I Went to Church Yesterday

I went to church yesterday… the day before yesterday, really.

My current reflection on service has to do with rest, that holy and glorious gift of God symbolizing one aspect of his ultimate purposes for his creation. The biblical principle of rest stands in direct conflict with and in bold contrast to the thoughts and practices of contemporary society. We are a restless people. We belong to a culture that lives and moves and has its being in quickly moving pictures and scenes, in rapidly changing sounds, in fast and fanciful alterations in every aspect of life ranging from rituals to relationships. The outcome of this groundlessness is that we are the personification of the proverbial rolling stone that gathers no moss. We're shiftless in all our ways, very impressionistic in our thinking (?) and well-nigh incapable of having an ongoing, serious discussion. In this process, even our speech has been deconstructed into a series of Neanderthal-like disjointed sounds, grunts and utterances reflecting the pervasive shiftiness and stultification of our society. We are restless in all our ways. Our culture, regressing more and more into a state of abject childishness, has been overtaken by a regrettable malaise of intellectual ADHD.

In contrast to this pitiful state of fallen man, rest is a gleaming gift of God to his chosen people. Its biblical meaning is varied but its deeper significance goes beyond the simple notion of the absence of any spatial activity and the reality of being in a secured state. These are some of the meanings contained in the first primary Hebrew word for rest, nuach, found in such texts as Gen 8:4, "the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat." and from which we have such derived nouns as Noah and Manoah. However, the rest of God encompasses more than the non-existence of disturbances, whether external or internal.

Its full meaning is located in its soteriological significance stemming from the theology of the Sabbath. To this end the Scripture tells us that “..on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation." Gen 2:2-3.

In these verses we find the clear biblical teaching of the goal or destiny of creation: rest. That this is a unique day is emphasized by the threefold presence of the word itself: God rested from all the work that he had completed (in creation)- twice. This rest took place on the seventh day – the Hebrew word for seven is intimately related to the word for rest.

What does the Scripture mean when it says that God rested from his work? Clearly it does not and cannot signify that the perfect, omnipotent, independent Lord rested because he had need of physical recuperation. Exodus 31:17 is perhaps even more puzzling for here it states that the Lord God rested on the seventh day and literally took breath, that is, was refreshed. Rest, shabat, in the Genesis and Exodus texts, points to a cessation from labor, which when combined with the fact that the Lord blessed and sanctified this day (made it holy), denotes that God was therein signifying the divine intent and purpose for that day. Please refer to Dr. Joseph A. Pipa’s article "The Puritan Sabbath" in the June 2011 issue of Tabletalk. Accordingly, this rest in which the Lord God, who had just pronounced a cosmic benediction on all that he had created, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Gen 1:31; cf. 1 Tim 4:4, participated is a rest of enjoyment and delight in his work of creation. In other words, our Creator contemplated the work of his words and concluded that it was altogether good. Further, by blessing the day the Lord confers upon it further distinctives by which it is to be marked, i.e., fruitfulness and fulfillment. The implication here is that all those who obey God by observing his Sabbath, would experience fullness of joy, completeness of satisfaction and fruitfulness of life.

Moses expanded on the nature of this rest to the sons of Israel as he proclaimed to them the law a second time. In Dt 5:15 his parting words to his people were "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." Here we find that God commanded his people to rest on one day out of seven, not only because of his pattern in creation but also because of his gracious redemption of his covenant people from Egyptian slavery. The rest into which the Lord was leading them was symbolically located in the Transjordan territory and was accomplished, in the first place, by the taking of the city of Jericho. Upon entering the Promised Land therefore, Israel was said to have entered into its rest and its inheritance. This land was described by Yahweh himself as one that was flowing with milk and honey, signifying the stout riches of divine blessings, and as a place in which Israel would experience non-interference from and victory over all her enemies. All of these were a gracious gift of God. There she was to offer fit sacrifices to her Redeemer God. "But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD." Dt 12:10-11. It was into this land and inheritance that Joshua, Moses' successor, led his people. "So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war." Josh 11:23.

But this was not the final rest that God intended for all of his people, for all time. For God's covenant people, there yet remains another day of rest. "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, .." Heb 4:8-9. This rest is to be found in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ who grants us a full-orbed rest, not simply a non-working on one day of the week and the absence of conflict but most importantly, a rest from the toil of sin. By his finished, substitutionary atoning sacrifice of himself for his covenant people on the cross of Calvary, Christ declares himself to be and presents himself as the fulfillment of all that redemption and rest in the old covenant typified. He is our rest. He, the Lord of the Sabbath, is our Sabbath rest. On the cross of Calvary, he cosmically disgraced and disarmed the rulers and authorities, by triumphing over them, Col 2:15. Then, by his resurrection from the grave, he ushered in a new order, a new age for the entire creation, a Sabbath rest for God's people, Heb 4:9. Herein lie the full meaning and significance of rest. Those of us, who by God's grace alone, have put their trust in Christ alone for their righteousness, have already entered this rest. However, its full benefits and blessings await the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who will, at that time, grant us the fullness of our redemption, the completeness of our rest, as he ushers and leads us into the anti-typical Promised Land, the New Jerusalem, to present us as trophies of his awesome work of redemption, to the Father, as his spotless bride, fully rested from the toils, trials and troubles of sin. Christ is our rest. Christ is our peace.

Each time those of us to whom the Lord has been pleased to grant his rest, Mt 11:28(28-30), attend corporate worship, we demonstrate at least three great truths: we have already been the gracious recipients of this Sabbath rest; we are currently participating in this rest; and we are anticipating that day when our rest will be complete. In the meantime, we keep on drawing near to him by corporately partaking of his Word and sacrament. With each worship our longing for that day intensifies for we are increasingly tasting and seeing that the Lord is indeed good. With each worship our joy multiplies. With each worship we celebrate the victory, the rest of our conquering King, Christus Victor. With each worship we intensify our praise to our majestic Lord and King "… Till our ransomed souls shall find, rest beyond the river." (Emphasis added)

Would you believe that this was my experience in church yesterday?

I Went To Church Yesterday

I went to church yesterday.

While church attendance is a Christian duty required by God, Heb 10:24-25, it is also a delight, an enjoyment every believer should have in his heart. The Christian knows that God seeks those who are authentic worshipers of him, those who worship him in spirit and in truth, Jn 4:24. By this is meant that believers are to worship him according to the manner he demands, with (a) spiritual worship corresponding to his spiritual being or essence and according to the truth of his word which is now enfleshed in Jesus Christ, 1:1, 14, 17; 14:6. Thus, when the Samaritan woman reveals her ignorance of the true character of worship by expressing her doubt whether such worship is to take place on Mt. Gerizim, the sacred place of the Samaritans or in Jerusalem, the sacred place at which the old covenant Jews were commanded by God to observe their three annual festivals, the Lord Jesus Christ gently but firmly diverts her attention to the fact that in him (since his first coming), the essential character of worship has been changed. Accordingly he redirects the discussion from the place of worship to the mode of worship and then to the object of worship, himself. Under the new covenant therefore, true worship extends beyond cultural, racial or geographic bounds, corresponds to the spiritual essence of God and terminates on the Lord Jesus Christ who "In the beginning was the Word, [who] … was with God, and [who] …was God.. [and who] .. became flesh and dwelt among us,.." 1:1, 14.

Consequently, we understand that in attending corporate worship services, we are not really drawing near to God. Indeed, even the Old Testament saints were acutely aware of the immensity of God. (Louis Berkhof in his Systematic Theology states "In a certain sense the terms "immensity" and "omnipresence," as applied to God, denote the same thing, and can therefore be regarded as synonymous. ... "Immensity" points to the fact that God transcends all space and is not subject to its limitations, while "omnipresence" denotes that He nevertheless fills every part of space with His entire Being.") Therefore in his dedicatory prayer to God upon completion of the temple, King Solomon prays ""But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!" 1 Ki 8:27. Rather, when we go to church, we are affirming the reality that we have already been brought near to God. How? "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." Eph 2:13, that is, by the substitutionary, atoning death of Christ on the cross on our behalf, in our place and for our benefit. We are demonstrating that by God's sovereign grace alone, we are no longer separate from him, no longer afar off but have been drawn close to him by Christ through whom we have access in one Spirit to the Father, Eph 2:18, and who indeed is our access to the Father, Jn 14:6. After all, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, .." 1 Pe 3:18.

Further, by going to church we demonstrate, not only that we have been drawn near to God but also that we are continually coming to Christ, 1 Pe 2:4, that is, that we are progressing in our Christian walk. We understand and joyfully accept that corporate worship is an integral part as well as a defining aspect of our Christian life. Such a perspective protects us from misguided notions that, since worship is essentially a spiritual matter, then I can worship God however and wherever I want because "the Lord knows my heart"; that I don't have to attend church because the church is corrupt and besides, all the preachers want is my money; that the church is really neither the building nor a physical facility but really the people and all that really matters in the end is that I have "accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior into my own heart." No! The entire testimony of both the Old and the New Testament is that worship is uncompromisingly, unquestionably and fiercely corporate in scope.

It is no wonder then that while the Holy Spirit indwells individual believers, 1 Cor 6:19 -20, He also dwells in the temple of God, the corporate collection of all believers, 3:16. It is the church that Christ purchased with his blood, Acts 20:28. It is in this body that Christ by his cross reconciles all believers vertically to God and horizontally to one another, Eph 2:14-16. It is his church, a holy temple in the Lord, in which believers are no longer strangers and stragglers but in which they are being built together as members of God's own household, into a dwelling place for God by the Holy Spirit, vv. 19-22. It is this very church, his bride, for which Christ gave himself, which he is now sanctifying, ".. having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word," and which he will present to himself at his Second Coming in all her splendor, "without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." 5:25-27.

Therefore, in corporate worship, I delight in being among my brothers and sisters. I no longer regard them after the flesh, that is, from a worldly perspective, 2 Cor 5:16, but from the viewpoint of the gospel, as those with whom I am bound together by the blood of Christ with bonds that cannot be broken. It is a Christian axiom, therefore, that blood is thicker than blood. By this I mean that those who have been brought into the family of Christ through the Person and work of Jesus Christ enjoy an eternal union in him that far exceeds the relationship they share with the unsaved members of their biological family. In Christ, we are a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come, v. 17. The church at worship is the most dynamic evidence of this new ethnicity on earth.
Believe me, I did go to church yesterday. There, along with my fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God, I worshiped the Triune God in spirit and in truth.

Believe me, I did go to church yesterday. There, along with my fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God, I worshiped the Triune God in spirit and in truth.

I Went to Church Yesterday

I went to church yesterday.

The Scripture commands all believers to attend corporate worship. The book of Hebrew issues the specific and solemn admonition that we must not neglect "to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." 10:25. This admonition comprises two elements:

• a negative prohibition against neglecting or forsaking or ceasing to meet together. In other words, corporate worship is of such a crucial nature that believers are to apply themselves to this responsibility and privilege with unrelenting dedication and unyielding commitment.

• a positive charge to incite or stir up one another in this endeavor. In this regard, two reasons are given. First, the undeveloped observation that some have already begun to ignore the need for church attendance. The text indicates that this practice was not a mere lapse into uncharacteristic inattentiveness but rather a sustained and continued custom. Second, we are to encourage one another to attend corporate religious services "all the more", that is, to an even greater degree than we would normally do, in view of the coming Day of the Lord. The urgent need to join the congregation of the righteous takes on its highest importance in view of the approaching eschatological consummation when Christ will come again to gather his own unto himself into a state of conscious, eternal heavenly bliss and to consign those that have rejected him unto an equally conscious and eternal state of condemnation and punishment in hell. Our awareness of this end time reality intensifies our need to encourage our brothers and sisters to attend corporate religious services.

Many times this verse is abstracted from its broader context. The immediate context incorporates the previous verse, 24, which exhorts us to ".. consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” The writer’s emphasis is clear: encouraging our brothers to attend worship services is a part of our overall responsibility to stir them up (not to irritate or nag them) to do good works. These good works are the necessary proof that we have indeed been justified by faith alone apart from our works and that our faith in Christ Jesus is the authentic, Jas 2:14-17. Even further, stimulating our brothers and sisters to attend church is also a concrete expression of our loving our neighbors as ourselves. It confirms the biblical truth that we are our brother’s keeper and that therefore we are to encourage and build up one another, 1 Ths 4:18; 5:11, to exhort one another daily lest we become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, Heb 3:13. It confirms and promotes our ecclesiastical unity as one body, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose systematic and symmetrical development requires the effectual outworking of each part in a dynamic interdependence so that the entire body grows and builds itself up in love, Eph 4:16. Lastly, it affirms our status as an other-worldly people eagerly looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ at which time we will worship him, the Lamb on the throne, in unbroken continuance with all the saints from every nation, tribe people and language. This is the immediate context.

The larger context lies between Heb 9:1-10:18 whose verses expound the incomparable effectual self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Briefly and broadly, 9:1-10 addresses the limited dimension of the blood of animals repeatedly shed by the high priest under the Old Covenant which could only provide an external, ceremonial cleansing. By contrast, Jesus' blood, shed once for all in the sacrifice of himself as our great High Priest, is able to purify the consciences of those who trust him, 11-14. For this reason, Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant because his blood attains forgiveness of sins, 15-22. Sinners can find salvation only in Christ's once for all substitutionary, atoning sacrifice, 23-28, which is the fulfillment and substance of all the portraits, copies and shadows contained in the Old Covenant, 10:1-18.

In the light of this great indicative of Christ's effectual sacrifice come the three imperatives to draw near to God with a sincere hearts and full assurance of faith, 22; to unswervingly hold to our confession of hope which is rooted in the covenant faithfulness of God, 23; and, 24-25, the verses occupying our major attention, to encourage fellow believers to be faithful in attending worship.

In summary therefore, the urgency of corporate worship is reinforced by the effectual, atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Those that have had (and that are still having) the full benefits of Christ's redemption applied to them by the Holy Spirit, should therefore contemplate worship not as a disturbance of their rest, an interruption of their routine, a naked duty to be performed, an occasion for the public display of (contrived) piety, and so on, but as a sincere expression of joy, humility and gratitude in response to Christ's salvation of their souls and in anticipation of the unrestrained and unrestricted demonstration of such joy and piety when Christ gathers up his own in the great eschatological harvest. For these reasons, we must strive to experience these great truths in the fellowship of the saints and also to encourage our fellow-believers to do the same. The effectual atoning sacrifice of Christ constrains all believers to meet together in corporate worship and to exhort one another to so do.

But I would not have known these truths had I not gone to church. I went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

The seventh of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

One of the joys we share in corporate worship is the singing of praise to our Triune God who commands his people to "Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! " Ps 100:1-2. This we strive to do every time we assemble together. Yesterday was no exception.

As believers standing in covenant unity, continuity and solidarity with the Old Testament saints, we understand that we cannot and must not enter God's presence without a sacrifice. When our Old Testament brothers entered into God's presence, they never did so empty-handed. Such a concept was both unheard of and unthinkable to them. The worshiper would bring an animal, typically a domestic animal, one that was physically perfect, and depending on the nature of the sacrifice, after he had laid his hands on the animal’s head, either he or the officiating priest would sacrifice the animal and spread its blood on the sides of the altar, Lev 1:5, 11;
3:2; etc. On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed animals in front and on the mercy seat, 16:14 - 15. However, today, our sacrifice has already been made. Jesus Christ, the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, Jn 1:29, 36, is our once for all sacrifice satisfying the holy justice of God for sin and sinners. "… But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Heb 9:26. Christ our Savior is our final sacrifice for our sins who took our place on the cross of Calvary. Our sacrifice has already been made for us. It is his sprinkled blood that cleanses our hearts and purifies our consciences, 10:22; 9:13. However God has not repealed his command to always appear in his presence with a sacrifice. These great truths therefore beg the question, what kind of sacrifice must we now bring when we enter into God's presence for worship?

The writer to the Hebrews tells us in verse 15 of chapter 13 that through Christ alone we are to "… continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name." Jesus Christ is our sacrifice through whom we come to God to offer the sacrifice of praise as we confess (this is the literal signification of the word acknowledge) his Name. The phrase is taken from Hos 14:1-2 in which Yahweh makes a major plea through his minor prophet for his people to return to him with an earnest plea for full repentance of their sins, accompanied by their offering of the calves or vows of their lips. To confess God's Name is to say the same things that he says about himself, to declare his attributes back to him.

Therefore yesterday, we the congregated covenant community, we the New Testament priesthood, entered into God's presence through our Mediator Jesus Christ and responded to the Lord of the covenant by joyfully, thankfully, and fervently singing his words back to him, that is, confessing his Name. Like the rest of our worship service, our praise centers on the Word, attributes and acts of God in history and time, particularly as these are pre-eminently portrayed and personified in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, is Christ not the very Word of God, Jn 1:1, through whom God the Father speaks perfectly, completely and finally in these last days, Heb 1:2? Further, is he not God in the flesh, Jn 1:1, 14, even as he has testified of himself, “I and the Father are one." Jn 10:30, and again, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father...”? 14:9. Yet further, is he not God's eternal Son who completes and perfects God’s work of redemption in history? Does not the Scripture speak of him in this way: “After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,.”? Heb 1:3. Certainly it is he who fulfills all the Father’s purposes “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” 2 Cor 1:20. Lastly, the Scripture clearly teaches "… he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Heb 9:26


Undergirded therefore by these majestic and irrefutable truths, we affirm that, like the rest of our worship, our singing of praise is to be rooted in Christ's redeeming work, in the gospel which both forms and informs it. When I say that the gospel informs our praise I mean that God's redemptive work in Christ is the primary reason that he is the object of our worship. By saying that the gospel informs our worship I contend that Christ and his work are the content that we sing.

So, what exactly are our songs of praise? They are songs extolling the excellency of Christ – his birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and Second Coming- through which he attains redemption for his covenant people, songs which are at the same time, thank offerings to God for the sake of Christ.

What did we sing in church yesterday? Yesterday we sang the gospel of Jesus Christ. We sang the inspired Psalms and hymns of Scripture as well as spiritual songs composed by later Christians addressing and exulting in the incomparable majesty of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, Eph 5: 19 -20. We sang God's words back to him and the Holy Spirit used these very words to glorify him and to strengthen our hearts, sustain our faith and encourage our entire assembly as we anticipate (d) the eschatological victory of Christ over the powers of this world, the final establishment of his kingdom, and our full, unrestrained, unreserved, unrestricted joy in his presence, Rev 4-5. I went to church yesterday! Believe me, I did!

But precisely what did you sing in church yesterday? For our Hymn of Praise, that is, our opening hymn, we sang "All Glory, Laud and Honor," attributed in part to St. Theodulph of Orleans, 760-821. After the reading of the law and corporate confession, our Hymn of Thanksgiving was Horatius Bonar’s (1808-1889) "I Lay My Sins on Jesus" and our Hymn of Preparation, taken from the Trinity Hymnal, was Psalm 11:1-5, 7. For our Communion Hymn we sang a medley of songs comprising C. H. Spurgeon's (1834-1892) "Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands" and "I Know It Was the Blood." Our Hymn of Parting was John Fawcett’s (?) "Lord Dismiss Us With Thy Blessing."


So, yesterday, in response to God's immeasurable blessings to us in Christ Jesus, we assembled together coram Deo to hear from him in Word and sacrament and in return, to offer the sacrifice of praise to him for His Name's sake, for indeed "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" Rev 5:13 However, as Christians we know that our praise of God is not limited to a weekly assembly but that, according to the abundant mercies of God in Christ, our whole life is to be a sacrifice of worship, a song of adulation and and adoration, offered to God and our neighbor, demonstrated by our loving and selfless words and works, attitudes and actions. Rom 12:1-2. I went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

I Went to Church Yesterday

The fourth of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

As fallen mankind sinks more and more into perverse narcissism, thinking of salvation in individualistic terms persists in today's evangelicalism. For example, when we recall the time and circumstances of our coming to faith in Christ, we are still prone to think in terms of my salvation and not God's. We still refer to our conversion experience in such unbiblical terms as "the time that I made Jesus Christ my personal Lord and Savior” or "the day that I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart," and so on.

While the Scripture makes it clear that each person must individually repent and receive Christ alone for eternal life-note for example the focus on the individual indicated by "every one of you" in Acts 2:38– it equally clearly instructs us that the Lord does save his people. The message of God's redeeming his covenant people runs throughout Scripture. For example, it is by this mighty outstretched arm and strong right hand that he delivered the people of Israel unto himself, Dt 5:19; 9:29; etc. It was the church that Christ purchased with his blood, Acts 20:28. It was his sheep for whom he, the Good Shepherd, laid down his life, Jn 10:11-16. Verse 10 confirms "… I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (Emphasis added).
In describing Christ's work in redemption, Peter employs collective epithets drawn from the Old Testament: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Pe 2:9-10.
At the end of time and history when the Lord God will sum up all things under Christ, " the dead [plural] in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." 1 Ths 4:16-17. Our glorification which will occur "when the saints go marching" into heaven, "when believers will be with the Triune God in everlasting joy, when the already and the not yet of our salvation are swallowed up into a timeless perfection with the Second Coming of Christ, is in fact the glorification of the saints and not of the saint.

Further, the Lord does not leave each convert to himself, to live as an undetached "dangling participle" in life. Rather, the Holy Spirit sovereignly constitutes each believer as a member of the church into which he places him. To this end, the apostle Paul writes "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many." 1 Cor 12:13-14. That our placement in the local church is the sovereign work of our God is emphasized later in v. 18, "But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose." and again in 27, "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." (Emphasis ours).

Thus, throughout Scripture the corporate, collective, community aspect of divine redemption is convincingly demonstrated. The primary testimony in Scripture is that God saves his people. Salvation, above all, is ascribed a collective dimension. God saves his people.

It is in the context of this divinely ordained collective, the local church, that God is forming a new humanity in Christ, a new ethnicity, produced by the finished atoning work of Christ and realized by the reconciliation of man with man, Eph 2:14-15, resulting from man's reconciliation with God, to whom all persons have equal access in one Spirit, 16-18.

In serving God's people, Christ's sheep, I am gravely reminded that God's community is formed and strengthened in its unity and purity by his Word and sacrament. The preached Word of Christ's Person and work and the sacraments bearing the same message in visible form, are not habit-forming but community-forming. This is the historical language that the church speaks and hears when it is assembled in God's presence. This is God's language that by definition is on a collision course with the raucous, chaotic cacophony with which Christians are bombarded in the marketplace. Therefore, when they come to church, when they assemble corporately, it is the preaching of God's Word and the administration of the sacraments that serve to "detox" them from the world's multiple contaminations.

More specifically, in Word and sacrament, God's people are reminded of his speech and action in history, not in the distant past of a nebulous there and then but most importantly, in the midst of their existential challenges, in the hic et nunc, in the very here and now.

In Word and sacrament, God's people are reminded of his accomplishment of redemption in Christ on their behalf.

In Word and sacrament, God's promises which find their Yes in Christ, 2 Cor 1:20, are brought to bear on the hearts and minds of his assembled covenant people.

In Word and sacrament, God strengthens the faith that he first creates through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Word and sacrament, God's people are lovingly reminded of his gracious transformation of them from aliens and strangers, utterly hopeless and godless in the world, into his own people, into those that are brought near unto him through the blood of Christ, Eph 2:13.

In Word and sacrament, God's community is strengthened and sustained as his people are repeatedly told of his rescuing them from the just deserts of their sin and repositioning them to play new roles in his divine drama of redemption in which he is the chief actor.

In the ministry of Word and sacrament, God's people respond to his gracious overtures in Christ by making vows to him. We are not entirely passive as this drama is unfolded before our very eyes.

The ministry of Word and sacrament is God's primary means of grace by which he transforms his covenant people by causing them to see his Word in action, in Christ, in history and on their behalf, "That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory." 2 Cor 1:20.

The more I go to church, the more I speak and learn these transcendent, transforming truths, the more I want to have them repeated unto me there. That's why I went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

The third of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

Preaching is a difficult task. Contrary to lighthearted cultural braggadocio, all Black guys can’t preach, inasmuch as some White guys can indeed jump. Regrettably, throughout the land, preaching has been reduced to the pattern and practice of providing hearers with principles of success; steps to live a better life; techniques for improving self-esteem; processes for debt cancellation, wealth accumulation and health preservation; tips for overcoming fear, being better friends, becoming more sensitive employers and more faithful employees; and other similar banalities. One doesn't have to listen intently to a "sermon" from today's popular pulpit in order to detect unmistakable strands of legalism, moralism and humanism adorning current religious speech. I once attended a service in Clarkston, Georgia in which the minister spent over twenty minutes encouraging his members to invest in Coca-Cola stocks. What's worse, the people loved to have it so. Equally terrible is that I stayed all that time.

As ministers of the gospel, as those charged with the sole responsibility of preaching Christ and Christ crucified, our overall pastoral responsibility is to ensure that the gospel of Jesus Christ is central to every aspect of our ministry. It is this gospel, the good news about what God has done for sinners justly deserving his eternal wrath, in the saving Person and work of Jesus Christ, whom he graciously offers to condemned law-breakers, through faith alone in him alone, that is to be the foundation as well as the framework of our ministry. Faithful ministers must resist the temptation to "craft" their ministries by providing attractive choices and alternatives to their clients by offering different styles of worship that appeal to and attract different strata of society; by toning down the severity of sin in order to promote a user-friendly, inoffensive atmosphere in which one can be protected from the wrath of a holy God; by encouraging hearers to turn to Christ and to embrace him as their only help of achieving their personal goals and agenda in life; by incorporating forms and formats in ministry, especially in worship, that are influenced by today's consumerist society whose values are shaped by sitcoms and talk shows and whose attention span for robust truth is even shorter than the last commercial they just viewed. The faithful pastor is undoubtedly involved in a great test, a test of trusting God alone to define the direction and to determine the marks of "success" of the ministry over which the Lord God has placed him.

I believe that the temptation to cut theological corners by imbibing, even just a little bit, at the broken cisterns of this world reaches its highest levels in the realm of preaching. But it is also here that the faithful man of God receives his strength and encouragement for his task. How? It is the very Word of God that he is required to proclaim mainly through preaching and sacrament, that not only forms and sustains his congregation, God's covenant community over which the Lord has made him his under-shepherd, but that also strengthens him. If, in the words of magisterial Reformer Martin Luther, each Christian is to preach the gospel to himself every day, then how much more does this necessity devolve upon the shoulders of the minister in whose mouth lie the very words of God! God’s voice, said Calvin, resounds in “the mouths and the tongues” of preachers, so that hearing ministers preach is tantamount to hearing God himself speak. How much more should he regard his call with a gravity, sincerity and faithfulness, soberly recalling “ ..that we are [not] sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit...” 2 Cor 3:5-6, lest after we have preached to others, we find ourselves disqualified, 1 Cor 9:27. How much more should he cherish and claim this gospel, the mysteries of God's treasures in Christ, with which he has been entrusted, as the very epicenter of his life and ministry?

This is the perspective that I am so feverishly trying to adopt. These are the lofty, enduring truths that I am so carefully striving to apply. Such teaching forces me to do the unnatural – to look outside of myself unto the risen, resurrected, reigning and returning Christ alone as my only hope and strength, not only in the discharge of my pastoral responsibilities but also in all of life.

From this broader panorama of thought and armed with these comforting and challenging verities, I approached my task yesterday, still tainted with instability and insincerity and still troubled with nagging uncertainty and above all, with sin, still preaching with a limp, really, with the full handicap of a quadriplegic.
Thus I tried to preach the gospel of Christ to his sheep; thus I strove to present Christ to his people. Lord, help my preaching! Thus I tried to be faithful. Lord help my unfaithfulness! Thus I tried to be focused. Lord forgive my negligence!

I went to church yesterday… and all soli Deo Gloria. Yes, I, even I,, went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

The second of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

I went to church yesterday. Why not? I had no choice! I'm the preacher/pastor. In addition, I went to church because the other believers and I are the church. In this case the church is a noun and not a verb– we do not do church, as some reconstructionists shamelessly declare, we are the church, the body of Christ, the covenant collective, the communion of saints, inseparably connected to one another by the eternal bond of the Holy Spirit. Our communion is a necessary derivative of our in union with Christ our Head and it is preeminently expressed and experienced when the saints gather together in corporate worship.

The idea of the communion of the saints is fundamentally contra mundum. That is, it maintains a militant stand against this fallen world that cherishes confusion, celebrates chaos, criticizes continuity, condemns coherence and chides community. This communion of saints with its sense of orderliness, system of cohesion, standing in continuity with all the saints of the past and the future, maintains a defiant posture against the very character and claims of a lost and dying world. Though always tempted and in varying degrees impacted by worldly homogenizing tendencies to be relevant and "practical," this communion continues to maintain its distinctiveness from the world by clinging to the symbols of transcendence, by proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and by serving as God's instrument by which he ushers in his kingdom. As a living, spiritual organism, the church, the communion of saints maintains its identity and preserves its integrity by resolutely holding fast to its head and King, Jesus Christ, whose agenda it joyfully incorporates as its own. The church gladly acknowledges that it belongs to God who creates and then re-creates his fallen creatures and then, more than placing them in the body of his Son Jesus Christ, he sovereignly constitutes them as Christ’s body. It is there, in the communio sanctorum as the gospel message is faithfully declared and as the sacraments are properly administered, that the people of God are continually transformed by his Spirit from glory to glory.

It is there as these divinely ordained means of grace are offered and received by God's people that they receive his help to inspire and energize them along the way. It is there as this worshiping community mimics the activities in heaven, that its real needs for forgiveness of sins, assurance of salvation, guidance and sustenance for the days ahead, reaffirmation as God's own, peculiar covenant people and for eternal hope, are declared and received. It is there the eternal verities of the character of God, the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit who applies the great truths of Christ's accomplished salvation to the heart's of God's elect, are confidently extolled and consolingly embraced.

With such a perspective and with such principles in hand and heart, this communion is being taught more and more to be what it really is, an other-worldly people proclaiming to a fallen world God's secret wisdom that was once hidden but that is now revealed. It boldly declares to the world that its only hope rests in the true King, the very Lord of glory whom it does not know and indeed, whom it cannot know, for if it could, it and its leaders would not have crucified him, the very Lord of glory, 1 Cor 2:8. But where did I learn all of this? And where did I proclaim all of this? In church, where I went yesterday, where else?