• The world’s way of worship confuses ‘holy’ with ‘complicated’ and leans on rituals and wordy recitations — but God wants us to approach HIM
Relationships change us. When we gain a place at college or university, or acceptance for an apprenticeship programme — as many young people are doing in this next few weeks — that is a change of identity.
Having had a range of different occupations, and living in different communities, I have been shaped by each one. Same person, same faith in God, pretty much the same values — but I have been seen as a different person by others, and that has made me more secure in seeing myself as an imperfect but growing disciple.
The other thing that has developed and grown is my confidence about who I am in Him, meaning how God sees me, and how He seeks to be a partner in whatever I set out to do.
In this episode, we’re going to draw on three Bible stories which give us this bigger story, of how knowing God leads to us really knowing ourselves.
We’re thinking about this after a long and difficult trial leading to a children’s nurse being convicted of harming and causing the death of babies in her work in a hospital neonatal unit. Without getting distracted by details in this most distressing of stories, one thing that came out in the evidence was clearly a picture of a young woman who lacked self-esteem, and sought attention to try to feel better about herself. The point is, we all need to be confident about who we are, and not trying to be someone else.
When God is speaking to you about who you are — we have a memorable example of this in the second story reinforced by the third — those self-esteem insecurities are robbed of their potency.
First up is the story of the Israelites in Egypt when a new Pharaoh who was hostile to the Israelites comes to the throne. He wants to ‘make Egypt great again’ without other ethnicities clouding the picture. The Pharaoh’s ambition to build impressive cities in a river delta region, where there were no supplies of stone, needed bricks — millions of them — and the Israelites were set to forced labour in this hard and dirty work, and a crude and barbaric form of birth control was imposed on them:
So Pharaoh put slave masters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labour, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labour the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”
The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.
Exodus 1:11-17
Even under such oppression, the Israelites held on to God, and He held on to them. As we read: “The people increased and became even more numerous”. This segment ends with the secret birth and then adoption of Moses, who was of course God’s instrument in leading the Israelites to freedom.
And in the context of knowing God and knowing oneself, Moses is an interesting person, because he was not in himself a confident person. This actually became a strength, because he developed such a great sensitivity to, and reliance on, God. This man, born in threatening circumstance, and in himself lacking confidence, grew to be one of the Bible’s greatest leaders — through knowing God and being very aware of his own call and close relationship with God.
Next we are going to think about Peter, as we know him, or more correctly Simon the Fisherman. Unlike Moses, he was a confident ‘have a go’ kind of person. He was used to handling his boat in a storm and using his initiative to find where the fish were shoaling — not always successfully, in the Bible stories about him! We see him making plenty of mistakes and saying the wrong thing — but his star quality was that he learned by them.
In this part of the story, Peter acts as the spokesman for the rest of the disciples. On this occasion he is found saying the RIGHT thing as faith, together with the Holy Spirit’s revelation, causes him to speak out something quite remarkable.
The context is that Jesus and the disciples have travelled beyond the northern edge of Galilee to a newly constructed town, Caesarea Philippi, in the Golan Heights, near where the River Jordan emerges from underground springs close by Mount Hermon. This was a place of mixed-up religion where people combined Roman, Greek and local cultic practices. Jesus and the disciples are viewing the backdrop of a vertical cliff face studded with grottos celebrating the Greek God Pan together with other pagan shrines — you can still see it today.
Jesus initiated a conversation, drawing out what people were saying about Him, including the superstitious beliefs that Jeremiah or Elijah had somehow returned. And then Jesus focuses attention on Simon.
“But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven.
“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 16:15-19
Peter’s makes this declaration, going right against all that superstitious and pagan stuff, clearly putting himself on the line about who he believes Jesus to be.
And Jesus responds to his clear words of faith, giving him a new identity — renaming him — as His rock with the promise of heavenly authority conferred on him.
Too much is made by some Christian traditions, the ones that believe in a separate caste of priesthood, of a positional authority that comes out of direct succession to Peter. There is no evidence that he was ever the overseer or bishop in Rome. In fact, he may never have been to Rome. And the idea of priestly authority doesn’t fit with how Jesus has structured His church — as we will hear shortly.
Rather, Peter is the prototype of every disciple who comes through doubts to believe in and truly belong to Jesus. Everyone who believes who Jesus is, who trusts in his saving work and acknowledges him as their Lord, is transformed spiritually. Elsewhere, writing to the church in Corinth and also Galatia, Paul explains this as becoming a new creation, embracing a new spiritual start with a new identity.
We don’t have to change our name by deed poll, but we assume a new heavenly name, rather like in traditional marriage where the woman takes on the man’s family name. We become adopted into God’s family and we are now seen by heaven as valued family members.
Paul teaches that this change is like the change that came over Peter and the others as they saw Jesus — their fellow Galilean carpenter — in a new light. It’s a work the Holy Spirit does in us. He brings revelation, which means truths revealed spiritually, rather than understood cognitively.
Paul explains how this works in our third segment. He urges us to be like spiritual containers for offering true worship to God. This is not in the world’s way, but in the transformed way that comes from minds renewed by the Holy Spirit. The world’s way of worship confuses ‘holy’ with ‘complicated’ and leans on symbolic rituals and wordy recitations. But God wants us to approach HIM: person to person.
He wants us to make a spiritual connection with a renewed mind and spirit — because God is Spirit. A holy pantomime or even a detailed and oratorical sermon won’t do that UNLESS there is true submission to God’s spirit to lead and, if necessary, overrule. That’s a difficulty with a fixed order of service, and a tension with a predetermined format. We need to take a ‘renewed’ approach, spiritual and ‘body-minded’ as Paul teaches us here:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — His good, pleasing and perfect will.
For by the grace given Me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
Romans 12:2-8
If a worship service is led exclusively by one authorised person, how can that work? It denies the understanding of the church gathering being a body with many members, and mutuality.
He goes on to teach that we should be recognising
- the proclaimers,
- the anointed servants,
- those gifted in making complex truths easier to understand,
- the encouragers who coach those less confident and grow them;
- those with faith to use financial resources for the Lord, and
- those whose gift is to lead and equip others, and also
- those who excel in offering judgment-free care and compassion.
So, knowing God to know ourselves, now takes us into knowing how we fit with others in the body and what kind of ministry God is stirring up in each one of us who believes.
Our story began with the Israelites, who knew they had a covenant with the living God — and to live up to that covenant without compromise was both their identity and their duty. Then we saw how Peter, with the other disciples close behind, had put himself on the line, declaring for all to hear that Jesus is the Son of God. That released him into this hard-to-explain but nonetheless real experience of knowing Jesus and therefore knowing the partnership with God gained through Jesus. And for us today, being aware with quiet humility how God has made us and is shaping us makes real the exciting mutuality of the body of Christ, and makes possible its Spirit-empowered mission.
In a sentence: It’s all about knowing God, being known by Him, and truly knowing ourselves.
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• The full Bible readings (NIV) are all together on this page and links to Bible Gateway are below so you can find the version you prefer.
• The Living Word Bible Study gives verse by verse commentary on the three main readings, OT, gospel and letter with summary, application and a discussion starter — ideal for personal Bible study or to share with a home group
• You can listen to The Living Word Podcast with Ian & Alison Greig, episode for August 27, which tells the story as a broadcast — available on all the major podcast platforms or here on Substack The Living Word Podcast
• There’s an audiogram podcast version (audio + captions) on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and here Audiogram Aug 27
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