EP 44 Why We Worship: Reclaiming the Glory of Gathered Worship - Ft. Oliver Allmand Smith

EP44 Why We Worship: Reclaiming the Glory of Gathered Worship - Ft. Oliver Allmand Smith

In this episode of the Broken Wharfe Podcast, John Mark is joined by Oliver Allmand Smith to discuss his new book, Gathered for Glory: Why We Worship. The conversation delves into the importance of understanding the 'why' behind worship and its theological basis from a pastoral Reformed perspective. They explore key themes such as the purpose, necessity, and essence of worship, emphasizing its Trinitarian nature. The discussion also touches on practical aspects of gathered worship, its significance for believers and their children, and the dangers of undermining worship in contemporary evangelical churches. The episode aims to offer insightful reflections for Reformed and confessional churches to deepen their understanding and practice of worship.

Gathered for Glory: Why We Worship is available at [brokenwharfe.com].

Contact Broken Wharfe

• Tweet us @Brokenwharfe
• Find us on Facebook at BrokenWharfe
• Follow us on Instagram at BrokenWharfe
• Email us at info@brokenwharfe.com

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

0:09

Well, hello and welcome to the Broken Wharf Podcast. My name's John Mark, and today I'm joined by a guest that many of you will be familiar with, Oliver Almond Smith. He has recently written a book, a new book called Gathered for Glory. Why we worship. It covers, uh, the wonderful ground of the privileges and promises of gathered worship questions such as, what is worship? Why must we worship? Why is worship so often undermined in the church, in the world, in our own hearts? And how should we worship? It covers these questions from the standpoint of, uh, a pastor to his church. It was initially a sermon series and has been adapted for this book. Well, John Mark, it's good to be back on the podcast again. Um, I do enjoy. These discussions, and I do hope they're helpful to folks more generally. Um, it's, it's all well and good for us to get together, uh, and to have a chat, but, uh, we actually want it to be useful. So if you do have any feedback, please do send that through to John, mark and the team, uh, and we'll, we'll seek to make these podcasts as as helpful as we possibly can. Let's begin with this question. Why in this book have you sought to approach the issue of worship? From the why standpoint? Yeah, why the why question. Well, I suppose part of the answer to that is it's just a good way to think, isn't it? Um, every inquisitive child grows in understanding by asking why. Why, why? And I think part of the problem with a lot of Christians is that they do things that may be good and helpful and profitable and Right, but they don't know why they do them. I think that applies, especially to worship. If I go back to the time when I began in pastoral ministry and uh, started here in Rams bottom, um. Of what was done in our worship services was, was excellent in many ways. Um, but I don't think we really knew why we did it. And if we had to answer the question why, we'd probably have two things to say. One would be because we know what we shouldn't be doing. So we shouldn't be barking like dogs. Uh, we shouldn't be dancing in the aisles. Um, we shouldn't be rolling over and laughing, you know, we know what we shouldn't be doing. So why do we do what we do? A, because we know what we shouldn't be doing. And then perhaps why do we do what we do? B because, well, we've always done it this way. Um, and neither of those things are bad in and of themselves. Uh, you know, traditions can be good and helpful, and it's very important to know what we shouldn't be doing. The point is that that's inadequate, isn't it? We need to know why we are doing what we are actually doing. We need a positive pastoral, um, devotional, theological reason why we do what we do, especially when it comes to worship. It seems apparent as well, discussing the issue of worship, beginning with the question of why. Simply because it such an important matter. You set this out at the beginning of, gets right to the heart. The human need, what it means to be made in the image of God. We are made to know and to love God, and the height of our human existence is found in the gathered worship of the church. Therefore, we must get the initial question right. Why do we do it in, in, in moving forward? Why is it that we worship? Is it because it's simply a human need or does God call us? And what is the nature of that call? Yeah. It goes to the heart of our humanity. So why do we worship comes outta the question, what are we. As human beings, and as you've already stated, what are we as human beings? We are creatures made in the image of God. We are creatures who bear the divine likeness. And amongst the many things that that means, it means that we have a capacity that animals do not have. A dog has the capacity to run fast. A cat has the capacity to crawl, stealthily, and creep up on its prey and catch things and eat them. Um, I know a cow has a capacity of an incredible capacity for standing in a field that seemingly chomping all day, all night, all day, all night, over and over. That's what they can do. Unfortunately, they can't really do any more than that because they haven't been made to do more than that. What about the human being? What is the capacity that a human being has? A human being made in the image of God has the capacity to know God, to commune with God? Genesis three eight, to walk with God, to fellowship with God. And we have this picture of the, uh, of the Garden of Eden, not just as a beautiful garden full of gorgeous trees that you can eat fruit from and be satisfied. Well, that's like a glorified animal if that's all it is. No. What it, what, what, what it means is that we can walk with God and Eden is, is a temple and it's. It's for worship. We, we are made to worship God. Uh, a quote that I have on page two, uh, of the book from CS Lewis gets to the heart of this when he says. Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger. Well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim. Well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire. Well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made. For another world. And what is driving out there is the transcendent element of what it means to be human. As human beings, yes, we're flesh and blood. Yes, we're body and soul. We are creature. We are not God. We're not divine. But being made in the divine image means that we are constantly looking at it kind of geographically or top of topographically. We're looking upwards. We, we, we have this need for God. We have this ability to know God, and that's what worship is all about. Worship is primarily and in the first instance. An experience of transcendence. It's a, it's an elevating of our humanity up to heaven. A lifting of our mind, body, soul, and spirit from the earthly to the heavenly. That's what worship is, and we do it because we can't, we do it because we must. It's what we've been made for as Lewis is driving out there. And therefore we could say negatively if we don't do it, we are not, we are subhuman. The human that doesn't worship is a human being prepared for eternal help where there will be no worship, where the capacity to worship has gone forever. Now, that's a tragedy. That's, that's a subhuman human being. To be truly human is to worship. It's of the essence of, of what we've been made to be. In practical terms, what then is the act of worship? What does it look like? Because although we are made to worship, we are not made in a condition of worship. We are not made worshiping. It is something that we have to do. It is not in, in the, you know, as is presented in. Many circles and really in the, the common evangelical mind synonymous with service. There is an argument that some make, and you hear it from many pulpits, that worship is synonymous with any aspect of the Christian life that seeks to give glory of God, glory to God. And, and there is obviously a, a helpful aspect to elevating. The daily activities of the Christian, but what practically is worship because from how you speak of it there, it does seem to be, uh, apparently something much more than mere service. Yeah. Thank you. Such, such a, a vital question. And it's where we go next in chapter one. So if we think of all of life as a Christian all of life. Is in a sense worship, yes, small w as it were, it is all of our lives. We are serving God and all of our lives, we are enjoying God. You know that first question of the Westminster Catechism? We, we are created to know God, to love God, to serve God, to enjoy God, to worship God. That is true. So when a, when a a, a mother in the home is nursing the child, when a man goes out to work and and does his daily labor, when an artist is painting, when a musician is, is playing, these are all done to the glory of God. And in that sense, it is a part of our worship. Romans 12, one and two, your life is a life of worship, but that's not what we're talking about in this book. Because in this book, we are dealing particularly with gathered worship, um, um, because we've got so confused about the distinction between these two things. I make a proposal in the book that we, it would be better if we use our English word worship. And it's not a Greek word. It's not a Hebrew word, it's an English word that we use our English word worship. Exclusively for what we do when we gather. Why am I proposing that? Because what we do when we gather is distinct from what we do in the rest of life. Doesn't mean what we do in the rest of life doesn't matter or isn't holy or isn't a part of our devotion to God. It is. All of it is. But what? Gathered worship is, is the pinnacle of everything. The essence of everything, the source of everything, the heartbeat of everything, the zen of everything, the mountaintop outta which all the rivers of life flow, the, the heartbeat out of which all the blood vessels and arteries of life flow. And if you get that wrong, everything else will be wrong. We've got to get our gathered worship right? Look at your Bible, read it through from start to finish. It's the gathering together of the people of God that is always at the heart of everything. That is always God's primary concern, and it's in those gatherings that we have a communion with God, that we have the opportunity to fellowship with God, hear God's voice. Feed upon the blessings of God, experience the, the presence of God, receive the grace of God, rejoice in the goodness of God, et cetera, et cetera, in a way that is simply not accessible in all the rest of life and within evangelical churches. I think that's what we've lost. With the emphasis on worship in all of life that came out of certain groups in the, perhaps in the 1980s, 1990s particularly, and that's been fed into this new generation. We have dumbed down our gathered worship, and now we are in danger of losing its unique importance and value all together, and that's what we need to recover. That's what this book is about. We're asking. Why is what we do when we gather together so vital. Um, and, and, and that's the question that we're answering is worship an event then. And what are some of the distinctive marks of this event? You've, you've already highlighted some, but for example, in the book, you draw lots of attention to the. Trinitarian nature of worship. Mm. E explain some of those points. Yeah. So worship is an event. Yes, it is. You know, we agree with our charismatic friends. On that. Gathered worship is the highlight of the weak. It's the highlight of the highlight of the highlight. So the highlight is the Lord's Day. The highlights of the Lord's Day is being together with God's people, and the highlight of being together with God's people is our worship. So it is absolutely the, the top point of everything and, and therefore it is in our human experience and event, and in that event. As we've said, we are, as it were being translated, Hebrews 12. We, we are, we are experiencing what it means to be in the presence of God gathered together as God's people. And as such as we've said, it's transcendent. We, we gain access to a communion with God, who dwells in heavenly glory and is above us and beyond us in a way that we cannot at any other time. And that is, as you've outlined for us helpfully, John Mark a Trinitarian thing. So it begins with our father, our loving heavenly Father, the Father who elected us to be his people before the foundation of the world who called us to himself through his word, has set us apart to be his people. And. Summons us Lords Day by Lords Day summons us into his presence. And this is where gathered worship begins. It begins with the call of a loving father. Uh, we can no sooner come into God's presence without an invitation than you could visit Buckingham Palace without an invitation or wander into the White House. Without an invitation, you wouldn't get too warm or welcome. Uh, particularly, perhaps we might say at the moment, uh, if you rocked up at the White House, uh, and, and, uh, and tried to gain access, it might not work out too well because you, you have to have an invitation. You know, the president of the United States is an important guy and, uh, access to him is restricted. Well, I think God might be just a little more important than him. And, um. Why do we think that we can come to God without an invitation? We need to be called now. Our father calls us to himself effectually when we're converted in that first instance, but then he, as it were, res summons us every Lord stay back into his presence, into his loving presence, and he draws us with those chords of love. But then secondly, how is it that we can enter his presence? Well, we need to be clothed in the perfect righteousness of the eternally begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. The eternal son of the father made flash. The one who appropriated humanity to himself, Jesus Christ. The only way that we can come to that Father is if he makes the way possible for us. And he's done that in Jesus Christ. So our father calls us. He calls us in and through his son by his grace, the Son who died for us, the son who made atonement for us, the son who propitiated the righteous wrath of the Father for us, the Son who. Close us in his perfect righteousness. The son who gives us the right to enter the presence of the father, uh, as his children. But then where does the power to come? Arise. Do we get that from within ourselves? No. Again, that is the third person of God's trying, being the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who entered into us when the Father first called us and washed us from our sins in the blood of the sun, and clothed us in the perfect righteousness of that son, that spirit, the spirit of adoption. Us into worship. So you see our worship every time we we gather is inherently Trinitarian. And one of the wonderful things to realize here is that it is God's triune being. The fact that he is father, son, and Holy Spirit enables us to worship. If God were not Father, son and Holy Spirit, we could not worship him. A thing to meditate on, but, uh, wonderful truth. What are some of the things, some of the implications of the trinitarian nature of our worship for how the worship service unfolds, how the different elements of the worship service come together? Because theologically. Wonderful to consider that when we come to worship it is because we are called by the father in the his mediation and intercession. Through the Holy Spirit, through the power of the Spirit within who, who unites us as the Lord's people, but then that that actually practically impacts the acts of worship that we engage in D, doesn't it? Hmm. Absolutely. Yeah. So what we want to do as those who lead in worship, and perhaps that's something we'll consider in a future PO podcast, who is the God appointed, uh, God-ordained worship leader, uh, but whomsoever that may be that person is responsible for ensuring that the worship is explicitly Trinitarian. So we, we want our worship from the very start to be Trinitarian. That's why it's good to begin with a call to worship, which has contained within it, this concept that a father calls us in the sun by the spirit, and then following on from that call to worship. We want our. Him and our praying. So if we have call to worship, hymn prayer, call to worship prayer hymn, you know, the order of that perhaps is not so important. But those are gonna be the first three elements probably in most of our worship services. What we want each of those to be explicitly Trinitarian, we want the, the hymn. The opening hymn insofar as we are able, we want it to be explicitly Trinitarian, so we want to be singing Father, son, and Holy Spirit God in three persons. If we can't. But if, if, if we are not even quite doing that, then we will be singing in a Trinitarian way. We will be singing about. The father who has called us, we'll be singing about the son who has redeemed us. We'll be singing about the spirit who empowers, enables, and draws us. We, we, we want that. And then as we come to pray, oh, our prayer needs to be framed by the being of God. As Trinity, we want everybody who is there in that worship service to be conscious very early on in the service. The God we are worshiping is the triune God of the scriptures Father, son, and Holy Spirit. If, if we can put it, if we can put it sort of polemically, then we want any Jehovah's Witness or Unitarian or moron or whatever it may be, who is convinced that there is no Trinity to be storming out within 10 minutes. And if that isn't happening, we're getting something wrong in our worship, in leading the worship. We should almost have that Jehovah's witness in our mind and desire for them to leave outta protest or the overt, explicit trinitarianism within our worship right from the very, very beginning. Just mo moving on to some of the other. Content that that is found in this book. And, and this is such a a, a quick introduction. Uh, we, we hope following on from this episode to cover the different chapters of the book, they all, uh, address different questions. For example, uh, why do we gather or why do we listen or why do we pray and, and such questions. Uh, we hope to draw in a number of guests to help, uh, discuss these issues. Um, but just moving on to some of the other content in the book, who is Worship for Who Worships when we come together and. How do children relate to that? Because this book draws heavily on the historic reformed theology and doctrine of gathered worship, but it is also reformed Baptist, and there is some helpful. Theology and some helpful distinctions there in relation to children in worship. That's a big question, John Mark. I think we're gonna have to slice it up and deal, deal with with it one bit at a time. So who is worship for? For whom is our worship? Our worship is primarily. For believers. So our first objective in every worship service is to summon, to call in the name of the father, his children to himself, uh, through the grace and redeeming mercy and love of the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. So our focus from that. Opening moment of the uh, first service on each Lord's day is the people of God. Now, that isn't our exclusive focus. It is our primary focus because let's remember what is happening in worship on the Lord today is that the Father, God, the Father, is seeking worshipers. Now he's gonna seek worshipers. This is John four, isn't it? Uh, a friend of mine, Jerry Slate in a, in a book he has coming out soon, talks about, uh, uh, reformed, uh, worship being very seeker sensitive is quite a clever phrase. Um, but the, the, the, the seeker that we are sensitive to is God, God the father. And because that's what's happening, God, the father is calling worshipers to himself. So Lord Day, morning. We are sensitive to God who is seeking worshipers, and he seeks them primarily, initially chiefly amongst those who are already his children. But he does not seek worshipers exclusively amongst those who are already his children, does he? He seeks worshipers. The father seeks worshipers among those of his children that he has not yet called. And so that's the second focus of our worship, isn't it? It is to be sensitive to those who are invited to come, who have not yet come. And that obviously includes that visitors, guests. You know, it's very clear from those, uh, pa uh, verses in one Corinthians, uh, one Corinthians 14, isn't it? That. It is to be the normal experience of a church, to have unbelievers present in our worship services. And in many ways, if we think about our evangelism, our outreach, we should think about our evangelism and our outreach primarily in terms of God the father calling his elector himself. Through the sun by the spirit, and therefore the focal point of that is our gathered worship, so that as the unbeliever comes into the presence of God's people, he is, as I think Paul says, astonished, amazed, struck by the fact that God is here. That's the most wonderful thing that can be accomplished evangelistically, isn't it? An unbeliever is conscious of the presence of God. And if we believe that's what's happening when we gather on the Lord's day, the Father calls the Son and the, the, the son of tones, the Spirit enables, um, then we are gonna be mindful of that. And that leads us to kind of the third element in your question, which is what about children? Well, once we've set that up in the way that we just have the position of children is obvious, isn't it? Children are born as those who are in the image of God with the capacity inherent as human beings to know God, and yet they have simple natures. They are in Adam and so they are. Inherently cut off from God. And what is happening then in the worship service is that they are being called to God. They're being summoned to God. Now we know they won't come unless the Spirit enables, but we believe the Spirit is present. We should have this anticipation that as we bring our children into gathered worship, we are bringing them into the very place where a father calls and a son of tones and the spirit enables. Let's bring them in at the earliest stage. Not because with our Presbyterian brethren, we believe that they are covenant children and already in the covenant community, not because of that, but because we believe. That it is in those gatherings for worship that are chiefly, not exclusively, but chiefly and supremely, according to his promise, does the work of calling his elect to himself. So our children belong in the services to here. The father call them through the sun by the spirit. And, and preachers and worship leaders need to be conscious of that, uh, uh, as they lead the worship. There seems to be an amazing, you know, number of implications to, you know, four. Our children for the children of believers in the church, from the youngest ages, um, to the fact that worship is an event where God calls his people. And even, you know, at the end of the book, you have chapter called Why the Blessings Being a Benediction. You know, God blesses his people. It, it, it, it helps us to even bring our children and to help them understand. That God is calling worshipers. When, when we come, God is calling worshipers, are you going to respond? It is not merely that they are coming into a place where they will hear yet another evangelistic message or yet another, um, you know, series of songs and then Bible teaching. No, they are coming into God's presence and they will be met every time they come into the house of God. With a people who are meeting with God, they will be met with the challenge of being amongst Zion. The, you know, the amongst God's household. Yeah. And they need to respond to the call. It, it, it gives us a, an amazing confidence that, you know, they are in the one place, they're under the means of grace, where the Lord very well may call them. Yeah. It, it, it gets us to that place where we are expecting. God to call people to himself rather than going through the motions of an activity that we do. We do this thing that, that thing that the other thing, uh, in our. Worship, which is one aspect of service amongst many that we offer to God. We turn it around, God summons us, God redeems us, God empowers us. God is present and God is working. And that brings us really to the question, um, you know, you, you address this when you, when you talked about the benediction, the blessing, who gains from worship. Well, clearly not God. Uh, our doctrine of God doesn't. Permit that does it. I remember when I was a young man being somewhat thrown by my uncle, who was an unbelieving God hater, and he said, well, I could never believe in your God. Any God who needs people to bow down to him and worship him is pathetic. You know how ridiculous. I didn't really know what to say as a child,'cause my theology of worship and hadn't really been sharpened up. But now if I could go back and I would say to him, uncle Tim, um, I think you have a pagan view of God because that's, that's, that's the Greek and Roman gods, and, and all paganism has that paganism views worship as a way of manipulating your gods, getting them on side and all the rest of it. Is that what we're doing when we worship, God forbid. No, we are being called by God into his presence to receive from God. God is already for us, we're his people. God is already, uh, our loving father. He is already a gracious, merciful son who comes to us, uh, in. The person of Christ and, and redeems us, and saves us, and washes us, and closes us in his righteousness. God is already the mighty Holy Spirit who forgive us and enables us. Those things are already ours. What is happening in worship is that he is refreshing us in all of that. That's why we call worship the. Great means of grace. You know, in our gathered worship, we have all the means of grace. They're there. The ministry of the word prayer, uh, baptism, the Lord's Supper, the fellowship of God's people, and so on and so on. It, it's there in gathered worship that the means of grace are given to us. God filling our lives with his blessing and, and, and the fact that so many believers can gather on the Lord's day. In their places of worship and come away, relatively speaking, pretty empty means one of two things. It means either there is something very wrong with the worship that is being conducted and led by the worship leader, or it means that the believers are gathering with so many idols in their hearts, like stones in a jar that are just. Prohibiting and preventing us receiving the blessing from our God. Uh, we come empty, we come needy. We come every lord's day. We hear our father call us. We're blessed in the sun. We are filled with the spirit, and we go forth rejoicing. Worship is for us. It's for our good. It's for our blessing. We need it. It's wonderful to consider the amazing, amazing privilege of worship and the blessings that come to those who respond to the call by the grace of the Lord Jesus. Well, if you are listening to this. Uh, press that little bell button that bell button on your podcast app, and it means you'll be notified when our next episode comes out. We hope to do several on this topic with a number of interesting guests, so keep your eyes peeled for them. We hope that we've wet your appetite for this book. We hope that you can get your hands on it yourselves. It's available on the Broken Wharf website and also on Amazon Prime if you are in the United Kingdom or the United States. So check that out and tune in again. Bye for now.