OUTLINE:
- The Awful Unseen Reality of Zion
- Zion as the Place of Worship
- Zion ON the Lord’s Day
> How Then Should We Now Worship?
Thus far we have addressed in this series,
The Covenant Lord - His Praise
The Covenant People: Becoming Like Minded
The Covenant People: They are Not the Steeple
And in the coming weeks, Deo Volente, Worship as Covenant Remembrance, The Signs and Seals of the Covenant, The Covenant Family, and The Covenant Future.
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1. The Awful Unseen Reality of Zion
The language of Zion is a familiar part of our vocabulary of praise. We sing “glorious things of” “Zion city of our God” in the words of John Newton and with Timothy Dwight confess that we “love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode, the church our blest Redeemer saved with His own precious blood.” And we may even know of the awful place illustrated by Isaac Watts:
HOW SWEET AND AWFUL IS THE PLACE WITH CHRIST WITHIN THE DOORS,
WHILE EVERLASTING LOVE DISPLAYS THE CHOICEST OF HER STORES.
WHILE ALL OUR HEARTS AND ALL OUR SONGS JOIN TO ADMIRE THE FEAST,
EACH OF US CRY, WITH THANKFUL TONGUES, LORD, WHY WAS I A GUEST?
WHY WAS I MADE TO HEAR THY VOICE AND ENTER WHILE THERE’S ROOM
WHEN THOUSANDS MAKE A WRETCHED CHOICE AND RATHER STARVE THAN COME?
‘TWAS THE SAME LOVE THAT SPREAD THE FEAST THAT SWEETLY DREW US IN;
ELSE WE HAD STILL REFUSED TO TASTE, AND PERISHED IN OUR SIN.
PITY THE NATIONS, O OUR GOD, CONSTRAIN THE EARTH TO COME;
SEND THY VICTORIOUS WORD ABROAD, AND BRING THE STRANGERS HOME.
WE LONG TO SEE THY CHURCHES FULL, THAT ALL THE CHOSEN RACE
MAY, WITH ONE VOICE AND HEART AND SOUL, SING THY REDEEMING GRACE. (Luke 14:16ff)
RECALL CS LEWIS -SCREWTAPE LETTERS - One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans.
The key passage proving the link to OT Zion is:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant . . . (Heb 12:22-24).
This passage invites our imaginations to see the new covenant people in no less a cosmic context than our brethren at Sinai. There is more to worship than meets the eye. The gathered congregation is like the tip of an iceberg surfacing above the water with the massive invisible spiritual world below. In worship, we see people in all their flaws and beauty. he very words of God (Heb 12:22ff) tell us worship is a meeting of the highest heavens with our congregation on earth through the only mediator, Jesus.
“I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it” (Mat 16:18), says Jesus.
In what follows, I have chosen to take a central motif, the place of worship, Zion, and consider its direct relation to the day of worship.
2. Zion as the Place of Worship
In the Word, the careful reader will see Zion as His Presence. Congregational worship is not only sanctified because of its manifestation of the spiritual reality, it is sanctified because of His special presence. There is more to the gathering of the saints than a multiplication of individuals indwelt with God.
Matthew 18:15-20, Christ teaches His invisible presence in the visible congregation. The “keys of the kingdom” in church disciple are exercised when the procedure in verses 15-17 are followed. Notice that the final explanation for the authority for binding something on earth is—“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst” (v 20).
The import of this passage for worship is that we can be assured that when the church gathers together in Jesus’ name, He is truly there. I hope you will not ask me to explain the exact nature of this special presence. Similarly, Hebrews 2:12, “I will proclaim thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing thy praise.” This quotation of Psalm 22:22, applied to Jesus, seems to refer both to His earthly ministry in the congregation and to the spiritual presence of Christ with His congregation today. Believing that Christ is singing praise in our congregations, as it were, beside us in the pew, implies much in the way of our preparation, participation, and priorities in worship.
It can be shown that Zion traverses OT/NT. Zion is Trans-Covenantal.
If the New Covenant congregation is in some sense “Mount Zion,” “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb 12:22), and minimally this cannot be denied – then the First Testament references to Zion’s worship, inasmuch as there is overlap, can be principally applied to the gathered New Covenant worshipers. Surely it is no less true of Christ’s congregation that “
• God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved” (Psa 46:5)
• “His tabernacle is in Salem; His dwelling place also is in Zion” (Psa 76:2).
• “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth” (Psa 50:2).
• Our prayers, no less than our Elder Covenant counterparts, are to plead for God to “Remember Thy congregation, which Thou hast purchased of old, which Thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of Thine inheritance; and this Mount Zion, where Thou hast dwelt” (Psa 74:2).
• Blessing comes when we are like those saints of old in whose hearts are “the highways to Zion,” and when upon arriving “every one of them appears before God in Zion” (Psa 84:5-7).
• It is perfectly clear in the New Testament that the saints, individually and collectively are the temple of God. But we are also called the house of God, “we have a great priest over the house of God” (Heb 10:21).
• Therefore, we should say with the psalmist, “Now O LORD, I love the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwells” (Psa 26:8).
• At His house we receive more than we can ever give: “They drink their fill of the abundance of Thy house; and Thou dost give them to drink of the river of Thy delights. For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light we see light (Psa 36:8-9).
• We should say that “we will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, Thy holy temple” (Psa 65:4).
• If we believe these things we will say with more vigor than even those who have come before, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD’” (Psa 122:1).
REMEMBER HEBREWS12:22, "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
Likewise, 1 Peter 2:6 says, "Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame."
TRULY The concept of Zion is really trans-covenantal. A survey of even Older Testament references will yield a concept of Zion which is much more congregational than geographical. Over the thousand years from great David to His greater Son, the term grew into the verbal symbol of the Lord’s gathered people (Heb 12:22, perhaps 1Pe 2:6).
3. Zion ON the Lord’s Day
But Zion’s manifestation is on the Lord’s Day.
First, some Biblical Considerations:
The New Testament uses the term, “Lord’s day” only once. John writes in the Apocalypse, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet . . .” (1:10). Kuriakos hemera,
A.T. Robertson observes that Kuriakos (“Lord’s”) had the sense of “imperial” and its immediate usage was an “Emperor’s Day on which money payments were made (cf. 1Co 16:1f.). It was easy, therefore, for the Christians to take this term, already in use, and apply it to the first day of the week in honour of the Lord Jesus Christ’s resurrection on that day (Didache 14, Ignatius Magn. 9).”1 Kuriakos is used only twice: once in reference to the Lord’s day (Kuriakos hemera, Rev 1:10) and once in reference to the Lord’s Supper (Kuriakos deipnon, 1Co 11:20).
The significance of the day pertaining to the Lord comes into focus when we ponder that the Resurrection of our Lord took place on the first day of the week, Sunday (Mat 28:1, Mar 16:9). It appears that Christ met with his disciples in His post-resurrection, pre-ascension state on the first day of the week (Sunday) on at least four separate occasions (Mat 28:9, Luk 24:34, 18-33, Joh 20:19-23).
• Then we find in the apostolic record, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke (dialegomai) to them and continued his message (logos) until midnight” (Acts 20:7).
Zion’s Development and the Sabbath Day is related.
• In Genesis one, Adam’s first day was a day of rest, since he was created on the sixth day. Unlike the day of sin when they “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God,” after Adam’s creation, he awoke to a day of His Maker’s presence, apart from his dominion duties.
• The one then six, pattern then should remind us of the theologically pregnant concept of rest, then service. The rest, then work pattern is founded upon both the Sabbath creation ordinance (Gen 2:2) and marvelously typifies the Reformed view of justification.
• The Sabbath gift was certainly not a meritorious reward of rest for Adam’s works. Of course, later the Sabbath commandment was codified in the decalogue (the fourth commandment, Exo 20:8). As such, the Jews’ Sabbath observance, including their synagogue convocations (Lev 23:3), were obligatory applications of the law. It appears that a weekly convocation and day to “cease” also became culturally non-negotiable.
However, there was much more depth of significance to the Old Testament sabbath observance than a mere ritual of ceasing from labor and gathering for religious worship.
• In the second giving of the Ten Commandments, we see that the Sabbath was a memorial occasion to remember the release from bondage by the power of God (Deu 5:15).
• Even the land was to be given “sabbaths” (Lev 25:4). The cycle of restitution, the Jubilee, is a sabbath (Lev 25:8-10). Even the time of the Babylonian exile is measured as a sabbath (2Ch 36:21).
• Moreover, the very paradigm of time structure leading to the “fulness of time” (Gal 4:4, coming of Messiah ) is in sabbatical pattern (seventy sevens, Dan 9:24). With this level of Old Testament biblical theology on the Sabbath, the typological and Christological qualities of the seventh day rest should come as no surprise (Heb 4:3, 9-10, Col 2:16-17).
But is there more specific warrant for a change of worship-day? Is there something in the red letters about this? Jesus taught us that He had authority over the sabbath, the day of remembrance, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Mat 12:8).
When He instituted His new passover supper, He said, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luk 22:19). Just as passover was memorialized on the sabbath (Deu 5:15), Jesus required His disciples to memorialize His work of redemption, the antitype of the Exodus. However, His work of redemption was not complete until the first day of the week. And of course, only after His cross-resurrection work was complete, did He met with His disciples. And His disciples continued to do this: “on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread . . .” (Act 20:7).
The first recipients of the gospel saw the weekly Sabbath pattern of worship as divine law, and yet the church emerged from the first century worshiping on the first day of the week — how might this be reasonably explained?
While this day-change was germinating in the time of the apostles, it flowers in the centuries that follow. A sufficient reason can be given for the mixed practice of seventh day and Sunday meetings of the apostles: they were in the terminal generation. The age of the Christ-rejecting first century Jewish generation was transitional to the wineskins of new covenant worship (Mar 2:22).2 Jesus predicted the synagogue work of the apostles without error (Joh 16:2, Acts 13:14, 14:1, 17:2, etc):
Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. (Mat 23:34-36)
I believe that the threads of new covenant worship are sufficiently plain in the New Testament, though they are not yet woven into the new fabric. What the Scriptures suggest in seed, the universal church demonstrates in full bloom. The voice of these verses is joined by the deep chorus of the theological importance of the Resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week and with the specific demand of memorializing His completed redemptive work, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” The strong implication follows: His disciples should remember His creational acts on the first day of the new creation; and they should remember his redemptive work on the day they were demonstrably complete.
Zion as the Lord’s Day: Historical Considerations
The earliest writings of the church are in accord with the priority of the gathered congregation for worship on the first day of the week.
• Even the pagan Pliny the Younger reported that Christians meet “on an appointed day.”
• The Didache commands that, “On the Lord’s Day come together and break bread.”
• The Epistle of Barnabas likewise says, “Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead.”
• Ignatius of Antioch speaks of the early Jewish Christians as “those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s day, on which also our life has sprung up again by him and by his death.” AD110
• Justin Martyr reproves the Jew Trypho saying that Christians “too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined you.” AD155 Justin is no doubt referring to the apostolic teaching that such were “things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col 2:17).
• Tertullian argues against the one “who contends that the sabbath is still to be observed.” AD203
• The Didascalia very unambiguously, though with a slight thought of speculation, states, “The apostles further appointed: On the first day of the week let there be service, and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and the oblation, because on the first day of the week our Lord rose from the place of the dead, and on the first day of the week he arose upon the world, and on the first day of the week he ascended up to heaven, and on the first day of the week he will appear at last with the angels of heaven.” AD225
• Victorinus says that “on the Lord’s day we may go forth to our bread with giving of thanks” [after fasting] “lest we should appear to observe any sabbath with the Jews . . . which sabbath he [Christ] in his body abolished.” AD300
• Eusebius of Caesarea tells us that the “only truly holy day” is “the Lord’s day” with “the days set apart by the Mosaic Law for feasts, new moons, and sabbaths, which the Apostle [Paul] teaches are the shadow of days and not days in reality.”AD319
• Athanasius reasons, “The sabbath was the end of the first creation, the Lord’s day was the beginning of the second . . . we honor the Lord’s day as being the memorial of the new creation.” AD345
• The early fourth century Council of Laodicea encourages that “Christians should . . . particularly reverence the Lord’s day and, if possible, not work on it. . .” AD360
• The Catholic Encyclopedia informs us that “the Council of Elvira (300) decreed: ‘If anyone in the city neglects to come to church for three Sundays, let him be excommunicated for a short time so that he may be corrected’ (xxi).”
One final word will suffice, I hope, from The Apostolic Constitutions,
• And on the day of our Lord’s resurrection, which is the Lord’s day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent him to us, and condescended to let him suffer, and raised him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day . . . in which is performed the reading of the prophets, the preaching of the gospel, the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the holy food. AD400
The Christian church has biblical foundation, theological implication, and historical precedent to call that meeting on the day of Resurrection. Just as the ancient hymn says,
THE DAY OF RESURRECTION! EARTH, TELL IT OUT ABROAD;
THE PASSOVER OF GLADNESS, THE PASSOVER OF GOD.
FROM DEATH TO LIFE ETERNAL, FROM THIS WORLD TO THE SKY,
OUR CHRIST HATH BROUGHT US OVER WITH HYMNS OF VICTORY.
OUR HEARTS BE PURE FROM EVIL, THAT WE MAY SEE ARIGHT
THE LORD IN RAYS ETERNAL OF RESURRECTION LIGHT;
AND, LISTENING TO HIS ACCENTS, MAY HEAR, SO CALM AND PLAIN,
HIS OWN ALL HAIL! AND HEARING, MAY RAISE THE VICTOR STRAIN.
NOW LET THE HEAV’NS BE JOYFUL, LET EARTH HER SONG BEGIN;
LET THE ROUND WORLD KEEP TRIUMPH, AND ALL THAT IS THEREIN;
INVISIBLE AND VISIBLE, THEIR NOTES LET ALL THINGS BLEND,
FOR CHRIST THE LORD HATH RISEN, OUR JOY THAT HATH NO END.
Applications> Zion: How Should We Then Worship?
The following four points of application are by no means exhaustive. They are merely suggestive.
We are Convocated on His Day: What can be said to the erring church member who can “take or leave” the Lord’s Day worship? The most direct response is very directly stated in the Word. “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.” (Heb 10:24-25)
We are Called into His Presence: If congregational worship is convening in His ordained presence, we should consciously and intentionally recognize that entrance. When we enter into His presence as a congregation, we invoke His name. Therefore, worship is to begin with some level of recognition of the congregational entrance into His presence.
We are Convened in Gladness: We must enter His presence with the realization of the awfulness (in the older sense of the word, “awe-full”) of the occasion (Heb 12:22, “acceptable service with reverence and awe”). Just this fact alone would remove flippancy, silliness, of the “Jesus is my buddy.” On the other hand, our recognition of God’s presence need not quench joy, fellowship, excitement, and gladness. God’s people are to “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise” (Psa 100:4).
We are Commissioned to Serve: The people of Zion have been summoned to His holy presence. Thus, at the conclusion of the service, therefore, the same people are blessed and sent forth to glorify God in all of life. Having been refreshed by bread of life and renewed in their service as God’s people, they are sent forth to perform those vows in all of life. Soli Deo Gloria!
