Worship According to God's Word (Rev. Erik Veerman)

Over the next 3 weeks, we’ll be working through our beliefs and practices in our worship, discipleship, and missions.

Really, these are the implications of the last 4 weeks… and how our foundational beliefs apply in those three areas.

So, today, we’ll focus on worship. And I do want to remind you that we have a philosophy of worship document. It’s next to the welcome table. That document gives the reasons behind the elements of our corporate worship. We’ll be talking through many of those today.

We have two sermon texts listed, Leviticus 10:1-3 and John 4:1-26. We will also be considering the second commandment from Exodus 20. We read earlier in the service.

Please turn to Leviticus chapter 10. You can find that on page 104 in the Pew Bible. This is a difficult passage. Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu make an unacceptable offering to the Lord. And they were met with God’s immediate judgment.

Reading of Leviticus 10:1-3

Reading of John 4:1-26 – Our second reading is from the Gospel of John, chapter 4. Please turn there. You can find that on page 1056. This is the account of Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well.

Reading of John 4:1-26

Prayer

We live in the age of personalization. You can configure your home screen, your playlist, your news feeds, your chicken sandwich. Certain apparel can be tailor-made to your liking. If you buy a new car, you can pick exactly the features and colors you want before it’s even manufactured. A new home can be customized to your desire, including picking a floorplan, your kitchen cabinets, your flooring, the color of your walls, your bathroom tile and vanity, and the exterior look.

And those things are kinda nice, because, you know, we have different likes and preferences.

Well, Nadab and Abihu learned the hard way that the worship of God is not on the customizable list. That is, how we worship God is not something that we get to decide, but rather has been decided by God himself.

Now, I want to acknowledge that Leviticus 10:1-3 is a sensitive text. It’s hard to read and think about because here are two men who were coming before the Lord. Their father, Aaron was the very first High Priest among God’s people. He was Moses’s brother. But in that very moment when Nadab and Abihu came to the Lord, they were consumed by the fire of God’s wrath. They did not die in an accident nor were they killed by another man. No, it was God himself who inflicted his judgment directly on them.

And I’m sure you, like me, have many many questions. God, where is your mercy? What did they do to deserve this? Or how about this question, which you may also have: Do I deserve the same judgment?

Well, the answer to that last question is “yes.” Yes, I do. Yes, you do.

You see, one thing that this passage reveals is why Christ Jesus came and was crucified.

Jesus suffered the wrath of God in place of his people for the very reason that Nadab and Abihu were killed. God is a holy and just God. His judgment against sin must be satisfied. Nadab and Abihu experienced what Christ endured for those who turn to him by faith.

I wanted to say that up-front to relieve any undue burden for those of you who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior. The holy justice and judgment of God, which Nadab and Abihu suffered, Jesus bore on the cross for you.

But that does not mean that Leviticus 10 only speaks about God’s justice and our need for mercy.

No, it also shows that God cares about how he is to be worshiped.

1. Worship According to God’s Word

Our worship, meaning, what we are doing here and now, our corporate worship, needs to be submitted to God’s Word.

That is the foundational thing that I want us to consider this morning. We need to worship according to what God has prescribed for us. I’ll begin by arguing that principle from a couple of passages, and then we’ll apply that to our worship this morning.

But first, back to Nadab and Abihu. They had been given the ceremonial requirements that the priests were to follow. In fact, right before they offered their unauthorized fire, Moses had presented all of God’s requirements for the priestly offerings and then their father, Aaron, made the first offerings to God based on those commands.

But Nadab and Abihu failed to meet them. They were supposed to consecrate themselves and their incense before coming to the Lord. That consecration involved a ceremonial cleansing which indicated their need to be holy in God’s presence. But they didn’t do that and they therefore suffered the immediate consequences of God’s holiness.

As I mentioned earlier, that event reveals the need for cleansing work of Christ, who makes us holy. So, Nadab and Abihu’s lack of obedience to God’s commands for worship… revealed that their hearts didn’t believe in the justice of God nor the Messiah who was to come.

Let me put it this way, God prescribes his worship to reveal his character, our need, and his mercy in Christ. The sacrifices and offerings of old directed the people’s attention upward to God and forward to Christ who was to come. The bottom line in Leviticus 10 is the need to trust God and worship him according to his commands.

Now, more could be said about Leviticus 10, but I want to move on to a second passage in the Bible that also reveals this principle. In fact, this second text is the most important passage about worship in the entire Bible. It’s that important. I am referring to the second commandment. We didn’t read it as part of our sermon text this morning. We read it earlier in the service. But let me re-read part of it. Exodus 20 verses 4-5

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”

Now, you may be thinking. “Ok, yes, we should not have idols, but isn’t that commandment really about other gods?” And the answer is “yes” and “no.” Yes, because it in-part refers to creating something that we worship that is not God. But the answer is also “no” because it’s refers to not creating a carved image or any likeness, as it says “that is in heaven above.” God is in heaven. In other words, we are not to make images or likenesses of God himself.

In fact, I would argue that is the primary point of the second command. The first command is that you should have no other Gods before him. The second command is saying that if we make images, even if we make them to represent God, we are not worshipping God, we are instead bowing down to something that is not God at all.

Let’s go back to when God gave Moses the 10 commandments. God had just miraculously saved his people from slavery in Egypt. He had just made a path through the Red Sea and destroyed the Egyptian army. God brought them safely to the base of Mount Sinai. And Moses is then called to go up on the mountain, where he is given these very commands carved on stone.

But back down the mountain, Aaron led the people to melt down their gold and make a golden calf and worship it. But do you know whose image they thought they were worshipping? They thought they were worshiping Yahweh. God himself. But they were gravely mistaken. They had come up with their own worship. Instead of worshiping the one true God, their idolatry was a false worship, and they received judgment. Why? Because God alone is to be worshiped and worshiped according to his commands.

That has huge implications for our worship, doesn’t it? We want to worship the Lord well. Our responsibility is to worship the Lord according to his Word and not according to our whims or our creative devices or the world’s ways.

Now I think this is obvious, but I want to say it anyway, just to be sure. The Old Testament sacrifices and offerings are no more. All those priestly observances and the annual festivals have been fulfilled in Christ. The second half of the book of Hebrews makes that really clear. Our worship no longer includes those shadows which pointed forward to Christ, but rather, our worship now focuses on Jesus and his sacrifice for us – the salvation we have in him. I just want to be absolutely clear about that.

Let me summarize so far. God desires to be worshipped. He is the only one worthy of worship. But our worship of him needs to be conformed to the pattern of worship that he has given us in his Word, as the second commandment teaches and as Nadab and Abihu learned the hard way.

We believe that principle is really important for the church. And so we seek to conform our worship to the pattern given in God’s Word.

2. What has God prescribed for our worship?

Which brings us to THE important question. What exactly has God prescribed for our worship?

We’ll spend the rest of our time on that question.

But first, a quick story. My first time in London I was at a series of conferences. And one of them was at a Pentecostal church – I think it was a Toronto Blessing church. Some of you may have heard of that before. Anyway, in the middle of a worship service, people were barking in the Spirit… like literally making animal noises. It was very disconcerting to me. I know that’s an extreme example of worship not according to God’s word. Another one like that would be snake handling. Of course, we set those aside. But let me ask you this: is it ok in worship to have skits? You know, dramatizations…or what about some kind of dance? Or what about movie clips? I just want to get you thinking.

Let me begin to answer the question about worship by going back to the foundations that we’ve talked about over the last few weeks. Because, our foundational beliefs especially come to bear in our worship. So let’s reconsider them with that I mind

Number 1 from four weeks ago: We looked at the church in Antioch which was faithful in three things - their devotion to Christ, their commitment to doctrine, and their desire to fulfill the great commission. Remember: the master, the message, and the mission. At the heart of those three things is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the heart of our worship needs to be those three things. (1) a heart devotion to Christ as we praise God for our salvation in him, (2) the amazing doctrines of truth as we acknowledge God for his glory and grace, and (3) the declaration of his work throughout the world.

When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well about worship, he said “a time is now here when the true worshippers will worship Father in Spirit and truth.” Our worship needs to be grounded in God’s revealed Word, his truth, and empowered by his Holy Spirit. That means that our worship cannot be a empty going-through-the-motions kind of worship. Rather our worship needs to be Gospel saturated and Spirit led, as the Holy Spirit works in us as we praise the Father for the ministry of his Son.

You can call that the heart of our corporate worship.

Number 2 from three weeks ago: The ordinary means of grace. Remember what those are? God’s Word, prayer, and the sacraments. Those means of grace are the content of our worship.

God uses those appointed means to give us his grace, which changes us. And those means of grace converge in corporate worship. Infused throughout our worship are God’s Word, prayer, and the sacraments.

A couple of years ago, some out-of-town friends of mine were visiting. And after the service, one of them said, “there is so much Scripture in your worship service.” It was said, I think, to imply almost too much. But it warmed my heart. Besides our sermon passage, we have other readings. We often include responsive readings from the Psalms. Our call to worship and our benediction are from the Scripture. Our confession of faith is most of the time right from the Bible as well as our assurance of pardon. We intentionally fill our worship with God’s Word.

And as you know, also throughout our service, we pray. We open with our adoration to God. We confess our sin. We intercede for our needs and those of our community and world. We pray for God’s kingdom work in the world. We pray for the Holy Spirit to illuminate us before the sermon. We pray after the sermon and before and after the Lord’s supper. And. ss you probably hear, many of our prayers are filled with Scripture.

And speaking of the Lord’s Supper, in our worship, we celebrate the visible signs that God has given us – his sacraments. Both the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. They are part of worship as they display forth God’s covenant promises, including our union with him and one another and the cleansing work of Jesus Christ.

God’s Word and prayer and the sacraments are the primary content of our worship.

Number 3: In our third sermon in this series, we considered how God’s Covenant with his people is the unifying theme of the Bible, from Genesis (the first book) to Revelation (the last book). It connects God’s people in the Old Testament to us, the church today. Our worship emphasizes God’s creation, the fall, redemption in Christ, and the final consummation when he returns. We read from the Old Testament and the New including the Law and the Gospels. Our practice of Baptism likewise aligns with our belief in God’s covenant promises given to the next generation. Our sermon series rotate between the various genres of the Bible including the history portions, the wisdom literature, the law, the prophets, the Gospels, and the New Testament letters. And … each and every sermon always includes how our passage fits within God’s plan of redemption.

Ok. Number 4: Last week, we talked through our belief that God has ordained elders to lead his church. Their role is to shepherd the flock of God, comforting us in times of pain and grief, leading us to Jesus, calling us to repentance and righteousness and faith, protecting us from those who would seek to hurt us or lead us astray, teaching us the Word, and giving us godly wisdom in life. And I would include in the list of their responsibilities, leading our worship. Preaching, praying, and administering the sacraments. That is part of shepherding the flock.

By and large, that captures our public worship. Out of hearts that love the Lord and his church, we praise him for his Gospel, we pray to him, we focus on his promises and commands and their fulfillment as his Word reveals, and we practice the ordinances that he has given us in the two sacraments of the church.

But of course, there is one more thing that we cannot forget! Singing!

The scriptures are full of songs. When the Hebrew people were freed from their slavery in Egypt, they sang a new song. After the last supper, Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn and went to the mount of Olives. The Psalms are a book of songs! Furthermore, we are commanded to sing. In Ephesians and Colossians we’re called to sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And we seek to fulfill that.

As you may know, we sing 2-3 Psalms from the psalter portion of our hymnal every month. But actually, we sing more Psalms than that because many of our hymns are based on Psalms.

And while it is wonderful to sing the Psalms, we do not exclusively sing the Psalms. That is because the Messiah has come. Jesus has come. Many of the Psalms allude to the coming of Christ, but they are veiled. Well, Christ has come, and we can sing of the cross, as we did today, and of Jesus’ resurrection. So, we sing God’s word from the Psalms, and we sing of their fulfillment in Christ. We sing rich hymns, as you know, old and new, from all eras of church history.

I’ll never forget an experience I had back in the early 1990s. I was travelling with a college choir to Eastern Europe. We visited several churches in different cities like Prague and Bratislava. On the only Sunday that we were there, we worshipped at a church in Oradea, Romania. It was a pretty big church. I think maybe 500 people. I remember not being able to understand what they were saying – the service was in Romanian. But then, they started singing Great Is Thy Faithfulness… in Romanian. It was very powerful. Mind you, this was only 5 years after the Romanian people overthrew their communist government. Their pastor had been in prison until that time. Through all of that, God was faithful. As they sang, we joined in English. It was wonderful to sing across cultures as well.

And, as you also know, we sing with instruments. Nine of the Psalms mention being written for stringed instruments and 13 other Psalms mention instruments in their songs.

Other places in the Old Testament mention trumpets, harps, flutes, and cymbals. In the book of Revelation, harps are mentioned in heaven, as the angels and saints sing a new song to the Lamb. And so we lift our voices, supported by instruments, as we worship in song.

But of course, singing a cappella is also beautiful, and so we sing without instruments once or twice in a service. Now, I’ll have to be honest, the cafeteria here is pretty unhelpful acoustically. I can’t wait to someday be in a space that supports our worship in song. Maybe soon. Let’s pray for that.

And finally, we occasionally have our children’s choir or our adult choir sing. Choirs and singers are mentioned many times in the Psalms. In Nehemiah 12, two great choirs participated in the dedication of the wall and then immediately in the temple worship service. To be sure, we all sing, but at times choirs lead in song, presenting a musical offering to the Lord.

In summary, at the heart of our worship is God’s faithfulness to us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is out of our love for the Lord and his Word that we seek to worship him in Spirit and truth. And so, in our worship we read and declare the truths of God found in his Word; we confess our sin and rejoice in God’s forgiveness in Christ. We preach God’s Word testifying to its unity and God’s plan of redemption in Christ, as we seek to apply it to our lives. We pray throughout and we sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, seeking to give glory to God in all of it.

As we close, I want to say one more thing about our worship. We often fail. At times our hearts and minds are distracted. At times, our prayers or preaching are weak. Other times, we struggle to believe, or the elements of our service are lacking. But I want you to leave you with this: We have a savior in Jesus who is not only interceding for us, but who is perfecting our worship. As God the Son, he is perfectly worshiping the Father and the Spirit. And they likewise are worshiping him. We serve a God who perfectly exalts himself, and as believers by grace, through Christ, our worship is offered in Spirit and truth.

May we as a church know this…  and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through his Spirit, may we pursue worship not conformed to the pattern the world but conformed to the pattern given in his Word. Amen