Christ Church

The Songs of Zion

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INTRODUCTION

A striking feature of heaven-born reformations is a restoration of Biblical worship, and from this fountain springs psalms & hymn of praise. In our time, we face a similar need to restore biblically ordered worship to the church. This means going to the Word, not our preferences, to determine how to bring the glory due His name. The overwhelming instruction in Scripture is to give glory. All too often we give mass-produced nonsense. Nowhere is this more evident than in the prevailing approach to music in our corporate worship services.

THE TEXTS

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness (1 Chron. 16:29).

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isa. 35:10).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

As David brought the Ark into Jerusalem after it had been in exile for over a hundred years, we’re provided with a de- tailed description of everything from the utensils, to the divisions of the Levites, to the sacrifices offered. While the ex- pected thank-offerings are made, a new offering is described. That new offering stands out like a successful trick play at a football game. The chronicler describes this new offering which David arranges: a sacrifice of song. David has composed a psalm to sing and then arranges Levitical choirs to sing it. In that Psalm––among other things––the saints of God are called to “give glory”and to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”The glory can be embodied in both volume & quality (Ps. 33:3, 98:4). We’re repeatedly summoned to make a loud & joyful noise accompanied with the understand- ing of faith. There’s no shushing of the heavenly choir. This reformation of worship which David led by establishing the tabernacle of Zion as the center of Israel’s worship should be seen as the OT’s high-point.

Zion was the stronghold of David, which is where the tabernacle of David was erected and where the Ark was brought. The offerings in the tabernacle of David were primarily offerings of song (at David’s time, animal sacrifices primarily took place in Gibeah, until Solomon’s temple was constructed).

Skipping ahead a few centuries, Isaiah’s vision presents a scene of redeemed and restored saints ascending to Zion with songs and everlasting joy (Is. 35:10). Though the threat of judgement loomed over Judah, the promise behind it was that God would restore His people to Zion, and they would come singing merry songs.

All of this (both David’s reformation of emphasizing song in Israel’s worship, and Isaiah’s vision of the Restored Israel) anticipates that Messiah’s courts would be filled with songs from both Jews & Gentiles. As one commentator points out, whereas the Tabernacle of Moses was filled with a cloud of smoke, the Temple of Christ is filled with a cloud of song.

THE SONG OF MOSES

After great OT victories, it is the songs that are recorded in detail, whereas the details of thank offerings are oftentimes either passed over entirely, or very briefly described. Not only that, but the battles themselves often receive only the con- cise description: “the Lord wrought a great victory.” When God grants victory, the people sing. The songs are recorded so that we too might join the chorus of God’s saints and remember back to Jehovah how He has delivered His people in times past in hope that His mighty arm will once more be bared to deliver us in our present conflicts and in future battles.

After Pharaoh and his army were defeated at the Red Sea, Moses & Miriam (Ex. 15:1ff ) led Israel in celebratory songs of praise. Moses again leads Israel in song after the 40 years of wandering, as they look to begin the conquest of Ca- naan (Deu. 32:1-43). Deborah & Barak ( Jdg. 5:1ff ) sang of the Lord’s deliverance of His people from the Canaanites. Hannah prayed a pray which rings with poetic glory, as she rejoiced over her rival (1 Sam. 2:1). David’s reformation was a profound incorporation of this musical tradition as a fixed feature of the worship of the Lord. Generations later, Jehosaphat famously sent the Levitical choirs which David had originally organized as the vanguard in a battle with Judah’s enemies (2 Chr. 20).

There is a curious note in Rev. 15:3 that the saints who overcame the beast sing in joy for their victory. And what they sing is the song of Moses. John’s vision invites us to see that Christ has delivered his people once more from Egypt (un- believing Jerusalem), while preparing them to conquer the land (by bringing Heavenly Jerusalem everywhere they go).

Notice the pattern. God grants a deliverance, God’s people start singing. We not only see this throughout the OT, but after Pentecost and in early church history we see songs of praise to Christ being composed (Cf. Phil 2:5-11, Col 1:15- 20, 1Tim 3:16, Heb 1:1-3, 1 Jn. 2:12-14, and 1Pet 2:21-25) and sung heartily (Cf. Rev. 5:8-14), even in the face of fierce persecution.

MISMATCHED MUSIC

There’s a modern tendency, especially in Christian circles, to assume that the music is interchangeable, and merely a matter of preference. None of us would dare break into a yodeled polka tune at a funeral; nor would we think a death metal song appropriate for a bridal procession.

We want our music to rhyme with the truths they proclaim.Thus joyful reverence is the tone.Trying to cram the eternal glories of the Triune God into the tin can of pop-music is a fools errand. Monosyllabic la-la’s set to pop melodies don’t compare to Watt’s skillful poetry paired with the harmonic glories of Bach. Our music, whether we acknowledge it or not, is part of a larger battle. Is there objective truth and beauty? The brilliant ordering of notes into melodic patterns with thrilling harmonies stacked on top is an arrow in our quiver that should not be tossed aside.

WITH SKILL AND UNDERSTANDING

A visitor could attend our services for a year and be unaware of our primary distinctives (i.e. Reformed, postmillennial- ism, etc.). But on their first Sunday they’ll be confronted with our musical priorities. But let me state explicitly what our music states implicitly. We aim to be a mighty choir belting out Psalms of God’s faithfulness and songs of God’s grace to us in Christ.

To get there, however, we must not begin with musical literacy, that should come after. A musical reformation must begin with evangelical faith. We understand and know that the Son of God has come, and we are in Him (1 Jn. 5:20). That is the key signature that dictates the rest of our musical endeavors. While we should strive to learn our parts, raise our children to be musically skillful, it must spring from Gospel joy and every song must conclude with a faith-filled “Amen.”

THE SON OF DAVID SINGING THE SONGS OF DAVID

The pitch-note, then, of our Lord’s Day worship is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We aren’t aiming to have the Reformed Evangelical equivalent to the Vienna Boys Choir or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Nor do we want to mindlessly just go along with whatever the record companies decide we should prefer.

Biblical worship is not a job for those people “up there” to do; whether they’re an ornately robed priest muttering Latin, or a ripped-jeans worship band with a gnarly bassist. Biblical worship is the righteous work of Christ alone. Yet since we are in Him, we come by Him to offer glory. This service of worship is the work of Christ’s body, the church. You cannot worship God rightly if you do not come to Him by the Son. We come to God, clothed in the righteousness of the Son of David to sing the psalms of David. As one hymnist said, “So come to the Father, through Jesus the Son.”

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Permit the Children

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INTRODUCTION

This is a remarkable period in the history of our congregation. We have never seen growth like this before, and all of us are getting used to the new situation. Of course, those of you who have moved across the country to join us—welcome. In one sense you are refugees, but in a more fundamental sense, you are reinforcements. This is a new community for you, a new setting, a new set of friends, the works. Your experience of church is very different from what it was. But the same thing is true of all you old-timers. You are attending a very different church also.

Believe it or not, there are some things about Christ Church that take some getting used to. Some of them are trivial, and some of them are practices that we consider to be very important. Consider this message as an orientation to one of our customs that we believe to be crucial, and it is the one that has to do with the relationship of our children to the congregation.

THE TEXT

“And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them” (Mark 10:13–16; cf. Matt. 19:13-15; Luke 18: 15-17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This is a famous incident, recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels. Young children were brought to Jesus, so that He might “touch” them. What touching meant to Jesus is seen in how He responded. He took the children into His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them (v. 16). In Matthew, He laid hands on them (Matt. 19:15). In the Luke account, we see that coming to Jesus can be accomplished when someone carries you there because the word used of the children there is brephos, the word for infants. In all three accounts, the disciples were busy grown-ups and rebuked those who brought the children. “The Rabbi is a very busy man . . .” In the Mark account, it says that Jesus was greatly displeased with this. If you want to get that reaction from Christ, then try to get in between Him and a child being brought to Him. In all three accounts, Jesus requires us to allow the children to be brought to Him. The reason He gives is that “of such is the kingdom of God” (v. 14). He does not say anything like “children are a theology-free zone.” And in addition to all that, He teaches us that children do not have to become more like adults to come, but rather that adults need to become more like children in order to enter the kingdom (v. 15). Like the disciples in the story, we often get this backwards.

SOME QUICK BACKGROUND

You will have noticed that our children gather to worship the Lord together with the rest of us. We all gather together. Your children are most welcome, fidgets and all. On those occasions when you need to deal with any moral disorder that broke out in your row, then please feel free to escort your child outside. That is the sort of thing that we take in stride, and pretty much everyone here has been in your shoes.

The keys of the kingdom are held by the elders of the church, and not by the fathers. It is the responsibility of our session of elders to guard the purity of the Word and the integrity of the sacraments. If your child is baptized, he is welcome to come to the Table together with the rest of us. If your baptized child is three months old and conked out in the car seat, don’t feel like you have to wake him up for the Supper. But when he is on your lap, tracking with the service, and he notices the tray going by and wants to partake, please don’t restrain him. But at the same time, because this is not a unilateral family decision, please let your parish elder know that your child is now partaking. And if you have a child who is not baptized, but who believes in Jesus, he is still welcome to the Table with us—but he should be baptized first. He is welcome to sit at table with us, but the way to the dining room table is through the front door—which is baptism.

OUR BAPTISMAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT

The Confession of Faith for Christ Church is the Westminster Confession, but in addition to that we have what we call a baptismal cooperation agreement, which stipulates an allowed exception. In other words, for about 25 years we have successfully navigated and allowed for our differences on baptism, those differences being Presbyterian and Baptist. But at the same time, we have also cultivated a church community that is a welcoming place for the children. This issue is related to the doctrine of baptism, but it is not identical with it. One of the things we want to insist on is that all of you join with us in welcoming the children.

Some of you newcomers come from generic Baptist backgrounds, and others from a more defined Reformed Baptist background. You are most welcome here, but to get straight to the point, so are your kids. We can accommodate differences on baptism, but we don’t want to accommodate ungodly extrapolations from Baptist premises, or from Presbyterian premises, for that matter. An example of the latter would be, “Yes, he is serving 5 to 10 for armed robbery, but he is a good boy. He was baptized once, and we are hopeful that something good will kick in sometime.” An example of the former would be, “Daddy, I love Jesus . . .” “Let us be the judge of that, kid. Don’t you remember that lie you told three years ago?”

COME, AND WELCOME, TO JESUS CHRIST

This is not a religion club or a theology society that meets on Sundays. We are the body of Christ, and so coming to worship the Father here means that we are coming to and through Christ. We come to the Father in the power of the Spirit, traveling the road who is Christ. We are traveling Christ the Way all together. And as we travel in that way, we want to take great care not to place a stumbling block in the road for any of our little ones.

“And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea” (Mark 9:42).

Quite apart from the doctrine of baptism itself, it is therefore a baseline assumption for our congregation here that it would be far better for us to admit a false professor to our membership than it would be to exclude a true brother. This is an assumption that we want to see cultivated throughout the congregation—because we don’t want Christ to be greatly displeased with us.

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Maturity in Worship (Further Up #2)

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INTRODUCTION

There is a stark difference between childlike faith and childish folly. “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Prov. 22:15). “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3). Likewise, there is a massive difference between the high-octane praise of nursing infants (Ps. 8:2) and infantile vain repetitions (Mt. 6:7). And the difference is between hope and despair. Childlike faith and praise is rooted in the greatness and goodness of God, but folly and infantilism despair of growing up into any greatness and goodness and settle for momentary gimmicks and games and emotional highs.

As we consider Christian maturity, we really have to begin at the center all human endeavor, which is worship. It might be easy to react to certain forms of childish worship by lurching into what looks to us like “grown up” worship, but we really must remember that the worship wars go back to Cain and Abel. It’s not enough to just find something older. We want our worship to actually please God, and by His grace, we want it to be a potent force in our lives and world.

THE TEXT

“… Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:18-29).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Christian worship is not gathered at Mt. Sinai – where the mountain could be touched and burned with fire – where Moses and the people shook with fear (Heb. 12:18-21). Christians are lifted up to Mt. Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels and redeemed men, to God the Judge and Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 12:22-24). Therefore, Christian worship is not less authoritative or potent but more since it originates from heaven and shakes both heaven and earth, until nothing remains that can be shaken (Heb. 12:25-27). Worship is one of the central means by which we receive this unshakeable kingdom, and therefore our worship must be reverent because God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:28-29).

ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP

Acceptable worship takes place in the presence God and under His blessing. It is not acceptable worship where people say God-words and sing God-songs, where God is not present. And it is not acceptable worship to summons God and then do and say things that do not please Him. Nor is it acceptable to do things that God has commanded merely as a way to buy Him off for all the ways you are disobeying Him elsewhere (Is. 2). The only way a finite sinner approaches the holy and infinite God is by the gift of evangelical faith. Evangelical means “gospel,” and what we mean is that the only way into the presence of God is by the blood and righteousness of Jesus covering all the worship and all of the worshipper. The storm of God’s fiery presence is far more glorious in Christian worship than at Mt. Sinai (Heb. 12:25). The blood of Christ, the blood of the New Covenant, speaks better things than that of Abel, but it is still like Noah riding in the storm, Israel walking through the Sea, the fire falling on the water-drench altar of Elijah. It is joyful and solemn. And faith is what holds all of this together: faith in the person and work of Jesus. God is a consuming fire. The question is not whether you will be burned; the question is only whether you will survive.

COVENANT RENEWAL AND SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP

When Israel met with God at Mt. Sinai, they did so in order to renew the covenant that God had made and renewed with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 2:23-24, 3:16, 6:3-8, 24:6-8, 15-18). That covenant with Abraham was a renewal of the covenant that God had made with Noah (Gen. 9:1-17), which in turn was a renewal of the covenant that God made with Adam and Eve after the Fall (Gen. 3:15-24). The covenant needed renewing not because it expired, but Paul says to think of the Old Testament as the time when Israel was in school under tutors (Gal. 4:1-4). So think of the covenant renewals of the Old Covenant like convocations. God was teaching, training, and graduating His people in the school of preparation for Christ. The sacrificial system was a “memorial” system meant to constantly remind Israel that they were God’s people, and at the same time it was a standing reminder to God to remember His promises to His people. Every sacrifice was a mini-covenant renewal (cf. Ps. 50:5). Just as couples go on dates and continuously pursue one another romantically, renewing the marriage covenant as they do, so too God has always been pleased when His people gather together to renew covenant.

GROWING UP IN WORSHIP

Christian worship shakes everything that can be shaken (Heb. 12:26-27). This includes the United Nations, the Supreme Court, the Oval Office, Wall Street, our businesses, families, marriages, all that we are. The Church is the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and as the Church goes, so goes the world. Another way of getting at this same principle is that you become what you worship (Ps. 115:8). Part of the theological lesson of all the blind, deaf, mute, and crippled people in Israel when Jesus came in the gospels is that Israel had been worshiping idols (and there were demons in many of the synagogues, Mk. 1:39). However, when the whole Christ is preached, we all with open face behold the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same image – whole humans, from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). This is the maturity we aim for.

The New Testament speaks of this transformational communion with God sacrificially: “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable [worship]. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Rom. 12:1-2). The cross was the final and complete bloody sacrifice, but the New Testament teaches that Christian worship is still sacrificial (Heb. 13:5, 16, 1 Pet. 2:5). The main Old Testament sacrifices were the sin offering, ascension offering, and peace offering, and when they were offered together, they were offered in that order (Lev. 9, cf. Num. 6, Ez. 45:17, 2 Chron. 29). In Christ, we are Called, we Confess, we are Consecrated, we Commune, and we are Commissioned. And we trust that the fire of God’s presence will fall and burn everything new.

THE WHOLE OF CHRIST

It’s not enough to say that we did worship correctly, or we did the liturgy. There is a way of being grown up that is actually very childish. What we want to see and enjoy is real fruit. We want to offer Biblically mature worship with a childlike faith in Christ, hungry for the fruit of the Spirit, “proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).

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What Worship Accomplishes

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Introduction

We ascend into the heavenlies in our worship and meet with our God there (Heb. 12:22). But this heavenly worship is not something that has fearfully run away from the enemy on earth. Rather, as the book of Revelation shows in great detail, the worship of the saints in heaven accomplishes God’s judgments on earth. The twenty-four elders worship God in heaven (Rev. 4:10), and the seven seals are opened in heaven (Rev. 5:5). But this does not leave the earth untouched or unaffected.

If you want to fight the culture war, you have to fight from the high ground. The only high ground we can successfully fight from is the high ground of Heaven, where our Lord Jesus is seated at God’s right hand.

The Text

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3–5).

Summary of the Text

Paul here tells the Corinthians that we still live our lives in the flesh but we do not conduct our warfare according to the flesh (v. 3). Our lives are material without being worldly. The fact that our weapons are not carnal weapons does not make them ethereal, impotent weapons. Just the reverse. They are mighty (through God) in the toppling of the devil’s castles (v. 4). Unbelieving man erects two things against the knowledge of God, and those two things are “imaginations” and “every high thing.” These exalt themselves, but the weapons of our warfare cast them down, and take them captive (v. 5). And the warfare is described as total—we take every thought captive.

Relate This to Our Worship

First note that in our text we are expressly told that we do not accomplish this mission by means of physical weapons. One of the things that has disturbed our local secularists is that they have heard us saying things like “all of Christ for all of life for all of Moscow.” This seems to them as though we want to get a row of howitzers up on Paradise Ridge, and to start dictating terms like we were the Taliban of the Palouse. They have also quoted us saying that Moscow is a “decisive point,” to use our military phrase. But we are talking about spiritual warfare. However, spiritual warfare has real time consequences. Spiritual warfare is not ethereal warfare, or some form of make-believe warfare.

Secondly, we know that Jesus Christ has ascended into the heavenly places, into the court of the Ancient of Days, where He was given universal dominion (Dan. 7:13-14). He bought all the nationsof men with His own blood, and He intends to have them (Ps. 2:7-8). He told His followers that He had been given all authority in Heaven and on earth, and that was why they were to fan out and disciple all the nations on earth (Matt. 28:18-20).

And third, our worship services are a weekly celebration of that great coronation. And coronation celebrations always spell trouble for all pretenders to the throne. This is what Adonijah discovered to his dismay. His coronation party was quite overshadowed.

“And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon. And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them. And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating . . . And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon: and they are come up from thence rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise that ye have heard. And also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom . . .  And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and went every man his way” (1 Kings 1:39–49).

Warfare Through New Eyes

God established the antithesis at the very beginning of human history (Gen. 3:15). There is therefore a constant state of war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The Lord Jesus crushed the serpent’s head in His crucifixion and resurrection, but by His grace He permits us to participate in that struggle (Rom. 16:20). He crushes the adversary badly, bruising him under His heel. But remember, as His body, we are His heel.

“And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:22).

But there is more. Jesus promised us that in this conflict, the gates of Hades would never prevail against us (Matt. 16:18). But please note that the gates of Hades are not an offensive weapon. We are not besieged by the gates of Hades. We are the besiegers. We are not manning our tiny little Alamo, fighting until we finally go under. It is the other way around.

This does not mean that our warfare is easy. Far from it. The first men up the scaling ladders can find the fighting hot at the top of the wall. But it is the top of their wall.

Proclaim the Lord’s Death Till He Comes

Every faithful sermon that declares Christ as Savior and Lord is a proclamation, but not just to the gathered believers. The message is also for unbelievers, as well as all the principalities and powers. Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which we do every seven days, we proclaim the vicarious death that conquers the whole world (1 Cor. 11:26). And every time we open our mouths and our psalters to sing, we want to do so in a way so that Adonijah can hear it.

What is it that overcomes the world? Is it not our faith (1 John 5:4)?

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