Worship Is More

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

—Romans 12: 1–2

Popular opinion these days often limits worship to singing. Music leaders are called “worship leaders.” So the congregation “worships” for a while, and then hears a sermon, possibly followed by more “worship.” True worship, however, includes so much more. Most obviously, it includes the entire activity of the church as she assembles for worship each Lord’s Day, especially the reading and exposition of the Word. But even that is only a small portion of the worship that God expects of us.

Worship does not only occur in public services and assemblies. It should occur in the Christian’s daily living. So Paul exhorted the Christians in Rome, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” Theology lived out in responsible action and obedience is worshipping God. When performed in faith, all the duties of the Christian life commanded in Scripture are means of worshipping God. “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Worship of God is the supreme end of the Christian church, whether considered locally or universally, or in the individual lives of its members.

—Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

Sola Scriptura Applied

Behind the assertion that Christian worship must consist of . . . God-prescribed elements is the Protestant understanding of the sufficiency of Scripture—the idea that the Scriptures sufficiently reveal everything God’s people need for salvation, perfect trust, and perfect obedience. The sufficiency of Scripture has many implications, including the conviction that Scripture should regulate the way God’s people should approach God in worship. This principle has often been called “the regulative principle.” The regulative principle applies the Protestant belief in the authority of God’s Word to the particular doctrine of the church (most often it is referenced in discussions of public worship).
Many people have debated what specific applications should be drawn from the regulative principle for the weekly gathering of the saints. For example, does the principle require or forbid taking an offering during a service? having a choir? using drama in lieu of a sermon? and so forth. Yet before the particular points of application are tackled, the basic principle should be clearly and firmly set in place: God has revealed what basic components of worship are acceptable to him. Left to themselves humans do not worship God as they should, not even those who are blessed by him. One needs only to think of the unacceptable sacrifice of Cain or the golden calf of the Israelites.

In response to humanity’s lack of knowledge and desire to worship him rightly, God graciously grants humanity his Word. The first two of the Ten Commandments show God’s concern for how he is to be worshipped. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for aspects of their worship. Paul instructed the church at Corinth on what should and should not occur in their assemblies. In short, recognizing the regulative principle amounts to recognizing the sufficiency of Scripture applied to assembled worship. In the language of the Reformation, it amounts to sola scriptura.

—Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

Baptism and Maturity

Scripture limits baptism according to spiritual status, not age. But does that mean that children who profess faith should be baptized? Not necessarily. While believer’s baptism does not necessarily mean adult baptism, it is wise to delay baptism until a certain level of maturity is achieved.  Mark Dever writes:

While Scripture clearly reserves baptism for believers, it does not directly address the age at which believers should be baptized. Nor does the command to baptize forbid raising questions about the appropriateness of a baptismal candidate’s maturity. The fact that believers are commanded to be baptized does not give a church license to baptize indiscriminately, especially where maturity-of-life issues make it difficult to assess the credibility of a profession of faith. New Testament baptisms largely appear to have occurred shortly after conversion, but every specific individual mentioned is an adult coming from a non-Christian context, two factors which make the church’s job of attesting to the credibility of a profession of faith simple and straightforward.

As a matter of Christian wisdom and prudence, therefore, the normal age of baptism should be when the credibility of one’s conversion becomes naturally discernable and evident to the church community. A legitimate secondary concern is the effect of the child’s baptism on other families in the church. The least spiritually discerning parents—with the best intentions—have too often brought pressure on their compliant children to be baptized. Such children have thereby been wrongly assured of their salvation and have been further hardened to hearing the gospel later in life. Tragically, the hope they most need may be hidden by the act meant to display it.

—Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

Outward Signs

Mark Dever on the inseparable relationship of the Word and the ordinances:

When churches practice baptism and the Lord’s Supper, they obey Christ’s teaching and example. In so doing, they portray Christ’s death and resurrection, the testimony of every believer’s own spiritual birth, as well as the church’s collective hope for the final resurrection and reunion with the Lord. These two practices, in short, proclaim the gospel. Thus, even congregations that have long forsaken biblical doctrine regarding regeneration, Christ’s substitutionary death, or the hope of heaven, still proclaim these truths in their liturgies as they reenact these signs. The new birth may be ignored, but baptism portrays it. Christ’s atonement may be denied in the sermon, but the Supper proclaims it. In such cases tradition at the table speaks more truth than the preaching from the pulpit. Practicing baptism and the Lord’s Supper demonstrates obedience to Christ, and they are intended to complement by visible sign and symbol the audible preaching of the gospel.

Conversely, a church fails to obey Christ’s command when it neglects either of these two signs. Such failure removes that church from a submission to the larger teaching of Scripture. And it separates a congregation from the apostolic and universal practice of Christ’s followers. Scripture acts as a counterweight against anyone—whether a congregation or a person—who decides to be a Christian and yet neglects baptism or the Lord’s Supper. This neglect, or denial, separates the person from those who truly follow Christ. While neither baptism nor the Lord’s Supper is salvific, a deliberate neglect of either puts a question mark on any profession of faith. In this sense baptism and the Lord’s Supper act as the marks of a true church. They are the outward signs, or visible boundaries, which distinguish a particular people from the world. Yet matching that outward message is an inward message. The ordinances remind Christians of the fellowship they enjoy with God and one another.

—Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

Created By God's Revelation

In his book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Mark Dever placed expositional preaching at number one. This is no novel opinion. The Belgic Confession of Faith of 1561 also placed preaching of pure doctrine first of three distinctive of a true church. Mark Dever explains why preaching holds such a high position in the life of the church:

God’s people in Scripture are created by God’s revelation of himself. His Spirit accompanies his Word and brings life.

The theme of “life through the Word” is clear in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, God created life in Genesis 1 by his breath. God spoke and the world and all living beings were created. In Genesis 1:30, the living creatures are described as having the “breath of life” in them. So in Genesis 2:7, God breathed this same breath of life into those creatures made specially in his image—men and women.

After the first man and woman fell away from God by rebelling against him, God sustained them and their descendants by his word—a word of promise given to them in Genesis 3:15. Again in Genesis 12:1–3, his word called Abram from Ur of the Chaldees to become the progenitor of God’s people. In Exodus 3:4, God called on Moses with his word to bring his people out of Egypt. In Exodus 20, God gave his people his 10 “words,” and throughout the Pentateuch, God’s Word is the shaping influence on his people. Throughout the Old Testament, God ministered to his people by his word. He created them and recreated them through the priests’ teaching of the law and the prophets’ inspired guidance.

Ezekiel 37 presents a dramatic picture of recreation in particular. The people of Israel were in exile, depicted as an army so devastated only their bones remained. God commanded the prophet Ezekiel to preach to these bones. As Ezekiel did, the Spirit of God accompanied Ezekiel’s words, and the bones were brought to life:

And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. (vv. 7–10)

The consistent message of Scripture is that God created his people and brings them to life through his word.

Moving to the New Testament, God’s word again plays the central role as the bringer of life. So the eternal Word of God, the Son of God, became incarnate for the salvation of God’s people (John 1:14). Jesus came to preach God’s word, to uniquely embody it, as well as to accomplish God’s will through his perfect life, atoning death, and triumphant resurrection. He founded his church and taught his followers to go into all nations, preaching the message of reconciliation to God through faith in him (Matt 28:18–20). Therefore, Paul wrote that “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17).

—Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

Not Evangelism

Evangelism means preaching the gospel. That is all, and there is no substitute.

[S]ocial action or “mercy ministries” (e.g., soup kitchens, medical clinics, etc.) must never be mistaken for evangelism. They may be a means to evangelism, but they are not evangelism. The church’s main responsibility is gospel proclamation. Nothing must obscure the church’s central obligation to preach the gospel. Expounding Scripture in the local church equips members to understand and express God’s character of justice and mercy appropriately to the world. And this rightly means touching on issues of poverty, gender, racism, and justice from the pulpit. Such teaching, however, should normally occur without committing the church to particular public policy solutions. For example, Christian preachers could strenuously advocate the abolition of human trafficking without laying out specific policy proposals for how to do it. Christian preaching can speak to [sic] what ought to be done without assuming it has the expertise to untangle all the means necessary for achieving those good ends.

A non-Christian’s greatest need is to hear the gospel. The proclamation of the gospel addresses the greatest part of human suffering caused by the fall. It is central to fulfilling the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20). And it is central to fulfilling the great commandments (Mark 12:29–31; cf. Gal 6:2). For the Christian these commandments must lie at the heart of any cultural mandate (Gen 1: 28).

—Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible