Paul's Pattern for Preaching: Christ-Centered Preaching Series 3 of 6

By Larry Kirk

John Stott once observed that the secret of effective preaching is not mastering techniques but being mastered by convictions. That insight goes to the heart of Christ-centered preaching. The most important question is not how to preach Christ-centered sermons, but whether we are deeply convinced that this is what faithful preaching must do.

There is no shortage of advice today on how to do Christ-centered preaching. But the single most important issue is not technique—it is conviction. When it becomes a settled conviction that preaching must both turn up the music of the gospel and call the dance of obedience, the methods tend to follow.

This is why the analogy matters. If preachers are convinced that God’s grace in Christ must always be proclaimed and that obedience must be called forth faithfully, they will find ways to do both. Technique flows from conviction.

To deepen this conviction and to see what Christ-centered preaching looks like in practice, we can turn to one of the greatest church planters and pastors in history: the apostle Paul. Few books display his preaching pattern more clearly—or more beautifully—than the book of Ephesians.

The Music: The Riches of God’s Grace (Ephesians 1–3)

Ephesians divides naturally into two halves. Chapters 1–3 proclaim the riches of God’s grace in Christ. Chapters 4–6 show how that grace reshapes every part of life. Paul does not blur these together. He establishes the music before he ever calls the dance.

In Ephesians 1, Paul begins not with commands but with praise. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” sets the entire letter in the context of worship. What follows is a breathtaking catalogue of grace:

• God chose us before the foundation of the world

• He predestined us for adoption

• In Christ we have redemption through his blood

• Our sins are forgiven according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us

• We have an inheritance

• We are sealed with the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our redemption

The result is doxology and prayer. Paul ends the chapter praying that believers would grasp the power now at work within them.

Ephesians 2 presses even deeper into grace. Paul reminds us who we once were: dead in sin, following the course of this world, children of wrath. Then come two of the most powerful words in Scripture: “But God.” God, rich in mercy, because of his great love, made us alive together with Christ. By grace we are saved.

Later in the chapter, Paul shows that this grace reconciles us not only to God but to one another. Those who were once strangers are now members of God’s household. The dividing wall has been torn down, and Christ himself is the cornerstone.

In Ephesians 3, Paul celebrates the inclusion of the Gentiles in this gracious plan and declares the astonishing result: because of Christ, we now approach God with freedom, confidence, and boldness.

Here is a striking observation: in the first three chapters of Ephesians, there is essentially one imperative—to remember who we were before grace. For three chapters, Paul turns up the music.

The Hinge: A Prayer for Power and Love (Ephesians 3:14–21)

Before moving to commands, Paul pauses to pray. This prayer is the hinge of the entire letter.

He prays that believers would be strengthened with power through the Spirit in their inner being, so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. This is not about whether Christ indwells believers—Paul has already affirmed that reality. Rather, he is praying for an experiential, lived awareness of Christ’s presence through active faith.

Paul prays that believers would be rooted and established in love—using images from agriculture and architecture—and that they would grasp the vast dimensions of Christ’s love: its width, length, height, and depth. This is not mere intellectual knowledge but a lived, transforming knowledge that fills us with the fullness of God.

Only then does Paul move to the imperatives.

The Dance: A Life Shaped by the Gospel (Ephesians 4–6)

Ephesians 4 begins with the turning point: “Therefore, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” “Worthy” does not mean earning God’s favor; it means living in a way that fits the grace already given.

Suddenly, imperatives abound.

Paul calls believers to humility, gentleness, patience, and unity. He urges them to speak the truth in love, to put off the old self and put on the new, to be angry without sinning, to stop stealing and start working, to use words that build up rather than tear down.

He addresses bitterness, slander, forgiveness, sexual purity, speech, time management, and substance abuse. He speaks to marriages, families, workplaces, and spiritual warfare. Children are told to obey, parents to nurture, believers to put on the armor of God and pray always.

As Sinclair Ferguson once observed, the gospel in Ephesians is like white light passing through a prism, refracted into every color of life. Nothing is untouched.

Paul does not weaken the call to obedience. The aim is nothing less than full obedience—100 percent, from the inside out, all of life, all the time. But the obedience flows from grace. The God who choreographs the dance also composes the music that empowers it.

Why This Pattern Matters for Preaching

Paul’s pattern teaches us something essential about Christ-centered preaching. Preaching the gospel does not diminish the importance of commands. It establishes the only foundation on which obedience can flourish.

We cannot dance well unless we are listening to the music. When preaching calls people to obedience without first immersing them in grace, it produces guilt, fear, or moralism. When preaching turns up the music without ever calling the dance, it produces passivity. Paul gives us neither option.

Faithful preaching follows his pattern: proclaim Christ, exalt grace, pray for the Spirit’s power, and then call God’s people to live lives worthy of the calling they have already received.

That is Paul’s pattern for preaching—and it remains a model for every preacher who longs to see the gospel transform real lives.

The Music and the Dance: Christ-Centered Preaching Series 2 of 6

By Larry Kirk

One of the most important convictions behind Christ-centered—or gospel-centered—preaching can be captured with a simple analogy I often use when teaching at the seminary, in the church, and even in my own personal life. I call it The Music and the Dance.

Imagine a large house where two kinds of people live together: some who can hear, and some who are deaf. Picture yourself as an observer looking in through a window.

A man walks into a room and presses a button on an entertainment system. Instantly, the room fills with music. It’s obvious he’s enjoying it. He doesn’t just stand still—he begins to move with the rhythm. At first, his movements are subtle, but before long he’s fully dancing. He’s caught up in the music, responding naturally and joyfully to what he hears.

Then a second man enters the room. He is deaf. He watches the first man carefully and thinks, That looks wonderful. I want to do that. So he begins to imitate the movements. At first it’s awkward and uncoordinated, but as he studies the other man closely, he starts to get in step. Eventually, he appears to be dancing in rhythm.

Now imagine a third person standing next to you at the window. He doesn’t know either man. From his perspective, both appear to be doing the same thing—listening to the music and dancing in response to it.

But are they really doing the same thing?

And does it matter that they are not?

That question gets to the heart of this analogy—and to the heart of preaching, ministry, and the Christian life.

There is a kind of preaching and ministry that focuses almost entirely on the dance. It is deeply concerned with whether people are moving correctly—whether they are in step, following the right rhythm, and obeying the proper commands. It prescribes steps, corrects missteps, and calls people out when they fall out of rhythm. But it doesn’t pay much attention to whether people are actually hearing the music.

Over time, this kind of approach can produce a familiar experience. People try very hard to live the Christian life. They keep moving. They keep serving. They keep obeying. But gradually—often quietly—they stop hearing the music.

For some, this happens because of the sheer longevity of ministry. Years of responsibility, disappointment, criticism, and unmet expectations can wear down the soul. The result is a kind of Christian living that still dances, but no longer delights. The movements continue, but the joy fades.

At the core of gospel-centered preaching is a refusal to separate the music from the dance.

Christ-centered preaching does not choose between grace and obedience, or between proclamation and application. It does both. It turns up the music and calls the dance.

In this analogy, the music represents the massive message of God’s redemptive love in Jesus Christ. It is not limited to forgiveness, justification, or the promise of heaven. It includes adoption into God’s family, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and the sure hope that all things will be made new at the end of history. It is the full kaleidoscope of grace that flows from the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and ongoing reign of Christ.

The dance represents the whole Christian life—the call to love God and love others, and all the practical expressions of obedience that Scripture lays before us through its commands and exhortations.

The point of the analogy is not that we should turn up the music and forget about the dance. Nor is it that we should focus on the dance while ignoring the music. Faithful preaching requires both. The dance must always be connected to the music.

This is why gospel-centered preaching means preaching the person and work of Christ as both the motive and the means of Christian living. Every application of Scripture must be rooted in Christ.

The question preachers must ask as they prepare sermons is not simply What should people do? but How does the richness of our redemption in Christ supply both the reason and the power for this obedience?

The dance always has to be related to the music.

This conviction is not new. John Calvin put it plainly when he wrote:

“We ought to read the Scriptures with the express design of finding Christ in them. Whoever shall turn aside from this object, though he may weary himself throughout his whole life in learning, will never attain the knowledge of the truth; for what wisdom can we have without the wisdom of God?”

Charles Spurgeon echoed the same conviction in his own words:

“Preach Christ, always and everywhere. He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our one great all-comprehending theme.”

Christ-centered preaching, then, is not about mastering techniques or perfecting steps. It is about ensuring that people hear the music of the gospel clearly and continually—so that their obedience flows from joy, gratitude, and love for Christ rather than from imitation, pressure, or exhaustion.

When the music is heard, the dance follows.

Core Convictions: Christ-Centered Preaching Series 1 of 6

By Larry Kirk

In 2 Timothy 4:1–2, Paul gives Timothy one of the most solemn and weighty charges in all of Scripture:

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

This is only one of many passages in Scripture that speak about preaching. But it captures something essential: preaching is not a peripheral task in pastoral ministry. It is central.

There are many good and important things that pastors do. We plan services. We shape liturgies. We develop small groups. We build discipleship strategies. We think about leadership development, evangelism, and mission. All of these matter.

But when you read the New Testament, nothing is emphasized quite like this: preach the word.

For example, almost every church I know today is deeply committed to small groups—and for good reason. They serve fellowship, community, discipleship, and mission. But nowhere in the New Testament do you find a command that says, “Develop small groups.” You do, however, find repeated, explicit, emphatic commands to preach.

I once searched the New Testament for the words “preach” and “preaching.” I found nearly 100 passages, 79 of them in the New Testament alone.

In Matthew’s Gospel, as soon as Jesus emerges from the birth narratives, we read, “From that time Jesus began to preach.” Later, “He went from town to town to preach.” Jesus describes his own ministry by saying, “The poor have the gospel preached to them.” He reminds his hearers that Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah—and then uses that to indict his own generation for not repenting at his preaching.

In Mark’s Gospel, the word “preaching” appears four times in the first chapter alone. Jesus says, “I must go to other towns also, to preach there.” He appoints the twelve and sends them out to preach. They go and preach everywhere.

The same pattern continues throughout Acts and the Epistles. Peter preaches. Paul and Barnabas preach. Paul asks for prayer that he might preach boldly. And when Paul writes to Timothy and Titus, he tells them—again and again—to preach.

It is so common in Scripture that we almost stop seeing it.

Preaching and the Renewal of the Church

What Scripture emphasizes, history and research confirm.

Dr. Thom Rainer conducted a major study of churches that had declined or plateaued and then experienced genuine renewal. In every case, one of the dominant factors—often the dominant factor—was the preaching of the senior pastor. Not merely that he was a “good communicator,” but that his preaching was shaping and leading the renewal.

Rainer also studied church plants and found something similar. When people were asked what most influenced them to come, stay, and commit, the most common answer was the preaching.

Christianity Today once did a large study asking why people with a church background, who moved to a new community, chose the church they did. The number one answer was the beliefs of the church (89%). The second was the preaching of the senior pastor (87%). Worship style, children’s ministry, and other factors all ranked lower.

Mark Dever famously writes that the first and most important mark of a healthy church is expositional preaching, because if you get this right, all the others should follow.

There are complexities in how that plays out in real life, of course. You can preach excellent sermons on evangelism and still not instantly produce a congregation full of bold evangelists. But the basic insight is sound: preaching is one of the primary ways God shapes, guides, and renews his church.

So the question becomes: How can pastors and church planters preach in a way that truly changes lives—both believers and unbelievers—for the glory of God?

The Foundation: Core Convictions

Here is the first main principle:

Lay a foundation of core convictions for gospel-centered preaching.

John Stott puts it memorably:

“In a world that no longer wants to listen, how can we be persuaded to go on preaching and learn to do so effectively? The essential secret is not mastering certain techniques, but being mastered by certain core convictions.”

If you are truly convinced that you must preach the word—that your preaching must expose what is actually in Scripture—you will find a way to do it, even if your techniques are imperfect.

If you are convinced that people must clearly understand the implications of God’s word for their lives, you will labor to make your message plain, even if your illustrations are not brilliant.

If you are convinced that preaching is a God-ordained means of grace through which God changes hearts, you will keep preaching “in season and out of season,” even when you feel inadequate or discouraged.

Techniques matter. But convictions drive everything.

So what are some of these core convictions?

1. Dependence on the Holy Spirit

Authentic preaching is always a test of faith.

On our best days, we stand before a congregation made up of real people with real crises: broken marriages, secret sins, deep grief, fragile faith, and desperate need for grace. We bring what we have prepared—and it feels like the boy with the loaves and fishes. What we bring is never enough.

Yes, God is sovereign. But he works through human instruments. And unless God himself works, nothing truly lasting will happen.

The greatest preachers in history—men like Charles Spurgeon—spoke often and openly about their dependence on the Holy Spirit.

The image is like Elijah on Mount Carmel. He builds the altar. He arranges the sacrifice. He even pours water on it. Then he steps back. Unless God sends fire from heaven, nothing happens.

This conviction must shape not only how we preach, but how we prepare and how we pray. For me, this means cultivating dependence all through the week—and especially in worship before preaching. However you structure your own disciplines, you must learn to step into the pulpit consciously dependent on the Spirit of God.

2. Love for the People You Preach To

Another core conviction is genuine love for those you serve.

Jack Miller, in Outgrowing the Ingrown Church, describes “preaching by faith.” He used to sit on the platform before preaching and look out over the congregation, deliberately reminding himself of God’s deep love for each person.

Preaching is not delivering information to an audience. It is loving real people with the truth of God.

If you truly love them, you will labor to be clear. You will speak with patience. You will apply the word with both courage and tenderness.

3. Faith in the Power of God’s Word

There are many voices today saying that preaching is not very effective, that what really matters is one-on-one discipleship or small groups or personal counseling.

All of those are important. But Scripture shows us again and again that God uses the public preaching of his word to save, convict, and transform.

Jesus preached. Peter preached. Paul preached. And the Holy Spirit worked.

Some of the great movements of revival in history can be traced back to a single sermon that God used to change a life—who then changed other lives, and so on.

We should step into the pulpit with real faith that God works through his word.

4. Humility and Hard Work

Another essential conviction is humility.

Preaching is never about displaying ourselves. It is about serving Christ and his people.

And humility always shows itself in a willingness to work hard. Paul speaks often about laboring. Preaching well—especially in today’s culture—requires serious study, serious thought, serious prayer, and serious preparation.

5. Proclaiming Christ in All Things

At the center of everything is this final conviction: in all our preaching, we proclaim Christ.

Paul writes in Colossians 1:28:

“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

Whether we are teaching, correcting, or encouraging, the ultimate goal is always the same: to bring people to maturity in Christ.

Not to showcase our insights. Not to impress with our skill. Not to build our own reputation.

We proclaim him.

Conclusion

In a world that no longer wants to listen, the future of faithful preaching will not be secured by better techniques alone.

It will be secured by men who are mastered by deep, biblical, Christ-centered convictions—and who step into the pulpit week after week in dependence on the Spirit, love for their people, faith in God’s word, humility, and a relentless commitment to proclaim Christ.

Corporate Worship Services (Worship Series 6 of 6)

In this final article, our focus is on a few principles and practices undergirding corporate worship services. This list is far from comprehensive. Rather, it's meant to explain some practical ways all worship services can be more edifying to people and honoring to God.

Sabbath Rhythm in Worship

To worship the one true God (1st Commandment) in a true way (2nd Commandment) that brings honor to his name (3rd Commandment), we must remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy (4th commandment).

         To keep the Sabbath Day holy means to set the day aside “for the Lord.” We set the day aside from all other ordinary days by stopping our work so we can focus more on God in worship as the source of all blessing in life. This weekly rhythm of the Sabbath Day helps us keep remembering and worshipping God as our creator and redeemer. (Exod 20:11, Deut 5:15, Exod 31:13)

         The 4th Commandment instructs us to not only rest on one day but also to work for six days. However, this doesn’t mean these six days are to be without worship. From Genesis 1 onward, humans have the task of bringing honor and glory to God in worship through carrying out his will on the earth in service.

         So, our corporate worship services on the Lord’s Day should inspire and instruct our personal worship in all of life during the rest of the week. Likewise, our personal worship in all areas of life, on Monday through Saturday, should inspire and culminate in our corporate worship on the Lord’s Day.[1]

         God builds this sabbath rhythm of corporate and private worship into his created order for his glory and for our good (Isa 58:13-14). To gather with God’s people to worship on the Lord’s Day is both our solemn duty and joyful privilege.

Gospel-Remembering

The gospel of Jesus Christ is at the center of biblical worship. It's an announcement about something God has done in history. It's the good news that the Father’s creation, ruined by the Fall, is being redeemed by Christ and restored by the Spirit into the kingdom of God.

         Therefore, the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done is at the heart of God-honoring worship. What separates Christianity from all other religions is that God has revealed in Scripture not only who he is, his personal attributes, but also what he does, his acts in history. Author James White says, “For Christianity, the ultimate meaning of life is revealed not by universal and timeless statements but by concrete acts of God.”

         Just as God meant for the Exodus event to be central in Israel’s worship in the Old Testament, so God means for the events surrounding the person and work of Jesus Christ to be central in our worship today.

         Israel’s worship celebrated their deliverance from captivity under an evil ruler in Egypt and how God brought them out of slavery and led them through the desert into the promised land. As this story is re-told and re-lived again and again in Hebrew worship, the people of Israel find purpose and power to live out this story in their personal lives.

         In the Christ event we see the fulfillment of the Exodus event. Jesus is the Lamb of God prefigured in the Passover. Through his blood we are delivered from our slavery to sin so we can one day enter the Promised Land of eternal life with God in a new heavens and new earth.

         As this story is re-told and re-lived again and again in Christian worship, we find purpose and power to align our life purpose with God’s.

Means of Grace

At the center of God-honoring worship is the ordinary means of grace given to us in prayer, the preaching of the Word, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

         By his Holy Spirit, God uses common things in worship like human speech, water, bread, and wine to do a work of grace in our hearts as we draw near to Christ in faith.

         The grace we receive by the Holy Spirit through baptism and the Lord’s Supper is the same grace we receive through prayer and the preaching of the Word. But unlike prayer and preaching, the sacraments use our sight, taste, touch, and smell to enhance our experience of the gospel as we feed spiritually on Christ by faith.

         The Apostle Paul presents the Lord’s Supper to us as a multisensory preaching of the gospel to God’s people: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26). However, the Lord’s Supper is not an end in itself. Instead, it is to be administered alongside the preaching of the Word.

         In the early church, preaching and the Lord’s Supper went hand in hand. In Acts 2:42 we see that the first Christians devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking bread (Lord’s Supper), and prayer.

Liturgy and Order

Christian liturgy is a pattern used in corporate worship. Although people usually refer to more traditional worship as liturgical, every worship service, including the most non-traditional, follows some kind of pattern.

         In the Old Testament, God gave Israel a calendar of dates during which they celebrated God’s great acts of redemption and salvation. For example, the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. God also gave Israel the Psalms as their inspired hymnal.

         New Testament worship practices came from the Jewish synagogue liturgies that had a particular pattern, including memorized prayers. Early church Christians prayed “the prayers” recited by the Jews (Acts 2:42), gathered on the first day of the week for the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7), took up financial collections for the poor (1 Cor 16:2), and sang psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19, Phil 2:6-11, 1 Tim 3:16 ).

         Some people draw on worship patterns from encounters people had with God in the Old Testament (Isaiah 6) and Israel’s covenant renewal ceremonies. Examples include praise, confession, assurance of pardon, Scripture reading, proclamation of the Word, sacraments, and benediction.

         It can also be helpful to draw patterns from our spiritual ancestors in church history who used the Ten Commandments, creeds, confessions, catechisms, responsive readings, etc. in worship.

         But, we must always be cautious against absolutizing historic patterns–doing exactly the same thing every week in exactly the same order, and charging people with being unbiblical merely for suggesting something different.

Undistracted Excellence

We are to use liturgical elements in worship with excellence to help people focus on God. When the Apostle Paul gives instructions about worship liturgy to the church at Corinth, he writes, “But all things should be done decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40).

         For example, if people can't hear or understand the language spoken or sung, or the instruments used are out of tune, or those leading worship continue making mistakes, the focus in worship will not be on God.

         Likewise, if a vocalist sings like a professional on a concert stage to a small gathering, musicians show off their musical talent, or those leading worship are so dressed up (or down) they draw attention to themselves, the focus in worship will also not be on God.

         The goal is undistracted excellence, so whatever we do in worship we do it all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).

[1] In the New Testament, we find that the early church continued the Old Testament Sabbath rhythm of a weekly day of rest and worship. In Acts 20:7 Luke writes, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them.” This seems to be a corporate worship gathering that includes the Lord’s Supper and learning from the Apostle Paul. Later, when Paul writes the Corinthians, he refers to a collection of money that he is taking up for the poor believers in Jerusalem: “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come” (1 Cor 16:2). Again, it seems that the first day of the week is the day when followers of Jesus regularly gather for worship.

Wholehearted Worship (Worship Series 5 of 6)

Jesus’ disciples didn’t follow the legalistic worship traditions of the religious leaders. As a result, the leaders complained to Jesus, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders” (Matt 15:2)? Jesus’ response must have surprised them:

 So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (Matt 15:6-9)

            Later, a religious expert in the Scriptures tried to trick Jesus with this question, “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus’ answer does not refer to laws regarding how people should worship or even to the ten commandments. Instead, he answers by saying:

 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets”.(Matt 22: 37-40)[1]

            Jesus’ responses show us that true worship is not about our outward behavior but the inward motivation of our heart.

            Earlier we examined the biblical perspective by answering the question “What should we do in worship?” Then we looked at the cultural perspective answering the question “How should we do these things in worship?”

            But if we only think of worship in terms of outward religious practices, we miss the most important thing–worshiping God with our whole heart. In Scripture, the heart describes the core inner life of a person. The heart includes our understanding, affections, and decisions. Worship that is wholehearted engages all three.

Deep Understanding

Wholehearted worship involves deep understanding. God calls us to worship him by engaging our minds. Jesus commands us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt 22:37).

            One way we love God is by loving the truth about God found in his Word. The Apostle Paul describes those who are perishing as those who “refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thess 2:10). The Psalmist teaches that God’s law reflects the character of God himself and is sufficient to make us wise and train us in righteousness. (Ps 19:7-8, 2 Tim 3:15-17)

            Therefore, in the first century, Sabbath worship in the Jewish synagogue included a public reading from the Law and the Prophets followed by a word of encouragement for the people. It wasn’t enough for the people to hear the Scriptures read, they also needed someone to help them understand the Scriptures. This is why, in Acts 13, the leaders asked Paul to give them a “word of encouragement” following the public reading of Scripture (Acts 13:15-16a).

            After standing up, Paul delivered a sermon showing in the Old Testament Scriptures the good news that Jesus is the promised Seed, the long-awaited Son of David, and the Savior of both Jews and Gentiles. (Acts 13:16b-41)

            Paul understands the need to engage and renew people’s minds with God’s Word in worship. Therefore, he writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2a). He also says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:5).

            To renew our minds, we must “hear the word of the Lord” (Acts 13:44), and this requires that “the word of God be spoken” to us (Acts 13:46a). This is because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17).

            Since Paul could not give his personal “word of encouragement” following the reading of Scripture in all the churches, his letters were later distributed to them for public reading (1 Thess 5:27, Col 4:16, 2 Pet 3:15-16).[2] At the end of his life, Paul issues a solemn, final challenge to Timothy, his son in the faith, to preach the word:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus … preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, 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. (2 Tim 4:1-4)

         God calls us to worship him by engaging our minds as we receive the preaching of the word in worship.

Profound Affections

Wholehearted worship involves more than engaging our minds with God’s word. It also engages our heart affections. Jesus commands us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt 22:37). Notice how the Psalmist describes his worship experience:
 

• “I pour out my soul.” (Ps 42:4)

• “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.” (Ps 25:1)

• “My soul, makes its boast in the Lord.” (Ps 34:2)

            The Psalmist doesn’t tell us to understand or believe the Lord is good, but to “taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Ps 34:8) Scripture instructs us to “delight in the Lord” (Ps 37:4). The Bible portrays our heart affections as more than mere emotions. Affections are our underlying core motivations that compel us toward something or someone.

            Examples in Scripture of pouring out our soul and worshiping God with the fullness of our affections include expressing the whole range of human emotions from ecstatic joy to agonizing lament.

1. “Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:28b-29).

2. “Our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy” (Ps 126:2).

3. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Ps 2:11).

4. “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” (Heb 4:16, 10:19, 13:6).

5. “Woe is me! 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!” (Is 6:5).

6. “But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (Luke 5:8).

            Our affections and emotions are not an end in themselves but should be aimed toward the Triune God for who he is and what he does in his acts of creation and redemption in Christ. With this aim in mind, it can be biblical and honoring to God to use the emotional power of words in worship liturgy, including prayers, preaching, and hymns, to help move people away from idols and help them set their affections and emotions on God.

Intentional Behaviors

God calls us to worship him by engaging our whole being, including our mind, our affections, and our behaviors. So wholehearted worship involves not only deep understanding and profound affections but also intentional behaviors.

            Following his exposition of the gospel in the first eleven chapters of Romans, Paul exhorts his readers: “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” (Rom 12:1).

            In Romans 12:1 Paul refers to our physical bodies, not our souls. In the next verse, Romans 12:2, he refers to our minds. How does our body become a living sacrifice and our spiritual worship? By reflecting our behaviors rooted in the renewal of our minds and hearts by the mercies of God found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul describes some of these behaviors in the rest of Romans 12, including using our gifts to love and serve others in the body of Christ.

            Since God creates us with souls and bodies, and because Christ redeems not only our souls but also our bodies at the final resurrection, Christianity is a physical religion.[3] Correcting those who think of Christianity as primarily spiritual and not physical, C. S. Lewis writes:

 
Our new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion. It is not merely the spreading of an idea … God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why he uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.[4]

            Therefore, biblical worship engages not only our souls but also our bodies. In fact if we don’t engage our bodies in worship, our souls cannot be engaged as God designs. This is why Scripture describes many physical acts in worship, including:

• Praying out loud (Acts 4:23-31)

• Eating and drinking the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11)

• Singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (1 Cor 14:26, Eph 5:)

• Falling on your face (Gen 17:3, Neh 8:6, Ezek 1:28, Rev 4:9-10, 5:8, 14)

• Shouting (Ps 71:23, 81:1)

• Bowing down (Exod 34:8, Ps 5:7, Is 66:23, Zeph 2:11)

• Clapping (Ps 47:1, 98:8)

• Dancing (2 Sam 6:14, Ps 149:3, 150:4)

• Raising hands (Ps 28:2, 63:3-4, 68:31, 88:9, 119:48, 134:2, 141:2, 143:6, 1 Tim. 2:8)

• Offering gifts (1 Cor. 16:1, Phil. 4:18)

• Encouraging one another (1 Cor 14, Heb. 10:25, Rom. 16:16, 1 Cor 16:20)

God calls us to love and worship him with our whole being, and that must include our bodies.

[1] The second Great Commandment is from Lev. 19:18.

[2] These letters make up almost a third of the New Testament.

[3] D. Martyn Lloyd Jones writes, “You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind, and spirit. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures.

[4] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 2001) 63-64.

Cultural Perspective of Worship (Worship Series 4 of 6)

Scripture prescribes some things regarding worship, but there are many things it doesn’t prescribe.

            For instance, Scripture commands us to meet together for worship, but it doesn’t tell us the time or place, how we should dress, or who should pray and how we should pray. The Bible doesn’t tell us how many songs we should sing or what Scriptures we should read or preach. The Westminster Confession helps us answer these questions:

There are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed. (1.6)

            In other words, when Scripture commands us to do something but doesn’t instruct us exactly how to do it, we should use our God-given human reason guided by general biblical principles. There is a distinction between the general elements Scripture commands us to have in worship, like prayer, teaching, and singing, and the specific ways we are to carry out those elements, like the length of prayers, the method of teaching and preaching, etc.

            Historically, the terms used to describe this distinction are elements and circumstances. The elements are the things Scripture prescribes and the circumstances are the things we must work out for ourselves in carrying out the elements.[1]    

            It’s very important to distinguish between the biblical elements regarding worship and the cultural circumstances through which we experience these elements. The core elements of Christian worship are not arbitrary. They are God’s biblical norms for his church in every generation and culture.

            Yet, there are significant cultural freedoms through which these biblical norms for worship are expressed in every generation. Serious problems arise when people confuse the biblical norms (elements) and the cultural freedoms (circumstances).

            We should be especially on guard against the common mistake of thinking that the cultural freedoms adapted as worship practices by previous generations are the biblical norms for all generations. God gives a lot of cultural freedom in worship so it can be relevant and effective in all times and contexts.

            So we need to rethink what worship should look like in every generation. This does not mean we neglect to learn from the rich worship traditions of the past. Instead, as we learn from these traditions, we should avoid the traditionalism that adheres blindly to the worship practices of the past.

            Earlier, we answered the question “What should we do in worship?” by examining some of the essential elements of worship prescribed in Scripture.

            We come now to the question, “How should we worship?” What are some of the worship practices (circumstances) that we are free to choose depending on our cultural context?  Some of these worship practices include:

• Time of worship

• Place of worship

• Length of worship

• Leaders of worship

• Number of hymns, songs, prayers

• Words of sermons, hymns, songs, prayers

• Use or types of musical instruments

• Calls to worship

• Dialogue in worship

• Types of confessions

• Methods of teaching and preaching

• Modes and forms of baptism

• Tithes and offerings

• Oaths, vows, covenants

• Salutations, benedictions

• Assurance of pardon

• Solos, ensembles, choirs, drama

• Use of media

• Body postures: Lifting hands, kneeling, clapping, dancing, etc.

• Aesthetics: lighting, fragrance, incense, seating, music, etc.

            Although the Bible doesn’t give us specific answers regarding how, when, or where to carry out these worship practices, this doesn’t mean that anything is permissible. Drawing from the Westminster Confession, quoted above, we should find our answers to these questions by using our God-given human reason guided by general biblical principles.

            For example, our decisions regarding the type of music we use in worship should be determined by the light of nature, which means making value judgments based on a variety of factors, including quality and skillfulness. In Psalm 33:3 we’re told to “sing to Him a new song, play skillfully, and shout for joy.” And in 1 Chronicles 15:22, we learn that Kenaniah was put in charge of singing at the temple because he was skillful at it.

            Music quality and skill are not easily measured. The Bible doesn’t give us a required level of skill for musicians or a preference for specific types of music or kinds of instruments. So we have to make these decisions based on the light of nature, and guided by biblical principles.

            Where Scripture is silent, we should use whatever means are available to pursue biblical values in worship. Those values will guide us to choose music that will enhance the whole spectrum of biblical directives in worship, from enhancing reverence and awe for our transcendent God as we bow down in confession before him, to shouting God’s praise with loud voices and instruments as we clap and raise our hands.

         The book of Revelation gives us a majestic picture of God being worshiped by his people from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Rev 5, 7). This vision should motivate us to embrace the beauty of a host of diverse expressions of biblical worship for the sake of the nations.

We should embrace the diversity of proper expressions of biblical worship that indicate God is moving among every tribe, and nation, language and people, and that indicate we are sensitive to the varying aspects of this mission that God gives to individual churches in the way that they exercise their worship liberties.[2]

[1] This distinction between worship elements and circumstances is legitimate up to a point. However, in Puritan theology this distinction has given rise to a very complicated theory in which there must be a scripturally prescribed list of elements for every distinct form of worship (family worship, private worship, civic worship, NT church worship, etc.), only some of which are within the discretion of the church. This theory is not found in the Westminster Confession, though it is found in other writings of the Confession’s authors.

[2] Authentic Worship in a Changing Culture, CRC Publications