Vineyard Canadian Reformed Church
of Lincoln, Ontario. Map
Sermon: Lord's Day 35
Heidelberg Catechism
Theme: Christ Redeems Our Worship in the Second Commandment
Points:
1.He addresses our slavery to sin in worship
2.He shows us the way of freedom in worship.
Scripture Reading: Leviticus 10:1-5 1 Samuel 15:1-23
LORD'S DAY 35
96. Q. What does God require in the second commandment?
A. We are not to make an image of God in any way,1 nor to worship Him in any other manner than He has commanded in His Word.2
1 Deut 4:15-19; Is 40:18-25; Acts 17:29; Rom 1:23. 2 Lev 10:1-7; Deut 12:30; 1 Sam 15:22, 23; Mt 15:9; Jn 4:23, 24.
97. Q. May we then not make any image at all?
A. God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. Creatures may be portrayed, but God forbids us to make or have any images of them in order to worship them or to serve God through them.1
1 Ex 34:13, 14, 17; Num 33:52; 2 Kings 18:4, 5; Is 40:25.
98. Q. But may images not be tolerated in the churches as “books for the laity”?
A. No, for we should not be wiser than God. He wants His people to be taught not by means of dumb images1 but by the living preaching of His Word.2
1 Jer 10:8; Hab 2:18-20. 2 Rom 10:14, 15, 17; 2 Tim 3:16, 17; 2 Pet 1:19.
The Heidelberg Catechism was written in Heidelberg at the request of Elector Frederick III, ruler of the most influential German province, the Palatinate, from 1559 to 1576. This pious Christian prince commissioned Zacharius Ursinus, twenty-eight years of age and professor of theology at the Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, twenty-six years old and Frederick's court preacher, to prepare a catechism for instructing the youth and for guiding pastors and teachers.
Frederick obtained the advice and cooperation of the entire theological faculty in the preparation of the Catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism was adopted by a Synod in Heidelberg and published in German with a preface by Frederick III, dated January 19, 1563. A second and third German edition, each with some small additions, as well as a Latin translation were published in Heidelberg in the same year. The Catechism was soon divided into fifty-two sections, so that a section of the Catechism could be explained to the churches each Sunday of the year.
In the Netherlands this Heidelberg Catechism became generally and favourably known almost as soon as it came from the press, mainly through the efforts of Petrus Dathenus, who translated it into the Dutch language and added this translation to his Dutch rendering of the Genevan Psalter, which was published in 1566. In the same year Peter Gabriel set the example of explaining this catechism to his congregation at Amsterdam in his Sunday afternoon sermons.
The National Synods of the sixteenth century adopted it as one of the Three Forms of Unity, requiring office-bearers to subscribe to it and ministers to explain it to the churches. These requirements were strongly emphasized by the great Synod of Dort in 1618-19. The Heidelberg Catechism has been translated into many languages and is the most influential and the most generally accepted of the several catechisms of Reformation times.
