As you are sitting down, you can open your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. This will be somewhat like last week. We will be turning to a number of passages. You can deal with that, right? You’re okay there? All right, good. We’ll be turning to a number of passages really to kind of give you an exhaustive study in a sense of this topic that we’re gonna look at this morning.

My normal pattern—and when I say normal, probably 99% of the time—will be to preach verse by verse through passages of Scripture. But in these early days of our church and as we set some foundational things, I want to kind of be clear about what the Bible teaches on certain topics, and so we’ll do more of a systematic approach to studying the Scriptures together.

And so we’ll start in Colossians 1, and we’ll be in some other places a little bit later. But the title of this morning’s message is “What the Church Does When it Gathers.” What the church does when it gathers.

There are all kinds of ideas about what we should do when we gather. I have seen churches who ride dirt bikes and do jumps over the stage in their church service. I’ve seen churches with smoke machines and lasers. I’ve even seen a church where the stage is kind of in the middle of the people, and the preacher doesn’t really preach as leads a discussion and everybody contributes truth to the conversation. And some of those things are not true.

But there’s all kinds of ideas about what to do when a church gathers. Well, the Bible shows us what to do when a church gathers, instructs us what to do when a church gathers. So we thought it was important in these early stages of our church, let’s talk one morning about what do we do when we gather? What should we be doing? What do we do when we gather?

And the first place to look is Colossians 1:15-20. And look what the apostle Paul is focused on here for the believers. He’s writing this to the church at Colossae. Look what he is focused on. Maybe a better question, or maybe a better statement is look at who he is focused on. Colossians 1:15:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Who is that passage talking about? Jesus Christ. That passage speaks of Jesus Christ, and not just who he is, but what he did. The end of that passage says that he was pleased to reconcile all things to himself, whether things in earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Let me say this: What the church does when they gather, they gather to worship Jesus Christ and acknowledge him for who he is and the work that he’s done. That’s to be our theme every single Sunday. That’s our theme.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 through 4:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

The person of Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ is our focus. That’s our focus. And we could even say the work of the Godhead—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit—the work of the Godhead and the gospel of the Godhead. The person of the Godhead, who they are, who the Father, Son, and Spirit are as one. That’s what we focus on. And then the work that Christ has accomplished for the Godhead. That’s what we focus on every single week. That’s what the New Testament church gathered to focus on every single Lord’s day. They focused on the character and the work of the Godhead.

The New Testament church gathers to celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ. So Christ-centered worship is imperative for us every single Sunday. And so that’s why in your worship guide, you’ve got the kind of timeline, the flow of the gospel in there.

It starts with adoration. It starts with, let’s look at who God is. Again, Genesis 1 and 2. Immediately, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That’s amazing. First verse of the Bible—that’s amazing. Tells us everything about how we got here. In the beginning, he created the heavens and earth. And what does that cause us, his creatures, to do? Stand in amazement in regard to the Creator. We start with adoration.

And so this morning we’re gonna go through the eight aspects of Christ-centered worship. The eight aspects of a Christ-centered worship gathering. If we are to walk through the gospel and celebrate the gospel, celebrate what Jesus Christ did, we have to walk through that each day.

1.  Adoration

And so it starts with God is worthy of all praise and glory. That’s where we start. Every single day. In adoration of him. Psalm 105:1-3, and I’m gonna have a number of passages for you this morning. Psalm 105:

Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!

We want to obey that every single Sunday. And you know what? It’s not just Genesis 1 and 2 that we see that the Lord is high and to be praised; it’s also the end of the Bible. Revelation 5:11-12:

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!"

We start every single worship gathering acknowledging, worthy is he. He is worthy of all of our best. He is worthy of everything to respond to him rightly. That’s what we do when we gather. We start there. He is worthy. That’s where we start.

Starting with adoration reminds us that we are here for his glory. He’s not here for ours; we are here for his. We see him high and lofty, and when you see God high and lofty—on his throne, the Creator, the Judge, the Sovereign One over the whole world—when you see him rightly, it helps you see your life rightly and your priorities rightly and what you are to do rightly.

There’s a former pastor from a church in Pasadena, California, Ray Ortlund Sr. He’s since gone to be with the Lord, but his son writes of his dad, and he says this:

As a kid growing up, I didn’t need an alarm clock most mornings. I woke up to the sound of my dad down the hallway singing in the shower. Every morning he sang heartily, cheerfully, with zero irritation to me, this hymn:

When morning gilds the skies
My heart awakening cries
May Jesus Christ be praised

His dad started every morning reorienting his mind and telling his mind, today is about Jesus Christ and my praise of him. That’s where we start. We start adoring our King.

Ortlund Jr. goes on to say:

I never wondered about my dad—what he cared most about, what he was absolutely living for. Never once. At all. Not even a little. He did not take a wait-and-see, keep-a-low-profile approach to life. Jesus was too wonderful for him. He praised the Lord throughout the whole of his lie, public and private, clearly and winsomely.

I want people to say that about this church. We never wonder about where they stand. We are here to praise the Lord, privately and publicly, when we gather.

So in summary, when we think about adoration, when we gather we immediately begin by recognizing our glorious God and that he is worthy of all praise. That’s where we start.

2.  Confession

But then we quickly come to some unpleasant thoughts. Do you worship the Lord perfectly all the time every single day? I don’t either. And so if we’re gonna worship him as high and lofty, pretty quick we acknowledge we’re not like him. We don’t do that like we want. And the New Testament evangelical church, even the Old Testament believers, acknowledged their sin before the Lord regularly. For some reason, that’s out of style today. But that’s what the New Testament church has always done. We’ve acknowledged that we’ve fallen short.

Bryan Chapell, who has written a book called Christ-Centered Worship, says this:

For modern sensibilities, confession of sin may seem an unappealing aspect of worship. It can be easy to succumb to the idea that dealing with sin is a turnoff that will steer people away from worship. But to such objections the church must turn a deaf ear for the good of God’s people. While it is certainly possibly (and sadly common) to force people to grovel without grace, it is impossible to know grace if we have no awareness of sin. Those in whom the Spirit of God dwells are longing to confess their sin in order to experience the mercy of God. In fact, we should question [listen] whether the gospel itself is present, if there has been no acknowledgment of sin.

That’s a strong statement. Turn to Psalm 32. David, a man after God’s own heart, sinned. Sinned horribly. Sinned numerous times. And not just sinned; he hid his sin, he excused his sin, he covered up his sin. And in Psalm 32, he recounts the time that he did that. Psalm 32 says, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalm 62:1).

You know how you can translate the word blessed? Happy. It’s a good translation for that word in Hebrew. Happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Happy is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Now listen. Verse 3: “For when I kept silent [and the idea is about his sin], my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ [and then look at this] and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:3-5).

We’re talking about murder and adultery and misleading a nation. And if you look at 2 Samuel 12, the passage that clearly lays out David’s confession, he acknowledges his sin. He says, I’ve sinned against the Lord, and the prophet Nathan, speaking for the Lord, says, and the Lord has forgiven your sin. Immediately!

And that’s where we find our joy. We come together saying, Lord, I’ve not lived like I should this week. Lord, I’ve not honored you like I should. Lord, I have this. And we open it up in our hearts before the Lord. We open it up and say how gross it is before the Lord, and immediately, the testimony of Scripture is, and the Lord has forgiven your sin.

Other religions don’t do that. Well, you’ve gotta work your way back into his good graces, work your way back into his good favor. Not Christianity. We are immediately forgiven because he died for our sin. He took the punishment. We get the salvation.

Avoiding any discussions of our sinfulness numbs us to the greatness of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we really want to glory in the cross, we’ll acknowledge that our sin put him there.

You know, I was a teacher at a Christian school for about six years and then became a high school pastor. I have preached in my share of high school chapels, Christian school chapels. I went to Christian school kindergarten through twelfth grade. I get Christian school chapels.

And here’s a little bit of news: Not every student that goes to a Christian school is a Christian. I know it’s a surprise. But you don’t become a Christian just because you go to a Christian school. And all too often, the evangelical church has taught kids that just because they go to church, they’re Christians. They grow up singing “I am a c-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n,” when they’re not. They grow up singing, “Father Abraham had many sons; I am one of them and so are you,” when they’re not. They don’t come to Christ by repentance and faith and belief in him.

So what happens then if they just kind of grow up thinking they’re Christians? Well, we never make them deal with the fact that your sin has separated you from a holy God. They don’t ever deal with that. And then we wonder why when they graduate from high school and go kind of off and fall away, whatever, we think, how could they fall away from the faith? Because they never had the faith in the first place.

I’ve sat through way too many Christian school chapels where they’re just trying to tell the kids, God loves you; he loves you; he loves you. And he does. I am all for that message. I tell my boys that message all the time, that God loves them. I am all for that message. But you don’t understand the richness of it until you comprehend the fact that he doesn’t owe you that love. You have rebelled against him.

And so it’s as if I were to tell you, if we walked out this door and I said, you’re on the ground; look at the ground; you’re on the ground. And you’d be thinking, well yeah, that’s nice.

But what if you were drowning ten minutes previously? And you were drowning because of your own foolishness and your own ignorance, and you were drowning because of your own bad decisions. You were drowning and deserved to drown because you made horrible decisions and you jumped in that water you shouldn’t have. You made foolish decisions, but then a rescuer came and rescued you. And then I told you, you’re on dry ground. I mean, you would kiss the ground.

That’s why we acknowledge our sin every Sunday. That’s why it’s good for Christians to acknowledge the sin that still remains because then we appreciate and enjoy the forgiveness that he gives us. We’re gospel people. We can’t lie about the gospel by not ever talking about sin because it’s unpopular.

But we don’t just talk about sin and then dismiss you. There’s a reason that comes early in the service. It’s because forgiveness follows that, and then we go out as a joyful people. He’s forgiven all that sin, but we need to acknowledge it.

You know 1 John 1:6-9:

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. [Listen] If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What a promise that is. What a promise. And all too often, I fear that there are churches that go around and don’t acknowledge their sin because it’s not popular. We acknowledge our sin so that we can be forgiven of it and healed of it. And that brings us joy. That’s the gospel. That’s the gospel message that we celebrate.

Confession of sin is essential. Without it, we believe that we are better than we are, and the gospel becomes less amazing than it is. Without it, we believe that we are better than we are, and the gospel becomes less amazing than it is.

3.  Assurance of Pardon

So when we do confess sin, what do we want after that? We want to be assured that we have forgiveness, don’t we? That’s what we want.

When my little boy comes with a pricked conscience and comes and tells me of something bad he did, what does he want in that moment? He wants me to restore the relationship with him that’s been broken. He acknowledges that, and when he acknowledges that, what do I want to do as his father? I quickly want to show him there’s grace. Is he gonna receive some consequences for his sin? Sure he is. But I do not want to show him a fracture in that relationship. I want him to know, when you acknowledge that to me, I’m right here with you to forgive your sin.

That’s what we do for the Lord. When we confess our sin, we don’t go out of here like many false religions wondering if we’re okay with God. Well, maybe I’ll be in purgatory for a thousand years. Then maybe then I’ll be okay with God. That is a horrible lie about the gospel. We acknowledge our sin, and he covers it immediately, and we’re restored to him relationally. Isn’t that beautiful?

So we acknowledge our sin, and then what do we want? We want assurance that we’ve been forgiven. And so that’s what we do in the next part of our worship gatherings together. There’s an assurance of our pardon.

Psalm 103:8: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Verses 10-14 of that same song: “He does not deal with us according to our sins.” Listen to that! “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:10-14).

We confess our sin not to be morose and gloomy and to make ourselves grovel. We confess our sin because then we appreciate and understand the love of Jesus Christ on our behalf. That’s why we confess our sin, and the Christian church has always done that, the faithful Christian church.

We come together to confess sin, and we enjoy the assurance of pardon. And by the way, I do not tell you that your sins are forgiven. I am not some sort of priest that stands between you and the Lord. The Lord does that himself. In his Scriptures, he tells you that you are justified. You were washed. He does that, not me. I’m just like you, another man. He does that.

Romans 5:8-9: “[B]ut God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified [that’s made innocent] by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”

That’s a great truth. Telling us that we’re innocent and we’ll be saved from the wrath of God that’s coming to this world one day. I have no authority to forgive your sins. None. He has all authority, and he tells us that our sins are forgiven.

So we bask in the assurance we have that our sin has been forgiven, and because of this we’re unlike any other people in the world. No other people in the world have their sins forgiven. We do. So we come to celebrate that every single Lord’s day.

4.  Thanksgiving

So then, if we follow the timeline, if we follow the flow of the gospel, we start by acknowledging that he is high and lofty. We come and adore him, and then we realize, but we can’t adore you; we haven’t adored you like we should, so we confess our sin. So you’ve got adoration, confession, and then after confession you’ve got a quick assurance of pardon.

And then what? Do you we kind of go out here thinking, man, I’m glad I’ve got my sins forgiven. I’m just gonna kind of wait around for heaven. No, now we respond in gratitude to him. That’s where the thanksgiving comes in. Adoration, confession, assurance, thanksgiving.

Let me say it this way: You can think of your Christian life as one giant act of thanksgiving for the Lord. Do not, do not, do not think of your life as, if I do this and obey here and don’t obey here, and maybe if I do everything right here and stop doing this sin, then the Lord will accept me. That’s a false religion.

We do what we can. We obey. We fight sin. We do all of that because the Lord has already accepted us in Jesus Christ. So our life is not one of an audition to earn the favor of God. That’s a false gospel. That’s not our gospel. Our life is not an audition to earn the favor of God; our life is a response because we have the favor of God, that he gave us all because he is gracious. There wasn’t one bit that we put in to that equation.

He didn’t love or save us because we’re a little bit better than those gang members that are out there. He didn’t love us or save us because we’re a little bit better than those liberal people out there. We were dead in our trespasses and sins because all have fallen short of the glory of God, and he saved us. And so now we do good works to say thank you, not to earn his favor. That’s why we do our good works, and we say thank you to him.

This is the time in our service where we will take an offering. We say thank you in a number of ways—our obedience, our offering. There’s a lot of ways to say thank you, but that’s an appropriate place to take an offering, and so we did that. Our songs went through a gospel flow this morning. They did. And we were singing with grateful hearts as we gave to the Lord’s work this morning. It’s intentional.

5.  Petition

So after those elements of our worship gathering, then we petition the Lord. So we adore him, we confess sin to him, we’re assured of our pardon, we’re thankful for that, and now we need his help to go and be faithful to him.

So we ask him for a petition. And I got up here before I preached and asked the Lord that he would help us to grow because of what he was gonna teach us and then go out and honor him. That prayer was intentional. I’m asking him, give us the ability to go and honor you when we leave here, respond to you rightly.

To say it in a New Testament way, now we want his help as we walk in a manner worthy of our calling. That’s what we need. That’s what we want.

Hebrews 4:13-16:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

You don’t have to raise your hand, but let me ask you this question: Are you in need today? And I hope that everybody in this room says yes. Because if you say no, I wonder about the pride there. We’re in need. Lord, I need you to help me obey you today. Lord, I need you to keep me a faithful father and husband and employee and friend and brother. I need you! I need your help to do what you’re commanding me to do by your word. I need your help.

And so we come and we ask him for his help. We come, in the language of Hebrews 4, boldly to the throne of grace because he knows what we’re going through—that’s the whole argument—and we ask for his help, we ask for his grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. He gives it to us. When we ask, he gives it.

There’s a song which I’m sure we’ll sing at one point. It’s called “All I Have is Christ.” And here’s the prayer:

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me

Listen to the prayer:

Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You

Corporately, we will come together every week and say, Lord, help us to be your bride. Help us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. We’ll do that together, and we’ll mean it.

A true Christian doesn’t bask in the grace of God and then think casually about his time on earth and the battle against sin. A true believer follows Christ and seeks to be empowered by his Holy Spirit.

So adoration, confession, assurance, thanksgiving, petition all follow what the historic church has done.

6.  Instruction

And then there’s a sixth element: Instruction. If we’re saying we want to respond to the Lord with hearts of gratitude and in a way that honors him and we need his help, how are we gonna know what to do? How do we know how to deal with people who gossip about us? How do we know how to fight sin? How do we know how to think about our lives? Well, we’re instructed. Instruction is the other element of the corporate worship gathering.

How should instruction happen? Do we put a little stage in the middle and have everyone kind of give their own thoughts and opinions? I’m sure you’ve got some great ones. Or do we have someone who stands up and says, this isn’t about me; this is about what the Lord says, and I’m gonna walk through what the Lord says for us today?

The Lord is instructing us on Sunday mornings, not Andrew Gutierrez. The Lord is instructing us. That’s why I need to be faithful to say things how he has said it, to be accurate about what he’s saying. I can’t twist passages to make them say something that I hope they say or wish they’d say or want to trick you into thinking they’re saying. I need to say what the Lord says.

And how arrogant. You think you can come up there and stand before God and say what he says? I mean, other churches kind of do this kind of shared teaching time. This is what he says to do. Preach the word.

2 Timothy 4:1-5. Don’t turn there. Just listen. “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom.” Okay, so hold on right there. Paul is telling Timothy—Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, so God is telling Timothy—God is telling Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God who’s watching this worship gathering, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who’s coming to judge everyone. Okay, I’m listening now. I’m listening.

I charge you in the presence of God and Jesus Christ who’s coming to judge, preach the word. Do what I’m doing here. I don’t do this because I want to be popular or known or I want you to hear all my opinions. I do this because I’m told that God is watching, and he tells me to do this!

“[P]reach the word; be ready in season and out of season,” so when it’s popular and when it’s not, when other churches are doing it and when they’re not. We’ve gotta preach the word. “[R]eprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering [because preaching the word isn’t always popular], do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:2-5).

It’s pretty clear what we’re supposed to do each Sunday. It’s pretty clear. And again, I don’t just come and preach. I’ve got to preach the…what? The word.

Jesus Christ, the night before he died, praying for his disciples, prayed to his Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). It’s amazing how we get away from that so quickly, and we make excuses for the Bible, question the Bible, question if it really says this or that. Preach the word.

2 Timothy 3:16-17. A lot of people don’t want to preach the word today. A lot of people feel like the Bible is not politically correct today, and it’s not. The Bible is the authority, by the way. The Bible should govern what is politically correct, but it doesn’t. But we don’t apologize for this. We want to explain it.

And I’m not an angry preacher either. I need to do so self-controlled with patience. That’s what I need to do. I need to preach the word like a shepherd preaches the word. And we preach the word.

2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” This is what you need.

Well, pastor, maybe we need the Bible and a little bit of kind of some psychology here. Pastor, maybe we need the Bible and a little bit of kind of this over here or that over here. I’m told and you’re told that the Bible is sufficient for everything. That’s what 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says. So “that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

We have everything we need for life and godliness, 2 Peter 1 says. So 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” There’s a reason all your chairs are facing the middle today. Because this is in the middle. Not because I’m in the middle. Because this is in the middle. This is the focus.

The Protestant Church rescued that thought from the Roman Catholic Church who would put the priest in between the elements behind him, saying you can basically come to God but you gotta come through me, the priest. No, no, no. We put the word of God here and say, this is central in what we do.

I’m not gonna read a verse of the Bible, set it over on a barstool, and then pontificate about my thoughts about the world for forty-five minutes. You don’t need that. You don’t need any of that. I want to be faithful to preach the word to you because that’s how we grow.

So there’s a time of instruction, and if we’re gonna live for Christ, we must be instructed by his word when we gather together.

7.  Fellowship

And we respond to his teaching as one body, one group of believers. So after we adore him, we confess our sin, we are assured of pardon, we’re thankful to him, we ask him for help, and then he instructs us—after all that, we come together and we say, we’re one body. So that would be the time when we enjoy the Lord’s table together. We’re one body of forgiven saints, so we celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one. We’re united together.

And so listen, that’s when we’ll do announcements. Announcements are worship. We’re announcing ministry needs and ministry opportunities and areas that you can grow in your faith. Announcements are worship.

And by the way, that’s why we don’t call Jared the worship leader. He’s one of the worship leaders. So are the elders. The leaders in this church are worship leaders. And it implies that worship is only when we sing. What we’re doing now is worship. Lord, teach us. Lord, how do you want me to respond? Lord, who are you? That’s worship. All of it’s worship.

The announcements are worship. We’ve got a need. Church, we’ve gotta meet this need. And then you meet the need; that’s worship! So the announcements will come in the fellowship, communion time after the instruction most often.

And by the way, there’s lots of ways we can do these things. In adoration, we can sing and adore him. We can read Scripture that adores him. We can pray in a way together, as I lead you or someone leads you, we’re adoring the Lord. So there’s a number of ways to do that, and all those ways are given in Scripture. Public reading of Scripture. Prayer. Preaching. Singing. We’ll do it in those ways.

Same thing with confession, assurance, thanksgiving. Sometimes it will be a prayer of petition, Lord help us. Sometimes we’ll sing a song together of petition, Lord help us. But that’s the flow each day as we come because we’re a New Testament people, and we celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we want to communicate that in what we’re doing.

Think if you invite someone to church who’s never known anything about Christianity. Nothing. Shouldn’t our worship service tell the story of Christianity? Tell about the message of Christianity? They’re gonna hear, God is high and lofty, and mankind has sinned. It’s a good message for them to hear. And then they’re gonna hear that immediately mankind can receive pardon and that mankind is grateful and that mankind, redeemed believers, then ask the Lord for help if they’re gonna walk in a manner worthy of the calling. And then they’re gonna see, oh, and then the Lord’s teaching you how to live. They’re gonna see all that. This is gonna tell them the story of our Christian faith. It’s gonna tell them the gospel.

8.  Charge and Blessing

So after that we have a fellowship and communion time, and then finally there will be a charge and a blessing. So go out and make disciples. Matthew 28. Go out and walk in a manner worthy of your calling. Go out; respond to the truth that you’ve heard. Go out.

And there’s a blessing that comes with that: Go in peace. You’ve got peace between you and God. Go in peace and in joy and empowerment. Go out and obey him.

Chapell says this: “The apex of spiritual experience in the life of a believer is not simply hearing the word, but living it.” There were a lot of false disciples in the New Testament that heard what Jesus said and liked a lot of it, and then when rubber meets the road, they didn’t follow it. 1 John 2 says they went out from us because they were never of us. So we want to be a people that hears it, fills our head and so it goes into our hearts, and then we go and we live it out. That’s what we do. 1 John 3:18: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Chapell goes on. He says, “The charge calls God’s people to live the truths they’ve heard. The benediction reminds them of the goodness of God extolled in worship, needed grace that will accompany and enable them to fulfill the charge.”

So in our charge at the end of our service, we may read the great commission together to remind us what we’re supposed to do now. We might pray a prayer together. Lord, send us on our way to be faithful to you. Amen. It might be that quick, that brief. It may be a blessing from the Lord. Lord, make your face shine upon us. It could be a number of things, but there’s a charge and a blessing that comes with that.

So listen, if we’re thinking rightly about the gospel and we’re thinking rightly about our New Testament worship all throughout the morning on Sunday, we will all go out excited and happy. Ah, I hear that preacher preaches sin over there at Miller Valley. But you don’t understand. We all leave happy.

Well, how’s that? Let me tell ya. It’s called the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have you ever heard of it? We always leave happy and hopeful and joyful and empowered. Why? Because we’ve been saved and redeemed. We’ve got assurance of that, and now he’s empowered us to go. So we’ll always leave happy. I can tell you that.

So again, how does Scripture call us to do all these things, scripture reading, fellowship, preaching, prayer, the ordinances, the Lord’s table and baptism? And by the way, next week we’ll take our first Lord’s table together, so for believers in this room who are here next week, we’ll take the Lord’s table together and celebrate that. It’s what the church does, what we’re commanded to do.

So now listen. The question is not, at your church do you sing hymns or contemporary music? I’m not saying that’s not an important question. I’ve got a preference there. I do. So do many of you. But that’s not the number one issue.

The New Testament churches are rallying around the gospel of Jesus Christ. And listen, heaven—heaven!—is rallying around the gospel of Jesus Christ. Genesis 3. Sin comes into the world. Genesis 3:15. God promises a rescuer who will crush the head of Satan and reverse the curse. The gospel starts early on in the message of the Bible. Genesis 1 and 2—God is the Creator of everything. He deserves all praise, all glory because it is good and he’s the Creator. Genesis 3—mankind rebels. And Genesis 3:15—I’m gonna reverse the curse. Someone’s gonna come and redeem lost mankind.

And that message, that message is the message you see played out throughout the rest of the Scriptures. That’s the theme of the Bible. God is all glorious, mankind has rebelled, and God is redeeming a people for his own glory. And what happens in Revelation 5? Worthy are you, the one who was slain. The angels and saints who have gone before us are singing to the Lord, singing to the slain Lamb.

So if the gospel message was preached in the garden, if the gospel message is preached in Revelation 5 at the end of human history, and all the Bible tells us this is what’s happening in human history, why would we not celebrate the gospel in this church every single Lord’s day? Why would we think that we’re so brilliant that people don’t want to hear about sin and all that bloody cross stuff and how the Son died on a cross? People disregard that, throw it out the window for their own brilliant ideas. We cannot do that. Heaven worships at the throne of Jesus Christ, praising him because he’s the slain Lamb on our behalf. Why would we do anything different? What’s more important than that? Nothing.

He deserves the gospel to be preeminent in our thoughts all day long every day because it will be preeminent in our thoughts for all eternity. He still has the scars for a reason. Jesus physically lives right now somewhere where we can’t see, and he has a redeemed body, but he still has scars. So why would we not celebrate the fact that we put those scars there, and he forgave us completely for that? There’s no greater message.

So do you see why it’s not about hymns versus contemporary? It’s not about that. It’s what do those songs say? If those songs say the gospel and who God is, we sing ‘em. If they don’t, we don’t. So we can put down our swords. We’re not gonna divide our church whether we sing hymns or contemporary. We’re gonna sing gospel-centered, Christ-focused, God-exalting lyrics in every single thing we do. That’s what we’re gonna do.

And I know you’ve still got preferences. I have preferences. But let’s think of the words. Do not come here next Sunday and go, oh man, three contemporary songs versus one hymn; that’s not good. Or, three hymns versus one contemporary song; that’s not good. Because do you know what you’re doing right then? You’re not thinking about the words. And if you’re not thinking about the words, you’re not thinking about the risen Lamb. You’re thinking about you. And I say that in a friendly way to the people that I’ve grown to love real quick.

Those things are important discussions. What’s most important is what we’re singing and who we’re singing to, and we want to sing good, sound, theological lyrics. That’s what we want to do. Sorry, got excited and dropped something over here.

A New Testament church is first and foremost eager to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth as it holds high the person of Christ and his gospel. We need to hold high the person of Christ and his gospel.

Turn to Isaiah 6 in closing. Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah 6 is a famous passage. Many of you know it well. But I want you to notice what’s happening in this passage.

“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said [here’s adoration]: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said”—here’s the confession.

When we see the Lord high and lofty, we start to see ourselves rightly. Isaiah sees that, and he says, “Woe is me!” Damned am I. Cursed am I. “For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” That word hosts means armies. He’s seeing a powerful, judging God. And he acknowledges, people are adoring him, and I do not respond rightly to him.

But then look what happens. “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’” Forgiveness. Salvation. You don’t think Isaiah wasn’t happy about that, thankful for that? You don’t think Isaiah then wanted to respond rightly to the Lord?

Verse 8: “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’” What does Isaiah do? “’Here I am! Send me.’ And he said, ‘Go, and say to this people.’” He launches him into service. When you see the Lord high and lofty, you will see yourself for who you really are. It’s not always pretty. And then you will receive grace and forgiveness when you acknowledge that sin before the Lord. And then that will cause you out of grateful hearts to say, send me. What do you want me to do?

It’s not just a New Testament theme. It’s a Bible theme. It’s a theme here. You can walk through that in Isaiah 6.

Interestingly enough, the New Testament tells us—sheds further light on this happening in Isaiah 6—it tells us that when he looked up into heaven and saw the Lord sitting on a throne, he was seeing the pre-incarnate Christ. The Bible is Christ-focused. And so are we to be. The Bible is gospel-focused, the message of God’s salvation, and so are we to be. That’s what we do when we gather.  

So you can keep your smoke machines and dirt bikes and all the other ideas you have about church. We’re here to worship the Lord, and we’re here to praise him for his work that he’s done, every single Lord’s day until he comes back. Let’s pray.

Father, we want to be a gospel people. We want to be a people that studies who you are, understands who you are as you’ve revealed yourself to us in Scripture. We want to be a people that celebrates around your throne of grace every single Sunday, every single time we’re together gathered.

And then, Lord, we want to be a people that hears from you, and we want to be a people that’s empowered by you to go out and to do what you tell us to do. We want to live differently out of hearts of gratitude.

Father, thank you for the clarity of your word. Thank you for this clear instruction.

Father, I pray for the churches in our community that are faithful to this. I pray that you’d empower them, make them even more faithful. Father, if there are churches that are not faithful to this, and it appears that there are, I pray that you would reorient their minds. Fix their eyes to Scripture. Fix their eyes to the gospel. Give them the instruction for what to do. I pray that you’d bless them as they are faithful to you.

Lord, make this a gospel church so that we’ll be a gospel city, where Jesus Christ is rightly seen as high and lofty. We pray this in his name. Amen.