Christ Church Washington D.C.

The true life of all We blossom and flourish As leaves on the tree And wither and perish But naught changeth

Amen. And you may be seated. We have two texts this morning for our sermon time. The first comes from Acts chapter 16, verses 25 through 26. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. And then from 2 Chronicles 20, verse 22. And when they began to sing in praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. The word of the Lord.

Our Lord and our God, we thank you for your holy word. And Holy Spirit, we pray that you would push it into the corners of our body here, that we would understand in a more profound way, in a more gladdening way, both the privilege and the power of worship on the Lord’s day, through Christ our Lord. And in his name we pray, and the people of God said, Amen.

Well, today I will continue on in my inaugural Christ Church sermon series, one that I’ve entitled Cultural Trusses, where we are tightening the bolts on some structural elements, some foundational values that we hold together as a church. We began by staring in fresh wonder some weeks back.

at how astonishing the good news of the gospel actually is for sinners like us. We considered then how the lies of radical individualism has hollowed out the soul both of the church and our society and culture and the need then to recover a robust covenantal vision of life.

Last week, we considered why we have an optimistic eschatology, a surprisingly cheerful outlook on where the whole story of Earth is headed. And today, we’re going to look at the trust of what we are doing right now, namely the importance

of robust, reverent, faith-fueled worship on the Lord’s Day, and how this heavenly worship actually shapes the world around us. How heavenly worship shapes the world around us.

See, another way that radical individualism has hollowed us out as a people, both in the church and as a nation, is how it has flattened our view of worship on the Lord’s Day.

The Christian who has been shaped by individualism will have an anemic view of Lord’s Day worship and the glory therein. Because, being individualistic, they will default to placing themselves at the center of the service. Even when singing songs about Jesus, the running question will be, how do I feel right now about what’s happening?

And the picture they’ll likely hold in their mind is of them individually with Jesus having a moment together. Now, of course, this is not entirely wrong.

Just as Jesus compassionately, patiently met with the woman at the well, so our Lord does minister to us with great compassion, great tenderness, patiently, patiently and personally on the Lord’s Day. But what I’m saying is, Lord’s Day worship is so much more than that as well. For it is when the people of God are called up to heaven to meet with their God to renew covenant.

where the people of God worship their God and are transformed from one degree of glory to another in His presence. And even more, what happens in heaven when we worship does not stay contained in heaven, but it powerfully shapes the earth around us, judging and frustrating the workers of evil and bringing salvation and gospel refreshment to our corner of the kingdom.

For the God of heaven really does respond to our worship in ways that shape the world. I know many of you believe this. I want you to believe it even more. I want that trust to be firmly and biblically welded at Christ Church. So that’s the goal for our day. Now to the word we go. To begin, I want us to join Paul and Silas again in prison in our Acts 16 text.

So for context, since we’re parachuting right in to the middle of the story, Paul and Silas were ministering in Philippi. They converted Lydia. Encouraging ministry is starting to happen around them. Then a slave girl attaches herself to them. This was a girl who practiced divination. And she will not stop crying out that these men are God’s servants and gospel ministers.

Now, her message is not wrong. It’s gloriously true. But she gets stuck on repeat for days. And finally, the apostle can take it no more.

So he commands that spirit to leave her, which it does. And now Paul can finally have some peace of mind, which lasts for all of about five minutes, because when she lost that spirit, her owner lost a lucrative part of his business. He lost profits. He wants recompense.

And so he gets the local crowds and the magistrates to come together to turn on Paul and Silas, who are then summarily beaten without a trial, tossed into a grimy prison, hands in iron, all their ministry plans put on ice. So it seems.

But as we reflected on in our exhortation, they respond to all of this physical pain and blatant injustice so very differently than we would often respond. Verse 25 again, about midnight, Paul and Silas, they were praying and they were singing hymns to God. Their response was to worship God.

Their reflex was to lift their voices to heaven in praise and in petition. The joy of the Lord really was their strength, not the joy of perfectly executed plans, not the joy of physical comfort, not the joy of civil justice. If their joy was contingent on any of those things, they would not have been singing because all of those in this moment are completely gone.

No, it was the joy of the Lord, which rests content in his perfect providence. And the text goes on to say, the prisoners were watching them. This is a fascinating scene. The prisoners were watching them, and I’m sure they were. This is a new sight. This is a strange thing to see. Sacred music at midnight from strange men in bonds.

Well, if the prisoners thought that this was a strange sight, it was about to get a lot weirder. Because as Paul and Silas lifted their voices to heaven, the God of heaven responded. The God of heaven responded in power. And in this case, it came as a physical earthquake.

an earthquake which crumbled prison concrete, tossed open iron doors so that they and all of the prisoners could go free now. But if you remember the account, something even more incredible, we might argue, than a psalm roar-induced earthquake happened right after that. Namely, they didn’t flee.

They didn’t seek the freedom that the Lord just provided for them, right? Who could have blamed them? They were there unjustly, pray to God, doors open, go. They don’t. Rather, their focus was on where is Christ at work right now here? Where?

They weren’t thinking about their immediate comfort. Where is Christ at work here that we can enter into? And here right in front of them, it turns out there was an opportunity. Because there was a despondent jailer on the brink of suicide.

at the apparent loss of all the prisoners, right? Because if they’re gone, he’s as good as dead. That’s what the text says. He’s about to kill himself because the prisoners are gone. This is somebody who really could use some good news right about now. Well, it turns out that is the very thing Paul and Silas had. That is the very thing they were eager to offer to this man. And so they share Christ with the jailer. They explain to him

The basis of their song. What prompted their song? It was Christ. And so they evangelized him, evangelized his whole family. And the text says that very night they were all baptized. What’s this, 2 a.m. at this point? Probably. They’re released in the morning, go on to visit Lydia, bring her in on the happenings before heading out to expand the work.

And here’s what’s truly remarkable. I hinted at this in the exhortation. This would become the core group for the Philippian church to whom the book of Philippians was written to. And even more…

Why this is significant for us, as we review the church history game film from our vantage point, we know historically that this was the moment in God’s providence when the gospel was first planted in Europe. It’s questing west at this point. It was the doorway into the evangelization and the Christianization of the West as we know it, of whom our very country was fruit of some 1800 years later.

But remember the flashpoint. What lit the fuse? What caused heaven to shake the earth? It was the faith-filled worship of Paul and Silas. Persecuted, bruised, still full of joy, Paul and Silas. Worship which the God of heaven both received and then responded to in great power.

And not just in thundering force, but in redemptive power. Chains broke off. Family was converted. Saints encouraged. The kingdom expanding. The gospel taking root now further and further into western soil. So how’s that for a church planting strategy?

Have a mob unjustly beat and imprison a few pastors, then do a two-person psalm roar in the cell at midnight and sit back and watch heaven come to earth upon the five square miles in your city over the next few decades. That’s amazing. You won’t find that in most manuals for effective church planting. And what’s true is the spread of the kingdom is

It’s not a tidy business. It’s not a copy and paste affair. It’s unexpected. It’s gritty. It’s altogether glorious. But we do know one of the pistons that drives it. And it is the faith-filled, robust, reverent, expectant, joyful worship of the saints. True worship really does change the world around us. Or, as David said in Psalm 22, verse 3, God is enthroned.

in the praises of his people. God is enthroned in the praises of his people, and wherever his throne is established, you better believe his kingdom will advance in powerful and potent and patient ways.

We see the potency of worship all throughout the scriptures, not just in Acts 16. Famously also at Jericho, as conquest is made, as the enemy’s walls are brought to dust, not by catapults, not by battering rams, but through the obedient shouts of the people and the soaring of the trumpets at the word of the Lord.

We see this also in 2 Chronicles 20. This is an amazing text. 2 Chronicles 20, Judah is heading out to face the Ammonites and the Moabites who have come out against them. King Jehoshaphat, with great faith, great prayer, draws up a decidedly unconventional battle plan. He decides to put not the archers or not the fiercest fighting men in the front, but he sends out the trained singers.

He puts the choir in the vanguard, and what a foolish, ineffective thing to do, so says the materialist unbeliever. But not us. And listen to how things played out on the field of battle that day.

2 Chronicles 20, 20-22. King Jehoshaphat said,

and to say, give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever. Verse 22, and when they began to sing in praise, the Lord, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who would come out against Judah, so that they were routed. In this case, they literally did not need to raise a physical finger against their enemies.

Rather, the singers lifted up their song before anyone lifted up a bow. And the Lord of hosts, whenever you see that read, Lord of angel armies, the Lord of hosts, he heard, he responded, he subdued the enemies, he established Judah. That day worship really was their warfare and it reshaped the physical world around them.

We see this reality all over the Psalms as well, including Psalm 20. Verse 6 begins with, I know the Lord saves his anointed. Continues on in verse 6. Because he knows that the Lord saves his anointed, what will he do? He knows the Lord will answer him from his holy hill.

Because of this, he does not place his ultimate trust in horses or in chariots or in elections or in polls or in politicians or presidents or stock markets or anything else. He trusts in the name of the Lord, the Lord who acts, the Lord who responds, the Lord who saves, who reshapes the physical world through the praises of his people.

So all of these examples we’ve considered, many more could be highlighted. They call us to enter Lord’s Day worship with great faith, great vigor, great joy, great expectation, because it is here, beloved. It is here at the start of a freshly created week where our worship of God is most potent and where the Lord hears and responds with the greatest power. And there’s a reason for this.

At least two. One, it’s here we show up together as the body of Christ. A battering ram is far more effective with many hands. A well-ordered battalion is far more powerful than a single soldier. This is what draws Paul’s commendation to the Colossians. This is Colossians 2.5. Listen to what the apostle says. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order,

and the firmness of your faith in Christ. And the operative word there is good order. The Greek is taxon, which literally has militaristic associations to it. The picture is the church militant standing in rank and file and unified. That’s one reason our worship is potent here. But there’s another reason.

One being the reality that, though we are located right now physically on Capitol Hill in D.C., also we ascend to heaven during this time. We are caught up into the heavenly Jerusalem with the church universal. We rub shoulders with the holy host of angels. And it’s the potency of that reality that pours down in power when we join in on purpose.

We’ve already mentioned this, of course, but I want you to see it from the scriptures. Several places we could go again, but it’s Hebrews 12, 22 through 24, where we really get the clearest picture of this reality. There, the writer to the Hebrews says, but you have come to Mount Zion. You have come to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festal gathering.

This is the unseen but very real realm. This is the unseen but very real realm that we are caught up in at this very moment. To which someone would say, well, that sounds a bit far-fetched. That sounds a bit fairytale, perhaps, to which I’d say, and that’s why worship has become so impotent in the church in our days.

Because the engine of our worship is faith. Faith in what God says is actually happening. Faith in God and faith in the way God says he will respond to the praises of his people so that he gets the glory for it. And we don’t think it’s because of us.

That’s why he does it this way. The church is so often like Elisha’s servant, shaking in his boots because of how outnumbered he thinks they are. And that is until Elisha prayed. And he prayed that God would open his eyes to let him see for just a moment behind the veil. And then 2 Kings 6.17 says this. So the Lord opened the eyes of that young man and he saw.

And behold, the mountain was full of horses, and chariots of fire were all around Elisha. Oh, how we need to repent of the unbelief that is similar to Elisha’s servants and hear the word of the Lord.

The church must repent of worshiping like materialists or as individualists. No, Lord’s Day worship is not just a time to get a spiritual latte. It’s not just a time to fellowship. It’s not just a time to sing or to pray or to confess our sins or to learn from the Bible. It’s not less than any of those things. All of those things are included. They’re glorious, but it’s so much more when they’re put together. It’s here that we renew covenant with the God of heaven.

And it’s here that he responds in ways that reshape this earth and expand his kingdom. So how does this actually happen? How does God subdue his enemies and expand his kingdom here? We’ve hit on some of this, but I want to focus for a moment so that that idea doesn’t just float in the air. How does that actually happen in reality? What does he do? First, as we’ve already said,

He acts directly sometimes. He goes hard judging and subduing rulers that have set themselves up against Christ. Both earthly rulers by thwarting their wicked plans, by removing them from their posts, or by turning their hearts to repentance. This is what Psalm 2 is all about. This is what Psalm 2 is all about.

And he acts also in the spiritual realm by frustrating the plans of demonic forces. He dispatches angels to protect the church, to upend demonic agendas, agendas to destroy and obscure the image of God in the world.

We must understand, beloved, that beneath all the overt evil in our land, of abortion and sexual perversion, rampant divorce or political corruption, there is a spiritual battle there as well. Yes, of course, it’s the result of human sin, but the scriptures are clear that there is a hot battle waging beneath it as well. Ephesians 6.12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. As we said last year, Satan has been abased, so they have no claim on the earth anymore.

But the battle is still real. We live on the other side of D-Day. Victory secure, still have to fight to get to the finish line. And the weapons of our war are not earthly. They are spiritual, with worship being at the center. But there’s another way the Lord moves powerfully in ways that shape the world around us during worship. And it’s by further sanctifying and strengthening us, his church,

strengthening us in the gospel so that we are a more potent gospel impact in the coming six days of the week. Of course, the Lord is always sanctifying his people, but this happens most powerfully during Lord’s Day worship, where we meet with our God and the church is transformed from one degree of glory to another. And so in conclusion,

I want to sprint through our liturgy to show how the Lord meets us in each act of this holy drama of our covenant renewal liturgy. I want to do this so that we can mature in our worship and enter into it on purpose. We follow the patterns of the five C’s. These are the pillars of our liturgy, as it were. First, we are called to worship.

This is when we hear our Lord call us out of the world into the splendor of his sanctuary for this sacred hour. Here we are reoriented on fundamental gospel’s reality that we are the people of God who by sheer grace have been pursued by God, called out of the world, brought near to him by the blood of the Lamb.

The call quiets our ears to all the other noises in the world so that we can hear the voice of our Father again and hear the name that He has declared over us through Christ. Next, we have the confession of sin. And this…

is absolutely essential. We cannot bring the life of heaven to earth with power if we ourselves are bogged down in sin, if we’re slumped over by shame and guilt, if we are out of fellowship with each other in our church and in our families. This is a primary way

Make no mistake, this is a primary way the enemy keeps saints sidelined and ineffective through getting them bogged down with unconfessed sin. And so in our time of confession, we just deal with it straight away. We humble ourselves. We confess our sins as a church. We get down on our knees, confess any glaring individual sins so that we can leave our sin at the foot of the cross where it’s already been dealt with.

And then we arise, we resurrect, freshly cleansed, guilt burden gone to hear the proclamation of absolution. Then we move forward into the time of consecration. During this time, we offer ourselves wholly to the Lord in worship.

We sing praises to our God. We confess our faith as a people. We are strengthened and taught by the Spirit through His Word. Through the Word in the lectionary readings. And then most potently, through the Word in the sermon time. Hebrews 4 speaks of the Word of God being living and active. A sword that cuts and rearranges us. And that visual, that picture, doesn’t refer primarily to pangs of conscience.

That is sacrificial altar language. This is what would happen to the Ascension offering before it was placed on the altar. It would be cleansed and then cut and rearranged so that it might be a pleasing aroma up to the Lord. This is what happens to us through the Word.

The Lord rearranges us, reforms our affections, so that we might be a living sacrifice in the coming six days. And from there, we come to the table of communion. So call, confession, consecration, communion. This is where the Lord brings us even closer in. He brings us in as his beloved people.

as his holy people, to share a covenant meal with us. Communion is the most important meal we eat all week. Here we are fed with heavenly food from the risen Christ for our refreshment in the present and so that we are strengthened for the good works that he has prepared in the week ahead. As our Lord said, apart from me, you can do nothing.

This is why we need communion. And this is why live streaming simply will not cut it. There is grace in communion that cannot be virtually got. It is important. And remember, the table is not a time for an introspective deep dive to make sure Jesus still likes you.

We already confessed our sins. We wiped our feet at the door. We’re welcome at the table now, and we come joyfully. In fact, we don’t even really look at ourselves at all in communion. We look at Christ.

as he offers himself in the elements. We look at Christ as he is represented in his body, the body of Christ of the church. And then comes the fifth C of commissioning. One last word from heaven to now go, descend back to earth, well fed and ready to do battle against the darkness and to build the kingdom.

To build the kingdom through our work, through our words, through our killing of our own sin, through loving our spouses, through evangelizing our coworkers, through instructing our magistrates, through integrity in our offices, through disciplining and discipling our children, through making delicious meals and changing diapers in gratitude, through repenting and forgiving and singing and laughing all the way through. Because we know Jesus is Lord.

And we get to put bricks of gold in a kingdom that will have no end to the horror of the demons and to the glory of our risen Savior, Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for the beauty of the gospel. And we thank you for Christ, who is not just our propitiation, not just the one who forgave us,

but the one who has poured out his spirit upon us, that we might be empowered to go forth and to expand his kingdom. And now we would pray the way our Lord taught us to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

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