Welcome back to our Sunday School class as we're continuing looking at Metzger's book, Tell the Truth, all about worship. No, it's about evangelism. This morning's class, we're going to take a look at what he calls, Metzger calls, the whole-souled response to grace. which is worship, and so we're going to talk about the connection between worship and evangelism. So when you think about evangelism, you know, worship is probably not the first thing that comes to mind, but it's really, it's, well, we'll go through the lesson. Hopefully we'll be able to draw some really, really bright lines between worship and evangelism. So before we start, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for this Sabbath day. We are thankful for Both the privilege and opportunity for worship. Lord, even as we sit here this morning and look at your word and discuss your call for us to bring the gospel to all peoples and we look at the relationship between evangelism and worship, prepare our hearts for worship this morning as we come to worship you later this morning. Lord, we just pray that you'd bless our discussion this morning and our understanding of your in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so I always like to go backwards a little bit before we go forward. So last week we studied evangelism and looked at the role of God's sovereign grace in evangelism. Challenging topic, I think. And does anybody remember what some of the main points in that chapter were in sort of dealing with our call to evangelism and the role of God's sovereign grace in evangelism and in salvation and in predestination. Remember what some of those main points were? Basically, the chapter wrestled with that tension between two truths, God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. So man is responsible and yet God is sovereign. Sometimes we look at those and go, how do I reconcile those two? They seem to be in tension. But we know both are true because the scriptures tell us that both are true and demonstrate that. So we looked at the role of God's sovereign grace in election and the salvation of the lost. And I think ultimately in terms of wrestling with those ideas, I think one of the things that's important to come away with is just the importance of trusting and believing in scripture. Right. Eventually you've got to come back and say, well, what does God's word say? I'm going to wrestle with these different ideas, but what does God's word tell me? So God's word tells us that God is sovereign, that God will accomplish through his providence what his will is. exactly how he does that is not completely revealed to us. But in God's word, we have what we need for faith and practice. So I think that's an important part from last week's lesson. It's just trusting God's word and trying to resolve those tensions. And then I think the other element was that We talked a little bit about our will and how does our will play into our own salvation. The truth is it's by God's grace alone that our wills are freed. Our wills are only free to the extent that they're free to operate because they're constrained. All men and all women have wills that are constrained by sin. There are certain things we're unable to do because of our sin nature. It's not until we receive God's grace and the work of the Spirit that frees our will so that we can receive the gospel. Important ideas in taking a look at evangelism. This morning we're going to talk about worship and evangelism. The question is, what does worship have to do with evangelism? Metzger goes through about maybe five different points trying to connect the importance of worship to evangelism. I've got those on the board. We'll come back to those as we work through. The first one is the idea of the purpose and passion for evangelism. Worship is both a purpose and provides a passion for evangelism. The second one is that worship provides courage and confidence for evangelism. The third is that worship, he talks about real conversion, and he makes the point that real converts worship. We'll get back to Metzger's concerns on that. And that God-centered evangelists worship. I would probably say, you could probably rephrase that and say, God-centered worshipers evangelize. I think those two are sort of, you can't pull them apart. We'll see, we'll take a look at that. Then just very briefly, we're going to take a look at worship and the idea that worship, it's all about God. And again, that sort of seems obvious, but in the context of evangelism, and particularly in the context of Metzger's book, remember, he spent a lot of time in the first couple chapters just reminding us again and again that evangelism is all about what? Is it about me? No. It's about the gospel. It's really about God. It's about Christ. So he really hammers home this idea of sort of a God-centered, Christ-centered evangelism. and that God and Christ need to be the center of our focus in evangelism. And certainly that's true in worship. So let's take a look at these. We'll walk through each of these and sort of try to unpack them a little bit and get a little bit more insight into the connection between worship and evangelism. So let's take a look at the purpose and passion for evangelism. So Metzger makes the point that in God's sort of taxonomy of maybe important things, that evangelism is not first. Above all things, worship is preeminent, and that worship necessarily has to precede evangelism. In terms of priorities, worship comes first, evangelism is second. In order for us to effectively evangelize, we have to not only be involved in worship, Worship has to be sort of the underlying foundation from which evangelism emerges. And then he makes the point that the whole purpose for evangelism is what? We were talking a lot about bringing people to a saving knowledge of the gospel so that they can be saved, right? We're seeking the lost so that they might be found. To what end? To what end? Yeah, to worship and glorify God. You're going to help me here a little bit. How do we know that? Who are my catechism experts? What's question one? What is the chief end of man? What's the answer to that? Yeah, man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Yeah. So that helps us sort of get this idea sort of in focus, is that man's chief end is to glorify God. And certainly, part of that, and the question is, how do we glorify God? That's sort of, in and of itself, a difficult concept to wrap your head around. But we know that in worship, that God is glorified. Again, man's chief end is to glorify God, and we do that in worship. If we look at Luke 15, you can just turn there briefly, but I'm not going to read through all of Luke 15. But if we look at Luke 15, there's three stories in Luke 15, aren't there? There are three parables. The three parables in Luke 15 are about things that are lost and things that are found. Does anybody remember what the three things are? Yes, sheep a coin in the sun. So why does Jesus tell this parable of the lost and the found? Is he trying to tell us that we really need to go rifle through the couch and find all the lost coins because that's important to make sure nothing goes uncaptured or unfound? What's the real importance of the parables? is that there's a passion and an interest in finding that which is lost and restoring it, right? So it's about restoration. And there is a celebration, isn't there? Particularly we see in the story of the prodigal son, there's this great, great celebration when there's this restoration of relationship. And again, we get to that question is, well, what is God celebrating in that restoration of that relationship? What is it that happens in that relationship? Isn't it worship? God restores men and women to himself so that they can be in that relationship and bring him glory, and it's for our good. It's out of God's love that he brings us and restores us. And again, he's restoring us to bring us into that relationship so that we can worship, so that we can both experience worship and know the joy of worshiping the holy, eternal God, and also for God's glory himself. Turn to John 4.23 just really quickly. John 4, you'll find the story of the Samaritan woman, and we're going to come back to that a little bit later as well. But Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well that God is seeking worshippers to worship him in spirit and in truth, which seems like an interesting thing for Jesus to tell a Samaritan woman. So Jesus reveals to this Samaritan woman that in seeking the lost, this is what God is looking for. Just really quickly, I'm going to read a section, just bear with me here, by John Piper that Metzger includes in the book. This is well done, so I'm just going to read it for you. This is John Piper talking about the relative connection or importance between missions and worship. Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Mission exists because worship doesn't. I'll read that again. Mission exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God's, missions will be no more. It's a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever. Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal in missions. It is the goal of missions because in missions, We simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God's glory in worship. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples and the greatness of God. The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice, let the many coastlands be glad, Psalm 97. But worship is also the fuel for mission. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can't commend what you don't cherish. Missionaries will never call out, let the nations be glad who cannot say from their own hearts, I rejoice in the Lord. I will be glad and exalt in thee. I will sing praise to thy name almost high. Psalm 104. And then finally he says, compassion for the lost is a high and beautiful motive for missionary labor. Without it, we lose the sweet humility of sharing treasure we have freely received. But we have seen that compassion for people must not be detached from passion for the glory of God." So I think I'll stop there. Yeah, just one more quote. He says, God is calling us above all else to be the kind of people whose theme and passion is the supremacy of God in all of life. So, John Piper there, again, helps us sort of understand the sort of connection, not only the connection, but I think the relationship between worship and missions or evangelism. Okay, questions or thoughts on that? So, we got that part straight. Worship is first, evangelism is second. Let's take a look at the second idea that Metzger talks about. He talks about courage and confidence for evangelism. Again, what does that have to do with worship? What's potentially the greatest obstacle we face in evangelism? Okay. And what about ourselves makes evangelism hard? Either we think too much of ourselves or too little of ourselves. Oh, okay. That's a good point. And again, we're thinking about who? Ourselves, right? Yeah. I know in my own case, it's apprehension, right? It's fear. And what do we tend to fear? What is it that we're afraid of? People. People, yeah. Well, what about them? what they might think, right? We're concerned about what people think about us, that they'll think less of us, they'll think we're crazy, maybe they'll reject our ideas or our arguments, maybe they'll reject us, right? Or we fear the loss of others' approval. So where does that confidence and courage come from to be an effective evangelist? So let's take a look at two stories really quick. Let's go to 2 Samuel chapter 17. Here we find the story of David and Goliath. So this is well known. I'm not going to read the whole story, but I'm going to read just some sections from 1 Samuel 17. So we know the story of David and Goliath. So just the background. The army of Israel is arrayed against the Philistine army at a valley, and they're both on hillsides on either side, right? And the Philistine army has a champion, right? His name is Goliath. And he's big. The guy's basically a monster. He's about 10 feet tall. It doesn't say how much he weighs, but he's got to be between 300 and 400 pounds. He wears armor that probably weighs a total of 150 pounds. He carries a spear that's basically like a two-by-four. I think it describes the spearhead as being made of iron and weighing about eight pounds, which is about half the weight of a bowling ball. So, the guy is a monster. So, he comes out and does what? He taunts the army of Israel. He says, OK, here is the deal. He says, send a man out. This was something that happened between armies. that in place of the two armies fighting, there would be champions who would fight for each of the armies. So Goliath taunts the army and says, send a man out, and we'll do battle. And if your man wins, we will be your servants. But if we win, you will serve us. So David, I'm going to just start reading here, just real quickly, around verse 10 or so. This is Goliath. It says, I defy the ranks of Israel. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Just moving on, Goliath by name came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David was there now. David had come to bring provisions to his brother, and he hears Goliath. And David said to the man who stood by him, what shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach of Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? So those are the words of David. And then moving along, when the words that David spoke were heard, they were repeated to Saul. And Saul said, you're not able to go up against the Philistine to fight with him, for you are just a youth. And he has been a man of war since his youth. And then David replies to Saul and explains, your servant has struck down both lions and bears. And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them. For he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine. David meets Goliath out on the battlefield. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? Then David said to the Philistine, you come with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand. And then he closes with, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into my hand. So we know how that story ends, doesn't it? David vanquishes Goliath with a single stone in a simple slingshot. So this is sort of an illustration or a picture or poses the question, why is it that David could face Goliath and face, deal with the fear that the rest of the army of Israel was unable to deal with. Where did his courage come from? I guess the question would be, you could pose the question this way and say, how did a song singing shepherd become a song, a psalm singing shepherd become a psalm singing warrior? How did that happen? Sure. Where do you think David's confidence came from? Yeah, so you used a couple of different words there. We talked about knowledge of God. We talked about experiential knowledge of God. And we know that David spent a little bit of time in the Psalms. And we know that David was what? He was a great worshiper of God, right? And he had a great love for God's word and God's law. So here was a man who read God's law, read God's word, meditated on it, worshiped. extensively and intensively. And so this is where his knowledge of God came from, you know, through the Word and through worship. And then, you know, experientially, you know, we see this knowledge and confidence in God experienced by David as he grows. And so here's a man whose confidence is not in himself. He doesn't say to Saul, I killed the bear and I killed the lion. He talks about what God did in those circumstances and he says, I'm confident because of who God is and who this Goliath is that God will accomplish his purpose through me in defeating this champion of the Philistine army. So again, here's an example of I think confidence and courage coming through both a knowledge of who God is, and part of that comes through David's time in worship. And it comes in, and that's not, and we'll talk about it as we get to it, that worship is centered around God himself and God's word. So, again, for our own confidence and courage in terms of sharing the gospel with others, that really comes both in that, the knowledge that we have through the word and the spirit, and then that experiential knowledge of God that we have. He uses another example, and in John 4, we come back to the story of the Samaritan woman. So what happens at the end of this story, Jesus basically witnesses to her. He basically talks to her about who she is, and then he reveals who he is. He talks about God seeking worshipers to worship in spirit and in truth. He basically tells her, I'm the Messiah. And he talks to her about living water. Well, what happens? What does the Samaritan woman do? What's the outcome of that encounter with Jesus? Yeah, she runs back and she proclaims this truth to those that she knows. And if we think about it, for the Samaritan woman, that's probably That's probably a pretty remarkable thing, and why would that be? Why would it be so remarkable for this woman to just go back to this town and then just to proclaim to people the truth about this man that she met at the well? Yeah, exactly, right. So she had no platform, right? She had no voice. She'd basically been befriended by everybody on Facebook. She didn't have any Twitter followers. I mean, she had no voice or platform. She was a person, when Jesus found her, she was at the well alone because she was an outcast. Because of her reputation, people would probably avoid her. So here's a woman who probably would expect, and you're talking about fear of rejection, People didn't even want to be associated with her because of her reputation. So again, we see here the result of an encounter with the true and living God produces this confidence where this woman, now not thinking about herself, she's thinking about Christ, she's thinking about the Messiah. All she can think about is sharing that truth with other people. The rest of the story is that others come and they meet Jesus and it says as a result of their encounter with Christ that others believed. Again, an example of where that confidence and courage comes from to share the truth of the gospel. Okay, let's move on to the next concept. So Jesus, again, when we think about worship, again, we're talking about worship as sort of a necessary precursor to evangelism, right? Again, if you've been following along with Metzger, he's very focused on sort of God-centered process, right, in evangelism. And as you read through this chapter and he talks about worship, again, he's very, very centered, concerned about God-centered worship as well. And these two are, you know, you can't pull them apart. And so that's why there's this strong connection between evangelism and worship, because God is at the center of it all, right? And again, the important point he's making is that in evangelism, we have to have the end in mind. It's often important in planning any endeavor to do what? At the beginning, to have the end in mind. Why is that important? Otherwise, you're likely to miss the objective, right? If I don't know what I'm aiming at, there's probably a pretty good chance that I won't hit it. So if we have this end in mind, this idea that in evangelism, the objective is really to bring those who are lost, who are idol worshipers, and bring them into relationship with God so they can be God worshipers. And he uses an example from Luke 7 that focuses on the idea that real conversion produces worship. So let's look at Luke 7, 36 through 50. And if somebody just wants to read that, yeah, 36 through 50. You want to read that, Rick? Thanks. Okay, so Metzger uses this as an illustration of conversion and worship and the relationship between the two. So in this circumstance, was the woman forgiven as a result of the extravagant love that she demonstrates to Jesus? Is that what happens here? Jesus tells her she's forgiven of her sins, right? He says you have loved much and says you're forgiven of your sins. So was the forgiveness a byproduct of the love that she demonstrated to Christ? No? How do we know that? Or why do you say that? Yeah, because of the parable. Yeah, the parable, that's exactly right. Conor, that's exactly right. And the parable demonstrates that. The question is, well, why did Jesus ask this parable of Simon the Pharisee? So remember, the situation is that Jesus has been invited to the house of Simon the Pharisee. And, you know, it's rich with context there. You wonder, okay, why has he been invited, you know, maybe to spy on him a little bit, figure out who this guy is and figure out what's going on. And in the midst of all this, and of course there's going to be other guests at this Pharisee's house, right? In the midst of this, this woman whose reputation is known, right, as a sinful woman, who doesn't say particularly, but we might come to the conclusion that she was a prostitute. So that's the circumstance. And this woman comes in and she just lavishes just service on Christ. She washes his feet basically and then she anoints them with this very, very precious alabaster ointment. So you've got to think, Simon is looking at this and going, what? What is going on? What is this all about? And so he asks that the parable is to focus Simon's attention on the fact that this love comes from the fact that she's received forgiveness. We don't know where that happens, right? The story doesn't tell us. It could be that there was some earlier encounter with Jesus. Maybe he's teaching. Maybe she understands who Christ is and accepts his offer of forgiveness. That's happened before this series of events in Simon's house. Metzger uses this as an illustration of, here's a woman who was lost, is found, and the reaction and the response is one of, essentially, worship. She comes. with basically one thing in mind, and that's to honor, to serve Christ in maybe the only way she knows how. What does she have? She has this very precious ointment. She goes and, again, talking about courage and confidence, she knows that walking into the Spiritist's house is going to be you know, potentially contentious. It's going to be difficult, right, because people are going to look at her, think badly of her, and what she's about to do is probably difficult for people to comprehend as well. But she has the courage and confidence to do it, and it's just this natural outflowing of what's happened to her. So she worships. I think in this chapter he uses this powerful illustration just to again help us focus on this is the outcome of what we're looking at in evangelism. Earlier in Metzger's book he talks a lot about sometimes we get focused on the wrong thing or we're looking at the wrong metrics in terms of our evangelistic effort. really anxious to get somebody to make a confession of faith. That's not a bad thing. We want people to confess Christ. We want people to make a confession of faith in Christ. Ultimately, it's not that confession that we're looking for in evangelism and conversion. It's a change of the heart. It's true conversion and it's worship. The more I thought about it, it really helps to think about, particularly as we're engaging with people, to think about, okay, I'm not trying to win an argument with this person. I'm not just trying to get them to consent to who Jesus is and make a profession of faith. I'm trying to bring that person into a relationship with God where they worship him. Any more thoughts on that idea? Anything else we want to talk about? So let's take a few more minutes. We'll take a look at the last couple items here. He makes the point that, again, he says God-centered evangelists worship. But the more I read through that section, I thought, I think what he really means is that God-centered worshipers evangelize. He gets back to this idea, probably two ideas. One is that if our worship is really God-centered, like Paul and like some of the other apostles, The concept of evangelism cannot be far from our hearts. If you read through the Gospels, if you're in the Word, if you look at God's covenantal relationship with his people through all of history and understand what God is doing and then ultimately what he has done in Christ, if that's where our thought and our worship is focused, how do you walk away from that without the concept that there are those who don't know God and are not God worshipers. So he looks at a couple different examples. So one is, he just talks about Paul, and obviously Paul, great missionary to the Gentiles. But Paul was anxious about, well, maybe a great many things, but particularly he was bothered by the fact that his Jewish brothers many had rejected Jesus. I think he anguished over that. He had such a heart for the gospel, and he wanted so deeply for his Jewish brothers to come to Christ because it was for them that Christ came, wasn't it? It was for them that Christ died. Christ was the fulfillment of the covenant, and so he has this great passion and concern And then, of course, the Holy Spirit works in Paul's life as well, and he develops this deep passion for the Gentiles as well, and is ultimately called, his primary ministry is to the Gentiles, is it not? And we see, there's an account in Acts where Paul is, I can't quite remember where this happens, But before he speaks in front of the marketplace there, in Greece I suppose it is, he's walking through Athens, I think that's it, and he sees all these idols. And it just sort of crushes him that there are people there who are worshiping, and there's even an idol to an unknown god. So it deeply bothers him that there are all these people, idol worshipers, who don't know and are not worshiping the one true God. And so out of Paul's love for his Savior and passion for the gospel, he cannot help but want to discuss, do whatever he can in terms of evangelism to bring people to a saving knowledge of who Christ is. He reasons with them. He uses reason. He uses the scriptures. I think he begs and pleads with them to consider God's word and to consider Christ. Metzger does a couple things in this section, but I think Primarily he looks and tries to make the point that if our worship is God-centered, our evangelism will be God-centered, and that's where it needs to be. Finally, I guess we should talk about worship. We have five minutes left, but I don't have to do that because Charles did that last week. We talked about worship. We're going to continue to talk about worship, but just briefly, if we look at your sermon notes from last week, we talked about God's holy worship. We've been talking about the holy temple. We've been talking about the holy priesthood. We've been talking about God's holy worship. If you recall from last week's sermon, worship is really focused on what? It's really focused on, it's all about the holiness of God. And if you look at all the attributes that God has, and we roll back a couple of Sunday school lessons when we were studying the attributes of God, holiness in some ways sits off from all God's other attributes in a way. Not that it can be separated because God's holiness probably encompasses all his other attributes, but what is unique about holiness? What is unique about God's holiness or that attribute of holiness? Yeah, that's true. So it's preeminent, isn't it? When we think about God, probably first and foremost, we think about holiness, and if we're not, we probably should be. But what's unique about holiness? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Well said. Well said. Holiness is that attribute which is really unique to God. Holiness is that attribute which is unique to God himself. In worship, God's holiness is a central focus of our worship. We saw that last week. We talked about God's holy presence. So when we come to worship, we have this idea of Emmanuel, God with us. So God calls us into relationship with us, brings us into his presence and worship into his holy presence. We talked about a holy priesthood. Remember we said God defines how we worship and one of those things that we need in worship is we need a mediator. So in the Old Testament, God provided the priesthood. Well, now we have the eternal holy high priest, who is Jesus Christ. And so when we come to worship, we come with Christ as our mediator. We talked about holy offerings, offerings of atonement, and offerings of thanksgiving. And so that's part of our worship, are these holy offerings. We talked about holy water, which symbolizes our cleansing, and we see that in the gospel and the sacrament of baptism. We talked about holy anointing oil, or the holy anointed one, Messiah. And so our worship is possible because of Messiah, who is our mediator. And we talked about Holy Sabbath, right? Worship and Holy Sabbath. So it's a time that's set apart, particularly for worship, for corporate worship for God's people. So this concept of holiness, God's holy worship, holiness, you know, Worship is all about God's holiness. All that to say that in worship, again, it's God who is central to our worship. It's God's holiness that we need to consider as we come into worship our Heavenly Father. And again, so what does that have to do with evangelism? Well, I think, you know, Metzger again and again sort of pounds home this idea that without the right vision of who God is, we're not going to have the courage and confidence that we need for evangelism. We're not going to present a gospel that is full of God. And so, you know, we end up with a weak gospel, and we're bringing people into Who knows what? Some sort of intellectual consent with us about what the gospel says, when really we want their hearts turned around so that they're no longer idle worshipers, God-haters, but they are true believers and worshipers of the one true and holy God. Okay, so kind of been all over the map this morning, trying to talk a little bit about worship. sort of God-centered worship and God-centered evangelism. But, you know, it's interesting that, it was an interesting chapter, sort of in the back end of the book. Seems like a little bit of an outlier, but it helps tie together a lot of the different strands that I think Metzger is after when we talk about evangelism. And so, you know, if we're not, if we're not experiencing and engaged in God-centered worship, evangelism is going to be very, very difficult. First and foremost, we are worshipers. We need to enjoy worship. We need to grow in worship. We need to be fed in worship so that we will be effective missionaries and evangelists for the gospel. All right. Rick, would you close this in PUR?