ORDER OF WORSHIP: MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE (III)

Lord’s Supper

The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion was observed regularly in the early church. In Acts 2:42 and 20:7, we read, “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread (Lord’s Supper), and in prayers. … And upon the first day of the week, … the disciples came together to break bread” (cf 1 Cor 11:20).

The Lord’s Supper was instituted to help believers remember the gospel and saving grace of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who was crucified for them and then rose from the dead on the third day. Jesus said, “this do in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19). “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” (1 Cor 11:26).

Holy Communion is observed by first reading an appropriate portion of Scripture that pertains to the atonement of Christ (eg the classic text of 1 Cor 11:23–31). The ordained minister would break the bread and the elders would distribute the bread. As the bread is distributed, the congregation should spend a quiet time to examine themselves, confessing their sins, getting right with God, and seeking His grace to live their lives in accordance to His will and His Word. When the cup is distributed, a hymn that fits the Communion theme may be sung (eg, RHC186 “Wounded for Me”, RHC291 “Nothing but the Blood”, RHC559 “Near the Cross”).

Holy Communion is a means of grace whereby the spiritual and faithful partaking of it brings about God’s strengthening of the believer to live a good and godly Christian life for His glory.

Closing Hymn

The worship service should end with a hymn. Jesus after He conducted the first Communion service concluded it with a hymn (Matt 26:30). The closing hymn should fit the theme of the sermon just preached. This serves to reinforce the sermon and encourage obedience. This fulfils the injunction to “consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” (Heb 10:24).

Benediction

The benediction is a declaration of God’s blessing upon the congregation. It was the duty of Israel’s high priests to pronounce a divine blessing upon the people: “The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” (Num 6:23–26). The symbolic raising of the hands in pronouncing the benediction is in keeping with the priestly practice (Lev 9:22). Jesus Himself did so in Luke 24:50, “… and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.”

The benediction seeks to encourage and comfort believers by assuring them of God’s protection and guidance in life’s pilgrimage until they get to heaven. Besides the classic benediction in Numbers 6:23–26, there are others in the Bible that the minister can use: Romans 15:5–6, 13, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 Thessalonians 3:11–13. 5:23, Hebrews 13:20–21, 2 John 1:3.

May knowing and understanding the biblical rationale behind each part of the worship service and its orderly sequence help us worship the Lord more intelligently and meaningfully. Soli Deo gloria. JK

FILIPINO OUTREACHES

Dr Jose Lagapa

We thank the Lord for His provision of Godhill as the venue of our weekly FilBF meetings. It is the Lord’s good plan and perfect time for us to come to this place. We should be prayerful and sensitive to His leading as we desire to fulfill what He has arranged for us to do here.

Let us unite with the leadership of the church to labour more for the Lord that we be able to contribute to His vision. We cannot do it by our own. God must help us! But we must also exert hard work in reaching out our countrymen. I am sure you have at least 2 friends here in Singapore. I know you have more! Seeing and experiencing the faithfulness of our God, let us not hesitate to open our mouths and declare unto them the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

I firmly believe God has granted us a larger place because there are still many Filipinos who must hear the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ’s saving grace. Therefore, we must pray for more people to come and for more of us to help them see the hope in Christ. God will not bring more people if we ourselves are not prepared to point to them the truth. We must first be thoroughly grounded in the truth by studying His Word and applying it into our daily lives. “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). The Word of Truth will sanctify, in other words, it will cleanse and separate us from all forms of evil.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1–2).

On the other hand, please include in your prayers this new work that we are to start in Lapulapu City, Cebu. Thank God the Session approved the proposal and the work will commence on October 28, 2018.

The first three months will be Bible studies taking up the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Let us pray for more labourers, as apparently we lack preachers and teachers to do this big task. However we trust that the Lord will supply all our needs. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:38).

Outreach in Cebu

Early this year (2018), the Lord blessed Bro Deccarlo Igot’s witness and sharing of God’s Word to a dozen of his relatives. They find themselves at odds with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and were seeking for the Truth from God’s Word. Due to the distance from their place to Gethsemane BPC in Cebu, they were instead ushered to the Church of Christ. It was known later that this church has many teachings contrary to the Bible, such as works’ salvation and baptismal regeneration. Due to this, the FilBF did a series of Bible studies in Cebu City, to teach God’s Word to them.

However, it is difficult to counter the teachings they are receiving from the Church of Christ by that once-a-month Bible studies. The FilBF is burdened to bring them out from that church, Lord willing. In order to facilitate their coming to the truth, the FilBF proposes a regular fellowship meeting that will be conducted every Sunday afternoon at 3 pm in Bro Deccarlo’s place. The flow of the fellowship meeting will follow the TLBPC-FilBF format. This will not only provide the relatives of Bro Deccarlo a place to learn God’s Word but also for the relatives of Bro Jude Gabales and the people in the neighbourhood to come to know of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus, the TLBPC-FilBF would like to launch this outreach work on October 28, 2018 subject to the approval of True Life BPC Session. FilBF will request the help of Gethsemane BPC-Cebu for preachers through Rev Reggor Galarpe. Brothers Deccarlo and Jude will take turns once a month to go and share God’s Word, while the rest of the Sundays will be taken by preachers invited from Gethsemane BPC-Cebu. The FilBF will arrange the venue and other logistics with the anchor persons in Cebu, Angelito Napoles (Bro Deccarlo’s son-in-law who is now taking an FEBC online course on Romans) and Johnnyrey Ebin (a Gethsemane Bible Institute student, formerly enrolled in the BEST program in Mindanao). With regard to the resources for the support of this outreach, funds will be taken from FilBF.

We are looking forward for your wisdom on this proposal. May the Lord guide and lead us for the extension of His kingdom and for the glory of His name. 

“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2–3).

(Extract from FilBF Weekly, 14 Oct 2018. Update: The outreach at Lapu Lapu City has been launched on October 28; see photo.)

Outreach in Mindanao

The True Life Philippine Bible Ministries will again conduct missions in Mindanao, Philippines this coming December, 2018. As already scheduled we will have the last class on Systematic Theology of the Bible Equipping Seminar and Training (BEST) on December 10–13 and the 3^rd Young Peoples’ Bible Conference (YPBC) on December 17–19, 2018. In addition, as I had mentioned a few months ago, there is the training of Vacation Bible School (VBS) teachers.

The motivation for this VBS Teachers’ Training is the increasing demand from churches for us to conduct VBS in their areas. It has been our policy in the VBS that teachers be FEBC students or active Christians who have been supervised by FEBC-trained teachers. Currently, there are requests from pastors such as Pastor Renato Cortez, begging to use our VBS lessons and other materials (art and craft, worksheets etc). Coupled with the impossibility for us to cover many churches in far places because of the limited resources and time constraints, the sensible suggestion is to train the teachers of interested churches and to let them conduct the VBS themselves. The basic requirement is for these churches to send teachers to be trained in our VBS teacher-training scheme. This scheme, by God’s grace, could lead to many areas and children being reached out for God’s Kingdom.

The theme for the VBS 2019 is “Come to the Saviour” from Matthew 19:14— (1) He saves by grace, (2) He saves through faith, (3) He saves in His name, (4) He saves according to His Word, (5) He saves for the glory of the Father. The method of the training is to go through all the VBS lessons and activities with the participants to serve as teachers. This is to familiarise them with the contents of the lessons and show them how to bring the lessons across to the children. They will also be taught how to prepare the art and craft to be used. The VBS will be done next year from April to May, 2019 as school children in Philippines are in their holidays.

This year, the invited trainer is sister Jenny Kan to train the teachers for the primary groups, my wife Celeste for the pre-primary group and I will train those who intend to have their teens class. Please see attached itinerary for the said activity. Since Jenny will be accompanied by Dn Charles Kan, I take the occasion to ask them to conduct a workshop on evangelism in the Young Peoples’ Bible Conference.

Let me take this opportunity also to inform you that these FEBC students—Loreto, Stephen, Crisa, Gyzza, Theya, Thessa—will be in the Philippines to help in the abovementioned ministries.

I hope that this added ministry in December 2018 will be to the glory of God and salvation of our children in the Philippines. “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14).