Feb. 23, 2025

Teach Me with your Songs (23 Feb 2025) — Pastor John Custer

Introduction -  This lesson is  to illustrate the importance of church congregations worshipping together.  As a follow-on to Revelation 2 and 3, in which the Lord addressed 7 churches of Asia Minor and referred to each as a “church” (singular), the Lord gives some insight about how this unity is achieved.  It will not be enough for all the separate congregations to just be the best they can be.  In that state the church is still divided and has reduced powers to fight darkness.  

Luke 11:17 But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls. NASB

In the verse above, Jesus taught an eternal principle which much of the present-day church misses.  There is strength in unity.  Sad to say, there are divisions all over the Body of Christ today.  The divisions are, for the most part, benign.  Most churches simply have nothing to do with each other and keep a polite distance from each other, carefully protecting their members from migrating to another congregation.  In most situations, there is a mild competition between churches, almost like competing retail businesses.  This serves to keep a definite distance between most congregations, a definite sense of “us” and “them.” Between a smaller number of churches there is open disdain over values, beliefs, and practices.  Spirit-filled churches and non-Spirit-filled churches look down on each other over speaking in tongues.  Churches who practice infant baptism by sprinkling and churches who practice only adult baptism by immersion are sometimes antagonistic with each other. The differences go on and on.  It is an obvious conclusion that the present-day Body of Christ is really divided up.  

To understand the effect this has on the church, let’s examine a simple lesson from the Tower of Babel:  

Genesis 11:5-9 Now the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the men had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have started to do, and now nothing which they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore it was named Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. NASB

God made an amazing statement when He said that “because of their unity there was nothing that they could not accomplish.”  These were carnal people, descendants of Noah, who did not have the Spirit of God living in them as we do today. If this power was in these post-flood descendants of Noah, who had only a fraction of God’s knowledge, how much more should we Christians be able to do, since we have the Spirit of God living in each of us? For the moment, God had to create disunity to keep man’s ambitions in check, as man did not have the Spirit of God within to guide Him.  So, He confused their languages.  They could not communicate, and so split up into families and tribal groups, having to find similar sounding people.  Notice that this was the simple product of keeping them from communicating with each other with their voices.  This was not a division caused by anything else: not a war, or a famine, or a weather-calamity or an earthquake.  The outcome was that they stopped building the city.  

Estimates based on other Biblical events point to the probable time of this interruption being 4,200 years ago.  Today, 2000+ years after the ascension of Jesus, God is doing the reverse:  He is unifying His people using the same thing—our voices! 

Acts 2:1-4 When the day of Pentecosthad come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with different tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out.

Why is unity important? This is where the power of God is found.  I hear so often the questions: “Where is the power?  Where are the miracles? Why don’t we have what the early church had?” Actually, the  answer is simple: the church is a divided house.  It is not good enough for every congregation to have people, and a building, and good offerings, and entertaining music, and a great youth program, etc, but not be involved with the rest of the Body of Christ.   God waits for His body to be unified.  Jesus taught us that principle:

Matthew 18:19-20 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

This is the simplest, most embryonic form of agreement.  Certainly, it would apply to larger groups of people who agreed together.  It also would be subject to other conditions mentioned in the Scripture (in accord with God’s will, prayed by believers, not just to fulfill our carnal interests). 

As the New Testament unfolded and churches spread and grew, the apostles instructed us how to do this:  Paul wrote to two churches with almost the same instructions to each.  His letters were also read to the church in Laodicea.  The first was the church at Colossae, probably a small church.  it was in a small industrial town known for textiles (red wool cloth), but the trade route through the town had shifted, moving to Laodicea by the time Paul wrote his letter to the church. It probably would have been similar in size and circumstance to Monessen today.  Even though the town was declining in population, Paul told them how to develop unity:

Colossians 3:12-17 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so must you do also. 14 In addition to all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ, to which you were indeed called in one body, rule in your hearts; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. NASB

We always see verses like the one above as applicable to our church, primarily.  There is not too much of a challenge applying all the advice of Colossians 3:12-17 to people we are familiar with.  The church at Colossae was probably that.  The instructions above were probably a very different task for the church in Ephesus, however.  The church at Ephesus was much bigger than the one in Colossae.  It even had a bishop or recognized dignitary representing it.  The church was probably comprised of 24,000 Christians at the time the apostle John wrote about it in Revelation 2.  The church existed for several hundred years, according to some accounts. Ephesus was the 3rd largest city in the Roman Empire, after Rome and Alexandria, Egypt.  It was important for the church to be one, even though it almost certainly was divided up into smaller congregations and gatherings.  An obvious lesson from all this is that congregations in a given city must learn to receive each other.  In any locale, this is important.  Notice that it was the same prescription for big or small cities.  

    Ephesians 5:15-20 So then, be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making              the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what             the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled             with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and             making melody with your hearts to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our             Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father; 21 and subject yourselves to one another in the fear of             Christ. NASB

Applying this verse seems pretty natural to any congregation—instead of relying on preaching by itself, we are to incorporate songs.  They have lyrics.  People sing, say, and hear the lyrics, therefore they learn.  We get it!  So, every church picks the songs they love.  We have all types of emotion flowing depending upon the song: love, victory, comfort, exaltation. There is an entire industry built on making and marketing Christian music.  We choose what we like.  

However, there is a type of learning which we aren’t really conscious of, embedded in the instructions to these two churches. It is contained in the verses which precede the sections which talk about singing. It has to do with being humble, putting up with each other, subjecting ourselves to each other, being compassionate, kind, gentle and patient.  There was a need for this, not just so the local congregation can get along, but likely because these attitudes are needed when we move from being strictly involved with our congregation to being involved with other congregations as well.  We very naturally stay within the group we are familiar and comfortable with.  God has other plans for us, if the snapshots of the church in Acts 2-5 are remotely true.  There, He added a probable number of 8,000-10,000 Christians to the church in Jerusalem in a matter of days during the Feast of Pentecost.  There had to be a lot of mingling and mixing with strangers during that time.  There were visitors from all over the region who came to Jerusalem and became believers.  Many stayed for a while to learn of their new life in Christ.  This necessitated all the logistics for food and shelter which the new church had to figure out how to do.  This picture is probably the simplest, least complicated picture of what the church is supposed to be.  Mankind has since divided it all up over centuries.  Ephesians 4 counsels us to 

Ephesians 4:3 …being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

Conclusion - When we worship with other people who are not from our congregation, we and they are called upon to be open to, participate in, appreciate, be patient with, and give thanks for people from other congregations.  We don’t naturally do this.  We choose the people we like, the culture we like, the preaching we like, the songs we like.  This is not bad.   Just like human families, many congregations are needed to meet the needs of the many Christians Jesus has given birth to.  What has been missing is a consciousness of the larger “church” in a city or region.  This is very apparent from Revelation 2 and 3, where the Lord addresses the “church” at Ephesus, the “church” at Thyatira, the “church” at Sardis, etc.  as one organism in each place.  He rewards or corrects each city church individually, granting power and keeping the Christians there from trials.  It’s worth it to give ourselves to this, doing what this verse advises:  

Romans 15:5-9 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one purpose and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us, for the glory of God. 8 For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision in behalf of the truth of God, to confirm the promises given to the fathers, 9 and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written:  NASB