GYC 2008: For This Purpose

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Karl Tsatalbasidis ~ The 'Rock' and Worship: Music and Worship at the End of Time

Karl Tsatalbasidis

If the Foundations Are Destroyed, What Can the Righteous Do? Part I

I want to welcome each and every 1 of you here to what I know will be 1 of the most fascinating Bible studies you have undertaken when it comes to the issue of music and worship.

And so the title of this session and the next session, which is going to build on top of that, is if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

We will be dealing with 1 very fundamental question during this session and the following session.

And I believe if we can answer that 1 question, which is does God have a model in the Bible that integrates theology and worship forms, I believe a lot of our other questions are going to be answered.

And so you pray for me as I as I communicate that the Holy Spirit will Help me and enable me to communicate clearly so that we can all see what the issues really are.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, Oh Lord, many of us have come from afar in order to be here because our souls are hungering and thirsting for answers.

And so, Lord, I pray that you will send your Holy Spirit at this time to illuminate our minds, to help us to discern between truth and error, and Lord, to learn how to worship you in spirit and in truth as we are on our quest today we thank you for the promise that your Holy Spirit will be our teacher and our guide and we thank you for hearing our prayers in Jesus name and let everyone say amen.

So if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

We are going to look at the relationship between worship forms and theology.

What role then does culture, personal preference, style, and taste play in this discussion?

Actually, before I move on, how many did not get a chance to get this latest issue of Adventist Affirmed?

If you did not, these first 2 sessions that I'm covering are summarized in an article right in this, in this, so you're gonna want to make sure that you get this article, alright?

Well, I've got a few of them here and when they run out make sure you go to the registration desk because they have a few more boxes back there.

Are worship styles grounded in culture, personal preference, style, and taste, or are they grounded in the Bible?

What we're going to do in order to answer that question is again explore the connection between God, salvation, and worship.

We're going to examine how worship style is integrated with the sanctuary.

We're going to look at the destruction, cleansing, and construction of the earthly sanctuary and its connection to worship forms.

We're going to look at the little horn's attack on the heavenly sanctuary and its effects on worship forms.

And we're going to examine how the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary is related to worship forms.

So that's what we're going to do in this session and in the next 1.

So I hope you have your Bibles with you because we're going to be looking at many texts and many different models.

This is a text that most of us probably know.

The children of Israel have been in Egypt for some time and they've been called to the base of Mount Sinai where God wants to reveal to them His law and the plan of salvation.

And in Exodus chapter 25 verses 8 and 9 it says, And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it." When you read this text, does it appear to you that Moses just concocted this idea all by himself?

Or that he was looking at all the other Canaanite or other nations to figure out what their sanctuary was like and then he patterned this sanctuary or the Israelite sanctuary after theirs?

As I read the text, it was by divine revelation.

God had given him the pattern and he told him to make it according to what you saw in the mount.

Now the sanctuary would have a permanent resting place.

1 Chronicles 28.19 Our president the other night was somewhere around this text and he was of course pointing out the fact that we have a work to do.

And in 1 Chronicles 28, verse 19, the Bible says this, All this, Now what precedes all that?

It's all the instructions that were given in order to build a permanent sanctuary there in Jerusalem.

So when it says all this you just read what it says before that and it's clear that it's talking about the sanctuary.

So it says, All this said David, the Lord made me understand, in writing, by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern." And so what was given to Moses by divine revelation is now given to David as well.

And we're going to continue to build on this.

Okay let's go then to 1st Chronicles 15 16 verse 19 and you'll see it up on the screen there chapter 16 verses 4 and 5.

You're going to notice that when the sanctuary is set up worship forms are set up.

Alright so 1st Chronicles we're in chapter 28 go to chapter 15 and verse 16.

1st Chronicles chapter 15 and verse 16 it says, And David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers with instruments of music, psalteries and harps, those are stringed instruments, cymbals, sounding by lifting up the voice with joy.

Verse 19, we're going to skip all the names, and these singers were appointed to sound with symbols of brass.

And I will cover much later that the trumpets and the symbols were used as a call to worship.

So they were played together as a call to worship.

The very next chapter, chapter 16, verses 4 and 5.

By the way, the context here is, you remember when they wanted to bring the ark up to Jerusalem, and Uzzah put forth his hand and touched the ark, And then he dropped dead, and then David did a whole bunch of Bible study, and they figured out, wait a minute, we did this whole thing wrong.

We're going to talk a little bit more about that later on.

In chapter 16, verses 4 and 5, it says, "...and he appointed certain of the Levites..." I think that's very interesting as well and we have a similar story back in Exodus 32 which we'll get to in the third session.

The Levites, these were the pastors, the ones that were studying theology, The ones that knew the work and the plan of God.

And I think that's very significant because today, who's in charge of how music is run in the CCM world?

And so, he appointed the Levites to minister before the Ark of the Lord and to record and to thank and to praise the Lord God of Israel and Asaph the chief and it mentions a bunch of names.

It says with psalteries and with harps but Asaph made a sound with cymbals, Banea and Jehazaeel the priest with trumpets, continually before the ark of the covenant of God." Now, this next text we'll focus on later, But you'll notice that the pattern for worship forms was divine.

This is 300 years later in the days of Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles 29, verse 25.

So far, all we've done is point out the fact that the blueprints from the sanctuary were not made up by Moses, they were not made up by the Israelites, they weren't copying anybody else around.

And when the sanctuary was set up, you'll find that worship forms were also set up.

It says, And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of..." Who do you have there?

And if you want to make it a little more authoritative, you just keep reading.

It says, "...for so was the commandment of..." Who?

"...the Lord by His prophets." so the arrangement of the worship forms the arrangement of the fancy word is liturgy This arrangement did not come by them looking out and seeing what kind of forms others were adopting out there.

This was commanded directly by God Himself.

Which meant that some forms were included and some were excluded.

So God gave the blueprints and God commanded which instruments were to be used and which were not.

300 years after Hezekiah you find the same thing to be true, under the reformation of Ezra and Nehemiah.

And when there was a mighty reformation in that time, I'm just going to turn to Nehemiah chapter 12 just to save a little bit of time so that you can see that.

When they had finished rebuilding the walls, notice this, Nehemiah 12.27, it says, "...at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites out of all their places to bring them to Jerusalem, to Keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgiving and with singing and with cymbals, psalteries and with harps." If you go to verse 36, and it mentions all the brethren there, "...with the musical instruments of David the man of God and Ezra the scribe before them." And so even 600 years later, when there was a mighty reformation, this is what they went back to.

Now, okay, so the earthly sanctuary, that's pretty well established.

Does that mean that in New Testament times we're totally left without a pattern and without a model?

Because the earthly sanctuary was designed to point to the heavenly sanctuary.

So if you turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8, it makes it Hebrews 8, it makes it very clear.

Of all that the apostle had written in the book of Hebrews, he says in verse 1, Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum.

We have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man." If you jump down to verse 5, it talks about the priests in verses 3 and 4 and it contrasts them with the priesthood of Jesus.

And in verse 5 it says, They serve unto the example and shadow, in other words the earthly priests, serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle.

For see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was shown thee in the mount." So there is a heavenly sanctuary.

And just as the earthly sanctuary, when it was set up, was the center for worship, so there is a heavenly sanctuary as well that is the center for worship.

There is an amazing couple of chapters in the book of Revelation and we will spend more time on that in the third session.

These sessions build and so right now we're just trying to lay the foundation in the first 2 sessions.

In the third session we will contrast 2 different worship experiences so that you can see the relationship between worship forms, theology, and philosophy.

If the Foundations Are Destroyed, What Can the Righteous Do? Part II

Okay, welcome everyone to the second part.

In our previous session we looked at how the sanctuary is the place where theology and worship forms are completely integrated.

And so we talked about the destruction of the earthly sanctuary and what its effect was on worship forms.

We also talked about the construction of the earthly sanctuary in the days of Hezekiah and its corresponding effect on worship forms as well.

And so that was really the point we were trying to get across.

And here we're going to switch from the earthly to the heavenly sanctuary.

So again, the title of this presentation is, If the Foundations are Destroyed, What Can the Righteous Do?

Well, you know something, it asks a question.

But the answer to that question is in the very next text, and we're going to get to that.

But before we do, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer and ask the Lord to bless our study.

Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, We're so thankful for Jesus.

We're thankful for the plan of salvation.

We're thankful for the 3 angels' messages and the very pillars that have made us who we are as a people.

Father, I ask that you will send your Holy Spirit now, in order to help us to grapple with issues that are of a sensitive nature, but yet Lord, we need to understand.

May you minister to each and every soul during this presentation.

And we thank you for hearing our prayers.

I mentioned a dissertation that was, the topic of the dissertation was the Hebrew temple motif in the sanctuary temple motif in the Hebrew Bible.

In this dissertation 43 texts were discussed and Psalm 11 was 1 of them.

And the purpose of the dissertation was to show the relationship between earthly and heavenly sanctuaries.

And so, there's no doubt about the fact that this is talking about that relationship between earthly and heavenly.

But notice, it's in Verse 3, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

If you're following Ahaz, if you're following an administration that has totally confused God, worship forms, salvation, what do you do?

If you live in a polytheistic environment, in a pluralistic environment such as we live, in a postmodern environment where everyone does that which is right in his own eyes?

How is it that you can make people see what the truth is?

Verse 4 That's the answer the Lord is in his holy temple the Lord's throne is in heaven His eyelids behold his eyelids try the children of men the Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked in him that loveth violence his soul hateth." There's no doubt about the fact that we live in a pluralistic environment.

And that's why it's in the very air we breathe when we talk about worship forms.

The other thing we don't see is how integrated these issues are.

Worship forms, God, the plan of salvation, it's all integrated.

And so the answer to the problem is looking towards the temple in heaven.

Well, just a little bit of repetition, Hezekiah followed this plan.

That's exactly what he did in 2 Chronicles 29, verses 25-28.

Again, once Hezekiah laid the foundation, then the structure was built upon it.

Now let me ask you, if I lay down a 6 inch foundation, how many of you here would be willing to put a skyscraper on it?

I mean you know that that's not going to work.

And what person in their right mind would dig a foundation 200 feet and then put a pole barn on it 10 by 20?

I mean, you know that that's not the way things operate.

There is a relationship between the foundation and the structure.

So you just can't put any old structure upon any old foundation.

And so when he ordered the Levites to cleanse the temple to cleanse the sanctuary are your Adventist ears are perking up a little bit Does that theme remind you of something?

When he ordered them to cleanse that sanctuary to reconsecrate it there was an immediate and direct effect on worship forms.

And he went back to what was called the instruments of David.

And where did David receive his plans from?

And that's why when you read 2 Chronicles 29 verse 25, and it mentions the liturgy and the instruments that were to be used, it directly then states the authority upon which that counsel was given.

Not just Gad and Nathan and so forth and so on, but so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets.

There is a very close relationship between worship forms and authority.

We ought to know that as Sabbath keepers.

I mean, when I preach an evangelistic series, who has authority to tamper with Almighty God and the 10 Commandments?

I mean, that is directly linked with the issue of authority.

But yet when it comes to worship forms, we're getting confused.

I'm not pretending to have all the T's crossed and the I's dotted.

What I'm presenting here before you is something very broad that can be built upon.

But I really believe that if we can download this into our thinking, it will help us to then give a good reason for why we're doing what we're doing.

A reason that is connected to our theology and to the pillars.

So when Hezekiah stepped out, yes, the results were astounding.

They had never celebrated a Passover like that for a long, long time.

Doesn't the Bible say in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, and 8 that Christ is our Passover?

And so could it be that as we discover the systematic role of the heavenly sanctuary and integrate that with our ideas about God, the plan of salvation and worship forms, could it be then that our relationship with Jesus will be even more vibrant than what it's ever been before?

I don't know about you, I was not raised as a Seventh-day Adventist, and when I went to church, I would ask my mom or my dad, you know, I went to a Greek Orthodox church, Christmas, Easter, that was about it.

Why is the priest going around like this, you know, with the incense?

Pretty soon you stop asking questions and you learn really quick that religion is not something you're supposed to understand.

So you turn your brains off and you go to church and you stand up and you sit down and you do what you're supposed to do and you're out of there.

So I remember attending my first evangelistic meeting and the preacher preached on this tag.

He alluded to it, but it was like a lightning bolt in my mind.

Isaiah 1 18 come now and let us reason together.

That was a paradigmatic shift in my mind.

You mean, wait a minute, you mean I can understand this stuff?

More Than Rhythm, Melody, and Harmony

Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, Lord, music is at the heart of the great controversy, and we pray that you will illuminate our minds as we compare and contrast these 2 different worship services.

Help us to see that the worship forms are not just cosmetic, are not just incidental, but they are connected to things that are foundational.

And so Father, we thank you for sending your Holy Spirit now.

And Lord, we pray also that you might not only inform our minds, but that you may change our hearts and our practices.

These are some questions that we're going to consider as we go through this part of the seminar.

Are we free to use any style or form of worship, music, in order to give praise to God as long as the heart is sincere?

That's a very important quality, but will that alone work?

Did Luther use bar and dance tunes to proclaim the gospel.

We're going to refer to that in the next, not in the next session, tomorrow's session.

We're going to explore the connection between the forms of worship and theology and philosophy.

We're going to look also, which we will not get a chance to do in this session, but in another session, about the psychophysiological effects of music.

We're basically rhythmic beings, and so how does this really impact us on a psychophysiological level?

And we're going to take a look at the language of music.

Just to make it a little more practical and tangible, to me music is is a lot like a house and I don't, well I do own my house but the bank owns most of it.

But when I was about to buy the house, everyone was telling me that the most important part of the house is what?

I mean you could have everything else looking great, But if there's real problems there, then you've got some serious issues with your house.

So, Jesus said, the wise man built his house upon a rock and we call it the foundation.

Well, if you were to drive by and look at some areas and some properties, what would be the most visible part of any house?

I can tell you what it wouldn't be, and that's what's up on the screen.

So in order to check the foundation, you can't just check it driving by a certain community.

You have to get out of the car and do some real exploring.

And you should never conclude that the foundation doesn't exist because you can't see it.

We should never evaluate a house without considering the importance of a rock-solid foundation.

Now, what's the most visible part of music?

Well, I guess I got it up on the screen and I didn't give you a chance.

But when you hear it, this is what you're hearing.

You're hearing rhythm, melody, and harmony.

That's what, if you were taking a drive by the community without seriously evaluating it, that's what you hear.

That's what comes out at you when you're just easy listening.

And you can compare this to the roof, the bricks, the siding, the windows.

But what then does the foundation of our musical house represent?

Well, it's not rhythm, melody, and harmony.

That's not the foundation of your musical house.

It's really ideas about God, who he is, and how he acts.

That will all be expressed in the worship service.

They said musical style, philosophy, and theology are interrelated.

Just like when God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul, we are totally integrated.

Mental, spiritual, physical, social, we are all integrated that way.

And so is musical style, philosophy, and theology.

It's found in the book The Great Controversy, and I'll give you the reference in just a minute, it integrates everything that I've just been trying to say.

It says, it is Satan's constant effort to misrepresent the character of God, the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy.

His sophistry lessens the obligation of the divine law and gives men license to sin.

Notice this here, at the same time he causes them to cherish what?

So that they regard Him with fear and hate rather than with love.

The cruelty inherent in His own character is attributed to the Creator.

It, it is a reference to the cruelty inherent in his own character and everything that we've just talked about up here.

It is embodied in systems of religion and what?

Like the illustration I shared, you know, God created, you know, seeds.

It always assumes something about God or false conceptions of God.

Modes of worship mean different styles of worship.

So all these things are expressed in modes of worship.

If you move this block it's going to have a corresponding effect on the rest of the structure.

Series

Karl Tsatalbasidis ~ The 'Rock' and Worship: Music and Worship at the End of Time

If the Foundations Are Destroyed, What Can the Righteous Do? Part II

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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