A Leavened Lord's Supper?

It is interesting that I have been asked the question twice now in the scope of a couple of months regarding our use of leavened (with yeast) bread at the Lord's table. It is interesting because I have never had a question regarding our practice in the seven years of my ministry here before a couple of months ago. So, in case you are wondering, here is why.

Let me tell you why it is even a question. The bread used in the passover meal was unleavened bread. So, this was the 'bread' used in the last supper. There is a case to be made, presumably, upon this evidence that the use of such unleavened bread is to be normative for Christian observance of the Lord's supper.

We need to remember that the use of this bread in the passover observance referred to the haste of the Isrealite exodus from Egypt. In the feast of unleavened bread, the yeast, or at least the old yeast, was symbolic of sin and corruption that needed to be cleansed from God's people. So, let's be clear- leaven itself was not evil and was normally used in baking bread. It was the 'old leaven' that truly symbolized sin.

There is no specific instruction in the gospels or epistles as to the use of leavened or unleavened bread. In fact, the word for bread in the gospels at the Lord's Supper is 'bread' and not 'unleavened bread' ('artos' and not 'azumos'). The main reference in the New Testament used to support the use of unleavened bread is in 1 Corinthians 5:8, "Let us celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." The context of this passage is pointing us to purity as a spiritual people through proper discipline of errant members. Paul is calling us to gather in purity, 'cleansing out the old leaven', and is not making a case for what sort of bread is used in the eucharist meal.

The reason we use leaven bread is because of the primary imagery of the Lord's Supper: the breaking of his body for as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins; our fellowship with him in his death, burial and resurrection by faith; our fellowship together as one body symbolized in our partaking of the bread; the proclamation of the new covenant inaugurated in his broken body and shed blood. The imagery of 'purity' through the use of unleavened bread is simply not primary in the New Testament. Nor is it of great import in the New Covenant eucharist celebration. It had great meaning in an ancient near eastern context where people baked their own bread and used the leaven to do so (and so needed to 'purge' or clean out the old leaven for health and purity reasons). This is completely lost on us today, and the New Testament gives no cause for us to push such imagery in the Lord's Supper. We use leavened bread because that is what 'bread' is to us.

Lastly, let's remember that this is a matter of 'adiaphora' (things indifferent) and should not cause division. God gives us a charter of liberty in His Word in such matters. He looks primarily at our hearts in such practice and liturgy. Let's beware of sacramentalism that places undo emphasis upon outward ritual and the physical elements, when Christ in his Word calls us (especially at the Lord's table) to examine our hearts before him and let our practice be a reflection of inward transformation and obedience.

Another pastor has written a nice defense and develops the argument a bit here.

This Vaporous Life

I just realized, it takes me a while to do the math, that Dr. Kennedy was 28 when he began preaching and teaching at Coral Ridge.

I was 28 when I came on here at Four Oaks. What a joy and blessing it would be to lead this fellowship for 48 years! (I know that for some of you this might seem frightening.)

I'm sure that in that last week for Dr. Kennedy, he could look back over those 48 years with incredible thanks and praise. And, I'm sure, they seemed to fly by like so many quick fleeting breaths. One day you are 28, the next you are settling into your bed for your last evening on this earth.

Don't waste your life.

The Indescribable Glory

I have been filled with joy all day. This morning's worship in Word, Praise, Creed, Prayer, and Fellowship was one of the sweetest, most powerful Lord's Day celebrations I've experienced at Four Oaks. Last week after the Lord's Supper, I thought, "Could there be a more incredible morning of worship (on earth!) than this?" And this morning God said yes.

Last night as Tori and I were praying and preparing for this morning's celebration with our family at Four Oaks, I gave special praise and thanks to God for the privilege of leading God's people week after week. I don't thank him, or you, enough for the blessing of this labor. I think there are few privileges and callings higher, and I say this not with pride. The weight of the calling is sometimes overwhelming - but it always returns joy and blessing to the Braun family.

"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!' Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!" (Psalm 122:1-2)

Bayly Blog on the Worship Wars

Go over to the brothers Bayly for a great post regarding 'niche' and diverse worship services.

A very wise man, and former member of Tim's church (Church of the Good Shepherd), summarizes his arguments against this common practice in three excellent points:

1. A divided worship compromises the unity of the church.

2. A divided worship discourages the humility of mutual submission and encourages spiritual pride.

3. A divided worship unbiblically elevates musical style as the most important factor in worship.

I encourage you to read the whole letter over for yourself and give your feedback.
Hopefully a post will be coming with thoughts of my own on this issue.

Getting Dressed for Worship

Our church is one of those ‘come just as you are’ type of churches. This is a good thing until it becomes a ‘come just as you are but you better not wear a tie unless you’re preaching’ kind of deal. With this often follows a ‘you better not wear a suit unless you’re preaching a funeral’ attitude. Before you know it, we’re full circle and have become a band of ‘spiffy casual’ Pharisees. The bottom line is this: when we put an emphasis on the outward - whether a traditionalist’s zeal for some standard of propriety marked by suits, ties, or doily-necked floral dresses; or a twenty/thirty something’s demand for a pastor with cool jeans, emo hair, and skinny coffeehouse glasses - we miss the call for worshippers who worship ‘in spirit and in truth’. God said plainly, and repeatedly, to his people that he does not delight in sacrifice (outward displays of religion- whether the religion of traditionalism, or the religion of ‘relevance’ and ‘authenticity’) but in the inward sacrifices of a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Let’s be careful here, recognizing that sinners are prone to idolatry and prideful religion in all of its forms, and just because we cry, raise our hands in worship, say a hearty amen at all the right places, or dive headlong into the trite sentimentalism of our age this is still outward and our innards might be in the same sinful condition as ever they were if there is no repentance and faith, no spirit and no truth.

Worshipping ‘in spirit’ according to Christ’s prophecy in John 4:23-24 can mean a lot of things. But at the very least we can define this ‘spiritual worship’ biblically from the Apostle Paul, “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world…” (Colossians 2:20). Worshipping in spirit is worship that is ‘other worldly’, that is dead to the world, alive to the Spirit and oriented away from the world and the flesh. Worship is not regulated by worldly, and fleshly concerns such as ‘do not handle, do not taste, do not touch’ (Col. 2:21) – read 'do not use hymnbooks, light more candles, don’t use electric guitars' – but by spiritual, heavenly, and truthly concerns. These questions about what to wear, what to sing, and how loud we crank up the amps are not wrong in and of themselves. But, our answers and our practice must be fundamentally Godward, spiritual, and truth driven. Paul says twice in this chapter beware of worldliness masquerading as spirituality via false humility (2:18, 23). This false humility seems to be an outward show of some deeply religious, deeply sentimental, deeply ‘spiritual’ activity. But, like all ‘shows’ of holiness and spirituality- it is ultimately hollow and powerless ‘in stopping the indulgence of the flesh’.

The question is this: what are we to do? How do we break the cycle of vain religion, which usually begins with earnest displays of authenticity, without wringing our hands over every vain act? Such a question is anticipated, even begged, in Paul’s argument, and he goes on to answer us. So, in the spirit of godly and humble preparation to meet with God and his people for worship ‘in spirit and in truth’ it would do us a world of good to read this passage, reflect upon it, and put it into practice. Whether you're wearing a t-shirt from Old Navy or an oxford from Brooks Bros. take special note of verse 12, translated best by the NIV, "clothe yourselves with compassion kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience'.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming, In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Praise, Worship, and Wrath

I received an email from our trusty worship pastor, Joshua Hughes, this morning with an mp3 attachment entitled, "Destructor". Go over to the Mars Hill site and hear the song for yourself in a variety of styles: www.marshillchurch.org/Search/?q=destructor (listen to the 6th track down, the one recorded by E-pop).

In the body of the email Josh wrote:

"Pretty cool sounding track with some dope metering and playing. Erik, you are always looking for good songs about holy wrath..."

And, of course, this is true.

The good of 'traditional' hymnody is found in the breadth and depth of praise preserved in this corpus that is patently missing from our 'contemporary' expressions of worship. How often in our praise ditties do we hear the power and majesty expressed by this line from the hymn 'O Worship the King' ?

O tell of His might, O sing of His grace, whose robe is the light, whose canopy space. His chariots of wrath, the deep thunder-clouds form, and dark is His path ont he wings of the storm.

Why can we not praise God for his justice and wrath? Must we be consigned to sing only those praises that might be sanctioned by the trite sentimentalism that rules our day? Can we not sing of God's gracious love and righteous vindication?

Consider the thought provoking and praise inducing (when was the last time your heart was pricked and provoked by a praise song?) words from this song, 'Destructor':

From the first time You flooded the earth
to the last time You burned off the curse
to the way that you hated Your Son
when You hung all the sin of the world, the world
Holy (repeated)

Heaven will disappear with a roar
The host of God will come to destroy
Sin is a declaration of war
God will have His glory one way or another

In reverence we'll come to the throne
Indebted to Your holy Son
The vine of the earth will be crushed
Your light will shine over the world, the world

Holy, holy ...

Hopefully we'll be worshipping the Lord with this song soon enough. I'll look forward to doing a couple other favorites of mine from the Trinity Hymnal - 'God the All Terrible' and 'In Thy Wrath and Hot Displeasure'.

Thanks Josh.

((thanks Mars Hill!!))

Building a Family

At Four Oaks Church we are in the midst of a major restructuring of what we call our 'body life'. There are plenty of reasons for this, and if you are an Oaks-ter you might be growing tired of talking about it (and if you are not tired of talking/hearing about it, then, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?). To sum up all of these reasons in a rather simple and facile way:

The leadership of Four Oaks sees a woeful lack of understanding and experience of the fellowship of believers in the local church. We want to fight this with --

1. sound biblical teaching, God-glorifying theology
2. a call to deeper commitment of time, resources, gifts, energy, etc.
to the local church,
3. an exhortation toward intimate and accountable relationships,
4. a call to alignment with and submission to proper biblical leadership,
5. a challenge to lead, follow, teach, learn, serve, be served, be hospitable,
grow, change, etc. through smaller, more intimate groups

We call our local body to receive this challenge for the glory of God and the sake of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

There will be plenty of info, articles, updates, etc. on this process on our website in the coming weeks and months. Go to www. fouroaks.net and click on 'sermons'- there is a five week series on this vision called "Church Body Building".

Yesterday I read an article on the state of the American Family by Matthew Spalding (read it here: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Family/wm373.cfm). I was grieved as I read the effects of divorce upon the children in our nation. We should never grow calloused to the horrible effects of our sin playing out in the culture at large. We have been able to chart the collapse of marriage and the familyfor thirty years now with the vision of 'no fault divorce' in the '70's: Dad's out of the home, mom is working full time, our children are raised by the state- or by themselves. The life is drained out of our greatest charge- our little ones. And the little ones from the early days of 'no fault' divorce and the 'me' generation of the sexual revolution are no longer little ones. They are all grown up but their attitudes, behavior, relationships, and struggles reveal the real devastation we have wrought. The statistics are absolutely overwhelming, and the prognosis is not good. Read the article.

Where is hope? As always, the believer finds his hope in Christ and the transforming power of the gospel.

And where is this hope brought forth? Consider Ephesians 3:8-11, To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God has ordained that the 'manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church'! God is revealing the glorious gospel through the ministry of the body to a lost world. The church is the 'household of God' (1 Tim. 3:15), the 'family of believers' (Gal.6:10; 1 Pet. 4:17) so that God might rescue his children and bring them into His house. And there they are grown up in the faith, loved as adopted children by God, loved as dear brothers and sisters by believers, and given the hope of abundant, and eternal life. And that, in a nutshell, is why I have given my life to be a pastor of God's glorious church.

So as families collapse, as we slide back to the days of Noah, as we grieve the innocence lost in our parent-less children, or our parent-less childhood, as the statistics prophesy doom...we listen to the Savior, the bridegroom, our elder brother, the Chief Shepherd of the sheep say, "Do you love me? Feed my lambs."

Let's be the family that God calls us to be.

Altar Calls?

There are a few standard questions we get at Four Oaks church. Existing in a fairly entrenched Southern Baptist sub-culture of North Florida, people often ask us why I do not call people forward every Sunday service to make a ‘decision’. This is what is sometimes referred to as an ‘altar call’. Historically, the ‘altar call’ is a fairly new ecclesiastical phenomenon. It gets its name from the ‘altar’ area before the communion table (which is part of Anglican/Episcopalian and Methodist tradition). The ‘altar call’ became a part of the revivals and camp meetings that were part of America’s Second Great Awakening. There would be a time of heightened spiritual urgency placed upon the congregation, via preaching and singing, with a call for people to come to the altar (sometimes there would be a ‘mourner’s bench’, or some sort of place for prayer). The greatly popular and controversial Charles Finney, one of the preachers and leaders of this period of spiritual awakening in America, was one reason for the widespread employment of ‘revivalist’ techniques in churches as a regular, weekly part of church life. This ‘revival’ paradigm for regular Lord’s Day worship took the place of the Lord’s Day as primarily a day of worship in song and liturgy, with biblical exposition. The teaching of God’s Word would be supplanted by a rather simple, albeit stirring and emotive, gospel message with a strong call for response by making a ‘decision’ for Christ.

The Reformed tradition, for the most part, never gave way to an abandonment of strong biblical teaching as part of the worship of God’s people. And with the modernist-fundamentalist debates and struggles in the first half of this century, there was strong call back to the inerrant Word, supported by consistent bible exposition in the churches. With the rise of dispensationalism and the emphasis on verse by verse exposition in seminaries such as Dallas Theological Seminary and later Talbot Theological Seminar (and the Bible Institute of Los Angeles). Though I am not a dispensationalist, I greatly respect the emphasis upon a ‘literal’ grammatico-historical interpretation of God’s Word this theological system has encouraged in its scholars and preachers.

Now, I will skip over a great deal of church history and jump right into the ‘seeker’ movement of the late 80’s and nineties. [Please forgive my rather facile presentation of movements that really were much more complex and much less monolithic than I could ever present in a blog article.] This model, popularized through the charismatic and winsome Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in the suburbs of Chicago, would become the predominant model for many church plants around the country in the 1990’s. Verse by verse bible exposition was almost totally removed from public worship, with a more ‘commercial’ and entertainment orientated presentation in corporate gatherings. The ‘seeker’ or the unchurched were wooed with contemporary music styles, drama, and very simple ‘life application’ teaching or gospel messages without ‘Christian jargon’. Church life rotated around massive corporate gatherings, funneling into smaller weekly gatherings for more indepth discipleship, bible study, and fellowship. This seeker movement has for the most part lost its sway as a dominant model. In my limited experience there is a great deal of disillusionment with it. Though, I do believe God used the movement in His providence to save thousands. God uses all things to work things for good. We need to be careful, though, to use an argument from providence to ignore the prevailing testimony of Scripture in justifying our commitments as Christians.

The movement afoot today that is gaining a great deal of influence, especially with young postmoderns, is the so-called ‘emerging’ church. While it has many of the same commitments as the seeker church, it is bathed in a more ‘spiritual’ ethos. We can talk about the emerging church in another article. I will say, there is a strong emphasis in this model upon the ‘unchurched’ or the unbeliever, and very little emphasis upon any serious preaching of God’s Word. There is actually a strong rejection of ‘exposition’ as highly analytic and outmoded in a postmodern age and an embrace of ‘narrative’ preaching (though I have yet to find a good definition of what this is, but that is because I am committed to outmoded and analytic ways of thinking, I suppose).

I give you this little stroll through history simply to say, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” There has always been a strong pull away from strong bible exposition as part of the corporate worship of God’s people. There has always been a strong pull toward more simplistic and ‘popular’ (in its appeal with non-Christians) presentations of Christian worship and the gospel message. This pull has manifested itself in various ways in different seasons and ages. And there is in a sense a very noble side to these movements. There is a desire to see people come to Christ. I applaud this eager desire to see the good news of Christ have mass distribution. And I will admit that in Reformed, and ‘fundamentalist’ quarters we can become insular and ingrown.

There is a side to this pull that is very disturbing to me as a pastor, bible teacher, and steward of the mysteries of the gospel. We need to ask ourselves, what is the point of the regular public worship of God’s people? Is it to win unbelievers? Not primarily. That may be part of it. Is it to entertain? Is it to give simple, practical tips for daily living. No. It is to glorify and worship God! This is why I preach the way I do. So God might be glorified. I believe that God’s people should be edified and grown up in the whole counsel of God’s Word. I believe that Sunday is the ‘Lord’s Day’, for his worship, to hear from his word, and to be with his people. I think we quickly turn the ‘Lord’s Day’ into our day, or the seeker’s day.

We need to remember that the way to bring the gospel to unbelievers is to go into the marketplace as Paul did. It is to go to the philosophers on Mars Hill, as Paul did. It is to go into the synagogue, as Paul did. I don’t give an altar call on Sunday morning because that is not what I believe Sunday morning is primarily about. I exhort and challenge people. I hope people make many different sorts of ‘decisions’ under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But we gather as God’s people on Sunday morning. We gather to worship God in songs of praise- not to be entertained with contemporary styles (and anyone who has worshipped with us know that our worship is very ‘contemporary’…ah, another blog article). We gather to hear from God’s Word, and all of it. We gather to be equipped, built up, to do the work of ministry in our homes, schools, businesses, academies, etc.

Sunday morning is not a ‘camp meeting’. I believe in preaching the gospel. I believe in passionate exposition. I believe God uses my preaching in a variety of ways in the hearts of believers and unbelievers alike. But we gather there on Sunday to love God, love each other as his children, and hear from God. In some ways this is a wonderful thing for a non-Christian to behold. But, sometimes it is confusing, hard to hear, deep, intimate, weird for one who has made no commitment to Christ and not indwelt by God’s Spirit.

I believe in evangelism. I believe in the power of the gospel. But I also believe in God-centered worship, I believe in God-centered preaching of the whole counsel of His Word. We need to remember that often times those who don't focus on a 'simple gospel message' of the revivalist style with calls to the 'altar' for a 'decision' week in and week out might have a 'corporate gathering' commitment to evangelism without a personal, individual commitment to evangelism.

So, I am committed to exposition that equips people for the task of communicating the good news of Jesus and the truths of our faith in their everyday lives. I am committed to the gathering of saints with God (not the unbeliever) as the focal point. I am committed to evangelism as the wonderful duty of all Christians in all areas of their lives. So, when someone brings an unbeliever to our church and inquires as to why I didn't give an altar call, or urge them to make a decision, I always respond, 'Why didn't you?'.