 | |
Word from the Pastor:
Psalms and the New Testament
He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
—Colossians 1:18
Quick quiz: Which psalm is the most quoted in all of the New Testament? Your default answer is probably the 23rd because many of us were taught it from the time we were young, but Psalm 23 is not the Scripture most quoted by Jesus, or the most used in the letters that fill out the New Testament canon. The answer is Psalm 110, particularly verse 1.
Here is Psalm 110:1: “The Lord says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’” It’s a beautiful verse. But to most of us, it doesn’t strike us as THE verse that the New Testament would default to when talking about Jesus. Nevertheless, it was THE verse (among many verses from the Psalmist and the larger canon of Hebrew Scripture) that the early Christians used to understand and explain Jesus.
There are many reasons for this, and I have only so much space for an explanation. One reason this verse was used so often in the New Testament is that it was an attempt to explain how Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise found in Scripture that Yahweh God would send a ruler to put every power and authority, in heaven and on earth, under his feet. When Paul says that Jesus is Lord (Kyrios in Greek), his claim alludes to Psalm 110:1. He is also saying that Jesus is Lord, and Caesar is not.
The early church also used this text because of its clear association with Daniel 7:13–14 in the minds of Second Temple Jews. After centuries of oppression by myriad imperial powers, the writer of Daniel 7 (and Ezekiel in 1:26) saw a day when all those authorities would be overthrown, God would reign, and that reign would be invested in a divine twin power who was human. In other words, Daniel 7 speaks of a coming Messiah who will establish God’s reign and rule, and that Messiah is a person who shares intimate fellowship with Yahweh God. Psalm 110:1, like Daniel 7, speaks of a coming ruler who will put God’s enemies under his feet. When Jesus uses this psalm, he is making a direct claim to be this human ruler and deliverer promised by God who shares a unique fellowship and union with “the Ancient of Days.”
Another major reason this psalm is so often quoted is that it helped the early church understand Jesus’ ascension to heaven to rule at the right hand of the Father. Psalm 110:1 speaks of this “lord” as sitting at the Father’s right hand. Daniel 7:13 envisions this investiture of power at the very throne of God. To the early church that was trying to figure out why the Messiah would come, die, be raised, and then ascend back to the Father, the question would have been, “Why?” Why not just establish your rule immediately? Why this promise to return (see Acts 1:11)? As the early church looked back, Psalm 110:1 helped them make sense of these events. Jesus had to be invested with that rule promised in Scripture, establish his ongoing reign and rule over all things, and in that power, work (with and alongside his body, the church) to reconcile all things back to himself so that he might be first in all things. Paul clearly sees this in Colossians 1:18.
I give this relatively brief explanation to point you toward a great storehouse found in Scripture. The New Testament is full of allusions and references back to the promises of God found in Hebrew Scripture, especially the Psalms. This aren’t just proof texts or throwaway lines. They are “hyperlinks” of a sort, pointing us back to the unfolding faithfulness of God from the very beginning, now made complete in Jesus, Messiah, Lord, and Son.
Over the next 12 weeks, we will be studying these links between Jesus, the early church’s understanding of him, and the promises found in Hebrew Scripture, especially the Psalms. We will continue to do this during Lent, as we walk through the wilderness alongside Jesus in his passion. What I hope we will see is that the “man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53) didn’t suffer as he did simply for the sake of suffering. Instead, in anticipation of every promise God ever made, we see Jesus taking on our condition, and doing it so that we might be liberated from the twin powers of sin and death. As he does this, we will see him in greater detail for who he truly is.
In other words, our study of the Psalms in the New Testament will help us flesh out who this man Jesus was, and how he alone can be our liberator and savior. We hope that you will be blessed by the study. However, to get there, you will need to study with us. We invite you check out our Home Groups curriculum. Read it, use it for personal or family devotion, and get connected to a Home Group as we make our way to Sunday worship. May we grow in Christ together.
In Christ,
Pastor Sam
| |  |
|
Worship
February 12
6th Sunday after Epiphany
Scripture
Psalm 2:7–12
Luke 24:13–27
Sermon
“And Beginning With”
Sam Weddington
Last Sunday’s Attendance
9:00: In person: 149
Livestream: 21; Playback 74
11:00: In person: 121;
Livestream: 16; Playback 58
| |
Calendar
Sunday, February 12
9:00 a.m.
Contemporary Worship
Fellowship Hall
10:20 a.m.
Sunday School
11:00 a.m.
Traditional Worship
Sanctuary
2:00 p.m.
Administrative & Operations Comm.
Room 123
Fusion Outing
TBA
Student Super Bowl Party
Fellowship Hall
Monday, February 13
10:00 a.m.
Staff
Room 123
6:00 p.m.
Scout District Committee
Fellowship Hall
7:00 p.m.
Worship Committee
Room 123
Tuesday, February 14
7:00 p.m.
Boy Scout Troop 3
Scout Hall
Wednesday, February 15
5:30 p.m.
Fellowship Supper
Fellowship Hall
6:15 p.m.
Adult Enrichment
Student Small Groups
Wednesday Night Kids
Handbell Choir
Sanctuary
7:15 p.m.
Sanctuary Choir
Room 202
Youth Choir
Room 209
Praise Band
Fellowship Hall
Thursday, February 16
7:00 a.m.
Men’s Bible Study
Parlor
1:00 p.m.
Women’s Bible Study
Room 123
|
 | |
Chili Cook-Off & Talent Show Feb. 19
Our Chili Cook-Off & Talent Show (with MC Matt Richardson) is coming up on Sunday, February 19. If you would like to perform on our stage, please contact one of our talent scouts, Lilly Osborne and Katie Arnold. The chili chefs among us know what to do: make Sam sweat!
| |
|
February Mission Goal: Church Vans
Our mission focus this month is to raise at least $40,000 to purchase two used vans with fewer than 100,000 miles on them for use in our growing ministries. We need affordable, reliable transportation to get students to retreats and church events, take college students on mission trips, and deliver our volunteers to mission partnerships as distant as Montana. Boy Scout Troop 3, and other ministry partners in Bristol, could use our vans when they have special trips.
We have secured $7,000 in pledges or gifts for the purpose, so we have a minimum of $33,000 to go. We want to buy vans that can reasonably meet or exceed the 200,000 mile mark. Please prayerfully consider this request.
| |
|
Home Groups Are Back!
Home Groups began the new semester Monday. A Home Group is a gathering of friends, neighbors, a family, or several families who get together once a week for Bible study and fellowship. Each week we provide an intergenerational Bible study to each group and also post it on the church website under Ministries: Home Groups.
If you would like to participate in a Home Group, facilitate a group, or start your own, please sign up here, and we will get you plugged in. You can join the conversation and stay up-to-date by joining the FPC Bristol Home Group Facebook group and signing up for Home Group texts from Remind. This Facebook group connects Home Groups, sends out information, gives feedback, and celebrates all that is happening within our Home Groups. Join the Home Groups Facebook group here. For more information, email Dave Welch.
| |
|
Help Us Plan a Pi Day Party!
Come to the Fellowship Hall Wednesday, February 15, at 4:45 p.m. to learn about the fun and easy ways you can help with this year’s Pi Day Party. It’s a Math-Celebration Adventure in March! On March 22 and 24 our church will once again host this event for home-educated students. This quick meeting just before Wednesday fellowship will explain the ways you can serve for just a few hours on one or both days. The volunteer jobs are not hard, and you’ll be blessed by the smiles of kids, from the mommy-and-me class up through the teenagers. Questions? Contact Alison Meredith at 423-914-2987.
| |
|
Next Wednesday Fellowship
Our Wednesday Night Fellowship programming began this week. Please plan to join us next week for dinner at 5:30 in the fellowship hall followed by activities for all ages.
Alliance Stamp Ministry
Pulls Through
Hurricane IAN (landfall 9/28/22) left two feet of water in the Alliance Stamp Ministry’s Stamp Room, which is on the ground floor. When it was possible to be out safely, volunteers began moving items to drier locations outside the Stamp Room. The demolition crew was told, “Four feet and down, throw it away,” and the Alliance lost many of their supplies and packing materials. Shell Point provided them with a room, and in the week of November 7 the Alliance went back to work. By the end of December, they had generated $35,000. God’s hand of protection has been upon the Stamp Ministry!
Please remember to save your canceled stamps with a border of at least one-quarter inch all around and drop them in the box at the church. /Peggy Peters
| |
|
Boys & Girls Club
Spring Craft Fair
The Boys & Girls Club of the Mountain Empire will hold a Spring Craft Fair March 25 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Grand Hall of the SWVA Higher Education Center in Abingdon. Enjoy shopping with a variety of top-notch vendors. For more information, contact Kaitlynn Snider at 276-492-8284.
Come Join Our Youth Choir
FPC Bristol Youth Choir has begun our spring season, and we want all enthusiastic singers in 3rd–8th grade to participate. No experience is required! All you need is a desire to learn how to read music and lead worship through song. Practices are held on Wednesdays from 7:15 to 7:45 p.m. in room 209. We will rehearse through March 1 and perform for both services Sunday, March 5. Performance wear will be black pants and our FPC Youth Choir T-shirts. If you have any questions, please text Melissa Galliher at (276) 219-7770.
| |
|
This Sunday I will play two pieces by a local composer whom I met recently at a Composer’s Consortium meeting here in the Tri-Cities. Don Brandon is a church musician who lives in Johnson City. His degree in composition from Lincoln (Illinois) Christian College has served him well in more than 45 years of music ministry in seven congregations—in Oklahoma, Ohio, Florida, Indiana, Georgia, and now Tennessee—leading worship services, choirs, orchestras, handbell groups, children’s choirs, and drama ministries, and, of course, writing music for them all. He now leads a small congregation in Stoney Creek in Carter County, bringing together each week both the spoken and the musical word.
For this week’s opening voluntary, I will play Don’s setting of the hymn “Fairest Lord Jesus,” which he has written in the style of a Baroque fugue. The hymn tune is named “Crusader’s Hymn” because Franz Liszt used the tune for a crusaders’ march in his oratorio The Legend of St. Elizabeth (1862). For the same reason it is also known as "St. Elizabeth."
For the closing voluntary I will play Don’s setting of “Bound for the Promised Land,” which is based on the hymn “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks.” Its tune was written by Matilda T. Durham (1815–1901). Hymnary.org describes her as an American woman “of remarkable intelligence and talents; a most colorful personality, who wrote interesting articles for the religious papers of the day, being noted for the witty repartee that characterized her work. She was outstanding as a music teacher and composer of music.”/Bob Greene
| | |
|
We want to pray for and celebrate with you! Send us your prayer requests and glad tidings.
Condolences
Our love and sympathy are with Bill Bingham and Cyndi and JB Madison in the death of Bill’s brother, Richard Bingham, January 31, in Tampa, Florida.
In Our Prayers
Please also pray for the members of our community who wish to remain anonymous.
| | |
|
Ricky Adams
Keller Alexander
Wayne Ausmus
Ralph Booher
Olivia Bowen
Bud & Marg Branscomb
Bristol Tennessee City Schools
Becky Busler
Tom & Nancy Carter
Rachel & Ben Cherry & Dean Millard
Bill Coleman
Barbara Daniel
Jacob Daston
Russell Fogelman, Kelli Krajeck & Kendall
Lou Hebb
Charles Hoilman
David & Andrea Hyde
Gwen King
Jones family
Nancy Lilly
Toni Mari
Dot & Diana Mattison
| | |
|
Carl McGrady
Anthony Mitchell
Montana Indian Ministries
National & international leadership
Pastor Bruce Plummer
Delaney Porter
Cora Lee Raccioppo
Lynn Richards
Tom & Delma Slagle
Tenna Smith
Wendy Smith
Teachers & school administrators
Loretta Thomas
Scott VanNostrand
Jane Chambers Walz
Bill & Patsy Ward
Abigail Welch
Marsha Wilson
Virginia Wilson
Winston family
Stevie Wintz
| |
The session continues to encourage masks for those at higher risk of complications from COVID-19 or not fully vaccinated. The session encourages everyone to consult their medical professional about vaccinations and boosters. | |
|
Monday is the deadline for contributions to Windows. Subscribe to our free e-newsletter by sending your name and preferred email address to the editor.
Livestream our worship services and other activities at FPC Bristol on YouTube. Click on the link and hit Subscribe to receive notifications of new videos. Find us on Facebook at FPC Bristol. Several accounts will show up. “Like” the page or ask to join a group.
We encourage you to use text, mail, or our website to safely continue your faithful support of our ministries. Give online on our website by clicking on GIVE NOW. Or send your pledge, offering, or special gift by texting fpcbristol to 73256 or mailing your check to the church.
| |
701 Florida Avenue | Bristol, TN 37620 | 423-764-7176 | fpcbristol.org | | | | |
