Hopewell Herald – May 2, 2020
Dear Congregation,
This week, I received a request for more
explanation about the underlined portion of the following line from my article
in the Christian Observer:
“This is the time for entertainment/involvement worship to be replaced by simple, Scripture-commanded, Christ-led worship from heaven that involves the whole of every person in the whole congregation the whole time.”
“This is the time for entertainment/involvement worship to be replaced by simple, Scripture-commanded, Christ-led worship from heaven that involves the whole of every person in the whole congregation the whole time.”
Though we
have been learning about this together from the Scripture for almost three
years now, sometimes we are helped by thinking through it again or by hearing
it in different words. So, I hope that the following reply will stir up your
anticipation for this glorious worship that awaits us tomorrow on the Lord’s
Day:
There's a lot
to unpack to answer the question, if someone hasn't thought this through or
been taught it, but I'll try. I showed all of these things in the Hebrews
series and more briefly in the recent worship series.
But the line
that he is asking about is basically the teaching of the entire book of
Hebrews.
That there is
a Sabbath-keeping (sabbatismos,
not katapausis, in Heb 4:9) that remains, on which Christ personally and really addresses us from Heaven in the
preaching (as chs. 3–4, 12 all teach, cf.
Rom 10 "how will they believe Him whom they have not heard, and how will
they hear without a preacher).
Heb 2:12 also
teaches this, while quoting from Psalm 22 to authoritatively interpret it as
Christ saying that in the midst of the congregation it is
actually He who sings His Father's praise (this
has huge implications for what we sing in corporate worship, since it is Christ
who puts His words into our mouths, and we are not at liberty to put our words
into His; Eph 5 and Col 3 help with this, since it is the Spirit who fills us
by making Christ's Word to dwell in us richly as we sing and admonish one
another with His Word in song; Eph 5 even tells us that when we are doing this,
each is to be submitting to all the others. The egalitarians love to wrestle
v21 from this context and make it apply to marriage in v22ff, but this abuses
the text and corrupts the teaching of the passage on both marriage and
congregational singing).
The point in
the second half of 1Cor 11 is that their corruption of procedure shows that the
Corinthians have missed that in the Supper Jesus
is feeding us upon Himself from heaven.
And, in
prayer, we are living stones who offer spiritual sacrifices (1Pet 2, etc.), but
this is mediated by our great High Priest who has offered Himself once for all,
and Jesus our Priest presents our prayers
at the throne (Heb 4–10).
This is why worship requires faith, because it engages in an unseen heavenly
reality much more than the mere outward forms that we practice on earth (ch. 11–12).
We come not to a Sinai that we can see or touch but to a heavenly Zion with
angels, perfected souls, our Father, our Mediator, etc. The assembly of the
firstborn.
This is why
when ch 10 says to come to the true holy of
holies through the new and living way that is His flesh and not forsake the
assembling of ourselves together, it is sentimental rubbish to
take the "where two or three are gathered" text and abuse it to say
that you can do this with any Christians at any time.
There are
divinely mandated holy assemblies throughout the Scripture. There is just
one in the New Testament, the holy assembly on that sabbatismos which remains;
but, the holy assembly on the Lord’s Day is
no less divinely mandated than any former holy assembly, and it participates in
an assembly in glory over which Jesus presides as Prophet and Priest in an
unique way that is not available to us at other times in other gatherings.
Pastor
LORD'S DAY – May 3,
2020
10 a.m. Bible Class (no breakfast at
this time)
We are studying the ARP’s confessed theology
from Scripture, where we are beginning this week to learn about how Christ’s redemption
is applied to us by the Holy Spirit.
11 a.m. Morning Worship
▫Children’s Catechism
for May 3
Q27. Did Adam keep the covenant of works? A. No; he sinned against God.
Q27. Did Adam keep the covenant of works? A. No; he sinned against God.
▫Shorter Catechism
for May 3
Q35. What is sanctification? A. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
Q35. What is sanctification? A. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
Psalms and Hymns
Scripture Text for first portion of
worship service
Scripture Readings
Sermon Scripture text and topic
We will be hearing from Genesis 25:19–26 God’s glory in election (which is
free, according to His mere pleasure and promise; and gracious over-against our)
and prayer (wherein His knowledge, power, and goodness are worshiped).
1 p.m. Picnic Lunch
with each family bringing its own food
and tables spaced out. Weather permitting, eating outside on the grounds is
preferable.
Hopewell this Month
Hopewell’s
Presbytery Prayer Focus for May:
Pressly-Memorial
ARP in Red Level, AL
May
Psalm of the Month
ARP78B O Come, My People, to My
Law
Upcoming Events
•May 4, Monthly Session meeting 6p.m.
•May 6, Prayer Meeting, 6:30p.m.
•Men’s Breakfast, May 16, 6:30a.m. Boys and men of all ages encouraged to
attend.
•October 2-4,
HARPC 200th Anniversary Celebration
Congregational Prayer Requests
(new/updates in bold)
▪ Pray with the Reformed sidewalk-counseling group @PP in
Nashville for their Wednesday and Friday ministries
▪ Early Rain Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, Christians
in Nigeria, and other persecuted churches like them; Pastor Wang Yi in prison.
▪ Alan McClelland and his ministry at
Ft. Rucker
▪ Repentance of the Church and the
Nations, as well as comfort and strength through the advancement of the gospel against
the backdrop of SARS-CoV-2 and its accompanying panic, especially joining the
rest of the ARP at 9a.m. central every day
▪ Joe & Lauren from Heritage CPC in
Centerville, in the loss of their newborn baby, Valerie
▪ Comfort and provision for the LeeAnn Billings
family as they grieve, especially for new work, as the university just
eliminated her position from the department
▪ Rebecca Sterling’s new shunt and tube
to properly drain brain fluid
▪ Pray for the Jeffers family, whose
granddaughter Isabelle (14) and then her mother Norma both attempted suicide; there’s
a long way to go medically, financially, and especially spiritually for all
involved; please keep praying for them and for Sue’s ministry to them
▪ Pray for Kacey and family, going
through difficult trial
▪ Pray with D&L L for her 85yo
mother and her heart issues
▪ Pray with KC for her acquaintance Linda who doesn’t seem to know the Lord, and just
lost 21 year old son; and, for sister Diane and her husband Frank, who need a
living faith in Christ; and for friend Patty, a believer, that she will
continue to do well after treatment for uterine cancer
▪ Pray with D&M G that her mother
would continue healing well and not smoking; for Sean; for Jeremiah and
Julianna; and for the adjustment and thriving of Jordan and Atlanta and family
with new baby twins, Charlotte and Hew
▪ Pray with W&C G for her mother’s
health and caregivers; and for spiritual (and total) well-being of son Greg
▪ Pray with J&H H for his father’s cancer and recovery from
open-heart surgeries; and sweetness in his parents’ remaining time together;
for his youngest brother; for sister-in-law’s recovery from cancer treatment
▪ Pray for James Heard to make good
choices and to walk with an serve the Lord in this next phase of his life.
▪ Pray with H&K H for their health (especially
Karen’s back, which keeps getting reinjured, and their schedule which it
affects) and for many of their loved ones; needing Christian fellowship: her
grandmother and father, widow Hope w/4 children, Brown family of 7 (wayward son
Nicholas); needing health: her mom, sister Lisa, Martina, Donna, Joyce; needing
spiritual life: Velvet and Reagan (lost their sister/daughter to a brutal
murder), neighbors Shawn, Merlin, & children; other widows: Libby, Naomi
(w/daughter Stacia), Stephanie (w/many children, were missionaries); friend
Andrea’s New Age friends; Charles & Robert to be able to forgive; friends
w/family problems: Dave, Lee, Melodie, Cole; spiritual growth and wife for
friend Scott; their family’s evangelism, recently firefighter Dalton; Riggs to
grow mighty in the Lord
▪ Pray with R&M J for Meredith,
young daughter of M’s college friend Ashely (and husband Brad), who’s taking
medicine to shrink her brain tumor
▪ Pray with O&A L for her
unbelieving mother w/heart condition, and brother w/lung cancer.
▪ Pray with CM for his sister Ginger,
diagnosed with an aggressive and advanced leukemia, and for Sheriff’s Reserve
James Wilson, and his wife Andra’s cancer; and friend Michael Duval and his recovery
from knee surgery
▪ Pray with C&T P for wisdom for
him about what to do with two good career choices, and for the
conversion of her brother Todd; and for her dad who is not doing well and his
wife Jolene, who is receiving radiation to treat a spot on her brain.
▪ Pray with D&K R for their
family’s growth in godliness, especially dying to self, godly speech, and
Lord’s Day keeping; for Micah, Rachel, and baby girl due in July; and for local
pastor/constable Darryl Thrasher, who has an aggressive, malignant brain tumor
▪ Pray with GR for friend Abby to come
to faith in Christ
▪ Pray with JeR for believing friend
Jeanette Cary’s CHF, Fibromyalgia, & slow-healing wound
▪ Pray with J&S R for her nephew,
who needs life in Christ; and for her and her family in the loss of her father,
especially spiritual impact on her sisters and nephews; and for her sister
Rebecca’s pregnancy; and for the whole family, and especially his mother, as
they grieve the passing away of his father; and PRAISE with neighbor
Stacey’s friend whose two-year-old daughter has recovered from a serious
struggle with covid19 and is now doing very well
▪ Pray with S&V Y for his parents
and siblings as they deal with his father’s declining health and his mothers
dementia
▪ Please pray with Pressly Memorial ARP in Red Level, AL,
throughout the month of May
▪ Please pray for the TN-AL Presbytery
to be enabled to plant a faithful church with the resources available and
earmarked for that purpose
▪ Please pray for all ARP presbyteries, churches, and agencies
▪ Please pray for our nation, state,
community and all the officials thereof
Prayer, with thanksgiving, being one special
part of religious worship, is by God required of all men: and, that it may be
accepted, it is to be made in the name of the Son, by the help of his Spirit,
according to his will, with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency,
faith, love, and perseverance; and, if vocal, in a known tongue. (WCF 21.3)
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