Published: October 1, 2023 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Worship 1 - Part 4 | Scripture: Acts 2:42-47
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be um somewhat of a paradigm for biblical Christian
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worship verses starting in verse 42 this is the uh the early church right after Pentecost um starting in verse 42 reading through
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verse 47 and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to Fellowship to the breaking of of bread into prayer and everyone kept
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feeling a sense of awe and Many Wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common they began selling their property
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and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need and day by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house they were taking their meals
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together with gladness and sincerity of heart praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being
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were being saved again this passage has often been taken as taken as um paradigmatic of of the early church and how church supposed to is supposed
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to be uh and a lot of different approaches have come out of this passage uh in terms of liturgy um also in terms of of communal
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structure many over the past 2,000 years have has have seen um a form of of Communism In this passage that they all had all they had all things in common um
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and that they sold what they had to give as there was need and so many have concluded that Christianity should be socialist at the very least communist if
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it was to mimic the early church um Pentecostals like to point to this passage to see to show that signs and
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wonders were being done um all the time uh they they tend to recognize or at least seem to recognize the passage also says through
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the apostles and so they have Apostles too so that kind of squares that Circle um but you can see there's a lot in this
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passage that can be taken uh different directions and that's what I was mentioning last week about the difficulty of the regulative principle um we we do have what are
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often considered to be the elements of biblical worship
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Acts 2 verse 42 you have four things that are mentioned that that uh the early Believers were
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Believers were um doing and and there's a little bit of question as to the devoting part were they devoting themselves to the apostles
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teaching or were they devoting themselves to the apostles teaching Fellowship breaking of bread and prayer okay so you have these four elements you have the apostles
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generally considered euphemistic for communion or the Lord's Supper okay and then you have
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prayer many years ago back in the mid 90s uh the elders considered changing the name of our Church Fellowship Bible Church um because of its
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association with the wrong side of the lordship debate uh the Fellowship Bible churches coming out of Dallas Theological Seminary particularly a professor there
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at the time Zay Hodges was teaching that you could accept Jesus as your savior but his lordship was optional if you wanted rewards in heaven then you could
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submit to him as Lord but that really wasn't required um salvation is entirely of Grace and there's no part repentance in it because that would turn it into a
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work salvation that's false teaching uh so it was a lengthy discussion among the elders about the the name of the church primarily as to um its Association but we concluded
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obviously not to change the name of the church uh for several reasons one Fellowship Bible churches are few and far between they're scattered all over the place and two if somebody with a
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Fellowship Bible Church background came to our church maybe we could correct the errors of their way so we were going to try to catch um with honey so um Fellowship Bible
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Church though the name Fellowship Bible
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is self-consciously based on the first two of these four elements the Devotion to the apostles teaching which we conclude to be the uh the scriptures as that's what the apostles are expositing
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as they as they uh as we know from the letters that they write and and also from the book of Acts when Luke tells us what it is they did when they gathered
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and they they exposed exposited the scriptures opening the full Council of scripture as Paul says to the Ephesian Elders so the apostles teaching and to
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Fellowship um but I want to I want to unpack this verse be because it is so um well for lack of a better word
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vague in vague in particulars um and and it is it doesn't tell us again it doesn't tell us that we should preach a sermon every Sunday it doesn't tell us that that sermon should
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be expository or thematic it doesn't tell us how long that sermon should be um and there's so many things that it doesn't tell us if we were to take it literally and this is where I want to
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start we would meet continually because that's what they did now there may have been a little bit of hyperbola uh involved here uh one
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doesn't need to conclude that they were 247 365 at church okay um but it does go on uh verse 20 or 46 it says day by day
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so you know again um that tends to Define that Define that continually um you know they went to their homes they slept but each day they were spending
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time together we need not conclude that all 3,000 all 3,000 plus met every day I mean we don't have to conclude that but we do have the you
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know the scripture that says continually so looking at these four and and I do want to raise another question what's missing from these
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four what yeah yeah there's no no singing okay um okay now verse 47 says they were
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praising God and there's plenty of evidence but I I guess what I'm saying is we're going to be coming to the what what is is considered to be the the uh the Crux of worship in the modern
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Evangelical mind is song it happens to be the one thing missing from the four elements of Acts 2:42 now that's not to say that song wasn't a part of their worship but we're
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going to be coming to that aspect of it more from a side door than from the front door this is the front door and and I think those who engage in the worship Wars or whatever they call them
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now you know the the types of songs that you sing and whatnot they ought to realize that they're not even there it's not even there okay and in fact some have
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concluded that because of the controversy and the power of music that we would do without it or at least do without instrumental music you know so
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this is where uh there have been arguments in the church about worship and song please don't think I'm going to where we're not going to do it that it's
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definitely a part of worship we know that from the Psalms we know that God um maybe he does not command but he thoroughly
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desires that his people worship Him in song so that that I don't want anybody to think we're going to diminish that but I do want to shift the focus and
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realize that worship is is far more than singing um so that's that's kind of an overview of where we're headed but I do want to unpack this verse 42 especially
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these four elements and this morning I want to start with that word
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continually how often should we meet okay we
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this has long been especially in in Western evangelicalism this has been a source of contention within churches um I mentioned last week that that there have been eras in since the
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Reformation where you were uh required by law to attend particular Services um at least the Sunday morning service perhaps the
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Monday morning service perhaps the Wednesday morning Le or Wednesday morning lecture depending on what the consist at Geneva thought was best for the community if you failed to do so you
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you would be fined imprisoned or publicly humiliated in the stocks that transitioned into um a more subtle pressure to be if you're a good
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Christian you're you're at the church every time the doors are open You' probably heard that phrase whenever the doors are open you know whatever's going on you're
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Yuri this verse is basically you know Bible colleges oyster ISM that's where they yes you know like look at a particular school yes yeah not be
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named every meal used to be they had CH yeah large yeah let me let me jump on that because we were doing a renovation
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at a house in the neighborhood of that University uh which is nowhere near us and and the the house did not the house was the
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houses were actually built by that University and did not have kitchens because the meals were taken at the University so that that was brought back
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to mind that yeah they did not have kitchens um weird well wasn't you know so that that that kind of reinforces that's not a that's not a bomb and yeah
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even these two right here can lead to clois um but that actually technically would take us out of the discussion of worship and into the discussion of mission um so but when
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we look at um this issue of of how often we get together there's the one side that that is um pretty much you you need to be a church and I don't know some of
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you may have experienced that it seems to be fading okay but we we look at that now as
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legalism that if you're a good Christian you should be at whatever whatever uh Gathering what whatever assembly um but but now we don't really have that in fact there's been a a very strong reaction against that and most
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analysts of modern evangelicalism will conclude and have concluded that church attendance is considered to be voluntary a church membership is a voluntary
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Association just like any any club that you might join and then unjoin um it's it's completely voluntary now the opposite of and and I know these
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two words are pejorative but the opposite of legalism is lenti
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is whenever I want to now I'm not saying that every believer is one or the other these are the two ends of the spectrum and we were for a long time on this end and we've
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been for a fair amount of time now on on this end speaking generally um of evangelicalism Ariel the
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Ariel the reformers desire to encourage attendance a reaction against a proceed Lous in the Catholic church
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where you only went to church when you needed to confess sin fixed up with God and also a perceived and and real licentiousness in the community
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uh I'm not the the reformers were not necessarily doing this out of some type of legalist mentality I really don't think they were they believed in the
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power of the word of God and um they desired their Community to to honor God and they also um desired to to adhere to
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the word of God and not to neglect the assembly they knew that rampant absenteeism in any Community is essentially apostasy and that that's not
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a benign um phenomenon that it will destroy the social structure of that Community they knew that um and they were right I wonder if there's an analogy drawn between
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theform yes attending temp comes after the Declaration that they had sold their possessions Etc they were their nation was time so the time in which they lived
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perhaps necessitated taking advantage of the time that people were passing through the temple in a way that we don't necessarily perhaps the reformers are feeling that pinch as well there
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there was definitely a sense of millennialism in the in the 16th century that the Reformation was a a harbinger of the end of the age and whenever and this has happened chronically throughout
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the history of the church that there have been events that have LED people to believe that the end was near and that has always heightened religious activity especially within Christianity so yeah I
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think and and also um we're looking at a society both in the Reformation era and in the first century that was essentially nuclear that people lived in
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the same location as their ancestors back 15 Generations they they lived in a small area um that enabled them to they also had different completely different
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economy so yeah there are a lot of cultural differences but we have to be careful that we don't just simply acculturate away what we're reading I mean yes there
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were definite cultural situations that first of all made getting together every day a lot easier um there was also the expectation and I think there's there
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should be no doubt that the early Christians expected Jesus's return soon even within their own lifetime I don't agree with the liberals who think that
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because it didn't happen then Paul came along and created a new religion out of it that that's no it wasn't what they were doing may have been in a sense of expectation and it could be that we
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ought to have the same sense or a similar sense of expectation and the error isn't really that they expected and were wrong the error is that we no longer expect Yuri I thought about this
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last week I wonder what Northville and fman are doing with church attendance by our University Church attendance is required
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every student staff and faculty and students are actually required to check in I'm not Reed to Che but the students are requ to check in after' attended church at
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church at least whenever the doors are open yeah well and and again they have a reason for doing that and that is to try to inculcate um a Christian virtue
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among college students I don't think Chapel attendance is is do that certify church right right German has to certify
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that they've not been to church in the last two
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weeks okay all right hours okay all right get get the hours in okay all right so that that's um I mean it's still kind of going on but you know these are these are again somewhat
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cloistered environments and the the leaders the administers administrators of the universities are doing this um you know ostensibly they're doing it to to
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inculcate a a sense of worship among the students but practically speaking they're also um trying to to maintain a godly atmosphere on campus um from a
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reform perspective I think we we can say that that doesn't really work but it doesn't mean they shouldn't try so I'm not going to fault those types of
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activities um I think that they have a reason but I I'm you know I think the point is you know they still there's somewhat we call that legalism and and should we or we you
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know which which of these is right or or are either of them right looking at the scripture which is what should guide us I I think we can come to the
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conclusion that they did not continue in in the churches to meet
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continually so whether the initial Pentecostal surge was a a matter of um expectation or circumstances or a sense of of of
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imminent change we don't know Paul makes that a phrase in in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 you know he says in in in light of the current struggles you know as as you
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should not marry or if you're married don't act like you're you know that passage is very enigmatic about how we should live life and possessing and marriage and whatnot because the you know because of the current struggles
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because of the current times as if everything was about to end very quickly although there's no evidence of that in the rest of his letter so we can say yes there was a sense of an imminent return
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of Christ and so a sense of urgency but I think we should also recognize that there was an there was an incredible sense of thirst okay what we're seeing here is a
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Revival that's the modern term that would you know this is because these are children of Israel these are children of of Jehovah in this at this point so this
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is a Revival and there is an incredible sense of thirst and desire that there was no sense of obligation and and you read that as far as that's the error of
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the of the Communist interpretation is to conclude that there was an obligation to sell what you had and give to the poor we learned from the episode of of Barnabas and ananas and
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Safa that there was no obligation Peter says to ananas before it was sold was it not yours and after you sold it were not the proceeds yours okay so private
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ownership is not obligatorily abolished all right and but so what's driving them that's what we should really be asking ourselves not so much you know how often
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must must must must I I think for them it would be how often may I may I okay not how often must I and and if it
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and if you're in a situation where you you have to incorporate a must then I think there's a fundamental problem already okay you're you're you know
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you're you get to a point where you um require either um Universal attendance in Chapel or or a minimum number of hours in attendance you're creating a
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must out of what should be a delight okay and and I think if the administrators of these universities
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recognize that um and and many you know this is what's happened in many modern Evangelical churches when you realize that fewer and fewer people are
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attending then there's a tendency to try to change the program to make it more attractive I would think though that
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you have a different opportunity as a university and being wise to understand that not everyone coming through your doors is a Believer you have the ability to force
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them to hear the word preached and how will they know if the word is not preached so it's a different again I'm not of the belever yeah I'm not I'm not I'm not in any way
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NE condemning the the motive behind mandatory Chapel attendance I'm now I'm I'm verging I'm coming over to um just
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because you know it's good you know it might benefit them immensely to hear the gospel um does that still mean that it must be must be obligatory can it not be required but
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also Pleasant it won't be pleasant to those unbelievers that's what I'm saying you're going to be there is an assumption made and I don't know that it's it's a how good assumption because
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there's no way of knowing the hearts but there is an assumption made that Christians go to Christian colleges so that the administrators make the Assumption huh well I know I know it's
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it's I know it's not right but we don't know how wrong it is uh but there is that assumption that for example you know you we all know a lot of unbelievers and I think we would all be shocked if an unbeliever said yeah my my
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son's going to Bob Jones this fall you know that's so yeah behind all the decision- making I don't know that it though maybe it should be I don't know that
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know that evangelism is as high a priority as is um behavior um so I don't know that uh Ain
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AR yeah yes any that's always going to be a problem in any form of Chism there's going to be Assumption of uniformity of belief and then within that a uniformity of doctrine that you assume that cannot be true because there
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are more than one person there okay so and and and the more they get established the more you're going to have diversity and you're going to have people that are going to send their
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children to these schools because they're they're good academically or because there's a perception that they're safer environments than a public or secular University and so that's
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where you're going to get what Ariel was talking about you're going to get students coming in who aren't not Believers at all um I think Justin you had understand Point
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making AR would I never got the sense that they were really worried about us attending
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it was more about where your parents haveed parents care about this that was I parents P the parents want you to go to
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I think that's a strong perception in all of these universities um that the parents are uh and I think the parents are maybe the ones that are that are under the greatest degree of deception
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when they send their children to these schools thinking that they're safe places Tim this uh voluntary impulsive
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application of the parable of the Feast of the of the Kingdom uh yes the Feast of the Kingdom um in the sense that the those were offered the invitation decided not to
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come they were not compelled to come the invitation wasn't extended to others who were delighted to come and I think that's where that's I don't think that's that's kind of where
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we're heading um we've gone a long way from a sense of obligation to a to a sense of um
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convenience and so I do want to address that and I'm not saying that that's that's that's broadly speaking okay that's that's analyzing Western
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evangelicalism as a uh as a phenomenon and multi-denominational pretty much every denomination today and non- denominational as well is experience the
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same thing and that is a decrease in attendance and and a um inconsistency of attendance that wasn't even the case 50
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years ago so it's it's just a phenomenon it's a reality we're talking about on Thursday evenings this is where Western evangelicalism is we we can talk about
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the and the reason we can talk about the different universities is that they now stand out as something really different not only from the surrounding culture
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but from the surrounding Church okay the the the the mandatory um attendance so legalism liion this I don't think either one of them I don't
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think we would say either one of them is correct but let's let's look at the scripture and see if we can't recognize a a a a pattern that um at least guides us and I
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think according to the regulative principle frankly I think that's the best we can often do is to recognize a pattern that manifests God's wisdom as
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he displayed it in the early church I think you know people say that we don't have to mimic the early church it seems to me however that the
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early church had the guidance of the Apostles to say that any other era of the church had the same present
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Enlightenment I don't see it does anybody disagree with with that has there ever been an era where you know that that the apostles were equaled isn't that what the Catholic Church said
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yes and that's where you that you can end up going the church has done this because the early church did it no no no that's not what the Catholic Church says
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now the Catholic Church grants the apostolic authority to every generation which is what gives tradition its power
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so well yes their their historical arguments concerning what the early church did are spous they're not scriptural um but but the the Catholic church is actually an ex excellent example of what I'm saying we can't do
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and that is treat every generation as Apostolic they do all right the pope of course is the vicer of he's the he's the he's the heir of Peter so the logic
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behind their claim that the church did this therefore it is of the holy spirit is not loal no not if you issue is that the church as it has passed through time
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is given equal weight every generation yeah and that's tradition exactly great thank you um that's exact that's just a great example of what happens when we don't realize that the apostolic era was
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in fact in fact unique um if we extend that so these churches today that have Apostles you know that the word just simply means sent one but that's not what they mean
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by that word what what is meant by that word in a Christian understanding is Authority you know if I'm an apostle then I have the authority to to say what I'm saying and you must oby as the
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church so that's the Catholic Church where the Cardinals are The Descendants the spiritual descendants of the Apostles which is really weird I mean there's been quite a bit of many yeah
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there are a whole lot more than 12 um name 21 more yes he did so there's 21 more um that the pope just named uh so
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okay so the point being that if we accept that the apostolic era was unique and that the you know and I think the phrase that they were devoted to the
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apostles teaching is is very strong in that direction you know that the apostles were granted the Grace by God to elucidate explain to open the scriptures
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and to develop the doctrine and practice of what became known as Christianity um after their passing it was largely recognized that that was significant you
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know that that the the um the signs and wonders that were seen uh during their time here did historically pass away I mean they just
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did they weren't present in the second century so we go to them to look for the pattern and I want to look at some passages uh first 1 Corinthians 11 you don't need to turn to each one if you if
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you want to just write them down uh 1
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18 now this is the passage where Paul is chastising the Corinthian Church for their behavior during the Lord's supper and we looked on one of our Thursday night classes uh on the the
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evidence that Corinth was displaying that the same patronage society as was present in most Roman cities where the wealthy would
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gather together to themselves the poor as clients and they would form factions um and then they were coming together for the for the communal meal
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he says in verse 18 for in the first place when you come together as a church I hear that divisions exist among you okay when you come together as a church now the point I want to make and
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let's let's not be too too particular on the words that we lose the sense of what we're reading and what I mean by that is I I can't prove by
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this particular verse that every time you come together you are the church but that's what he's saying does that make sense when you come together
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as a as a church all right yes it it can imply that okay and I want
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to look at more and the positive side and that is the implication is when you come together you are the church that that fits in for example what Jesus says when
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two or three are gathered in my name I am there in the midst so we talked about this sum last week you know what is assembling when when are we assembled
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to worship it would also indicate like you said not all 3,000 of the Believers in Acts were going to the temple every day every day but enough we going yet a Corum Jews recognize this is that other
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faction this is the Christians yeah there there were things and and the reason I'm pointing this out is because U we have developed a kind of a chronological concept of what church
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church is it's Sunday morning or Sunday morning Sunday evening Wednesday evening although that's also culturally very P
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um but we have this idea in our mind that church is Sunday morning well when Paul talks about it um he says when you come together as the church or as a
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church um so point being
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this oh yes that had more to do with the convenience of getting everybody together you but you do have to be careful I mean you can slip into calling
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the upstairs the sanctuary um or now we're going to worship and and what we're doing and that's what we're going to be talking about are we worshiping right now okay if if we're devoting ourselves
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to the Apostle teaching we have prayed okay all right we're not going to be breaking well there's another question do we have to do all four in order for it constitute a worship
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service see these are again regulative principle wonderful thing doesn't really help much doesn't really tell us what to do at the end of the day we have to do
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what we think is right according to the wisdom God gives us
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Aon to here we always had that inconsistency that was part of the major problem the consistent and and I think we pointed that out you know to be consistent in that interpretation um and because it would
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mean the women don't speak and that was an unacceptable conclusion so it took us I apologize that it took us so long to get there but we and again we've we've
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always tried to get where we think we need to go with as many of us still with us as possible okay it's not always easy to do
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but yeah that was a glaring inconsistency that I regret personally okay so when well we look at uh when you
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church okay 1 Corinthians 11:18 um another 1 Corinthians 16 verse2 again these are just passages that that really kind of tangentially
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mention um what they did verse one now concerning the collection for the Saints as I directed the churches of galatia so do you also on the first day of the
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every week let each one of you put aside and save as me he may Prosper that no collections be made when I
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come now this can mean several things he's he's it it doesn't necessarily mean the weekly offering it is actually a special offering for famine relief for believers in believers in Judea it might be that these people were
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typically paid on the last day of the week so he's simply saying on the next day set aside some of it for the um for the for the offering for the poor in the
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Judean church this proves that Paul didn't know anything about the Working Man he should have so last week in the evening put that money away before you go drinking right too too often uh weekly
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we weekly wage earners don't have anything on the first day of the week anything left um yes that is sadly true but but he does mention on the first
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day now with the other references to the first day of the week it has generally been concluded that this was their
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regular Gathering and from an administrative standpoint Paul is saying you know this makes sense when you come together set aside the money for the
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relief the poor relief famine relief and then when I come it will already be there and I don't have to preach a giving sermon from Malachi 3 okay so it's like just take care of it and then
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I'll come and you can send he deals with this in 2 Corinthians you can send some of your men with me to make sure I don't dip into the you know pot there was a issue of trust between Paul and Corinth
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um but he's he's administering so again it's really kind of tangential that we we have this phrase here the first day of the week but we do still have
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still have this concept when you come together um looking at Paul's actual Ministry acts chap 20 and we are focusing mostly on Paul
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because we know a lot more about him um than we do Peter Acts chapter 20 veres 6 and
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7 and we sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came to them at troas within 5 days and there we stayed seven days and on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break
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bread okay so there there's that kind of corroborative first day of the week but here it's not the Gathering of the funds for the poor relief it is the breaking
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of bread which is one of the elements okay but we also see in Acts chapter 2 that the the Gathering Together of funds for those who are in
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need was also a fundamental part of their life together so there's some things in Acts chapter 2 in Jerusalem that that are now happening in
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tras the ancient Troy way up in modern turkey Northwestern part so the patterns that we see in acts are being duplicated
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even by an apostle who wasn't there in Acts chapter 2 that that to me that reinforces the normative character at least of the components of worship if
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not the not the actual nuts and bolts of each one right you see this this pattern repeating itself we've talked about this in terms of of polity we see Paul establishing
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Elders in each of the churches we see Peter referring and writing to the elders so we see multiple
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Apostles moving along the same road in in terms of of the the components of worship so again the first day of the week um you um you have I'm just going to call it the offering but then you also have breaking
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bread okay so this is uh 1 Corinthians 16:2 and this is acts uh 20 verse
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7 and then um Acts 20 verse 31 he's now talking to the Elders from Elders from Ephesus and um he says act verse 31
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therefore be on the alert remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with one with tears so we have uh moving back toward
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the continually we have the night and
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when you get into you get into the the um what's called casuistry uh it's kind of a a legal analysis where you you strain at all the gnats and swallow all the
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camels but acts uh 1 Corinthians 16:2 does that mean that we should give personally individually an offering
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week many people will will give an offering when they get paid and many people now get paid monthly so they'll put a check in the or or money in the offering box
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monthly is that okay when you gather on the first day of the week for the breaking of bread should we do communion every
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week we don't we do it every month you see again here's where the regulative principle kind of kind of breaks down um but we're going to get
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into that that's that's really the issues I want to try to bring out and discuss and analyze and you know if if it seems the wisdom of the holy
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spirit that we should do it every week then then we'll start doing it every week you know it's it's not that doing it once a month is the it's just a recognition that the
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regulative principle is not clear enough um for
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wednes what we wereing to have a reg more regular time and and at times we had uh small groups and and that's really where I want to close this morning and that is
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um we can look at this along this kind of Paradigm or we can look at this as a matter of the heart and I think that scripture guides us to the latter and not the former especially the Psalms and
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I want to finish with some some of the Psalms um Psalm 95 it's it's really not um well to to borrow from North
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Greenville it's not how many hours we rack up I think we all know that that we're that God's not going to scan a card at the Pearly Gates and say you're three hours Short okay don't have my ID
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memor um I think I think we would all recognize that it has a lot of it has all to do with the attitude of the heart and if you just look at the Psalms and this is I think one of the one of the primary reasons why we have
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reincorporated Psalms into our worship and song oh come let us sing for Joy to the Lord let us shout joyfully to the rock of our Salvation let us come before his
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presence with Thanksgiving let us shout joyfully to him with psalms now that's what we were talking about last week especially looking at Hebrews and that is do we really think that when we come
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to church we are coming as God's children as God's people into his presence and if we recognize that truth
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then the Psalms that I'm going to allude to here briefly these are our uh these should represent our heart attitude okay and again here we see come let us sing
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for Joy to the lord it's not going to be hard to incorporate singing is far harder to remove it from the worship of God than to see that just
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because it wasn't listed in Acts verse you know that it's very easy to see that maybe it's a given they would be singing they need to make sure they were
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doing these other things too okay singing is the atmosphere of those who come before the Lord and I would say even in spirit and Truth um for the Lord is a great God and a great king above
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all gods in whose hands are the the depths of the Earth the peaks of the mountains are his also uh verse 6 come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord Our God our maker for he
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is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of of his hand um a thought that's kind of been ruminating around in my mind
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especially as I've been going in through Romans is is the thought of
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doca is Greek for Glory doxology is is is a Hymn of Glory to God is a doxology and I'm not going to have time to read the the rest of the Psalms that I had written down but I think you you
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know the essence of the Psalms but the question in terms of attitude and in terms of how often is is is there any of this in our
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hearts okay this is supremely why we gather it is not Bible study it is not
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Fellowship it is not even prayer it's not singing all of those if they are not um if they are not filled with
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this then I do not think they're pleasing to God so when we when we look at the attitude which really is what matters we need to ask ourselves am am I do I ever stop in
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the middle of a thought like Paul often did and did and say oh the depths of the riches both of
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the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his unfathomable his ways that's doxology and that is the
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essence of true biblical Worship in spirit and truth let's close in prayer father we do ask that you would fill our hearts with with awe and
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wonder that you would grant us as it were a spirit of doxology that we would not feel obligated to come into your presence but as the psalmist writes in so many
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places it would be a joy I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord so father we pray that doxology
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would fill our minds and our hearts as we continue to worship you for you alone are worthy you alone are a great and awesome God you alone are the savior of
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our souls and we exalt you