In Spirit and in Truth

I have been away for several months. My health has improved and I feel a need to return to this forum.

Today, in a doctor's office, of all places, the subject of proper worship came up.  Here's a response to the question of "How Should We Worship a Holy God"?

There are two generally-accepted and practiced views of worship in American Evangelicalism today. Each undervalues Biblical worship.  The more austere forms of worship may emphasize the preaching of the Word, but do not glorify God with beauty. The modern “Praise and Worship” movement overemphasizes singing and emotionalism to the exclusion, at times, of meaningful interaction with the Word.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” The corporate worship of the church should meet both ends of that equation. To this end Christian worship should be organized around the Word and sacraments.

Music is an important emotional

and intellectual element of the worship of the church. Equally valuable are the hymns translated from Greek and Latin, classical sacred music and contemporary hymns. Whatever music is employed should be worshipful and should help focus the worshippers on the goodness of God and the theme of the sermon.

Liturgy is a way of organizing the worship. Even those churches that deny liturgy employ it. It is merely the order of worship. It should be meaningful and thoughtful, not merely thrown together or template-based. While I am not comfortable with overly emotional expressions of worship in the context of corporate worship, I encourage responding to the movement of the Holy Spirit, especially as a response to the Word of God, read or preached.

Preaching should be Biblical. That seems self-evident, but what I mean is that it is not intended to be a weekly lesson on pop-psychology or politics. It should come directly from exegesis of the Scripture and engage the hearers. Preaching needs to touch worshippers where they live, not simply be either an intellectual exercise or an emotional presentation. I tend to preach through books, though I also preach topically at times. I find that the Holy Spirit directs the timing of the Scripture portions. By preaching through books, it is also not likely that I can skip the hard portions.

Sacraments are more than mere ritual. Baptism is the one-time initiatory rite of the church, indicating an affirmation of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper, which should be celebrated regularly, is a spiritual participation in the body and blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16). I accept the view known as “the real spiritual presence,” of Christ in the sacrament.

Corporate worship, the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments are each means of grace given to the church as gifts of God.

What do you think about worship?

Children in Church

The time is coming for the release of our book, Children in Church: Nurturing Hearts of Worship. We would certainly love for all of you to buy it. The publisher is Great Waters Press. The premise of the book is simple. We believe that it should be the goal of every Christian family to worship together at the corporate gatherings of the church.

I won't go into all the details here. That's what the book's for. I do, however, want to share with a video extolling the virtues of the book. This was totally unsolicited. I don't know this man and I don't even know how he got hold of an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC to those of is the know). He obviously "get's it," though.

So, I invite you to spend 4 minutes and 25 seconds with Brian Dempsey of Grace Online Library.

His review is here:

Heaven

A while back I posted on "Blogs and Bloggers." I intend to do that again in the near future. Right now, however, I would like to share with you something that one of those featured bloggers has written about an important topic: heaven. Blogger and (more importantly, Pastor) Tim Challies wrote this.

The Essential: Heaven

Tim Challies
02/03/13

This is the 22nd installment in a series on theological terms. See previous posts on the terms theology, Trinity, creation, man, Fall, common grace, sin, righteousness, faith, pride, election, revelation, atonement, adoption, sanctification, incarnation, idolatry, the church, holiness, salvation, and judgment.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’” (Revelation 21:3)

Perhaps the most essential thing the Bible teaches us about heaven is that heaven is where God is. This truth explains most (if not all) of the other things we learn about it.

Scripture teaches us that where God is, two things must be true:

1) Wherever God is, there is perfect happiness.

In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35:10)

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

2) Wherever God is, there is unending worship.

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. (Revelation 22:3)

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8)

Whatever else is true of heaven, this is what is most essential: Perfect happiness and unending worship in the company of — and on account of — the Triune God. This is the eternal destiny of all who love Jesus Christ.

To read the original and the comments, click here.

Worship, Part Two

In thinking about worship we need to be sure of a few things, like: Who is the object of the worship? and What is the purpose of said worship? I offer a few thoughts here.

· Worship is for worshipers. A worship service is NOT intended to be evangelistic. Certainly unbelievers are welcome and they should hear the Gospel, but worship is intended to be a family affair.

· Worship can be defined as “one’s heart expression of love, adoration, honor, and praise to the Living God with an acceptable attitude and an acknowledgment of His supremacy and Lordship.”

· Personally, I like the definition that Thomas Boston gives us: worship is “beholding, admiring, and praising Him.”

· “Worship” is NOT that period of singing endless ditties while we wait for the preacher to be ready for his boring sermon.

· Notice, please that none of these definitions say anything about “feeling good,” “getting something out of worship,” or anything else having to do with me. True worship is God-centered; not man-centered.

· According to Hebrew scholar Wilhelm Gesenius , the predominant Hebrew word for "worship" (shachah) means: "to bow oneself down, (Isaiah 51:23) ....to sink down, to be depressed....to prostrate oneself before any one out of honour....Those who used this mode of salutation fell on their knees and touched the ground with the forehead...." (Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, pp. 813-814).

·  The most often used Greek word for "worship" (proskuneo), like the Hebrew, was "used to designate the custom of prostrating oneself before a person and kissing his feet, the hem of his garment, the ground, etc.; the Persians did this in the presence of their deified king, and the Greeks before a divinity ... (fall down and) worship, do obeisance to, prostrate oneself before, do reverence to, welcome respectfully...." ( Greek-English lexicon, Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich and Danker )

· Our English word "worship" is derived from "the Saxon/Old English word 'weorthscipe' or 'weordhscipe', which means 'worthship' or worthiness.

IOW, worship is “motivated by an attitude that reveres, honors, or describes the worth of another person or object" (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 1117-1118).

The focus is not on the worshiper but on the object of the worship, which properly is God Almighty – and none other.

The emphasis in true worship is on giving, not receiving. Those who complain that the hymns are old and funereal; the sermons are too long and boring; and there is altogether too much reading from the Bible, have missed the point of what worship is all about in the first place.

Worshiping is like tithing. We are expected to give the best, the first tenth, to the worship; not some tired, grumpy, got-out-of-bed-before-I wanted to attitude.

Men and Worship

Today, I want to begin looking at two topics that concern me: men and worship. I am combining them for a critical look at how men relate to what worship has become today.

Men don’t want to go to church.  There are numerous surveys and polls looking at church attendance in the US. Most indicate that women constitute anywhere from 60-75% of the congregation in most churches on Sunday morning. In very informal and non-scientific studies here in the Czech Republic (I've actually counted) I have found the ratio of women to men in corporate worship services to be six or seven to one! There are a lot of possible reasons for this. 

Some reasons given by men on why they don't like going to church are as follows:

·      Men want as much time for themselves as possible when they are not working

·      Socializing does not come easy for men as it comes to women

·      Men do not feel the necessity to go to Church considering that they can pretty much worship God at home

·      Men hate listening to a boring lecture which they really cannot relate to

·      Men consider singing in Church to be sissy

·      Men think there is no point in going to the Church and sleeping. They might as well sleep at home

·      Most men consider going to church a waste of time

Many Men don’t like church because they don’t understand it.

·      What am I supposed to do when the pastor is praying? Even worse, what if there is a time of silence?

·      What if I make the effort and still don’t understand what he’s talking about?

·      What does he mean “examine myself”

This is not a new problem. Thomas Boston, in a book first published in 1720, wrote that “The unregenerate would find fault with heaven on several accounts.” Admittedly, he is addressing a group of unregenerate folk here, but he takes up the idea of despising worship. His “accounts” 5 and 6 read this way: 

5. They would never like the employment of heaven, they care so little for it now. The business of saints there would be an intolerable burden to them, seeing it is not agreeable to their nature. To be taken up in beholding, admiring, and praising Him that sits on the throne, and the Lamb, would be work unsuitable, and therefore unsavory to the unredeemed soul.

6. They would find this fault with it, that the whole is of everlasting continuance. This would be a killing burden in it to them. How as now account the Sabbath day a burden, brook the celebration of an everlasting Sabbath in the heavens!

(Human Nature in Its Fourfold State, p. 247-8.)

I will be looking at this over the course of a few weeks (probably not all in a row). Care to join in the discussion?

 

What is a "Sabbath"?

I've been thinking a lot about the term "sabbath" lately. It's really a deep concept. It means so much more than "Sunday go to meeting" day or day off.

The origin of the Hebrew sabbat is uncertain, but it seems to have derived from the verb sabat, meaning to stop, to cease, or to keep. Its theological meaning is rooted in God's rest following the six days of creation (Genesis 2:2-3). The meaning of the Sabbath can be found in several places. Exodus 20:8-11 makes a clear connection between the Sabbath day and the seventh day on which God the Creator rested. Sabbath observance therefore involves the affirmation that God is Creator and Sustainer of the world. (In the NT, believers found it appropriate to use the day of Resurrection as the day of Sabbath rest and worship. See Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2).

To “remember the Sabbath” meant that the Jew identified the seven-day-a-week rhythm of life as belonging to the Creator. If the Creator stopped his creative activity on the seventh day, then those who share in his creative work must do the same. Sabbath contravenes any pride that may accompany human mastery and manipulation of God's creation. In ceasing from labor we are reminded of our true status as dependent beings, of the God who cares for and sustains all his creatures, and of the world as a reality belonging ultimately to God.    

• The Sabbath is a sign of the Covenant. God says (Exodus 31:13), “This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.” He is holy, therefore only He can make us holy. We employ certain signs and symbols in the church. Baptism symbolizes our dying in Him and becoming a new creation. The LORD’s Supper indicates that He shed His blood that we might have communion with Him.

• The keeping of a Sabbath is not suggested. It is required. Exodus 20:8-11 makes it clear that the reason we must keep the Sabbath is because God did. Why would God make this a command, instead of a helpful suggestion? Because people don’t generally respond to suggestions. Good intentions abound, but actions don’t necessarily follow the intent. “Nothing less than a command has the power to intervene in the vicious, accelerating, self-perpetuating cycle of faithless and graceless busyness, the only part of which we are conscious being our good intentions.” (Eugene Peterson).

• The Sabbath is not intended to be a burden. The spirit of the Sabbath is joy, refreshment and mercy, arising from remembrance of God’s goodness as Creator and as the Deliverer from bondage. The Sabbath was a perpetual sign and covenant, and the holiness of the day is connected with the holiness of the people (Exodus 31:12-17; Ezekiel 20:12). Joy was the key-note of their service. Nehemiah commanded the people, on a day holy to Jehovah “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:9-13). The Sabbath is named as a day of special worship in the sanctuary (Leviticus 19:30; 26:2). It was proclaimed as a holy convocation. (Leviticus 23:3). The observance of a Sabbath is not merely the taking of a day out of the week. It is a sign of recognition that God is God. It’s an indication of our trust in a sovereign God who can take care of things quite nicely even if we take a day off.

• Eternal Sabbath. Hebrews anticipates an eschatological "sabbath rest" (sabbatismos) that remains for the people of God (see Hebrews 4:1-11). The term sabbatismos appears nowhere else in the New Testament, and may be the writer's own creation to indicate the superiority of the coming rest to that of the seventh day. Though a superior quality of rest, it is still marked chiefly by the cessation of labor patterned after God's rest on the seventh day. This final rest is only for Christians. (See Revelation 14:12-13). This final, eternal, rest will not be a complete stoppage of all activity. It will be like an active retirement. (See Revelation 7:9-17).

So, the idea is that you work during your lifetime, but don’t allow yourself to become a slave as Israel did when they worked 400 years without a vacation (Deuteronomy 5:15) and were, therefore counted as slaves. 

Always be looking forward to the time when you are no longer a slave to schedule but will have the opportunity to worship God as your full time activity.