Worship-01B-Dare-to-Care

DARE-TO-CARE WORSHIP (CONT.)

The New Regenerated Life

�� Now that the funeral is over, what?� People do not just automatically "snap out of it" after the funeral.� Congregations cannot.� After the funeral, there is a whole strange new life ahead.� A life so completely different that we can hardly fathom it.� Life without the way we always were before?� Life without all those activities we always had to do together?�

�� It may be that in the nights that follow when your congregation assembles, you will reach over and long for that which you miss so much, just like a widow or widower in the night.� Oh, to have things back the way they always were.�

�� But a new life means just that:� A new life.� A life of starting all over again as though we were just born.� Just born, like the first congregation in the history of mankind.� Is that possible?� Could it be?� Can any congregation be just like the first congregation of the church of Jesus in history?� Can we possibly know what they were like?� Is there enough written about them to know?

�� Oh, to be like them!� Oh, to start over so fresh that everyone in our congregation feels they, too, are newborn with us.� So fresh that everyone in our neighborhood feels they can be newborn with us.� Oh to have the same form and spirit as they did so that lonely and frustrated souls can be brought to the Lord every day (Acts 2:47).

�� God, I'm not sure we can do it.� We've been like this since we organized years ago.� Change is too frightening.� What if we lose control?� How can we possibly do it?

God's New Last Will and Testament

�� What does it take to be like the church was in its infancy back there in Jerusalem?

�� First, we need to recognize that there have been many changes to the church since then.� Some call it growing and maturing.� But, if we are going to be like the infant church of the first century, we new-borns must go back to doing things as they did.

�� Well, didn't Martin Luther accomplish that?� After all, he got rid of the priest-laity system, and he got rid of indulgences that "paid" in full the penalty for our sins, and he got rid of the worldly headquarters at Rome.� Didn't Martin Luther go all the way back to that first-century church?

�� We must realize that, by Martin Luther's time, there were hundreds and hundreds of church laws.� To work backwards and one by one strip away each law is practically, if not actually, impossible.� By sifting through them all, eliminating some and keeping the rest until we can figure them out, is not restoring our infancy.� It may take us back to an earlier age, but it is not a complete restoration.

�� Darryl Tippens wrote "Rediscovering Christian Worship" for 21ST CENTURY CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE.� He began his article this way:

�� "Saul Bellow, the prize-winning American novelist, tells of his visit to an Israeli kibbutz, a small farming community near Herod's Caesarea.� Bellow was struck by the fact that Roman ruins lay all about the farm....[While they were plowing] a field one day they turned up an entire Roman street.

�� "As I read Bellow's description, I couldn't help thinking of the state of today's Christians who seek to renew Christian worship.� Just as those modern citizens of Israel carry out their mundane chores on top of a buried classical culture, today's Christian worshipers live atop a rich spiritual past which they only dimly recognize.� How these worshipers would be nourished if only they could get in touch with the resources of their past!

�� "Much of Christian worship today is safe, predictable, and orderly, but it also may be dull, lifeless, and shallow.� Does it have to be?� Not at all.� Christians everywhere are seeking and finding biblical ways to improve their public worship....

��"We need archaeologists of the spirit who can sift the past of biblical tradition and restore the rich possibilities for devoting ourselves to our Maker.� Fortunately, there are churches today still practicing these lost-forgotten elements of worship, and they have much to teach us, if we will listen and observe." 19

�� What would those farmers have if they dug up those classical ruins and incorporated them with the houses and barns they presently have?� They certainly would not have a restored first-century.�

�� But that's exactly what we've been doing for centuries to try to recreate first-century worship.� We only got rid of what we were doing that we didn't like, and filled it in with first-century worship we happened to like.� This is not restoring the original.� This is reforming what we presently have with just SOME of the original.� Reformation is not Restoration.

�� Centuries ago there was a grand Reformation Movement.� Its purpose was to reform the world-controlling Catholic Church by sifting through all its practices and trashing all that we did not agree with.�

�� As a result, we came up with major denominations beginning with the Lutherans, then the Episcopalians, then the Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and so on.� People who attend one of the major denominations are part of the Reformation Movement.

�� Although this was an outstanding movement with God's blessings, they did not go far enough.� They did not put completely to death the church as it was in their day and let it start all over again, resurrected as a first-century church in its infancy.

�� Probably the main thing that has interfered with congregations returning to the way things were in New Testament times is our not understanding that God has taken mankind through three eras, and his rules for one era never applied to actions in the other eras.

Ages of Mankind's Life

�� The first era could be called the "Father Age."� It lasted from the creation to the time of Moses.� In those days, there was no organized religion as such.� Each family worshipped the way the father led them.� The book of Genesis covers this "Father Age."

�� Romans 1:19-23 explains that "since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

�� "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him....and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."

�� However, there were a few godly people.� Job, for instance, lived in this "Father Age" and whenever his grown children got together for a feast, "Job would send and have them purified.� Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, 'Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.'� This was Job's regular custom" (Job 1:5).

�� This first era was God's way of showing mankind that we, left on our own with our own imagination, cannot be perfect.

�� The second era was called the "Mosaic Age."� God selected one nation on earth to give his special law to ~ the Jews.� He gave it to them through Moses on Mount Sinai.� The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy lists all the laws, about six hundred in all.� They covered types of worship God wanted from them (such as having a high priest and going to the temple three times a year) and the way they should live day to day (such as not eating pork and circumcising boy babies eight days after birth).

�� This second era was God's way of showing mankind that we still - even with every conceivable type of law to show us how - can't be perfect.� In fact, Romans 3:20 says, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin."

�� Romans 2:12 says, "All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law."� And later in his explanation, God concludes, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

�� The third era is called the "Christian Age."� Colossians 2:14 says, "Having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross."� Ephesians explains this further by saying that Jesus destroyed the old law, "by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations"(2:15).

�� The book of Hebrews in the New Testament says that Jesus was without sin (4:15); he is the only one who ever kept the laws of the Old Testament perfectly.�

�� There is a reason for calling the first half of the Bible the Old Testament, and the second half the New Testament.� Hebrews 9:15 explains that Jesus "is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first [old] testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance" (KJV - Hebrews 9:15).

�� We all know what a last will and testament is.� The Bible is God's.� He had one last will and testament until Jesus came - the Old Testament.� Then he changed his will.�

�� "For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.� For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth"(KJV - Hebrews 9:16-17).

�� The Old Testament was kept in effect by the death of lambs.

��"Whereupon neither the first [old] testament was dedicated without blood...according to the law [of Moses], he took the blood of calves and goats...saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you"(KJV - Hebrews 9:18-20).

�� Likewise, the New Testament was put into effect by the death of the Lamb of God (John 1:29).

�� "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many" (KJV - Hebrews 9:28).

�� What does all this mean?� It means that we are not to keep the Old Testament, whether it be from the "Father Age" where individual families were led by worship by their fathers, or from the "Mosaic Age" where people were hounded day in and day out with hundreds of minute laws.

�� James, the brother of Jesus said, "Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10).� The apostle Paul warned in Galatians 3:10, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written:� 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do EVERYTHING written in the Book of the Law.' "

�� Therefore, if on Sundays we use one kind of worship from the Old Testament, we have to use all the other kinds.� And that includes animal sacrifices, having a temple, not eating pork, reporting to priests when we recover from illnesses for permission to return to worship, living in tents one week a year, etc.�

�� Paul says it again in Galatians 5:3:� "Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the WHOLE law [of Moses].� You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."

�� Pulling things equally out of the Old Testament and the New Testament to guide us in worship is throwing us into confusion.� Paul said so himself, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit:� "You were running a good race.� Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?...The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty"(Galatians 5:7, 10).

�� As stated earlier, what would we have if we mixed the ruins of ancient buildings with buildings that have been built since then?� We would not have a restoration of the ancient building.� But that is what we have been doing in our worship.

�� As a result, we are confusing people. �And we are missing the real intimacy that simple and true New Testament worship offers us.� As a result, people are popping in and out of churches searching for an immediate sense of spirituality among the worshippers and an immediate sense of connectedness with God that they are not getting.

�� We want that, God.� We want to be like the first century Church.� But how?� How can we know what it was really like?� Help us.

Restoring First-Century Worship

�� Believe it or not, a large part of the way most protestant congregations worship today is a direct influence of the Roman Catholic Church, and their influence was the Old Testament.�

�� Many Catholic additions to and changes in our worship were resurrected from the Old Testament Law of Moses.� Most are nearly carbon copies of Jewish worship except for animal sacrifices.� There is even a movement among Protestants to rebuild the Temple on its old foundation in Jerusalem.� What in the world for?!� God destroyed it.� How arrogant of us.

�� Infant baptism was introduced in 187 AD, copying the Jews who circumcised babies.� They made it church law in 1457.� Sprinkling as a form of baptism was introduced in 250 AD, but was not very well accepted until the twelfth century.�

�� Also in 250, some bishops began saying people could not receive the Holy Spirit, even after baptism, unless it was conferred by the bishop.� This became church law in 1275.

�� In 318 AD, it was declared that the church creed has supremacy over anything written in the Bible.

�� In 451 AD the church said that people had to go to the clergy for a clear interpretation of the scriptures.

�� That same year priests began wearing sacred vestments, copying priests under the law of Moses, and it was made church law in 850 AD.�

�� Also in 451, the Roman Church insisted church heads refrain from changing their dress to the more modern styles, saying they must imitate the clothing of our first parents, Adam and Eve. �It was also in imitation of the Jewish practice of the priests wearing special vestments for respect.� It was made official in 850 AD.

�� In 600 AD the church declared that its traditions were to be kept in matters of salvation and worship, regardless of what the Bible said.

�� In 666 AD musical instruments were introduced into Christian worship, copying the Jews who had instruments during the daily worship at the temple.

�� In 1079 candles were introduced into worship, copying the use of candles in the Jewish temple, and it became church law in 1611.� Incense was introduced into worship in 1079 copying the use of incense in Jewish worship, and it became church law in 1213.

�� In 1095, common Christians were told they could take the bread if given by a bishop, but not the cup ever, by copying Old Testament Jewish priests who drank the wine part of the sacrifices.�

�� In 1215, taking the Lord's Supper was declared to be necessary only once a year, copying the Jews who celebrated the Passover Feast once a year, and it became church law that same year.�

�� In 1274, the church announced that presbyters (elders) were the same thing as pastors, and pastors were the same thing as priests.� Therefore, priests and pastors could head the local congregations.� This was copied from Aaron's descendants in the Old Testament being priests.

�� In 1495, choirs were introduced, copying the choirs in the Jewish temple.� In 1547, the use of choirs became official, and their wearing of vestments like the priests was required.� This copied the Jewish use of choirs in the temple and their wearing fine linen vestments.

�� In 1547, the Catholic Church declared ministers and pastors had to be ordained, copying Jewish priests and Levites being ordained in the Law of Moses.�

�� The Old Testament not only proved our sinfulness, but it showed on a literal and material level what Christians are to do on a spiritual level.� The Old Testament is a commentary for the New Testament.� Galatians 3:24-25 says the Old Testament is our schoolmaster.� We cannot fully understand or appreciate the benefits of Christianity without studying the Old Testament with its literalness.�

�� For instance, Romans 12:1 says we are to offer our own bodies as daily sacrifices, not the bodies of animals.� Christians are to circumcise our hearts (Romans 2:25-31).� All Christians are priests (1 Peter 2:5-9).� All Christians, as priests, wear vestments of sinless white.� Christians are to pluck the harp strings of their heart (Ephesians 5:1).� Jesus is our high priest (Hebrews 2:17-3:1) and only potentate (1 Timothy 6:15).� Each candle used in the temple is now a congregation of the church (Revelation 1:20-2:1,5).� The incense of worship is the prayers of Christians (Revelation 8:34).�

�� May we never substitute our glorious and New Testament with its spiritual law of grace for all the material and literal things that had to be practiced under the restricting and Old Testament.� The more we practice Old Testament forms of worship, the less we touch hearts and lives in our public worship.�

�� While the Old Law of Moses brought God into a somewhat personal relationship with mankind, it was nothing compared with the New Law of Grace which brought us into the very presence of God's throne of grace.� Who, in their right mind, would want to go back?

�� God literally poured out his heart in his Word (Proverbs 1:19, 23; John 1:1-3).� How could anyone arrogantly believe they could improve on it?� To worship God or man?

�� Look over the chart at the end of this chapter.� See where many of these things were lifted out of the Old Testament, despite teachings in the New Testament to not do them.� None of the Reformers sifted through all the hundreds of Catholic Church laws.� It was too difficult.� So they kept a lot of it.� Which ones do our congregations follow?� By following them, whether or not we knew it before, we are still following the pope!�

�� The only parts of the Old Law of Moses Christians are to keep are those things which were repeated in the New Testament.� For instance, every one of the Ten Commandments was repeated in the New Testament except "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy."

�� God, I didn't know.� None of us did.� Even our pastor didn't realize this.� God, we're confused.� We want to please you.� How?� How do we find out how and then actually do it?

The Island and Blank Sheet of Paper

�� Let us try to pretend that we and our friends have been pagans on an isolated island somewhere, a Bible suddenly dropped out of the sky, and we were just converted to Christianity.�

�� There are no church buildings around and no one we know ever heard of church buildings, so we have no concept of them.� Our past pagan religion had few rituals for individuals, and did not require formal public gatherings, so we have no concept of a "worship service."

�� We were left with only a Bible.� Is that enough?� Now, what do we do?� Obviously, we must start from square one.�

�� In order to start from square one, we must pretend we haven't ever worshipped God before.� Just keep as our motto:� Where the Bible speaks, we speak.� Can we do it?� Yes!� BY GETTING OUT A BLANK SHEET OF PAPER, SEARCHING THE NEW TESTAMENT, AND NOTING ONLY THOSE THINGS THE CHRISTIANS DID IN THEIR FIRST-CENTURY WORSHIP.�

�� And remember the remainder of our motto:� Where the Bible is silent, we remain silent.� If it doesn't mention a particular form of worship, it cannot appear on our list.

�� We will end up with the Christian world that the first century converts lived in.� In the process, we will also find out why they attracted so many and grew so fast.

�� So, when the early Christians "came together on the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7), what did they do?� Did they suddenly begin having all the formalism we have today?� Or has formalism evolved to the detriment of a personal and personable type of worship?

�� If first-century Christians attended one of our worship services today, how comfortable would they be?� Would much happen that they were familiar with?� Would we be spending much more time on something they considered less important, and much less time on something they considered more important?� Just what is important anyway?�

�� Do you think any of them left their worship services feeling lonely?� Do you think they avoided any visitors searching for answers?� Answers to who and what they were?� Answers to who and what God was?� Answers to how Jesus could touch their lives?

�� And, by the way, how comfortable would Jesus be?

�� God, everyone told me I had this talent to do things in front of the congregation.� I want to use my talent for you.� How can I do that and get intimate with the other members at the same time?

Meeting Loneliness in the Heart

�� Back in the days when the Law of Moses was being kept, God condemned Jewish priests, even though they were doing exactly what God had told them to do in worship.� Why?� Because they were being self-serving and legalistic and not reaching out to others.� Here is what he said:

�� "The multitude of your sacrifices - what are they to me?...Stop bringing meaningless offerings!� Your incense is detestable to me.� New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations - I cannot bear your evil assemblies....When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you....wash and make yourselves clean....learn to do right!� Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.� Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow"; (Isaiah 1:11-17).

�� Then when the Christian Age started, did the early church grow because of the great choirs or magnificent organs?� Did it grow because the church services were more exciting than the pagan temple services down the street?� Did it grow because Sundays at church were more entertaining than Sundays at the amphitheater on the other side of town?�

�� Christians in the first century were willing to die for the God they worshipped and the way they worshipped.� Are we?� Would we be willing to die for the way we worship?� Or is the whole thing boring?

�� This is what was written about 150 AD in a Letter of the Smyrnaeans, and includes also an account of how far those early Christians were willing to go to defend their simple way of worshiping God:

�� "For it is the office of true and steadfast love, not only to desire that oneself be saved, but all the brethren also....seeing that when they were so torn by lashes that the mechanism of their flesh was visible even as far as the inward veins and arteries, they were endured patiently...

�� "...none of them uttered a cry or a groan....And they found the fire of their inhuman torturers cold....And in like manner also those that were condemned to the wild beasts endured fearful punishments, being made to lie upon sharp shells and buffeted with other forms of manifold tortures....

��"....[a youth] used violence and dragged the wild beast towards him[self], desiring the more speedily to obtain a release from their unrighteous and lawless life." 20

�� Dear reader, let us clear our minds, now, as we begin our pursuit of first-century worship.� Clear it of all the formalism and decorous buildings and preconceived notions of what works and doesn't work.�

�� Let us open our hearts to the possibilities in worship that may have escaped us.� Grab hold of them, wrestle with them, and in the process perhaps even submit to them.

�� Think of all the loneliness in the world.� Our own loneliness.� The loneliness of others.� The loneliness of God as he pursues us and cries out, "Look at me!� Really look at me!� I love you!"

�� Think of the Savior we all wish to find and embrace together.

�� Oh, God.� We've got so caught up in our traditions.� Forgive us.� We didn't mean to.� Help us see ourselves as we are, see the lost and lonely as they are, and see you as you are.� Help us see clearly, even through the mist of our tears.

Second-Century Church

�� Written about 95 AD, the Epistle of Clement, v. 59 relates this:� "Save those among us who are in tribulation; have mercy on the lowly; lift up the fallen...convert the wanderers...raise up the weak; comfort the faint-hearted.� Let all the Gentiles know...." 21

�� An Ancient Homily written about 120 AD by an unknown Christian says in verse 13:� "Neither let us desire to please one another only, but also those men that are without, by our righteousness, that the Name be not blasphemed by reason of us....For the Gentiles, when they hear from our mouth the oracles of God, marvel at them for their beauty and greatness; then, when they discover that our works are not worthy of the words which we speak, forthwith they betake themselves to blasphemy, saying that it is an idle story and a delusion. 22

�� A letter written about 150 AD by an unknown Christian who called himself a "disciple of Apostles," explains Christianity to a non-believer, Epistle to Diognetus, v. 1, 5, 9:� "Since I see, most excellent Diognetus, that thou art exceedingly anxious to understand the religion of the Christians....they love all men....they are reviled and they bless; they are insulted, and they respect...being punished they rejoice....

"....being convicted in the past time by our own deeds as unworthy of life, we might now be made deserving by the goodness of God....He hated us not, neither rejected us, nor bore us malice, but was long-suffering and patient....O the sweet exchange, O the inscrutable creation, O the unexpected benefits....we should believe in His goodness and should regard Him as nurse, father, teacher, counsellor, physician, mind, light, honour, glory, strength and life." 23

If you have questions or comments about this chapter,
you are welcome to join our Godfind discussion group.

Return to Table of Contents

Detailed Table of Contents

Endnotes for This Page

[19]� Tippens, Darryl, "Rediscovering Christian Worship," 21st Century Christian Magazine, December 1991, pg. 19.

[20]� "Letter of the Smyrnaeans," Lightfoot, J. B., Translator and Editor, The Apostolic Fathers, Baker Book House, 1965, pg. 109-110.

[21]� The Apostolic Fathers, "To the Corinthians" by Clement of Rome, pg. 39.

[22]� Apostolic Fathers, "An Ancient Homily by an Unknown Author," pg. 49.

[23]� Apostolic Fathers, "The Epistle to Diognetus," pg. 251-257.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws