THE POWER OF MUSIC IN WORSHIP
BTCC 10/15/06
Prelude
Welcome to our August series on Life-Change!
• Two weeks ago: “Life-changing Words”
o Last week: “Life-changing Events”
• Today: “Life-changing Music”
IMAG: MUSIC TESTIMONIES VIDEO
Prayer
• Thank You for the gift of music!
o Please help us fall in love with Your gift of music in all its forms!
Please turn to the 150th Psalm
• [p. 449…Zchurch virtual Bible]
o Let’s stand and read it aloud together!
Before you’re seated…
• Please take a moment to MEET and GREET one another!
Today, we’re going to take a whirlwind tour of some of the music God has used through the centuries –
• —to TRANSFORM the lives of His people…
o …and to help us become everything Jesus created us to be!
In particular, I hope you’ll allow yourself to just simply MARVEL at the incredible VARIETY of music God has given us–
• — just like the flowers and animals and people God has created!
o It’s His very NATURE – he does virtually NOTHING the same way every time!
No 2 fingerprints alike!
No 2 snowflakes identical!
• God gushes forth an absolute cornucopia of lavish variety in EVERYTHING – including music!
Just as scientists continue to make new discoveries about God’s creation in the universe, in the sea, on the earth and in the human body…
• So musicians continue to discover new forms of God’s creation in acoustics, tempo, vocalization…instrumentation
o Each generation falls in love with its own musical discoveries…
Which means that if we present God’s truth to them in the form they love – they’ll give the Gospel a HEARING!
• In 1 Corinthians 9:22, the Apostle Paul opens our eyes to this exciting principle:
o “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become ALL things to ALL men so that by ALL POSSIBLE MEANS I might save some.”
So let me encourage you --
• As we take this musical journey today – no matter WHAT the style –
o Don’t just listen and analyze!
• Lose yourself in worship!
o Worship GOD – the Creator of music – with all your heart!
Let’s go back to the beginning: Adam and Eve were the first 2 people God created
• In Genesis chapter 4, God tells us that Adam’s great-great-great-great-great grandson Jubal was “the father of all who play the harp and flute”
o Early Hebrew music mostly spontaneous outburst of praise –
Miriam’s song after God parted Red Sea
• Then a boy named “David” became the “sweet singer of Israel” and everything changed
o His psalms – often sung accompanied by musical instruments – were the primary songbook of the Jews – and the Church! – for many years
SPEAKING of the Church…what was going on musically in ITS earliest days of worship?
• Colossians 3:16 gives a vivid snapshot: “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.”
o Let’s take a quick look at these three forms:
Strictly speaking, a PSALM is any of the songs found in the Book of Psalms
Romans 15:9’s explanation of Psalms 18:49 provides the only definition in the Bible for what a HYMN is:
• Biblically speaking – a HYMN is ANY song – no matter WHAT the style – that praises God!
A SPIRITUAL SONG is a song of any style, on any subject whose words convey Scriptural truth
Now…as you would expect…during the first several hundred years of the Church, Christians were true to this wide variety of music
• There were NO musical rules
o So long as it was Scriptural and glorified God, it was “anything goes”
• They worshiped God with whatever music happened to be popular in their towns or villages
Then, in 312 A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian
• Christianity became the “official” religion
o Now more fashionable to become a Christian
• Many educators and officials began rising to power in the church
o Began organizing and formalizing the dynamic, loose knit structure of the church
• In particular, many of them were very uncomfortable with the cultural DIVERSITY and SPONTANEITY of the music of the early Church
This led to a fateful decision…
• They began to create musical RULES – called “codification”
o They began to legislate what kind of music was suitable and proper in the church…and what wasn’t!
o For example, they began to discourage congregational singing –much too hard to control
o In time, they replaced it with singing only by the clergy and specially appointed singers
o Now get this –
• They also ruled out the use of INSTRUMENTS in the church – way too NOISY, they thought
• Totally ignoring Scriptures like the one we all read together from the 150th Psalm!
But in God’s mercy, all was not lost
• Even out of these rules and restrictions rose up a beautiful, dignified, formalized style of music classified as “organum” –
o These included “plainsong” – “the Ambrosian Chant…” and what came to be known as the “Gregorian Chant”
• Let’s give a listen to an excerpt of, “Lord, Have Mercy On Us – Christ, have mercy on us” – in its original language:
KYRIE ELEISON – BOB WALTERS
Beautiful, isn’t it?
• For the next thousand years or so, that’s mostly the way it was…
o Until…on October 31st, 1517…a 33 year-old monk named “Martin Luther” nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg Door.
• And the Protestant Reformation came in with a flood!
Martin Luther an accomplished musician in his own right
• Began writing songs that reflected PERSONAL feelings and EXPERIENCES with God –
o Scripturally-based truths the common person could relate to
Shock of all shocks – he invited the congregation to join in and sing along!
In addition, he wanted to bring into the church a popular form of music called POLYPHONY – even though 200 years before, Pope John XXII had declared that “the solemnity of music has been pestered with small notes and therefore it should be taken far from the house of God."
• But listen to how Luther described this popular music:
o "How strange and wonderful it is that one voice sings a simple unpretentious tune while three, four, or five other voices are also sung. These voices play and sway in joyful exuberance around the tune...He must be a course clod and not worthy of hearing such charming music, who does not delight in this, and is not moved by such a marvel."
But that’s not the ONLY musical revolution Luther brought to the Church:
• Luther brought the instruments back!
o Especially an instrument that at the time was highly controversial in the church
The first pipe organ was invented by Ste-SIB-ious [Ctesibius] of Alexandria in the 3rd Century B.C.
• The organ was extremely popular in Imperial Rome…
o …but it became so connected with pagan debauchery that for centuries the church completely shunned it
• Why? It was felt that it moved the baser emotions too powerfully!
o But God raised up a handful of people who said:
“I LOVE organ music!
“Yes, it moves my emotions – but what if we used this instrument to play songs about JESUS?
“Would it not then move our SOULS?”
Let’s stand together and let the rafters ring with one of Martin Luther’s greatest songs:
“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God!”
You may be seated!
• 200 years passed…and God raised up a young man named Isaac Watts
o Luther’s music -- which had been so cutting edge and controversial 200 before…
was now falling on deaf ears in the developing culture
15 year-old Isaac sorely chafed at what he felt was the dead, stuffy church music of his day –
• He said, “Nobody my age can relate to this!”
• One Sunday after church, Isaac’s dad had enough and said,
o “Then give us something BETTER, young man!”
• Before the evening service, Isaac had written his first song and it was sung that night at an independent church meeting.
o His new songs – which came to be called, "hymns" – included: "Joy to the World!" "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed" and "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?"
• How did the church establishment respond?
o They HATED Isaac Watts’ hymns!
• Although they were extremely popular with the youth, many longtime church members called them, "Watts Whims!"
o Congregations actually SPLIT over the issue of whether or not they were permissible to sing in church!
But the new music survived
• Not only that…but about this same time – ANOTHER new, controversial instrument was invented
o In 1709, Barto-LOM-meo Cristo-FOR-i, created a new instrument he called, “Harpsichord – with soft and loud”
• Jan, give us a taste of that delightful instrument while we sing one of Watt’s Whims:
“O GOD OUR HELP IN AGES PAST!”
Later in that century, God raised up a couple of brothers to kick things up…ANOTHER notch –
• Their names: John and Charles Wesley
o They believed the only way to reach the common man was by giving them music they could relate to
• What was cutting edge in their day? Those hymns!
o Charles wrote 6,500 of them!
• Because of their persistence in making Christian music sound like the popular music of the day, we have Charles Wesley songs such as:
o “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing," and "Rejoice, the Lord Is King!"
• If you’re familiar with these hymns, you can tell that musically, they continued to push the envelope – even beyond Isaac Watts
o What’s more, some congregations now began to experiment with BOTH piano and organ!
Let’s stand once again and lift our praise to God with one of Charles Wesley’s most beloved hymns:
“LOVE DIVINE, ALL LOVE EXCELLING”
Even as late as the 1800s…
• Hymn singing was STILL only permitted at meetings OUTSIDE the sanctuary –
o Especially in many churches that were slower to change
• But God continued to raise up EARLY-ADOPTER churches where new songwriters could gain a hearing for the music the Holy Spirit was placing in their hearts
o And were they ever needed!
• Because the NEXT great controversy arose over DANCE music in the church!
o An upstart new songwriter named FANNY CROSBY introduced a whole new art form called “GOSPEL hymns.”
And did they ever bend the traditionalists out of shape!
• She wrote songs like, "I Am Thine, O Lord," "Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim It” "To God Be the Glory," "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," and "Blessed Assurance"
o Many of her songs were SCATHINGLY attacked as heathenistic "dance music" when they first came out –
• Especially because many of them had 3/4 waltz rhythms.
o "Such music belongs in a DANCE HALL,” they said “– not in a holy sanctuary!"
“1-2-3, 1-2-3 – I can’t worship with visions of DANCERS gliding across the floor!”
• Once again, churches split and tempers were high
If you dare, let’s sing one of Fanny Crosby’s outrageous dance tunes…
o And let’s make her heartfelt song our prayer:
“JESUS, KEEP ME NEAR THE CROSS”
It was on July 2nd, 1865 that an uneducated man began preaching to the down-and-out of society in a tent in East London
• He was just 36 years old…had no steady income…
o Had a wife and six children to support – with a seventh on the way
• His name? William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
o William believed passionately that the way to reach the lost was through the music they already loved –
• Especially the kind that got them tapping their toes and swaying in time to the beat
o So he did something that absolutely fried the gizzards of traditionalists
• He adopted popular tunes – many of them straight from London pubs – and gave them Christian lyrics!
o A typical example?
“Champagne Charlie Is Me Name” became, “Bless His Name He Sets Me Free”
Was William Booth’s strategy Biblical?
• Absolutely – same core strategy employed by Apostle Paul in Athens:
o (Acts 17:22-23) “Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”
Booth did same thing – took something the lost people of his day were already open to and REPURPOSED it – to the glory of God!
• But it didn’t matter to many people HOW Scriptural Booth’s methods were
o They said, “When I come to William Booth’s meetings, I feel like I’m in a tavern!”
• Traditionalist churchman William Madden was one of those who was scandalized.
o In a scathing newspaper editorial, he wrote that William Booth’s meetings were “disgraceful scenes” which “have a contaminating effect."
• That first year Booth’s Christian Mission had over sixty converts…but he paid a personal price
o Catherine Booth said of her husband that he would, “stumble home night after night, haggard with fatigue. Often his clothes were torn and bloody; bandages swathed his head where a stone had struck.”
“Well, that’s what he DESERVED for using tavern tunes!” some people said…
• But listen to an example of the kind of WORDS William Booth was setting to these pub tunes –
o Maybe some of you will recognize THIS one:
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow’r?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed?
In the blood?
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Let’s rejoice along with this up-beat, glorious song – “Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?”
• As it was played by the now famous – but once hated –
o Salvation Army Band!
Band: “ARE YOU WASHED IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB?”
Before abortion, one of the darkest episodes in American history was the sin of slavery
• But out of the tragedy of slavery…came the rich heritage of black gospel music
o Charles A. Tindley was a black man, born in 1851, the son of slaves
• Taught himself to read when he was 17
• During his lifetime he wrote 40 black gospel songs
Another black man – Thomas Dorsey – became a believer in Christ after hearing Charles Tindley sing his music
• Tommy Dorsey was the son of a preacher man…a consummate musician
o As a young man he accompanied some of the most famous blues singers of all time
• But in the early days, he strayed from God…
o …used his gifts as an arranger and composer to write bouncy tunes with bawdy lyrics
o But Tindley’s God-honoring music turned him around so completely that along with Tindley, Dorsey is now recognized as one of the fathers of Gospel music
• When Dorsey started writing songs for Jesus, he changed his LYRICS…but he KEPT his rhythm and blues!
Question:
• How do you think the traditionalists responded to Tindley’s and Dorsey’s music?
o They said it was straight from the DEVIL!
Were they right?
• You tell me – how many millions of believers have since been blessed by Tindley’s and Dorsey’s black gospel songs:
o “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”?
o “There Will Be Peace in the Valley”
o “I Know the Lord Will Make a Way”
o “Leave It There”
o “We’ll Understand It Better By and By”
Thank God for those EARLY ADOPTER CHURCHES…
• Whose courage brought these precious, Black Gospel songs into the mainstream of church life
Call ushers forward
• As we worship God with our tithes and offerings, we want you who are our guests to know that you have no obligation to give…
• But for those of us who call Bethel Temple our church home, what a JOY it is to worship God this way!
• While we worship…we’re going to say “Thank you!” to the Black church for their enormous contribution to modern music
o I think you’ll be able to hear the black gospel influence in one of our favorites around here:
“MEDLEY OF CHANGE!”
• Let’s pray as we prepare to give…and worship
Prayer
Choir song: “MEDLEY OF CHANGE”
How many of you enjoy SOUTHERN Gospel QUARTET music?
• So do I!
o If you pick up a book on the history of Gospel music, you will learn that the origins of SOUTHERN Gospel QUARTET music…
are to be found in BLACK Gospel music
• In the late 1800s and early 1900s, 1/3 of the population of the South was black
o A growing number of southern white people heard black gospel, fell in love with it…
And began trying it out themselves!
Of course…when you’re WHITE…it comes out a little different!
• Still, if you listen closely, you can pick up the Black Gospel pattern of call and response
o The leader sings a line…and the entire group answers
• Those of us who love Southern Gospel Quartet music can easily hear how the rest of the quartet often “answers” the lead singer
Pop Quiz: How do you think traditional church people responded to white people singing music with a black influence?
• “Not in OUR church, you don’t!”
o THAT’S why the Gospel Quartet Singings and Conventions got started –
• In the early days, many churches would not allow Southern Gospel Quartet music in their sanctuaries!
Of course, it wasn’t just the SINGING style…
• One of the great Southern Gospel pianists was Hovie Lister
o Hovie was ripped up one side and down the other for his flamboyant style of piano playing
• Listen to Hovie’s answer:
o “If it takes shaking my hair down, beating a piano like Liberace or Piano Red to keep these young people out of beer joints and the rear seats of cars, I’ll do it. The Devil’s got his kind of entertainment. We’ve got ours. They criticize me, say I’m too lively for religion, but I get results. That’s what counts.”
• In response, some conservative radio stations broke Statesmen quartet records on the air to protest their jazzy music!
Here to liven up our worship today and give us a sweet taste of –
• —The Statesmen, The Stamps, The Sonshine Boys, The Blackwoods and the Cathedrals…
o …is one of our own Bethel Temple quartets: “One Voice”
One Voice: “READ THE BOOK”
Of course, not ALL Gospel music is SOUTHERN Gospel!
• In the 1960s, two Alexandria-Monroe Indiana High School teachers met…and the rest is history
o Their names? Bill and Gloria Gaither
• Bill began writing his own brand of Gospel music and Gloria added the words
o After nearly 700 songs – in the Year 2000, ASCAP named Bill and Gloria “Christian Songwriters of the Century”
• Some of us can still remember the concerts the Gaithers held here at Bethel –
o — especially the year they shared with us their brand new song, “Because He Lives.”
Choir – Take us for a ride down memory lane with a couple of those great Gaither songs!
Choir: “GET ALL EXCITED/THE KING IS COMING”
As we’ve heard many times, the new musical form called “Rock ‘n Roll” sprang from Black Gospel – just as Southern Gospel music had
• By now, you can predict what happened, can’t you?
o A growing number of young Christians fell in love with the rock ‘n roll beat, the attitude and the long hair…
• As countless others had before them, they decided that the best way to reach their generation was through their music
o They said, “I’m standing on the ROCK…and my name is on the ROLL!”
And so, in 1969 – the same year Elvis Presley recorded Bill Gaither’s song, “He Touched Me” –
• The Jesus movement began –
o — tens of thousands of kids coming to Christ through Christian rock music accompanied by solid Bible teaching
Do you recognize any of these Jesus Movement musicians?
IMAG: Pictures of some of our Bethel boys (Joe Feldpausch, Gerrard Medicis, Bret, Barry)
Now before you get TOO bent out shape at their long hair, remember THESE boys?
IMAG: Show Isaac Watts and John and Charles Wesley long hair pics again
Maybe Solomon was right –
• There’s nothing new under the sun!”
One of the early Jesus Movement rockers was Larry Norman
• Listen to Larry describe the way it was:
o “The churches weren’t going to accept me looking like a street person with long hair and faded jeans. They did not like the music I was recording. And I had no desire to preach the gospel to the converted. I wanted to be out on the sidewalk preaching to the runaways and the druggies…”
• Now, for this NEXT song – taking our cue from the way they did it back then – we’ve got to bring the house lights down!
o Barry – give us a taste of one of Larry Norman’s songs:
“WHY SHOULD THE DEVIL HAVE ALL THE GOOD MUSIC?”
Today’s new, cutting-edge praise and worship is sweeping the country
• As has been true throughout history, a lot of churches have been slow to include this new style in their worship
o But with each new musical movement God has raised up, there have been those EARLY ADOPTER churches that have sensed their assignment from God to lead the way
Bethel Temple is just ONE of those churches
• Without question, there’s a price to pay…
o But as the Bible and church music history teach us…
There’s an eternal reward to be gained for obedience to the heavenly calling
Let’s stand and worship God once more with:
“ONLY A GOD LIKE YOU!”
Bow heads…
First, take a moment to repent of every negative thought you have ever entertained about ANY style of music God has used to change lives…
• Next, take a moment to repent of every negative WORD you have ever uttered about any style of music God is using – or HAS used – to change lives
• Third, beg God to help you truly appreciate and celebrate every form of music He has raised up – even if it only transforms ONE LIFE from darkness to life
Finally, if you have never given Christ your life, I urge you to do so right here and right now…
