Standards of Individual and Corporate Worship

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church. It is a blessing to have all of you here this morning and a privilege to be able to share God’s Word with you.

We’ve been working our way through a portion of the book of Colossians that has focused on our own personal lives as Christians. This morning we’re going to come to the resounding conclusion and summary of this section as Paul is going to transition our views from the internal experience and evaluation of our Christian lives to how that should translate to our external actions towards other people. There are still a few things to be said though. Last week we looked at the idea of what it looks like for the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly - how does this happen. We recognized that there are four primary elements to this reality in our lives. We must listen to the Word, we must read the Word, we must meditate on the Word and then, probably the hardest of all, we must obey the Word.

This week Paul is going to give us some practical demonstrations of how we can know whether all of those ideals that I just mentioned are actually affecting our lives. And along the way he’s going to challenge each of us to word harder for the Kingdom of Heaven as we seek to serve our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.

If you have your Bibles, or you prefer to use an electronic version, please turn with me to Colossians 3 and we’ll read verses 16 and 17 again.

Colossians 3:16–17 CSB

Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Paul here puts our efforts and our worship in the proper order - first the intellect and then the emotion. Too often our modern concept of worship is in the opposite direction - mostly emotion and little intellect. This is not to say that both are not necessary. Our emotions should certainly play a part in our worship and in our spiritual lives. But emotional outbursts not based on intellectual knowledge are the seedbed of behaviors contrary to what God has expressed in His Word.

Teach then Admonish

Colossians 3:16; Deuteronomy 6:7-8; Deuteronomy 11:19; 1 Timothy 2:12; 2 Timothy 2:2; Titus 2:3-5;

While this is still a passage with an individualisitic thrust, Paul reaffirms the need for corporate worship and time together as a body as we are to teach and admonish one another. Don’t miss the order here because it is significant.

Too often in the church we are quick to assume knowledge - we’re quick to assume salvation too but after that we’re quick to assume knowledge of the part of the believer - so when someone steps out of line with the understanding of the Word we’re very good at jumping on them. Sometimes we have forgotten what it was like to be a new believer and to be overly exuberant about our new faith and to need some correction to our understandings.

Apollos is a picture of this in Scripture. At the very end of Acts 18, Paul makes a brief stop in Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem but he leaves behind Aquila and Priscilla. Soon afterward an energetic, charismatic young preacher blows into town from Alexandria. In fact he is described as being mighty in the Scriptures. He is the only preacher in all of the New Testament to be characterized in this way. So he knew the Old Testament and understood the “way of the Lord.”

But he has some deficiencies in his theology. He understands Jesus but only understands the baptism of John - he is still didn’t understand the significance of what Christ achieved through the cross and the resurrection. He may have still been teaching a theology that told people to listen to the words of Jesus because He was the Messiah but that, in accordance with the baptism of John - an Old Testament, old covenant baptism - we were washed clean but then needed to keep ourselves that way through our own efforts.

Aquila and Priscilla take him aside and teach him more accurately the truth and to his credit he receives their instruction and becomes even more powerful in his preaching and usefulness for Christ.

Initially though, he would have been what we would term today to be a functional heretic. He just had some errors in his knowledge but when he was made aware of them he didn’t dig in his heels and hold to what he was teaching. He allowed himself to be taught, repented of the errors he was teaching and began to embrace and teach Christ in truth. This is opposed to a formal heretic who, when his error is pointed out, refuses to change his opinion.

The point is two-fold - we mustn’t assume knowledge on the part of the individual and admonish them prematurely and second we must be teachable and willing to have our views challenged and changed when it can be demonstrated from Scripture that a change needs to be made.

Teach

The primary place that teaching should take place in within the home. This is the standard that has been set from the very beginning and nothing in Scripture has superceded it today.

One of the most frightening days of my life was February 2, 2010. That was the day that Hayden was born and I suddenly became responsible for the spiritual development of a child that God had entrusted to me. Even knowing that I’d been called to pastor a church - there is still a graver responsibility when I am called to be the primary representative of God to this young, impressionable child. No, I am not responsible for whether or not he, or any of my other children for that matter, will believe but I am responsible for how I represented God to that child. And so we strive to teach the Bible and to teach them about the Gospel. In Deuteronomy Moses gives the following commands to the nation of Israel.

Deuteronomy 6:7–8 CSB

Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.

and then again in Deuteronomy 11

Deuteronomy 11:19 CSB

Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

If you are a parent you have a deep responsibility and the role of the church is to come alongside you and help to instruct you and your family in the Christian life. There are three ways that this takes place - the pulpit, through small groups or Sunday School and also one to one discipleship.

From the pulpit

In his excellent treatise on preaching, Preaching and Preachers, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes that “the primary task of the Church and the Christian minister is the preaching of the Word of God.” Now I must be careful as I develop this point because there are elements of teaching and admonition contained in preaching. In fact - preaching is just that the combination of teaching and admonition in the proclamation of Scripture culminating in a presentation of Christ. In the same book I just referenced, Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote “What is the chief end of preaching? I think it is this. It is to give men and women a sense of God and His presence.”

But there has to be some teaching that takes place. Part of the role of the preacher is to teach the text of Scripture, to open it up and explain it in a way that is both winsome and memorable. We are tasked with taking an ancient text and making it relevant today. What I mean by that is that we determine what the text meant to the original readers and then draw a comparison to our modern context and explain the text in our modern world understanding that the principle behind the text is universal and applicable to all times and all places.

Some of this involves explaining the words and the nuances behind the words that would have been clear to the original recipients that are not so clear today. One of the greatest challenges a preacher has is to take the volumes of information that he could include and pare it down to a cohesive message that instructs his listeners without getting too deeply in the weeds of minute details.

In the end the pastoral task has been succinctly defined by Alistair Begg, pastor of Parkside Church in Cleveland. “The task of a pastor is to ensure that his congregation is anchored to the Word of God and grounded in the work of Christ.”

In Small Groups/Life Groups

The second way that teaching takes place within the church setting is within the small group, Sunday School or life group ministry. It is my conviction that outside of preaching the Word and the Sunday morning worship service these groups are the most important ministry of the church. It is within the context of these groups that spiritual growth that is started by the sermon can effectively take root and grow even deeper.

On any given Sunday there are between 70 and 85 people in this room during the worship service and then throughout the week the sermon may reach another ten. And I go as deeply into the passage as we can within the time that we have but it is really a one way conversation. It is me standing up and preaching to you what God has shown me through the passage of Scripture. There is not really much give and take or conversation during the delivery of the sermon.

A small group or Sunday school class is different. It is here that you can get into the meaning of every obscure Greek word or parse all the different verb tenses of a passage and discuss them. Not in the sense that small groups used to entail - what does this verse mean to you? as if it is our interpretation that is important - but in the context of what does the verse really say and how does it impact our lives.

This is also how you develop a multi-generational ministry. In 2 Timothy 2 Paul is writing some of his final instructions to Timothy. He knows that he is going to be killed and he wants Timothy to know what his responsibilities are with respect to the Gospel. In 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul writes

2 Timothy 2:2 CSB

What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

You see four generations of believers encompassed in just that one verse. Paul teaches Timothy. Timothy teaches a 3rd generation and then they pass it on to the fourth generation. Men who can rise up and continue to lead the church in the Gospel principles that Paul has passed on - incidentally in the context of Paul and the other Apostles you could read a fifth generation into that passage because the words Paul was passing on had been passed to him by Christ.

It is in the smaller setting of these more intimate groups that we can discuss and dig into the Scriptures deeply in order to understand what God has to say to each one of us and to ask our questions. It is here that we see the proverb played out most fully “Iron sharpens iron.”

When things in the church are running effectively these groups support the preaching of the Word by allowing the discussion of the Word, the mutual growth in the Word and the deeper growth of the individual believers.

In One on One settings

The final way that teaching can happen within the church setting is through one to one discipleship. We have encouraged each of you to find not only someone outside the church to evangelize but also one person within the church to disciple. This is seen throughout the Scriptures as being an important factor in the growth of the church. Converts are important - but disciples are better. This is the pattern we see throughout Scripture. We’ve already looked briefly at Paul’s relationship with Timothy. He also clearly had a relationship with Epaphras if he was willing to travel from Colossae to Rome to seek out his mentor.

In the book of Acts Philip is prompted by the Holy Spirit to approach the chariot of an Ethiopian eunich who was travelling home and studying a copy of the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. This was a wealthy and learned man in his own right, but he needed help in understanding what the Word of God meant for him.

Acts 8:32–35 CSB

Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?” Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that Scripture.

Philip was able to explain - to teach - him what it meant and he ended up being baptized in a pool on the side of the road. But he needed some one on one attention.

I’m sure many of you can look back over your spiritual lives and identify someone who sat down with you one on one and taught you the truths of the Bible. Timothy had the opportunity to be taught by at least three people in his life - Paul his ultimate mentor but also his mother and grandmother.

2 Timothy 3:14–15 CSB

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

We must never miss the opportunity to teach someone. It is easier, and often times less painful, to teach someone the truths than it is to have to admonish them after they have transgressed those truths.

Admonish

A young pastor started at a church in logging country. He began by preaching through the Ten Commandments and everything was going well - after every service people would line up to tell him how good his sermons were. All until he got to the eighth commandment - thou shalt not steal. You see this small country town was dependent for its income on timber milling.

Walking by the river one day he noticed some of the men from his congregation standing atop logs floating down the river. This was the way the logs were transported from the forest to the mill. He admired the skill of the men in standing upon the moving logs and sawing a meter or two off the end of each as they floated downstream. But his admiration turned to horror when he saw the branding on the logs. They came from an opposition sawmill. The men were stealing the ends of the logs and rebranding them as their own.

The following Sunday the newly arrived pastor stood up to preach. Afterward he was congratulated by the loggers on a fine sermon. Pleased that they had got the point he took another walk by the river the following day. But to his utter astonishment there were the men cutting off the end of the opposition’s logs once more. Clearly they had not appreciated the point.

The following Sunday the pastor stood up to preach once more. This week’s sermon title: “Thou shalt not cut off the end of thy neighbor’s logs.” The next week the minister was sacked.

That is a humorous story about a serious subject. We have to be willing to stand up and tell someone the truth even when it might cost us something personally. But we also must be careful in how we do so.

Don’t be a Hypocrite

Don’t be hypocritical. The passage that most would point to to tell us that we have no right to judge at all (Matthew 7) actually lays out a prescription for how we are to judge. We must be humble when we admonish someone. We need to be careful that we are not guilty of the same sin and that it is uncorrected in our own lives. It is often that sin which we are most beset by that is the easiest for us to identify in someone else’s life. So while we are to admonish someone when we see them transgressing the first principle that we see in Scripture is to avoid being hypocritical about it.

Be Loving

The second is that we should avoid being judgmental. That may sound strange considering that I’ve just said that the words of Christ in Matthew 7:1 are misapplied. And they are. What I mean is that when admonishing is warranted we can’t fail to abide by Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:1-2

Ephesians 4:1–2 CSB

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to live worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

and then later in the same chapter in verse 15

Ephesians 4:15 CSB

But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.

We must speak the truth in love always seeking the other persons good.

Be Gentle

This is the last principle to admonition - that we are seeking the best in the person we are speaking to. Galatians 6:1

Galatians 6:1 CSB

Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.

We are to restore them with a gentle spirit and then once they have turned and repented, we are not to continue to hold their errors against them.

Paul lays out for us the principles of teaching and admonishing one another with one final principle - that it be done with wisdom. This is the ability that we develop to know the difference in each situation, to know that each situation is different and to approach it appropriately - first through prayer and then when the time is right and our own heart is in the right place to approach the situation and teach where instruction is necessary but not shirk from our responsibility to admonish if that is warranted.

Paul wasn’t just about the cold intellectual aspects of worship without ever reaching the emotions.

Sing!Sing!Sing!

Colossians 3:16;

One of the greatest sounds I have ever heard is at the Shepherd’s Conference. Every year I travel down to Los Angeles and attend a three or sometimes four day conference for pastors and leaders in the church. The greatest sound I hear there is not the preaching - although that is incredible and is like drinking from a fire hose in the teaching and intellectual aspect. But the greatest sound is the unified voice of 5000 men lifting their songs to Christ in praise. Sometime I just sit quiet and listen to them.

Commenting on the importance of song in worship Martyn Lloyd-Jones said “Our coming together in public worship should be a foretaste of heaven.”

This next sentence in the text is separate from what comes before it - we’re not in a Disney musical where we spend our day going around singing to one another. Although it would be fun to move through life conversing with one another in song - that’s not what Paul is getting at here. It is best to read this passage the way the ESV breaks it up

Colossians 3:16 ESV

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Making each one a different phrase, a different thought. Paul is highlighting the different varieties of music that we can sing in the church. I think sometimes we forget that we have a vast library to choose from when we come to sing to our God. We can choose from the Psalms - songs taken directly from that great book of worship songs that are contained right within the Bible. We can never go wrong singing the direct Word of God.

Then we have the hymns. These have unfortunately fallen out of favor in our modern church and I think that is to our detriment. We see hymns written very early - in fact in this very book of Colossians we see what was probably an early hymn in chapter 1 verses 15-19. The hymns carry great theological value and it is sad that we no longer sing some of them. Christian author J.I. Packer writes of the hymn writers calling Augustus Toplady the poet of Christian assurance, Isaac Watts the poet of God’s sovereignty and Charles Wesley the poet of the new creation. The hymns were used during the days of the Puritans to teach didactically the great theological truths of the faith. We could do worse things than occasionally opening up a hymnal and singing some of these great old songs.

Then Paul adds a third category called Spiritual songs - and these would encompass what our more modern worship music entails. They are songs that emphasize the testimony of what God has done for us and in so doing we express our gratitude to Him. The critical point in all of this is that the focus of the songs must place our eyes squarely on God. And this is also where many of our more modern songs have failed. And so care must be taken as to what songs and what sources are consulted for choosing the music we sing in our services.

Music has had both a positive and a negative influence in the church. Arius used music to spread his false theological musings about Christ. Today the biggest, fastest growing segment of Christianity - the New Apostolic Reformation - expands mostly through the influence of bands like Jesus Culture and Hillsong United.

Here at Dishman we seek to glorify God first and foremost - that is through our teaching and through the singing that takes place in our worship. We will sing songs that point our eyes to Him and take them off of ourselves. We are here to glorify Him - that is the whole point of the morning service. We spend time examining the lyrics of every song that we sing to make sure that they are theologically sound and that the primary goal is to point us to Christ.

I think we also have the freedom to sing songs by people who we might otherwise disagree with. We will and we do sing songs written by people who’s personal theology I don’t agree with - but they wrote a song that has value in pointing us to Christ. Truth be told if we stopped singing songs written by men who were in error in their theological stand we’d have to give up many of the great hymns because of the author’s views. If you ever have a question about the source of one of the songs that we sing or why we sing a particular song please pull me aside and we can chat about why that is.

The main goal of our worship is to give thanks to God for His glorious work in and through Christ to redeem mankind by His death on the cross and resurrection.

And ultimately our goal is to glorify God in and through everything we do both as a church and as individuals.

Everything means Everything

Colossians 3:17;

We are Christ’s ambassadors - we serve at His pleasure not our own. No ambassador seeks his own glory but instead seeks the glory or the benefit of the One who sent him. Paul says that whatever you do - in word or deed - do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

It is interesting here that Paul limits his scope to our words and our deeds - he seems to leave out our thought life. He does directly address the thought life in other places (Philippians 4:7-8, 2 Corinthians 10:4-6), he is building on what he had written in Colossians 3:12-15 in this verse summarizing all that those verses entail by boiling them down to two words - words and deeds.

Colossians 3:12–15 CSB

Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.

Our words and our deeds are the external outworking of the internal realities that these verses speak of.

Ghandi is famous for having said “I like your Christ, I just don’t like your Christians”. This mustn’t be the case and when we make this verse a personal life creed - when we truly seek to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus we will demonstrate such a love, such compassion, such grace that it will take the world by surprise.

This doesn’t mean that we weakly lay down and let the world walk over us - we must still stand up for principles as long as they are based on the Bible and representing Christ and not seeking to glorify ourselves. An example of this is the fervor that hit the airwaves this last week over the bill criminalizing abortion in Alabama. There were many Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlet battles fought over this bill. As you read through them did you tend to respond more as a Republican or as a Democrat or as a Christian? Was your view of the other side colored by your political viewpoint or seeing them through the lens of Scripture and the Gospel? If you engaged did you do so in a manner that would be a representation of Christ’s name?

What about at work this week? Did you glorify Him there? Would your co-workers look at you as you left a room and recognize that you are different? Would they think you’re different in a weird way or a judgmental way that they want nothing to do with or do they recognize you as someone who is strangely counter-cultural and different in a good way?

What about at home? Did you glorify Him there? Would your spouse or your kids agree with your assessment?

This verse should be the life verse of every Christian there is - that we would be commited to doing everything in the name of Christ. That we would be willing to represent Him the way we are willing to represent a sports team or any other thing that we can put on a t-shirt and wear around.

In our home we have a family creed that reads like this - to passionately glorify God by living out His Gospel in every word, thought, deed and action while constantly enjoying Him as our greatest pleasure and most precious treasure.

Conclusion