Elements of Worship

Ecclesiology and the Church’s Place in Systematic Theology

Brother Andy is passing out the handout and you'll notice on the handout that it says that we are in Ecclesiology which he has already mentioned. Ecclesiology is a study of the church. So far we've looked at part one.

What is the church? We've looked at part two church structure. We've looked at part three church leadership part for church membership. This is this is part of our larger study on systematic theology.

And I will tell you this most systematic theologies do not spend this much time on the doctrine of the church. But this is a passion of mine.

Because.

Over the years I have learned the value of having a right church structure because of the dangers of having a faulty church structure and.

So.

Because this is a perpetual Wednesday night class and we're in no hurry. I've just been going slow. I hope that's okay. I mean, I hope we're not in a rush to get through this because tonight we're going to talk about something brother Andy said earlier Christianity cannot be based on emotions.

Worship Beyond Music

Well, brother. We're going to talk about an emotional subject. We're going to talk about worship and there really isn't a Subject when it comes to church life that inspires more emotional feelings and people than Worship and particularly the subject of music.

Next week as brother Andy was teaching I was thinking about what he was saying about the Word of God being the lighthouse and being the foundation and I actually wrote a lesson in my mind and I said, you know what we're gonna we're gonna make this two parts, but not this.

Next week, we're going to add an in-between lesson on music because I think what most people don't realize is the importance of the music of the church being in line with the Word of God and.

So.

In the midst of all this sometimes I add a little like so next week will be part 5a. And that'll be what we're going to do next week. It's just in my heart, you know I I lead the worship here and I'm so thankful that God has allowed me to do that and I think I think to talk about the subject of music, but just that being said tonight.

We're going to discuss Worship as a whole not just music. It's important to understand that worship includes more than music. Dr. RC Sproul went to a church one time and and he was the guest speaker. When he was getting ready to stand up to preach the pastor came up and he goes well.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was a great worship time. And now that worship has ended. We're going to have dr Sproul come and preach to us and dr. Sproul came up and he said no Worship has not ended. We are now going to worship through the preaching of the Word of God.

We're going to worship through the study of God's Word. It's not ending because the music ends. So I do think that there is a Misunderstanding of Worship as being only music. In fact, this is how you often hear it.

You hear somebody they'll say I love my church I love the worship. What does that always mean it always means the music right almost everybody who says that is saying I love the way they sing or I love the way everybody say I love the choir.

I love the praise team when they say I love the worship. It's typically not the 15 -20 minute pastoral prayer or the 45 minute sermon. Yeah, and I'm saying it's typically the music when they say that and so we have we have confused Worship with only music.

So tonight I want to I want to talk about the elements of Worship. I am a I am by nature a systematic thinker. I Categorize everything this frustrates my wife. Because my wife doesn't tend to think in terms of category.

She tends to you know, weave things together. I do not weave. I Come home from work. Did you think about X Y or Z today? No because I was at work I was thinking about work while I was there and now that I'm home I'll think about that because that's in the work category and I got my home and you know, I'm talking about it.

It's like it's like it's like houses a house with rooms. My mind thinks this is in this room, right? Hey, this is what dangerous right? Because the bad thing is sometimes God gets put in a room. And that's a whole other sermon God should be in all the rooms.

But you know, sometimes we relegate God to a closet and say you stay there. Let me go take care of business. God's everywhere. But as I said, I'm a systematic thinker. And so when I think about worship, I think about worship in the same way.

I think about theology. I think about it systematically and I think about worship as the elements of worship. And so that's what we're going to talk about tonight. We're going to talk about the elements of worship now.

I'm gonna get my board over here.

The Lord’s Day and the Biblical Pattern for Corporate Worship

When we talk about the elements of worship We're talking about ultimately those things that make up the Lord's Day service now even using that language is somewhat Obscure for some people because some people don't call it Lord's Day worship.

They'll just call it Sunday worship, right? But why do we why do we use the term Lord's Day? You may know is a minute early church did early church did we see it actually in the Bible? Revelation chapter 1 verse 10 John says I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and we know from the the External literature that the Lord's Day at that time in history was not the Sabbath or Saturday.

But it was a red it was how the early church the early Christians designated Sunday. They called it the Lord's Day because we see this a lot in 2nd century literature. Because that was the day the Lord rose, right?

So they called it the Lord's Day. And so the church has Consistently worshipped on the first day of the week since the beginning. Since the early church we have celebrated the first day of the week not the old Jewish Sabbath.

But the new Lord's Day and there there there is some time together. But it is not the same thing and you've heard me make that argument before. That the Sabbath of the Old Covenant is not the Lord's Day of the New Covenant we have a new day for a new covenant and we worship on this day and When we were and by the way, that should not be optional.

The idea that Christians had the option. There's no such thing biblically as a lone wolf Christian. There that I'm the whole idea of I worship on my own and I hate it when I hear people say they say I don't Need to go to church.

I can worship on my own. I say well certainly you can worship on your own. But where do you get the idea that you don't need to worship in the corporate body. Where do you get the idea that you don't need the body?

You know Paul says the hand can't save the foot. I have no need of you right because if the hand were if the body were just a hand where would be the sense of Hearing if it were just an eye where would be the sense of taste, right?

The body needs the whole body and there's a time to gather together and it's not it's not any time we want. We come together when God calls us together and I do believe that's another reason and this is a maybe a conversation for another time.

I believe Sunday is sanctified. Because we see that's when the early church met Jesus rose on that day. That's the day John was in the spirit and he called it the Lord's Day and when and that's the only time the possessive Lord Is used for anything other than the Lord's Supper?

The term Lords with the possessive l-o-r-d apostrophe s meaning to own or to be Possessed by right the the only two times we see the Lord's is the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Day. That's the only two times in the New Testament that the possessive is used.

So this day is sanctified. It's special. It's set apart. It has a purpose and the purpose is for the gathering of the Saints to come together and to worship. But what do we do on this day? What do we do?

What are the things that we're called to do? Well, that's going to be the subject of today's.

Lesson four truths.

About worship that are found in Scripture. These are on your sheet I'll read them to you and then we're going to go back and I'll Expound on each one, but I'll read them first. Number one worship is the highest priority of the Christian.

Number two Worship is regulated in Scripture. We'll talk about what that means. Number three worship is not about us.

Who?

That's a whole sermon and then number four worship is an activity of believers. Now none of those you might say sound very profound, but I hope that as I expound them You'll understand the profundity of them.

So let's go back and look at number one. Worship is the highest priority of the Christian. It could be argued and I think with very much merit. I Wasn't good English. Let me try that again. It can be argued with great merit That the most important occupation we will have in the new earth is worshiping God.

That that will be the chief Focus of our existence for eternity. In fact, how many of you know, what is the chief end of man? Well, that's one way there's there's a couple of different ways that it's written but you what where does that come from?

It's the catechism, right? The chief end of man is to love or you could say to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's another way of saying it. But then the point the point is that we're going to be in God's presence.

Forever.

Revelation 21 says what the dwelling place of God is with man. That's the way it was in the garden, right. He walked with him in the cool of the day. He came and he and he any fellowship with them. There was no separation.

Then came the fall now their separation. They're kicked out of the garden. The first act of excommunication was get them out of there and they're separated from the presence of God. And now we have the whole narrative of redemption that happens beginning in the first part of Genesis going all the way through to.

Revelation.

Culminating in the cross of Christ that great once-for-all act of sacrifice for the Lord himself. Gave himself for our sin and we see that act of redemption. By the way, the Bible is very easy in the grand scheme.

It's creation fall redemption restoration. That's the four main parts of the biblical story. God created man fell God redeemed and God will restore that's the that's that that's the meta narrative of the Bible and So we're we're in the we're in the redemptive part now looking forward to the restoration.

But when when it's restored. It's going to be worship. That's our that's going to be our main occupation now. Will there be other things in the new heaven in the new earth? Yes, but it's all going to be centered around That chief occupation.

In fact, I want to say this we do many things in the church. We evangelize. We disciple we fellowship. But might I tell you that all of it? All of it is centered in the idea of worship and give you this thought evangelism is Meant to make worshipers.

Discipleship is meant to mature worshipers. Fellowship is meant to motivate worshipers. It's all centered in worship. Why does evangelism exist? Because worship doesn't there's people out there that aren't worshiping God.

They should be we go and tell them. See people get the wrong idea about evangelism people think going out to evangelize is to keep people out of hell and that is a partial Motivation, but the main motivation is there's a God who deserves your worship.

I Said this a few weeks ago. I was at a Music festival. I was asked to sing there are worship thing a worship team went and sang at set free. They had a music festival and we sang we sang the song though.

He slay me. That's based on the book of Job. Even though God slays me yet shall I worship him. And I said I said even if God didn't save you He would still be worthy of your worship because he's still God.

People don't think about their minds around that. But God doesn't. God isn't worthy of your worship because he saves you. God is worthy of your worship because he's God. Now the good thing is he does save you and he loves you and he cares for you and he condescends to redeem you.

But he deserves worship because he's God.

That's that's the key God is God.

We have such a small view of God and therefore such a small view of worship.

You want to say oh, I was coughing but I will say I Think a lot of times we lose back in the worship that God has not only saved us from something Being an eternal punishment, but God has saved us to something.

Yes, and that to something is to worship and enjoy it forever. That's right. So it's from and to yeah.

We are saved to glorify him. So that is the highest priority. I'll say this People join the church and It is important that we find our Place in the body where God has gifted us, right? We've had several new people join recently and I'm very grateful and we want to help people find where God has for them to be in the body and what gifts they have we want to connect and help them to Not only learn what God has given to them as a gift, but how to how that would function here.

But the but the thing that everybody can do is come worship. The thing that everybody can do is be here consistently to worship. And what we talked about last week, what should the church expect and what should you expect from the church?

What was one of the things the church should expect if you remember that you're gonna be here. To worship when you're when you're when we're not here. There's an there's a seat that is unfilled and there's a voice that is Unheard and that that's missing and so This is why the whole kovat thing the idea that well, we just do church online.

That's just not church. I mean, it's I'm thankful for technology that we can continue to be connected. But but it's not church when we're not together the word very word church means to the assembly so I'm stuck on number one like I always do let me keep let me let me move on because I'll Because I'm gonna tell you I'm really gonna get stuck on number two.

The Regulative Principle and the Elements of Worship

Because worship is the highest priority of the Christian number two. Worship is regulated in Scripture.

Now.

What do I mean by that in the history of the Reformed? Faith, I hate to even call it the Reformed faith. It's a Christian faith, but particularly within Reformed theology. There there is something called the regulative principle the regulative principle and the regulative principle of Worship.

Basically means this That the elements that exist within our worship Should come from the scripture. They should be commanded by the scripture therefore the scripture becomes the regulator of worship and.

The the other position is often called the normative Principle. There's there's two there's two competing thoughts. The regulative principle says you can only do in worship what God has commanded. The normative principle says you can do whatever you want as long as it's not forbidden.

You understand they're they're two vastly different positions. I've got a guy who I love. He's a very dear friend of mine, and he wants to debate this subject on my podcast. So we're probably going to do this at some point because he's a sweet man.

He's a minister. He's Gordon Conwell Student so he's not he's certainly no fool. I mean he's very intelligent, but he takes more of the normative principle, and I take the regulative principle. I don't think it's going to be a nice conversation, but let me explain where these two where the real Heading comes in the real issue comes in is Okay has God commanded.

That we stand when we sing.

No.

There's no command to stand and sing so somebody would say well then then by doing that it's not commanded. It's not part of the regulative principle or for instance to God command that we use a Projector on Sunday morning and to project the slot of course not right because the Bible is written before electricity.

So somebody would say see that's violating the regulative principle. But it doesn't this is where people have a lot of difficulty because the regulative principle is not Concerned with the secondary means, but rather with the primary elements of worship for instance.

Here's where it would come into play most specifically has God commanded us to pray. Yes, he has so therefore prayer is an element of worship. That must exist. Because God has commanded it and it's regulated by God.

Right has God commanded that we have interpretive dance. No, and now somebody may say David. Thank God for that. So I thought you're going to go to David dancing before the Lord. But and somebody may right, but is there a command in Scripture that we dance before the Lord?

No, not specific so that would come under the area of well. What if we did do it would we be wrong? Well the normative principle will say no because it's not forbidden right the regulative principle would say yes.

No, we should not do that because it's not commanded so the regulative principle at that point becomes more restrictive and. That's why a lot of people frown on the regulative principle because they say well I want to have freedom and worship freedom to express myself.

Well, here's where the issue really comes to bear is When we see people using their freedom to express themselves in worship in the Bible. Usually doesn't work out. Well. Yes, sir. Well, that's one of the conversation that's going to be hopefully part of the the discussion the dialogue we have about this.

Because that's where the question arises, right? Like should we for instance Charles Spurgeon Charles Haddon Spurgeon the wonderful Spurge?

Everybody loves.

Charles Spurgeon did not allow musical instruments in the church. He didn't allow the organ. He didn't allow the the stringed Instruments there because he said this he said it's not commanded in the New Testament.

Which it's not. There is no command there is in the Old Testament the use of instruments. But it's not commanded in the New Testament. Therefore. We are a New Testament Church it should not be and so he took the regulative principle so far as to say that it would forbid the use of instruments and and Spurge's.

Say Spurge like we were best friends Spurgeons. The wonderful, dr. Spurgeon he wasn't a doctor actually, but he should have been. He said the voice. That's the instrument. Actually the by the the the person is the instrument the voice is the is how we sing and make melody unto God and We shouldn't include instruments and they didn't.

Spurgeon would come on on Sunday. He would walk he had two levels. The bottom level was where he would lead the music and then he would climb the stairs to the pulpit where he would address. From the word he had a stairwell leading to the pulpit.

So he started by leading the songs and Then he would come upstairs and lead the preaching so even even in that there was a certain certain sense in which Music was under the word and there was sort of a visual of why they were doing that.

But is it legalism? I don't think the regulative principle is legalism. I think it's an attempt if I were defending it, which I will be. I think it's an attempt to Not violate God by imposing upon.

Him.

Worship that he does not desire.

All.

Worship is not godly. We wouldn't.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm not.

I could even ask the question as it related to Norman. Norman.

Norman principle. Yeah, and I wasn't saying you were I'm saying I'm saying.

I should have asked both.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, and I hope I didn't seem like I was yeah arguing no, no, no. Yeah, I think that somebody could look at the regulative principle and say yeah, that seems legalistic because you're not allowing certain things.

But I think that we have to be careful what we do allow and that's where the regulative principle comes in. How do we know what to allow in worship? Well, if God commands it then we know it's allowed.

God commands the preaching of the word. God commands the singing of songs. God commands of praying of prayers. God commands the taking of communion. These things are part of worship because God commands them to.

But are there other things think of that like think of a modern church that allows. For well interpretive dance is a good example because that is done in churches. But what are some other things that you've seen done in churches that you would say?

That's really that's not something that I would think would be biblical. Can anyone think of an example? Blow whistle you guys blow whistles. Okay. By the way for those who don't know miss Charlene, so good to have you.

That's Pastor Rod's wife and I'm so glad you used to get to come to see us a lot more now. We don't see as much and I'm glad you're here tonight. Okay, that's. I've never heard of that.

Normative seems to be more disordered.

Yes.

I'll give you an example. You mentioned blowing the whistle. It reminded me of something that was a church near here. We're on on Super Bowl Sunday. The worship service began with the blowing of a whistle and the pastor ran up to the chancel and caught a football and Spiked it on the chancel brother.

Would I still have a job? If I ran in and caught the football and spiked it I think the elders would want to have a meeting with me.

Yes.

That's right and that's what's often said right. You're quenching the spirit by not allowing that type of self-expression you're quenching the Holy Spirit.

Yes, so in the regalton principle people will say that take the normative side. They would say you it's legalistic. The other way people would say you're antinomian. You're lawless. You do just you blow whistles despite the football so.

Remember those terms. We made those terms up. No, I did regalton. So just just a thought because that's what they'll do. They'll shoot one way and shoot the other way.

Yeah, I think Mark Dever is. He wrote nine marks. You've talked about Mark Dever before. Here's a good quote. And I have it in my notes here. He says corporate worship is too central to God's purpose and redemption for him to leave the specifics of it to the likes of us.

And basically what he's saying is it's not up to us to decide how God should be worshiped if we want to know how God Should be worshiped. We should start with the word and I and I and on that sense. I would fall on the regulative side.

And.

But I do know that there are people who take the regulative principles so far that it does become legalistic and and to such a Way that would sit like for instance There are people who only believe and we're gonna talk about this next week.

So I'm gonna do the lesson on music. There are certain there's three there's there's basically well. There's more than three but there's the three that we're gonna look at next week the three positions on music one is that you should only sing psalms.

That's called exclusive psalm Niddy meaning the only songs that God has Regulated are the songs that he wrote. So you should only sing the psalms and that's called exclusive psalm Niddy. We're gonna look at that next week.

Maybe we'll sing one of those because a lot of people never have sang a psalm as a song. But they are there's whole hymnals that have all the psalms. It's called a psalter you can get it and it has that the next would be those who would say hymns only and typically that is those who would say up until the the mid 50s God's music was perfect and then in came the Contemporary music and messed it all up and everything that's been written since the 50s is bad.

And I'm not I'm not being I'm not trying to be you know crass a lot of people think there's a certain point at which like like the perfect music and then everything after that was bad and That was actually pretty common.

About 20 years ago. It was you were either a hymn church or a modern church and there was really no blending. Right the whole idea of blending which is what we try to do. We blend do try to do some of both.

And that's and that's the third Position is really the idea that there are some good new songs and there are some good older songs and trying to do both. So we'll talk about that more next time but but ultimately we talk about the regulative principle.

It comes down to the question of what elements should go in. So so quickly. This is actually If you look down on questions for discussion, we're going to jump down and come back very quickly. What are the elements of our worship service?

Can anybody tell me right away? What are the what are the elements of our service what are things that we do every time we gather.

Scripture.

Right, so we read Scripture and that's independent of the sermon. Right Paul tells us give yourself to the public reading of Scripture. So we think that it's valuable not just to read what we're going to preach on.

But to read whole chapters of the Bible we read a whole chapter of the New Testament. Right now and then of course I because I'm preaching in the Old Testament I was preaching in the New Testament. We'd read a chapter in the Old Testament.

So that's that's sort of the way we do that. So reading of Scripture, that's one you said communion surely, right? So that's an element of worship. Prayer thank you, brother and we have. I Don't want to do this, but I could do a whole lesson on different types of prayer because they're invocational prayers.

There's benedictory prayers. There's prayers of Confession and repentance and there's prayers of What do we call it when you intercession. Right, there's there's all kinds of different prayers and so prayer by itself.

There are different types of prayers that are called for what's other things that we do. We give thank you. Yes, so we we give that's another part of worship preaching right. Absolutely the proclamation of the Word.

What else? We sing What else?

We greet and honestly, I'm glad you mentioned that Dan because a lot of people wouldn't see that as an act of worship. But we are called to greet one another with a holy kiss.

Ready.

We're not gonna do that. We we're called to extend the right hand of fellowship. All right, so that's what we do now. We no longer kiss COVID cut all that up. So we greet one another so these are these are elements of worship.

Are there others? Well, we could say baptism, but that's not a that's not an element of every service. But baptism would would certainly be an element of worship when we did the baptism last or two weeks ago.

It was. It was an element of worship. What else? Benediction. Well, that would be under prayers. But yes, that's part of it. Yes, I think we got it. I can't I'm trying to think myself. Is there anything that we've left out?

What actually you got a thought? Okay, I think the Bennett I think that we could say there's a sense in which we're worshiping. But the benediction ends the service there is a there there is a time where?

We are that that holy time where from the moment we pray at the beginning to the moment. We pray at the end that caps or parentheses that moment in time. So I do think that there's a special there's a special sanctity in that.

Would you take a minute and just explain why we move the announcements? Oh, okay.

I.

Don't know if you guys noticed last week, but I did the announcements at the beginning. Which is different part of the reason why I did that was because It got to the point where it felt like every service was ending with a little mini business meeting.

And I want us to end on the word. I want us to end on the prayer that final benediction where it's not interrupted with some kind of well. Don't forget the jamboree or don't forget the karate class or don't forget this or that.

And and brother Gary talked to me like about putting some more stuff on the screen. So we have less announcements because when we come together, it shouldn't be like a business meeting. It should be a worship service and from the moment we begin to the moment that we end it should be all focused on God.

And focused on what we've come to do. So yeah, that was the reason why I said hey rather than I don't like I've just preached the word for almost an hour. We've just taken the elements and now I'm talking about.

Business and I don't want to do that. Yes recently. You've been praying before the service starts. Praying for the service. Yes. Yeah, and that's.

That's key as well. And that's something I want to mention to you Jack because you've started reading some more. I want you to I guess I could tell you this privately but Pray when we do that because we want to start with prayer like pray and then read or or read and then pray.

But that that begins by going to God and saying God be with us today as we worship. That's right, you can pray 15 times. Throughout the service you you notice I pray right before I preach every every week, even though somebody prayed right before me.

What I always say Keep me from error. Keep me fill me with the Spirit. You know what Spurgeon used to pray when he climbed those steps. He's a God. I need the Holy Spirit God. I need the Holy Spirit God.

I need help this week pray to himself because he knew he couldn't do it without the Holy Spirit of God as he went up those stairs to preach and so I Do think that the scripture regulates worship because all these things are commanded now.

What if somebody came up next week and said hey, there's here's something the scripture commands that we're not doing. Well, we'd have to consider that right? But where do we get? Where do we get the primary commands?

I? Think I think in the in the example of the church in Acts. Specifically acts 242 if you're familiar with that passage remember acts 242 turn turn in your Bibles. We'll look at that one very quickly acts 242 Sister and you have it.

Will you read it for us, please? That's right, so notice that doesn't mention all the elements, but it does give us some foundational ones. They continues in the Apostles doctrine. What is that? That's the that's the preaching and teaching of the word right and they continued in the breaking of bread.

I think the breaking of bread there is more than just the meal. I think that refers to the Lord's Supper. I think an argument can be made for that and The fellowship which goes back to Ashley's is fellowship and active worship.

Yes, but I think the fellowship is the gathering. That's what we're doing. We're gathering together and prayer. So I think it I think those four things sort of set the foundational Things and then we see other things in Ephesians get speak to each other in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

So there's the command to sing. Christians have always been a singing people and and we are to make melody in our hearts to the Lord and so. Those are the elements. And this leads us if you'll give me if you'll if you'll uh indulge me for just a couple more minutes.

I want to finish this because number three is That worship is not about us. And we're going to talk about this next week when we talk about music. But for tonight, let me just kind of tell you what I mean by that.

Worship Is for God, Not for Us

Modern worship has been consumed with entertainment and experience. It's all about entertainment and experience. It's all become what do I want? How do I know that? Because people will leave and they'll say I didn't enjoy worship today.

What's my response? Well, thank God we weren't worshipping you. I Mean not to be ugly, but you know, what do you mean? I didn't enjoy worship today. Typically. I didn't like the music. Almost always that's what it means or the sermon was too long or too difficult.

I have had people tell me. Oh, your sermon was five minutes too long.

Five minutes.

For a guy who preaches for almost an hour. That's a little bit tough to swallow. If the five minutes is really what turns you off, but when we look at worship we come to worship God. This is why I honestly I have to give up.

Myself.

Because I'm the worship leader. As well as being the primary preaching elder. I have to give up myself because I come in. I'm like man, I really want this but it's not about me. It's about taking the people of God to the throne of God.

What's best for us? That's what not what I want. And That's that's that's for all of us. And finally number four worship is an activity of believers. What why would I say that? Because the church has become especially the modern church and I don't mean to just beat up on modern church, but.

The modern methodology typically is referred to a seeker sensitivity and Seeker sensitivity says this you should build the worship service around the unbeliever that the unbeliever should be made to feel comfortable.