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How... why... when... worship?by: Ed Ender Picture the scene. You're in an arena that holds up to three thousand people. The house lights are down, but the spotlight is on. Up on stage, a guy is hunched over his electric guitar... and he's making it wail! As the lasers start to flick around, other figures can be seen on stage. And suddenly the music surges. It seems to go right through you. Your heart lifts. Your hands do too. You're having an experience of God. Or are you?
Although that scene could just as easily describe a rock concert, it's becoming more and more the experience of Christians going to a church service or conference. Music and singing is playing a bigger part of our weekly gatherings than ever before. And it's certainly being done better: brilliant choreography, powerful sound, and slick production. It's hard to come away from a service like that and not be thoroughly impressed, a little blown away perhaps. It may all leave us wondering about our set-up here at St Stephen's. We might find ourselves asking, "Are we really cutting it? Or are we missing something?"
That's not to say that we don't have some fantastic times of singing in church! Every Sunday we sing wonderful songs. And we have an abundance of talented musicians to lead us. What we don't have though is lasers, or a big video screen with funky images. We don't have massive speakers stacked up on each side of the stage, with sub-woofers to rattle our ribcages. We don't sing for an hour. And the lights stay on all the time. So the question that presents itself is: are we missing out?
If we were to read some of the promotional material that comes out for Christian events and conferences we'd discover that according to them we are. Here's what the advertising of one conference had to say...
Join us for dynamic teaching to set you on the right path, and inspiring worship where you can meet with God and receive the energy and love you need to be a mover and shaker in today's world. ...Alongside our teaching programme are worship events which put you in touch with the power and love of God. 1
In an article in The Briefing magazine a Christian writes about his time spent at another Christian conference. He says when the music finished the music leaders were congratulated for leading the congregation into the presence of God.2 Not all of the language we hear is as strong as that. But when you listen carefully to it, you soon discover what you're missing out on. It's worship...in its most profound form. Many churches today offer you a lengthy slot in their service devoted to music and singing, and it's billed as an opportunity to bring yourself, in worship, to God. Even more than that, it's an opportunity to be drawn closer to God, to be brought into his presence, to really connect with him. It is worship in its most profound form. And as Christians, we know that worshipping God is what we've been made for. So it would seem that what we're missing out on is nothing small.
Perhaps you're someone who is a bit frustrated that we don't sing more, or that when we do sing, we don't seem to enjoy ourselves. You might wonder if there isn't more we can do to create an environment where we can worship God better. Those are important things to be wondering. In order to get some clarity, we need to look at what God's word says on the subject of worship. And that's exactly what Vaughn Roberts has done in his little book titled True Worship. (It's a great little book, and most of the ideas represented here have come from it.) Roberts points out that worship is a hotly debated subject, and that many Christians today are stuck with an Old Testament mentality. They live as though Jesus hasn't yet come. Let me explain.
In Old Testament times our God, who is holy, couldn't mingle with his people because they were sinful. They could never draw close to one another, because holiness and sin don't mix. But God wanted a relationship with his people. And so, in order for that to happen he designated a particular place where he would live - the temple in Jerusalem. He moved into a special room called the Holy of Holies and said that his people should come to the temple to worship him. But they couldn't just waltz in there and cozy up to him. No, they had sin that needed to be dealt with first. They'd have to be washed clean of that sin.
Fortunately God provided a way for that to happen. He said that his people could be cleansed of their sin through the sacrifice of an animal. So, a Jewish man could come along to the temple - bring with him an ox or a sheep or a goat - and there the animal would be slaughtered... sacrificed. And by being sacrificed that animal was taking the place of the sinner. It was taking the punishment that was due to its owner. Its blood was being shed to pay for the sins of its owner. Now its owner was said to be clean, and could draw closer to God. There was, however, one further complication. That sinful owner couldn't actually sacrifice his own animal. Once again, his sin blocked him from coming into God's place to do it. So God had a special team of people set apart to act on behalf of others. They were the priests. Their own sin was regularly cleansed, and so they worked at the temple, performing sacrifices for the rest of God's people. They operated as middlemen or mediators, enabling God's people to come near to God and worship him.
That's what worship looked like in the Old Testament. It was done predominantly in one place. And it was made possible by the priests. And you can start to see the similarities between that and what churches are offering today. When we speak about a time of worship, or even of going to church to worship, we're starting to think of the church as a temple. And not only that, but we start to restrict our worship of God to an hour or two on a Sunday night. Secondly, when we speak about being taken closer to God, or brought into his presence through music, we're assigning the role of priest to the band, or the band leader. We're saying that if they play the right songs, in the right order, at the right pace and volume, or if they repeat the chorus enough times, then we'll have a genuine encounter with God.
But when we get to the New Testament, it doesn't allow us to use that kind of language anymore. And the reason for that is the arrival of Jesus in our world. The book of Hebrews tells us that when Jesus went to the cross and died he went as a sacrifice. He went to be slaughtered, like the oxen and the sheep of the Old Testament. At the cross he took the punishment of God so that sinners could be cleansed. And Hebrews tells us that because it was Jesus being sacrificed, it was a full and final payment for every sinner who wants to draw near to God. His death did the job once and for all.
Another thing that Hebrews tells us is that Jesus wasn't only the full and final sacrifice; he also qualified to be the perfect priest. While he was alive on earth he lived a sinless life. Even though he faced the same temptations we all face, he didn't give in to them. So he is the perfect representative for sinners, the perfect middleman. And when we read Psalm 110 we see that that is in fact the job God assigned to him long before he walked on earth. But what does it all mean? The full and final sacrifice? The perfect priest? Well, Hebrews chapter 10 has our answer...
19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...3
For the Christian there is only one way to be drawn closer to God. There is only one person who can bring us into God's presence. It is Jesus. His blood shed at the cross, makes us clean and respectable enough to enter into God's presence. Now that he has come the Old Testament way of worshipping has become obsolete. So it shouldn't have been a surprise that soon after Jesus came, the temple was destroyed. It was no longer needed. The sacrificial system was no longer needed, and neither was the priesthood, because God's son had come into the world to bring people to God. That's exactly how the apostle Peter puts it in his first letter. He says... Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.4 And in his letter to the Ephesians Paul tells us that it is through Jesus that we have access to the Father. 5
So it is Jesus who enables us to draw near to God. And that happens when we place our trust in him. We no longer need to go to a particular place. And we don't have to wait for a particular time or day of the week. That's the old way of worshipping, and it was a bit like having a dial-up connection to the internet. You have to keep on re-connecting all the time. And we all know how frustrating dial-up is. But the connection we have to God is more like broadband. We are permanently connected to God, and we have been ever since we first trusted in Jesus. We are in God's presence all the time. Never again will we need a special person to help us enter that presence again - not the pastor, not the preacher, not the pope. Our musicians, as valuable as they are to us, are useless to help us enter into God's presence, because they're not Jesus.
So as we look to the Bible, we have our thinking about worship challenged. Jesus has brought about a major change. And there are three quick things to say about how it affects us. The first is a comment about worship in general. The other two are about what we're doing when we meet together on a Sunday. For starters then, we must be very clear that...
Worship is much more than what we do at an event Jesus made that very clear when he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well. In John chapter 4, she says to him ...Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. 21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.... 23...a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.6
Worship is not something that happens at a certain time or place. It is something that comes from within us, from within our hearts, wherever we are and whatever we're doing. Ordinarily it would be impossible for us to worship anyone else because we naturally love ourselves too much. But it has been made possible by God putting his Spirit in us and enabling us to worship him. So worship is not restricted to what I do in church. It has to do with every part of me. That's what the apostle Paul was getting at when he wrote these words in Romans chapter 12...Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.7
What he's doing is reminding us that because God has been so good to us - because he has done this amazing thing of sending his son into the world to die and clean us of our sin - we should brim with thankfulness. And that thankfulness should move us to worship. But just look at what that worship entails! We're not called to come and bow down a certain number of times a week. We're not called to repeat a mantra over and over. No, real worship is to treat your whole life as a sacrifice. As Vaughn Roberts says, we don't have to bring sacrifices anymore. But we are called to be a sacrifice.8 Romans 12 calls us to offer every part of our lives in service to God.
So, as we try hard on a Monday morning not to grumble about our lecturers, or our boss, or our parents, we are in fact worshiping God. And on Tuesday, when the conversation turns to gossip, we worship God by not joining in. On Wednesday when we're out at night and we're tempted to have another drink, but we know that it'll be the one that tips us over the edge, we worship God by having a Coke instead. On Thursday we might worship God by taking part in a Bible study. On Friday we might worship God by saying no to a movie with sex scenes in it, because we know it'll lead us to lustful thoughts. And then comes Saturday, and the last thing we feel like doing is spending time in God's word. But as we obediently open up the Bible to hear him speak, we are worshiping God. Worship is an all-encompassing, 24/7 thing. It's about giving ourselves entirely to serve God. That's why Paul calls it a sacrifice.
So, if worship has already been happening all week long, then what is it we're doing together on a Sunday? Well, it may surprise you to hear that...
The primary aim of a church service is not to worship God, but to encourage one another Once again, we may have gotten stuck in Old Testament categories. Meeting at the temple was about God's people bringing him their service of worship. But the church meeting is not primarily about the people serving God. It is in fact about God serving his people. Isn't that an extraordinary thought? Just think for a moment what happens at our gatherings. We hear God's word read, and we hear it taught. We regularly share in communion, and we sometimes have baptisms. And every Sunday as we meet together we serve one another with our gifts. Now, each one of those things - the word of God, the sacraments, and our service of one another - is something that comes from God. Every Sunday he ministers to us. Of course, that's not the whole story, because we also pray and sing in church. But those are our responses to what God has already done for us. And none of this means that we come to church merely as consumers. We don't arrive at church and take... take... take from God and then head off home. No, that last act of service from God is actually him using us to bless one another. Peter explains it like this in his first letter... Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.9
So as we meet together, and serve one another, each of us is a channel for God's grace to reach others. And when the New Testament describes the church gathering it says that we do it primarily to encourage, or build one another up. Just a few verses on in Hebrews 10 we find the author saying exactly that... Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.10
So, when we meet together on a Sunday, our primary aim is to spur one another on. We want to help each other to keep following Jesus. That's why we come. Is that why you come? We all have gifts that we can put to use at the Sunday gathering - it may be welcoming people, reading the Bible up front, playing in the band, or listening to someone as they pour out their troubles to you after a service. We all have gifts that we can put to use. And as we put them to use here, serving one another, we encourage each other to live for Christ. And as we do that, we know that it is God working through each one of us.
So, what have we have said? The primary aim of a church service is not to worship God; it is to encourage one another. But we also said that our worship is an all-encompassing, 24/7 thing. So that can only mean that if we worship God in everything we do, then we must also be worshipping him at the church meeting too. And that is true. The church meeting is primarily to encourage one another. But it is nevertheless true that when we get together we continue to worship God. We worship him as we serve one another with our gifts. We worship him as we listen to his word being taught. And we worship him as we sing praises to him. And that takes me to my last point.
Praising God is central to who we are and so we should do it exceptionally well Praising God has always been central to God's people! They have always paid homage to him for who he is and what he's done. Moses sang a song to God after Israel was brought through the Red Sea. David sang and danced as the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem. And then, when you go to the book of Revelation, you get a sneak peak of what God's people will be doing in heaven. There they are, singing praises to God. In addition to that, the New Testament instructs God's people to praise him. In his letter to the Colossians Paul says... Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.11
Praise, as one writer puts it, is our calling as Christians, and an expression of our true identity.12 We must do it. We must do it knowing that it is only one of the ways in which we worship God, and knowing that it won't ever take us into his presence. But when we know that, we must do it with all of our hearts. And we can be assured that as we do sing praises to God, we will be encouraging one another to keep following Jesus.
No doubt there will be a whole spectrum of people reading this article. On the one end there will be those who care very little about music and singing. On the other end will be those who are frustrated that we don't sing enough, or that we don't praise God with more passion. Whoever we are, we need to hear that singing praises should be a natural response to God. We should love singing praises to him. And we should do it with all our hearts. But if we come into church on a Sunday and the rest of our week has been barren of worship - if we have not bothered to spend any time in God's word, if we have not been battling against sin, if we have not made an effort to love one another - that will be a sure sign that our hearts are far from God, and they certainly won't overflow with heartfelt praises in the gathered church.
If, on the other hand, we are worshipping God through the week, the likelihood is that we'll turn up on Sunday looking forward to singing praises. When we get the chance we'll belt it out with everything we've got. We may just sing with a smile on our face because of all that God has done for us. We might clap our hands, or even lift them up because we're just bursting with adoration. None of those things would be inappropriate. It would simply be another expression of your life of worship. Footnotes:
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