise.” – Peter Leithart

Known – Sermon on Revelation 7:9-17 for All Saints’ Day

Listen here.

Revelation 7:9-17

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, 

“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, 
and to the Lamb!” 

11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, 

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving 
and honor and power and might 
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 

13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, 

“These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation. 
They have washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, 
and serve him day and night in his temple; 
and he who sits on the throne 
will shelter them with his presence. 
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; 
the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, 
and he will guide them to springs of living water, 
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Dear saints, yes, you saints.

What sets the saints apart? How do the saints become holy? Normally, when we use the word ‘saint’ we are thinking about the really good people. If the church were a classroom, we think the saints would be those who are on the ‘A’ honor roll, the summa cum laude graduates. But that is not the Scriptural way to talk about saints. Instead, that kind of thinking is close to the Roman Catholic idea of saints – those who have done enough good works to avoid purgatory.

The saints are not those who have done so many good works that they earned extra credit before God. Saints aren’t the teacher’s pets. Instead, the saints are those who are made holy by Jesus. We got a picture of the saints in this reading from Revelation 7. The saints are those who have come from every nation, tribe, people, and language who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That means, you are included in the number of the saints. You have been cleansed and made holy by Jesus and have had your sins wiped away by Christ.

Today on All Saints’ Day, we remember the saints who are not famous to the world, but they are famous to us. We knew them, took Communion with them, prayed, fellowshipped, and worshipped with them. As a congregation today, we remember with thanks to God Grace Hjelle, Carol Quern, Delores Malm, and John Griffith. We love them and we miss them, but as much as we love them, we know that they probably won’t be remembered in history books. They probably won’t be remembered by many others, but we will never forget them. In particular, we remember that while they have finished their course of faith, they are not gone from us. They have become part of the great cloud of witnesses that was mentioned in our verse of the week (Heb. 12:1-2), who surround us and are now cheering us on as we run our race of faith.

So far in our service, we have had two Biblical descriptions of all the saints that focus on how many there are. The saints are this ‘great cloud of witnesses’ from Heb. 12, and then here from Rev. 7:9 they are called a ‘great multitude’ that is so large you cannot count them. Imagine this massive throng, this sea of people, this glorious crowd so numerous that it takes your breath away. But don’t think for one minute that because there are so many of them that each individual becomes anonymous.

In v. 13, one of the four elders asks John, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” And I love John’s response. It’s like he says, “Boy, I hope you know!” But the elder tells John who they are, where they have come from, and how their robes got to be so white. Listen to the answer:

“These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” 

These people are all known, intimately known, by God! They have white robes washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. Think about this for a minute. Remember Jesus’ parable about the wedding feast (Mt. 22:1-14). They have been called and invited. They have been greeted at the door. They have been given a wedding garment.

These people are guided by Jesus, their good Shepherd. Think of what Jesus says about this in John 10. “I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (Jn. 10:11). Jesus goes on to say about those who are His sheep, “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me”(Jn. 10:14-15). And the book of Revelation says that each one of these people have their names written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 3:5, 13:8). In other words, each one of these people are known by God by name. God knows who they are, and He even knows the number of hairs on their head (Mt. 10:30).

The saints are the known ones! Known and loved by God. God be praised!

Because they are known by God, look at what these saints know by what they sing. Our text has two songs sung by two different choirs. The second one is sung by the choir of angels surrounding the throne. The angels sing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” (v. 12). But the first song, the song of the saints, is different.

The choir of saints sing, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (v. 10). The angels didn’t sing about salvation, but the saints do. This is remarkable.

Now, there is something you need to know about this song, the original Greek does not have the word ‘belongs,’ the ESV supplies that word. The Greek doesn’t have a verb here. Greek does this at times. It leaves us to supply the verb. When Greek doesn’t supply a verb, it is because it doesn’t want to limit the action in any way, so ‘belongs’ is as good verb as any. But it is also legitimate to say, “Salvation is or belongs or is accomplished by or depends upon our God and to the Lamb.”

In other words, the eternal song of the saints is that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. Now, of course, they are singing about this because it is true. They wouldn’t be singing about something false. But you don’t sing about normal, everyday things. You sing about wonderful things, amazing things, remarkable things. The saints in heaven are amazed and, we could even say, surprised that salvation belongs to God alone. Are they really surprised by that? You wouldn’t think they would be. It’s what the whole Bible teaches. It’s obvious that salvation is by grace alone.

It must be that even though they knew that salvation is by God’s grace alone, but when they got into heaven and saw this reality, they understood better than they ever did before. They are even more amazed and stunned by the salvation they have by grace now that they are in God’s presence.

This is marvelous, it should give us hope, and it should make us excited for when we are with Jesus. We also know that salvation is by grace alone. But we get so focused here about how to live our lives, how to be better people, how to have better relationships, how to improve in good works. All of that is good and right. But while the saints in heaven did those things while they lived here, when they arrive in heaven all those things fade away. The saints are eternally amazed at what God has done for them in saving them.

Dear saints, I hope that you never tire in this life about hearing that God has saved you by His infinite grace. And I hope that even though I mention in every sermon that Jesus has gone to the cross, shed His blood, and died to save you from your sin, I hope that you realize that this salvation will merit an eternal song of praise to Jesus. I want to hammer that into you with every sermon and through the liturgy we use here every week. But you will know it even better and it will be more glorious when you arrive in the presence of your Savior.

No matter how many times you hear it now, no matter how wonderful the Good News of the Gospel is in this life, it is still like looking at a picture of the Grand Canyon but never visiting it. Pictures can capture wonderful moments and remarkable beauty, but it never matches the reality.

On this side of heaven, we are always fighting the temptation to think that we offer something to God for our salvation. But know this, dear saints who are known by God, God’s mercy, grace, forgiveness, and salvation is more than enough to satisfy God’s wrath and remove it forever.

Apparently, things are clearer in heaven than they are here. May God bring us at last to that throng who is known by Him and who knows better than we do now the salvation that Christ has won for us. In that day, we will also know, and we will join in their song. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Sing – Sermon on Isaiah 12:1-6 for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Listen here.

Isaiah:12-1-6

1 You will say in that day:

“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,

your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.

2   “Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;

for the LordGodis my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”

3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4And you will say in that day:

“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,

make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.

5   “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.

6   Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The day of salvation that Isaiah speaks about is today. 2 Corinthians 6:2states that, because Christ has died and risen for you, now is the day of salvation. God was angry with you because of your sin, but His anger has turned away. Jesus lives, and God has given you His comfort. Christ reigns in heaven, and God is now your salvation. Jesus has delivered you. God is your strength and your song. Whether or not you realize it, you are here today to draw from the wells of salvation which will never run dry.

Higher Things - Singing.jpgSo, “Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” The Scripture readings today have called you – in fact, they have commanded you – to sing to God five times (Ps. 98:1, 4, Is. 12:5, 6).

Many places in Scripture, you are commanded to “sing a new song.” There are some Christians (and they may have good intentions) some Christians who say that we should be singing songs that appeal to people’s current taste in music. In other words, we should always be writing songs that will make people tap their toes or something. Other denominations go so far as to say this command to ‘sing a new song’ means that we should only sing songs that have been around for so long – say fifty or one-hundred years. And once a song reaches that age, it should be retired, put out to pasture, and not sung anymore. But that is not what it means to ‘sing a new song.’

When Scripture tells us to sing a new song, it always goes on to tell us, not about the musical style of the song, but about the content of the song, and the content of the song is always God’s deliverance. We sing of how God has delivered and rescued us from our sin and the devil. In other words, we sing of Christ who has saved us.

God’s salvation is always new. An ancient Greek philosopher (Heraclitus) said, “You never step in the same river twice,” because it isn’t the same river and you aren’t the same person. In a similar way, the best Christian songs, no matter how old they are, are always new. It doesn’t matter how long the song has been around because the salvation Jesus has won for you means something different to you now than it did yesterday. Yes, you have sinned again, but God’s steadfast love never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.

Songs that you have memorized and have been singing your whole life can bring new comfort in a different way than they had before. None of this is to say that we shouldn’t be writing new songs. No, no, no. Christians should be the best artists – especially when it comes to music. Until Christ returns, the church should always be writing songs that speak clearly of God’s deliverance and salvation while we continue singing the faithful songs of our ancestors in the faith.

Zephaniah 3_17 - Quiet you with His loveNow, why does God command us to sing; isn’t speaking good enough? Apparently, no. There is a great passage in everyone’s favorite Old Testament book, Zephaniah 3:17. Listen to this, “The Lordyour God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” It is an absolutely beautiful picture. But the reason I bring this up is that this is the one place in all the Scriptures where God sings, and the reason He sings is His joy over you.

When God expresses His joy over you who have been redeemed by His beloved Son, He does it with singing because nothing else will do. Music and song is the only thing capable of expressing the joy that God has because of you. God sings in joy over you, so you sing for joy to Him. And this is why we spend time in our services singing. We don’t do it to make our service more interesting. Rather, we sing because singing is, in fact, a form of spiritual warfare against God’s enemies and your enemies. Let me give you two quick examples:

In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat ruled in Judah. His kingdom was threatened by the armies of the Moabites and Ammonites. Jehoshaphat doesn’t know what to do, so he calls all the people of Judah to come to the Temple to pray. While they are praying, a prophet comes in and says that the people don’t need to be afraid of the hoard coming against them. That prophet says that the army won’t even need to fight because the Lordwill fight for them. When the people hear this, they all bow down with their faces to the ground. But then, suddenly, two clans of the priests, the Kohathites and the Korahites, stand up and begin to sing loudly. Those two classes of priests had been appointed by King David years earlier to be the singers in the Temple. Basically, they had been appointed to be the church choir.

The next morning, the battle lines are formed. 2 Chronacles 20_21 - SingAnd Jehoshaphat appoints the front line to be – guess who – the Kohathites and the Korahites, the choir. The Lordwould fight for them, so why not have the singers be the first into battle? The army marches out behind the choir and listen to this, it’s from 2 Chron. 20:22, “And when they began to sing and praise, the Lordset an ambush against the men of Ammon [and] Moab… who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.” Through their singing, God defeated the enemies of His people.

And don’t think this is an isolated event. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are beaten with rods, arrested, and thrown into prison for preaching about Jesus. While they are there in the dank, stinky dungeon, guess what they do. They prayed to God, but then they began, you guessed it, they began to sing hymns (Act. 20:25). They weren’t worried about the other prisoners hearing them sing. They sing, and God acts. God sends an earthquake, the prison doors are all opened, and all the shackles of all the prisoners fall off.

We could also talk about how David used to play his harp to drive away the demons that tormented King Saul (1 Sam 16:23). Or how Jesus and the disciples, in that dark hour before Jesus was arrested, sang a hymn before they departed the upper room (Mt. 26:30).

The devil hates music and flees when God’s people sing. So, the devil tris to get us to not sing. If Satan tries to get you embarrassed of your voice or your ability to sing, get over it. God doesn’t care how good of a singer you are. He’s not looking for Grammy winners or finalists from American Idol or The Voice. He wants you and commands you to sing.

So, sing. Sing when you are happy. Sing when you are depressed. Sing when you are apathetic. Sing of Jesus. Sing of His victory. Sing of His deliverance. Sing of His forgiveness. Sing how His right hand and holy arm have rescued you. Sing because the battle is the Lord’s. He has won the victory over Satan, sin, and death. Sing and watch the devils flee.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds inChrist Jesus. Amen.