Christ The King Ministry International.org

By Rev. Michael Carl

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why the Christian worship service is structured the way it is?

Today we’re going to find out that there is a Scriptural model, and one that took place even before the previously used model in Acts 2.42. We find this wonderfully awesome model in Luke 24.13-35.

Everyone turn there is you will.

The Worship from The Emmaus Walk

13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.

¹⁴ And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place.

The two disciples are travelling and talking. They’re on a journey together. This is a picture of the church coming together. How?

In the same way, we’re all on a journey together. We’re on a life journey. We have struggles; we have hard times and we need encouragement just like these two disciples.

This is why we gather together for worship; we’re on a journey together as pilgrims. We’re together at worship. We come alongside each other to worship the Lord and fellowship together. This is so we can strengthen and encourage one another on this life journey.

Also think about Amos 3.3 where the prophet writes, ‘Can two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?’ We’ve agreed we’re walking together on this life journey. We’re gathered together to worship the Lord together.

¹⁵ While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them.

¹⁶ But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.

Jesus says that wherever two or more are gathered in His name, He is with them. Hey they were together in Jesus’ name even though they were distraught thinking that Jesus had abandoned them. But they were still gathered together.

That’s us. Jesus is here. However, when we first come together, we might not recognize at first that Jesus is with us.

We also don’t recognise the works of the Lord in our lives at first either. We fuss about it and complain about the rough times and the hardship, but the Lord is with us and He is at work.

¹⁷ And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad.

As Jesus asks them about their conversation, when we enter worship, we’re invited to examine ourselves and our own hearts to make sure our conduct and hearts are right.

¹⁸ One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”

¹⁹ And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people,

²⁰ and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.

²¹ “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.

²² “But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning,

²³ and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.

²⁴ “Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.”

How does all of this come into play? This is when we’re invited by our introductory rite to reflection and confession—to unburden our hearts before we get into the main part of the worship service.

²⁵ And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

²⁶ “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

This is the Lord’s reply to our confession. We’re invited then to repent and refocus our eyes and hearts on the worship and to then get in tune and ready for the proclamation of the Word.

²⁷ Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Jesus explains the Scriptures.

Jesus went through all of the Scriptures to teach them about Himself. That’s why during the Liturgy of the Word, we do an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, an Epistle and the Gospel. In the same way that Christ teaches them through ‘All the Scriptures,’ we have that opportunity every Sunday because we go through, ‘All the Scriptures’ with an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, an Epistle, and the Gospel.

²⁸And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther.

²⁹But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them.

They ask Jesus to stay with them. This is our proper response to the Liturgy of the Word.

We give ourselves to the Lord and ask Him to be with us. We consecrate ourselves more fully to the Lord and discover the greatness of who He is and we recommit ourselves to walking and staying with Him.

³⁰When He had reclined at the table with them,

This is the full intention of The Eucharist-a celebration of fellowship with Jesus Himself. The guest has become the Host. That’s why those communion wafers are called, ‘hosts.’ So we come to the Table and as we do so, we’re joining and having fellowship and communion with the whole Church. We’re communing with Jesus and with all the Saints for all time. That’s what the Apostle’s Creed means when it speaks eloquently of the ‘Communion of the Saints.’

He is with us at the Table.

He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.

Check this out. He took the bread. He blessed it and He broke it. Then He gave it to them.

In John chapter six we see Jesus taking the loaves in His hands, blessing it and then giving it to the people.

Check out the lines in the Upper Room at the Passover meal. In Matthew 26.26, Mark 14.22, and Luke 22.19, this is the same pattern. He took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them.

This is powerful. There’s a reason for the uniformity in the presentation in the Synoptic Gospels. The message is consistent. In the Upper Room narratives and in this passage, Jesus goes from being the Guest to the Host.

He gives them the Living Bread. He gives them food for the journey. He feeds us with His Body so that we can be fully empowered to serve Him.

Jesus does this with the bread in this passage, but He does this with each of us.

He takes us in His hands. He talks to us. He blesses us. And then when the time is right, He breaks us.

No, that doesn’t mean we can’t witness beforehand, but before we’re fully ready to serve Him; before we’re ready to assume the duties of the ministry to which we are ultimately called, He has to deal with us. This is the part where He breaks us. Then we can be sent out.

³¹Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.

It’s then that they recognize Him. It’s then that their eyes are opened to see the Risen Lord sitting with them.

Then He vanishes from their sight. Why? Because then, they’ve been fed with Jesus as the Bread of Life. Their eyes are opened and He doesn’t physically need to be there.

By taking the Bread of Life in the Eucharist, we’re taking Jesus to ourselves. When that happens, Jesus can be with everyone all at once. But we’re then to take Jesus to the world.

But it’s more than that! Our eyes are opened when we go to the Table and receive Jesus in Holy Communion. We gain understanding! We gain insight! His Word and His work become more clear to us as we commune with Him! We’re healed when we come to the altar.

About a month ago I had a stomach infection and was running a temperature of about 103. My wife suggested we take Communion together. So I set it up through the blur of a fever-warmed head. We went through the liturgy and prayed the prayer of confession. We said, ‘The Lord be with you. And also with you…’

Then we took the Communion and said the closing prayer.

Within an hour my fever was gone and I was healed of the infection. Communion heals. The Body and Blood of our Lord-the bread and the wine-bring healing! Why? Because it’s the Body and Blood of our Lord. The Word says, ‘By His stripes, we are healed’!

We’re supposed to be the living reflections of Christ and that reflection is more completely formed in us when we have a Biblical worship service by having the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of Holy Communion!

³²They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?”

This is the end of the worship service! This is the joy-filled ending when we sing that closing song and rejoice that we have been together for worship! We rejoice that Jesus has been with us during worship and we acknowledge this by saying, “Were not our hearts burning within us as we sang together, heard the Word and came together at the Lord’s Table?

³³And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them,

³⁴saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.”

³⁵They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

What are we supposed to do?

We’re supposed to be like those disciples. They hurried back to Jerusalem and said, ‘Wow! Jesus is alive and really appeared to Peter! And we saw Him too!’

Whoa. Is Jesus still alive? So we can leave this place full of joy and testify to the world that we’ve met with Jesus!

In closing, we’re to be like those disciples. After we worship, after we have been to the Lord’s Table, we’re supposed to go out with joy and share the Good News with a needy and dying world!

By Rev. Michael Carl

Admittedly I used this illustration in last week’s column, but it’s worth repeating.

In his introduction to his contemporary classic work, The Great Omission, scholar Dr. Robertson McQuilken tells about a lecture on unreached people groups that he gave at an Urbana Missions Conference. After the lecture, a student shouted out the question, ‘How come?’

McQuilken replied, ‘How come what?’

‘With so many unreached people, how come so few are going?’

‘That is a very good question,’ McQuilken responded. ‘I know someone who asks that same question everyday.’

‘Who’s that?’ the student probed.

Dr. McQuilken turned his head heavenward. No further gesturing or answers were necessary. Everyone in the room knew that the Lord’s heart is broken over the U. S. church’s negligence in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Although last week’s Gospel reading was Jesus’ first installment in His 40-Day post-resurrection missions seminar, this week’s Gospel is just as powerful for the lesson it teaches.

The scene is the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, or the Lake of Galilee. It’s early morning and the disciples are out on the lake in a boat, trying to fish.

They worked all night and caught nothing. The band of disciples is looking through the light of a new day at an empty net. Jesus asked them if they had any fish and Peter’s response is an immediate ‘No.’

So Jesus tells them to throw the nets on the other side of the boat. Logically that shouldn’t make any difference. The water on one side of the boat is the same as the water on the other. It’s not like there was an unseen boundary line running parallel to the mid-point of the boat.

Yet Jesus said, ‘”Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.”‘ And they did. Jesus could have said, ‘”See there, if you do it under My instruction, you’ll get results.”‘

What’s important here is that Jesus is making a point about being a ‘Fisher of Men.’ It’s an illustration of the principle He taught in Matthew 10 and Luke 9 and 10.

If you’re preaching and teaching the Gospel and the people don’t receive you, keep going until you find a receptive crowd.

Time is short; so to reach the lost, keep looking until someone will listen.

There is one church in Wakefield that is strongly called to be a Great Commission church, one that confesses the faith and shares the Good News without apology. We also celebrate the Eucharist with joy! That’s Christ the King Church. Our service is at 10:05 Sunday morning in St. Joseph’s Church youth room in Wakefield.

We have a Bible Study Breakfast Saturday mornings at 9 am at Brothers in downtown Wakefield. Join us for both kinds of great food!

You’re invited to come be a part of what God is doing! You’ll be treated like family. If you need information on how to find us, call 781-640-9450.

By Rev. Michael Carl

Introduction

Do you remember when you were a kid and your mom or your dad were trying to get you to get ready to go somewhere you didn’t want to go? You dragged out the preparation time as long as possible because the thought of going to this place just didn’t excite you.

Every now and then they would call out to you, ‘Are you ready yet?’

‘I’m gettin’ ready,’ we might say.

‘Let’s go!’ they would shout.

We reply, ‘All right, I’m going!’

Eventually they finally dragged us out of the house to go to school, a formal dinner or some other occasion, but we went complaining all the way.

If the truth be told, some of us probably still get ready for things like that in the same way. ‘I’m going, I’m going.’

The problem is, the American church’s attitude about ‘going’ to fulfill the Great Commission has been a lot like the twelve-year-old kid’s attitude about getting ready for school.

A few weeks ago, some of us were standing around our altar table after service and we were chatting about Robertson McQuiklen’s The Great Omission, his magnum opus about the U. S. church’s lethargy towards its obedience to Christ’s command.

Dr. McQuilken talks about the gross misconceptions about mission and evangelism and calls the American church to essentially repent of its disobedience to Christ’s command to win the lost.

The discussion got around to talking about how supposedly solid, evangelical seminaries in the U. S. are having trouble getting students into the world missions and evangelism degree tracks, but the counseling departments are filled to bursting.

Sure, one of the reasons is that counseling is seen as a way to help people and we have a needy country.

The flip side to that is what economist Thomas Sowell calls ‘The Law of Unintended Consequences.’ This idea says that even though a lot of ideas are developed with the best of intentions, there’s a double edge on the sword.

The double edge here is that the reason there is such a great need for counseling is that our nation by and large has become a nation of people who are self-focused and inwardly looking.

Yet, for the follower of Christ, this inward-looking person is almost diametrically opposed to the desires, and indeed the commands, of Christ.

And our Gospel passage for today covers the first installment of Jesus’ multi-stage Great Commission.

The Passage

¹⁹So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

²⁰And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

²¹So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

²²And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

²³“If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

Verse 19 gives us the first words out of Jesus’ mouth as He entered the room. He said, ‘”Peace be with you.”‘

Yes, this is a liturgical greeting and the reason it’s in the liturgy is that the words are a spoken blessing. The one who verbally confesses it says they desire the receiver to receive the Lord’s supernatural peace.

Yet, it’s more than that. The Greek is the word, ?????? , or ay-ray-nay, which means peace, rest, the absence of strife. It means to have a calm and restful heart and to not get stressed-out. Jesus is telling them to receive His dynamic, supernatural peace because as followers of Christ and His Apostles, they’re supposed to trust Him and allow His peace to fill them.

If we’re in Christ, we can have that supernatural level of calming rest about us all the time. And we can have it. But I think there’s a profound key to getting it. That’s coming up next.

One of the key details here is that the greeting is given collectively. I won’t give you the Greek word, but it’s a collective plural pronoun.

What does this mean? It means the people in the American church have missed a key component of our life in Christ. It’s meant to be experienced and lived as a body. The deepest meaning in our life in Christ will come when we learn to live in community with one another. We get the peace individually as a group.

I can see some quizzical looks here. The power of the life in Christ comes at its best only as we live and serve as a body. We experience Christ in fellowship and in communion with one another, not as a collection of individuals who just happen to gather in one spot, under one roof, for a meeting once a week.

First, the disciple’s response is to rejoice at the truth that the Lord is risen, and that He’s living in you now. The Greek is ???????? which means to hail, rejoice or be delighted. Do you remember the words from Psalm 37 that say, ‘Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart’?

Rejoice that the Lord is alive and living in you! Delight in Him and be content because His presence is with you always!

That’s number one.

Number two is when Jesus says ‘”Peace be with you,”‘ again. He adds something.

Jesus says, ‘”As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”‘ The pronoun in this verse is the accusative plural. In English that means the ‘you’ is a plural pronoun in the objective case—the direct object.

This means that sending thing—He was sending all of them. They were all to be a part of this enterprise.

In other words, at this point the Commission was a collective assignment.

That means for the American church that the whole church is to be involved in the Great Commission!

Why? It’s because of the verses we’ve seen in other parts of the Gospels where Jesus weeps over the cities and towns. It’s because of that wonderful passage in Matthew 9 where Jesus aches all the way down in His gut, with writhing pain, mourning over the condition of those poor lost souls.

The lost are the Father’s priority; and we know this because Jesus taught us that if we have seen Him, we’ve seen the Father. Again, since Jesus weeps for the lost, we know the Father weeps for the lost.

Jesus illustrates the priority the lost have when He speaks of the shepherd who would leave the 99 sheep and go after the one lost one.

The best way to accomplish this is to have the whole church involved in the Great Missionary enterprise!

Conclusion

So, do you want to know how you can experience that supernatural peace the Lord announced to His disciples? We get that peace when we come on board and obediently begin to walk in step with the will of the Lord.

We allow Him to put a burden for the lost in our hearts. Then we get His supernatural peace that comes from knowing that we’re obediently in line with His purpose, His mission and His call for His church.

That’s when we receive the peace of mind and the sense of contentment that we all say we want. To get it though, we have to ask the Lord to soften our independent hearts. We need to have the Lord crack through our rigid individualist spirit and give us a heart that hungers for the things the Lord prizes the most: the lost and His church.

Then, when we step up to being a church that is obedient, then we are in line to receive the dreams that will never die and the purpose that will not, cannot and does not fade.

Are we ready this morning to become that kind of church? Let’s all bow our heads together and pray together. Let’s ask the Lord for a unified Great Commission heart.

By Rev. Michael Carl

I remember my mom waking me up as a kid and sayng, ‘Rise and shine! Up and at ‘em!’

For the most part I would mumble some unintelligible babble and grunt and say, ‘OK mom.’

My mother was a morning person. She loved ‘Getting up with the chickens’ at the first light of day. She always said that in terms of practicing her piano or in studying for a test that she could learn more in thirty minutes in the morning than she could in several hours in the evening.

That makes her part of an apparently very small, elite, minority. Frankly, I don’t know too many people who are, ‘Morning People.’ For most of my life I’ve known and associate with ‘Night Owls,’ those who love to stay up late watching TV, playing games, reading, studying or doing whatever until the wee hours of the morning.

Unfortunately, for those of us who are night owls, this is apparently not the way of Scripture.

In fact, Proverbs speaks of sleeping as little as possible. Solomon writes in Proverbs 6.10, ‘A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—show shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.’

Then in Proverbs 10.5, the wise king writes, ‘He who gathers in summer is a wise son; he who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.’

In the same book, Solomon talks of diligence in work, self-control and a host of other things. Reading through Proverbs tends to show that God doesn’t want us sleeping late, laying around and getting very little done.

Keeping the theme going, in his song, ‘Asleep in the Light,’ Christian singer Keith Green sang, ‘Jesus rose from the grave, and you, you can’t even get out of bed.’

Where is all of this leading? This Sunday is Resurrection Sunday, the day followers of Christ celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. For the record, if you read the text carefully, John 20.1 says, ‘Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.’

Jesus rose from the dead prior to daybreak! Before dawn, Jesus was ‘Up and at ‘em!’ This means that Jesus’ redemptive work of conquering death and doing whatever else he did on that rescue mission in less than two full days!

Now that’s a record of achievement! I also know that if I want to be more like Jesus, I need to make some major revisions to my daily routine.

There is one church in Wakefield that strongly proclaims the Risen Christ, confesses the faith and shares the Good News without apology. We also celebrate the Eucharist with joy! That’s Christ the King Church. Our service is at 10:05 Sunday morning in St. Joseph’s Church youth room in Wakefield.

We have a Bible Study Breakfast Saturday mornings at 9 am at Brothers in downtown Wakefield. Join us for both kinds of great food!

You’re invited to come be a part of what God is doing! You’ll be treated like family.

If you need information on how to find us, call 781-640-9450.

By Rev. Michael Carl

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve spoken with people who were committed to revival in the American church.

The number of people who long to see the American church wake up and take seriously its mandate for cultural change and spread of the Gospel is increasing.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that too often, our revivals are somewhat like the scenario we’re commemorating this Sunday.

On Palm Sunday, the crowds shouted and sang during the Lord’s arrival in Jerusalem. They were sure Jesus’ arrival would mean an overthrow of the Romans and a renewal of their religious order.

Well, Jesus’ mission was different. His priorities were Throne-Centred and He didn’t drive the Romans from Jerusalem.

This major disappointment is why on Friday, the people were shouting, ‘We have no king but Caesar,’ and ‘Crucify Him!’

The pattern somewhat resembles our 20^th and 21^st Century revivals.

There’s lots of celebrating and shouting, but when everything doesn’t go our way, we get fickle and want to find a better bargain.

This brings us to a reasonable question: What should we in the North American evangelical community do to be God’s instrument to bring about a lasting, solid, fruit-bearing revival?

First, let’s remember that revival is a sovereign move of God’s Spirit. We can’t have some flashy services with lots of emotional singing and say for real that there’s a revival. True revival is empowered by the Holy Spirit and Christ-centred.

Second, the joy of a real revival isn’t so easily tarnished or diminished. A church that has truly been revived is ‘devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’ They joyfully went to the temple to preach and teach and then they went from house to house!

So this Palm Sunday, let’s seek Jesus first and put Him at the forefront of our worship. Then let’s live the life of a disciple, excited about Jesus and His church.

If we do that, the excitement of Palm Sunday will last way beyond the end of a calendar day.

There is one church in Wakefield that strongly confesses the faith and shares the Good News without apology. We also celebrate the Eucharist with joy! That’s Christ the King Church. Our service is at 10:05 Sunday morning in St. Joseph’s Church youth room in Wakefield.

We have a Bible Study Breakfast Saturday mornings at 9 am at Brothers in downtown Wakefield. Join us for both kinds of great food!

You’re invited to come be a part of what God is doing! You’ll be treated like family.