Gather Together
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When We Gather...
Introduction
Good morning, once again. It's a privilege and a joy to open the Word of God with you today. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Acts chapter two. That's where we are going to begin this morning. Now if you're new to us or it's your first time joining us online, I normally preach straight through books of the Bible expositorily. But for a few weeks here at the beginning of 2023, we are covering the mission and vision, the why's and how's of what we are doing here at Hope. Last week I talked about our mission as a church and told you that:
The mission of Hope Bible Fellowship is to make disciples of Jesus Christ by gathering together, growing deep, and going wide with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We boil down our vision for how we are going to accomplish the mission as three words: Gather, Grow, Go. Gather together, grow deep, and go wide.
I also talked about how the values that drive us or move us to action. We are a gospel driven church and all of this comes from our commitment to the gospel. Today I want to cover the Gather together portion of our vision.
Today we talk about specifically, our worship. Why is gather the first step in our process and our vision of how we make disciples who make disciples?
John Piper has suggested that many of us who gather here on Sunday morning possibly grew up in churches with a very shallow view of the significance of what is happening right now in this hour and twenty minutes or so. When the people of God gather, He is there among them and we sing the wonderful truths of scripture to God and to one another and a man opens the Word of God and exposes the meaning of the text and shows us the truths of the Gospel therein and calls for us to respond with faith and to repent and believe!
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
This is the Word of the Lord. Let's ask God to bless our time this morning.
• Context: 50 days after crucifixion; Holy Spirit has come; Peter has preached; three thousand become Christians (v. 41)
• So what characterized this first church?
o Loved God’s word, loved each other (even sacrificed belongings for each other).
o Praised God, shared good news with others.
o We want to see all that here at Hope.
• And as is so often the case, the exciting fruit that we see is supported by some important things underneath.
1. Gathered together regularly.
2. Lived life together in intentional relationships (met in homes, shared with each other).
3. Enjoyed and supported leadership God gave them (apostles).
4. Spent time together in prayer.
Who Gathers?
Who Gathers?
The church - Those who have been bought out of their sin by the blood of Christ on the cross.
• According to Scripture, the main purpose of the Lord’s Day gathering is not evangelism but edification. Ultimately, what we do here on Sunday mornings is primarily, that means firstly, is for the gathered children of God to glorify and honor His name being edified and built up. Now, we always do this with what the Bible calls, the outsider, in mind. You’ll hear this in my preaching. Sometimes I will speak to those in the seats who may not know Jesus or may not know what I’m talking about because of their background.
• Sunday morning is the main feeding time. Worship is a response to revelation so this is where the meatiest expository meal is served.
• As such, the main gathering should not be set up based on the preferences of unbelievers and what they will find attractive but instead should be set up and calibrated to the parameters given to us in scripture for the edification of believers.
• The sermon, which we will get to in more detail later on, should be an exposition of scripture. But since all scripture is about Jesus, the preacher should expose the good news of the gospel and it’s implications in the passage. This kind of preaching will encourage others to bring their unbelieving friends to the service with them because they know they will hear the Gospel presented clearly in relation to whatever passage is being preached on a given Sunday.
Personal Worship
• I once heard a pastor say that the reason worship often doesn’t happen on Sunday morning is because it isn’t happening on Monday. In other words, the reason that some of us don’t worship on Sunday is because we haven’t been practicing personal worship the rest of the week. If this is your only time with God all through the week, it’s not enough. We need to be worshipping individually spending time in prayer and the Word as we deepen our own personal discipleship.
John 4:21-24
Why Do We Gather?
Why Do We Gather?
1. Worship
• Worship is understanding who God is and valuing God’s worth rightly.
- The Holy Spirit enables us to worship.
• The word Worship meant WORTH-ship. We are ascribing worth to the object or person being worshipped. IT is a treasuring of God above all things. Piper puts it: “know him truly and treasure him duly.” We are giving him what he deserves. What he is worth which is everything and so much more!
• We worship through acts of the mouth - songs, confession of sin, praying, repenting
• and through acts of love - these show God’s value to us, his supreme value, in that we are willing to sacrifice for others. Think: Acts church selling their possessions to provide for others.
2. Obedience to God's commands.
3. Because of the price Christ has paid for us.
4. Because of what we have in Christ.- family
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
• Our whole life should display the worth of God.
• Worship is the purpose of redemption
• Many times in the book of Exodus chapters 3-10 corporate worship is pointed to as the purpose of redemption.
What Happens When We Gather?
What Happens When We Gather?
Regular Sunday morning gatherings:
2. Main worship service
o Follows basic storyline of the gospel (God’s goodness; our sin; God’s mercy in Christ; our response).
o We sing the gospel (see article on music in membership matters booklet).
o We are led in prayer (praise, confession, petition, thanks).
o We hear God’s word read.
o We hear God’s word preached. And we celebrate baptisms.
Sermons are generally expositional (preacher takes a passage of Scripture, explains what it means, and applies it to our lives).
Read the passage through the week.
4. Members’ meetings
o Six times each year after Evening service on 3rd Sunday of every other month.
o For members only.
o Discuss church business (reports from ministries, updates on finances, voting members in/out).
Life groups this wed at 630
the plan moving forward
The Regulative Principle vs the Normative Principle
• The Normative Principle says that as long as a practice is not biblically forbidden, a church is free to use it to order its corporate life and worship. In short, the Regulative Principle forbids anything not commanded by Scripture, whereas the Normative Principle allows anything not forbidden by Scripture.2
• For our purposes today we are going to stick primarily with those things that are either directly commanded or implied by scripture. In other words, we’re going to ride on the regulative side.
Dever, Mark. The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel . Crossway. Kindle Edition.
- D. A. Carson notes that “theologically rich and serious services from both camps often have more common content than either side usually acknowledges.”3 Carson goes on to observe that “there is no single passage in the NT that establishes a paradigm for corporate worship.”
- I would agree with this but we also must note that when we lead people in corporate worship or when you come to corporate worship your consciences are in some sense bound to participate in each part of the service. The argument of those who ascribe to the Regulative Principle is that this binding of the conscience only works if the element of worship is warranted by scripture.
• If, as I said earlier, corporate worship is the purpose of redemption then it just makes sense that God would reveal to His redeemed people how He desires that they worship Him when they gather for this purpose.
• God cared how people worshipped in the OT.
Exodus 20:4 ESV
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
• God doesn’t just care that His people worship Him but He cares how they do it. God forbids certain kinds of worship even if it’s directed at Him.
• God cares how people worship in the NT.
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
• John Piper said, “ For Jesus, worship amounts to zero if there is no heart behind it.”
• Sincerity is essential but it is not enough.
A. The Elements of Worship
• So, if we want to apply the Regulative Principle we have to look at what the scripture specifically warrants to be done in the worship service. This gives us a good place to start in our understanding.
1. Read the Bible
1. Read the Bible
• The Bible was regularly read aloud in gatherings in Bible times. It is powerful. The Bible is powerful. It is the Word of God. It is powerful even when the person reading it doesn’t try to explain it.
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
29 Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
• When we make time in our service for the reading of Scripture without any comments, we make a statement about the high value we place on God’s Word.
• Are we eager and excited to hear the Word? Do we desire the Word? It admits that the power of God’s Word is what our lives and the life of our church and our growth are dependent on.
• acknowledges our weakness
• says we are ready to listen
• willing to sit under it and let it evaluate us
• says we are willing to agree with the way it presents reality and submit to it’s verdict and judgement of us without any qualification on our part. No caveats.
• One author asks, If we are saying all of this through our public reading of scripture then what are we saying if we neglect the public reading of Scripture?
2. Preach the Bible
2. Preach the Bible
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
• Preaching is the method that God has ordained whereby the Gospel is communicated to sinners.
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.
16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
• It is my belief that the regular preaching diet of a local church should be expository preaching through books of the Bible. The preaching should give the point of the passage being covered.(exposed) It should also connect to what Mark Dever calls, it’s Gospel moorings so we can see how it interacts and intersects with the Gospel as the full council of God. Our church needs a regular diet of preaching that presents the gospel and all of its implications as natural to understanding a passage of scripture.
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
• People need the meat and solid food of deep scriptural exposition to help them grow in their sanctification.
• The Bible is all about Jesus, ultimately.
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
• Gospel colored classes
• Preach the Gospel as we preach the point of the passage
• Address both believers and unbelievers with the truth, power, and implications of the Gospel.
3. Pray the Bible
3. Pray the Bible
1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
• Pastors are commanded to lead their congregations in public prayer.
• Scripture teaches us how to pray.
• Praying in the gathering tells God that we want to approach Him on His terms, the way He wants, not on our own or the way our preferences fall.
• acknowledges our need before God… that we can not do any of this without Him. That we need His power.
4. Sing the Bible
4. Sing the Bible
19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
• Worship is edifying
• Jesus uses His Word to build the church so it makes sense for us to only sing songs that use His Word accurately as well as generously.
• Using songs that are confusing or unclear is not preferred.
• Songs edify the church when they contain accurately applied scriptural theology, because the Word builds the church.
• Not just being led into an emotional experience
• The best songs that direct our attention away from ourselves and focus it squarely on Jesus and the Gospel.
5. See the Bible
5. See the Bible
• Mark Dever points out: The ordinances - baptism and the Lord’s Supper are dramatic presentations of the Gospel. It’s like a moving picture physically representing the spiritual realities of the Gospel.
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
• The Lord’s Supper, a visual reminder of the cross-work of Jesus
• Baptism - death to life picture of
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
• Taking great care to be faithful with the administration of the ordinances will help protect the church.
• Helps prevent false conversions or unregenerate membership.
What is the Outcome of Our Gathering?
What is the Outcome of Our Gathering?
Why is this the first part of our discipleship process/vision?
Corporate Worship: Sunday AM – committed to prioritizing this in our week
Private Worship
This is the first step because before we can grow or go, we must become a worshipper of Jesus. God’s children worship Him. It will affect the other elements.
Desired Outcomes
• For all church members to increasingly value and prioritize gathering to worship together on the Lord’s Day.
• For all church members to increasingly be valuing and practicing times of personal worship during the week at home.
• For our worship times to be God honoring, genuine, and theologically accurate.
• For church members to understand that we rely on the power of God, His Word, and prayer for the building of His church and not our own ideas and strength.
How can you be more involved in gathering?
How can you be more involved in gathering?
1. Show up.
2. Be present. This is different than just showing up. Be engaged in what is going on.
What we take part in when we gather for worship on Sunday morning:
God’s primary design for your spiritual growth and well-being.
You obey what God has told his people to do.
It tells the world that God is worthy of worship.
You get the opportunity to minister to others.
You get a foretaste of heaven.
PRAY