What is Church For?

What Is Church For?

What are we doing when we go to church?

This is the question that has animated our current sermon series. In the first sermon, we answered the question by looking at where we are when we come to church. In the second sermon, we did the same by observing who was present at the hill of the Lord. But this week, as we take another step toward understanding the business of Sunday, we will consider the idea of covenant renewal.

Renewing the covenant is the reason why we gather for worship; it why we ascend the hill of the Lord; and it is why all eyes are on Jesus, our mediator of the new covenant, when we gather for worship. For truly, the covenant sealed with Christ’s blood is what makes worship possible. And yet, in our day, covenant renewal is often not what churches do.

Instead, as Jeffrey Meyers observes in his book The Lord’s Service, too many churches prioritize evangelism for the unbeliever, or education for the erudite, or a spiritual experience for the more charismatic. There are good and biblical reasons for each of these emphases. Yet, as we will see this Sunday, Scripture has another priority for our worship gathering—namely, covenant renewal.

Now, what is covenant renewal? In a word, it is a repeated pattern of worship found in Scripture. Covenant renewal was introduced at Sinai, as Moses led the people of Israel to worship God and receive a covenant. Leviticus gave further details for the way a priestly people would worship God. And Psalms also shows evidence of this pattern, which came to fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

But what is that pattern? On Sunday, we will consider this pattern of worship from Exodus 19–24. But let me preview what we will see on Sunday. Citing The Lord’s Service again, Jeffrey Meyers shows how the Old Testament saints follow a similar outline for worship. And when it is boiled down, it looks like this (p. 51).

1. Call to worship: God comes near and calls His people out of the world to gather in His presence. He graciously takes hold of us and brings us near to Himself.
2. Confession and Forgiveness: God reminds us what He has done for us in Christ and declares His interest in restoring us again to his favor in Christ. We confess our sins and God absolves us of guilt. God graciously reminds us that we bear the name Christian and are members of His family in Christ. He tears us from our old sinful ways and renews His love for us in Christ.
3. Scripture Readings and Sermon: God speaks to us through his Word. His people respond by giving themselves and their gifts as a fitting offering.
4. The Lord's Supper: God invites us to commune with Him at his covenant meal, and we respond by memorializing His covenant and enjoying His faithful provisions at the family feast.
5. The Benediction and Commissioning: God blesses us and charges us to extend His kingdom into the future and into the world, making disciples of all nations. We are dismissed from God's special presence, renewed and equipped for this task.

If you look at the bulletin, you will see these five elements under five C’s: Call to Worship, Consecration, Canon, Communion, and Commissioning. In ways that mirror the pattern identified in Scripture by Jeffrey Meyers, our own service will begin to take greater care to think about what we are doing in service. And that will be the focus of the sermon on Sunday, as we look at Exodus 19–24.

Not surprisingly, Sinai is the clearest expression of worship in the Old Testament. And, as we saw in Hebrews 12, our approach to God on Mount Zion is based on a comparison with Israel’s encounter with God at Mount Sinai. Yet, as we know from Hebrews, all that happened under the old covenant foreshadowed the real events that came in Jesus Christ and that continue by way of his Holy Spirit.

Said differently, what we do when we go to church today is better than anything that Israel experienced at Sinai or latter at Jerusalem. Indeed, all of those historical events were written down as examples for us, so that we would understand how to worship God today in Spirit and Truth. Thus, we need to learn from the Old Testament how to worship God, but then we need to let the New Testament teach us to sing our praises at a higher key.

On Sunday ,that is what we will do as we look at Exodus 19–24. So, take time to read those chapters and consider what it means to come and worship the Lord together. On Sunday, as the Lord allows, I look forward to seeing you as we ascend the hill of the Lord together and as we take another step toward delighting in the liturgy of the Lord’s Day.