All right, In Spirit and Truth: The Fundamentals of Biblical Worship. This is
the third of a four-part series. The result of biblical worship, which is
transcendence, transcendence. In Western culture we like to measure things in
order to give them value: the tallest, the strongest, the biggest, the fastest, the
first, the most, the newest. In the Guinness World Book of Records there's a
man who holds the record for having the most records. Imagine. This is why we're
so interested in the Olympic Games. I mean, the ultimate measurement of
human achievement in sports. It reflects the spirit of our times, where one's
value is ultimately based on one's achievements. I'll show you a little film
clip here, if you remember. A good example of this happened at the 2008 Olympics.
And I think that many of us remember and celebrate Michael Phelps. He's on the
left there, winning a gold medal. Listen to this, he beat the swimmer on the right
by 1/100th of a second, 1/100th of a second, but have you ever thought for whoever
came in second or third, there'll be no celebration for that guy.
No fame, no fortune. Anybody here even know the name of the person who came in
second by 1/100th of a second? Yeah, he's named Milorad Cavic,
by the way, from Serbia. He was second, but such are the rules for a system that
rewards only achievement. You win by 1/100th of a second, you're famous all over
the world. You come in second by just 1/100th of a
second, nobody knows your name. Nobody knows who you are.
And I say all of this because in the church we are often influenced by the
things in the world, and it's not a new phenomenon.
The Apostle Paul urged the church not to be molded or conformed to this world and
he talks about that in Romans chapter 12, verse two. So we know by the fact
that he's actually mentioning it way back then, that this problem was taking
place even in the first century. You see, what happens is that we are influenced
by the world to judge our worship in the same way that we judge things that are
strictly in the world and of the world. And we forget that worship, although done
in this world, is not something of this world. It is an otherworldly thing we do
when we worship, even if we do it here on earth. And so the result or the goal of
worship is not that we finish on time or that we do it right or that we do it
very well or that there be lots of people in attendance, things that you can
count, things you can measure. Or in our personal worship or in our personal
devotion, the goal, it's not that we be regular. What's the goal of your
personal worship? Well, that I do it every day. Really? That's your goal? That you do
it every day; or that we finish reading the entire Bible in one year or
less. That's your goal in Bible reading? That you read the Bible in one year. Oh,
and you're sick one week, so then you're behind 42 chapters and you sit down one
night and say I'm going to knock out these 42 chapters so I can get back on
track, so I can finish reading the Bible in one year. Really? Or that we please God,
or I please my wife, or we be a good example. This is
the objective of worship that we have at times? I mean, all these things have a
place and a part in worship, but they're not the ultimate
goal. They're not what we're striving for as we come before the Lord in humility,
to commune with our God. No. The goal of our devotion, the final result of our
worship in spirit and in truth is transcendence. That's the goal. My goal in
personal worship is transcendence. Our goal in public worship is transcendence.
So before we explore this idea, let's first get a handle on the meaning of
this particular word. To transcend means to go beyond the limit, to surpass what
is normal. For example, in the world of sport, Muhammad Ali, the boxer, transcended
boxing and became more than simply a boxer or an athlete, he became a social
and religious and political icon, right. Yes he could box, yes he was the champion,
but there have been many champion boxers, but not all of them had the impact that
Muhammad Ali had. He transcended boxing, went beyond boxing. Transcendence is an
essential quality of God's being and character. He is beyond the material and
the natural. He is, as we say, supernatural, transcendent. And so, when I say
that the result of worship is transcendence, I mean that our goal is to
get beyond the time we use to worship, to get beyond the simple acts of worship.
Some people see the various acts of worship, you know what I mean by
acts of worship: praise, prayer, preaching, Lord's Supper, giving, fellowship. Some
people see these acts as the goal of worship, a goal in themselves. For example,
I worship in spirit and truth because I did these acts, or because I
did them often, or because I did them well, or because I did them sincerely or
accurately, or because I did them among 10,000 people. Really? Our worship is
better because we did it when we're with 10,000 other people? But God has given us
these things: the prayer, the praise, the giving. God has given us these
things so we can communicate with Him. And in so doing, transcend these things
to a point that we can actually experience Him. Not experience the prayer,
experience Him. Not experience the singing, experience Him in the singing.
Transcendence in worship is the experiencing of God in our own spirit.
Am I describing something which is biblical here? Am I describing something that is
even possible? Well, in the Bible, those who served God sought Him out in prayer
and worshipped Him in spirit and truth. They had a transcendent experience of
Him. For example, Isaiah the prophet began his book by saying the visions of Isaiah,
which he saw, Isaiah chapter one, verse one, This is the transcendence of the prophet,
not just a teacher of the law or a counselor to kings, but one who
transcended these things to experience God through visions.
Now I'm not proposing we have the same today, I'm merely showing an example of
transcendence as experienced by one of God's special servants. David, another
example, in bringing the arc from obed-edom to Jerusalem, worshipped
the Lord with praise, with sacrifices of animals, but in Second Samuel 6:6 it
also says that David was dancing before the Lord with all of his might.
Upon seeing this, his wife Mchale called him a fool and she chastised him and
David rebuked her because she couldn't see that he was celebrating before the
Lord. He experienced a transcendent joy at the occasion that expressed itself in
dance. Again, I'm not saying let's introduce dancing
to our worship so that we can attain a transcendent experience. I'm not saying
that. I am saying if we experience transcendence in worship we might want
to burst out in some form of expression, maybe dancing even. This morning in my
class in Acts when Peter heals the lame man who was by the gate and he tells
them, "Neither silver or gold have I, but what I do have - get
up and walk in the name of Jesus." What does it say? In the book of Acts it says,
he lept up, he lept up for joy. He jumped for joy. That was a transcendent
experience. We read the Bible and not only marvel at, but are hungry for the
transcendent experiences that we see in the dreams of the prophets and the
vision and inspiration of the New Testament writers and the encounters
with the Lord that Paul describes, even the powerful manifestations in the early
church of mighty works and dynamic growth, even the ground shaking after the
saints prayed at thanksgiving for the release of Peter and John from prison in
Acts chapter four. They had transcendent experiences in their worship and in
their service to God. And I believe this is what we're missing, what we want for
our worship, in order for it to be satisfying and
motivating for us. After all, if we meet to communicate with God Himself,
shouldn't this experience be as or more dynamic than watching a movie or going
to a concert or seeing a football game? And yet, for many, for most, it isn't. Many
are asked to use words to describe their worship experience, and often what do we
hear? That it's boring, it's long, it's a duty I'm happy to fulfill to please the Lord.
It's pleasing to God. Well, it's the right thing to do. I want to fulfill God's will.
But we rarely hear the words transcending, joyous, life-changing, bursting with
happiness, jumping for joy. I mean, what church do you go to in order to feel all
of that joy and transcendence and bursting with happiness and leaping with -
what church do you go to? Because I want to go to that church. I want to be there.
I want to have that experience. Now, I've got to make a couple of disclaimers here,
so that you'll not misunderstand. Experiencing transcendence is not the
goal of every worship service or every personal devotion or prayer that we have.
You see, you don't make transcendence happen, it happens to you, not because it
can't happen. I mean, with God all things are possible. No, it doesn't happen
because we couldn't take it in our present sinful flesh if we were always
experiencing transcendence with God. We couldn't manage it. Transcendence
comes in small doses, enough for us to get a taste of the heaven that
awaits us, but not so much that we are rendered useless here on earth. And that
taste, that experience of God, is reserved for those who worship Him. How? In spirit
and in truth. Okay, so now comes the hard question. What about today? What is the
nature of that transcendent experience? I've talked about David and
Isaiah and these people and they had transcendent experiences. What about us?
If it's not a direct revelation through a dream or an inner voice, if it's not the
empowerment to do miracles or prophecy about the future, what is it exactly? What
are you talking about? How can I relate to it today, in my day, in my era?
Obviously, I don't know all the ways that God permits us to experience and to know
Him, thus bringing us beyond the limits of human knowledge and into
transcendence, but here are a few of the ways that we experience God and this
particular event in our lives today: first of all, we have that, 'here I am, Lord'
experience. That happens to us today. That's a transcendent experience.
some refer to it as a calling, where somehow we just know that God is calling
or directing us to a mission or a work or a task. It's always hard to explain to
other people this thing that you feel, this calling, this drawing of your
attention to a particular mission, a particularly thing that you've just got to do.
Why is it hard to explain to people? Well, because it's a
transcendent experience. That's why. It just can't be nailed down ABCD. Or how
about when we truly hear the word of God? Those who come forward,
they're having a transcendent experience. The words of life have pierced their
soul and they respond with repentance and baptism or confession of a need for
prayer, whatever it is, but that coming forward in that expression of need,
spiritual need, that is powered by a transcendent experience. Sometimes we
hear or we understand the word in a newer and deeper and more
fulfilling way than ever before, this is transcendence. I mean, this experience has
made me weep in reading my Bible and seeing something I had never seen before,
an idea, an admonition of the Lord, an encouragement of some kind, reduce me to
tears. I couldn't explain it. I can't - I couldn't explain it, why'd that
happen. It just did. Sometimes we see a vision of God's will, not a
supernaturally creative vision like a burning bush or the valley of dry
bones, not that kind of vision, but a real vision where real things and situations
and people they all come together like a puzzle, creating an image so that you can
actually see what God's Word is pointing you to, in a concrete way, that's
transcendence. That's a legitimate experience of transcendence in the
modern day. And then, there is the transcendent joy we experience when we
see God's Word and God's will fulfilled in our own lives or in the lives of
other people. Is there anything more joyful than to see God's will being
accomplished? That's transcendence. But beyond all of
these, Paul describes the transcendent experience of realizing the
power of God's love in Jesus Christ. In Romans eight, he says, "For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present or
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Note the words that he uses here: God's love is greater, wait a minute, didn't we
say that was what transcendence was? Going beyond. Paul says God's love goes
beyond all of these things, beyond death and life, and spiritual beings, and
worries or fears of any created thing. He's saying, when you experience God's
love, you're experiencing something that goes beyond. You're having a transcendent
experience. When we are immersed in the full realization of God's love for us in
Christ Jesus, we experience transcendence in its
highest and in its purest form. Now, the main problem or obstacle to our
experience of transcendence is fear, fear.
We're afraid because we've been taught that our only true experience of God is
intellectual, not emotional. In other words, we know God by knowing correct
doctrines about God. That's our approach to knowing God. This is like saying, I
know my wife by reading a report about her or listening to what her friends
tell me about her. We can know God's will and purpose and character in this way,
but we don't actually know Him in this way. I'll give you an example, how
would you rather know your wife by getting a correct biological and
anatomical report from her doctor or knowing her with a kiss? Which way is
better? Which way is more intimate? Which way
will bring you beyond? Now, there's a reason why we're afraid and it has a lot to
do with our history. The history I'm speaking of is the history of emotion
and feeling and transcendence in the church. The Catholic Church called it
mystery, the changing of the bread and wine into the actual body and blood at
communion. It was a mystery, transubstantiation to be exact.
Every Sunday there was a miracle accompanied by an otherworldly
experience of candles and ritual and imagery. They created a mystique, an
experience through their religious service and system: the saints,
the relics, the pilgrimages, the shrines, and all of this to recreate this
transcendency that the Bible talks about. But they did it in such a way that
they brought the church to a point where it didn't even resemble a church anymore.
People say to me many times, how do you work and
how do you share your faith with a person who's Catholic? What arguments do
you use? I said, no. You don't use any arguments, just get them to read the
Bible. I grew up immersed in Catholicism and people said, well, how did
you come out of that? Well, I didn't come out, nobody talked me out of
it. One day I bought a Bible when I was like 29 years old. Never read the Bible
in my life. And I started reading the Bible. That was it. That was it.
It was like, wait a minute, my life is nothing like this. My religious
experience doesn't resemble this in any way. Actually, the first emotion that I
had after reading the Bible was anger. I was mad. How come somebody didn't tell
me about this here? Continuing our little history lesson. The Protestant
Reformation was largely a reaction to these practices, which were, for the most
part, unbiblical. And so Protestantism promoted an intellectual experience, a
reasoned approach to religion, to counterbalance the Catholic excesses.
Many Protestant groups took over Catholic church buildings in
Europe and removed the statues. Imagine, they painted over the frescoes on the
ceilings. They replaced the stained glass in order to wipe away any suggestion of
mystery. The goal was a purified and almost sterile environment. We, in the
restoration movement, we come from this background. Now, the problem for
Protestants who broke away from Roman Catholicism based on the idea that only
the Bible will guide us, not mystery, not history, not ceremony, not the papacy.
Their problem was this: who's right when it comes to what the Bible says? Because
there were different opinions on many matters. And so, we in the churches of
Christ, the restoration, not reformation, in the restoration, we're the
ones who answered that question, by saying, correct doctrine through correct
interpretation will lead you to the truth. And the result was a movement that
focused on being correct, but rather lifeless. So the Catholics
focused on the effect, the mystery. And they neglected the actual cause, the
Bible. And they ended up with a religion that didn't even resemble Christianity
anymore. We, in the churches of Christ, we focused on the cause the Bible and were
afraid of the effect, transcendence, because we feared making a mistake. And
now, what do we have? We have rather lifeless churches, don't we? I mean I've
been preaching for, I've been preaching for thirty, I don't know, seven years,
something like that, 38 years. Do you know how many sermons you can
preach in 38 years? Less than a hundred amens. Serious. It's a surprise when it
happens. It's a surprise when it happens.
Why is that? Well, because if you say that, it sounds like you're being
emotional. It sounds like you don't have control of yourself.
And then comes the Pentecostal movement in the early 20th century. They put the
feeling back into Christianity. Every service has a mystery because the Holy
Spirit is at work every Sunday and Wednesday and Friday giving people this
transcendent experience, tongue speaking, prophecy, healing, lots of amens. They also
avoid the Roman Catholic error of neglecting the Bible by basing their
claims and their authority for the experience that they have on
the Bible. The results? The fastest growing churches in the world. Why?
Transcendence on-demand, transcendence on demand. The problem? They use their own
definition of what transcendence is, not the Bible's definition. Just as they use
their own definition of tongue speaking and healing and prophecy and not what
the Bible describes as legitimate examples of these phenomena. A religious
example of the end justifying the means. In their case, a counterfeit end pursued
by an inaccurate means. And so, in the end, they are very much like our Roman
Catholic friends, they focus on the results and they pursue this with
whatever methods work using their growth as justification. We must be right in
what we're doing, after all we're growing aren't we? I don't know where in the
Bible that theory lies - we must be right, we're growing as a result aren't we. The
sad thing about Pentecostalism is that their system and their approach denies
them the very thing they seek: true transcendence. They have the right idea,
just the wrong tactics. So someone might ask at this point, well, what makes us so
smart? What makes us better than them? Well, the only thing I can answer to this
is that at least we're asking the questions and we're seeking the answers
and we're striving to find that perfect balance where we truly worship
in spirit and in truth, approaching Him in humility and submission. That's
biblical. Communicating with Him according to His will and His purpose,
and not our own. This is correct, this is biblical, this is in the spirit of God's
Word. And having that transcendent experience, that must come from an
encounter with the living God according to His will, not our will.
I believe that the place to return to, in order to restore, excuse me,
to restore in our efforts to biblical worship is not inventing new forms of
worship or increase the repetition of the present forums. I believe that the
first step is to focus on our personal and corporate submission to God's Word.
Not just intellectualizing or debating it. Submission that brings us to
transcendence requires a couple of things. I'll say it again, submission to
God - remember I said that's how you practice to get good at worship?
Submission that brings us to transcendence requires certain things.
Number one, it requires true obedience. Obedience to the things you know and are
convinced of now. When I first became a Christian I wasn't sure about which was
the true church. Did the spirit actually dwell in you? What was the meaning of the
book of Revelation? When I first became a Christian I didn't know these things.
They were still not settled in my mind. However, I was absolutely convinced that
I had to give up smoking. That wasn't a very complicated doctrine. I was smoking
a pack a day. And I realized, you know what, I can't continue in this
Christian thing unless I give this up. I don't know a lot about Christianity, but
I know this much. Some people, they wait to obey God until they
understand everything. But submission to obey what you know is
an act of faith towards God about what you don't know yet.
So even though I didn't know if the spirit actually dwelt in me, and I didn't
quite understand the book of Revelation, and there were a lot of points
I didn't understand yet, I did know that I needed to quit smoking. That I
knew. That I was sure of. And so, that's what I did. And so, submission that brings
us to transcendence requires true obedience. Number two, it requires true
discipleship, not just faithful attendance to services, although that's
included, true discipleship enables others to have the transcendent
experience of seeing God living and acting in you. In other words, you are the
cause of someone else's transcendent experience. The purpose of discipleship
is to bring others to Christ by allowing them a glimpse of Him in you. My most
rewarding and dynamic experience in Christ is seeing someone give themselves
over to God more fully based, in part, on something that I may have said or done
to serve them in the name of Jesus. If you draw closer to God because of my
ministry to you, you are blessed, but so am I. And then finally, submission that
leads to transcendence also requires a true living sacrifice. Like all good
things, there's a cost. The submission that leads to transcendence requires
that we be ready to sacrifice what is precious to us. Don't get me wrong,
God rarely asks someone to sacrifice what He's already blessed them with.
God doesn't give you a family and then tells you, okay, you've got to give it
up now. He doesn't work like that. He doesn't give you peace of mind and
say, okay, now you've got to give that up now. What He asks for
is for us to lay on the altar the things that are precious to us, but that do not
come from Him. For example, our secret sins are precious to us, but they don't
come from Him. The source of our pride, that comes from us, that doesn't come
from Him. The dreams and goals of our making, those are things that we have
that don't come from Him. The delights of this world, which in themselves may not
be evil, but together they get in the way of offering ourselves up as a complete
sacrifice to God, these are the things that mark those who are fully engaged in
obedience to God's Word, true obedience, true discipleship, true living sacrifice.
They may not be as flashy as a charismatic or modern or hip worship
service, they may not be as easy to define and explain as a
three-part sermon with a PowerPoint, but in the end they will enable us to
worship God in the way that He seeks us to worship Him,
and will reward us with a more perfect knowledge and experience of our Lord,
something that is called transcendence. I've given it a different name, but it's
something we know and experience isn't it? Don't we all want to know God?
That's the reward. The reward for a faithful life is that He will allow you
to know Him completely. And how long do you think that that will take? Yeah,
an eternity, that's how long that will take.
Imagine, an eternity of transcendence. That's the goal. That's the gift. That's
what we're pursuing. So if you need to submit to the Lord, maybe the invitation,
that's the classic moment of submission, isn't it?
So if you need to submit to the Lord in some way and require the witness of the
church or the prayers of the elders or the encouragement of your fellow saints,
well, as we know, we provide this particular time, we give it a song to
give us a moment of reflection and if we do have a need to come forward, then we
do encourage you to do that now, as Herald leads us in a song of invitation.