Baptist confession of faith 1689.
Article 22. Worship and the Sabbath.
The essentials of Worship
Intrinsic in the heart of every human being is the desire to worship – (that’s why your here today to enter into worship) it’s like a default mechanism in built in every human being on the face of the planet. Whether that’s worshipping the creator (AUTHENTIC) or the created (DEFICIENT) we are born to worship. No matter where we are in the technological advanced countries of the west or in the remotest parts of the world where society hasn’t changed for thousands of years, there will be human beings worshipping something transcendent beyond themselves or even something created right before them.
• Sir John Horton said, (scientist) there is general evidence that human beings alone give divine worship.
But what is true authentic Christian worship? Several quotes
• W. Tozer wrote, Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Art in Heaven. Christian Publications, 1964, p. 90
• William Temple, archbishop of Canterbury, defined worship as the quickening of the conscience by the holiness of God, feeding the mind with the truth of God, purging the imagination by the beauty of God, opening the heart to the love of God, and devoting the will to the purpose of God
• C.S. Lewis - “In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy him. God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving and delight not duty.”
• John MacArthur - “Worship is all that we are responding to all that He is.” –
• Jesus Christ – “The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (Jhn4: 23-24).
Here Jesus makes a profound statement that when it comes to worshipping God, location is not important. Firstly the object of our worship God is important (22) whom at this point she did not know. And then he turns here to the essence of worship away from God, to the worshippers because God is Spirit so really worshippers will share something of that nature with God, they will worship in spirit and truth, they are in tune with God (23) this is authentic Christian worship.
In the broader sense of worship our whole lives are to be an act of sacrificial worship.
• Rom 12:1. – In view of God’s mercy we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - which is your spiritual act of worship.
The Apostle here is picking up the OT practice of offering acceptable animal sacrifices in their act of worship before God - The NT application is that our spiritual worship in a broad sense includes offering our whole life to God as an act of worship.
• Tony Evans says, “If you limit worship to where you are, the minute you leave that place of worship you will leave your attitude of worship behind like a crumpled-up church bulletin.”
Today I want to unpack authentic Christian worship in its narrower sense as practiced and experienced each Sabbath Day as we come together in a corporate act of worship.
What I share today are essentials....
1) The Call to Worship. Ex 20:8 -10 (Matt 28:1) (1Cor 16:1-2, Acts 20:7)
The call to worship on the Sabbath day originated in the Creation of this world, God gave humanity a pattern to follow in living out their lives before Him. On the 7th Day after His creating, God rested and blessed the day. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
This pattern seemed to be followed long before the Ten Commandments (Gen 24) 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on [a] the name of the LORD. By implication in Adams own life cycle, people were setting apart a day to call upon God and worship Him. Also Patriarch Job worshipped the Lord with sacrifices. (Job 1:4-5)
The Israelites followed this pattern as an obligation to rest from their labours and set the day apart as a holy day for the worship of God. It became enshrined in the 10 commandments through Moses (Ex 20:8-10). 8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
Nothing has changed/ worship on the Sabbath is not an option – it’s a command –butr also a delight for the believer. God still expects us as his people to set aside a day one day in seven as a blessed day to rest from our labours to come together to a call of worship before Him.
Four reasons:
1. It’s a creation ordinance from the very beginning. Until creation comes to an end, we continue to meet together until we find our ultimate rest in Him Heb4 and our ultimate rest is a reality in heaven itself in Christ (Heb4).
2. The ten commandments are still binding upon us they are not abolished simply fulfilled in Christ we are called as believer to follow in a new obedience.
3. Jesus himself kept the Sabbath (Lke.4:16) and urged others to keep the day (Mrk.2.28).
4. And fundamentally applicable to us today is the pattern we are following still today from the early Church who meet together on the Lords Day the 1st day of the week in a call to worship.
From the beginning of the world to the resurrection , this Sabbath day was the last day of the week (Saturday) And then on the resurrection day the Christians changed it to the first day of the week , when the Lord rose from the dead (Matt 28:1) the old order was abolished and it was changed to the 1st day of the week when the early Church meet (1Cor 16:1-2, Acts 20:7) and it is called the Lords Day (Rev 1:10). It was a celebration of Christ’s redemption and resurrection!
Important Note: Throughout the history of the nation of Israel to the present day the Sabbaths are kept apart for rest, to do good, to worship God. Sadly these Sabbaths got corrupted by people who kept the externals of the Sabbath (going through the motions) but ignored the heart and moral issues associated with the day. (ref: Isa 1:13, Hos 2:11, Amos 8:5-6 Mal 3.). This persisted through the time of the prophets to the Pharisees of 1st AD. They too kept all the externals and added Sabbath legislation losing the plot in what God really desired for us with the Sabbath.
CASE IN POINT ( Mrk 3:1-6). It was a Sabbath and Jesus was in the heart of the synagogue and there was a man with a withered hand and they waited to see what Jesus would do. Whether he would heal the man to them it wasn’t lawful (2) they wanted to accuse Him. Jesus asks them the question (4) Silence (You could hear a pin drop!) Jesus was angry with their attitudes. Jesus never violated OT law, when he healed that man, he did good (to love God – And neighbour). He simply violates their extra biblical pharisaic traditions imposed upon the Sabbath. And they sought to kill Him.
Our Life Application: Two extremes we must beware:
1. We must beware of imposing unbiblical restrictions upon ourselves, upon others, when we come together to worship together, we often find ourselves imposing unbiblical legalism upon our own Sabbath, whether that’s to do with the way we worship (CONTEMPORARY-TRADITIONAL) The order of worship - what songs we sing – (CHORUSES – PSALMS – CHRISTIAN HYMNS) How we dress – (SMART - CASUAL) and so on as a result we become pre-occupied ON THE Sabbath (policing policy). As a result we will fail to enter into the call to worship of God in humbly adoration and thanksgiving more pre-occupied being judgemental.
A story is told of two monks on a pilgrimage that came to the ford of a river. There they saw a girl dressed in all her finery, obviously not knowing what to do since the river was high and she didn’t want to spoil her clothes. Without much discussion, one of the monks took her on his back, carried her across, and put her down on dry ground on the other side.
The monks then continued on their way. But the other monk started complaining, “Surely it isn’t right to touch a woman. It’s against the commandment to have close contact with women. How could you go against your rules as monks?” The monk who carried the girl walked along silently, but finally he remarked, “I set her down by the river and hour ago. Why are you still carrying her?” Today in the Word, Dec.19, 1994
Friends we are here this Sabbath Day called to worship God, are there things which you are carrying in your heart and mind, things which may have so far have prevented you from entering into the call of worship. Lay it down and leave it behind........
2. The other extreme is to consider the Sabbath as optional (Antinomianism – no obligation to keep the law) They might say something like, “ since Jesus as saved us - as we’ve entered into His rest – everyday is a Sabbath” but in reality this is simply an excuse for our own spiritual lethargy. The Sabbath becomes a take it or leave it depending on other personal commitments whether leisure activities- family commitments – How your feeling – even work – it prevents us from entering into worship on the Sabbath corporately entering together in worship, as a result we will become Christians who are spiritual malnourished.
Have you played foot loose with the call to worship each Sabbath day is it a take it or leave it option for you? You need to break those chains and walk in a new obedience that Christ has called You too, when it comes to the Sabbath day. Heb.10: 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
You see either one of these attitudes to the Sabbath and its call to worship (legalism/antinomianism). Will prevent us from truly entering into the heart of worship. Yes we will be here physically, but will truly getting back to the heart of worship will we be able to ascend the Holy Hill or stand in His Holy place?
Who may enter into the Call of worship?
• Pslam24: 3-4.. Who shall ascend the Hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his Holy place? (4) He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his souls to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
Many come to worship, but not all enter in..... You know the situation - we can be in a place but were not really there....... don’t let things that are simply traditions prevent you- don’t let spiritual lethargy prevent you from entering in we can only come with clean hands and a pure heart, come in a new obedience to Christ .
The only way we can ever have clean hands and a pure heart is when we come to worship through the mediator we can only then enter in as believers. We continually need to come afresh in a spirit of humility and repentance over attitudes and actions which have displeased our Lord. Only then can we ever genuinely enter into the call of Worship Sunday by Sunday without Him we may well be participating but we will be unable to ascend the Holy Hill or stand in His Holy place.
Recap. The Sabbath and the call to worship in spirit and truth. (Its not an option).
a) It’s a creation principle.
b) Commandment principle (4th Commandment)
C) A pattern followed in the early Church.
D) Jesus never abolished these principles, You and I to walk in His footsteps in a new obedience.
We are called to Worship each Sabbath don’t let anything get in its way, Christ has made it possible for God to be the centre of our worship, for there is One God and One Mediator between man and God the man Christ Jesus. (1Tim 2:5)
2. The Centre of our Worship (Ex 20: 1-6).
God is to be at the centre of our worship - nothing else – GB 100 metre gold medallist Linford Christie , spoke of his focus when running a race he called it ‘tunnel vision’ he was focused on the finish line nothing else, by it he won the Gold medal for team GB. Our worship is to be God centred – We need spiritual tunnel vision upon God alone in our worship, if our hearts are anywhere else it will be to the determent to our worship with God.
What or who is at the centre of your life right know? Friends if we are followers of Christ it has to be God as we come to worship, He alone is the centre of our Worship today, nothing else.
Praise my soul the King of heaven;
To His feet thy tributes bring;
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Who like thee His praise should sing?
Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise the everlasting King. - Henry Francis Lyte
Ex 20: 1-6.IDOLS. Here in this commandment we find the centre of our Worship is to be God alone. He is to take first place we are to worship Him, we are to refrain from the worship of idols, something more is being brought to our attention here than idols that pagans bow before.
• Inferring here an idol is anything that takes the place of God.
In Thessalonica notice those who heard the gospel responded by 1Thes1:9 turning to God from idols to serve the true and living God.
In our 21st century western society in the Uk there has been a huge paradigm shift a turning away from Judea/ Christian God centred worldview, to a new atheism which desires a complete secularisation of society with a non religious (irreligious) values and secular institutions.
But the very fact they are turning away from God doesn’t mean they are turning to something which is neutral in fact to turn away from God means you have to be turning to something else, which by default becomes our 21st century idols.
We see it with the rise of militant atheism –pseudo science . We see it with mass consumerism becoming an idol ( credit crunch). The new liberalism sweeping our country becomes an idol, humanistic Christianity with our own personal fulfilment at the top of the agenda rather than the Glory of God, Our own self sufficiency & importance , our own personal vanities & obsessions all become idols and become the centre of our worship and take the place of God.
• John Calvin wrote "Our hearts are idol factories"
Yet God commands He to be the centre of our worship... Exodus: 20 3 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments. Our God is a Jealous God, we are called to turn from idols – and centre our worship upon God alone. , Idols prevent us from really entering into the central act of worshipping God alone; will be to our own determent, there will be consequences (5-6) to those who fail to turn to the living God.
A.W. Tozer said, "We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God." God is worthy of our worship. One of the ways that you can be reasonably assured of your salvation is your desire to worship. Knowing the true God and recognizing idols that would take His rightful place are marks of a true Christian.
William Cowper - The dearest idol I have known, Whate’er that idol be, Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And worship only Thee
Application: God has to be at the centre of our worship as we come to meet with Him corporately each Lords day? God has to be the centre of our worship each new day, when your are away from this place? He commands it to be so, if not like William Cooper wrote, we need to tear out those idols out of the throne of our hearts where God should be residing and worship only Him. Like those believers in Thessalonica we need to be turning from idols and turning to the living God.
3. The content of our worship (Acts 2:42 -45. Psalm 95:1-6.
we’ve looked at the centre of our worship and its all about God and we must tear out anything in our lives which will take us away from worship. And we’ve looked at the call to worship the day, the attitude and only way we can enter into worship in spirit and truth and now finally the content of our worship - when we come together what’s in the box what’s the content of worship.
There is so much we could say here in regard to the contents of worship but I’m going to share with you five main ingredients which we consistently see in the act of worship as we come together week by week and they will be no surprise too you ....
a) Prophetic Preaching and teaching Acts 2:42. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching
Preaching is essential paul’s charge to Timothy 1Tim 4:13 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching . 2Tim 4: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
Preaching it is central to worship it is communicating the revelation of God through human instruments, it brings glory to God.
Professionalism in preaching: We have become accustomed to the preaching that doesn’t ask any questions of us, that makes Christianity acceptable to all, a preaching that is theological correct but without any power, a preacher without any gumption, without any power, (To stand up against error and uphold the truth).
A preaching that fails to impact our lives. There is a dearth of prophetic preaching in our nation today, its has been evident before through men like C.H. Spurgeon – J. Wesley, G. Whitfield, W. Booth and DR..L.Jones all their preaching had a prophetic element in that it radically changed lives.
We need prophetic preachers filled with the Holy Spirit gifted and called to preach 1Tim 4:14. who will teach the Oracles of God, and say “Thus saith the Lord!”
Prophetic preaching will go to the heart exposing the secrets of our hearts, it will bring conviction and conversion it will teach and admonish, it will rebuke and build up and train us in all righteousness. 1Tim 3:16. Because the God breathed Scripture will be coming out of the prophetic preacher who has been touched by God.
b) Prayer Acts 2:42 prayer was the engine room of Church worship
The early Church devoted themselves to prayer it wasn’t a secondary issue prayer was a fundamental part of their worship Their prayers were made up of adoration- confessions – thanksgivings and supplications. But for our prayers to be accepted as a prayer, it must be given in the name of the Son (Jhn14:13-14), with the aid of the Spirit (Rom 8:26) and in accordance to the will of God (1Jhn 5:14).
c) Singing Praises ( Acts 2:47 Psalm 95)
Worship of God has always consisted of singing praises to God within the context of the congregation many of the psalms are songs of worship psalm 95 is an invitation to1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. Jesus in the upper room with his disciples after the supper sung a hymn together (Matt 26:30) . In the book of Acts notice the congregation are filled with praises to God (47) ( For who He is, what he has done, doing and going to do).
The early Church was always (Col 3:16) encouraged to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in our hearts to God (Eph 5:19-20) and to speak to one another in psalms hymns and spiritual songs. All this is to eminent out of your hearts to the Lord in our Worship services together. It from a heart that has been reconciled to God its a natural response of humbly adoration.
d)Participation in the ordinances Acts 2: 41 - 42
(i) Baptism
Here we see clearly the call upon the early follower of Christ to be baptised upon conversion. Just as the Lord Jesus had directed them to do so. He called them to baptise those who believe (Matt.28:19) (41). Baptism for new converts was not an option - it was commanded and expected to follow in this new obedience to Christ.
(ii). Breaking of Bread
Then as they meet together the breaking of Bread (42) took place . and to break bread in remembrance of Him as he instituted in the upper Room (lke 22:19-20) as he brought new meaning to the Passover supper.
e) Offerings - Tithes
Also we see at the centre of Christian worship a genuine out pouring of giving in tithes and offerings and over and above in the case here of (Acts 2.45) this was always a vital ingredient of Worship to God. Over time I suppose it wasn’t always so radical.
1COR 16:1-2. Paul encourages the Church at Corinth to excel in this gift of offerings 1Cor 16:1-2 On the first day of the week the day that Jesus Rose the new Sabbath for the Christian. So each Sabbath they brought their offerings to God. Here we see bringing our offerings as an integral part of worship.
The New Testament application of the underlying principle specifies three obligations (1 Cor. 16:2).
1. We should give weekly.
2. Everyone in the church, regardless of age or financial status, should give.
3. Everyone should give according to how much God has prospered him. In other words, the wealthy should give more than the poor.
The act of worship I believe our 21st century Christian culture finds the hardest to be devoted in......But as our Lord said and Paul quoted, “It is better to give, than to receive.” Acts 20:5.
In the OT the principle was of 10% and even up to 20% with other offerings given to the Lord. Abraham gave 10% to high priest Melchizedek. Gen. 14:20, Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, promised to give God a tithe of his possessions if God would grant him protection and blessing (Gen. 28:22). The law of Moses made tithing mandatory for the people of Israel (Lev. 27:30-2; Deut. 14:22-3.
The NT principle is over and above the requirement, not only bringing our monetary gifts but our whole lives as a spiritual offering of sacrifice and worship (Rom 12:1). It has never been one or the other, it’s always been both, if not our worship will become deficient; God will see us holding back.
Mark 12:41-4. Jesus raises OT conceptions of righteousness to a new level. An Old Testament saint fulfilled all his legal obligations to God and to the poor if he gave less than twenty percent. At that level of giving he saw no reason in God’s Word to think himself ungenerous. Yet Jesus only commends the generosity of a poor widow who "did cast in all that she had, even all her living." Clearly, God wants us to know that we have no grounds for boasting in our generosity if we give Him less than everything.
When we fail to bring our offerings were not saving – were actually losing out because were Robbing God of what is actually His - and in thE long run we fail to receive a blessing from God (Mal 3:8-10) READ .
As Paul commends the Church at Corinth, I commend you each Lords day to set aside a sum of money to the Lords work . Friends let us excel in giving to God entering into the heart of worship.
RECAP
a) The Sabbath and the call to worship is the first day of the week the resurrection day - a day which God has ordained for us to come together to enter into corporate worship – it’s not a take it or leave it day. It’s a creation ordinance –it’s a commandment – The Lord Himself upheld it - and its a NT pattern of the early Church
b) The Centre of our Worship is God the Father Son Holy Spirit - and nothing/no-one else. We need to tear down anything in our lives which prevents us from entering into the heart of Worship and let God be God at the centre of our Worship.
c) The content of our worship will involve prophetic preaching and teaching ,prayer and praise it will involve the Breaking of Bread and Baptisms and it will involve bringing our tithes and offerings to Him and our whole selves with no holding back as an act of Sacrifice and worship
(Rom 12:1).
Implementation of these essentials in heartfelt humble adoration and obedience to God will all be part of us getting back to the heart of worship as a fellowship before God together.......
Amen
