What is family worship? (Click the arrow to the left)
As Christians, particularly Christian men, we are responsible to lead our households with strength and resolve in the ways of Christ. Leading our families in devotions and family worship is one way to lead our families, raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, Jesus Christ (cf. Deuteronomy 6:7; Ephesians 6:4).
In my house, we do morning and evenings. In the morning after we eat breakfast together, we all have our quiet times. We read our Bibles seperately and journal what we see. In the evenings before bed, we talk about what we saw in our morning Bible reading, I share my insight from my own devotional time, we ask questions from the New City Catechism, we sing a couple worship songs together, and then we pray as a family. Family worship doesn’t have to look like this. It may look different for every household, but I want to invite you to join me in leading our families well. Every weekday on this blog, I want to provide a guide for fathers to lead their families in some form of family worship. If your household doesn’t have a father, I believe the responsibility falls to the mother. Design a routine that works for your family, but be intentional about leading in the only way that matters instead of getting too caught up with the affairs of this world. Every Christian man is the pastor of his home. I believe the most important thing we can do for our children is (1) lead them in the home and (2) be faithful to the church as a family. As the family goes, so goes the nation. Our job as pastors to our family matters.
John 3:1-9
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these bsigns that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”
When we read Jesus’s famous conversation with Nicodemus, we tend to skip straight to John 3:16. While that promise is true, there is a lot more to glean from a conversation between perhaps the most prominent teacher in Israel and God the Son.
Nicodemus has reasoned that Jesus must be from God because Jesus’s signs prove His position according to Old Testament prophetic texts. Nicodemus is smart to seek Jesus out to learn from Him. Jesus captures the curiosity of Israel’s leading mind.
One must be born again to enter the Kingdom of Heaven—an Old Testament phrase referring specifically to the ever-increasing dominion and peace that will overtake the earth at the advent of the messiah (cf. Isaiah 9).
Nicodemus rightly asks for clarification and Jesus obliges him. Unless one is born of water, I believe referring to natural birth, and the Spirit, I believe referring to spiritual birth, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Those merely born of the flesh have no way to enter the kingdom. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as moving according to His own will, not according to our perception or prescription. So, everyone born of the Spirit is born of the Spirit because of the Spirit’s work, not the perception or prescription of the flesh.
Well-meaning evangelists often skip to John 3:16 to manipulate people into giving their hearts to Jesus. We have forgotten that we have no control of someone’s spiritual birth. If we or others are not first born again of the Spirit according to the Spirit’s will, we cannot enter the kingdom. We do not ask Jesus into our hearts to be born again. Instead, we repent and believe the gospel as a result of being born again by the Spirit.
Different people try to explain the process in different ways, but I’m more interested in the plain words of Scripture. I don’t claim to know the method or metric employed by the Spirit to cause new birth. I do know that without the explicit movement of the Spirit, people may enter a local church but they cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Nicodemus rightly asks, “How can these things be?” Jesus will explain further.
Today’s question from the New City Catechism:
Q- What does God require in the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments?
A- Sixth, that we do not hurt or hate our neighbor. Seventh, that we live purely and faithfully. Eighth, that we do not take without permission that which belongs to someone else.
Romans 13:9 says,
9 For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Have a question about today’s devotional?
Alex Southern Baptist Chapel 
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