There is Nothing More Relaxing Than Being Presbyterian
The Simple Piety of the Religion of Humility
Good Morning!
I love being Presbyterian.
I’m Presbyterian on purpose. There are many reasons why I like being a Presbyterian and in today’s worship and prayer help we are going to look at a few of them. My hope is you like being a Presbyterian as well and can find some encouragement to continue to be Presbyterian in a time and place where it is becoming harder and harder to hold on to the distinctives that make us who we are. To be fair I am not as worried about the world as I am the temptations natural to man to try and “fit in” with whatever is popular in evangelicalism today. Now, I say that not to say ARP’s are the only true church, only to confess my position that we are the ones most close to what the Bible itself teaches God’s kingdom to look like on the Earth. If I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t be a Presbyterian minister who has confessed our Confession of Faith and swore before God and man to uphold it as my own. I’m not one by convenience, but by sincere and sure conviction. Being Presbyterian matters to me.
I do all that I do for Christ’s Crown and Covenant.
Another reason why I write this post this morning is that we need to be reminded why we exist, why Bethany ARP Church meets and has its life in the first place. We need to remember what our true purpose is as a church. It is not necessarily to have meetings, or to have events, or even to do missions. Our main reason for existence is to worship Jesus Christ together with others who share a common hope in Him. To paraphrase a portion of John 1 we are at Bethany not by blood, not by the will of man, but by reason of our common faith in Jesus Christ and our desire to serve Him.
As some of you might be aware next year will be our 225th Birthday as a congregation of Christ’s people. 1797 was a time of great change itself in the world. Our forefathers felt our Presbyterianism important enough to not allow the declensions in worship being seen around York County affect them. They wanted to praise God with His words and were willing to wait over a decade for a minister to come and lead them in gospel grace. It’s important for us to remember that we do not sing the Bible Songs out of some nostalgic tradition. We don’t lift up the green book as an idol of a bygone era. They take up the majority of our singing space because as Presbyterians we follow the example of our Lord in Matthew 26:30. If Jesus sang David’s words with His disciples then that should be reason enough for us to do the same. Let no one tell you that the Psalms are insufficient for Christian worship because they don’t use the name “Jesus”. If Christ could teach the men on the road to Emmaus about His life and work and present the gospel to their ears from the Psalms then we and our covenant children can be fed with great meat from the very words of the Holy Spirit. I love singing the Psalms because I love singing God’s word. It fills my heart with joy and peace. I personally receive much comfort knowing that when Jesus wanted to rejoice with His friends He chose the songbook of the Old Testament to lift up the blessings of the New Covenant in His blood. We must teach our children these songs for they have been the words filling the hearts of Presbyterians for 500 years.
They are able and capable to understand them. They actually love them if you ask.
I also love baptizing babies. Not because its cute (though it is), but because I believe in the gospel promises. Infant Baptism is a real thing. To not baptize your babies is to keep from them the good word of the Lord. It’s also not magic. Presbyterians believe that with the application of the New Covenant sign we are to raise our children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord as Paul says in Ephesians 6. Nurturing their young faith through reading the Bible, catechizing them, and witnessing to them their need for Christ is all part of the beauty of putting that water on the heads of our little ones. To neglect that is to keep from them what they need for life.
Another thing I love about being Presbyterian is the simple morning worship piety of prayer, preaching, and the proclamation with one voice in singing, along with the reading of the word of God. We have no need of smells and bells and manipulative music and testimonies to gin up feelings artificially. If we were on a deserted island and all we had was a Bible as Presbyterians we could do what we do now on the Lord’s Day without interruption. That is the gospel liberty of the new covenant. No longer do we need to go to Jerusalem, but Jerusalem comes to us. What we do is not a show to impress the goats, but a gathering together of the saints to bask in the glory that is the company of Jehovah God. The standard for Presbyterian worship is not based on the everchanging whims of culture and what is “popular”, but on what the Lord has revealed in His word. There is much humility in remembering not only who worship is for, but that it is He who has invited us into His house on His Day to glory in His presence who instructs how He is to be worshipped. Our joy comes not from guitars and amps causing our hearts to race, but from the knowledge of what it means to a redeemed sinner to be welcomed into the family of Heaven.
I want to say something else about the beauty of the unadorned piety of the Presbyterian manner of life. It can be exhausting if you think you need to have to try and come up with fresh, new ways to constantly present the good news of Christ to the world. If your faith and spirituality is based upon being hip and “with it” and always having to reinvent the wheel, to have to come up with new measures every time the culture zags then your hope is built not on the Rock, but upon the shifting sands of man’s wisdom. We have no need to complicate the Christian truth with the unstable whims of society. I am sure you can remember the dozens and dozens of sure-fire evangelism tools that were guaranteed at one time to grow the church. The closets in our buildings are full of curriculum that we “needed” to reach teenagers in the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, 2000’s, and 2010’s. You know what the Church actually needed? It wasn’t another gimmick. All the Church requires is a simple faith grounded in the Word, the forgiveness of sins, and the glory of Christ.
We need to trust in means given to us by our God. To allow the power of Scripture, prayer, and the fellowship of the saints do the work God has enabled them to do.
You want to reach the young people with Christ? Want to keep your covenant children in the Church?
Be Presbyterian like you mean it.
All the circuses and programs in the world won’t be what keeps them coming to worship when they are 21 years-old and out of the house and busy with the things of life. It’s going to be what they witnessed in the home from their mother and father. If dad, especially, treats the Church and worship as a burden, a boring thing that we can do every now and then to keep the whispers at bay then it shouldn’t surprise us when the next generation does the same.
Don’t want this to be true of the next generation? See it going on now in your own circle? Well, in either case the best way to ensure this is not the future reality you see is to embrace the personal holiness which is founded upon a personal faith and trust in the ways of the Lord today. Be much in prayer. Be much in the Bible, and be much with the rest of the Church in the times provided for corporate worship and study.
It really isn’t any more complicated than that and because of that there is nothing more relaxing than being Presbyterian.
Here is a little bit more to read later that says it better than I can:
https://www.crossway.org/articles/keep-it-simple-stupid-martin-luther-on-the-christian-life/
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church