Saturday, July 25, 2009

Worship #3

How would you respond to people who said they had stopped going to church because they did not 'get anything much out of it anymore'?

The New Testament makes it very clear that the Christian life is all about a new, corporate identity as the people of God. People are not just saved on an individual basis, but to belong to God's heavenly assembly of the saints (see Revelation 5). The local church is a manifestation of this heavenly assembly. However imperfect local churches can be, if ultimately they are led by people who love Jesus, then they are part of this great global network.

The church is not a building, it is the people of God- therefore every believer IS the church and is part of it. And it thus follows that it is right for every believer to become involved with a local church- it is the natural conclusion to reach. When you get married, you live with your spouse. When you become a Christian, you become part of the church, so you make every effort to find a local church to belong to.

The New Testament speaks of the gathering of the people of God in many contexts (Acts 14:27, 1 Cor 5:4), and the church in assembly not only approaches God, but provides encouragement to its members (Carson). Eph 5:19 tells us to speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
. Col 3:16 says 'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.' It seems that an essential part of living as a Christian is to live as part of the wider Christian community. Faith is not a solo pursuit, but involves mutual encouragement and teaching and growing.

Whilst Christian worship happens throughout the week in a Christian's life (we are told in Romans 1:1 to offer our bodies as 'living sacrifices' to God and in Col 3:17 to do everything 'in the name of the Lord Jesus')
, corporate worship is still important. It is in corporate worship that we pray together (1 Cor 14:16), Scripture is read and expounded in preaching (1 Tim 4:13). We sing together to praise God and encourage one another (Eph 5:19). We give money towards work of the gospel (2 Cor 9:11-15). We confess faith publically (1 Tim 6:12). The sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper are explicitly provided for. (Clowney)

Carson writes: 'Corporate meetings of the church, however much God is worshiped in them, have the collateral responsibility of educating, informing, and transforming the minds of those who attend, of training the people of God in righteousness, or expanding their horizons not only so that they better know God (and therefore better worship Him) but so that they better grasp the dimensions of the church that He has redeemed by the death of His Son (and therefore better worship Him)'.

Ashton helpfully summarises: 'The church service provides a special foretaste of the experience of heaven. In Heb 12:18-29, the way Christians experience the presence of God is contrasted with what the Israelites experienced at Mount Sinai. Significantly, it is a corporate experience. So when we come together, we can know God and relate to God and worship God in ways that we cannot do when we are alone.'

And finally Kent Hughes writes that 'Corporate worship is intended by God to inform and elevate a life of worship' and it 'regularly functions to intensify our consecration to service'.

It is very difficult to follow the teaching of the New Testament to continue as a Christian, to keep walking in God's ways, reaching out to non-believers around us and stand firm until the end if we are not part of a local church.

And how can the church fulfil its mission to make disciples of all nations (Mt 28) if Christians are not part of it?

Belonging to a church is so much more than just going for what you can get out of it. God has given each Christian particular gifts with which they can serve the church and get the gospel out to the local community.

So, to summarise:

You need the church, and the church needs you.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Worship #2

Why is Jesus Christ so central to Christian worship?

Only through Jesus can we 'offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God' 1 Pet 2:5. There is no other way we can approach God except through Jesus:
'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' John 14:6

This is because our sins separate us from God. They are a huge barrier and prevent us from pleasing God by our own efforts. Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, and then died as a sacrifice for us (Heb 9:26), to remove us from the wrath of God and reconcile us to Him (2 Cor 5:18-19). Therefore, if we come to Jesus and trust in Him, we can be redeemed out of bondage to sin and Satan (Heb 2:15), and be enabled to worship God and know Him personally.

Before Jesus came, God called a people to Himself (Israel), and gave them a means of worshipping Him. This is the old covenant, which includes the Law given to Moses (as recorded in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy) and the sacrificial system whereby the priests would offer up a bull or a ram as an atonement for the sins of the people.

This system is transformed by Jesus- He completely fulfilled the old covenant by
1. Keeping the Law perfectly (which no one else could ever do)
2. Being the one perfect sacrifice to atone for all sins past, present and future ('Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!' John 1:29)
3. Being the ultimate great high priest who intercedes on behalf of His people and doesn't need to offer any sacrifices for Himself ('But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God... by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.' Hebrews 10:13-14)

The reason that Jesus was able to do this was because He was God incarnate. Colossians 2:9 says that the fullness of the Deity lives in Christ in bodily form. Philippians 2:9 says that 'At the Name of Jesus every knee should bow'. After seeing the resurrected Christ, His disciples worshipped Him (see John 20), and so contemporary Christians follow the example of the first generation of believers and worship Jesus without hesitation (Carson).

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Worship #1

The following series of posts are my notes as part of studying the Christian Worship module of the Moore correspondence course.

Why is worship so important in biblical thought?


Fundamentally, as Grudem points out, God is worthy of worship and we are not. He created us to glorify Him and it is right that God should seek His own honour, for He is worthy of it.

'My glory I will not give to another' Isa 48.11

'You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created' Rev 4:11

In both Testaments worship is repeatedly enjoined on the covenant people of God (Carson).

'Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care' Ps 95:6-7

We become like whatever or whomever we worship (Leithart), therefore to become more godly and to be the people God wants us to be, we need to focus not on ourselves but on God.

What are the most important lessons that the Old Testament teaches us about the worship that is acceptable to God?

1. The Old Testament makes it clear that worship is only acceptable when it is from the heart. 'Stop bringing meaningless offerings!' God tells His people in Isa 1:13. They may have followed the rituals correctly but they were not seeking justice and living God's way. Carson points out that 'it has always been necessary to love God wholly'.

2. Worship is only acceptable as a response to God's grace, not as an attempt to earn it. The only reason the Israelites could approach God with the sacrifices for sin was because He had first of all redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and in that great act of salvation set them apart to be His people. It was by grace that God gave them the sacrifical system, as a temporal measure for them to maintain covenant relationship with Him before Christ came to die for sins once for all.

3. Worship focuses on who God is- the lengthy rituals of Atonement were there to remind the people and the priests of God's perfect holiness and unapproachable nature. Part of their worship was to retell God's great acts to their children (Deut 6, 8).

4. Worship was Word-centred as well as sacrificial- the Law was placed by the ark of the covenant (Deut 32), and Ps 119 emphasises the sufficiency of God's word as covering everything from A-Z (it is an acrostic poem covering all the letters in the Hebrew alphabet).

5. Worship is both a response to a covenant relationship and the means of ensuring its continuance (Davies)- God does not want us to pray a prayer asking for His forgiveness and then to go off and live our own life for the next 40-50 years. God wants us to walk with Him in obedience and therefore Christian worship is about continually submitting to God, continuing in faith. This is established in the Old Testament by the repeated words of God in the Law for His people to walk in love and obedience to Him all the days of their life.
'Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.' Deut 11:1