Part 3--Worshipping Cmntye
1. What is worship?
It is the centering of life upon the Lord who alone is worthy
God alone is worthy.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”
1st commandment, Exodus 20:2, 3
Every human being will attach supreme loyalty to something. For some, it is their career. For others, it is their family. For others, it is the pursuit of material things. Whatever it is to which you attach ultimate worth, that is your object of worship. In fact, the word “worship” is nothing other than a simplification of the archaic term “worth-ship,” and it signifies the weight of our allegiance that we pledge to someone or something. God alone, however, is worthy of our worship. To him alone belongs infinite worth.
“Worship is the work of acknowledging the greatness of our covenant Lord.”[1]
“Worship is seeing the worth of God and giving God what he is worth.”
— Timothy J. Keller
Since worship is central to the life of God’s people in the new heavens and new earth, it should be central to the life of God’s people now.
² Isaiah 66:22-23
² Rev. 4:8-11
² Rev. 5:9-14; 7:9-17; 11:15-18; 15:2-4; 19:1-10
“Worship is a meeting at the center so that our lives are centered in God and not lived eccentrically. We worship so that we live in response to and from this center, the living God. Failure to worship consigns us to a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction, every siren. Without worship we live manipulated and manipulating lives. We move in either frightened panic or deluded lethargy as we are, in turn, alarmed by spectres and soothed by placebos. If there is no center, there is no circumference. People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose.”
— Eugene H. Peterson, Reversed Thunder
It is an affair of the heart.
Deut. 6:5 “You shall love the Lord our God with all your heart and will all your soul and with all your might.”
“The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and doth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might.”
Westminster Confession of Faith, XXI:1
“Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”
— St. Augustine
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer, Anglican Church
“If the heart of sinfulness is self-centeredness, the heart of all biblical religion is God-centeredness: in short, it is worship. In our fallenness we constrict all there is to our petty horizons. I think of all relationships in terms of their impact on me; my daydreams circle around my own life and circumstances; my goals and hopes invariably turn on my place in the universe…The sign that self is broken is true worship: God becomes the centre, the focus of delight, the joyfully acknowledged King, the Creator, the Redeemer.”[2]
² D.A. Carson
That which dominates our imagination and our thoughts will determine our life and character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we are worshiping, for what we are worshiping we are becoming.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
| !!! Core Value
We’re committed to the primacy of worship |
The primacy of worship for Christ’s church
Worship is the primary and first purpose of the church.
— Joseph F. (Skip) Ryan
Worship is the supreme and only indispensable activity of the Christian Church. It alone will endure…into heaven, when all other activities of the Church will have passed away.
— William Nicholls
“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.”
John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad
It is knowing and serving the Lord.
The connection between worshipping and knowing the Lord.
“Martin Luther claimed that ‘to know God is to worship him’. . . The shortest route to deeper and richer worship is a clearer theology. This will enable the worshipper to know who, and how great, God is.”[3]
The connection between worshipping and serving the Lord.
In the Old Testament, one of the most common Hebrew words for worship comes from the root word which means ‘servant’ (Ex 20:5; Dt. 6:13; 10:12; Jos. 24:15; Ps. 2:11).
& “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
Exodus 3:12
In the New Testament, two of the most important words for worship mean service (Rom. 12:1; Mt. 4:10; Lk. 2:37; Acts 26:7; Luke 1:23; 2 Cor. 9:12; Phil. 2:30).
“The implication is that Christian worship and service are essentially one.”[4]
2. Why do we worship?
To glorify the Lord. Worship is for the Lord because he alone is worthy.
“We live in an age and a culture that want instead to turn the worship of God into a matter of personal taste and time, convenience and comfort. Consequently, we need the biggest dose of God we can get when we gather for worship on Sunday morning—to shake us out of this societal sloth and somnambulism and summon us to behold God’s splendor and respond with adoration and service and sacrifice. Taking God seriously, being immersed in his splendor, unites us with a community that practices the alternative way of life of following Jesus, of participation in the kingdom of God.”
— Marva Dawn
A Royal “Waste” of Time
“All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!”
Psalm 22:23
To find in him our full enjoyment, life, love, satisfaction, purpose and identity
“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:4
Westminster Shorter Catechism # 1:
What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
We were created for the Lord, to worship and glorify him. Just as we need food and drink in order to survive, above all else in life we need to worship the one who made us, redeemed us, and takes care of us.
“We offer to him, on the altar of the heart, the sacrifice of humility and praise, and the flame on the altar is the burning fire of love. To see him as he can be seen and to cleave to him, we purify ourselves from every stain of sin and evil desire and we consecrate ourselves in his name. For he himself is the source of our bliss, he himself is the goal of all our striving.… For we direct our course towards him with love so that in reaching him we may find our rest, and attain our happiness because we have achieved our fulfillment in him.”
— St. Augustine (354-430) City of God
“God gives us various means to grow: prayer and Scripture, silence and solitude, suffering and service. But the huge foundational means is public worship. . . Regular, faithful worship is as essential to the growing Christian as food and shelter to the growing child. Worship is the light and air in which spiritual growth takes place.”
— Eugene H. Peterson
Because he has drawn us to himself for worship.
& “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
I Peter 2:9
Because it is a foretaste of our heavenly worship of the Lord. The eschatological character of it is such that we enjoy the “already” of our eternal enjoyment of the Lord, though we have “not yet” fully obtained it.
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
Hebrews 12:23, 24
Notice that the Scripture does not say merely that we shall one day enter that festival assembly. We are now come to it; when we worship God we draw near in Spirit to the heavenly Zion. Our praises blend with the song of the angels and the hallelujahs of those who have gone before.…
— Edmund P. Clowney
Living in Christ’s Church
Because we are to engage in doxological evangelism. We are called to worship before the nations. It is, therefore, inherently evangelistic.
Psalm 96:1-6
1Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
| !!! Core Value
We’re committed to zealously extending the gospel among us and beyond us |
2Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
Tell of his salvation from day to day.
3Declare his glory among the nations;
His marvelous works among all the peoples!
4For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
He is to be feared above all gods.
5For all the gods of the nations are worthless idols,
But the Lord made heavens.
6Splendor and majesty are before him;
Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Because gathered worship is the place where the means of grace converge.
God grows his people through grace (2 Peter 3:18). Certainly this occurs in our lives as we meet with him personally, but the context of gathered worship is the one place where all the ordained means through which God communicates his grace converge: the Word of God read and preached (Rom. 10:17), the Sacraments of Baptism (Acts 2:37-41) and Holy Communion (Luke 24:30-31), prayer, and fellowship (Acts 2:42).
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Heb. 4:16
3. How do we worship?
Introduction
“The modern world has scrambled things so badly that today we worship our work, we work at our play, and we play at our worship.”
— Os Guinness, The Call
Biblically
Our worship is governed by the Scriptures.
· Deut. 12:32
· Matthew 15:9
The regulative principle of worship
& WCF 20.1 “the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.”
Qualification # 1: Legitimacy for elements of worship can be established through logical deduction based on scriptural premises.
· WCF 1.6 “The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture.”
ü “Although Scripture prescribes the elements of worship, it does not always describe in detail how those elements are to be carried out. Preaching is an element of worship, let us say; but Scripture does not specify how many sermons there must be in a service, whether there should be only one preacher or several, how loud or softly one should preach, what text a preacher should use on a particular occasion, etc.”[5]
Qualification # 2: There’s freedom to determine “circumstances of worship” so long as they are consistent with the broader principles of Scripture.
· WCF 1.6 “there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.”
Worship and the influence of puritan simplicity in Presbyterianism.
Spheres of worship
The totality of our lives
· Rom. 12:1 “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.”
· I Cor. 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Privately
“Blessed is the man [whose]….delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.”
Psalm 1:1,2
With our families
· Deut. 6:3-25
· “The family is the church in miniature.”
John Calvin
With God’s people, corporately
Worship is a “meeting between God and his people.”[6]
“In worship, we come before God who loves us in the presence of the others whom he also loves. In worship, more than at any other time, we set ourselves in deliberate openness to the action of God and the need of the neighbor, both of which require us to grow up to the fullness of the stature of Christ, who is both God and man for us.”
Eugene Peterson
Approaches or Styles of Worship
· Traditional
· Contemporary
· Blended
Our approach to worship: Distinctives of worship at Christ the King.
Worship that is shaped by and in turn shapes our theology.
Worship is…
¨ the quickening of the conscience by the holiness of God;
¨ the feeding of the mind by the truth of God;
¨ the purging of the imagination by the beauty of God;
¨ the opening of the heart to the love of God;
¨ the devotion of the will to the purpose of God.
— William Temple,
Archbishop of Canterbury, 1942-44
& ¯ Music has a mysterious and wonderful ability to take the word of God to the heart and provoke a worshipful response to the Lord. The power of hymns and songs to inform and shape our theology therefore means that there is also an attending responsibility to be discriminating, with the content of all that we sing.
A blend of reverential awe and liberating joy.
Attention to both the transcendence and immanence of God.
“Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!” Psalm 96:9
Gospel driven and Christ-exalting
| !!! Core Value
We’re committed to the power of the gospel to transform the human heart |
“And I, When I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” I Cor. 2:1, 2
The entire movement of the service, from beginning to end, should be directing us to the gospel and the glory of Jesus, over against all the competing objects of far-lesser “glory” in the world.
Liturgical design that is a careful balance of form and freedom.
The liturgy is a conversation between God and his people; therefore, it is a prayer service.
| !!! Core Value
We’re committed to being a risky and prayerful church |
Acts 2:42 “And they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” The mentioning of the breaking of bread and the prayers is likely a reference to liturgy. Tim Keller writes, “This is almost certainly a reference to ‘liturgy’—to the service of the Lord’s Supper and to a discipline of praying called ‘the prayers.’ It was not random. There was an order to it. It had both an informal and formal aspect.”[7]
“Living worship and true liturgy are essentially the gospel in action—an action that, like all actions, has the terrifying potential of being able to speak louder than words…In some ways they are a kind of shorthand, quickly conveying what it would not be easy to put into words.”[8]
· We strive for a balance between form and freedom that maximizes participation.
Ancient and indigenous
Excellence because of the glory of God.
Appreciation for aesthetics in worship
Many in the reformed tradition have, out of concern for the the 2nd Commandment and, I believe, out of fear of Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox traditions, have neglected aesthetics to the detriment of the worship of the church—and in effect “thrown the baby out with the bathwater.” The 2nd commandment does not, however, forbid the use of art or symbols in worship because the tabernacle is designed with sophisticated appreciation for aesthetics. We see representations of heavenly and earthly things in the tabernacle. The second commandment forbids the bowing down to them and worshipping/serving them (Deut. 5:9).
Eager expectation and anticipation that unbelievers are worshipping among us (Psalm 96).
We are intentional in promoting a worship context that is user-friendly to the new person among us, particularly the unbeliever.
We, therefore, ovoid Christian ghetto-ized lingo in all contexts, particularly in worship service. Worship, preaching, and all communicating should be in the “vernacular.”
“Our purpose is not to make the unbeliever comfortable (in I Cor. 14:24-25 or Acts 2:12, 37). We aim to be intelligible to them. We must address their “heart secrets” (I Cor. 14:25). That means we must remember what it is like to not believe: we must remember what an unbelieving heart is like.”[9]
“In the preaching, showing continual willingness to address the questions that the unbelieving heart will ask. Speak respectfully and sympathetically to people who have difficulty with Christianity.”
The role of women within the worship services of Christ the King
The preaching of the word is reserved for gifted and trained men who are elders (I Timothy 5:17). The Bible assumes, however, that both men and women in the congregation will participate in the worship service through prayer (I Cor. 11:5) and other verbal elements (I Cor. 14:26). I Corinthians 14:33-35 instructs women to be silent in certain circumstances (ie. their participation in the examination of prophets and in their humble submission to the teaching authority of the church, reserved for the elder [I Tim. 2:12; 3:1, Titus 1:9]). The Session does not believe this limitation applies to all manner of corporate worship. Therefore, the Session believes that women may participate in a wide-variety of elements within our morning worship service.
Teaching from the pulpit during a formal worship service is reserved exclusively for a PCA ordained Teaching Elder or, in very rare instances, a man approved by the Session.[10]
The Sabbath or Lord’s Day
· Genesis 2:1-3
· Exodus 20:8-11
· Isaiah 58:13-14
· Matthew 11:28-12:14
· Colossians 2:16-17
& Westminster Confession, Chapter XXI:8
This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.
Calvin’s view of the Sabbath (from Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 2:8)
“There can be no doubt, that, on the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, the ceremonial part of the commandment was abolished. He is the truth, at whose presence all the emblems vanish; the body, at the sight of which the shadows disappear. He, I say, is the true completion of the sabbath: "We are buried with him by baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life," (Rom. 6:4). Hence, as the Apostle elsewhere says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ," (Col. 2:16, 17); meaning by body the whole essence of the truth, as is well explained in that passage. This is not contented with one day, but requires the whole course of our lives, until being completely dead to ourselves, we are filled with the life of God. Christians, therefore, should have nothing to do with a superstitious observance of days.
The two other cases ought not to be classed with ancient shadows, but are adapted to every age. The sabbath being abrogated, there is still room among us, first, to assemble on stated days for the hearing of the Word, the breaking of the mystical bread, and public prayer; and, secondly, to give our servants and labourers relaxation from labour. It cannot be doubted that the Lord provided for both in the commandment of the Sabbath. The former is abundantly evinced by the mere practice of the Jews. The latter Moses has expressed in Deuteronomy in the following terms: "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, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant,—that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou," (Deut. 5: 14.) Likewise in Exodus, "That thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed," (Exod. 23:12). Who can deny that both are equally applicable to us as to the Jews? Religious meetings are enjoined us by the word of God; their necessity, experience itself sufficiently demonstrates. But unless these meetings are stated, and have fixed days allotted to them, how can they be held? We must, as the apostle expresses it, do all things decently and in orders (1 Cor. 14:40). So impossible, however, would it be to preserve decency and order without this politic arrangements that the dissolution of it would instantly lead to the disturbance and ruin of the Church. But if the reason for which the Lord appointed a sabbath to the Jews is equally applicable to us, no man can assert that it is a matter with which we have nothing to do. Our most provident and indulgent Parent has been pleased to provide for our wants not less than for the wants of the Jews. Why, it may be asked, do we not hold daily meetings, and thus avoid the distinction of days? Would that we were privileged to do so! Spiritual wisdom undoubtedly deserves to have some portion of every day devoted to it. But if, owing to the weakness of many, daily meetings cannot be held, and charity will not allow us to exact more of them, why should we not adopt the rule which the will of God has obviously imposed upon us?
I am obliged to dwell a little longer on this because some restless spirits are now making an outcry about the observance of the Lord's day. They complain that Christian people are trained in Judaism, because some observance of days is retained. My reply is, that those days are observed by us without Judaism, because in this matter we differ widely from the Jews. We do not celebrate it with most minute formality, as a ceremony by which we imagine that a spiritual mystery is typified, but we adopt it as a necessary remedy for preserving order in the Church. Paul informs us that Christians are not to be judged in respect of its observance, because it is a shadow of something to come, (Col. 2:16); and, accordingly, he expresses a fear lest his labour among the Galatians should prove in vain, because they still observed days (Gal. 4:10, 11.) And he tells the Romans that it is superstitious to make one day differ from another (Rom. 14:5). But who, except those restless men, does not see what the observance is to which the Apostle refers? Those persons had no regard to that politic and ecclesiastical arrangement, but by retaining the days as types of spiritual things, they in so far obscured the glory of Christ, and the light of the Gospel. They did not desist from manual labour on the ground of its interfering with sacred study and meditation, but as a kind of religious observance; because they dreamed that by their cessation from labour, they were cultivating the mysteries which had of old been committed to them. It was, I say, against this preposterous observance of days that the Apostle inveighs, and not against that legitimate selection which is subservient to the peace of Christian society. For in the churches established by him, this was the use for which the Sabbath was retained. He tells the Corinthians to set the first day apart for collecting contributions for the relief of their brethren at Jerusalem, (1 Cor. 16:2). If superstition is dreaded, there was more danger in keeping the Jewish sabbath than the Lord's day as Christians now do. It being expedient to overthrow superstition, the Jewish holy day was abolished; and as a thing necessary to retain decency, orders and peace, in the Church, another day was appointed for that purpose.
It was not, however, without a reason that the early Christians substituted what we call the Lord's day for the Sabbath. The resurrection of our Lord being the end and accomplishment of that true rest which the ancient sabbath typified, this day, by which types were abolished serves to warn Christians against adhering to a shadowy ceremony. I do not cling so to the number seven as to bring the Church under bondage to it, nor do I condemn churches for holding their meetings on other solemn days, provided they guard against superstition. This they will do if they employ those days merely for the observance of discipline and regular order. The whole may be thus summed up: As the truth was delivered typically to the Jews, so it is imparted to us without figure; first, that during our whole lives we may aim at a constant rest from our own works, in order that the Lord may work in us by his Spirit; secondly that every individual, as he has opportunity, may diligently exercise himself in private, in pious meditation on the works of God, and, at the same time, that all may observe the legitimate order appointed by the Church, for the hearing of the word, the administration of the sacraments, and public prayer: And, thirdly, that we may avoid oppressing those who are subject to us. In this way, we get quit of the trifling of the false prophets, who in later times instilled Jewish ideas into the people, alleging that nothing was abrogated but what was ceremonial in the commandment, (this they term in their language the taxation of the seventh day), while the moral part remains—viz. the observance of one day in seven. But this is nothing else than to insult the Jews, by changing the day, and yet mentally attributing to it the same sanctity; thus retaining the same typical distinction of days as had place among the Jews. And of a truth, we see what profit they have made by such a doctrine. Those who cling to their constitutions go thrice as far as the Jews in the gross and carnal superstition of sabbatism; so that the rebukes which we read in Isaiah (Isa. 1:l3; 58:13) apply as much to those of the present day, as to those to whom the Prophet addressed them. We must be careful, however, to observe the general doctrine—viz. in order that religion may neither be lost nor languish among us, we must diligently attend on our religious assemblies, and duly avail ourselves of those external aids which tend to promote the worship of God.
“It is clear that, although attending the service meant risking one’s life or liberty, all Christians regarded it as an absolute obligation to be present each Sunday if it was in their power.”[11]
4. Sacraments
Introduction
“The [ancient] Christians were well aware that if they were to be a society with a coherent community life they could not live on a purely individualistic inwardness. They needed form and order, and they knew that the visible signs of baptism and Eucharist were dona data, God’s gifts to his church, verba visibilia, a visible actualization of the very substance of the gospel.”[12]
Meaning of Sacraments
· Comes from Latin term sacramentum that means “a solemn promise.”
· An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
& WCF 27.1
Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ, and his benefits; and to confirm our interest in him: as also, to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the church, and the rest of the world; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to his Word.
· They are signs of the gospel.
What Makes the Sacrament A Means of Grace?
& WCF 27.3
The grace which is exhibited in or by the sacraments rightly used, is not conferred by any power in them; neither doth the efficacy of a sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it: but upon the work of the Spirit, and the word of institution, which contains, together with a precept authorizing the use thereof, a promise of benefit to worthy receivers.
“They are real means of grace that convey the promises of God. Their power does not reside in the elements themselves, but in God, whose signs they are. Nor does their power depend upon the character or the faith of those who administer them, but on the integrity of God.”[13]
Difference between Roman Catholic, Baptist and Reformed View
² Roman Catholic: the sign and that which it signifies are one and the same—no distinction.
² Baptist: the sign is merely a symbol of that which it signifies and nothing more—a bare symbol.
² Reformed View: The sign and that which it signifies are distinct, but not separate.
“There is nothing in this world or out of this world, more to be wished by every one of you than to be conjoined with Jesus Christ, and once for all made one with Him, the God of glory. This heavenly and celestial conjunction is procured and brought about by two special means. It is brought about by means of the Word and preaching of the Gospel, and it is brought about by means of the Sacraments and their ministration. The Word leads us to Christ by the ear; the Sacraments by the eye…But there is one thing that you must always remember: there is doctrine either of the simple word or of the Sacraments, that is able to move us if Christ takes away His Holy Spirit. Therefore whenever you come to hear the doctrine, whether it be of the Sacraments or of the simple Word, ask that God may be present by His Holy Spirit.”
Robert Bruce, The Mystery of the Lord’s Supper, 1590.
What are the sacraments?
Roman Catholic View
1. Baptism
2. Confirmation
3. Holy Communion
4. Penance
5. Matrimony
6. Holy Orders
7. Extreme Unction
Protestant View
1. Baptism
2. Holy Communion
& WCF 27.4
There be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, baptism, and the Supper of the Lord: neither of which may be dispensed by any, but by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained.
“Every call to worship is a call into the Real World.…I encounter such constant and widespread lying about reality each day and meet with such skilled and systematic distortion of the truth that I’m always in danger of losing my grip on reality. The reality, of course, is that God is sovereign and Christ is savior. The reality is that prayer is my mother tongue and the eucharist my basic food. The reality is that baptism, not Myers-Briggs, defines who I am. Very often when I leave a place of worship, the first impression I have of the so-called “outside world” is how small it is—how puny its politics, paltry its appetites, squint-eyed its interests. I have just spent an hour or so with friends reorienting myself in the realities of the world—the huge sweep of salvation and the minute particularities of holiness—and I blink my eyes in disbelief that so many are willing to live in such reduced and cramped conditions. But after a few hours or days, I find myself getting used to it and going along with its assumptions, since most of the politicians and journalists, artists and entertainers, stockbrokers and shoppers seem to assume that it’s the real world. And then some pastor or priest calls me back to reality with “Let us worship God,” and I get it straight again, see it whole.”
— Eugene H. Peterson
5. Holy Baptism
Meaning of Baptism
“It signifies and seals a spiritual fact or relationship, namely, union with Christ and membership in his body the church. . . Baptism is the sign and seal of a spiritual reality.”[14]
Rom. 6:3, 5 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? . . . For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
It is a sign of engagement to Jesus Christ, implying that we are possessed by Jesus. All that he became for us and accomplished for us becomes ours in baptism.
Institution of Baptism
· Matt 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Mode of Baptism
· Ezekiel 36:25
· John 3:25, 26
We believe that pouring (or sprinkling) water and fully immersing a person in water are both valid forms of performing baptism. We pour water instead of immersing people for several reasons:
· It provides the greatest amount of continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the priests were required to sprinkle blood on people and objects that needed cleansing from sin (Leviticus 8:30). In Hebrews 10:22, Paul draws the connection between that sprinkling with blood and our washing with water in baptism.
· We believe baptism of the children of believers to be the biblical model (see below), and pouring or sprinkling is the best mode of baptism for infants.
· The Greek word from which the English word “baptism” comes (baptizo) should not be defined as “to immerse.” The word literally means “to wash,” and that washing can be accomplished without immersing the entire body in water.
Infant Baptism
The framework for approaching the subject
Theologian John Murray said, “the argument for infant baptism rests upon the recognition that God’s redemptive action and revelation in this world are covenantal.”[15]
Important passages and concepts
The essential unity of the old and new administrations of the covenant and their signs of entrance into the covenant community: circumcision and baptism.
· Colossians 2:11-12
· Romans 4:11
Is the child of the believer a pagan?
· I Corinthians 7:14
· Matthew 19:14
Headship and solidarity as exemplified in “Household Baptisms”
· The book of Acts
· Acts 2:38-39
“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
& WCF, 28.4
Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one, or both, believing parents, are to be baptized.
& WCF, 28.6
The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered; yet, notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited, and conferred, by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time.
What was the practice of the ancient church?
“Both East and West are at one in tracing infant baptism back to apostolic tradition.”[16]
The Efficacy of Baptism—does it save?
We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. We must keep in mind, however, baptism is a command of Christ and not a suggested option for a Christian. And curiously, “Christ and the apostles not only speak of the sign as if it were the thing signified but speak too as if receiving the former is the same as receiving the latter (I Peter 3:21-22).”[17]
When the crowd asked Peter what they must do to be saved in Acts 2:38, Peter instructed them to believe and be baptized. Although it is possible to be a Christian without being baptized (the thief of the cross in Luke 23:40-43), we must take seriously that baptism is a grace-filled command of Christ and should be treated as such and not as an option. Though you can be saved without being baptized, the normative pattern in the New Testament is that those who believe and are baptized are saved.
What about the efficacy of the baptism of infants? The belief that salvation is conferred upon a child during the act of baptism is known as “baptismal regeneration.” John 3:8, though, teaches that “the wind blows where it wishes” so that it is proper to understand a child’s heart being changed by the Holy Spirit either before, during, or after baptism. It is simply impossible to pinpoint the moment the Lord changes a child’s heart so that he moves from the state of being dead in sin to being alive in Christ. We do know, however, that John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb at the name of Jesus (Luke 1:41) and that others came to faith very late in life (thief on the cross). It is also certainly possible that the Lord in His grace will choose the time of baptism to change a child’s heart, but this is not promised in Scripture nor shown to be normative.
If I have been baptized in another church “does that count?” The only reason a person would ever be baptized more than once is if the first “baptism” did not conform to the requirements that it be performed with water, in the name of the Trinity, by a lawfully ordained minister, and with the prerequisite of faith in Jesus Christ (either on the part of the one being baptized or a child’s parents). In Ephesians 4:5 Paul affirms that there is “one baptism,” and we need not repeat the sacrament when we change churches or progress in our Christian walk.
How may we “improve” our baptism and fulfill our vows to others?
| !!! Core Value
We’re committed to passionately caring for and developing one another |
Baptism stands over the whole of our life by continually summoning us to repentance and faith. When we witness someone’s baptism, it mysteriously strengthens our own faith and draws our hearts closer to the reality to which the sign of our own baptism points.
When we witness the baptism of a young child at Christ the King, we take a vow to support the parents of the child in the Christian nurture of their children. Behind this vow is the understanding that the child is entering into the family of God’s people and the particular expression of that at Christ the King. Though the child’s parents are, in effect, the primary shepherds of the child, we are also affirming that we share responsibility as family members for one another. Discipleship is therefore a very organic and relational process whereby the power of the gospel, displayed through the sign of baptism, is nurtured in us through our passionately caring for one another and pointing one another to the spiritual reality behind the mystery of baptism.
6. The Eucharist/Holy Communion/Lord’s Supper
What is the Eucharist?
O sacramentum pietatis! O signum unitatis! O vinculum caritatis!
[O mystery of piety! O sign of unity! O bond of charity!]
— St. Augustine,
on the Eucharist
Names for it:
· The Eucharist
· Communion
· Lord’s Supper
· Breaking of Bread
When was it instituted?
It was instituted at the Last Supper, which took place in the context of the Passover. In effect, he was instituting the sign of the new covenant in the context of the sign of the old covenant.[18]
The Four Views of the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
Transubstantiationism (Roman Catholic View)
The bread and wine change into the literally, physical body and blood of Christ.
Consubstantiationism (Lutheran View)
The bread and wine do not change, but the presence of Christ is “in, with, and under” the bread and wine.
Memorialist (Zwinglian View: Evident in Baptist and Bible Churches)
The bread and wine are mere symbols of the death of Christ. Christ is not present, physically or spiritually.
Spiritual Presence (Reformed View, seen in Anglican and Presbyterian traditions)
The bread and wine do not change, but Christ is spiritually present to those who partake by faith.
ü WCF 29.7
Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements, in this sacrament, do then also, inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but spiritually, receive, and feed upon, Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death: the body and blood of Christ being then, not corporally or carnally, in, with, or under the bread and wine; yet, as really, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.
The Eucharist as a means of grace
Peter Leithart: “The Lord’s Supper is a foretaste of the joy and fellowship of the final wedding feast that Christ’s people will enjoy when the Bridegroom returns. Every time the church celebrates the Supper of the Lord, Jesus is there as host and guest. Every time the church celebrates the Lord’s Supper, the future kingdom is manifested in the present, and through the Spirit the kingdom’s power & life comes to us… “In biblical perspective, it is no exaggeration to say that the central act of the kingdom of God, and the most basic form of the kingdom in this world, is the sacramental feast of the people of God within God’s heavenly throne room, a feast that symbolizes and provisionally realizes the future feast of the consummation. Unless we keep the feast, we will not enjoy the blessings of the kingdom.””
The recipients of the Eucharist
Should unbelievers be admitted to the table? What about non-Presbyterians?
This question addresses the words printed in the communion section of the order of worship and the words the minister speaks before serving the bread and wine. These words come from the conviction that communion is a community meal in its broadest sense – it is a meal reserved for the Christian community. The apostle Paul goes further in 1 Corinthians 11:29 when he warns anyone who eats the bread and drinks the wine “without discerning the body” actually “eats and drinks judgment on himself.” For an unbeliever to take communion, therefore, is a very serious matter, and the minister sees it as his duty both to invite those who are Christians to the table, but also to warn unbelievers that they should avoid communion for their own good. We also believe that communion is such a powerful event that it should invoke a sort of righteous jealousy in an unbeliever that they would desire to join the community by trusting in Christ alone for their salvation.
We do not believe, however, that our celebration of the Eucharist is for members of our particular congregation only, or just Presbyterians for that matter. All those who genuinely embrace the gospel and are baptized members of a church that likewise embrace the gospel are welcome to partake of the Eucharist at Christ the King.
The way we fence the table at Christ the King.
What about “covenant children”?
The way we celebrate the Eucharist at Christ the King
It is a celebration.
Sometimes people ask why we sing songs during communion? For those who come from a church tradition where the Lord’s Supper was viewed as a somber and reflective time, our approach may be a difficult adjustment. If one thinks of communion only as a time to remember Christ’s death on the cross, it would be a somber event. But we believe that communion is not only a remembrance of his death, it is also a celebration of his victory over death, his rule at the right hand of God, and his promise to return to usher in eternal life for believers. We believe communion is a true meeting with Christ in a mysterious way and the Holy Spirit uses the bread and wine to strengthen our union with Christ. And this is cause for celebration indeed! It is also important to note that other aspects of the service such as the confession of sin are preparatory for communion. Another reason we sing corporately is that it reinforces the fact that we come to communion as a community of believers. Singing the same song together reminds us that Christ is building his church, and he allows the church access to the Lord’s Table.
“There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious.”
CS Lewis, The Last Battle.
It is received by coming forward.
One of the most neglected aspects of communion is that it is primarily a community meal and not an individual meal. While there certainly is an aspect of personal reflection and confession involved in communion, we primarily come to the Lord’s Table as a body of believers who are bound together in Christ. Coming forward and even the “happy chaos” up front communicates that we are the church and not simply a group of individuals who are only concerned about our personal relationships to Christ.
It is celebrated every Sunday.
This is certainly one of the most visible distinctives of our worship service. Why have we adopted this approach?
ü Because it is Biblical and historical. The Scriptures do not make it sufficiently clear to say that the celebration of communion wherever and whenever true Christian worship occurs is required. It does appear, however, that the clear pattern in the Scriptures is that the apostolic church celebrated communion as one of the regular elements of worship (Acts 2:42; 20:7; I Cor. 11:17-20; cf. 14:26). New Testament scholar Oscar Cullman notes that, “in the book of Acts instruction, preaching, prayer and breaking of bread are mentioned, and mentioned in such a way as clearly to show that these elements were from the beginning, the foundation of all worship life in the Christian community…We know now the basis of early Christian worship: Sermon, prayer, and supper.” It was considered to be the universal Christian custom to celebrate the Eucharist at least weekly by the time of Justin Martyr, early in the second century.[19] John Calvin believed strongly that “the Lord’s Table should have been spread at least once a week for the assembly of Christians” because the apostolic rule was that “no meeting of the church should take place without the word, prayers, partaking of the Supper, and almsgiving” (Institutes, IV.17.44). Martin Luther, though he had disagreements with Calvin (and our) view of the presence of Christ in communion, was in agreement that the Lord’s Supper should be celebrated at least weekly. And curiously, the renowned Baptist preacher, C.H. Spurgeon, evidently partook of the Lord’s Supper on a daily basis!
ü Because of what we believe about communion. We believe that communion is a ‘means of grace’ through which the Lord richly blesses us. We believe it is not just a remembering of the work of Christ, but a present communion with Christ (I Cor. 10:16) himself, where we find strength, renewal, and spiritual nourishment. The Westminster Confession of Faith affirms that communion actually “seals” all the benefits of Christ’s redemption to believers and enhances “their spiritual nourishment and growth in him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe unto him; and, to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him, and with each other, as members of his mystical body.” (Westminster Confession, XXIX:1).
ü Because it appropriately encourages us to experience Jesus and the gospel. Communion stirs up our faith, shows us Jesus and helps us experientially understand his teaching (Luke 24:30-32). It opens our eyes so that the rational truths of the sermon and liturgy are experientially known in the person of Jesus. Communion makes the heart cry out: “Oh, how delicious is the gospel!” as we “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8). In communion, we are able to hear, see, touch, taste and smell the good news of the gospel. Put differently, we need a balance between “intake” and “experience”. Jesus is the “bread of life” not the “sermon of life”. Someone at Christ the King once told me (Leo) that as he was enduring a very a dry time spiritually—sermons and other bible studies seem to ricochet off his heart; the one thing that really was meaningful to him was receiving communion.[20]
ü Because it will make us a more effective church in reaching the lost in an increasingly postmodern world. For a culture that is increasingly visually and experientially oriented, the Eucharist (biblical word that means “thanksgiving”) presents the gospel in a three-dimensional, visual manner and urges the unbeliever to come to Christ that they might “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 24:8). Because a person must be a genuine Christian before receiving communion, it provides us with a winsome alternative to what some churches have in an “altar call.” As we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (I Cor. 11:26), we invite unbelievers to really consider their standing before God and place their faith in Him. Or, as a friend of mine has put it, when we celebrate Communion, we remind Christian and non-Christian alike that “you are what you eat!” Interestingly, many other PCA churches that are extremely effective at reaching the unchurched individual celebrate Communion each time they worship together (The City Church in San Francisco, The Village Church in New York City and Intown Presbyterian in Atlanta, just to name a few).
ü Because it is mysterious. The Greek word from which we get the word “sacrament” means “mystery.” This is important in a very practical way. Many evangelicals have left the protestant church for either Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy over the last fifteen years or so. One reason for this is that evangelical Christianity has, in the words of one seminary professor, “sucked the mystery out of worship,” tending to present instead either an overly rational or entertainment based approach to worship, neither of which sufficiently quench the spiritual thirst of most postmodern people. Some evangelical churches focus almost exclusively on the rational aspects of the Christian faith. To be sure, our faith is rational and part of worship is to engage the mind on the truths of the faith and our consequent responsibilities. When this, however, becomes the approach to worship rather than a part of worship, the starving soul searches elsewhere. John Calvin himself appreciated the mystery of communion: “It is a mystery of Christ’s secret union with the devout which is by nature incomprehensible. If anybody should ask me how this communion takes place, I am not ashamed to confess that that is a secret too lofty for either my mind to comprehend or my words to declare. And to speak more plainly, I rather experience than understand it” (italics mine; Institutes, IV, 17 , 32). Similarly, the evangelical ‘entertainment’ model tends to be syrupy and lacks the other-worldly sense the soul longs to enjoy. By celebrating communion weekly, both of these short-comings of evangelicalism are addressed in a soul-satisfying way.
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[1] John M. Frame, Worship in Spirit and Truth (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1996), 1.
[2] D.A. Carson, “Worship the Lord Your God: The Perennial Challenge,” in Worship: Adoration and Action, ed. D.A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 13-14.
[3] “Worship” in New Dictionary of Theology, Sinclair B. Ferguson and David F. Wright, ed., (Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press, 1988), 730.
[4] Ibid., 731.
[5] John Frame, “Some Questions About the Regulative Principle” in The Westminster Theological Journal (volume 54, 1992), 359. Frame goes on to point out implications for worship based on his approach to the regulative principle: “It serves as a warning against applying…[the regulative principle] in a wooden manner,…by demanding specific proof texts to justify worship practices” (p. 366).
[6] Robert Webber, Worship Old & New (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982), 11.
[7] Tim Keller and J. Allen Thompson, Church Planter Manual (New York: Redeemer Church Planting Center, 2002), 33.
[8] Michael Marshall, Renewal in Worship (Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow, 1982), 68.
[9] Tim Keller, Redeemer Church Planting Manual, 124.
[10] This is an official policy of the Session of Christ the King Presbyterian Church. This policy provides ample ppportunities for women to teach at Christ the King: The teaching authority of the church resides with the Elders (Titus 1:9). Teaching within Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Sunday Morning Class or Home Group forums therefore must be under the authority of the Session (Elders). Accordingly, any member, regardless of gender, may teach within these forums provided the member has been approved in accordance with the Christ the King Teacher Approval Process. The Session recognizes that the normative practice in Scripture is that men taught more frequently than women.
[11] Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (London: Penguin Books, 1967), 262.
[12] Chadwick, 258.
[13] R. C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Wheaton, ILL: Tyndale, 1992), 223.
[14] John Murray, Christian Baptism (Phillipsburg: P & R Publishing Co., 1980), 83.
[15] John Murray, Christian Baptism (Philippsburg: P & R Publishing, 1980), preface.
[16] Joachim Jeremias, Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries, trans. David Cairns (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 57-58. Origen, the earliest explicit witness in the East, testified that “the Church received from the apostles the tradition of baptizing infants too.” Jeremias says that in order for Origin to have said this, he must have been baptized as an infant, which would have been in 185 AD. And since he came from a Christian family, it is reasonable to assume that his father, and perhaps even his grandfather, were baptized as infants as well, which would take the tradition back considerably further. Further, Origen traveled widely. He could hardly have written that infant baptism was the custom of the Church if he had evidenced the contrary during his travels (Jeremias, 65-66).
[17] J.I. Packer, Concise Theology (Wheaton, Ill: Tyndale Publishing, 1993), 210.
[18] Instituted on night he was betrayed and recorded in each of the synoptic gospels: Mt. 26:20-30; Mk.. 14:17-26; Luke 22:14-23. Paul then records the words of institution in I Cor. 11:23ff.
[19] Chadwick, 262. “Each Sunday they met for their ‘thanksgiving’ in which the baptized ate bread and drank wine in a sacred meal which they spoke of as ‘eating the body’ and ‘drinking the blood’ of Christ. To share in this sacred meal was so deeply felt to be the essential expression of membership of the society that fragments of the broken bread were taken round to any who were absent through illness or imprisonment,” 32.
[20] “Sometimes students or other persons struggling with a painful experience in their lives will come to me for counsel. I always say to them, ‘I’m not a counselor and I don’t have the tools necessary to help you with this problem. But I can suggest one thing—flee to the Eucharist. Get to the Table of the Lord just as fast as you can, because it is there that God can and does touch his people in a healing way.’ In all the years that I have been giving this advice, not a single person has come back and told me it is not true. On the contrary, many have affirmed that God through the Eucharist reached into their pain and touched them with his healing presence,” Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 111.