EPHESIANS 2:11-22 - The Worshipping Church: Who Worships?

Introduction

So a few weeks back our family had appointments with Joe’s Tux Shop to get outfits tailored (slips my mind at the moment why…) Going to a tailor is not the kind of thing we do every day, but there are certain events for which it’s really important to look your absolute best! (And sometimes there is a distressing amount of measuring and altering and “letting out” a tailor has to do to make you look your best…) Tailors have an eye for not only what fits, but what looks good; the kind of cut, style, color and so forth that suits an individual. So that when you look in the mirror, your outfit not only compliments your build but expresses your style.

We are beginning a series on the topic of “The Worshipping Church” this morning. A lot has been said about “worship styles”—what kind of music to use, what Bible to read from, what the architecture should be, and so on. As a result of the pandemic we have even seen churches re-thinking their worship on even more fundamental levels: Online church services and “streaming worship” that many churches turned to during COVID have become popular in their own right, with many churches making them a permanent part of their services.

For the most part, discussions about the gathered worship of the church—how a congregation goes about its activities on a Sunday morning—has been relegated to a discussion of personal tastes and preferences. Some people prefer worship that features passionate communion with Jesus, that real worship is found in those times when the Holy Spirit brings us into the presence of God in deeply personal and emotional encounters. Others insist on historic, doctrinal worship, focusing on the rich heritage of the ancient creeds and old hymns. Then there are those who say that the most important thing is outreach-driven worship that appeals to people outside the church, that the goal is attracting unbelievers so that they can come and hear the Gospel.

Unfortunately most discussions about the gathered worship of the church tends to be dominated by our culture’s consumer-driven attitude: Churches tend to look at what will make them relevant or attractive to people (both Christians and non-Christians alike). And that can be a good thing, when it comes from a sincere desire to see people come to hear the Gospel and be saved.

But all too often this pragmatic, “do-whatever-it-takes-to-get-people-here” approach has tended to weaken any understanding of what a church is even supposed to do in worship. As one author put it, in an effort to “church the unchurched”, our modern attempts at reinventing worship wind up “unchurching the church” (Merker, M., & Duncan, L. (2021). Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God’s People (9Marks: Building Healthy Churches) [E-book]. Crossway. p. 14)

And this is why I think that the corporate worship that a church conducts on Sunday morning is a lot like a trip to the tailor to get an outfit—because there is a deep and foundational connection between how a congregation sees itself as a church and the way it worships as a church. I believe that when we approach the Sunday service with a biblical view of the church body, it transforms the way we engage in gathered worship (ibid., p. 25). Like going to the tailor and looking into the mirror to see what fits and is appropriate,

The WAY a church worships flows from what it SEES itself to BE

My plan is for us to spend the next several weeks examining what the Bible says about the nature of the church with the end that we will have a Biblical perspective on the nature of worship.

A couple of quick stops on the way to our first point: The first thing that we must do is define what we mean by worship:

WORSHIP: The act of ASCRIBING to God the HONOR and GLORY and PRAISE that is due His NAME.

The Scriptures remind us that we were created to worship God—

The Christian life is a WORSHIPPING life

It is our rightful and fitting purpose. In Ephesians 1:12 the Apostle Paul writes that Christians tells us:

Ephesians 1:12 (ESV)

12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

We were destined and appointed to live to the praise of God’s glory—as the old Westminster Confession of Faith puts it, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We are created to worship, and Jesus’ death on the Cross has freed us from the death-penalty of our sins so that we are fit to carry out our purpose of worshipping God.

The Christian life is a worshipping life, and the second thing to understand is that

The Christian life is a CORPORATE life.

Throughout the Bible, God’s people are always a community of believers. Even though it is clear that each individual is ultimately responsible for their own standing before God in salvation, it is nevertheless true that everything about the life of a child of God—Old Testament and New Testament—is written of in terms of a congregation:

Exodus 19:6 (ESV)

6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation...

Psalm 35:18 (ESV)

18 I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.

Jesus speaks clearly about the corporate nature of faith in the Gospels:

Matthew 16:18 (ESV)

18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 18:20 (ESV)

20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

And the rest of the New Testament bears this out as well. The passage that we read earlier in Ephesians reminds us that when we were saved, we were saved to be part of a community:

Ephesians 2:19 (ESV)

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

1 Peter 2:10 (ESV)

10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

This description of the community of faith culminates in Revelation where the redeemed are described as

Revelation 7:9 (ESV)

9 ...a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb...

I hope you can see how this understanding of the corporate nature of faith is a vital part of our understanding of what our worship must be—we will spend eternity together as a congregation in worship! And so corporate worship here on earth must be a priority, since we will be doing it forever!

Being a Christian—being a worshipper of God—entails identifying with God’s worshipping people… Since salvation is corporate, then worship is corporate (ibid, 34).

So let’s spend the remaining time we have looking briefly at three portraits of the Church in the New Testament. A church’s worship flows from what it sees itself to be—and in Philippians 3, we see that the Church is

I. A COLONY of the KINGDOM of God (Philippians 3:20, p. 982)

Philippians 3:20 (ESV)

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

The city of Philippi (where the recipients of Paul’s letter lived) was founded as a Roman colony after Caesar Augustus defeated the assassins of Julius Caesar at a battle there in 42 B.C. He allowed some of his generals to retire there to Philippi and form a Roman colony.

Now, the thing about a colony is that it is an outpost of the kingdom it represents—when Paul says that we are “citizens of heaven”, what he means by that is that we represent the country we come from!

Back in March the girls went down to Washington D.C. for a field trip. There is a street in Washington D.C., Massachusetts Avenue NW, that is called “Embassy Row” because of all of the foreign offices for diplomats and ambassadors in that part of town. When you step inside one of those embassies, you are legally stepping onto foreign soil. You walk into the Canadian Embassy, for instance, you are actually in Canada.

That’s what a church is supposed to be! When someone walks into these doors, they should feel like they have crossed the border into the Kingdom of God! So this means that we must not think of ourselves as consumers when we come to worship—we must remember that we are ambassadors! And as ambassadors,

We don’t MAKE our own RULES

about what we do here, do we? Our activities here within these embassy walls, within the bounds of this colony, are done in submission to the charter of the Kingdom we represent! Whatever we do in worship, we must submit to what the Bible says. Just as an embassy orders its operations, its staff, its architecture and decor according to the country it represents, so a church orders everything it does and says around the Kingdom we represent!

In the same way, since we are colonists of the Kingdom of God,

We don’t DECLARE our own MESSAGE

An ambassador does not get to declare his own personal opinions on a matter, he declares the words of his Sovereign. We speak on behalf of the Kingdom that we represent; we declare Heaven’s judgments, and we must declare them the way our King does.

So worship is not ultimately up to us—we are not the final say as to what worship looks like according to what we think the world around us wants it to be. We are presenting what God wants the world to see—an “object lesson of the Gospel”, an imperfect (but accurate!) glimpse of what the world will look like when the dominion of Christ has taken over, and His colonization of this world is complete!

The way a church worships flows from what it sees itself to be—we are a colony of the Kingdom, and we are

II. A Holy TEMPLE (1 Corinthians 3:16, p. 953)

In 1 Corinthians 3:16, the Apostle Paul writes,

1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

The Scriptures teach that God is omnipresent—He is everywhere at all times, and there is no place where He is not. As Solomon said after he built the Temple in Jerusalem:

1 Kings 8:27 (ESV)

27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

And yet, throughout the Bible, we see that God is always dwelling specially among His people. In the Garden with Adam and Eve, in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, in the Temple in Jerusalem, in His own Son, Jesus Christ, and finally in the Body of Christ, the Church. Throughout all of time—from Creation down to the present day—

God’s DWELLING place has a CONGREGATIONAL shape (Ephesians 2:22)

Ephesians 2:22 (ESV)

22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

When you come to corporate worship here on Sunday mornings, you are not just coming here to have your own private devotional time in the same room where other people happen to be sitting. You are coming here to meet God Himself by meeting His Spirit-filled people!

Christian, the way that you come here to encounter God is not merely by sitting by yourself in your pew and meditating really hard on the sermon—God dwells in the midst of His people! And so when you come here and meet with and speak with the people of God here, you are in a very real way meeting with God Himself.

God’s dwelling place is not this building—God’s dwelling place is this people! And that means that

God’s PEOPLE have a PRIESTLY MINISTRY to each other (1 Peter 2:5)

Peter writes in his first letter:

1 Peter 2:5 (ESV)

5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Corporate worship—this act of coming together to ascribe to God the honor and glory and praise due His Name—is a priestly ministry to other believers. Corporate worship is the way that you meet with God through other believers, and it is the way others meet with God through you. And this is why—it has to be said—that streaming church services are not a substitute for worship. Because nobody on that screen is receiving any ministry from your presence.

The way a church worships flows from what it sees itself to be—knowing who we are as a church will influence our worship as a church. We are a colony of the Kingdom, we are the holy Temple of God, and we are

III. The BODY of CHRIST (1 Corinthians 12:24-27, p. 959)

1 Corinthians 12:24–27 (ESV)

24 ...God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Now think about this image—what does a body do? It grows, it takes in nourishment, it fights off disease. Every part of the body is important. If one body part is severed from the rest, it dies. This picture of the church as a body shows us some vital aspects of what corporate worship should be—it shows us that

We gather to BUILD UP each other (1 Corinthians 14:5; 12; 26)

In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul was trying to get the church in Corinth to quit putting so much emphasis on the miraculous sign gift of speaking in tongues. Listen to how he instructs them in this matter:

1 Corinthians 14:5 (ESV)

5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

1 Corinthians 14:12 (ESV)

12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

1 Corinthians 14:26 (ESV)

26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

Think of those times when you have barely been able to drag yourself to church on Sunday morning—you’re weary, downhearted, you don’t feel like worshipping at all. And then you look across the room and you see a fellow believer delighting in worship (Steve Null belting out “To The Word” at the top of his lungs, for instance!) and you are built up by their enthusiasm and joy in worship! You are part of a body that gathers to build each other up—and in Ephesians 4 we see that

We gather to EQUIP each other (Ephesians 4:12)

Paul says that all of the gifts and offices of the church body are meant

Ephesians 4:12 (ESV)

12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

Corporate worship is meant to be the time when you are built up in encouragement, and built up in your ability to minister the Gospel to others! This weekly gathering is one of the primary settings in which believers speak grace to one another, speak truth to one another, disciple one another, and in sharing our hope in Christ with one another we equip each other to share that hope with the world!

The body of Christ builds each other up and equips each other in its worship, and thirdly

We gather to UNITE WITH each other (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:13

1 Corinthians 12:13 (ESV)

13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

This is what our gathered worship must reflect—that no matter where we come from, we are united together in Christ! Our corporate worship needs to reflect the fact that whatever our background, whatever our educational or financial status, whatever our skin color or language, whatever things the world says should divide us—no matter what else we do or don’t have in common, we are united in one Body—the Body of Christ! We express that unity in our baptism, we express that unity by singing together, reading the Scriptures together, affirming creeds together, taking the Lord’s Supper together—all of it is meant to demonstrate that we are together in Christ.

The way a church worships flows from what it sees itself to be—we “tailor” our corporate worship according to what we see in the mirror of God’s Word held up to us to see what kind of body we are. What should our corporate worship look like? What does all this mean for how we gather to worship?

Remember that you are gathered here in worship as a colony of the Kingdom of God—we don’t “come to church to worship”; we worship because we are the church! You come here to live out the culture of the Kingdom you represent—this gathered worship is meant to deliver a message from our Homeland: “Be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ!” Our gathered worship must exude the sweet-smelling savor of the Good News of the Gospel the way Little Italy in New York City exudes the savor of fine Italian cooking!

Remember that as you gather here for worship on Sunday morning, you gather as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. You are the dwelling place of God! The real action on Sunday morning doesn’t take place on the platform; it takes place in the pew (ibid., p. 40). One of the most treacherous lies the Enemy ever introduced into a Christian’s thoughts is to look on Sunday morning worship as some sort of performance; something that happens “up on the platform” while everyone else is a spectator; something that you can “skip” if you don’t feel like watching at the moment, something you can “catch up on” later online.

But what God’s Word shows you this morning is that corporate worship is not a performance you can skip; it is a priestly ministry to one another that is short-circuited when you aren’t here! Your fellow members need to see you in the pew—they need to hear you singing along, they need to see you praying and attending to the Word. Your presence is a ministry to them (just as theirs is to you), for it is in their Spirit-filled presence that the presence of God Himself is mediated to you!

Remember that as you gather here for worship on Sunday morning, you gather as the Body of Christ. the Body’s health depends on your presence—and your health depends on your presence with this Body! Think back on the times when you have been prevented from attending the gathered worship of the church, whether through your own inattentiveness or because of circumstances beyond your control, or because you deliberately chose something else instead. Do you remember the way a sort of spiritual haze settled on you? Do you remember how much harder it seemed to spend time reading the Bible or praying, how God’s presence seemed somehow distant?

That wasn’t your imagination. That is what happens when a member of the Body is cut off (or cuts themselves off) from the gathered worship of the rest of the Body of Christ. You simply were not made to worship God only in isolation; the entire scope of the Bible testifies to God’s design that worship be together with His family.

This family is like no other family on earth—a family tied not by a common bloodline, but a family knit together by the blood of Jesus Christ that has washed every one of us and made us into His children. If you belong to this family, then you belong here—united in one Body, a part of the Temple of the Living God, a Colony of the Kingdom of Heaven.

And if you are a stranger here—you have crossed the threshold of this Embassy of the Kingdom and you realize you are standing on foreign soil—then the message from the King we bring to you this morning is that you are welcome to become a citizen of this Kingdom! Renounce your allegiance to your sin, lay down your rebellion against His authority and call on Him to wash you by His blood so that you may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Him—a place here in His Kingdom, a place here in His Temple, a place here in His Body—your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 (ESV)

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What are some of the common ways that our culture has affected the way we think about gathered worship? How does a consumer-mentality, for instance, shape the way churches go about planning a worship service?

How does understanding the nature of the church help us answer questions about the nature of worship? How is our worship shaped by understanding that we are a colony of the Kingdom of Heaven? A holy temple? The Body of Christ?

Read through the order of service found in your bulletin. What does the worship service here at Bethel reveal about how we think of ourselves as a church?