30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 24 50-53 THE BLESSING OF GOD 20 01Jun2022 Luke 24 52 Belief, worship and rejoicing
📖 Luke 24:50-53
20 – 01Jun2022 – Belief, worship and rejoicing - Luke 24:50-53 - THE BLESSING OF GOD - Bible reading: John 20:28-29
“Thank You, Lord Jesus, that we live in Your blessing. Lord, You are calling us to believe, worship and rejoice in You. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.”
We have been studying the blessing of God for several days. We now move forward.
Luke 24:52 And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
This is the expression of the life of a believer in Christ. Our life is a life of worship that results in rejoicing, always. This is the sequence; worship will lead to rejoicing.
We must keep in mind that belief precedes worship. Therefore, to worship God, there has to be belief. Without believing in Jesus, we cannot worship Him. The sequence, which we have now understood is, belief leading to worship and worship leading to rejoicing.
John 20:28-29 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" (29) Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Thomas worshipped God. For Thomas to worship Jesus, he had to move from doubt to faith. He was at one stage, doubting Thomas, but he became, believing Thomas, which led Thomas to worship the Master.
Belief leads to worship and worship leads to rejoicing. This is the consistent life of a child of God.
What is inseparable from belief? Believing God is to be obedient to God and His ways. Belief in God is not believing in an ideology or giving mental acceptance to God. Belief in God is to walk daily in His ways.
Hebrews 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
This is the warning that we must heed.
What constitutes unbelief? Unbelief is to depart from the ways of God. If we say we believe in God but our ways are not aligned to God and His ways, then, we do not believe in God, at all.
We continuously follow the sequence of belief, leading to worship and worship leading to rejoicing. But to believe in God, we must submit to His ways.
Ours is to stay in the ways of God, regardless of what the circumstances may prescribe. Irrespective of what our own hearts may dictate, we must choose to surrender to the ways of God. This is 'belief' in God.
Psalm 18:21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not wickedly departed from my God.
This is the description of belief. Belief is to keep the ways of the Lord and not depart from it.
The Lord, patiently, teaches us His ways. He does so because, we should not say,” I did not know His ways”. When He takes us into various situations, He teaches us His ways, so that we will walk in His ways. Walking in the ways of God is belief. Belief leads to worship and worship to rejoicing.
Ezekiel 20:10-13 "Therefore I made them go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. (11) And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, 'which, if a man does, he shall live by them.' (12) Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. (13) Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they despised My judgments, 'which, if a man does, he shall live by them'; and they greatly defiled My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them in the wilderness, to consume them.
The whole experience of the Israelites is a ‘teaching model’, through which the Lord is teaching the rest of us. I Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
God was longing for the people of Israel to follow His ways. He was wanting to sanctify them to be a people who will be a light to the Gentiles. They would be a light by believing in God, leading to worship and worship that would lead to rejoicing.
The church is being sanctified, set apart from the world, so that the church can be a light to the rest of humanity. How are we being set apart? By walking in His ways, which constitutes belief. Belief in God leads us to worship Him and worship makes us be a people who rejoice.
The Israelites did not understand what the Lord was doing, instead, they rebelled against the Lord. The majority of them perished and they were not able to be a light to the Gentiles, which was God’s purpose.
This experience of belief, which happens by remaining in the ways of God, is what the Lord wanted for His disciples.
Matthew 28:16-17 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. (17) When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.
Even though the Lord had taught them His ways, there were some who doubted. Doubt happens because they were not willing to walk in His ways. They worshipped God but since there was doubt in some of them, their worship of God was only external and did not come from a life of submission to God’s ways.
Belief and walking in God’s ways are synonymous. Belief leads to worship and worship leads to rejoicing.
Thought to ponder
Is the sequence of belief, leading to worship, leading to rejoicing, a reality in your life?