MPC 29th January 2006.January 22 - Colossians 3, 4 - "May the Word Dwell in You Richly"
Phil Campbell MPC 29th January 2006.
One of the toughest times I've ever had as an event organiser was at a youth conference a few years back.
They say if you're an actor you should never work with children or animals - because you'll always come off second best. Well, the rule is I reckon if you're an event organiser, never work with kids, animals or musicians.
Musicians are a breed all of their own. Except of course for guitarists, who are perfectly normal.
But here's what happened. I'm running the conference. There's a band full of musicians leading the singing. And the main song leader, who was quite exceptional by the way, was in the habit of closing his eyes when he sang. And sort of going off into his own little spiritual zone.
No big deal. But I asked between sessions, if he thought it would be okay not to do that. If he thought he might be able to keep his eyes open... and actually engage with everyone else. Instead of closing his eyes and zoning out.
Now look, I've got no doubt in retrospect that I was quite out of line. Because event organisers need to know when to pull their heads in. But I'm sharing this story this morning to illustrate something important. That the way we do our music is loaded with theological issues.
And so the guy says to me, he says, "how dare you ask me not to close my eyes when I'm leading the worship." He said "When I'm leading the worship, I'm lifting up the people into the presence of God."
For which it helps to close your eyes.
The point is, here's a song leader... who's apparently bringing people into the presence of God. Here's a song leader... who is somehow the bridge. Between God and the rest of us.
Which is a theologically loaded proposition. I mean, it looks like a small thing. But the fact that he's insisting on closing his eyes and zoning out as he's singing carries a whole sermon full of ideas with it. That need a bit of unpacking.
All of which is just to introduce part two of our two part series, why we do what we do at MPC.
We started last week. And in a way it's a short series to introduce our year. And introduce our little booklet that's a training guide for anyone who wants to get involved in serving when we get together as a church family . Because in a sense as a church MPC fills a strange sort of gap. You might not have noticed, but we're not the typical kind of Presbyterian Church in lots of ways. The typical Presbyterian church is maybe more traditional in lots of ways than we are. And maybe haven't really moved with the times. But on the other hand, we're very different from your average pentecostal or charismatic church as well which are famous for being contemporary. If your average Presbyterian church is stuck in the 1800s, we're at least in 1995. But very different in the things we're aiming for to the typical Charismatic church.
Maybe especially in the two areas of music. And preaching. Which are two of the other sections in our guide to serving. Last week we covered welcoming. And public prayer. Today, music. And preaching.
And like last week, there are copies of the guide available by the door as you leave. Last week about 50 people took a copy. Which is hugely encouraging. Except I've got to say that in the call for volunteers to get involved, only two people spoke to me. Which wasn't quite so encouraging at all.
I want to start out a little bit obliquely today by backing up a bit and asking the question how do we meet God?
Because in the Charismatic movement, that's the assumption. That our worship, by which they mean our music, is something that brings you into the presence of God.
The Website www.worshipinstitute.com offers a worship leaders' training course. They say it's a must for every serious worship leader. And four nationally known American worship leaders will teach you, they say, how you can bring your church into the presence of God.
As if that without question is the thing we need our song leaders to do.
Funny thing is, at that point the worship leader slots right in to a job description the Bible calls the priesthood. Because that's exactly what the Old Testament priest was meant to do. To bridge the gap between God and the people. To enter God's presence in the temple with a sacrifice... on behalf of the people.
See, here's the disturbing bit. You might be able to remember last year we looked at the New Testament book of Hebrews. And the point was, the Old Testament priesthood and sacrifices have been replaced. Not by some guy with a guitar and a nice voice who leads the singing. It's not the worship leader's job to lead you into the presence of God. Because that's been taken care of already. Once and for all. By Jesus.
Take a look at Hebrews 10 with me for a minute. Turn over to Hebrews 10; which we read earlier.
Because that's what it's saying. In the old days you had the priests. Now we've got Jesus.
Pick it up in Hebrews 10 verse 11; it's talking about the Jewish priesthood. And it says:
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest [he's talking about Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
With Jesus, the job's done. The Priest goes in and out, in and out, day after day. But it's over. Because Jesus at the Cross has made the final and perfect sacrifice.
Which is why verse 19 says, we have confidence. We have confidence to enter the presence of God, to come into the most holy place, not by singing worship songs. We have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus. A new and living way opened into the presence of God not by a worship leader. But by his body, given on the cross.
And so at any point, verse 22, we can draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith. Because our hearts have been washed clean by Jesus already.
This is important. See, Hebrews was written to warn these Jewish Christians about turning back to the old priesthood and sidelining Jesus. The risk is exactly the same with a worship leader. And for anyone to claim they're going to lead you into the presence of God by leading the music is an outrageous claim.
We went to a church on holidays once with some friends, and the junior pastor was the worship leader. He was leading the singing, and then at one point he led us in a prayer time. And it was very moving. While he prayed, the guy on the piano was playing some nice background music. And you couldn't help noticing the music was rising and falling with the intensity of the prayer. As he got more passionate in his prayer the music got more intense.
Now I know that you're not meant to open your eyes when you pray - I'm sure it says that in the bible somewhere. But I couldn't resist peeking. As did my friends I was there with. And to our surprise, we saw that the guy praying was actually conducting the piano player with his hand behind his back. And as he got to a passionate part of the prayer he'd signal with his hand for the music to get louder. And finally when he finished praying he signaled the piano player to finish as well.
Which made for a very good show. And was actually very emotionally effective. But in spite of what they might have been aiming for, in spite of what they might have said, it wasn't actually bringing us into the presence of God. Which is something else entirely. Can I say this very plainly: if you're a person who has put your faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, then you're not going to get any closer to God than that. and he's your worship leader. He's the one who's brought you to God's presence. He's the one who stands with God on our behalf. Whether it feels like it or not.
Which isn't to say that music isn't a powerful force on our feelings. Or that feelings are a bad thing. Emotions are a great gift from God. It's just that they're not always the best indicator of our reality. And they can so easily be manipulated.
So why do we sing?
Let me share with you a great verse from Colossians chapter 3 that's the backbone to our music ministry. And it's good that you get your head around it.
It's interesting, people who are new to our church often comment on the fact that there's something different about our music; I mean it's no secret, is it, that Hillsong church in Sydney is a growth industry. With their worship songs. In fact, you know when Lou and I traveled overseas a couple of years ago, one thing I noticed was you could buy Australian Hillsong albums almost everywhere we went. Even in supermarkets. And yet it's not the sort of stuff we sing much at MPC.
Well, take a look at the words of Colossians 3 verse 16; because here's what we use as a kind of guide when we're choosing songs.
The point is, we're looking for the sort of songs that embed God's word in our hearts. We want to sing the sort of songs that teach and admonish us with the word of Christ. Rather than just generate a feeling. Not that there are no feelings involved. You can see that in the verse as well. We'll sing with gratitude in our hearts to God.
But look what it's saying:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
The songs we sing... in exactly the same way as our teaching... that we'll come to in a moment... the songs we sing... are meant to teach us the word of Christ. The songs we sing are meant to admonish us.
And as we're singing, we're singing to one another. To teach and encourage one another in the word.
I wonder if you've ever thought of that as you sing. That as you're singing the praises of the Lord Jesus, as you're singing with gratitude in your heart to God... you're doing something else as well. You're teaching one another. You're encouraging one another. You're planting God's word in one another's hearts by singing Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs.
Which means the words we sing are important. Which also means when we sing, we'll have one another in mind. And not want to close our eyes and zone out.
That's the thinking behind the sort of guidelines we've got in the couple of pages in our training handbook that talk about music at MPC. And our commitment that says:
Or
Because as we sing, we want to make sure we're teaching one another the word of Christ. In the sort of words that make sense to one another.
Or the point that says:
All of which is actually a lot of work. Most of it done by Bruce and Elizabeth McClenahan as our music co-ordinators.
Like last week, though, I want to say there's plenty of room to get involved. And you'll see on the bulletin that next Saturday there's a seminar that we'd love you to come along to if you're keen to get involved in music ministry at MPC. Not as a worship leader... because we've got the only worship leader we need already in the person the Lord Jesus. But we could sure use more good song leaders.
Briefly then, I want to move on. To another section of our training handbook; designed to describe another one of our distinctives as a church.
And in a sense it flows directly from the same passage in Colossians we just looked at.
It's the section of our handbook that talks about bible teaching. Because fundamentally, we want to be a church that's shaped by the teaching of God's word.
Which I've got to say in some ways in our video generation sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry, doesn't it?
But look again at the first half of Colossians 3 verse 16:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.
There's a lot packed into those few words. For instance, the word we're on about, the focal point of the word of God... is Christ. To whom, Paul says later on, all the scriptures testify. The bible, fundamentally, is all about Jesus.
And so at every point, we're not coming to the bible as a rule book or a law book or a book of good advice, but whether it's from the Old Testament or the New Testament, as the word that leads us to Jesus Christ.
In 2 Timothy 3, which we'll put on the screen, Paul puts it this way. He says to Timothy,
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it - and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures... which are able to make you wise for salvation... through faith in Christ Jesus.
The whole of the scriptures... that's what they're designed to do. To make you wise for salvation. Through faith in Christ Jesus.
Which is why there's a commitment from our Bible teachers week by week to teach the bible with Jesus as the focal point. With a view to encouraging saving faith in Jesus, and faithful service of Jesus.
If you've been coming here for a while, I hope you've noticed that. You're not getting told how to maximise your potential. You're not getting the latest self help gurus recycled into sermons. You're not getting a weekly diatribe with a bunch of recycled rules. You're getting - or at least, here's our stated intention - you're getting the scriptures opened up; with Jesus as the focal point.
Please use that as the weekly test. And if it's not what's happening, complain about it.
Those of us on the bible teaching roster, we're not promising to be scintillating. We're not promising loads of good jokes. We're not promising pop-psychology. But we are promising to do our best to encourage you to understand the bible better. And especially in the way the scriptures make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
There's another Bible Teaching distinctive I want to touch on. And then we're done. It's a point the Apostle Paul makes often. But because it's just over the page, we'll touch down in the way he puts it in Colossians chapter 4.
The point is, as he teaches and preaches, the apostle Paul doesn't want to be fancy, or eloquent or impressive. He wants to be clear. Back in 1 Corinthians, he says, "when I came to you it wasn't with impressive words." Just the message of Jesus. He says, "I didn't come with eloquence of superior wisdom. I knew nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
Similar thought here in Colossians if you've still got your bible open. Paul says to them, "pray for me as I preach about Jesus." Pray not that I'd be a fancy and impressive speaker. Look what he says:
And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
And if Paul wanted to proclaim Christ clearly, we should as well.
So easy to forget that. So easy to just slip into comfortable Christian jargon. So easy to assume stuff. As if everyone just automatically understands.
It's a fine line; but one of the commitments we're making in the way we approach bible teaching is that we're not going to assume people already know stuff. And we'll always work at putting things in plain English.
Which doesn't mean we're being simplistic. Although I've often been accused of that. Just that even complex ideas should be made clear.
One other thing. And I'll say it at this point without looking at my watch. We make a commitment to valuing the time people give to listening. So we'll do our best to keep our talks structured and well disciplined. And not too long. Because listening for more than 20 minutes at a time can be such hard work, can't it?
Those of us who preach here value your attention. And we don't take it for granted. Can I ask you to value listening as well? And particularly value listening in a way that encourages other people to listen as well. I know it's tough maybe if you've got small children here. But one of the reasons we provide the childminding facilities and the baby cry room space is so you've got somewhere your kids can be if they need to be. So everyone else can listen.
Because ultimately, listening to God's word is what shapes our lives. And shapes our church.
I'm going to stop at that point. In case you stop listening before I stop talking. But can I say again, please feel free to take a copy of the guide to serving if you didn't get one last week. And check it out. To find out more about the kind of church we want to be. Especially if you're new here. And you're wondering what makes us tick.
None of it's rocket science, is it? And that's the beauty of it. And if you're looking for ways to be involved, make a point of chatting to Garnet, or to me, or if it's welcoming, talk to the Keytes; or music, to Bruce and Elizabeth. Because we'd love to have you on board. As we grow towards being a welcoming, encouraging bible-centered church that's on about growing followers of Jesus.