We miss the gatherings of the assembly at this time; and most of all we miss the opportunity on a Lord’s Day morning to ‘eat this bread, and drink this cup’, and by this to ‘shew the Lord’s death till He come’ (1 Corinthians 11 verse 26). This gathering is a commandment of the Lord. Note the words in Luke 22 verse 19: the emphasis is on the person of Christ. It is an act of worship to remember Him and to contemplate the Father’s joy in His Son. Remember that heaven opened, and the Father declared: ‘Thou art my Beloved Son; in Thee am I well-pleased’ (Luke 3 verse 22). It is the outpouring of the soul to the Lord in the light of the victory at Calvary. It is the appreciation of the heart of the beauty of His Person. As the hymn says, ‘we delight in Thy delight in Him’. How humbling it is, that the Father loves to hear us speak well of His Son. The Father fully knows and understands the Son. Yet He takes pleasure in the stumbling words from the youngest believer, who maybe for the first time is appreciating different aspects of the character of the Lord. He is pleased to hear from the more mature saints who may be able to express deeper thoughts about the Son. He is an ‘exhaustless theme of heavenly praise’.
So we might think about the types in the Old Testament to give us insight into the character of the anti-type, for example in the offerings or the tabernacle. Or we can think about some of the Old Testament characters and how they conducted themselves, which can speak to us of the Lord: for example, the moral beauty we find in Joseph or the glorious victory of David against Goliath. The Old Testament has been described as God’s picture book: we can consider historical events and how they pointed forward to the coming of the Lord, whether Abraham offering Isaac up for a sacrifice, or the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea. We are privileged in the Psalms to learn more about the feelings of the Lord (Psalm 69 verse 20, ‘Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness), and to listen to Divine dialogue (Psalm 40 verses 7-8, ‘Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea thy law is within my heart’). Or we can think of His various titles which enable us to consider different qualities for example, the Lamb, the Redeemer, the Word and so on. How often have we enjoyed these as themes on a Sunday morning.
Or we might ponder the life of the Lord and different aspects of His character seen by men, as He showed Divine attributes, whether compassion, mercy, love in His dealings with humanity. We think of His ‘gracious’ words and deeds, the miracles, the healing; we dwell on His sorrows and His solitude (Matthew 23 verse 37, ‘how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!’).
And how wonderful, we remember the cross work and His vicarious sufferings. This is holy ground. ‘Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift’ (2 Corinthians 9 verse 15).
And so as we worship, we will be less occupied with ourselves, and what He has done for us, and more taken up with who He is and what He means to God. In John 17 verse 24 the Lord can say ‘Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world’. In Proverbs 8 verse 30 He says, ‘Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him:’
Beloved, our appreciation of Him can fill every Sunday morning and what a joy to know that we will be able to worship Him throughout eternity.
Paul