ISAIAH 6:1-8 - How Should We Order Our Gathering?

I’m not entirely sure where the practice of racing down to Junior Church came from, but it’s certainly become a part of the order of service on Sunday mornings, hasn’t it? (We could almost put it right there in the bulletin: “Children - 3rd Grade race to Junior Church!”) I want us to consider what we call our “order of service” this morning—how we arrange the elements of our worship and why we do things in the order that we do them. We saw last week that God’s Word regulates our worship and informs what form that worship takes. And I think that the way that we arrange these elements of worship—hearing the Word, singing the Word, praying the Word, reading the Word and seeing the Word—the order in which we do these things, and the way we prioritize them matters.

The theological word for this is the word liturgy—in the original Greek, it referred to a public office that a citizen would take on at their own expense, and it also referred to military service. In religious usage it refers to the service of priests relative to sacrifices and prayers to the gods (and later, to the God of the Bible).

Some people hear the word liturgy and immediately think of Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox “liturgies”. But the truth is that every church has a “liturgy” of one sort or another; an order in which things are done—and done in that order for a particular reason. The Apostle Paul exhorted the church in Corinth (which was kind of a Wild Wild West mashup of tongues, prophecies, love feasts and so on) that

1 Corinthians 14:40 (ESV)

40 ...all things should be done decently and in order.

And that’s the question before us this morning—how do we order our gathering in worship? How does the way we order and prioritize the elements of our worship reveal what we believe about God, and how does the way we shape that worship then shape us?

Think about it this way: We saw how our kids all have made racing to Junior Church a regular part of their Sunday morning worship. I think it’s safe to say that kids are very liturgical beings. Whether you have kids, or whether you used to be a kid, you know what I’m talking about, right? Take bedtime, for instance. The bedtime “liturgy” is one that is always done in a very specific order. Change into pajamas, use the bathroom (or wait to use it depending on your place in birth order), brush your teeth, then get tucked in. Then perhaps there is a story that gets read (maybe the SAME STORY every night, and maybe several readings of the same story in some cases), particular blankets or stuffed animals arranged a particular way, bedtime prayer and a blessing, and then lights out. And if one of those elements of the bedtime liturgy is not properly observed, it is impossible to go to sleep!

But think for a moment about what is going on in that order of service, that “liturgy” of bedtime. When you are a child, you are comforted by that routine, you are nourished and cared for by your mom or dad. And not only does that routine comfort and nourish you, that routine tells you something about the kind of home you live in, doesn’t it? That bedtime routine tells you —even if you can’t entirely articulate it—that you live in a home that shelters you, where you are comforted, that you are safe and warm and there are parents who love you and look after you and delight in you. What kind of home a child lives in is revealed and reinforced every night at bedtime.

I want to suggest that, in the same way,

Our ORDER of worship should REVEAL and REINFORCE the story of the GOSPEL each week

Our order of worship is inescapably theological. It is not a matter of “whether” we will communicate the Gospel in worship, but what kind of Gospel are we communicating? What are we saying about God? What are we saying about ourselves? About Christ? About our salvation? When the kids race down the staFor instance, if a church takes time in the service to recognize our need for confession of sin and rejoicing in the forgiveness found in Christ, it is saying something about the Gospel. And if a church doesn’t take time to do that, it is also saying something about the Gospel.

Our order of worship should reveal and reinforce what we believe about who God is, who we are, and what Christ has done. And so by way of considering how we should order our worship gathering to follow the storyline of the Gospel each week, I want us to look at Isaiah’s experience as he was brought into God’s presence in Isaiah 6.

As we order the elements of our worship, the first truth that we want to reveal and reinforce— “Chapter I” of the Gospel story, if you will, is

Chapter I: The GREATNESS of our GOD (Isaiah 6:1-4)

Look at what Isaiah experienced at the beginning of his time in God’s presence:

Isaiah 6:1–3 (ESV)

1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

The very first thing that Isaiah saw was

The HOLINESS and AUTHORITY of the LORD (cp. Habakkuk 2:20)

God is the One seated high on His throne, even as the kings of the earth fail and die. He is the One Whose beauty and splendor fills every square inch of creation; He is the One who is constantly worshipped and praised and honored by mighty, ancient beings whose voices shake the foundations of the world:

Isaiah 6:4 (ESV)

4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

This is the God that you have come to worship on Sunday morning!

And so how should our order of service reflect the holiness and authority and majesty and splendor of our God? Habakkuk 2:20 tells us

Habakkuk 2:20 (ESV)

20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

What would it say about what we believe as a people about the greatness of our God if we fell silent as we waited for Him to speak? A naturally noisy and busy and bustling church family that suddenly stills itself, waiting in submissive silence for Him to speak to us in the Call to Worship?

What would it say about what we believe about the greatness of God if, after He calls us to worship, we lift our voices to sing about His greatness and power and majesty? That we rejoice in the splendor and beauty and magnificence of His presence in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs? The first chapter in our weekly re-telling of the Gospel story must begin with our worship of the greatness of our God!

And when we come into the presence of the greatness of our God in His holiness and authority, then the next chapter of the Gospel story (like Isaiah) is that we come to see

Chapter II: Our PERIL in our SIN (Isaiah 6:5)

Look at how Isaiah reacted to the presence of his holy and righteous God:

Isaiah 6:5 (ESV)

5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

As we encounter the holiness, we are reminded that

We once were LOST and UNCLEAN (Romans 7:22-24)

Isaiah’s first reaction: “I am lost!” In the presence of such holiness, all Isaiah could think about was his unholiness. In the presence of God’s purity, all He could think about was how unclean he was.

And so how should our worship service reflect our condition apart from God? Christian, when you come to worship God, you are coming here after fighting daily battles with sin. No one comes here with a perfect record of defeating the sin that still hounds us. And so as God calls you into His presence to worship, He calls you knowing that you have fought and lost—like the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 7:22-24

Romans 7:22–24 (ESV)

22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

What are we saying about the Gospel if there is never any mention in our order of worship about the sin that we battle, about our desire for holiness and the war that is waged against us every day by the Enemy of our souls? What are we saying about who we are if we arrange our worship service so that we only focus on how successful or competent or good-natured we are?

What would we be saying about the Gospel story if our worship service made room for God’s Word to speak to us about sins we need to confess, about acknowledging the battles we lost and our need for the forgiveness that He has offered us in Christ? As the Apostle John reminds us:

1 John 1:9 (ESV)

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Think of it this way: Imagine that you made a commitment to a social engagement (a birthday party or something), and you found out beforehand that one of the other guests was a friend of yours with whom you had gotten crosswise and out of fellowship over something. There’s no way out of the event, you both have to be there, and so what do you do? If you’re wise, you seek them out right at the beginning of the party and make it right with them (so that you don’t make yourselves and everyone around you miserable all day!)

How often have you come to worship with a heavy heart because of the way your sin has gotten you out of fellowship? Jesus says to take your brother aside and make it right with him before you come to present your offerings in worship; how much more freedom and joy and release is there for you when you “clear the air” with God at the start of your worship?

We want our order of worship to reveal and reinforce the story of the Gospel every week—The greatness of our God, our peril in our sin, and

Chapter III: Our RESCUE by our SAVIOR (Isaiah 6:6-7)

When Isaiah was cut to the heart over his uncleanness and lostness in the presence of God’s holiness and authority, God responded with cleansing:

Isaiah 6:6–7 (ESV)

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

The angel’s actions may have made sense to Isaiah—he had cried out that his lips were unclean and so the angel purified his lips with a coal from the altar. But the angel’s words surely had to mystify Isaiah—how could this angel simply announce that his guilt be taken away and his sin atoned for? How could Isaiah be simply declared guiltless?

And here, beloved, is where the glory of New Testament gathered worship simply outshines any Old Testament worship— that what Isaiah could barely glimpse or even guess at, we see with brilliant clarity

Ephesians 3:9–12 (ESV)

9 ...the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

This great mystery that Isaiah glimpsed, we see clearly—that it is in Jesus Christ

Our GUILT is removed and our SIN paid for

If our order of worship should reveal and reinforce the story of the Gospel each week, then this truth that “Your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for” should be the most joyous expression of our worship each week! Our rescue by our Savior Jesus Christ should be prominently displayed in our worship—from reading Scriptures that declare our forgiveness, to hymns of response to that declaration of forgiveness, to sermons that return again and again to the forgiveness of sins that was purchased for us by Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, to depictions of that death to sin and new life in the waters of baptism, to the representation of the broken body and shed blood of Christ in the elements of the Lord’s Table—we ought to so order our worship service that the rescue by our Savior shines with all the glad and grateful gravity that a redeemed people can muster!

Our worship service should reveal and reinforce the reality that we are called together by our great God, in His presence we remember our guilt and need for Him, and then He declares us guiltless and pure by the blood of Jesus Christ. And the next great chapter in the Gospel story that we should reveal and reinforce in our order of worship must be

Chapter IV: Our COMMISSION from our KING (Isaiah 6:8)

See how this is reflected in Isaiah’s experience in the presence of the LORD—after his sin is atoned for, God speaks:

Isaiah 6:8 (ESV)

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Not only does God speak to Isaiah, He speaks to him with the intent to commission him for service. Our order of worship must reveal and reinforce that, after God assures us that we have been redeemed through Christ,

He SPEAKS to DIRECT us

in our service to Him. He speaks to us of the pardon and cleansing that we have in Christ, and we respond by asking Him for His blessing. We do this in our prayers, as we petition Him for our needs and intercede on behalf of others. We ask Him to heal and lead and empower us—and then He answers us in the delivery of His message by the mouth of His faithful servant in the pulpit. This is the supreme moment, the highest point of our weekly gathered worship—when God’s people, having confessed their sin and been assured again of the pardon they have in Jesus Christ, have the privilege of hearing Him speak to them His words of comfort, encouragement, rebuke, edification, direction and love.

Not only does our order of worship service demonstrate the supremacy of the declared Word of God, but even the “liturgy” of our architecture reinforces that hearing the Word of God faithfully declared is the highest pinnacle of worship that our weekly gatherings reach. This room is constructed so that all of our attention is drawn to this pulpit; the acoustics of this room are designed so that the sounds that come from this spot carry throughout the entire sanctuary. This pulpit is the resting place of the Bible from which the preacher speaks—a visual demonstration that the Word of God stands between the preacher and the people, and that every word that passes from the preacher’s lips must pass over God’s Word first.

And when God has spoken to His people, when they have had their weekly audience with their King, the last part of the worship service is the moment when we are commissioned to go out into the world with this Word. There is a benediction—a speaking of blessing—to God’s people to strengthen them on their way. And once a month we are invited by our King to gather at His Table to be fed by His New Covenant promises of His broken body and shed blood. He gathers with us to share that fellowship meal with us as we share it with each other, a foretaste of that glorious Wedding Supper of the Lamb that He will set for us one day.

Our order of worship should reveal and reinforce the story of the Gospel each week. Every Sunday morning you come here to Bethel, after a long and weary week, worn and battle-scarred from your struggles with sin and the trials of living in this fallen world. And as your Heavenly Father calls to you, inviting you into His presence, you wait expectantly for Him to speak, and are filled with awe and wonder at His glory. As He speaks to you through His Spirit by His Word, you are reminded of the battles you have fought with your sin—your victories and your failures—and the remaining rebellion and corruptions that still plague you. You cry out to Him for mercy and grace to help in time of need, confessing any sin that stands between you and fellowship with Him.

And then He speaks to you words of comfort and forgiveness that are yours because of the blood of Jesus Christ shed for you, comfort and assurance and cleansing that is yours through faith. And as the reality of the forgiveness for sin that you have in Jesus Christ dawns on you all over again—as the worship service again reveals and reinforces your redemption—you cannot help but respond in song, rejoicing over the grace of God in Christ that has purchased you.

Then, having received that assurance of your forgiveness and with no sin left unconfessed, you come to Him with your prayers and petitions, and your intercessions for others, asking in the Name of Jesus Christ for grace and mercy to help in time of need, petitioning the One who Himself is interceding for you before your Father in Heaven. And then, your Heavenly Father answers you—speaking to you through His Word, declared by a faithful minister empowered to “speak as it were the oracles of God” for your strengthening, encouragement, direction, discipline and joy. And when you have heard His Word, He invites you to celebrate your intimate fellowship with Him and your fellow members by taking His Supper together. Then with one final word of benediction and commission, you are sent out refreshed and renewed in the joy of your salvation to be faithful and fruitful in the world you are sent to disciple.

Beloved, let us make it our aim to reveal and reinforce this Gospel story every week; let us always seek to sharpen and clarify the declaration of this Good News—not only in the songs we sing and the sermons we preach and the prayers that we pray, but in the very arrangement of those elements of worship so that every week we are telling the same story, every week we are rejoicing in the same salvation, every week we are acting out the holiness of God, the sinfulness of sin, the glory of the Cross and the blessing of our union with God and each other, so that with everything we do and say on Sunday morning will be an invitation to the world to come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 (ESV)

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What does the term “liturgy” mean? What are some examples of an “order of service” that we see even outside of a church service? What does 1 Corinthians 14:40 say about the way we should conduct our Sunday morning gatherings?

Consider again the statement that a church’s order of worship is “inescapably theological”—that a church is always saying something about the Gospel in the things that it either includes or excludes from worship. Take today’s bulletin and prayerfully consider our order of worship. What do we reveal about our understanding of the Good News in the following areas?

—The holiness and majesty of God

—Our need for a Savior and our battles with sin

—The redemption we have in Jesus Christ

—God speaking to us in His Word

Pray that God will lead us as we seek to reveal and reinforce the Good News through our order of worship at Bethel!

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