Or, The Weapon of a Worshipping Assembly
Scripture: Selected Scriptures
Date: January 8, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Or, The Weapon of a Worshipping Assembly
Or, The Purposes of Worship
The church of Jesus Christ is defined by its worship. We express our beliefs as we worship but, perhaps even more powerfully, our beliefs are shaped as we worship. Worship changes who we are. Worship is not a static result, where all the action happens before we start. Worship changes us, we walk away different than we were at the start.
One year ago today our local expression of Christ’s church held our first corporate service of worship, and we talked about the heavenly worship of the Worthy One in Revelation 5. When every eye is on Him, it’s hard to be distracted or discouraged. Because of the timeline in Revelation, we observe that most of the churches addressed in chapters 2-3 were struggling, some even sinful. The judgements on rebels, the battles of chapters 6-19 remained to be fought. And still, in chapters 4-5, the celebrated coronation of the Lamb occurs before the final victory.
Getting away to worship is not getting away from the battle. We do not meet together in order to distract ourselves from the righteous fight; we assemble together as believers in worship of the Lord Christ as an act of war. Worship isn’t running away, it’s running toward the roar. It’s as if we said, We believe that things are so bad, we’re going to do something about it. We’re going to worship God.
Originally, my burden was to lead us away from the F.O.G.—the fellowship of grievance. My burden was also to expand our worship horizons and challenge us to develop and diversify our praise arsenal.
Because we’ve focused on it, because many elements of our service are unfamiliar, and because we’ve been trying it for a while, I think it’s appropriate to pick up the subject explicitly again. Over the next month or more we’re going to consider the people, the patterns, and the particulars of worship. Today we’ll start with the purposes of worship.
If you had to answer, how would you fill in the blank: the reason a church gathers on the Lord’s day is for sake of [BLANK] .
There are a variety of good answers, good but insufficient by themselves. Those answers may include:
Certainly, each of these elements belong in our thinking. But we can do better. We must. In fact, there is a sense in which all of these could be done at home, by oneself, rather than assembling together. Also, I understand that there are not too many direct passages about church “services” in the New Testament, but I think we can demonstrate some principles that have immediate bearing on our services from both the Old and New Testaments, which we’ll supplement over the next few weeks.
I still believe that the culture of our congregation grows out of the soil of our corporate worship. What is the purpose of assembling together on the Lord’s day? The answer comes in four objectives of our worship operation.
We cannot skip this, and many things go into it.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
See also Psalm 115. God, through the psalmist, wrote that “those who make [idols] become like them; so do all who trust in them” (verse 8). Men who worship senseless gods become senseless: dumb, deaf, unable to smell or feel or walk. They are senseless. They are lifeless. They are mere shells, dead weight on the shelf.
The opposite is true, too. Those who worship the living God live. Those who worship a loving God love. Those who worship a righteous God obey. Those who worship a faithful God grow in faithfulness. Those who worship a patient God wait. Those who worship a glorious God bow before His glory and are being transformed into glory.
Because we were made to reflect another’s image rather than produce a self-image, we cannot know who we are supposed to be without examining the original. Copies depend on the master.
In this case, we are not reading an instruction manual as much as we are looking at a Person. We’re changed as we fellowship, as we spend time with someone else, as we linger in His presence, not by following a three step formula or accumulating more parts. We’re not parts, we’re persons. We’re not outlines. If the outline is our focus rather than God, we fail.
Why can’t we be transformed in isolation? Why can’t this first objective take place at home or work, any time we give ourselves to meditate on God’s word and pray? To some extent, yes, any fellowship with God affects us. And yet, is it possible to be made like the Trinity all by yourself? Can you become a more accurate reflection of a relational God without relationships? Can you be social if you’re out of communion? We all are being transformed.
As we are transformed, as we are made more like God, we will necessarily be knit more closely together.
We are one body under Christ’s headship. When do we demonstrate that? We demonstrate the many and one reality when the many are assembled as one. How are we united? As we draw near to God, we can’t help but be drawn closer to each other like two lines moving toward the same point of a triangle.
Our union with each other is part of God making known “through the church [His] manifold wisdom…to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10). In context, Paul is explaining his ministry of making known “This mystery…that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
It isn’t because we are all alike. It is because we are not alike. Even more than that, it’s because we’re with others we didn’t like, with others we have sinned against and/or who have sinned against us, and the gospel reconciled us. We forgive one another and are restored to fellowship. We give up our grudges and criticisms. The world has no such happy assemblies.
The unifying happens as we eat and drink the gospel. It happens as we join in the common work of worship. The more we do it together, the more we learn about and come to enjoy one another. Obviously, we cannot do this in isolation. Two strands of yarn must be worked together by needles in contact with each other. Speaking the truth in love, we grow up into Him and the body is built up in love (Ephesians 4:15-16).
We come together to get our marching orders, to see the map of the battlefield, to be directed. Week by week we watch His Word charge ahead of us. His truth plants the joy flag out in front for us to run after. It’s His world, we are His body, and His word lights our path (see Psalm 119:105).
There are responsibilities for individual Christians, There are also many plural imperatives, commands to the many, not just ones. That means we must gather to get our corporate assignment. Corporate worship does more than that, though, it turns us the right way, gives us our bearings, orients us.
I mentioned it at the very beginning of the message. Our corporate worship IS battle. Our meetings are not merely preparation for the war, our meetings are a crucial offensive campaign.
A couple passages tie this to corporate work. For all the interpretation challenges that Matthew 16:18 has provided through church history, a phrase at the end often gets overlooked.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18, ESV)
Gates are not offensive, gates are defensive. If we make it to this part of the verse, we usually consider that the enemy is on the attack. And he is. But in this particular verse, the church is on the attack. Gates were a symbol of strength, but Jesus promises that His church is unstoppable. The gates of hell or “gates of Hades,” “gates of death,” represent the passageway from this life to the grave, the way of sin and unbelief.
The meeting of the church for corporate worship, following the illustration of Doug Wilson, is a battering ram against the gates of hell. I love Wilson’s description of it.
As we gather in the presence of the living God on the Lord’s Day, He is pleased to use our right worship of Him as a battering ram to bring down all the citadels of unbelief in our communities. Just as the walls of Jericho fell before the worship and service of God, so unbelievers tremble when Christians gather in their communities to worship the living God rightly. Jesus promised us that the gates of Hades would not prevail against the Church. It is not often noted that the gates of Hades are not an offensive weapon. Hades is being besieged by the Church; it is not the other way around. We need to learn to see that biblical worship of God is a powerful battering ram, and each Lord’s Day we have the privilege of taking another swing. Or, if we prefer, we might still want to continue gathering around with our insipid songs, dopey skits, and inspirational chats in order to pelt the gates of Hades with our wadded up kleenex. (Doug Wilson, A Primer on Worship and Reformation, 32)
This is not the work of individuals, but rather the work of the church. There is a handle on the battering ram with your name on it.
BOOM!
Some of the guys, many of the guys leading us in singing, greet each other with “Boom!” We talk about three days until “Boom!” A song starts and they think “Boom!”
So, we need all the soldiers present. More than that, we need everyone to grab a handle and run. A worship service is war, not a performance. The war is fought, not by the few looking at the many, the few standing behind a guitar or a pulpit while the rest sit back and watch. We are an army that advances together. Are you advancing?
If we take this perspective, we will be less likely to criticize. This isn’t to say we can’t run better or be more effective in our battering, but music style and sermon length and communion elements are not the biggest problem. The biggest problem are those who decide to “sit this one out.” The arm-pew worship quarterbacks. Grab a handle and run. You may not have the best hold. We can talk about your grip. Mostly, let’s get after the gates.
Paul provides an interesting perspective in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:3–5, ESV)
How are we doing that destroying? It isn’t only with our apologetics and evangelism answers. It is with our worship. Again, running at the gates is the work of the one of many’s, not the many ones. The church goes after the gates.
We do not only come to worship on the Lord’s day to prepare to do something else. We come to worship because worship is doing something. The purpose of Sunday is more than providing instructions for what to do on Monday. We are being changed so that whatever we do on Monday morning isn’t done by the same person. God doesn’t only tell us to be unified, He unites us. He doesn’t only command transformation, He changes us. He doesn’t only provide a map, He turns us in the right direction.
Does it matter if you’re not here? Yes and no. God never needs us. But He does use us. If the point of gathering together was gathering truth, sure, just stay at home and read a book. Download the sermon later in the week. Buy a good worship CD (whatever that is) or take banjo lessons for yourself, get a hymnal, and go for it.
But worship is more than how you feel when we sing, more than counting accuracy points of the sermon. We don’t gather to collect statements, we gather to make a statement. Worship is the work of the assembly announcing to the world our belief in and love for the Lord Jesus Christ. So, our statement isn’t the same without you. We are an outpost of the heavenly throne room and every week we’re knocking down more walls and occupying more of His territory.
How does the purpose of Lord’s Day Worship fit with the (shepherding) purpose of L2L groups? Among other things, here are some types of questions that are always appropriate:
Our Lord’s day assembling, if acknowledging our big God and the potent gospel, creates a gravitational pull around which our lives orbit. It is a group privilege, a group effort, and a group joy. We want every eye on Him, every ear eager for His word, every hand on the battering ram, and every shoelace tied as we run toward the enemy.
Let’s make it loud. Boom!