[09/16/20]
In the course of considering the physical plant, I have already found occasion to comment on matters of community worship, for it is as impossible as it is inappropriate to separate the place from its purpose. But now I would turn more to the function, the purpose that is to be found in the community worship of God’s people. Here, it would be hard to overemphasize the place to be given to the preaching of God’s Word. This should be fairly obvious, I should think, for we speak of it as God’s Word on the basis of His having revealed it by divine inspiration to those prophets and apostles He called into position for that very task of providing us with this message.
This is not, to be quite clear, some new thing that began with the Christian Church. It is much older than that – goes back, even, to the beginning. While we don’t have specific mention of him having done so, it seems a reasonable surmise that Adam taught Eve, and that they together taught their children of God’s word. Eve, I suppose, could have had the Word direct from God as Adam had it, for He walked with them. But Cain, Abel, and Seth had not that advantage, coming after the expulsion. Yet, they knew the way of our Lord. They knew, too, of His promises. Consider that Cain’s very name was a reminder of that promised Seed (Ge 4:1). Clearly, he was not the one, but still his name would remind, and Seth, by his name, would likewise point forward to that Promised Seed. Seth, ‘substituted’, was surely named in light of his coming as a replacement of sorts for Abel, but read aright, his name also points us forward as it harks back to that promise of One Who would come and bruise the serpent on his head.
These children understood the necessity of offerings, and the nature thereof. Whether they were obedient to that instruction or not, they knew it. And so it went through their generations. All of this, of course, precedes the existence of any sort of community worship beyond the community of immediate family, and that, too, ought to inform our lifestyle, oughtn’t it? Community worship is not solely a function of our gathering of a Sunday to worship God and hear His Word. It is to begin in the home, the community of family. But then, too, that gathered worship on Sunday is a community of family, just on a larger scale, and with a greater Father.
In the period of the Exodus, we see, perhaps, God’s Word taking a more central position, but primarily in the form of God visibly and audibly present to address His people. We have a mediator, or a preacher of sorts, in Moses, who meets with God and brings forth His word for the rest to hear. Interestingly, this is not in the priestly role. Aaron does not so much speak to the people on behalf of God as he speaks to God on behalf of the people. This is something of an understanding of the distinction between priest and prophet, but I’ll save further exploration of that for later.
What I would observe is how Moses functions in regard to the mediation of God’s Word to the people. He is the essential conduit, particularly given one close encounter with God by the people. They were not lusting after Moses’ privilege, but rather determined that they not be called to share it. How very different from the behavior we see in the Corinthian church, and in our own day, when everybody seems certain they could do the job better, and probably should, if only the rest of the people would come to their senses and install them in position.
But what do we have with Moses descending Mount Sinai? We have the terms of covenant, delivered directly by God, written in stone lest there be concern for them being misunderstood or lost to memory. And what are the instructions for these covenant terms? They are to be kept in the ark, in the central, most holy inner sanctuary of the tabernacle. This may seem rather an odd undertaking, given that these were the primary, most fundamental instructions God’s people were to follow. Would we not want them where the people could refer to them as needed? Why hide them away where only the high priest could enter, and that only on one prescribed day of the year? Indeed, even though he could enter, there is never any suggestion of him lifting the mercy seat to reveal the tables of the Law within the ark. And it’s rather doubtful one man alone could have lifted that seat even had he the permission to do so.
It comes back to the nature of covenants. In normal practice, each party to the covenant would have a copy of its terms. Thus, each party could be reminded of its own responsibilities, and each party could have reference to what was to be expected of the other party in return. In this, it is strikingly similar to any contract, or indeed, any purchase we make. Think about the last time you dined out. The bill comes, and it comes in duplicate; one copy for the merchant, containing your promise of payment, and one copy for you, that you, too, may recall your obligation.
But in the case of the Mosaic covenant, the contract is kept with man. And yet, it is kept in such a way as to have it present before the Lord in that place where He has chosen to meet with man. As to its application, that falls primarily to Moses as the main spokesman or prophet, and later, to those elders who would be his assistants in governing and judging the issues that would arise amongst the Israelites.
If you would gain a sense of how critical God’s Word was to the life of this earliest of churches, consider that much of the writing we have contained in the Pentateuch consists of records of Moses receiving and relaying God’s Word to God’s people. The Lord said, Moses proclaimed, the nation did. Yes, there were manifold failings and corrections along the way, but that’s the model.
I’m going to fast-forward to the return from Exile, and consider events with Nehemiah and Ezra. Here again we find the Word central to events. The people are gathered together, men, women, and children alike, to hear the Word read and explained. This was not some new thing in the history of God’s people, although it may have been a first for those gathered to listen on that occasion. After all, the Exile had come about in large part because Israel had ceased to hear the Word read and explained, and had turned to other forms of guidance for life. Not to mention, there had been seventy years and more with most of the nation off in Babylon, and few if any left to preach in Israel. The people there had a famine of God’s Word, and this reading must have come as an overwhelming feast.
Let me give just a few verses for reference here. “Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law” (Neh 8:2-3). And to think, we get antsy if the sermon gets beyond a half hour! “And they read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading” (Ne 8:8). Now, the choice of ‘translating’ here might suggest that the people had lost their capacity for their own tongue, which is certainly a possibility, I suppose, given so much time in foreign lands. But a more general understanding of the term is simply, to interpret and make clear. Think of it as providing the application, which we might readily recognize as one of the central purposes of preaching, or, for that matter, of having the written record, particularly of the apostles.
We again find this reading becoming a focal point in Nehemiah 13:1-2. “They read aloud from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and there was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them.” This was an occasion for letting God’s Word speak for itself, that the people might shape their course by its message.
Okay, I’m moving apace, but come forward now to the start of Jesus’ ministry. What does He do? “He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.’ And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all I the synagogue were fixed upon Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Lk 4:16-21).
Much could be said about this. I could note, for example, that the message is focused on proclamation more than action. Action would follow, of course, and ever to a purpose. But the message is first. The proclamation is central. He is anointed to declare good news to the poor, release to the captives – to proclaim recover of sight to the blind. If we follow His ministry forward, we see that His actions in this regard tend strongly to come where proclamation has had effect. The actual recovery of sight to the blind in general comes to those who have heard and believed. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it does seem to be a guiding principle. I would have to caution us against supposing this renders our belief so powerful as to override God’s intent. Unbelief may prevent God from choosing to act on the simple basis that He deems it inappropriate to do so, but it cannot preclude His acting if He so chooses. If it did, there should be no community of the redeemed, for none believed prior to His acting upon them that they might do so. I could observe, as well, the exceptional cases, such as that man found at the pool of Bethesda. He did not believe; in fact, seems rather a superstitious fellow. Neither did his receiving such an incredible boon seem to have done a great deal for his eternal perspectives. Yet, the deed was done. God chose.
[09/17/20]
I think this has something to say to our current topic, but even more to the point is that we find Jesus setting the written Word of Scripture as His own starting point. As He begins His ministry, and begins to proclaim as well Who He Is, here is the starting point: It is written. If you seek to understand Me, look to what is written, for what is written is about Me. Today it is fulfilled. Honestly, those four words could sum up the whole of His ministry and purpose: Today it is fulfilled. We find a matching bookend statement out at the end of His ministry, as He completes His final act of perfect obedience to God’s commandments. “It is finished” (Jn 19:30)! Beginning and end, there it is: What defines His life and ministry is to be observed in the text of Scripture.
In between, nothing changes, does it? If we look to the Sermon on the Mount, the Scripture is central. We have that whole series of, “You have heard it said… But I say,” declarations. The first clause points not to the Scripture itself, but to the interpretation of it in their day. I should have to say the second clause points back to the Scripture in providing the correct interpretation, and who better to interpret than its Author? Is it any wonder that the people, having heard this message, were amazed? “For He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” (Mt 7:29). Indeed, He had the authority. He is the Author!
Now, then. Having come to the end of His ministry, Jesus prayed for those He had assigned to continue the work. “Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee; for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them; and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me” (Jn 17:7). “I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn 17:14). Combine that prayer with the Great Commission. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:19-20).
Much is made, at least in Baptist circles, of the order here. We make disciples first, and then we baptize them. But observe, if that order is important, that teaching follows after. If they are disciples first, then there must have been at least some initial informing done, but the baptized need further teaching. Teaching, then, is to be central to the mission of the Church. Paul observes the necessity of preaching and teaching. “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!’” (Ro 10:14-15). “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Ro 10:17).
How necessary it is that this Word of God be not merely preserved, but proclaimed! Many people today have faith in things they have heard. In this curious age of the Internet, there is so much to hear, and so little discernment. Every crank and crackpot has his pulpit and his theory, and can have it amplified to absurd extent. And many a viewer will believe, no matter how serious or seriously insane the views put forth. This invades every aspect of modern life. Newscasts are, by and large, reduced to attempts to shape opinion by whatever fabrications they can concoct and give the patina of legitimacy by association with some corporate image or other. Sports and comics are more and more made vehicles to push an opinion rather than to entertain. Entire online cultures spring up around this crackpot theory or that one. And the Church is by no means immune, though she should be. No. The Church is composed of humans, and humans are subject to being misled by the emotional appeal, and the visual appeal, and the stirring up of outrage. And nothing is better suited to the task than this constant feed of opinions dressed up as facts.
Where do we turn? Well, the situation is not so very different, in reality, from that of the early Church, wherein the Apostles were encountering all manner of competing worldviews claiming to present the real Christianity. But theirs was the authorized version, because they had been particularly and peculiarly chosen by Christ to the purpose of explaining, and in their own turn inscribing His Word. Paul certainly recognized the weightiness of his task, and takes pains to demark those points where he feels he is only giving his opinion, and not the express Word of God. Peter acknowledges Paul’s authoritative writing, as well as the density of its teaching. This is important! In a world full of cheap imitations, we need a gold standard, and here it is. We’ve been over this in considering the canon.
But how does this gold standard inform the life of the Church in gathered worship? It is central! It is critical. Peter writes to his charges, “Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you may be able to call these things to mind” (2Pe 1:12-15).
Do you find yourself tiring of the sermon because you’ve heard it all before? Beware! Do you feel that your time is being wasted because the message repeats? You’re wrong. We need reminding. Paul writes often by way of reminding. It’s not that you don’t know these things, but sometimes we need to hear them again, at the right moment, in order that we may be stirred to act upon what we are hearing. This is no insult to the hearer. It is a mercy, that we might again hear, might see afresh how it applies today, and might once more heed the call to obedience.
Why do you suppose it was that Moses instructed the people of God to write His words upon their walls and doorposts, and even their wrists? We are forgetful. It is our nature. Today, perhaps, it becomes worse because so much information is constantly bombarding us, and we must make room for the new data by disposing of the old. There’s no time for careful sifting in our life under the deluge, so we do wholesale clearances to make space for the latest batch of input, which will likely sit uninspected or only lightly considered before it, too, is pushed aside by the next incoming wave.
In this deluge, the Word of God is our rock, our firm foundation. It must be, and it must have our full attention, lest we, like the scribes of Jesus’ day, become enamored of popular interpretations and thereby lose sight of the true content. We don’t need, quite frankly, new revelations and new ideas. We have a lifetime’s work before us in coming to grips with what is written. And by coming to grips, I don’t mean simply reading it, or even memorizing it. As to reading it, there is no great difficulty in plowing through the material in a year or even less. There are plenty of reading schedules out there to help you do just that. As to memorizing, there is benefit, to be sure, in having the text down and ready to call to mind, particularly in what appears to be a dawning age of persecution and censorship. But all of that is nothing unless the Word shapes the life.
How is that to happen? Well, the prescription put forth by the founder of the Church, Jesus Christ, is that we gather together, to hear His Word proclaimed and taught. That teaching is both pronouncements of explanation and application from the pulpit, in order that we might better understand the meaning and see how it meets our day to day situations; and the living out of those implications. Our pastors and elders are called to live as examples to be followed, so long and so far as they follow Christ. They are given duties of oversight and leadership. Leadership in the Church is a servant calling, a selfless calling, and chief amongst its duties is this call to walk worthy, to demonstrate what it means to follow our Lord and Savior in spirit and in truth. Care is to be taken as to who is given access to the pulpit, and to ensure that they will be true to the Word. Care is to be taken as to the deeds of those who are accounted members of the Church, that they, too, live lives of a nature that will not bring shame to the name of our Lord. How is this to be done? By clear teaching of the Truth of God; by sound application of the Truth of God; by zealous defense of the Truth of God.
I’ll make one final observance, I think, under this head. We can, if we are so inclined, allow a bit of confusion to enter when we speak of the Word of God, for John, in particular utilizes that phrase to describe Jesus Himself. This is most fitting, certainly, for He is the living embodiment of God’s Word, the One Who came and dwelt among man, becoming man, and yet walked the whole of His life in perfect obedience to the whole Law of God. He was and is sinless. He is the Perfect model of holiness. How could He not be, being God Himself? How could He not be found embodying the Scriptures, Who is the Author of the Scriptures? But, when we find this sense of the Word of God offered as wholly replacing and upending references to the Scriptures themselves as the Word of God, a great disservice, and I dare say a great corruption, is underway. Oh, it sounds pious enough. Jesus is the Word! Who can disagree with that? Of course, if pushed to defend their position, those who hold this view that Jesus alone is the Word of God, and not any written text, where do they turn to establish the point? The only place they can turn: The written text.
But the goal of such a perspective, not in all who have been swayed by it, but certainly in those who push the idea, is to undermine the very authoritative nature of that text by which they endeavor to establish their validity. Why is this the goal? Because if we remove the written text, we remove any solid reference point, any final arbiter of True and False. Take away the authority of Scripture, and the so-called teacher can lay claim to whatever he pleases as some new revelation from on high, and who or what shall gainsay him? This is the game being played by those who propose a new system of offices replacing the church offices laid out in Scripture. Why? Well, primarily because they are unfit for office as office is laid out in Scripture. The written Word is an impediment to their grand delusions, and so it must be dispensed with. But an outright, “throw out your Bible” approach would hardly serve to sway even the youngest Christian. It takes a subtler approach to convince the Christian of his own accord to effectively dispense with it, thinking he has done so out of his own clear understanding. Why else push this system that is clearly at odds with Scripture? Why else, the insistence that the whole system of preserving the Word has been corrupted by evil men all along the way? Why else, cast doubts on the authority of the Apostles, or even the uniqueness of the office? Why else, turn to the Apocrypha and to alternate texts, as if these bear the same authority and authenticity? The whole effort is to remove the standard so as to have no standard but whatever the leader says is true today.
This is not, I must insist, Christianity. This is post-modernism dressed in paganism. This is the same, age-old problem of Gnostic heresy putting on the clothes and the phrases of Christianity so as to deceive. “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance” (Mt 24:24-25). Look, Jesus Himself has warned you of these charlatans. But take away His written word, the texts He Himself commissioned and saw fit to have published that all generations to follow might have the benefit of them, and these false prophets can claim He said whatever they like, and the hearer is defenseless to say otherwise. How often do the true prophets of God make the appeal to, “It is written”? How often does Jesus Himself make that appeal, and His Apostles after Him? This is the necessary bedrock of faith, and we must recognize, maintain, and defend its essentiality to the life and health of God’s Church and God’s People, which are, after all, one and the same.
