Please turn with me in the Word of God for the reading of Scripture tonight to the first chapter of the book of the Revelation. Revelation, chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. We'll read down through the chapter, and then I want to read just two verses from the last chapter of the book of the Revelation. Revelation, chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. Let us hear God's own word. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw. That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia, grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's day, I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said, Write on a scroll what you see, And send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And among the lampstands was one like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet. And with a golden sash around his chest, his head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow. and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. When he placed his right hand on me and said, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now, and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. And then reading from Revelation chapter 22, verses 8 and 9. Revelation 22, verses 8 and 9. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, Do not do it. I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God. So far the reading of God's word. I don't know how many of you kept up with the news over the Christmas holiday in the last week or a little bit more, but one of the more surprising things reported on the news, at least to me, was the news that a number of large and well-known churches in this country had decided not to have worship services last Sunday because it was Christmas. And that was sufficiently remarkable as a decision that even the National Secular News felt some need to report it. They seemed surprised. And it seemed, by and large, they were unable to interview many of the leaders of those churches, but the one or two they were able to talk to had said, well, Christmas is such an important family day that we think people should be home with their families on that day. And, of course, in some ways, this is not an entirely new situation in America. Many conservative Protestant churches for a very long time have not had services on Christmas Day and have said that it is a day for people to spend with their families rather than to spend it in church. And what was unusual this year, of course, was that Christmas Day fell on Sunday. And so then the question becomes, do we follow what had become something of a custom in many churches, namely of not having services on Christmas Day, allow that to be the dominant practice on a Sunday, or follow the more traditional path of having services on Sunday? And as was reported, many large, prominent churches, churches that have as their primary reason for being, according to their own vision statements, to be evangelistic, to be reaching out, to be making Christ known, many of these churches decided not to have services last Sunday. Well, what do we think about that? How should we evaluate that? I think probably most of you were in church last Sunday, and so at least by your practice, you didn't seem to go along with that advice. Perhaps if you heard about this on the news, you felt slightly disgruntled and wondered what people could be thinking to do something like that. Perhaps you were more deeply annoyed. But perhaps you thought, I don't like that, but I'm not exactly sure why I don't like it. And so I thought tonight we might spend a little time together thinking about why is it that some churches, churches that claim to be Bible-believing churches, that claim to be very concerned to make Christ known, churches that probably pass out lapel pins that say, keep Christ in Christmas, would decide not to have church services on Christmas Day, and more importantly, on the Lord's Day. What does that mean? Why did they make a decision like that? How should we evaluate it? And what I think we need to see is that this decision profoundly expresses a theological understanding of the church, of the Lord's Day, and of worship. And I want us to spend a little time tonight thinking about those three things, the church, the Lord's Day, and worship, and thinking about how they are interconnected. That to really understand them in a biblical way, we have to see them in relationship to one another. Because, I believe, that's what the scriptures themselves teach us. The church is not an issue to be completely isolated from questions of worship and the Lord's Day. The Lord's Day can't be considered in separation from the church and from worship. And worship can't be considered in separation from the Lord's Day and the church. These things are interconnected. And particularly on a night when we gather to worship God, and part of our worship is the installation of office bearers, and as new office bearers take up the responsibility to function as elders and deacons, and they have taken solemn vows, and we as a congregation have taken solemn vows, it's good to reflect a little bit. What does it really mean when we say we believe in a holy Catholic church? What does it really mean when we gather for worship on the Lord's Day? And what is that worship? And I address these subjects not primarily to be critical of the practices of others, but to encourage us in our own practice. to encourage us with a sense that the way we have understood the church and the Lord's Day and worship is not just a matter of tradition or custom among us, but is genuinely biblical. And I become, as I get older and probably grumpier, As I get older, I become more and more persuaded by a truth that it is not easy to be reformed in America. I had an interesting experience a few years ago. I was invited to speak at the Missouri Synod Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis. And I had an opportunity to sit and talk a little bit with the faculty there. And we began to talk about some of the similarities of experience in America that the German Lutherans had had that was remarkably similar to the experience that the Dutch Reformed had had. The origins of both those churches were primarily in 19th century immigration to America. And in both cases, they came to an America that was predominantly Protestant, even strongly Protestant, conservatively Protestant, and yet both German Lutheran and Dutch Reformed immigrants when they came here felt not entirely at home. They didn't find the Protestantism of America to which they came entirely congenial to the way they had understood the Protestant faith. And I had to smile when some of these professors said, well, you know, our German forebears said we have to keep worshipping in the German language and we have to keep studying theology in the German language because you just can't be a good Lutheran in English. And I thought, having read something about the experience of Dutch Reformed immigrants, that there was a very similar reaction. We have to keep worshipping in Dutch, we have to keep studying theology in Dutch because you can't really be Reformed in English. well, it's not that you can't be a Lutheran or Reformed in English, but it is true that in America, the dominant Protestantism is neither Lutheran nor Reformed and is not entirely congenial to our convictions as Reformed people about the church, about the Lord's Day, and about worship. And I think this recent experience of large churches canceling their service on Sunday shows us something of that dominant American Protestantism that we can call revivalistic that says the only really important goal we have is to be evangelistic, is to be outreaching. And if on a given Sunday, because it's Christmas Sunday, it's not likely that very many people are going to come to church to be evangelized. Well, let's just not have a service. Some of you will be surprised to learn that I was recently reading an autobiography of Amy Semple McPherson. And Amy Semple McPherson said, I will use any method as long as I can get the gospel out. Well, on one level, you can say there's something admirable about that. There's a woman wanting to get the gospel out, so passionate about that. She's willing to do anything, go anywhere to do it. But theologically, we have to step back. Biblically, we have to step back and say, does God really authorize any method? Or does God reveal to us not only the goal, but also the method? And we as Reformed people have been committed to the proposition that God gives us not only goals, but methods for being his people, for living before him. And so I think it's good to look a little bit into this opening chapter of the book of the Revelation to see what God is saying there about the church, about the Lord's Day, and about worship. Now, often we don't look at the book of the Revelation to answer those sorts of questions. We are more interested in extraordinary things, more interested in the future, more interested in the prophecy of this book. But before John turns to prophecy, he has a word from the Lord to the churches, a word from the Lord to the churches on the Lord's Day and a word to the churches on the Lord's Day about worship. And so I think this opening chapter of the book of the Revelation can not tell us the whole story, but can help orient us in this question, how should we think about the church, the Lord's Day, and worship? Well, in the first place, we can see in this opening chapter of the book of the Revelation that the church is at the center and the focus of God's concern, God's revelation, God's message that's being revealed. Over and over again, we are told that Christ is speaking to the church. And in fact, the vision of Christ that John describes here is Christ walking in the heavenly temple amongst the lampstands of churches. and this is a vision, it is an image. We don't know exactly how far to push it, but I think it's not too much to say that in the heavenly temple tonight, there's a lampstand for the Escondido United Reformed Church. And as Christ walks amongst all those lampstands of churches all over the face of the earth, one of the lampstands he walks by is our lampstand. And that's important because it reminds us that being a Christian is to be part of a church. Not a part just of the church universal, but a part of a congregation. When the Belgic Confession says, outside the church there is no salvation, it means outside being part of a congregation, we don't really know the Lord. That we are not just individuals that can choose to gather together or not choose to gather together. We are not just individually saved to live out our life either in isolation or in fellowship, depending how the mood or the moment takes us. The focus of Christ's work is to build His church. Now, the church is built of individuals. But the scripture over and over again says to us that the church, as the people of God, is more than any one of us as individuals. That in a profound sense, as Christians, we do not make the church, but the church makes us. And when Jesus gave the Great Commission, he sent out his disciples to baptize people into the church. To be part of the people of God. And when Christ has concerns about the well-being of his people, he speaks to the churches, as he does here, to the seven churches of Asia Minor. And he speaks to their angels. Now, you know, the Greek word and the Hebrew word that we translate angel means messenger. And there are many commentators who believe that these angels are actually the pastors of the churches. But whether that's true or not, the focus here is on the church as an institution. That's why we take elders and deacons and ministers so seriously. God has given the church an institutional form. God says there ought to be ministers and elders and deacons in the church. It's not something we invent for convenience sake. It's a method that God has established for his church. And as Christ walks amongst the lampstands, verse 18, we read, I am the living one, I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I hold the keys of death and Hades. If we turn over to chapter 3 and verse 7 in his word to the church at Philadelphia, Jesus says, these are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open. Jesus holds the keys of the kingdom, and they are keys that he exercises in and for the church. Here is the centrality of the church in the life of the people of God and in the plan of God. You see, that's why we read about churches canceling services and saying, how can that be? It's so important that the church come together. The church is just as important an institution as the family. The church does things for us as Christians that the family cannot do. And so the church stands not as an association of individuals that we can sort of take or leave. And not as an institution that we can shape the way we like it. You know, this is increasingly happening in many so-called conservative Protestant churches. People are taking surveys and asking the unchurched, how would you like church? How will it be attractive to you? And we hear reports every Super Bowl Sunday of how churches are going to have their service at halftime and have large screen TVs and serve popcorn and hot dogs in the church so that they can watch the football game, then have a quick service at halftime and go back to the football game. Reminds me of that famous statement by the great Baptist preacher in London at the turn of the last century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who, when he heard that people were preaching shorter and shorter sermons, remarked, well, sermonettes are for Christianettes. And halftime services create halftime Christians. If the church just gives people what they want, the church will soon fail to be the church at all. And there's a dangerous spirit abroad. Some people love megachurches, churches where thousands and thousands of people attend. And part of why they love it is that no one ever really knows whether they're there or not on any given Sunday. One of my memories of serving in consistory with Reverend Howerzile was how Reverend Howerzile every week could tell the elders who hadn't been in church that Sunday. And it encouraged a lot of people to be in church. We need that encouragement. We need that accountability. We need that responsibility. Now there's something called the emergent church, which can meet anywhere, anytime with anyone. And the goal, you see, is to get people back into a relationship with God. But what is that relationship with God going to look like if it doesn't follow God's ways? If it isn't a church organized and structured the way God wants it to be structured? And that's what we as Reformed people have been committed to, trying to listen to the Word of God as carefully, as fully, as faithfully as possible so that our churches will look like what the Lord wants His churches to look like. And we have been convinced that one of the things that God wills for His churches is that they should meet to worship Him on the Lord's day. We read here in verse 10 of Revelation chapter 1 that John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, on Sunday. We don't have time to argue that the Lord's day is Sunday, but it's really very clear, I think, from the New Testament. It's not much debated that that is what's in mind here. It's the Lord's day because it's the day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the day in which John was in the Spirit. It's the day in which Jesus met with His disciples several Sundays running after His resurrection. It's the day where John is given the Word of God. It's the day on which John ministers the Word of God to the churches. There is something special about the Lord's Day. There's something special about the Lord's Day that is shown us in the very name of the day. It's the day of the Lord. It's the day that belongs to the Lord. And that's why we as Reformed people have said, it's not enough to be the church and to worship on any day. We are called as the church of Jesus Christ to worship Him on His day. In doing that, we are following the pattern of God's people in the Old Covenant. They had a special day, the Sabbath, Saturday, A day of holy rest and of holy convocation, the Old Testament says. And when we look in the New Testament, we find that Christians were gathering for worship on the first day of the week. And we find here that John is in the Spirit on the Lord's day, the first day of the week. And this is a pattern laid down by the direction of our Lord and by apostolic practice, as we find it recorded in the New Testament, to guide us in the way we live. We are not free to worship on another day of the week. By that I do not mean we're not free to gather for special times of worship on any day. But we are not free to ignore that God has established a day that belongs in a unique way to Him every week. The Lord's Day. And so our surprise and our shock and our disappointment about churches canceling their services last Sunday should not be that they didn't have church on Christmas. The real disappointment is that they didn't have services on the Lord's Day because that's what the Lord calls us to. Now, there are many good Protestants who will argue relatively good Protestants who will argue that we are free to have services on Saturday night or on Wednesday night or on any time that's convenient. And isn't it more important that we get people coming to church whatever the day of the week it is than to insist on honoring the Lord's Day? That's a hard argument to resist. But resist it we must. Because the Lord does not want disciples of convenience. He wants disciples of His holy truth. He wants disciples who will follow what He has instituted as the way of life for us. When we hear about churches devoted to the Great Commission and making Christ known, too often they haven't really read the whole Great Commission where Jesus says to His disciples, Go, teach, disciple, teaching them all that I have commanded you. Jesus doesn't want many Christians. He doesn't want part-time Christians, or half-time Christians, or convenience Christians. And he says to us, there is a day in the week that belongs to me, and you as my covenant people, you as my church, should gather to meet with me on that day. That's what we as Reformed Christians have believed, that Sunday is a Christian Sabbath. And again, the older I get, the more persuaded I am that if the church of Jesus Christ loses the Sabbath day, as a day of holy rest and holy convocation, we will lose our souls. We will lose our future. We will lose being a disciplined Christian community. And that's why our forebears were so passionate about holding up the Lord's Day as an obligation, but as an obligation that is a blessing for the people of God. And we need that in our time. And then, thirdly, worship. We're called to worship our God, to worship as a great privilege of our God. One of the last things the angel says to John in Revelation chapter 22, verse 9 is, Worship God! And worship is a meeting of God with His people. Just as John met with Jesus in the vision on the Lord's day in the heavenly temple. And what did John do? He fell at his feet. He worshipped God. One of the Greek words for worship is to bow down. he bowed down and worshipped the Lord because he was in his presence. Worship is the meeting of God with his people. And in that meeting, God speaks to his people through the preaching of his word. Twice in Revelation 1, John says that he comes with the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. He comes with that message of who Jesus Christ is. The one who shed His blood to cover the sins of His people. The one who died for His people and rose for His people and lives forevermore for His people, His church. And that Jesus calls us to gather on His day to meet with Him and to worship Him. To pray to Him, to praise Him and to hear His word. And the voice of many churches today is, well, that word can come to us in all sorts of ways. It can come to us through Bible studies. It can come to us through personal Bible reading. It can come to us through times of fellowship. It can come to us through Christian radio. It can come to us through Christian television. It can come to us through Christian books. And all of those things have a measure of truth, but none of them has the unique role in the life of the Christian community that the faithful preaching of the Word of God on the Lord's Day in the assembly of the church has. And that remains true whether the preaching is any good or not. Now, I don't mean that absolutely. But I mean it's true whether the preaching is hugely exciting or not hugely exciting. God has said there is something special about the ministry of His Word. Our theology has called it a means of grace. Reading the Bible on your own is not, our theology has said, a technical means of grace. That's not to say you don't grow in grace by doing those things. But God has given a special promise, a special purpose, a special role to the preaching of His Word as God's Word to us where He promises to be present in the power of His Holy Spirit and to speak to us. Do you believe that? It's sometimes hard to believe. And there are lots and lots of Protestants in this country who don't believe it anymore. And so you look far and wide in this country and Sunday services have been cancelled for better things. Fellowship and small group Bible studies and all sorts of things that obviously are being thought of as more important than the official preaching of the Word of God. It's a theological difference. if preaching is a means of grace appointed by God then we ought to have a sense of loss when we're deprived of it that does put a great responsibility on the ministers to be faithful to try to be effective they have to learn to try to smile more when they're in the pulpit be more encouraging but it's vitally important that we step back when we survey the world that we're in and when people say oh you know it's so much nicer to just be in a small discussion group than to have to go to church and listen to a sermon we have to say that's not what God has appointed as the primary way in which he is going to minister to us and build us up in the faith and as you've often heard before when people say to me well where in the Bible does it require us to have two services on the Lord's day I always respond by saying you're right we're nowhere required to have two services on the Lord's day we ought to insist on three or four why do those ministers limit us to just two sermons on the Lord's day it's terrible but you see is there a passion in our hearts for the word of God do we long to hear it more obviously there are many places who've closed down preaching services on Sunday night who can get along without worship and sermons and the means of grace on Christmas day last week it's a different theology they're not necessarily terrible people they're friends most of them are good Christians in their hearts but I don't believe they've really understood the scriptures and their practice puts pressure on us as Reformed people to conform to their practice. And I want to say to you tonight, don't conform. Don't give up our Reformed understanding of the church as at the center of the redeeming work that God is doing. Don't give up on the Lord's Day as a Christian Sabbath of rest and worship. Don't give up on worship as a unique meeting with our God and hearing him speak to us. John promises in verse 3 that those who hear the word will be blessed by it. That's what we believe. That's our confidence. That's our conviction. That's our way of life. And we need to encourage one another in these things. Because there is this pressure to change and to be different and to go in the direction of a different theology. But I believe that our theology reflects what we find in Revelation chapter 1. The church, the word, worship, the Lord's day. These are the Lord's institutions for our blessing and our benefit. And woe to us if we become indifferent and let them all slip away. In this new year, may the Lord bless us and encourage us to be faithful parts of his church, to be faithful in keeping the Lord's day holy, to be faithful in worship, because then we will be a blessed people. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we do thank you for your word and the way in which it speaks to us. We thank you for your church. We thank you for ministers and elders and deacons who are willing to serve faithfully in the offices of your church. We pray that you would make us a responsive congregation to their faithful leadership under the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the Lord's Day and the blessing that its rest, its setting the pattern of our week has for us and our opportunity then to gather for worship and to meet with you, our God, and to hear you speak to us. Oh, may your spirit bless your word to our hearts that we might grow in grace and be eager, oh Lord, to be a faithful people. Hear us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.