You can watch the sermon here.
SERMON TITLE: Worship
TEXT: John 4:23–24
SPEAKER: Shaun Meloy
DATE: 6/28/20
Hello, Gateway Church it is great to be with you! So, let's go ahead and address the obvious: I've been serving from the platform at Gateway Church since 2008 and this is my first time being in the pulpit. So, however weird you feel seeing me sitting here right now and not standing over there with my guitar I can assure you it's exceedingly weirder for me. This is not my normal role and so it’s not in my “wheelhouse” so to speak. In my view the preaching of God's word should be approached with reverence and sober-mindedness because you want those listening to be in awe of who God is and walk away with a passion to worship him as a result. So, I’m going to attempt to get us all there in the next 30-odd minutes.
Before we get into it, I want you to know that God loves you and I love you, too.
So, today I'm going to talk about one of the most divisive topics in church history: politics. Just kidding, we're going to talk about worship, but worship still stands as one of the most argued over topics in church history. Since I'm the worship director here at Gateway Church, Pastor Josh, in a stunning lapse in judgment, asked me if I would be willing to preach on the topic and I, with all the wisdom of a two-year-old playing with a roman candle, said, "Sure, why not."
Now, we're not going to get into the really saucy stuff that gets people all worked up like guitars and drums vs pipe organs, but instead I want to define what worship is –the foundations and theology– and once we orient ourselves to those pieces, how then do we respond? What shape does our worship take? How does it inform our value of worship here at Gateway?
So, if you would, turn in your bibles to The Gospel of John chapter 4, we’ll be focusing our attention there today, but we need to be on the same page with respect to what worship is, first.
The English word “worship” comes from combining the words worth and ship together. You put them together and you get “worship,” but what are we talking about? As one pastor put it, "Worship is our response, both personal and corporate (the church), to God for who He is, and what He has done; expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live." To simplify that even more: it's our response to God for who he is and what he has done. One thing to take note of is our worship should be Godward-focused, and not self-focused. We don't worship ourselves and what we do, we worship God for who he is and what he has done. Let me take that a step further to say we worship him for what he is doing as well. This is an important point to lean into, because sometimes we rob ourselves of the joy of knowing we worship the Living God, who is working in and through us, and around us. He's not some distant god who has no interest in interacting with his people; He is active and moving, right now.
One pastor said, "We are never not worshiping," meaning we're always worshiping something. Baked into our DNA is a need to worship something. We were created for the express purpose of worshiping our Creator, God, but when Adam and Eve sinned it broke stuff and it created disorder and so in our disorder, in our flesh, we want to worship everything but God. We worship people, material goods, money, status, sex you name it we'll worship it.
And that’s where our struggle is: turning our worship away from things, turning it towards God, and in order to do this we need the Triune God (Father, Son, and Spirit) to make it happen. God the Father sends the Son, the Son comes to save us, the Father and Son send the Spirit so we can embrace Christ as Savior and worship rightly. Apart from that work, we cannot worship in spirit and truth, which get into shortly, but we cannot worship God rightly –in a way that is pleasing to Him– unless the Spirit empowers it. And this is a part of the Spirit’s work in our life.
A good place for us to start is to know exactly how seriously God takes worship, and for that we can look to Psalm 139:3, the psalmist says:
I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. [emphasis added] (ESV)
It’s clear: God has exalted his name and his word about all things. Not above some things, but all things. If God exalts his name and his word above all things, so should we.
So let's get into John 4, and I just want to give some background on what's taking leading up to our text for today. We find Jesus in his ministry to people throughout Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to Gentiles. He and his disciples are passing through Samaria and they're tired, so they go to a nearby well to rest. The disciples head out to buy food and Jesus stays behind and this is the scene of a well-known conversation Jesus has with a Samaritan woman who comes to the well to draw water. And as she's drawing water Jesus, a Jewish man, says to her, "Give me a drink." This is odd for the woman because, as I said, Jesus is a Jewish man, this woman is a Samaritan. If your first century Jewish/Samaritan relations is rusty, things were not what many would call "relational" between the two. They didn't have dealings with one another. So for a Jewish man to ask her such a thing surprised this woman. And Jesus being Jesus, breaks the cultural barrier in verses 10–22 he leads her through a discussion that helps her to see He is the Messiah and in the middle of it he sets both the woman, and us, straight about the nature of worship.
We pickup in John 4 beginning in verse 23:
23 But the hour is coming (this is Jesus talking), and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24, ESV)
And here Jesus lays the groundwork for what worship should mean for us: worship Him in spirit and truth.
WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND TRUTHWe have two verses here and it's worth highlighting, if you haven't already, both verses reference worshippers worshiping in spirit and truth. This is how we are to worship: in spirit and in truth. So what does that mean?
Well, spirit and truth here point us to the how and the who of our worship. As one pastor put it, "Together the words “spirit and truth” mean that real worship comes from the spirit within and is based on true views of God. Worship must have heart and worship must have head." So, there has to be a connection between the worship of our hearts, and the worship of our intellect. It can't just be head-knowledge. We can't just say, "Well, I know Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior." That’s important, but that’s part of how we are to worship; there has to be spirit included in that as well. We have to worship from a changed heart, we have to feel the emotion of knowing Christ is Lord and Savior down in our bones and know we were dead in our sins and transgressions and left without hope until Christ redeemed us from the penalty of our sin. He pulled us up out of our mess and gave us a new life with him for all eternity.
Our lives should be bursting with joy because we've been given the glorious gift of salvation and there is no tongue or accusation that can condemn us if we are found in Christ;, our hope is secure. What does that look like for me? Well, despite being introverted, I’m loud. Ask any of my co-workers and they’ll tell you that I can be very loud in private. When we’re allowed the congregate in the lobby again, you won’t see me walk out and be loud. Nor will you see me being loud at a store, but in private, I’m loud. And it’s because I’m joyful. Up here with this band and my guitar, I’m joy-filled and it manifests in how I lead worship. This isn’t going to look the same for everyone, but it’s what it looks like for me.
There is caution to observe as well. Worship is a matter of the heart and the heart must be involved. Jesus warns about this in Matthew 15:8 when he says, "This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me." (ESV) Do you hear what Christ is saying here? To honor him with our lips when our hearts are far from him, is worshiping in vain. It means our worship is effectively nothing. There’s no heart dimension to it. We can do as many good deeds and sing as many songs as we want, but if there is no engagement of our heart, it's all in vain.
And even though the heart dimension of our worship is important –it's a must– it is done in unison with the worship of our head, this is the truth part of that phrase. So how do we worship God in truth? We have to know who God is and his value.
You can't worship what you don't know; much like you can't love what you don't know. We have to seek to know who God is and we do that through studying his word. The only way to truly know God is to study his word. This is what Josh talked about a few weeks ago when he said we need to get before God. Just as if we do not worship with our hearts our worship is deficient, the same is true of our head; if our knowledge of God is deficient, so, again, is our worship.
Somewhere along the line, the word "worship" became almost exclusively in reference to singing and music. Let's take a second and clean this a bit, because it's important that we understand this. Yes, worship does involve singing, but it also involves the hearing, reading, and studying God's word. Sitting down to read your Bible is an act of worship. Listening to a pastor preach the word is an act of worship. Being shaped by the word is an act of worship. As is prayer, giving, serving and on and on. We study the word of God so that we may know God.
One pastor said, "Worshiping in truth is the opposite of worship based on an inadequate view of God." We worship him in truth when our knowledge of him is shaped and aligned with the God who has revealed himself through the person of Christ and in his word.
From God’s word we know he is self-existent and self-sufficient. He has no origin, and he needs nothing. He is perfectly satisfied within himself, and that makes it so much sweeter that he delights in us. God doesn't change. He is today as he was yesterday and for all time. The goal posts will never shift with God. He is omniscient and omnipotent. He knows everything and is sovereign over everything. He is omnipresent. He’s everywhere and his glory fills all of creation. God is just. His work is perfect and all his ways are without injustice. God is merciful. He forgives us and is loving and kind towards us. God is gracious. He gives us what we do not deserve. God is glorious. He is infinitely radiant and without blemish, he is perfect.
When we have all this head-knowledge, we can view him as our treasure. When we treasure something, it’s value is hard to determine because there’s no measure that can be applied to it. This treasure has a unique quality, characteristic, or story to it which can't be quantified by human valuations. This is supremely true of Christ. This is what is meant when theologians talk about the Supremacy of Christ; he is above all things not only in his Lordship, but also in how God the Father loves him. Christ should be supreme in our lives; he is to be above all things in our lives. And hear me: there is no one whom God the Father loves more than God the Son. In Isaiah 42:1 God says, "Behold my servant, (he's talking about Jesus here) whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;" and in Mark 1:11 God says, “And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” If God the Father loves him that much, this should be the love we have for him because he is the treasure of heaven and should be our treasure as well.
When our hearts are engaged and we know God for who he is and his value –when he becomes our treasure– we worship in spirit and truth and ultimately knowing God shapes our outward expression of worship.
We’re all familiar with one outward expression of worship, we just did it: we sing. We sing about who God is –his attributes– we sing about what he has done and is doing. In our singing we ascribe him the glory he and he alone is due. And while singing is an outward expression of our worship, it also serves to help celebrate the gospel with those around us. In singing together, we help stir each other up in our love of God.
This is also true of our prayer, confession, and repentance as well. If you've spent any time around County Road 9, or you’ve been joining us online since during this quarantine, you've heard me pray during our service. I'm not sure if you've caught on to this yet, but confession and repentance are always a part of my prayers. In essence, there is always some form of "Here is how we've sinned, please, forgive us,” in those prayers.
Another form of our outward expression of worship is in our service to others. In Hebrews 13, the author tells us in verse 15 that we're to continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, but he goes on to say in verse 16, "Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." (ESV) Sacrifice is a theme we see throughout the Old Testament and the New. The penalty for our sin demands a sacrificial offering, and Christ is that sacrifice. Because of his sacrifice, we are moved to sacrifice for those around us. During this pandemic, for example, people in our community have suffered hardships for a multitude of reasons, and we, the church, have tried to serve those people as best we can. One way we’ve done this is we’ve collected food and distributed it to families in need both here at Gateway and through schools we partner with. It’s important that we do these good deeds for those around us because they represent an outward expression of our worship.
So those are a few examples of what our personal outward expression looks like, but how does it shape our worship here as a church?
For us, worship is a value, and since it’s a value we have a few metrics we’ve adopted that help us “put meat on the bones.” These metrics give us a mark to aim for. For us, that means that we seek to worship in a way that is contextual, gospel-centered, and done with excellence.
So let's talk about contextual.
The root word here is "context" and a dictionary definition I found helpful says context is:
the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.
For us, context boils down to things like who we are, where we live, the jobs we have, the music we listen to, what we do for leisure, and other characteristics that define us. It’s a distillation of who we are as a people and a church. Here’s what that looks like for us; let's look at preaching, first.
It's good to incorporate history into sermons, but if we want to be contextual, it's helpful to address the topics currently affecting us so we can interpret them through the lens of scripture. Okay, so, currently we live in the year 2020. It hasn't been... ideal, it’s where we are and we have the COVID-19 pandemic we're currently living through and all the ways it’s disrupted our normal lives. It's caused people to experience stress, fear, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and just a slew of negative emotions. By God's providence, we already had a sermon series addressing negative emotions lined up for the fall, but when the coronavirus waltzed in and made a big mess, we bumped that series up. People were experiencing the very same emotions the series intended to address, so we were able to minister in direct relation to our context. And from the feedback we received it really helped people wrestle with emotions that were causing them pain. And the goal of any sermon –at least it should be the goal– is to point people to Jesus. In that series Pastor Josh addressed each negative emotion, how it affects us, and led us through how we shift our gaze towards the hope we have in Christ.
Let’s take a look at music. As superficial and worldly as this may seem, it's a reality we have to address, there are certain music styles that resonate with both the believer and non-believer. As my friend Mike Norman likes to say, "We use timely methods to communicate timeless truths." So we adopt modern music styles that resonate with us, to help us sing and celebrate the gospel. And, for the non-believer who makes their way into our congregation, we want to be inviting and connect people to Jesus Christ, and hearing a style of music they're familiar with is a means of being welcoming. We wouldn't be worshiping in a way that’s contextual if we used medieval chamber music in our worship services. Sure, it's beautiful, but I'm pretty sure the number of people at Gateway who hop in their car and fire up Franz Schubert is relatively low. Likewise we have a lot of people who claim German heritage, but if we kicked off a service with some German-Oompah music, most of you would be very, very confused and once you figured out what it was, you'd probably turn to one another and say, "I don't know, maybe we're Irish?" There are enough historical church practices that are baked into our DNA as a church –for good reason– and music is one of those things we can adapt to our context. So we tend to use modern music styles that represent what we listen to every day. Let me let you in on a little something: I know that you don't always listen to Christian music. I know that not every preset on your car stereo is set to Christian stations. I'm not judging you, because if you dissect the music we use, you'll hear elements of rock, pop, electronic, gospel, and blues. You'll hear guitars, drums, bass, synthesizers, pianos, and maybe the occasional glockenspiel. Oddly enough you won’t hear a saxophone solo, though. Let that sink in.
These are just timely methods we use to communicate a timeless truth. They don't shape the message; God’s word shapes the message. These methods simply help us share the message in a way that’s meaningful to our context.
We also want to be gospel-centered.
This is a bit of a buzz term in the evangelical world, especially reformed circles. For a while there was gospel-centered everything and it got a little out of hand, but we still feel it's still a useful term for us, so we seek to be gospel-centered in our worship. In order to understand what it means to be gospel-centered, it's helpful to know what the gospel is. And I'm sure that sounds like a weird thing to say to a church, but we Christians like to convince ourselves that once we become Christians, we've moved beyond the gospel or it’s only for nonbelievers. Hear me: once we receive the gospel, we do not move beyond it; we need to preach it to ourselves every day because we easily forget it.
And pastors will tell you this: never assume the group you're speaking to knows what the gospel is, because far too often... they don't. There are some horror stories about stuff like this. So let me give you an abridged version of what the gospel story is:
God the Father, Son, and Spirit creates man (Adam and Eve) in his image, and because Satan came in and told them they could be just like God, they did the one thing God told them not to do and fell into sin. Because God is perfect and holy, he cannot be in the presence of sin, and man is now stained from head to toe in it. So he sends man on his way with the promise that He (God) would provide a way back from the condemnation they now stood in and into unity with him again. The penalty for their sin demanded hardship and a sacrificial offering –something that actually costs something– it had to settle our debt in full, so the sacrificial offering had to be perfect and blameless in God's sight. Enter: God's Son, who steps off his throne in heaven with the Father and the Spirit and down into our domain. Wrapped in flesh this Jesus Christ walks among us and teaches us the way towards reconciliation with God and how to glorify him. And then he sets his eyes towards the Cross at Calvary, which would be the instrument of his death and our salvation. He lives a life on this earth perfectly. We –you and me– we can’t live perfectly. We're crooked from the inside out which is why any offering we bring to God on behalf of our souls simply won't suffice. The only offering that will satisfy the law’s demands is Christ himself; his blood, his body... for us. So in a beautiful exchange ordained before the clock of creation even began ticking, the Son offers himself as a sacrifice for our sins; he takes our sin –your's and mine– upon himself and he bears the full force of God's wrath intended as a penalty for us and he dies. He lays dead for three days and on the third day, he is resurrected. He cancels the power of sin and death and he stands as the heralding of this good news: there is salvation for sinners and it is found only in the person and work of Christ. We confess our sins and turn from them; in Christ we die to ourselves and our hearts of stone are replaced with a heart of flesh. Our life is now hidden with Christ. When God looks at us he sees his own son. Christ stands alone, claiming us as his own. Now we’re dead to our old selves and we live in the newness of life granted to us by Christ's atoning work and we live to glorify Christ and enjoy him forever. This is the free gift of grace to all who call upon the name of Jesus Christ. This is the good news.
If this is your first time hearing this good news I pray you receive it and confess Jesus as Lord of your life. For those who know that good news, I pray it would stir your affections for Christ, because for us what it means to be gospel-centered is that the whole of who we are and what we do as a church would be rooted in and motivated by that story. If our preaching isn't centered on and derived from the gospel, it's worthless. If the songs we sing aren't walking us through the story of the gospel, if they're not heralding and celebrating the gospel, then it's all worthless. This is why we sing songs with words like “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,” and “What riches of kindness He lavished on us His blood was the payment, His life was the cost.” These songs help us learn and celebrate the gospel. Think of some lyricsfrom your favorite worship songs that help you celebrate the gospel and share them in the comments.
One important note here: in 1 Corinthians 15, this is what Paul is getting at when he says, "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain." (ESV)
If what we do isn't rooted in the gospel then it's all an exercise in vanity and there's no good news in that. So, when we worship in a way that's gospel-centered, hopefully we tie everything into the gospel.
And it should be done with excellence.
Here we can draw on a couple pieces of scripture. The first is Psalm 33:3 which says, "Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts." (ESV)
Look at the word "skillfully" in our text. It's an adverb but at its root it means something is done with a certain degree of skill. But, please, do not confuse excellence with perfection. There is no such thing. Even the best, most accomplished musicians make mistakes. They're not batting 1.000 at any point in time. They perform with a degree of skill that far exceeds most other musicians, but they're not perfect. We aim for excellence, not perfection. Everyone on this stage has gone through an audition that helps us to determine that they have the skill necessary to play with excellence. Why?
Well, for starters, we're not going to put anyone on stage who is constantly playing the wrong notes, can't stay on beat, or sing in tune. It becomes a distraction and it would be unloving of us to put people on stage when they do not possess the gift to play skillfully. Musicianship can be developed over time with practice, but we want to put people in a position to serve the congregation well with their gifts and enjoy serving. So we strive for ensuring a level of skill, because we want our worship to be excellent and not a frustration.
Excellence means we prepare well so we can worship well. Each of the individuals you see on stage each week have spent years developing their craft. They spend hours each week practicing the material alone and rehearsing it together to play it with excellence. As 1 Cor. 14:40 says, "...all things should be done decently and in order." (ESV) Why? Because we love the Lord and we love his church and want to serve this congregation with excellence.
What about worshipping with excellence through teaching? Well, let me say I think Pastor Josh is an excellent preacher. He handles the word with a great deal of reverence. He's not haphazard with it. He spends hours and hours pouring himself into his sermons. He doesn't log on to a sermon repository and hits copy/paste. He digs into the word fervently, studies deeply, reads widely, and prays diligently that he teaches by the power of the Holy Spirit. I don't intend for this sermon to serve as the founding document of the Reverend Doctor Josh Hanson Fan Club, but I'm grateful for Josh's teaching and his handling of God's Word. As a consumer of pop culture I can tell you there are way too many pastors out there just ripping off elements of pop-culture to give people Bible-lite sermons tailored to 240-character quotes that make you feel really good, but never seem to preach Christ crucified. And I'm thankful Josh leans the whole of himself into the Spirit for strength, wisdom, and guidance in order to feed us the gospel week in, week out. I leave each week with my spirit satisfied in Christ. This pulpit is in capable hands because the man filling it most weeks, knows he does not possess the strength to do it without the Spirit's work, and he pursues his work with excellence.
So that’s how we evaluate our value of worship as a church, but what about you? I’m not saying you have to incorporate these same metrics into your own worship life, but they’re a good place to start. So, how are you doing? How are you worshipping in a way that's contextual? Are you considering the things going on around you and attempting to view them through a biblical lens or understanding? Are you pressing in to Christ during the hard times? How are you worshipping in a way that's gospel-centered? Are you only singing songs that just make you feel good about yourself, or singing songs that point you to Christ? Are you reading books or listening to sermons that preach a gospel of self instead of the gospel of Jesus Christ? How are you worshipping with excellence? You doing the bare minimum? You living that bumper sticker theology life?
How are you worshiping God in spirit and truth so that you know him and his value in such a way that it shapes your outward expression through worship? Again, we're never not worshiping, so what are we worshipping? My hope is that we’re all striving to worship the Triune God –Father, Son, and Spirit– each and every day. Because if it’s not, we’re worshipping vapor at that point and we all know what happens to vapor: it disappears. King Solomon explains this best to us in Ecclesiastes 2:10-11:
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Solomon’s saying, “I did it all! I had the time of my life… but it was chasing the wind. It was all vanity.” And this is why we strive to worship in spirit and truth: so we know who God is and his value, and we worship him with our hearts overflowing with joy, because we know he is imperishable. He is everlasting. He will hold up. Even in difficult days, Christ the sure and steady anchor will hold.
We can either dig for gold, or we can rake for leaves. We can worship in spirit and truth or we can worship in vain. My hope is that we would strive –with the Spirit’s help– to worship in spirit and truth. PRAYERLets pray.
Father, it is our prayer that we would throw aside all the worldly things we give our worship to, all the stuff that leaves us empty. We pray that we can open your word and see, clearly, who you are and know your infinite worth above all things. We pray that we can sing with hearts overflowing with joy for a Savior who is worthy. We pray that our hearts would be willing to sacrifice for those around us, even when it hurts. And Spirit we pray that you will help us endeavor to worship in spirit; to sing and to celebrate, and to savor the goodness of the gospel in our lives. It’s in Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
BENEDICTION
Just a quick reminder that we are a praying church and if you have something going on in your life that needs prayer, let us know and we would count it a joy to pray.
May you go seeking to worship God in spirit and in truth. You are sent.
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