"Church #4: Corporate Singing and music" by Rod Bayley, 5 September 2010 PM

[Danny]

In 2001 I was finishing bible college and starting to apply for
pastoral positions at various churches. We became aware of a Baptist
church that was looking for a pastor on the north-western fringe of
Sydney, and so we thought we’d take the opportunity to visit, and they
asked me to preach. We were warned before we went that there was some
division in the church, and when we arrived we learnt what the
division was about - it was sadly the music. The big divisions that
had occurred over hymns versus choruses in many places since the 1980s
had just hit this church, and there was this awkward truce in play.
We came away feeling that they were definitely still processing the
issues, which produced a lack of warmth in the fellowship, and we
weren’t inclined to return. From what we heard in the months that
followed , the church called a pastor who had a very difficult time,
and then it split over this and other issues. Corporate worship of
the God they loved actually drove people away. Singing praises to God,
giving thanks for all that he had done for them, had proven
destructive.

As Don Carson states in the opening chapter of ‘Worship by the book,’
“the sad fact of contemporary church life is that there are few
subjects calculated to kindle more heated debate than the subject of
worship. Some of the debates have less to do with an intelligible
theology of worship than with mere preferences for certain styles of
music (hymns vs choruses) and kinds of instruments (organs and pianos
vs guitars and drums).” Tonight, I don’t’ want to discuss whether you
like Emu Music, or Hillsong, or Sovereign Grace, or Vineyard, or
Sankey’s hymns or any number of the thousands of individual artists
today. In fact, my thesis is that we often discuss and debate what is
secondary, because we are not clear on primary things like what
worship is in the New Testament, and how singing on a Sunday fits into
this.

This brings us to the first point on your outline: ‘The bigger
category of worship.’ The first thing to do is define the word
‘worship’, which comes from the old English word ‘worth-ship’ which
meant to give someone honour, to acknowledge their worthiness. We
need to acknowledge that there are a number of Hebrew and Greek terms
which are at times translated ‘worship’ in our English bibles, and at
other times they are not. There is not one-for-one correspondence.
So we need to consider a group of words from the original bible texts,
and we need to analyse the context of each one. So although you might
know what you mean by the word ‘worship’, the term is a bit more
slippery than you might realise.

Let me explain in terms of the Greek New Testament. There are four
main terms used in the N.T. which get translated ‘worship’ in English,
though sometimes they are translated ‘serve’, ‘minister,’ or ‘be
devout’. They have specific meanings which relate originally to the
O.T. sacrificial/temple system. The common thread is that they
involve a response of honour to God. First and foremost is the term
proskuneo, which means to bow down or submit, which was often used to
describe the participation of people in temple services. Secondly,
litourgeo means essentially to serve, and is often used to refer to
the priest’s work. Thirdly, latreia also means service, but in a
general sense. Fourthly, sebomai means to show reverent fear towards
God.

Worship in the O.T. is a term which describes a whole range of rituals
and activities, particularly related to the tabernacle or temple and
the sacrificial system. The heart of worship participation when God’s
people were gathered together in the O.T. was to bring sin offerings,
and to watch the priests presenting the offerings. So for example, in
Leviticus 9 verses 5 and 7:
“They took the things Moses commanded to the front of the Tent of
Meeting, and the entire assembly came near and stood before the
Lord ... 7Moses said to Aaron, ‘Come to the altar and sacrifice your
sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself
and the people ...”

There was also the reading of Scripture at times, and the offering of
prayer and praise to God. And so we read earlier in Amos 5 of the
noise of their songs and the music of their harps (v23). We know that
David wrote many songs that are recorded in the Psalms, and the Psalms
themselves note various instruments that were used. Of course a
person’s devotion to God was not simply to be expressed in
participating in the rituals at temple. It was also supposed to issue
in a life of obedience to God’s law. And so that is why the context
of Amos 5 is negative - God is judging his people for going through
the motions - neither their sacrifices or songs were acceptable to
God, because they were immoral and unjust.

In a passage that points forward to Jesus, King David offers the same
acknowledgment as Amos 5 - that God desires a right heart. Psalm 40:6
and 8: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire ... 8I desire to do
your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” The temple worship
could only be acceptable if it flowed from a life of obedience.
Although the concept of worship applied to all of life, the word
‘worship’ was applied mainly to the sacrificial system and temple
ritual, at least with regard to corporate worship. This O.T. paradigm
of ‘worship’ happening at the temple is summarized in Hebrews 10:1-2:
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming - not the
realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same
sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who
draw near to worship. 2If it could, would they not have stopped being
offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all.”
This worship, focused on sacrifices, was designed to draw you near to
God. The priest as your mediator allowed you to get nearer to the
holy God who you were distant from because of your sin. Of course it
was a model of worship which pointed forward to Jesus.

And so it is not surprising, that with the arrival of Jesus, we are
told of how he fulfils the old system of worship. He is the one true
high priest, and he is also the one true worshiper. The book of
Hebrews brilliantly lays out these truths for us. In Hebrews 4:14-16
he is our great high priest who has gone through the heavens, who has
opened the way for us to pray to the Father, as he was without sin.
More than that, in Hebrews 8:1-2, he is the one true worshiper:
“The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high
priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in
heaven, 2and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up
by the Lord, not by man.”

Christ is described as our service example or worship leader. The
word for ‘serves’ in verse 2 is litourgeo, which as we saw earlier
usually referred to the priest’s work in the temple. It is saying
that Jesus is the one true worshiper, the leader of our worship or
service, who has gone ahead to lead us in our prayers and
intercessions. What qualifies Jesus to be our high priest (8-10), is
his obedience to the Father through all of life, which is contrasted
with ritual worship.

It’s hard to exaggerate how revolutionary this understanding was to
the Jew in the first century, and still is to Christians today. Not
only did Jesus physically knock over the tables in the temple area as
he cleared out the animal sellers and money changers, he spiritually
kicks over the theological furniture left, right and centre. From
Moses on, the heart of O.T. worship is connected with the tabernacle
and then with the temple. But what is striking about the New
Testament is that the many O.T. themes of worship are drawn together
in Jesus, and find their fulfilment in him. So, he becomes the
temple, the high priest, and the Passover lamb - all the systems and
rituals and practices are replaced by a person. The whole O.T. system
of worship is made obsolete by him - he replaces the ‘whole box and
dice.’

With such a radical fulfilment and transformation of all the main
worship categories, we’d expect a massive shift in the focus of the
gathering of God’s new covenant people, and the way worship is spoken
about. And Jesus doesn’t disappoint us. Jesus foreshadows the end of
centuries of practice, when he has a discussion with a Samaritan
woman. John 4:21-23:
“Jesus declared, ‘Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will
worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem ... 23Yet
a time is coming and has now come, when the true worshipers will
worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of
worshipers the Father seeks.”

Worship is suddenly not restricted to the ‘sacred’ sphere of special
places and special times. Worship doesn’t simply happen at the temple
anymore, through a human mediator who offers sacrifices for you.
Rather true worshipers come to the Father through the Son who is the
truth, in the power of the Spirit, at all times and in all places.
Christian worship happens everywhere.

Not only has the where changed, but the what has changed. Worship is
now clearly defined, as was always intended, as the whole of life.
Instead of worship language being mainly reserved for ritual service
and sacrifices at the temple, the scope broadens. Romans 12:1:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer
your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is
your spiritual act of worship.” What qualified Jesus to be our high
priest was his perfect life of obedience, and we are called to the
same all-encompassing worship under the new covenant. Is this
understanding borne out elsewhere in the N.T.? Yes it is. In Hebrews
13:15-16, the sacrifices that we are to offer in our life of worship
are praise of His name, and doing good, and sharing with others. In 1
Timothy 2:10 Paul calls on the women in the Ephesian church to worship
God by dressing modestly and doing good deeds. Worship is at all
times and places, and is bound up with how they live with Jesus as
Lord.

This brings us to the application of this first point - the dangers of
missing this shift from the O.T. to the NT understanding of worship.
If we miss this, it can lead to a distortion in our corporate
gatherings if there is a focus on drawing near to God in a special
place, to receive a blessing, after offering sacrifices or performing
set rituals. Firstly, the church does not replace the temple - this
is not God’s house, but as Simon pointed out three weeks ago, it’s the
rain shelter where God’s people meet. It’s not even helpful to call
the main auditorium of our rain shelter ‘the sanctuary’ because that
is an O.T. term which highlighted the sacredness of the temple
location. God’s house is your body - He now dwells in you by His
Spirit.

Secondly, we don’t need any priests, any mediators to help us worship
corporately. This is why the Protestant church has rejected the Roman
Catholic practices, where they still have priests and a weekly
sacrifice called the mass, and set rituals. This also relates to the
place of singing in our meetings. In the charismatic movement today,
‘worship’, which is sometimes purely defined as the singing part of
the service, is seen as a way of drawing near to God. You need the
worship pastor or singer to bring you into the presence of God, with
the inference being that we stand at a distance and we need a mediator
or priestly figure to help us. But I don’t need a worship leader or
pastor to bring me into God’s presence, I already have a worship
leader whose name is Jesus, who has brought me as close to God the
Father as I will ever be, through his once-for-all sacrifice for me.
The idea of a mediating worship pastor for singing is a new form of
priesthood, which actually takes me away from the N.T.’s teaching and
practice. Therefore we don’t need to sing for half an hour to get
close to God before I am ready to hear from his word, or before I am
really worshiping. I was individually worshiping before I left home,
and I haven’t been placed at a distance from God by entering into
corporate worship at a particular rain shelter.

That brings us to point two on your outline: ‘The place of singing
within corporate worship.’ Singing is a subset of our corporate
worship, or our gathering. And this gathering or corporate worship is
simply a small subset of my life of worship. With that understanding,
we need to grasp that what is central to our gathering is God’s word -
it is through His living revelation that He continues to speak to us.
Paul writes in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in your
richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as
you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your
hearts to God.” This word centred on the gospel which saves us, draws
from us a response of praise and thanksgiving. We express this in
words - in praise. God speaks to us through his word, we speak to him
in response, and we also mutually edify and encourage one another as
we hear and respond together. Our worship in song is just part of our
response to God’s grace shown to us, as the Spirit works in us. One of
the consequences of Christ’s coming, is that when the N.T. church
gathering is described, the language focuses on
‘edification’ (oikodomeo), or building-up and occasionally fellowship,
and not on worship. So in Acts 2:42-45 as the early church is
described, Luke speaks of ‘fellowship’, in 1 Corinthians 14:3-5, 12,
17, 26 and Hebrews 10:24-25, the constant purpose is said to be
edification. For example, 1 Corinthians 14:26 states:
“What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone
has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an
interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening
(edification) of the church.”

Only once is one of the terms for ‘worship’ (proskuneo) used in the
context of the gathering, and that is in 1 Corinthians 14, where the
person who worships is a non-Christian who is convicted by the
prophecy (v24-25). Does that mean that when we meet, we just come to
encourage each other, and not worship God? Is this focus on the
horizontal element of the gathering at the expense of the vertical?
No, it is most certainly not. It’s not a case of either/or, but both/
and. Of course, when we gather together like this corporately, we are
still worshiping God as we hear Him speak to us through His word and
we respond in prayer and praise, but the distinctive element of our
corporate meetings is edification. Under the terms of the new
covenant, worship explicitly goes on all the time, including when we
gather together. But mutual edification does not go on all the time -
it only takes place when Christians gather together. I can worship
God at home, or at work, or at sport, in everything I say and do and
think every moment of every day. But I can only help build up the
gathering when God’s people gather.

Apart from the dominant principle of edification, Paul also adds the
further principle of orderliness in 1 Corinthians 14. And so as we
think about the singing part of our corporate worship, we need to be
governed by these principles. We need to ensure that the greatest
number of people are being built up in their faith, and that we do
things in an orderly way.

This brings us to the third and final point on your outline: ‘A music
ministry shaped by the bible.’ I want to consider three practical
applications that flow from what we’ve been considering. Firstly, the
place of songs needs to be thought about. Many churches today, as
I’ve already alluded to, view the singing time as a stand-alone
segment, and so you sing for half an hour and then you do the rest of
the service. However, if the dynamic of our meetings is to hear God
speak and to respond in prayer and song, then the music really needs
to be integrated within the service. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the
final song is often more powerful, both emotionally and because we
often sing it louder. This is because if the words relate well to
what we’ve just heard from God’s word, then we want to respond and
give our praise to God - our response naturally flows out of our
thanksgiving for His word to us.

Secondly, in choosing particularly songs, what is important is what we
are saying to God and affirming to each other. The words are
critical, and the tune less so. There is no such thing as sacred
music, only Christ-centred words. And given that we are both
worshiping God and mutually edifying one another as we sing, we need
to be aware of whether the words are more vertical or horizontal. As
Mark Dever says, we want lyrics with lots of plurals, we think this,
or we want to say this to you Lord, rather than songs which are , I,
I. It is not just about me and my relationship with God, the
principle of mutual edification means that it’s about us, about
Christ’s body growing and responding together. Above all, we need
songs that a congregation can sing, rather than pieces that are
written for solos, because singing is a wonderful part of our
corporate worship which we want maximum participation in, rather than
most people as observers.

Thirdly, the character of the singers and musicians is important -
they are there to help the congregation sing praises to God, and so
they are serving the body of Christ by using their gifts. It is not a
performance, it is service, and so they need to conduct themselves in
a humble manner and not seek to draw attention to themselves.
Christian character is key, not just musical ability. Apart from the
issue of motivation, there is also what is actually said and done. If
the words used contradict the bible, then it will at least be
distracting, if not in danger of confusing or offending. This is why
it is better to have short introductions rather than mini-sermons.
Then there is also the body language and dress. I must say that I
think we do fairly well on all these things, but it’s good to keep
working at such things and not think we’ve got it all together.
Lastly, I want to make one final application - many of the divisions
that churches experience with regard to music are due to the attitude
of those who are unhappy. You see, so often today people come to
church as a consumer - it’s all about receiving, or what I get out of
it. But as Simon pointed out three weeks ago, church is all about
giving - of coming to serve others and build them up in our common
faith as we worship together. The main hindrance to our corporate
worship is our own heart. If we come to church to be entertained, if
we come to church to inwardly mark a scorecard of the participants, or
if we come to church simply out of tradition, than it’s unlikely that
we will enjoy the singing or music. More than that, if we are so busy
that we arrive with our minds cluttered with a thousand pressing
issues, or if we arrive nurturing resentments, then it is unlikely
that we will enter into praising God. Singing is a wonderful gift
that God has blessed us with, and is part of our response to meeting
Christ by his Spirit through his Word. It allows us to speak the truth
in love to each other, while at the same time gives us a means to
praise and thank God. We need to grasp that the worship of our whole
lives, including singing at church, is only genuine worship if it is a
heart-felt desire to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and
strength, and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Use of worship terms in N.T.
In the N.T. these ‘worship’ words are used most often to speak of
individuals worshiping Jesus, whether at his birth (Magi and at
Christ’s birth in Matt.2:2, 11), or the disciples following his
walking on the water and the resurrection (Matt.14:33; 28:17); or
often preceding or following requests for healing (eg. a leper in Matt.
8:2; Jairus the synagogue rule in Matt.9:18; a blind man in John 9:38;
or even a Canaanite woman with a demon-possessed daughter in Matt.
15:25).

Suggested resources:
Carson, D.A. (ed.), Worship by the Book, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002
Dever, M. & Alexander P., The Deliberate Church, Wheaton: Crossway,
2005
Doyle, R., ‘The one true worshipper,’ Briefing, 236, Kingsford:
Matthias, 1999.
Lovell, N., Singing in Church: Sing for Joy, Kingsford: Matthias,
2010.
Peterson, D., Engaging with God: A biblical theology of worship,
Downers Grove: IVP,
1992.
Payne, T., ‘Why do we worship as we do?’, Briefing, 299, Kingsford:
Matthias, 2003.
Payne, T., ‘Church and worship: Some questions and answers,’ Briefing,
301, Kingsford:
Matthias, 2003.
Payne, T., ‘The gathering: thinking afresh about church,’ Briefing
302, Kingsford: Matthias,
2003.
Roberts, V., True Worship, Carlisle: Authentic Lifestyle, 2002.
Woodhouse, J., ‘The Key to Church Music,’ in Sally Trethewey & Rosalie
Milne (eds.), Church Musician’s Handbook, Kingsford, Matthias.