Sermon Tone Analysis

*‘The Musical Church’*

 

/a musical morass/

I’ll feel very sorry for you if you’re sitting next to me when we are singing in church.

When I arrived in Windsor church in 2000, they used to record the whole service for the elderly unable to be there.

After a few weeks they stopped recording the whole service and started recording only the sermon.

I was told that my singing was so bad that the elderly couldn’t stand it any longer!

For as long as I’ve been a Christian, I’ve been singing—or at least, I’ve tried too!

In Sunday School we used to sing—I remember, ‘Wide, Wide as the Ocean’ and ‘Jesus Loves Me, this I Know’.

‘The Best Book to Read is the Bible’.

In Youth Group, I remember singing, ‘Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God’.

I remember as a young man going to CMS Summer School and for the first time singing, ‘Tell Out my Soul, the Greatness of the Lord’.

I remember singing ‘O For a Thousand Tongues’ when there was actually one thousand people in the auditorium.

I have been profoundly affected by these experiences.

These songs have stayed with me for years and so do the truths they teach.

These days, and for many people, music is the make or break of church.

I’ve come across people who choose to stay or leave a church based upon the skill of the musicians and the quality of the congregational singing.

In recent years, Hillsong have redefined the contours of the musical landscape.

Our churches are living in a ‘musical morass’ and no-one is really satisfied.

/ the theology of church/

We shall never understand the place of music in church unless we understand the nature of church.

Indeed, our understanding of why Christians meet together not only shapes our musical activities, but all the activities which take place in our meetings—and the manner in which they are carried out.

We’ve been talking about the nature of church over the last few weeks—so now is a good time to pull a few threads together.

We shall call this a ‘theology’ of church.

An easy way to remember our ‘ systematic theology’ is to speak about the three dimensions of our meetings: the ‘word of God’, ‘prayer’ and ‘love for one another’.

/            first dimension: the word of God (Exod 19; Acts 2:42, Col 3:16–17)/

Consider the scene at Mount Sinai as the Israelites received the commandments of God.

They understood that they were in God's presence and this affected their priorities.

There had very loud trumpets (Ex 19:16) but they were not too concerned about the choice of trumpet music!

Since God was in their midst, what mattered more than anything else was to listen to what he said.

The earliest church meetings followed the pattern of Sinai.

In Acts 2:42, the believers ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching’.

In his instructions to the Colossians, Paul commands that the Word of Christ dwell in them richly through wise teaching (Col 3:16,17).

Hearing the Word of God is the most important activity we do when we come together.

It is by his Word that he has called us together.

If we do nothing else, we must hear the Word of God from the Scriptures in whatever format we can—whether its through listening to sermons, personal bible study, in home groups—whatever is appropriate in the situation.

For listening to the word of God is the first dimension of any Christian meeting.

/            second dimension: prayer (Phil 1:9)/

The second dimension of church involves our response to the Word of God.

Throughout the New Testament, churches are repeatedly exhorted to pray.

Having heard from God and understood his character and his plan for us, we should recognise our complete dependence upon him.

Through prayer we express this dependence upon God in the most humblest of ways.

In the Book of Common Order which we looked at few weeks ago—we saw that prayer is a vital ingredient when responding to the word of God.

Prayers of response: thanksgiving and intercession.

‘And this is my prayer’—Paul says in Phil 1:9—‘that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.’.

The second dimension of church is ‘prayer’.

/            third dimension: love one another/

The third dimension in our meeting together is ‘loving one another’.

We meet as Christians because God has called us to himself.

He has accepted each of us and brought us into his presence.

We are, therefore, bound to accept one another.

In our meetings, there are no greatest and least of us, we are servants of one another.

Certainly we have different gifts and these are for our common good—if these gifts are used.

And as we unselfishly use our gifts we are loving one anther.

Remember, at one time, all of us sinned and fell short of the glory of God.

The antidote was the same for each of us—one gospel to rescue us.

‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’.

When it comes to our salvation, God makes no distinction between us.

So who are you to draw distinctions?

How dare anyone here feel superior to any other Christian believer!

How dare you feel inferior to any other person in this church family!

God has made each you his son or daughter if you have put your faith in the Lord Jesus.

These are the spiritual dimensions that define our meetings together: hearing God's word, responding to him in prayer and loving one another.

And as we consider the role of music in church, we must realise that our music must operate within these three dimensions.

Now there’s one more thing to consider before we can address the challenge of music.

/the nature of praise/

/            problems with praise/

Many Christians describe the time of singing in our meetings as ‘the time of praise’ or ‘the time of worship’.

Often song leaders choose songs around tunes which allow people to lose themselves in themselves and this is often described as the ‘worship time’.

And then after praising God in song we get down to the business of bible reading and sermon and those more cerebral activities.

Is singing a more praiseworthy activity?

Often when people say ‘The worship was wonderful’, this is code for saying, ‘I loved the music’.

Sometimes we see churches advertise a ‘Service of Prayer and Praise’ in which the praise element always refers to singing.

So there seems to be ‘head’ Christians and ‘heart’ Christians.

Music is worship for the ‘heart’ people—and bible reading and sermon is worship for the ‘head’ people (especially when looking at the Book of Revelation).

Sometimes its like there are two separate groups of Christians who attend church.

Or maybe one week you can be a ‘head’ Christian and next week a ‘heart’ Christian—and the week after you can be both—depending on the choice of music and the sermon topic!

We need to pay more attention to what the Scriptures mean by the word ‘praise’.

The idea that the time of singing in our meetings can be described as ‘the time of praise’ or ‘the time of worship’ contains two errors.

Firstly, it assumes that the purpose of coming to church is to worship God; and secondly, that the way we praise God is through our music.

/            in the psalms (Psalm 92)/

The obvious part of the Bible to examine is the book of Psalms.

It is very clear here, in almost every psalm, that /praise is declaring what God is like and what he has done/.

Psalm 103, which we read earlier, follows this pattern.

Let’s have a look at another psalm—Psalm 92 –have a look with me (read).

This psalm declares what God is like: he is loving and faithful (v.2); his deeds and works and his thoughts are praiseworthy (v.4 and 5); the Lord is upright, he is as firm as a Rock, there is no wickedness in him (v.15).

The psalmist is praising God for what he is like—and he also praises God for what he has done: the work of creation (v.5); the defeat of the Lord’s enemies and the scattering of the wicked (v.9–11); the flourishing of the righteous (v.12–15).

In general, praise in the psalms is telling others about God rather than speaking to God.

And although the Psalms were sung, they were handed down in Scripture without a note of music attached to them.

I can’t find anywhere in the Bible that discusses the issue of tunes—let alone good tunes and bad tunes.

There are no melody lines in the book of Psalms and yet the element of praise is undeniable.

Praising God cannot, therefore, depend upon music alone.

It’s a great thing to add contemporary tunes to the Psalms—but it  does not make the psalms anymore ‘praiseworthy’.

/            praise in the New Testament (2 Cor.13, 1 Pet 1:3, Heb 13:15–16)/

In the New Testament, the concept of praise remains the same—/declaring what God is like and what he has done/.

Now that the mystery of God’s will is made known to us through the gospel, the content of our praise is expanded.

We have more to praise God about!

We read praises of God at the beginning of many of the epistles: ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles’—says Paul in 2 Cor.

1:3; and Peter says in 1 Peter 1, ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’ (1 Pet 1:3).

And carefully note Heb 13:15–16, ‘Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—/the fruit of lips that confess his name/.