Worship in the life of the Church
Notes
Transcript
Worship in the life of the Church
Worship in the life of the Church
Introduction:
Back in January we began the year with a message titled Word based and Worship driven. In that message we looked at the words of Jesus recorded for us in John 4.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers 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.”
Jesus was revealing to this Samaritan woman details related to God’s desire for worship.
We discussed how the phrase “those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth”, related to worshipping God with the right heart attitude and according to His Word.
This statement recorded in John 4 is a pretty significant starting point for the discussion about worship in the church.
As you study the NT, you will see these truths lived out in the life of the early church.
The passages we have looked at for the last two weeks have pointed us to the understanding that worship is to be a way of life for the believer.
Romans 12 taught us that we are to live life with the right heart attitude and in obedience to/ in submission to the Word of God. Living as a holy and acceptable sacrifice to the Lord.
Deuteronomy 6 taught us that we are to live our lives in obedience to the Word of God.... leading our families in the worship of Him.... responding to God by loving Him.
Both passages (Rom. 12 and Deut. 6), remind the reader of the way that God had instructed Israel to center their entire life and way of living around worship… around God’s glory. Both passages remind the reader about how life was to be lived as Israel was camped around the Tabernacle. Life was to revolved around… be centered around the worship of Yahweh..... life was to be centered around… and focused on the glory of God.
Now, if you remember the context of Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well in John 4, …
The Jews and Samaritans had gotten so caught up in the logistics of their worship (on the mountain or in Jerusalem)… that their understanding of the God prescribed lifestyle of worship seems to have been lost.
They were more concerned about locations and logistics than they were about loving God and living life in response to Him…
One of the take aways of the truths recorded for us in John 4:23-24 is that God is more concerned with the condition of our hearts and how we respond to His Word than He is with the logistics of our services.
God desires that we faithfully live according to His revealed truth (His Word) every day of our lives in every area of our lives much more than He desires our involvement in any type of performance on Sunday.
For the last few weeks we have been looking at how worship is to be lived out. We looked at worship in the life of the individual, in the home and today we will consider “Worship in the life of the church”.
Our study is going to focus on several aspects of corporate worship.
We are going to be looking at how worship was lived out in the life of the early church.
As we look at the life of the early church I think that will see how the truths of John 4 (worshipping in Spirit and Truth) are lived out in the life of the local church, which is described for us in Acts 2.
Let’s go ahead and open our Bibles to the book of Acts and find our places in chapter 2 as we look at verses 42-47.
As we study through this passage together today we are going to look at several aspects of Corporate worship. The Upward aspect (glorifying to God), the Inward aspect (edifying the saints), and the outward aspect (Evangelizing the lost).
As you find your place in the book of Acts, we are reminded that Acts tells us the history of the beginning of the church.
Acts begins with Christ ascending into heaven and commissioning His followers to continue His ministry in the throughout the world....near and far.
Once the Holy Spirit comes (in chapter 2), the gospel is preached and over 3000 people respond in faith to Christ... and the church is born. As we come to the end of Chapter 2, we are given a glimpse into the life of the early church.
Hopefully everyone has found their place in Acts 2. Let’s begin reading in verse 42 together.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Let’s begin our discussion with a basic understanding of the church.
The Church (as a whole), the body of Christ, is made up of all of those who have responded to faith in Christ, have been redeemed through Christ… and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The universal church (as some people like to call it) is real, but is not easily visible.
God has also given the local church to be a visible representation of the universal church. The local church provides the body of Christ a tangible way to live out the mission of God in the world.
So, what is the local church? How would you define it? There are many good definitions. Elmer Towns defines the local church as:
“… a gathered body of baptized believers, in whom Christ dwells, under the discipline of the Word of God, organized… and gathered together for the purposes of worship, evangelism, education and fellowship, observing the ordinances and reflecting the spiritual gifts.” - Elmer Towns
The local church consists of baptized believers who live their lives in submission to the Word of God.... who have agreed to be commited to one another and accountable to one another… to be organized together as one body for the purposes of worship, evangelism, teaching, fellowship, and serving the Lord according to their spiritual gifts.
That is a pretty good definition for now... Later on this year we will take a more in depth look at what the Bible teaches about the local church and we’ll be able to dive deeper into that conversation then.
As we look at the local church described in Acts 2, there are several aspects of corporate worship described in this passage.
Corporate aspects of Worship:
Through faithful teaching of the Word of God… and faithfulness to sitting under the teaching of the Word) (42)
Through Fellowship (having all things in common… a common agreement of faith) (42)
Through Prayer (42)
Through Serving one another (hospitality) (43 & 46)
Through Financial Giving (45)
Through Praising (singing) (46-47)
Don’t worry..... We won’t be covering all of these today.
But we will look at specific ways that our understanding of worship, as a local church body affects our lives and ministry. As we corporately praise the Lord, unify the body, and engage with those outside of the body.
Let’s begin by considering some of the the Upward aspects of Worship
I. Upward: Glorifying to God (46-47)
All aspects of worship are to be glorifying to God… but there are some that are primarily focused directly towards God for the purpose of praising Him. Let’s talk about Corporately praising God.
A. Corporately Praising
What are the foundational ways that we can praise God as a local church body? A better question may be… What are the ways that we praise God.... perhaps that no one else sees?
With our Attitudes and our Motives.
1. Attitudes and Motives
Look with me again at verse 46 - 47a
“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God....”
The early church, praised God by participating in the different aspects of corporate worship with glad and generous hearts
Glad = Exuberant Joy, the kind of joy that results in singing and rejoicing
Generous = sincere, without guile and duplicity, with purity of intention
The worship of the body of Christ… the church.... the local church is to be characterized by its members coming together to worship the Lord as a body.... with exuberant joy.... and with the purest of intentions.
What aspects of worship are we to do with joy and sincere hearts?
All aspects.... Greeting one another, serving one another, financially giving, singing with one another, hearing the Word of God with one another....
When you are singing, putting money in the offering, listening to the sermon, cleaning, greeting, talking, picking up the trash, serving in the children’s ministry, changing that babies dirty diaper in the nursery....can you say that you do that with exuberant joy! and with purest intentions… no guile or duplicity.... holding nothing against anyone?
Whether you are sitting in a seat or standing on stage… can you say that every time to come to gather together with God’s people it is 100% with the right heart attitude?
(Sadly, there are times when some of us would have to answer no)
When you sing, give, serve, ..... your heart and mind are to be purposely focused on the Lord and engaged in praising God without any impure or distracting thoughts.
That may be harder than you think! Many times I have been in churches that just seem like the people are going through the motions when they worship together corporpately....
Are you engaged in the singing of the songs and the hearing of God’s Word with exuberant joy?
We should be… according to God’s Word and the example of the early church.
That means you never come in and say.... “listen kids, we are not going to sit behind so and so… because when they sing… yikes! is all I can say!”....
or, you should never even think..... “i’m not going to greet that person today because everyone knows _____________________.... or think.... man! that person can make me so mad....”
Those are impure or duplicitous thoughts bred by either a lack of willingness or ability to deal with conflict and/or sin. ....
As we come together to praise the Lord.... before we say a word, sing a song, or serve someone else, we begin praising the Lord together.... the corporate worship of our God begins in our hearts.
Our worship of the Lord on Sunday starts when you are at home preparing to come… in your heart when you are traveling here… and in your heart before you enter the door. [families with young kids… in the car! :-) ]
Corporate worship begins with each individual coming together with the right heart attitude (joy filled, glad) and pure motives (no guile, no double mindedness… but with a sincere heart) ....for the sole purpose of Praising the Lord!
If we gather together for worship but are harboring bitterness, guile, double-mindedness, a vacuum of joy and no gladness in the Lord or with an insincere heart.... then our actions… no matter how polished they may appear… will not be pleasing.... or praising to the Lord.
But, if our hearts are right with the Lord, then our outward actions will be pleasing… and praising to Him.
That is our goal.... to be pleasing to the Lord while we are giving praise and honor to our God.
—> transition statements <—
II. Inward: Edifying the Saints (42-46)
B. Corporately Unifying through the Gathering
Let’s think back to what a local church is.... it is a gathering of baptised believers who are committed to one another…
A greatly important aspect of the local church is the gathering of believers…
The word for church(Acts 5:11) is “ecclasia”. (Usually when I explain a word in our English bibles, I purposely don’t tell you the Greek word. Why? Because you don’t speak Greek and it wont be helpful. I am making an exception this time.
The word “ecclesia” expresses the understanding of an assembly… a group of people that regularly gather together.
It is not only a bible word. It was a word used throughout the Greek speaking world that meant a gathering people, who had come together for a specific purpose. When governmental groups and community leaders came together it was called an “ecclasia”. In Acts 19, when Paul is in Ephesus and there is a riot because the silversmiths (who made and sold idols out of silver) saw Christianity as some new movement that was endangering their business… the word used to describe the crowd that gathered together was an “ecclasia”. (Acts 19:32)
When we look to the NT, we see that the local church was a gathered group of believers, who met regularly and who were committed to and submitted to that local body.
When they regularly came together they did so for the purpose of worship, discipleship, giving, serving and for mutual accountably.
Look again at our text in Acts 2
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
This body of believers… the early church… devoted themselves to the following things… the apostle’s teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread (Lord’s supper) and to prayer.
The word “devoted” or your translation may read “continually devoting” gives us the idea of being close at hand… sticking by someone or something… being faithful or committed to someone or something. you could interpret the phrase as “busying oneself with the committed engagement in these things...”
The idea is that the believers in the early church were committed to one another and to engaging in these different aspects of worship.
As the believers were committed to one another and to engaging in these aspects of worship together… a unifying took place.
People are brought together and unified around the study of God’s Word… through fellowship and prayer Prayer.... through singing (brought out in verse 46) and through the observance of the Lord’s Supper.
Let’s briefly consider 2 aspects of how corporate worship unifies us today.
The first is through singing and the second is through the Lord’s Supper.
1. Singing:
Singing gives the local church an opportunity to unite our voices together in verbal praise to the Lord. Unifying… and building up one another in the local body… the congregation.
It is a wonderful time when believers can stand side by side and whether in unison, harmony, with instruments or a capella, praising God.... responding to the truths of His Word in praise.
Paul shared this thought with the Colossian church when he said… “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your heart.” (Col. 3:16)
So much of what we are told to do… how we are to live as God’s people are to be lived out in community… together. When we sing together as a unified body… as a congregation, it is an amazing expression of the faith community God intended his church to be. As God’s Spirit works within each of us individually, when we sing together those truths of togetherness, fellowship, unity, and a unified heart longing to worship the Lord are illustrated.
One author pointed out that when you look at the NT Church, they had “nothing in common, except that they had everything that mattered in common: faith in Christ, who joined them by His Spirit.” (Getty, 75).
Paul shared this concept with the local church body in Ephesus… telling them that their unity in the Spirit would be illustrated through their congregational singing.
“… be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5: 18-21)
One reason we having more simple music with more focus on the sound of the congregation is to highlight the fact that when we worship together as a church.... one of the most edifying and unifying aspects of our singing is that we are able to hear the congregation… to hear the various voices of each individual lifted up and combined with others in a unified effort to give praise and honor to the Lord.
—> transition <—
2. Lord’s Supper:
When we read Acts 2:42, the phrase “breaking of Bread” is listed as one of the things that the early church was devoted to. This phrase “breaking of Bread” is a reference to the Lord’s supper. Which is an ordinance that the church observes, which was given as a command by Christ.
The most familiar passage related to the Lord’s supper is probably going to be 1 Corinthians 11:24-29.
If you are able go ahead and turn over to 1 Corinthians so that we can look at a few verses together.
What I would like to point out is that observing the Lord’s supper together is something that we are to do as a body of believers… not as individuals… not as small groups.
Privately celebrating the ordinances of the church is something that has grown in popularity in recent years. I personally am convinced this is because there may not be an accurate or clear understanding of what the local church is… and what the ordinances do as we participate in them.
Celebrating the Lord’s Table is a church body event that we do together.... It is something that is done within the context of the local church body.
Paul explains the details about the Lord’s Supper to the church Corinth that was confused about its meaning and purpose.
In 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, Paul talks about Communion when he says...
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
If you will look over at chapter 11, verse 33 we will see that Paul continues with a similar line of thinking when he explains to the believers in Corinth that they were to observe the Lord’s table… together.
Look at 1 Corinthians 11:33 with me.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—
We are one body..... one local church body who partake of the Lord’s supper together… and celebrating the Lord’s supper together is a wonderful illustration of the unity we have in Christ… as a part of His Body.
This is a topic that deserves much more time. In the near future I’ll be presenting more of what the Bible teaches about the meaning of the Lord’s Supper.
For now, I would encourage you to reflect on the truth that the Lord’s supper is a way that the local church body is able to worship the Lord together… as part of the corporate gathering.
I hold the conviction and have been convinced from scripture that the ordinances of the church (baptism and the Lord’s supper) are to be done within the context of the local church gathering.
This is why we have not attempted to facilitate the Lord’s Supper while we were at home. Some churches have done at home communion… and I am not going to talk or think negatively of any of those churches. Each local church is going to have wrestle with their conviction about this.
This is also one of the reasons why we are going to wait a little bit longer before resuming the observance of the Lord’s table....
It is something that we do together… in person as a local church… a body of believers that is committed to one another… as they worship the Lord together.
We have spent time today considering the upward aspect of corporate worship… giving glory to God.... several of the inward aspects of corporate worship… .edifying the Saints…
Let’s close our conversation today by taking another glimpse into the life of the early church and see what an outward aspect to corporate worship might be.
III. Outward: Resulting in Evangelism (47)
As you look at the things the early church was dedicated to.... teaching of the Word, Fellowship, Lord’s Supper, Hospitality, Serving, Giving.... what are we told those things seem to lead up to?
What seems to be the natural by-product of their lifestyle of worship?
Look at verse 47.
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
As the early church lived a life of worship.... their worship led to evangelism.
A. Corporately Engaging: (Worsihp leading to Evangelism) the by-product of worship promotes Evangelism
As the early church lived a life of worship… verse 47 says that the believers had “favor with all people”.
This phrase literally translates as “having grace”.... it expresses the fact that the early church believers.... possessed an attractiveness that invited a favorable response.
This was the original attraction-al church model. Not because of their professional sound system… or their 15 piece worship team....
No, they were attraction-al… because they lived a life of worship… they lived a life of grace.
What was so attractioanl about these believers here in Acts 2?
They were dedicated to submitting to God’s Word, sharing a common faith with God’s people, serving one another, celebrating the Lord’s supper together, demonstrating hospitality in the community,
They were a living demonstration to the world of what it meant to live a life dedicated to the Lord… living a life worshipping the Lord in Spirit and Truth.
What happened as the early church believers lived this kind of attractional worship focused lifestyle?
Verse 47 says… that “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
Church, living a life focusing on biblical worship.... will help point others to the truth of Christ and to salvation.
Worshipping as an individual… living a life so sold out for Christ that you are a walking, living, breathing sacrifice.... proclaiming with every step your allegiance and dedication to Christ… serving the One who has paid for your sins and through whom you have been forgiven.
Worshipping as a Family: leading our households in the worship of the Lord.... growing in our understanding of God, responding to God’s Word in love.... preparing our hearts for public service and for corporate worship.
Worshipping as a church: A committed… unified… body of believers who come together for the purpose of praising the Lord.... glorifying God.... edifying/ building up the believer.... and as each individual believer lives a life of worship in their city and community.... evangelizing the lost so that they can have an opportunity to worship the Lord… who has extended His grace to the world.
When we sing and worship together as local body of believers, a compelling witness to the truth is proclaimed. “… it says to those watching on and listening in that, just as we sing the same melody together, we share the same faith, the Faith; not a self-made creed for a solo journey to nowhere, but a commitment to our one Lord of all, who transforms the life we live together and will bring us home to eternity. (Getty, 87).
Worshipping as a church is so much more than logging in… coming together in person for an hour or two…
When we worship as a church… when we corporately worship the Lord together as a local church body....
— We are being obedient to the Lord… giving glory to Him.....
— We are participating in the edifying of the church.... the building one another up… helping each believer who is part of our local church body to grow as a Christian… helping them to be changed more and more into the image of Christ.
— As we individually… and corporately live a lifestyle of worship.... we will be focused on reaching the lost in our families.... our neighborhoods… in our communities.... and those that are far from God will witness our words.... our actions… our attitudes… and our character… and will be given an opportunity to respond in faith to Christ.
What main idea should you walk away with today?
Spiritually healthy Christians are to live out their worship of the Lord (glorifying to God, edifying the believers, evangelizing the lost) as a way of life as part of a local church body.
What response should we have to this truth?
— Grow in your worship of the Lord as a Christian. Put the principles we have talked about for the last 3 weeks into practice.
— Ask God to help you grow in your desire to be actively involved and committed to a local church body through which you can grow as a believer, worship corporately with other believers, be held accountable by those believers for your benefit and be equipped to reach others for Christ for God’s glory.
— View worship as a way of life… embrace worshipping the Lord as a part of who you are… Worship the Lord with the right heart attitude in agreement with God’s Word in everything you do… in every area of your life.