The young man said, "Well it's like this - if I were
to say to you, 'Martha, the cows are in the corn,' well, that would be a regular
song. If on the other hand, I were to say to you:
'Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry.
Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth.
Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by
To the righteous, inimitable, glorious truth.
For the way of the animals who can explain,
There in their heads is no shadow of sense,
Hearkenest they in God's sun or His rain,
Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced.
Yet those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight,
Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed.
Then goaded by minions of darkness and night,
They all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn have chewed.
So look to that bright shining day by and by,
Where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn.
Where no vicious animal makes my soul cry,
And I no longer see those foul cows in the corn.'
Then, if I were to do only verses one, three and four and do a key change on
the last verse -well, that would be a Hymn."
If there is anything guaranteed to cause division in a church it is conflicting
views on music and worship. But the issue goes much deeper than whether we prefer
contemporary or traditional music and words, or what combination.
How do you feel about instruments being used in church. Is the saxaphone as
acceptable as the piano, the electric guitar as acceptable as the violin? And
what about well known secular tunes? Can they be turned into worshipful songs?
And what about employing secular musicians to play worship music?
These are not new issues the church has had to face.
Charles Wesley borrowed from the secular music of his day. John Calvin hired
secular songwriters to put his theology to music leading the Queen to call his
songs, "Geneva jigs". Bach used the popular cantata for weekly worship music
and was known for seizing tunes from rather questionable sources and reworking
them for the church. What we think of as traditional or contemporary worship
and what is and is not acceptable in church is as subjective and culturally
determined as anyone else's preferences. Lets not kid ourselves into thinking
one kind of music or instrument is more biblical or more acceptable to God than
another. Just come clean and admit its your personal preference. Our age, our
upbringing, peers and exposure to other cultures will influence our taste in
music, secular and sacred. Whatever our personal experience or preferences,
we have just seen they are exceedingly narrow compared to the rich diversity
of musical styles found in the Church around the world and through 2000 years
history.
Tonight we are rethinking the Church - specifically rethinking worship and community,
and we have already begun to do that. Please turn with me to Acts 2:42-47. In
these verses we see the first Church at worship and in community. In Acts 2:42-47
Luke describes the hallmarks of the first Spirit-led church. We
see them meeting as a worshipping community.
"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to
the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many
wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were
together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods,
they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together
in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with
glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts
2:42-47)
Lets reflect upon what we can learn
about worship and community by asking three questions of the early church:
1. What did they do to be a worshipping community?
2. How did they worship in community?
3. Why did they worship in community?
1. What did they do to be a worshipping community?
1.1 Learning 2:42
Their first priority in
meeting together was to submit to the Apostles teaching. A Spirit-filled
community is first distinguished by its instruction. The very first thing we
are told about the newly constituted church is that it was a learning church.
They were not reveling in some
mystical experience but submitting to the Apostle's teaching. A church that
is filled with the Spirit of God will always submit to, and give priority to
the reading, the study and application of the Word of God. It
is the primary reason we meet together - to hear God speak. We
do not come primarily to worship God. Romans 12:1-2.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers,
in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer
to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing
and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)
We come together already worshipping in order to have our minds renewed and
apply that knowledge in the way we live. The only thing that will renew your
mind, reform your values, reshape your priorities, remold your convictions is
the word of God, explained and applied. If the church is the only hope of the
world, then the Bible is the only hope of the church, for it contains the very
word of life about Jesus. That is why its reading, explanation and application
is central to our worship.
1.2 Fellowship 2:42
The second mark of the Spirit-filled community is fellowship and it flows from
our meeting around God's Word. We use the word rather glibly but actually "Koinonia"
describes our fellowship with God himself "We proclaim to you what we have
seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3). It is
this communion with God that makes us one with each other. One with those who
also submit to God's Word. Their koinonia was expressed not only in what they
shared in but in what they shared out. They were generous with one another because
the Lord had been generous with them. They knew that all they possessed belonged
to God and that in Jesus they belonged to one another as brothers and sisters
(2:44). They therefore shared voluntarily what they had with those in need.
Community then is about caring and caring will lead to sharing.
1.3 Worship 2:42
The third mark of the Christian
church is the outworking of the previous two - Meeting together to hear God
speak leads to the recognition that we do not belong to ourselves, we have been
purchased by the death of Jesus Christ; he alone is Lord. Enthroned in heaven
far above all rule and authority, the one to whom entire allegiance is due,
how can we not wish to exalt him, to glorify him in praise and worship.
In the Greek the definite article comes before both phrases indicating that
what is meant is the Lord's Supper on the one hand and 'the' prayers - that
is collective meetings for prayer on the other. The balance of the worship of
the Spirit-filled church is noteworthy - both formal and informal. It took place
both in the larger congregation meeting in the Temple or other larger building
as well as in their homes in smaller cell groups. Early Christian worship was
both formal and informal, structured and spontaneous, reverent and joyful. But
remember worship reflects our heart attitude toward God every day, not just
on Sundays. If we do not enter this building already worshipping God, it is
unlikely we will begin when the service starts and it is even less likely we
will continue to when the service is over. Learning,
Fellowship, Worship - this is what they did.
2. How did they worship in community?
What are some of the words
Luke uses to describe how they worshipped in community? Devotion, awe, gladness,
praise.
2.1 Devotion
For me the most important
word in this passage is that little word 'devotion'. It means 'steadfast perseverance"
- they gave themselves as a first priority to the apostles teaching and to one
another. Our mission statement summarises our primary purpose. We are here to
assist irreligious people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Fully devoted. Inside your news sheet is a character check list that will help
you reflect upon how you can become and remain fully devoted followers of Jesus
Christ. Ask yourself those questions and allow the Lord to speak to you about
any area of your life where you are not fully devoted to him. They were devoted.
2.2 Awe
I want to play you something
that John Ortberg said at the Leadership Summit we attended this Summer, about
awe in worship - play tape. Do you relate to that? Eugene
Peterson is best known for his translation of the NT called the Message. He
also wrote, 'The Gift' which is about Christian ministry. In it he quotes the
Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard going to worship. She asks,
"Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged
tour of the Absolute?... On the whole I do not find Christians, outside the
catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest
idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? ...It is madness to wear ladies'
straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets.
Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to
the pews. Explorers unmindful of 'conditions' died. Why don't similarly unprepared
worshippers perish on the spot?... Week after week, we witness the same miracle:
that God, for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act
to smithereens. Week after week, Christ washes the disciples' dirty feet, handles
their very toes, and repeats, 'It is all right, believe it or not, to be people.'"
Pure unadulterated grace. How did they worship? With devotion and awe.
2.3 Praise
John Calvin once described
the world as the "theatre of God's glory". Psalm 19:1-4 says this:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work
of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth
speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all
the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
(Psalm 19:1-4)
The early church praised God with
jubilation for his mighty works revealed in creation and supremely in Jesus
Christ. If praise and worship is not your moment by moment experience then there
is something wrong with your eyes, something wrong with your heart. If the "trees
of the field clap their hands" (Isaiah 55:12) then I suspect its OK to do it
in church. Geoffrey Fisher, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, said, "The
longer I live the more convinced I am that Christianity is one long shout of
joy." If we are alert to God everywhere, then every waking moment can
be an act of praise. How they worshipped in community. With
devotion, awe and praise.
3. Why did they worship in community?
(2:47)
Because the church is God's
only hope of the world. Because authentic worship and community is infectious.
What ever else the tongues of Acts 2 were, they were first and foremost known
languages - a means by which people from all over the world heard the gospel
in their own language, Greek, Aramaic, Coptic, Arabic, Latin. The Lord added
to their number. Notice that what he did was more than save. He added those
who were being saved to the church. He didn't save them without also adding
them to the church and he didn't add them to the church without saving them
first. That is why it is impossible to be a Christian without at the same time
being part of a local church. There is no salvation apart from the Body of Christ.
If you are united with Christ you are part of his body. Jesus does this double
work - saving and adding. Daily
- day by day.
Their witness in community was not an occasional or sporadic thing. It was as
continuous as their worship. Day by day, they were attending the temple, breaking
bread, praising God (2:46). Day by day they were praising God and he added to
their number daily. We have begun to rethink our worship and community. Next
weekend will give us an opportunity to put this into practice. To bring together
worship and community. Saturday night we have our Harvest Supper down at the
Church Hall with food, music and dancing. What better way than to bring non-Christian
friends to see the church celebrating as a community. Then on Sunday we will
celebrate our Harvest Festival. The worshipping community in action, bringing
our gifts to God to share with those in need. The two events make a whole, the
community in worship, the worshipping community. The Saturday is no less an
act of worship. The Sunday no less an act of community. Both an opportunity
to exalt our Lord. In worship, in community. Not just at Harvest, not even just
every Sunday but every day and everywhere. In Church and in our homes. Then
God-willing, we shall continue to see the Lord adding to our number those whom
he is saving. Lets pray.