Seeing and Hearing Jesus

(John 14:8-9) Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;

We have assembled together this morning to worship God. And the surest way to do so truly and rightly, is to seek, apprehend, know and adore Him as revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ.

And the good news is that in faithful, Lord’s Day assemblies of the saints, revelations of Jesus Christ abound! Monday through Saturday we remain individual and diverse members of Christ’s body, but on Sunday morning, in the assembly, the many diverse members are gloriously fitted together in order to display and make knowable the goodness and glory of our Savior Jesus Christ. In the assembly we see Jesus, and seeing him we see the Father.

Jesus is the Word. He is the eternal logos of the Father. Therefore, when we hear God’s Word read, sung, preached and prayed in the assembly, we are not merely hearing about Jesus. We are hearing Jesus. And hearing Jesus, we hear the Father. This morning as the Gospel portion of God’s Word is read from amidst the congregation, we will all stand together as we recall and celebrate the Word of God (Jesus) who came to us in human form 2000 years ago, and the Spirit of Christ who dwells in our midst today. Jesus was, and is, Immanuel, God with us.

Near the close of our worship service, we will sit and sup with the Lord at His Table. According to Jesus, the bread that we eat and the wine that we drink are his body and his blood. Although we deny that Christ is physically present in the elements, we most heartily affirm that he is really and truly present. Present to bless, encourage, love and bestow nothing less than his very self. And knowing and receiving Jesus in the bread and wine, we know and receive the Father and are filled afresh and anew with the Holy Spirit.

True worship brings us before God in the face of Jesus. And face to face with God in Christ, we are transformed into his likeness by the power of the Holy Spirit. So…Come let us worship the Lord together!