"If they cannot partake worthily without being able duly to discern the sanctity of the Lord's body, why should we stretch out poison to our young children instead of vivifying food?"1
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The reading of the Word of God in public worship is part of the authority of the church. This authority belongs rightfully to those who have been called to the offices of minister & elder. This is why the Scripture always tells us that men who had been ordained were the ones who read the Scriptures in the corporate assembly. Look at Ezra, Moses, Timothy. They all were invested with the authority of God as shepherds in the church. They took upon themselves the duty of executing that office by reading the word when the people of God assembled for worship.
On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. 1 Corinthians 16:2 In our last post we said that the resurrection of Christ was so monumental that it altered the Christian calendar. No longer was the seventh day mandated as the day to observe as the Sabbath. This specific day was temporary and has passed with the coming of Christ. On the basis of this some in our day would say that we can now freely choose whichever day we want to be the day of rest and worship. They say that God has not mandated any one specific day, but simply that the principle of sabbath rest ought to be upheld at some point. This view has had some significant proponents. Indeed, this has been said to be John Calvin's view. But one ought to wonder why God would be so very specific about which day we were to observe in the Old Testament and allow so much freedom in the New Testament. It would seem that God's specification would have some "carry over" between the testaments. We may also ask why the church came to a universal agreement so very early on that Sunday ought to be the day which the church would designate as its day of rest and worship. One would expect that if it were left to conscience or convenience that the church would have a variety of days it recognizes as the Christian Sabbath. When the text of Scripture is analyzed we can see that the Lord does leave us some divine guidance regarding the specific day. The first regards the day Christ rose from the dead. Again, this was the monumental event of redemptive history, save Christ's second advent. The subsequent appearance of Christ is also significant in this regard. John 20:26 records how Jesus appeared to the disciples a second time after his resurrection. On the day of his resurrection, Thomas was missing from the gathering of the disciples. His disbelief is renowned as he said, "Unless I see the wounds and put my hand in the holes, I will not believe." The text records that eight days after the original appearance Christ revealed himself again to the disciples, for the benefit of Thomas. The eighth day would have again been Sunday, the first day of the week. That Christ chose to reveal himself on this particular day seems to indicate that there is now something special about this day of the week. We can also look at the rest of Scripture to see that the church got the message. For instance we read in Acts 20:7, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.” What are they doing here? It is obviously a worship service. Paul preaches and they gather for the purpose of “breaking bread;” that is to say to observe the sacrament of communion. 1 Cor. 16:2 also hits along these lines. Paul tells the Corinthians, “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.” Why did Paul designate the first day of the week? Well, what better time to take up an offering than when all the saints are gathered together for worship? Another revealing text is found in Rev. 1:10. There the apostle John says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.” John indicates that though he was detained from having communion with God's people due to his exile, he still sought communion with God on the day that was designated as His. And what can that be but the day he instituted in commemoration of his having finished his work of redemption! These Scriptures provide us with the pattern of the early church. The first Christians understood that the Lord Jesus, by virtue of his resurrection, claimed a new day as the Christian sabbath. It was to be set apart from all the other days of the week as "the Lord's day", the day belonging to him and for the purpose of giving homage to him. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested in the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. As a Christian matures, he eventually will come to a face off with the fourth commandment. It is the natural outcome of wanting to conform one's life to God's law. To that end he will seek to understand how the fourth commandment ought to be observed. But prior to that, he will most likely question the very legitimacy of the Sabbath command. There have been some who have taken an extreme view and deny the fact that there are still 10 commandments. However, to say that the fourth commandment has passed away and now there are only nine commandments is an obscure minority. Most would recognize the fact that the fourth commandment does continue to have force to some degree. It is simply a matter of what degree. A number of objections do typically rise when thinking through the Sabbath issue. The first of which usually goes something like this, "Hey, this Sabbath thing--isn't that an Old Testament thing? After all, it was the seventh day that the Lord told them to observe." It is true that the Jews did follow the pattern set by God. The Lord rested from the work of creation on the seventh day, and by doing so God set an example for subsequent generations. This then was codified in the Law of Moses given at Mt. Sinai. Our Seventh Day Adventist friends confess that nothing has changed and that "the law is the law." Therefore they continue the same practices required of the Jews, day and all. However, the majority of the Christian church no longer recognizes the seventh day as the day of rest and worship. This is because the fourth commandment is understood to have two parts to it, one that is perpetual and one that is temporary. Some might say that there is a ceremonial element that accompanies the moral principle the law addresses. The same can be said of the fifth commandment, which is "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land the Lord your God is giving you." There is no doubt that the commandment itself is a part of the moral law and to be observed perpetually. At the same time, we should readily admit that there is a ceremonial dimension. The blessing attached to the command (that of long life) is primarily linked to the land of promise. It is true that there is a perpetual element to the blessing as well. God does typically grant length of life to the obedient. However, there is no doubt that the original blessing references that temporary piece of real estate known as Israel. When it comes to the fourth commandment then, we can make the same distinction. The ceremonial aspect of the commandment (i.e. it being designated as the seventh day), passes away due to the work of Christ. The resurrection of Christ is such a monumental event in redemptive history that it it initiates a seismic shift in the Christian calendar. To put it more colloquially: it is a game changer. From that point on, God's people no longer looked forward to their eternal rest (like the Jews looked forward to the seventh day sabbath). We now look back upon the work of Christ (like we look back upon Sunday), recognizing that it was early on that first morning that He claimed for us the blessings of the covenant. For the last couple of weeks we have been talking about why we confess our faith. We have mentioned two reasons so far: because it is a form of oath taking and because it is a form of instruction.
This week we want to note one last reason why we confess our faith. Today I want us to understand that our confession of faith is a means of mutual edification. In the book of 1st Thessalonians the Apostle Paul has a lengthy discussion of the end times. The Thessalonians were worried about some of their brethren who had passed away. They were wondering “what happens to them?” Paul essentially tells them that they go to be with Jesus and they will come back with him at the resurrection when Jesus comes again. But at the end of that section Paul says, “Encourage one another with these words.” The Thessalonians were to speak of these things to each other so that they might strengthen one another and console one another in the faith. That is what we want to happen when we confess our faith together. We want there to be that mutual edification. Think about it, after a long week of being in the world—perhaps rubbing shoulders with a lot of unbelieving people, maybe even people who are hostile to the faith, what could be better than standing in a room full of people who are confessing the same thing that you believe? That should be a means of encouragement to you to help you face another week. I will tell you of the most meaningful the Creed has ever been to me. It was on the occasion when a dear saint had passed away. We were standing at the graveside, ready to lay our sister to rest. It was a somber moment as this lady had meant so much to the congregation. She had given an incredible testimony through her battle with cancer and we all had grown to admire her. So, you can imagine that bidding our last farewell was a solemn moment. We concluded the committal service with all of us reciting the Apostle’s Creed. The sad gray that seemed to overshadow the whole of the proceedings were whisked away as we came to the end of the creed. All together we recited the words, “I believe…in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.” I don’t know if I can speak for everyone there. But I know that, for me, those words were like bright rays of sunshine breaking through the clouds. I walked away from that moment with a renewed feeling that my God was the God of the resurrection. And one day, I would see this dear sister again. All of this, of course, was because the brethren around me recited the creed together. Even though I was in seminary at the time, and even though I was thoroughly trained the truth of the afterlife—all that was nothing, compared to the encouragement I received through the corporate witness of the believers. Last week we began a sort of mini-series on why we confess our faith. We said that we do it each week because it is a form of oath taking. It is, so to speak, our pledge of allegiance.
This week I want to highlight another significant reason why we confess our faith from week to week. Part of the reason we do it is for pedagogical reasons. That is to say, we recite the creeds and confessions for the purpose of instruction. In his first letter Paul told Timothy to “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” And on the basis of this we recognize that one of the main purposes of worship is to edify the believers through education in sound doctrine. That is exactly what happens with our confession of faith. We are taking time to highlight the essential truths of our faith so that we all might know what we believe. We can think of it this way too: The Bible instructs us to “instruct and admonish one another” by “singing songs, hymns and spiritual songs.” When we recite the creed—or as we sing it, as we do from time to time—we are allowing the Holy Spirit to use us in instructing and admonishing one another. Let me give you one example of how this was once driven home to me. A few years back my niece came and spent a few weeks with us over the summer. Up to that point she had had very little, if any, exposure to Christian teaching. But that summer she attended church with us each week. And each week as a part of our service, we recited the Apostle’s Creed. We didn’t think much of it. It was simply something we did week to week. We only came to see the significance of it later when we happened to have a conversation with her about Christmas. You see, she had never even heard the Christmas story. For her, Christmas was about Santa Claus and presents. But we had the opportunity to talk about how it was really about the birth of Jesus. She then surprised us by saying, “You mean that whole ‘born of a virgin’ thing?” We were surprised that she made the connection. We were even more surprised that of all things, she got it from the Creed. That of course, gave rise to a further discussion about the gospel. But right there we had a new perspective of how important the creed was in our services. The Spirit of God was using it to impart a solid understanding of the essential truths of the Christian faith. This is a great good example of why we confess our faith. It builds greater understanding of the faith. It may be for someone who is un-churched or visiting, or perhaps the constant repetition is helping to ingrain it in our young people who might not get much else out of the service. Or maybe it is you. Maybe it is used to simply remind you of some of the great truths of Scripture. Whatever the case may be, the Spirit uses it to impart knowledge and understanding regarding our faith and our God. Each week we have this particular part of the service we call “the confession of faith.” It is not something you find in a lot of churches today. In the main it is found in churches that are Lutheran or Reformed; you might say that you will only find it in churches that are directly linked to the Protestant Reformation.
Being that it is somewhat unfamiliar to so many, I was asked to give a brief synopsis of why we have this as a regular part of our services. There are a number of reasons why historically this has been a regular practice in the church. The primary reason is because the confession of faith is a form of oath taking; it is a vow that we take before God and man. The Bible tells us that one of the things that is permitted in worship the taking of oaths and vows. For instance, Deuteronomy 10:20 says, “You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.” Or, we might think of the third commandment. The third commandment says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” Of course, the opposite of that is that we are to take God’s name. And, as you take that name, you are to do so with love, reverence, and zeal. The essence of the 3rd commandment is that you are to vigorously claim God as your own and assert before the world that He is your God. Think of it this way, every time you recite the Apostle’s Creed you are not just articulating the church’s basic beliefs about the Triune God; in reciting those words you are publicly testifying that this particular God is your God. It used to be the practice in schools to say the pledge of allegiance every morning before they dug into their day. When they did that, what they were essentially doing was taking an oath. They were pledging their allegiance to America and to her flag. In the same way when we recite the creeds and confessions, we are making our pledge of allegiance. When we stand with the congregation of Christ and give voice to these words we take an oath before God and man that we believe these things to be true and we have given our lives to the service of this God. This is great news! This article says that There is a huge young, restless, and Reformed movement in the ever exploding Chinese church.
Over the last few months I've encountered the term "Replacement Theology" quite a bit. I have never heard the expression until this past year. Suddenly it seems that it is everywhere. People are saying to me, "You are not a Replacement Theology guy are you?" As if this is some grand heresy that will automatically cause a forfeiture of my opinions from every theological debate. I've found that people, particularly of a dispensational bent, use it in reference to covenant theology. My purpose here is to help people to understand that the term Replacement Theology is not only derogatory in nature, it is completely wrongheaded. The idea of Replacement Theology is essentially this: The church of the New Testament replaces (or supercedes) Israel. A dispensationally minded person will then label a covenantal fellow like myself such because he thinks that I see the church as replacing Israel in the plan of God. This couldn't be farther from the truth! Covenantal people do not think that the church replaces or supercedes Israel. It is our belief that the church is the continuation of Israel. In other words, the church didn't appear out of no where all of a sudden on the Day of Pentecost. It had been there the whole time! To put it another way, covenantal people like myself believe that the church is synonymous with Israel and has existed ever since the Garden of Eden. Israel was the church in the OT. This is backed by Scripture. The Greek word "church" is the word ekklesia, which means "assembly." Israel is often called the ekklesia in the Greek translation of the OT. Even in the NT, we see this occur. Looking at Stephen's speak in Acts 7 will show this as he refers to Israel as the church. Other Scriptures could be cited, but this is enough now to make my point: Covenantal people do not see the church as giving Israel the bump in the schema of God's plan. The church is Israel, always has been and always will be. If you want to talk about replacement theology, let's look at the dispensational view of Scripture. They are the ones who think that the church has taken the place of Israel! I've often talked about the necessity of church membership in the past. It maybe considered something of a soap box for me. However, I am now changing the way I address the issue. Don't get me wrong, I'm still all about membership in a local church. This is an absolute must. The Scripture requires men and women to submit to a body of elders and pursue loving support of its members. I'm only changing the way I address the issue. I wish to speak more of covenanting with a church. I want people to see something of the solemn nature of joining a church and that church membership is more than just plopping oneself down in a pew each week. To covenant with someone means that you are binding yourself to them. You are pledging your service and vowing to fulfill your obligations to them. It has the idea of seeking the other's prosperity. For instance, in a wedding ceremony you covenant with you spouse. The man pledges to love, honor and esteem his wife. The woman pledges to faithfully submit to and support her husband. It is a life long relationship that is established whereby the two now become one and seek each other's good. I want people to speak this way of the local assembly of believers. I want them to see themselves as wedded to the body of Christ and obligated to seek its welfare. What's more, I want them to be reminded of their fidelity to that fellowship. When one covenants, he says that he is forsaking all others and give himself wholly to that one. To covenant with a church means, "I'm not going to hop around. I am not going to skip church because for any willy nilly reason. I'm going to do my best to schedule all my activities around Sunday worship so that I may worship my God and be in the midst of my beloved brethren." Some see the Declaration of Independence merely as a neat little document where a bunch of our founders made a firm little statement to the king of England. However, it was anything but that. It was a covenant. At the end, the men resolved, "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." This last declaration clearly shows that these men were not making a statement of belief. They were covenanting before God and with each other to pursue the establishment of a new nation. This is how we ought to understand the church and membership in it. We must pledge our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. |
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