By Michael Horton
(His dates: ?-living, This book first published: 2002)
Baker Books, 2003
Introduction (Magee)
A way of life for us at EPC
Contents
Introduction – A Glorious Theater
1. Setting the Stage
Part 1 – Faith Comes by Hearing – The Ministry of the Word
2. A Dramatic Script
3. Casting New Characters
4. How Preaching Works
5. Discovering the Plot
Part 2 – Signs and Seals of the Covenant – The Ministry of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
6. Signed, Sealed, and Delivered
7. A Table in the Wilderness
Part 3 – Our Reasonable Service – Getting Involved in the Drama
8. Tasting the Powers of the Age to Come
9. What Should Our Service Look Like?
10. Is Style Neutral?
11. Taking a Break from the Buzz
12. Reaching the Lost Without Losing the Reached
Introduction – A Glorious Theater
Sayers – It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness
A better way than vagueness
Sermon as lecture – Worship as lecture +
Big self-help places
Few want to ask: What is worship anyway?
Rich Hurst: In 1970 there were 10 megachurches, today there are over 400
And yet overall church attendance is off 35%
Drama – One of the richest ways of reading the Bible
The drama of the redemptive message
The drama of the redemptive gathering
Acts 2:37-39
The drama of the Reformation – the change to a God-centered worship
Scottish minister PT Forsyth – Our safety is in the deep
1. Setting the Stage
The Covenant Renewal Ceremony
Genesis 15
What can it mean that our worship is a covenant renewal ceremony?
God’s Work and Our Response
Parties to the Covenant of Grace
Are we more fascinated by our response than God’s work?
Hebrews 10:19-25
More than Music
Praise
Is there more to music than we realize? Music and dogma… Music and self…
Our Jealous God
Book focuses on ordinary means by which God saves and keeps us – two: word and sacrament
Everything else is for our growth
Part 1 – Faith Comes by Hearing – The Ministry of the Word
2. A Dramatic Script
Life without a plot – a postmodern problem
God brings us into the story – through the faith that comes by hearing
The Logic of Grace: Way of Salvation and Way of Saving
Way of Salvation – Romans 1-8
Way of Saving – Romans 10
Our thirst for what we can see now (idolatry) – and faith, hope , and love
The minister’s talk or God’s talk through the minister that produces new people
God Has Already Made the Message Relevant
The weak things of God despised – the powerful things of the world sought after
Moving away from the Bible…
Moving away from the sacraments…
[Magee – Moving away from corporate prayer…]
3. Casting New Characters
Nowhere Man – Beatles
Recreating the world moment by moment and thereby losing all standards
The Scripted Self
Problem with living like the star of my own made-for-TV movie
Two grand narratives: 1. In Adam, 2. In Christ
1 Peter 1:17-19 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Be careful not to reduce the drama to our own individual salvation.
The goal is not to have God and the church fit into our existing plot, but to get a new plot from God – God’s plot.
The Gospel According to Whom?
Wit, wisdom, autobiography…
“Practical” sermons that ignore the real drama in the text
He comes to dash our silly hopes and to expose our felt needs as trivial, in order to give us new ones that are far greater, and then to satisfy those beyond our wildest dreams.
4. How Preaching Works
Consider our theology of how salvation works and the import of this to our understanding of how preaching works..
One View “Excitements Sufficient to Induce Repentance”
First Great Awakening – Whitefield, Edwards – God blessing His means
Second Great Awakening – Finney “A revival is not a miracle.” – Man using means that make sense and therefore produce a desired effect.
Why is Preaching Effective?
The promise of God
The Spirit of God
The message of God
2 Corinthians 4:7 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
Hebrews 4:12-13 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Word and Spirit
Ezekiel 37:1-6 – Prophesy to the bones
John 6:63 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
Matthew 12:39 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
Genuinely Practical Preaching
Justification and Sanctification by faith
Faith has content
Sanctification by law ineffective
Indicative-Imperative
Christian thinking and Christian living (Eph 1-3, 4-6)
Romans 1-11, 12-16
Romans 12:1-2 ESV Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
[Magee – I think that I have spent two much time preaching to the skeptic or the seeker. I think expounding on the privileges of the recipient of grace will be more effective not only for believers, but also for skeptics and seekers. I should take seriously the composition of the assembly as a believing gathering of saints, with just a few others that consciously see themselves as outside of Christ.]
Avoiding Bad “Law” Preaching
Problem is really a bad understanding of the gospel that we are promoting
God the Preacher
Habakkuk 2:20 - 3:1 20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."
5. Discovering the Plot
Luke 24:27 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
The Scarlet Thread
Redemptive-historical method – All Scripture is about Christ
John 5:38-40 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
1 Peter 1:10-12 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
The Central Character
How the New Testament Preaches the Old
Hosea 11:1 and Matthew 2:15
1 Corinthians 10:4
Acts throughout
The need for Systematic Theology to govern our interpretations of specific texts
[Magee – The danger of preaching your systematic theology rather than the text]
Redemptive Historical Interpretation
What is John 4:21-23 actually about?
Moralizing
Allegorizing – too subjective
Psychologizing
Pet issues
God’s point in God’s story
Suggestions for Christ-Centered
1. OT and NT
2. Consider stage of redemptive history in the passage
3. How do I find myself in Christ in this passage?
4. Read and hear the Bible with the church throughout history.
5. Read and hear prayerfully.
Part 2 – Signs and Seals of the Covenant – The Ministry of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
6. Signed, Sealed, and Delivered
Historical importance of Word and sacrament
Pietism
American Revivalism
What do the Scriptures teach?
Baptism and the Bible
The Old Testament not only promised the Covenant of Grace – signs and seals
Circumcision
Sign: Somewhere between a symbol and the thing signified
Seal: Confidence, Relationship, Consecration
Genesis 15, 17, 22.
Malachi 3:1-3, John 1:17, 1:24-27, 29, 33
John 3
Acts 2
Titus 3:5-7
Galatians 3:27
Hebrews 10:29 – do not count the blood of the covenant a common thing
Practical Questions
Not all
In defense of infant baptism
8 points
Water Is (or Should Be) Thicker than Blood
Are you baptized? Not – are you from my heritage group?
7. A Table in the Wilderness
Psalm 78:19 19 They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
Institution of Passover
Redemption from
Institution of the Lord’s Supper
The Cross
Fervent Desire of Christ
The Nature of the Supper
Various Views
The Role of the Holy Spirit
The Benefits of the Supper
1 Corinthians 10-11
Taking Advantage of God’s Provision
John 6
Psalm 34:8 taste and see
Part 3 – Our Reasonable Service – Getting Involved in the Drama
8. Tasting the Powers of the Age to Come
Hebrews 6 “enlightened”=baptism, “tasted the heavenly gift”=Lord’s Supper
Eschatology – the powers of the age to come… For what can I hope?
Two Ages
This age and the age to come
Before the ages (pre-history)
Between the exodus and the Promised Land – Already and not yet
Contrasting Eschatologies and Their Implications for Worship:
The Church and the Believer in the
Over-realized Eschatology (
Under-realized Eschatology (URE) – pre (expecting for the tribulation)
Word and Sacrament (WS)
Evangelism and Church Growth
URE: Pessimistic
The Christian Life
URE: Antinomianism
Weekly Worship
URE: Forgetting about mediation between God and man
WS: He is not here. He is risen!
The Age of the Spirit
The Spirit descended at Pentecost to unite a new humanity around the common fact of redemption, uniting Jew and Gentile in Christ
Walk/live in the Spirit – not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh
[Magee: Eph 5 – filled with Spirit: worship, thanks, submission]
Tasting eternity by faith in worship
9. What Should Our Service Look Like?
Old Testament versus New Testament Worship
The torn curtain in the
Hebrews 12:18-24
Not all discontinuity
[Magee: See Old, Worship – OT, Inter-Test Synagogue, NT,…]
The Elements
The Invocation – Call to Worship from the Scriptures
God’s Greeting (The Votum) – declaring God’s goodwill to the assembly
The
The Confession and Absolution – public declaration that God has forgiven our sins
The Pastoral Prayer
The Preached Word
The Ministry of the Lord Supper
Thanksgiving and Offerings
The Benediction
Concluding Thoughts
Don’t presume that a biblically-based liturgy will be impossible to institute
Acts 2:41-42, 47
10. Is Style Neutral?
People of the book not people of the image
Style Matters
Gravitas – weightiness
Explicit rejection and trivialization
Style and the Character of God
Weighty God – weighty forms of worship
The Role of Tradition
Problem of ignoring tradition and embracing the culture (without recognizing it)
What about the Setting?
The pulpit, the table, and the font
Architectural prominence to Word and Sacrament
Theatre and entertainment message
Does the furniture and its placement indicate that this is God’s stage and not ours?
Music Matters
Traditional versus contemporary labels are not adequate
Organ only? Old hymns that are folksy?
Music and the Logic of Marketing
Age segmentation
Ken Meyers – Popular culture, because of its commercial sensibilities maintains a preference for the upbeat, the informal, the new and interesting.
MTV way of conveying an idea – thin plot – enticing images – Can this work for the Christian faith – plot intensive – image prohibitive
Not age of music but durability should be the issue – Can anyone imagine a given form being around 500 years later? If not, why would we use it?
Triumph of me-centered therapeutic forms.
High culture, folk, and pop
Delayed gratification of form (in literature and music) and emotional depth
Colossians 3:16 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
So Where Now?
No short cut to serious reflection, study, and prayer
Pep talk or sermon – Which is right for a covenant renewal meeting?
Pop jingle or received musical excellence – Which is right for a covenant renewal meeting
11. Taking a Break from the Buzz
No time for Sabbath? We keep on trying the latest spiritual diet plan.
The true, good, beautiful, versus The useful, preferred, stimulating
What’s All the Buzz About?
Not this theology versus that theology, but “Who needs any theology?”
A responsibility to viewers to do the relevant – how does this work in the church?
Reel Time
Stepping into the time that God has set aside for our fellowship with Him
Rest for the Weary
The Sabbath and the Week
Hebrews 4:1-10
Each Lord’s Day is a little Easter
The Very Good Day and the anticipated Very Best Day of Consummation Rest
Structuring Our Sabbath, or Being Structured by It
Because we are weak
Every day is the Lord’s day à No day is the Lord’s day
We Have Time
Heaven: a busy place – just no sin
Start with Sunday in the battle for time
“Home Schooling”: Recovering the Disciplined Art of Catechism
A “big picture” grasp of the whole Bible
Catechesis – an ancient method of learning
12. Reaching the Lost Without Losing the Reached
The problem of unchurching the churched rather than reaching the unchurched
Seekers or Tourists
See
Belief without the commitment of relationship
When Relevance Becomes Irrelevant
Christ and Him crucified versus humanity and it improved
Start preaching to the baptized
Is what the preacher has to say more important and more interesting than what God has to say?
Adam Raccoon at
Practical denial of the sufficiency of Scripture in preaching
Fatalism or Reformation?
Give in to functional illiteracy or challenge cultural accomadation
Back to stained glass windows – just with technology
Is the audience sovereign?
“The data says” versus “Thus says the Lord”
And Now for Something Completely Different
Cutting-edge liturgies? – the unchurched can find better entertainment elsewhere
The centrality of the truth of redemption
The integration of the generations around classic Christian truths and forms
God’s kingdom does not fall and rise according to the demographics of a given generation.
A Few Ideas
1. Daily instruction of the youth
2. Word-centered innovation (example of question and answer box used by Rick Phillips – answering one question before every evening service)
3. Distinguish between covenant renewal ceremony and outreach
4. Radio
5. New attitudes toward the believing community – not beasts of burden for outreach, but precious treasure that God has entrusted to the church’s care
Reaching the Reached
No pain no gain
The importance of elders and deacons for the renewal of the church
The Theology of the Cross
Mark 10:35-45
Cross now, but glory later that comes from the cross
Some insist on glory now, and bring a different theology into the church
Exodus 15:1-2 ESV Exodus 15:1 Then Moses and the people of
Closing Thoughts (Magee):
1. Worship is a way of life to be lived
2. Far from minimizing the covenant renewal meeting, this is a fount of blessing flowing from Christ
3. Word, Sacrament, and Corporate Prayer
4. Let’s not be ignorant about consumer-oriented popular culture and the forms it produces, largely unsuitable for serving a weighty eternal God. Not everything we sing needs to be 500 years old, but it should be the sort of thing that people might sing for the next 500 years.
5. What is so bad with letting the worship and ministry of the church be driven by Christ speaking through the Scriptures.
6. Let’s remember that we are speaking to the baptized.
7. May we see God build us up in faith, hope, and love, as we truly seek to follow Him.
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