Word of Salvation – Vol. 53 No.24 – June 2009

 

How Do You Worship?

A Sermon by Rev Sjirk Bajema

on Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 35

Scripture Readings:  2 Kings 18:1-12; Exodus 20:4-6

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…

 

The 2 ^nd commandment is all about worship. The 2 ^nd commandment, and so Lord’s Day 35, defines how we are to worship. It is the focus on how we are to worship which makes the 2 ^nd commandment different from the 1 ^st commandment. The 1 ^st commandment was about whom we worship. And there we were really focussed upwards. Out of thanks to the Lord God for all He’s done, you’re looking up — and you’re keeping it up! God’s got to be first — and Him alone!

 

Now we move to understanding in which way that will be done. Questions around ways of worship have become one of the most contentious subjects in the life of the church today. This is especially so in discussions about public worship. We need to note this. It is the worshipping together of God’s people that this second commandment is about. It is vitally important to be concerned about public worship, because it reflects our own personal worship of the Lord. The believer who is properly prepared for church on Sunday is one who knows the Lord privately in the right way as well.

 

One of the reasons why public worship in the modern church is such an issue is because our personal worship of the Lord is terribly lacking! So we have those in churches who want to experience what that church over there is doing. Others completely reject any change. On the one side you have those who want to be open to anything new. “We have to keep worship exciting,” they say. On the other side you have those who value what’s been passed on to them. “The past has served us well”, they say.

 

But within these groups you’ll find differences also. Some will want more change than others. There will be variations of what sort of change it should be. And how quickly the changes should come in. We can find that, even between sister Reformed Churches, there’s developed a completely different understanding as to how we together worship the Lord. And that, congregation, isn’t even going into the huge smorgasbord of all those other Christian churches!

 

So — where to? Is it simply a matter of different flavours, nuances, and traditions, all coming under the one umbrella? Can you ever really judge which way — if any — is truer than any other? Isn’t it just a matter of, “If it works, do it”? For both sides of the argument, congregation, what matters most is so often what is missed. Desire for changes in worship can be strong personal wishes — and you only need to meet someone like that to know about that! But those wanting to remain traditional can be doing that for largely personal reasons as well. So is it just a matter of what we want and what we’re comfortable with?

 

True worship is what the Lord knows

 

Whose view really matters most of all? Yes, what about this... TRUE WORSHIP IS WHAT THE LORD KNOWS? Our first point. Let me illustrate this. Do you find it frustrating to be talked down to? Who wants to hear a person who knows it all, telling you what to do in that patronising voice? They don’t ask for what you think — it’s quite clear they know what’s best! Imagine, then, how we have so often treated the Lord? Here we are, discussing worship, which very much concerns Him, and we just assume we know it so much better! I mean, if we acknowledge we need His help for everything else in our lives, why are we leaving Him out of discussions about worship of all things? After all, TRUE WORSHIP IS WHAT THE LORD KNOWS!

 

You think about this in any other area of our lives. How often didn’t we think we were okay? And so often we didn’t even give a thought about what we were doing! That is, until God struck us. Then His Word came home. We realised that the Lord had spoken for how we were meant to live then! TRUE WORSHIP IS WHAT THE LORD KNOWS. And it’s just as well He does! Answer 96 shows His guidance for exactly what we need. For God’s will is, “That we in no way make any image of God nor worship him in any other way that he has commanded in his word.” It’s in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible has it all. In the words of the second Article of the Belgic Confession, His Word has “as much as we need in this life, for his glory and for the salvation of his own.”

 

That’s why every part of our worship now — all those different things which make up this worship service — comes out of what’s clearly spelt out in Scripture. Whether that’s the preaching, the praying, the singing, the confession — it’s all out of Scripture! There’s even a text that can be used with the offering — not because it helps to get more in the bag! — but because our giving in worship is a part of what God tells us in His Word. In fact, the Lord has given us direction for every single part of our lives. That we don’t always realise this isn’t God’s problem — it’s ours! He has expressed it in black and white. We make it grey!

 

We call this idea that the Lord has spoken to tell us what to do in the worship service the regulative principle.’ It’s a principle that actually sets apart Reformed-Presbyterian churches from many other denominations in this world. For those other churches teach that rather than worshipping the Lord as He wills in His Word, we are to worship God as we will, as long as there’s no direct statement in Scripture which tells us not to do it. That is called the normative principle’. It believes that the Lord has given us much freedom in worship. This is an old error, however. It is the error of freedom meaning to be freed from something . But true freedom is when we are freed for someone .

 

It’s no surprise that the normative principle’ is what dominated the Roman Catholic Church before the Reformation, and ever since. And at times since then, when there’s been that shift away from God’s Word, it has been by ways which originally seemed harmless enough, and even seemed helpful for the faith of believers. But those ways weren’t our faith — they weren’t the words of God Himself! Here the words of our Lord Jesus to the Samaritan woman at the well, in John 4, are very apt. She had become caught up in what was an earthly tradition. It was of no heavenly use for her to be involved in all those extensive worship ceremonies on Mount Gerizim. Where was her heart?

 

That’s why Jesus speaks, in John 4:24, about the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. He seeks those who “worship in spirit and in truth.” “In spirit” refers to our whole personality giving God the glory. Not only the outward appearance on Sunday. Being a worshipper “in spirit” isn’t going to church out of habit. That’s not folding our hands and closing our eyes for prayer, and then dreaming of what’s going on somewhere else! And it’s certainly not the mindless repetition of the Apostles’ Creed, with no thought for the great One you profess!

 

Nor is being a worshipper “in spirit” a matter of getting the “spirit” going in Sunday worship. It’s not a matter of some incessant mantra which passes for contemporary Christian music! You worship “in spirit” because that’s the life you’re living every other day of the week as well. Congregation, we worship completely , and we do so “in truth.” You see, the Lord is kind enough to give us the clear framework through which we can gratefully serve Him. This isn’t about how we can put God in His place — it’s about thanking Him for the place He’s given us! And it’s certainly not about the spineless motivational messages which pass for preaching is so many churches today. For the Jews of Jesus’ day, as for us today, true worship is a clear and definite knowledge of God, as revealed in His self-revelation in the Bible.

 

True worship is how the Lord shows

 

TRUE WORSHIP IS WHAT THE LORD KNOWS, and TRUE WORSHIP IS HOW THE LORD SHOWS. Our second point. Here we bring out further how the Lord shows us what it is to worship Him in His way. Question 97 asks almost exasperatingly, “May we then not make any image at all?” Isn’t there any help we can have from ourselves? Doesn’t it seem a tad narrow-minded that Answer 96 speaks the way it does? Well, let me try to put it in the perspective of the authors of the Catechism. For a moment, shut your eyes. Now, while you have your eyes closed, I’m going to mention a word. You know how the game goes — you remember the first thought that comes into your mind with that word.

 

The word is... Jesus . Let’s open our eyes. What do you think about when I said that word. Which image flashed first on the screen of your mind? Was it that of a handsome young strong man — that flowing long hair, the fair complexion, the blue eyes. Did He have that gentle, loving look? That’s certainly the way artists throughout history have pictured Him. And as we think about the ideal physical man, isn’t that how we imagined Him to be?

 

But what you’ve just shown is your own insecurity! It’s an image — that’s not God’s security! In fact, if we were to begin to describe our Lord physically, the only relevant reference is in Isaiah 53:2, where He’s pictured as quite the opposite!

 

Fellow believer, His looks aren’t what should come to our minds! But it does! And that’s exactly what’s happening in Christian churches today, as a hunger for the sudden and the spectacular grows. There’s this insatiable demand for the bold and the beautiful. Believers aren’t coming out of church knowing it was good to come prepared and to be enriched in the Spirit . Instead, it’s more often like these thoughts and words, “Didn’t he/she/they play that well!”; “I got a real buzz out of that!”; “Wasn’t the atmosphere great?” It’s the great distraction! Mind you, not that the things themselves are bad. Those gifts, those instruments — they’re all the work of creation. But we must not let creation displace her Creator!

 

We read in 2 Kings 18 of the reformation that took place under King Hezekiah of Judah. Amongst the actions he did, verse 4 specifies that he broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made. Yes, that same snake that had healed the Israelites when they were struck down by a deadly disease in the wilderness. A wonderful gift of God to His people that had become an idol! The Israelites were burning incense to it. It even had its own name!

 

Congregation, when I say TRUE WORSHIP IS HOW THE LORD SHOWS I don’t mean anything found in the physical senses. What we can feel, or smell, or taste, or hear, or see, isn’t what the Lord wants us to worship. Because while those things are His gifts, they’re not His special gift! We draw a distinction between General Revelation — which is God’s creation and care — and Special Revelation — which is His Word, the way through which we know who the Creator and Sustainer is. In the same sense, our faith isn’t based on what we are or where we are in the physical realm! Faith is not first of all based on things we can touch and see and hear and taste. In those well-known words of Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The mystery and frustration of faith! For it’s not what we have got on the outside — it’s what we are given inside that really counts!

True worship is where the Lord goes

 

And all we can do is live thankfully. TRUE WORSHIP IS WHAT THE LORD KNOWS... and TRUE WORSHIP IS HOW THE LORD SHOWS... but also, in the third place, TRUE WORSHIP IS WHERE THE LORD GOES. That’s what Answer 98 tells us. It’s the “living preaching of his Word” — the Word that you see in the Deed. You see, it would be tempting to fall into that mentality of the lowest common denominator. We believe, and quite sincerely, the Gospel has to be proclaimed. We want others to also live in the glorious Light we have been given! But the temptation is always to compromise the Word to do this. And so the thinking has come into many churches that the church is for the non-member.

 

It’s very catchy — this community-oriented approach. We want to reach them on their own ground. But that’s not solid ground! Rather, we begin to take over what’s popular around us. We begin copying them. And this is more than fashion. It gets right into our thinking and our way of living. So much so, in fact, that many Christians no longer feel at home in a church where Christ is in the centre. That kind of worship to them is strange and awkward. The churches that have gone this way aren’t Christ-centred, because they will get the local football hero, or basketballer, to take part in the worship service. Their aim seems commendable. They want to win people to the Lord whose lives are pro-sport. That’s lots of people! How many among us don’t keenly follow the rugby or cricket!

 

These sportsmen are asked to take a prominent part in the worship service, though, not because they are Christ-minded first. Instead, it’s because they’re sports-minded first and Christian second. If Christ was most important in the minds of everyone then sport would be just like any subject, and certainly not have the focus in worship. But if Christ isn’t the main attraction in the church, then you have a church whose members have lives and minds not completely given to Christ. And there you have false worship!

 

Okay — so what should we see in our worship services? Well — what did our Lord Himself show us? The Gospels are filled with this. For His whole life was true worship. Congregation, do that — consider Christ! That’s the way you truly worship. Because then our lives are being instructed by the living preaching of God’s Word. Then our total motivation will be to please God, as it was with Christ. Then we do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, for Christ was not like that. Then we are taking deep into our hearts and lives the fruit of Christ’s Spirit — His love, His joy, His peace, His patience, His goodness, His kindness, His faithfulness, His gentleness, and His self-control.

 

This is really being in the Spirit . Because the Spirit always goes with the Word. TRUE WORSHIP IS WHAT THE LORD KNOWS... TRUE WORSHIP IS HOW THE LORD SHOWS... and TRUE WORSHIP IS WHERE THE LORD GOES. The Lord asks from His people a simple, spiritual worship. And don’t we make it so involved and complicated?

 

Dear believer, you are called back to basics. Cut away all those layers of human innovations and ornamentation! Get back to Him who is the Lover of your soul! You see, it’s with you personally that our future lies. Your membership is what it takes. The church is not a building. The church is not a programme or a process. The church is not the latest in gimmicks and gadgets. The Body of Christ is you and I. And Christ’s blessing comes only as we’re firmly fixed to him, our Head. For if you aren’t united with Christ, if you haven’t been born again in His likeness, if you don’t have the same mind as Him, if you don’t have the same attitude as His, then you’re not of God, and you don’t know how to truly praise, serve, obey, and worship Him!

 

Hezekiah knew this. And so he got rid of everything that stood in the way. He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel — and in Him alone. As 2 Kings 18:6 says, “He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.”

 

This doesn’t mean that Hezekiah didn’t have problems. His country continued to be in much war. He himself became very sick. But he knew, in the words of Answer 98, “the LORD wants his people instructed by the living preaching of his Word — not by idols that cannot even talk.”

 

Friend — how do you worship?

 

Amen.