In the 5th chapter of the Revelation John wrote about the scene revealed to him when Jesus would break the seals and read from the scroll. The whole 5th chapter is remarkable but these verses caught my attention.
“And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9,10)
Jesus said in Matthew 16:18b,
“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
And he is doing just that. I wonder if we sometimes get off message, out of focus, and busy doing the wrong tasks?
Jesus is building HIS church, not our church. The question then becomes “Will I join Him in what He is doing?”. “Will you join Jesus in what He is already doing?”. You see, in spite of our pettiness, our in-fighting over singing, our doctrinal differences, Jesus is at work gathering His chosen ones who will one day rule and reign with Him. And, it is clear He is doing it quite well. He will do it with us or without us, but He will build His church!
Who are those He is redeeming? They are “from every tribe and language and people and nation”. He is calling to himself people for his own from every people group, pretty effective huh?
I am not the King, I am an ambassador for the King. My role is to serve the King. He says to his people “I have all power in heaven and in earth, go in that power and tell the good news. Baptize those who believe my story and teach them to love the unlovely, be holy, and keep telling the story until I come.”
He enables us to love the unlovely, He empowers our words to the powerless and helpless, and He promises that if we will tell the story as we live our lives while loving others He will do the church building.
Not one person will be left out who should have been saved. So we can confidently say to the thirsty, “Come and drink from this water and you will never thirst again! And to the hungry, eat this bread and you will never again be hungry. And we speak words of life to the spiritually dead and they are raised to eternal life in the power of the Spirit. Why? Because He is “with us” and “in us”. Immanuel is with me today as I go in his name to herald the good news of Jesus.
What if I don’t go? What if you don’t go? What if your church don’t go? Jesus will still be building His church and will keep building it until the last sinner is made a saint and He comes for His own.
His church will be built and it will be from every people group. Let us join Him in what He is already doing.
Agape’
Royce
Royce,
Thanks for a breath of fresh air! But, I wonder, why do you come across as believing that people who advocate acapella singing are not quite with it yet? I suspect that I believe the same thing you do about instrumental music, but I see no need to hint that people who disagree with me aren’t really studying the scriptures thoroughly. Even though I may not agree with them, history is replete with scholars who advocated acapella singing as the music God wants.
Many people in churches of Christ believe others are lost because they use instruments in worship. The logical end then is that they believe they are saved because of singing a cappella. They are not, thats why.
Royce
Royce, do you believe those that make it their settled practice to lie, cheat, & steal are saved? Probably not.
Does that prove you believe you are saved because you don’t make it your settled practice to lie, cheat, & steal? Probably not.
Just because someone might believe that those who use instruments in worship are lost, that doesn’t prove they believe (or should believe) they are saved because they sing a capella.