Worship at Heritage Reformed Presbyterian Church

Pastor Shawn Young

Corporate Worship and the Lord’s Day

The Lord’s Day or the Sabbath

With respect to corporate worship and celebration of the Sabbath, we are led by the Scriptures.

• Deuteronomy 5:12-15
• Isaiah 58:13-14

What is the Purpose of Corporate Worship?

WSC Question 117. How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?
Answer The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

• We believe that God serves us in our worship (Acts 20:32)
• We believe that we serve God as we gather for corporate worship (Matthew 4:10)

Purpose of Worship—Summary Statement

“Whenever we gather for public worship, it is because we have been summoned. That is what ‘church’ means: ekklesia, ‘called out.’ It is not a voluntary society of those whose chief concern is to share, to build community, to enjoy fellowship, to have moral instruction for their children, and so forth. Rather, it is a society of those who have been chosen, redeemed, called, justified, and are being sanctified until one day they will finally be glorified in heaven” (Michael Horton, A Better Way, Rediscovering the Drama of Christ-Centered Worship).

The Regulative Principle of Worship—“What Scripture does not authorize it forbids.”

Again, we look to the Scriptures for the principles that order our worship. Exodus 20:2-6 Exodus 36:1 Deuteronomy 12:29-31 Leviticus 10:1-3 Mark 7:6-7 WCF, 21.1—“The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and doth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.”

Reformed Distinctives

We believe that “reformed worship” is characterized by clearly distinct elements.

1. 1. Trinitarian

   WCF 21.2 “Religious worship is to be given to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to him alone; not to angels, saints, or any other creature: and, since the fall, not without a Mediator; nor in the mediation of any other but of Christ alone.”

2. 2. Covenantal

   “By contrast what defines Reformed Christianity is not the immediate experience of God. Rather, the Reformed confession teaches mediation: the mediation of revelation in God’s covenants and chiefly through the Mediator of the covenant of grace, Jesus Christ the Word of God incarnate. Reformed Christianity is nothing if not doctrinal and churchly.” (R. Scott Clark, Recovering the Reformed Tradition).

3. 3. Dialogical

   The covenantal pattern of Christian worship takes the shape of a dialog between God and His people. God is present in public worship. He speaks and acts; we respond to what He says and does. The people aren’t passive! They are active participants in the dialog.

4. 4. Reverent

   There is an honor and respect that is due God alone and we, of all people, ought to accord Him what He is uniquely due. Our liturgy must enable us to worship reverently, in a manner consistent with God’s very nature; otherwise it will fail as worship (Hebrews 12: 28-29).

5. 5. Simple

   “[It is] simple because the New Testament does not prescribe a complex ritual of service as is found in the Old Testament; spiritual because when Jesus removed the special status of Jerusalem as the place where God was to be worshiped (John 4:7-24), he signaled the abolition of all the material forms that constituted the typological Old Testament system including not only the city, but all that gave the city significance—the temple, the altars, the priests, the sacrificial animals, the incense; substantial because the God of the Bible is a great God and cannot be worshiped appropriately with forms that are light, flippant, or superficial; he must always be worshiped with ‘reverence and awe’ (Hebrews 12:28)” (Terry Johnson, Leading in Worship).

6. 6. Redemptive

   Our worship should be shaped by the gospel: the good news of God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. As such there should be a place for: Confession of sin; a calling to and affirmation of faith in Christ; the benefits of Christ: forgiveness, reconciliation, freedom from sin, et cetera.

7. 7. Historical

   One of the largely forgotten impulses of the Reformation was the desire to recover the good things from the early church that had been lost or obscured in Medieval Christianity. The church may only include elements which are commanded by God in worship. However, we should especially incorporate tried and true forms that have served the church well over the centuries.