i am an offering

Scripture will never cease to amaze me.  It truly is “living and active” as the book of Hebrews says.  So often I will come across a verse that I’m sure I’ve read before but all of a sudden it will become alive and breathe amazing new life into me.  It is also amazing that God chose to use Greek as the primary language of the New Testament.  More on that in a minute.

Hebrews 10:14

One of the verse that has jumped out at me lately and spoken to me over and over again is Hebrews 10:14.  Let’s take a look:

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

At first glance this might not look like a particularly amazing verse of Scripture - but it is so packed full of truth that it is mind-blowing.  The part I want to take a quick look at now is the phrase “perfected for all time.”

Greek’s Perfect Tense

Unlike the English language, Greek has a lot more ways of saying things just by switching to a different tense.  We English-speaking folks think of past tense, present tense, and future tense.  In Greek there is the perfect tense, combining all three tenses into one, signifying that:

1. Something happened in the past.
2. Even though it already happened, the results of what happened are continually happening in the present.
3. The results of what happened will continue to happen forever in the future.

The phrase “perfected for all time” is in the perfect tense in Greek.  So what’s amazing is, Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross not only happened - it happened with lasting results. And these lasting results won’t fade.  In fact, they’re eternal.  Do you realize what that means for us?  We change daily.  We can’t rely on ourselves.  We will not go a day in our lives without sinning.  But if we trust in the Cross and what Jesus did there, the power of what happened didn’t stop! It is continually applied to us if we are trusting in the blood of Christ!  Even though we waver and fall, our status in Christ doesn’t! Even though we offer imperfect offerings because of our sin - Jesus has made them perfect forever through His blood!

What an amazing promise!

Yesterday we talked about what in our own personal lives can hinder us from worshiping God. What kinds of things hinder the corporate congregation from worshiping God?

• First, if there are personal lids going on in the people of the congregation, it’s very difficult to worship corportately as a congregation. The personal lids need to come off first. How?
• By teaching: a lack of teaching on worship is a big lid to corporate worship. Especially if there are people within a congregation who don’t spend the time studying on their own, if there is no teaching on worship, it’s hard to know how to worship! We need to be continually bringing teaching on important subjects like this before the people.
• Lack of teaching on the centrality of Jesus Christ and the Cross. Many churches today have moved away from the authority and Lordship of Jesus and the importance of the Cross. As Luther said, it is impossible to worship God without Jesus.
• Lack of preparation and confidence. While God is the one who we ultimately boast in, there is a reason for Psalm 33:3 (play skillfully.) If the worship team is full of bad, poorly-prepared musicians, the people can get easily distracted. So, too, if the teaching is brought by a poorly-prepared teacher, the congregation can easily be distracted, or worse yet, taught incorrect things.
• Too much preparation and confidence. If there is a slick, perfected production but no humility and no attitude of engaging with God, but rather one of making the service the best production it can be, it’s difficult to worship. I am a firm believer in well-executed, well-produced services, but we can definitely be TOO excellent.

I’m sure there are many more. It is so important for us as worship leaders and teachers to make sure we do all we can to remove any hindrance to worship God from our congregation.