Hello church! As your Worship Pastor, so much of what I do seems to revolve around music. We all have songs that we love. We all have our personal style preferences. Of course, one thing that we all agree on (or at least should) is that the music of the church must be in line with God’s Word.
The purpose of worship is to respond to who God is and what God has done and is doing. So for this first blog post, what better than to reflect on the resurrection of Jesus. God’s purpose for creation is to bring to himself every bit of glory that He is due.
The cross and resurrection does this in a way nothing else could. It shows how He is perfectly just while also being perfectly merciful. Perfect in wrath and perfect in compassion. Perfect in sovereignty and perfect in submission.
For the past two weeks, our church has sung a song together that focuses on the death and resurrection of Jesus. The song title is “O Praise the Name (Anástasis)”. The word “anástasis” is the Greek word meaning “a raising up or a rising from the dead.” This word is used in the New Testament to refer to both the raising of Jesus as well as the raising of the saints at the end of the age. (You can see this reference in the 4th verse of the song.) The word “anástasis” appears 42 times in the New Testament, including all 4 Gospels, and the writings of Peter, Paul, John, and the author of Hebrews.
Let us never forget the power of the resurrection and our hope of eternal life and future resurrection through Jesus Christ. Let our worship be centered on the cross and the empty tomb, so that God receives all the glory that He is due!
You can listen to the song here and follow along with the lyrics below. May this help you meditate on the glory of the resurrection.
I cast my mind to Calvary
Where Jesus bled and died for me
I see His wounds, His hands, His feet
My Savior on that cursed tree
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forevermore
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
His body bound and drenched in tears
They laid Him down in Joseph’s tomb
The entrance sealed by heavy stone
Messiah still and all alone
And then on the third at break of dawn
The Son of heaven rose again
O trampled death where is your sting?
The angels roar for Christ the King
He shall return in robes of white
The blazing sun shall pierce the night
And I will rise among the saints
My gaze transfixed on Jesus’ face