The Need for Reformation in Worship

My assignment in this session is to address the issue of the reformation that we need in our worship. And of course this is oftentimes a very controversial subject, and the controversy usually comes because we frame it as this question, what's more appropriate the band that we heard at the beginning or the group that we heard at the end, And so we're asking a stylistic question, but that's not the issue. The question here is not a question of style. The question here is not a question of preference. I am not arguing that there needs to be a reformation in our style or that there needs to be a reformation in our preference. I'm arguing that there needs to be a reformation in our substance, There needs to be a reformation in our framing, there needs to be a reformation in our thinking. There needs to be a reformation in our presuppositions about worship. Oftentimes, when we speak about worship, we talk about these two ideas coming out of the Reformation, the normative principle of worship and the regulative principle of worship. But even when we speak of those ideas, we do it sort of anachronistically as we bring them away from their historical context. Listen to Sam Waldron as he frames these two ideas. The distinction between these two principles for the regulation of worship first emerged then in the controversies between the Reformed and Lutheran churches in Europe. The Conservative Reformation of the Lutherans adopted the policy of preserving the worship of medieval Catholicism except where it contradicted scripture. Calvin on the other hand, adopted the principle that said that the contents of worship had to have warrant in scripture and language. That seems the same as the way in which the Puritans later stated the regulative principle. And so usually we sort of bring that. Out of its historical context, and we said, well, the normative principle, you know, as long as it doesn't contradict scripture, the regulative principle and has to be taken directly from scripture. But historically we need to understand that the Conservative Lutherans were arguing, we're going to leave medieval Catholic worship alone except in those areas where it's obviously unscriptural. Calvinistic side ar you'd know, we need to go to the text and allow God to tell us, to dictate to us how it is that we ought to worship him. Here's the sad reality. Not only do we. Not talk in these terms, but for many of us, we don't even understand these terms or attempt to approach these terms, because now we have adopted what I like to call the affective principle of worship. And the affective principle of worship goes like this, If somebody likes it and it makes them feel close to God, it's good. That's all that's required. If people are blessed by it, if it's meaningful to them, and if it facilitates and caunt, if it facilitates an experience with God, then it is acceptable. And anyone who says otherwise is judgmental. And legalistic and mean. And we know the eleventh commandment is thou shalt be nice, and we don't believe the other ten. Amen. Somebody the affective principle, and it's because we're no longer arguing the regulative principle or understanding the regulative principle that the affective principle rules, and so we argue about preference. You remember the big debate in the last few decades was contemporary versus traditional. Do you remember that it was war traditional contemporary? By the way, when people said traditional, what they were referring to was the worship style that took shape in the nineteen fifties Amen during the Great Evangelistic Crusade period, and so the worship of the church in conservative evangelical circles in the United States became basically a weekly picture of a Billy Sunday, you know, Billy Graham, right, moody Sankee evangelistic crusade. Three hymns and a special followed by three points and a poem and an altar call by God, just the way Jesus did it. Then along comes the Jesus Movement or the Jesus People movement out West, this demographic revival where young people were coming to faith in droves. Out of it, you get two arms. You get the cavalry chapel arm on one side, and then you get the sovereign grace arm on the other. But regardless of which of those streams we follow, it starts off with young people in their late teens early to mid twenties who are coming to faith and this sort of folk attitude, if you will, folk music and in this movement, you would have young people gathering together and they would have their guitars and they would play very simple songs that they. Would repeat over and over and over again. You no longer had sermons, You had talks people would share. It was very informal. And so interestingly enough, in the eighties and the nineties, the argument between traditional and contemporary, if you understood the history, was basically this God lives in nineteen fifty. No, he doesn't. He lives in nineteen seventy. All the while. The theological foundation was being ignored, and in both instances we were arguing not for the regulative principle or the normative principle, but for the affective principle. This is how we meet God. This is how we feel God's presence. Well, no, this is how we meet God, and this is how we feel God's presence. And as this was happening, the theological roots and foundations of worship were being all but lost. Vern Pothrus paints picture of this, and I'll say up front that this is a bit lengthy, and I wouldn't read this unless I believed that it was amazingly informative. He writes an article about two funerals. If you want to see what we believe about worship, go to a funeral. A young man I know died in a tragic accident. His death was utterly sad. At his funeral, his friends were all wearing T shirts adorned with his picture. At the front of the church were. Heaped up flowers, footballs, and stuffed animals. On top of his coffin was a picture from his senior prom The service began with a recording of his favorite song, a heavy metal power ballad. The preacher gave a eulogy, praising how the teenager was such a good friend, such a good person, recounting some of the funny things he used to say, telling about the dreams he had for his life. Everybody in the church was crying. Then his best friend got up to say a few words. He was sobbing. He finally croaked out his goodbye as the congregation joined his sobs. His girlfriend recited a poem she wrote about how much she loved him. Then the boy's grief stricken father had to get up in front of everybody and talk about his son. As if all this emotion were not wrenching enough, The funeral director next played a video showing highlights of the boy's life, his baby pictures, playing with his friends, enjoying Christmas with his family, waving at the cameras. There was not a dry eye in the house. People said, what a beautiful funeral it was. This is a living, breathing picture of the affective principle. This is a service that was not designed based upon what God says about himself. It was not designed based upon bringing clarity to who God is in light of this tragic event. It was a service that was designed with this young man at the center, and it was designed. For the people. So that they might have an emotional Catharsis. Poethrus goes on. Another funeral I attended was of another young person who died a tragic death, one that was even more senseless and terrible. She had been raped and murdered by a serial killer. I was one of the elders on duty. My job was to keep the news media away from the family. At this funeral, the congregation sangled hymns. They were in a minor key, but the lyrics centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The grievers joined together in a responsive reading. Of the Word of God. The pastor garbed in black read more texts from the Bible. Instead of a eulogy, the pastor recited the facts of the girl's life, emphasizing her baptism, her catechism, her confession of faith. He described how she joined the church, her confirmation, and her regular. Reception of the Lord's Supper. The pastor, preaching. Him the Bible, gave a sermon on our travails in this wicked world, on how the Son of God entered our sinful condition, how in his sacrifice and his promises, we have a sure and certain hope that this poor child has entered into everlasting joy. The justice of God will be manifested, and soul will is mercy. He will wipe away every tear. We sang some more hymns. The mood was sad and somber, but the word of God that permeated the whole service was like a lifeline, or rather like a strong arm, supporting us in our grief. Yes, we cried, The funeral gave us strength. Do you see the difference between these two events. This was not a matter of preference, This was a matter of fundamental presuppositions. This was a matter of fundamental understanding about who God is and how we meet him in worship. On the one hand, there is the idea that says, we need an emotional experience. Experience, we need. An emotional catharsis what we need to focus in on what it is that will create the environment that will allow us to feel the way we want to feel or we ought to feel or would like to feel, and everything needs to be. Designed around that. And the other says, here's who God is, regardless of the circumstances, and here's what God says about himself about worship and about death. And it will be enough. It will be enough. This, my friends, is an area that screams for our attention because we throw around the word reformed, and we throw it around very loosely. Anybody who accepts the five points we call reform, regardless of whether or not they have a reformed ecclesiology, and regardless of whether or not they engage in reform worship, regardless of whether or not they hold to a reform confession. If you're calvinistic in your souteriology, we now call that reformed. It's not enough, thank you, It's not enough. In fact, I would venture to say that the overwhelming majority of people who today are calling themselves reformed are not. And one of the ways that we can expose that is just examine their worship and ask ourselves, is this experience built upon and growing out of the principles of the Reformation, or is it just a repackaging of the spirit of the age. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that everywhere you go Reformed worship ought to look exactly the same. But I will argue that the elements ought to be the same because they ought to be lifted directly from the text of Scripture. With that in mind, let's look at a text today. It's a text that is a familiar one to us. It's in the last book of the Bible. It's in Revelation, Revelation chapter one. I absolutely positively love this passage of Scripture. I could preach this passage of Scripture for six months, Revelation chapter one. And what I want us. To look at today in Revelation chapter one is number one, this picture of worship, because what we see here is worship. But secondly, I want us to examine some of the elements here, some of them meet here, and I want us to ask ourselves whether or not this is familiar. Are we doing this? We're not discussing all of the elements of reformed worship, and that's not what I want to get to the heart of it. Revelation Chapter one. I really want us to look at verses four through six, but will start in verse one so that we can get a feel for this text. We know that there are a lot of numbers that are important in Revelation principle. Among them, for example, is the number twelve, the number of the people of God, and various multiples of twelve, twenty four, one hundred and forty four for example. The number ten, this number of fullness, completion, the number seven, this other number, this number of perfection, if you will, The number four, the number of the Earth, the four corners of the Earth, the four winds, people from every nation, tribe, kindred and tongue, people from all of the earth. The number three, which is the number of God. But it's also what I like to call the rhythm of Revelation. I was told long ago that the Book of Revelation is one of the easiest ones to memorize of course, I didn't believe it. And then we started preaching through revelation, and I realized how often this rhythm exists in the text. And we see that if we begin even in the first paragraph, listen to how many times we get threes here verse one, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now he's going to say three things about this revelation of Jesus Christ, about three actors. The revelation of Jesus Christ. Which God gave him to show his servants to things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John, who bore witness. So we have the father who gave the son who made known, and John who bore witness one too. Three is if that weren't enough, what did he. Bear witness to well, to the word of God one, to the testimony of Jesus Christ too, and to all he saw one two three, one two three need another one fine. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, And blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. One two three, one two three, one tooth three and it goes. On and on and on. That's going to be very important when we get to this next paragraph, because there's some questions that need to be answered that I believe or answer by that rhythm. Verse four, John to the seven churches that are in Asia. There were more than seven churches in Asia. But he says, to the seven churches that are in Asia, this number seven, this number of perfection, this number of completion. In other words, he's talking about all the churches that are in Asia. These seven churches, in particular, were along a circular mill route. He could have just said the names of the churches, but he didn't. He didn't say to Ephesus and Smyrna and Dietara. No he didn't. He said to the seven churches, because that number seven holds importance, grace to you, and peace. From from who. Well, we're going to get another three. Actually, we're gonna get several threes from him who was? I'm sorry, who is? Who was? And who is to come? So there's a three within the first one of the big three. Now here's the second one from the seven spirits who are before his throne. Well, what's that we'll come back to it. And then number five from Jesus Christ. Stop there there's three things said about Jesus there. But there's three. First there's the hymn who is and who Was and. Who is to come? And second there's the seven spirits who are before the Throne, and then thirdly there's Jesus Christ. So there's a reference here. It is a triune reference when you understand that this is a triune reference, and that there are triune references within the triune references, and when you see this picture of the seven spirits who are before the throne, and you use your mind's eye to visualize something that has seven parts, the manora that is before the altar, the manura which burns all, which is often symbolic of the Holy Spirit. We recognize that what's being said here is that this is from the Father, who is, who who is to come? We know it's the sun at the end and in the middle. We must be making a reference to the Holy Spirit. In other words, this is a triune reference to the Triune God, which brings me to my first point about the reformation that we need in our worship. James White alluded to this earlier. Many of us are functional Unitarians. There are many of us who are guilty of disreality. People could come into our church for a month and not know we believe in the Trinity. In case say amen, you ought to say out. They could come to our church for a month and listen to the songs that we sing, listen to the prayers that we pray, listen to the sermons that we preach, and not know that we're trinitarian because it's just not a point of emphasis. It's just not something that we stress. Oh but when you read the scriptures, when you read the early church fathers, when you read the Reformers, they bleed trinitarianism, And for us it's hardly ever even an afterthought. People will come in and they'll know that we love Jesus, but they won't know that Jesus is part of the Godhead. They'll come in and hear a bunch of Jesus is my Boyfriend's songs, and there'll be no doubt that Jesus means a lot to us, almost as much as we mean to us. But will they come away? We will? Will an outsider ever come to you and go, hey, I noticed you guys are always talking about the Father Son and the Holy Spirit. Can you tell me about that? It ought to be a point of emphasis. Why Number one, because it's true. Amen number two, because that's who God is. He is God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is the reality of the God whom we worship. This is the essence of who our God is. So how dare we gather and worship the triune God without hardly ever recognizing the fact that that's who he is, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, this is important because it's only when you understand the nature of God in this way that you understand why Christ is actually worthy of our worship. You see, here's the danger if we do not press this issue of the Trinity, if we do not press this issue of the Godhead, and we continue to move on with our Jesus as my boyfriend's songs. What we are communicating is that Jesus is meaningful to us because of our experience with him, or Jesus is meaningful to us because of the example that he is to us. And is that not what a lot of the people around us actually think. Jesus is really important because he's this great moral example. And you guys gather together week by week because he's this great moral example. No great moral examples are not worthy of worship. But the second person of the Godhead is. He's God. And it's only when we understand this trinitarian reality that we get it. He's God. That's why he's significant, because he's God. That's why this matters, because he's God. That's why we're here, because he's God. God wrapped himself in flesh. The second person of the Trinity became a man. This is harge, This is our gospel. In fact, we can even take our gospel back further than that, before the world even began, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit lived in eternity past, in perfect unity, perfect harmony, and perfect love in and of himself. In fact, we can't even comprehend what love is unless we comprehend the triune God. Do you realize that if we don't have a triune God, and we had this radical unitarianism, like for example, in Islam, that God can't be love because there's nothing for God to love. It gets worse. In this radical unitarianism, God creates the world and he actually has to add love to his character, which means he was imperfect before. But because the Triune God has existed throughout all eternity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Father loving the Son, and the Spirit perfectly and unyielding. Yely, the Son loving the Father, and the Spirit perfectly and eternally. The Spirit. This bond between the Father and the Son, this third person of the Trinity, who loves the Father and loves the Son, and always has and always will. It's only because of that love that we know what love is and are able to talk about it on a horizontal level. God is love that only makes sense within the context of the Trinity. Our redemption is trinitarian. The Father, out of his love for the Son, bequeaths a people to him, an eternity past. The Son, out of his love for his father, takes on flesh, wraps himself in humanity. He endures the suffering of the cross to redeem those people whom the Father had given him as a love gift. And the Spirit, out of his love for. The Father and the Son, applies that redemption that the Father bequeathed and that the Son enacted through his crucifixion and resurrection, because he loves the Father and the Son. It's the Trinity, folks, this is our faith. But how many of us are guilty of going a month of Sundays without openly and clearly expressing that reality. This is not about preference. There's something much deeper here. Secondly, we have another one, two three. Jesus is worthy of our worship because he's God. But then he goes and he says, and from Jesus Christ. You notice that even this formula is a bit out of order. We usually talk about the Father of the Son and the Spirit. He talks about the Father of the Spirit and then the Son. He puts it out of order because he has some things to say about the Son, because after all, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And he says, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the first born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Why why, why, why, why why why do we worship him? Number won't we worship him because he's God. But secondly, we worship him because he's the faithful Witness, because he's the firstborn from the dead, and because he's the ruler of the kings of the earth. That's why we worship him. First and foremost, he's God. And secondly, he wrapped himself in flesh, and in his incarnation he was the faithful, faithful witness, the witness who can only be faithful. He's the first born from the dead. And oftentimes you say that and you'll get a little, you know, a little pushback from some people. Well well, well, I, well, I don't know. I don't I don't know, you know, I don't know. These actually actly the firstborn from the dead. Because you remember there was that Lazarus thing. Yo, Well, here's the difference. See, Lazarus was just resuscitated. No, no, I don't know. Now, Lazarus was resurrected because he was dead and then he and then he came back to life. Really, go get him. We ain't mean go get him. Yeah, if he was resurrected, you can go get him. Why why can't now you can't go get him? You know why because he died again, which is why there's a whole lot of stuff left out of that text. This is just a little aside here, but there's a whole lot of stuff left out of that text. Understand this, y'all. Lazarus went through that thing that we all fear. He faced the last enemy, and it was done. He died. Amen. Now all of us want to be in heaven. Don't none of us want to get there? Amen, Somebody if we get be there without having to go through death, hallelujah. We don't want to die. But then when you do die, it's over and you're there. So here's Lazarus, dead in the grave, has gone through death. Jesus calls him out of the grave, and simultaneously it had to be hallylujah, I'm alive again. Wall I gotta do that again. That ain't right, uh uh. But when Christ rose, he rose never to die again. He is not just a good man. He's the first born from the dead, and he is the ruler of kings on earth. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. This is why we worship him. This is why we worship. Him and sayings. We need to be clear first and foremost in this reformation that we need in our worship. Number One, we need. A reformation that brings us back to the reality that we worship the Triyan God, and that we ought to be very purposeful and clear about communicating that we worship the Triyan God. Secondly, worship Jesus because of who he is. He is the faithful Witness, he is the firstborn from the dead. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. But there's more that just who he is, but what he's done to him who loves us. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord to him who loves us. And we generally don't have a problem with this, but there is a problem if we get to this too fast, because the fact that Jesus loves us is significant because he's the second person of the Trinity. It's significant because he's God who wrapped himself in flesh. It's significant because he he is the faithful Witness. It's significant because he's the firstborn from the dead, and it's significant because he's the ruler of the kings of earth. The fact that he loves us is significant because of who he is. We just got a dog. We got us a Borble that's a South African Mastiff, one of two breeds of dogs ever bred to hunt lions. When he's full grown, he's gonna be somewhere between one hundred and fifty and one hundred and seventy pounds, a big, giant South African lion hunting dog. My dog will eat you, and they're about the most loving dogs that you et. My dog loves me, y'all, he just loves me. I stepped on my dog, hurt my dog. I'm like, oh, man, I'm a big I'm a big person to be stepping on somebody. Oh my dog. I hurt my dog and just came back like, I mean, it's all right, man, We're good. I know you didn't mean it. My dog loves me, but he's bred to love me. My kids loving me, that's something different. Amen. It's more significant to be loved by my kids than it is to be loved by my dog. As much as love I love my dog, it's more significant. But now only do my kids love me, They Mama love me. That's even more significant. Amen. A woman who chose me, who said yes to me, that's even more significant. But even more significant than that, the second person of the Trinity, who wrapped himself in flesh, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings. Of the earth loves me. You see what happens, and what has happened is we've come to a place in time with man sinnered theology, and you can hear it in our worship, we celebrate the fact that Jesus was smart enough to figure. Out how lovable we are. That's the wrong answer. You start with who he is, and only then do you understand the magnitude and significance of the fact. That He loves us. So I am not arguing that our songs should all just be wooden theological proclamations of Trinitarian doctrine and naw uh huh, we need some He loves us in there. Amen, amazing grace, how sweet the sound. We need some of that. But that's not where we start. He loves us, What does it mean that he loves us? He continues and has freed us from our sins by his blood. He's freed us from our sins by his blood. As we gather to worship our Lord, there needs to be an acknowledgment of the fact that His love is seen, understood, and manifested in the fact that we who are sinners did not deserve it, that we who are sinners have been redeemed by His blood. Again, the beauty of the Gospel, the beauty of our redemption. When we sit down and organize these services of ours on the Lord's day. Are we sitting down and only asking questions about what key and time signature we're going to be in and how these things can work together, or have we gotten beyond that too. We have gathered here to communicate a reality, and everything that we say, everything that we read, everything that we do, needs to be centered around proclaiming this reality, not just emotional catharsis, but the fact that He loves us. And we see that in the fact that He has redeemed us from our sins by his blood, and then finally and made us a kingdom of priests to His God and Father, and made us a kingdom of priests to his God and Father. Why is that significant? Over in on Peter chapter two, beginning of verse one, So put away all malice and all deceit, and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good, as you come to him a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious you, yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. Through Jesus Christ, he made us a kingdom of priests. But as a kingdom of priests, what has he made us capable of doing? He's made us capable of offering sacrifices that are acceptable to God. Here's the awesome reality. Christ is worthy of worship because He's God. Christ is worthy of worship because of who he is. He is the faithful Witness. He is the firstborn from the dead. He is the ruler of the kings of Earth. He's worthy of worship because of that. He's also worship worthy of worship because of what He's done. He loved us, he freed us from our sins by his blood. But Christ makes us worthy to worship. Because apart from us being this kingdom of priests, there is nothing that we can offer to God that is acceptable. And for a generation. We have not only failed to communicate this reality, but we have operated in direct opposition to it. For a generation, we have taught in our seminaries and practiced in our churches. This idea of. Designing worship experiences for people who cannot offer acceptable worship seeker driven, completely ignoring the fact that according to Romans ten, there's no such thing. Amen. Somebody my Bible says, there's none who seek God. Amen. If I want to do a secret service, it's going to be a John for secret service. John Force says, God's seeking, Amen, He's seeking worshipers who worshiped him in spirit and truth. That's the only seker there is. So if you want to talk about God's centered service, Amen, Hollelujah, Praise the Lord. I'm with you. You want to talk a lost person. Centered worship, You're you're barking up the wrong tree, because it is only through the redemption that we find in Christ that we are able to offer anything to God at all. Understanding this changes our approach to worship. When we wrap our heads around this reality or realities like this, it changes what happens when we sit down and think about Tomorrow's service. Amen. And I'm just gonna go ahead. I'm just gonna go on and confess. I was raised, trained, mentored, came the faith, you know. First till I heard the Gospel, I was in college. But from then on, everything that I was taught, all of my training was centered around this man. Centered approach to worship, the affective principle of worship. And I have been in meetings where the discussions centered around the cathartic experience, and an amazing thing happens when you embrace a reformed epistemology, not just a reformed soulteriology, but a reformed epistemology, and amazing things happen. That thing happens when you sit down and think about what we are going to put before people, and when that becomes centered around the great truths that we've been commanded to communicate, it changes things. Again. Notice that this has nothing to do with how old or how new a song is. I couldn't care less. Amen, there's some old stuff that's rotten to the core. Amen, somebody. That's not the issue. When we make that our issue, we demonstrate that we've completely missed the point. The issue is, here are some truths that our worship ought to be designed to communicate and to reiterate again and again and again. Are we communicating that? Are we reiterating that? And instead of asking the question are the people going to come to that moment? We need to ask the question is God going to be rightly exalted? Because There does not have to be a choice between that which exalts God and that which excites us. Amen. But here's the other reality. When you understand these truths, you also understand that we ought not always be excited. When we understand the Gospel rightly, we understand that there ought to be moments when we feel like we need. To go crawl up under something and die. Amen. But never be left there, because there is good news. And the good news is the second person of the Trinity, the faithful Witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, loves us. And he proved it. Because he freed us from our sins by his blood, and in doing so he rendered us worthy to offer the worship that he demands. We need a reformation in our worship, and it's not about style, it's about substance. Let's pray. Father, We thank you for your goodness, your mercy, and your kindness toward us. We thank you for Christ, our redeemer. We thank you for the gift of our redemption that you, by your spirit have applied and continue to apply to the elect And we asked that by your grace you would grant us the power and the passion to proclaim this goodness to all the earth. For we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.