Christ Is the Center of Every True Service. 

"He that heareth you heareth Me." Luke 10:16.

God manifested His delight in the worship of the God-fearing people of the Old Testament by His own presence in their Temple. In Jesus, the Savior, we have the fulfilment of the Old Testa­ ment. He was presented to the Lord in the Temple. At the age

of twelve He went with His parents to the Temple and sat at the feet of the scribes. During His active ministry He went to the Temple regularly every Passover. And in the present time of grace He, our Lord and Savior, is in His holy temple wherever people, be there ever so few of them, are gathered together to worship Him. Por Christ says: “Where two or three aTe gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Christ dwells where the Word and Sacraments are found. Your congregation, too, has His Word and Sacraments. Where these two things are found in truth and purity, there the Lord’s honor dwelleth. The Lord is there within His holy temple. Here in His house He clothes you with the armor in which you shall stand in the battle of life. He comforts you with His Word and promise of final victory, re­ freshes and strengthens you, and revives your drooping spirit by letting you partake of His own body and blood. In our services Christ leads you to the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. He admonishes you to be firm in faith, perfect in obedience, sin­ cere in love, instant in prayer, unwavering in hope; yea, He fills your heart with the hope of life everlasting.

Christ is the All-in-all of our services. The entire service should be so conducted as to fix the attention of all hearers on this one point — Christ; and all such means should be discarded as might tend to divert the attention from that blessed picture — Jesus, the Savior. When Leonardo da Yinci painted his famous picture “The Lord’s Supper,” he took the greatest pains to paint the figure of Christ in such a way as would immediately fix the eye of the beholder upon Him. But in one corner of the picture he had painted a little boat, and he noticed that the people admired it very much. He did not like this and blotted out the boat. So also Christ must be the center of all our services.

Prayer.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou eternal Son of God, reveal Thyself to us in all our services. May we realize that out of love to us Thou didst become our Brother and didst redeem us by Thy obedience, suffering, and death, to the end that in Thee we might learn to know the Father aright and through Thee come to Him, enjoying the fruits of Thy redemption, here in righteousness and holiness and hereafter in perfect holiness and bliss in Thy presence. Amen.

NOTE: In the Reformation churches, the pulpit is offset to the right side (facing out) to symbolize Christ - not man - is the central focus of worship - JLO