Your Mission Pt. 8
This coming Sunday millions of people will attend a church and engage in worship. What will happen in many of those church’s is the subject of this post. How do we view worship today? I recently read a news story that reported on how evangelical churches are spending billions of dollars on the latest audio-visual equipment. Many houses of worship are pressing to look and feel like the latest high tech concert venues and more and more worship appears to be a well put together variety program.
My last blog, introduced biblically driven worship as one of the chief marks or characteristics of the church of the living God. Such worship must be pointedly directed by what Scripture expressly commands or positively describes regarding worship. There are two main reasons to maintain this stance. Firstly, Scripture is filled with passages that instruct us on how to worship our Lord properly. We'll briefly examine one shortly. Secondly, it is both foolish and dangerous to leave what to do in worship up to our own little whimsical devices. The worship of the Triune, sovereign, holy King of the universe is not something to be tinkered and tampered with.
The ninth chapter of Leviticus is a precious example of a biblically directed worship service. Moreover, it is a prime example of how the order and elements of worship function to highlight God's character and emphasize the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
The service of worship begins as does all true, biblical worship with God calling His people to come before Him to acknowledge His goodness, grace, beauty, sovereignty, holiness, love and presence. It is particularly important to note that God is already present with us in worship. We don't have to call, shout, beg or otherwise entreat Him to join us at the meeting. God is not like some ancient pagan deity that must be awakened by the frantic ranting of its people. He is the sovereign, omnipotent, undisputed King of the universe who creates, redeems and then calls a people to come before His awesome, solemn presence.
God's call to worship leads to the second aspect of Biblically driven worship which is its corporate or public nature. The great texts regarding biblical worship speak of God's people collectively appearing before Him. This is not to say that private or personal worship is unbiblical or unnecessary. However in our ruggedly individualistic society it is crucial that the church stress the corporate aspect of worship. Think through Eph. 1:4. God chose a people to be holy and without blame before Him. What's implied in that passage is that these chosen, holy, blameless people are before the face of the Holy One in worship. Once more, think through that tremendous passage in Hebrews 12, 'But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel'. Now what in the world do you think that all these souls are doing in heaven before the living God? They are gathered together (note that the angels have gathered with the assembly or church of the Lord Jesus) to pour out their corporate praise to the living God and to the lamb, Jesus Christ who sits on the throne. Biblically driven worship is public worship where God's people gather together to answer His summons to worship Him.
The next aspect of Biblically driven worship derived from this passage is that it is orderly worship led by those called and ordained by the Lord. That's right, I went there. Biblically driven worship is not a chaotic, cacophony of confusion, but a simple, beautiful and orderly affair. The God we serve is a God of order. Those who believe that New Testament, Spirit-filled worship is a free for all would do well to read 1 Cor. 14 where the Apostle Paul instructs that saints that everything in worship must be done with decency and order. Biblically driven worship services have a defined order and structure. This is necessary because worship is driving home a point and that point is the grandeur, majesty and perfection of the great King of the universe. Chaotic, disorderly worship calls attention to the ones offering up the 'worship'. While that may be alright for pagan settings it is unthinkable for Christian worship.
Orderly, Spirit-filled worship is worship that acknowledges and highlights God's glory. Moses told the congregation that they were to proceed with a God ordained and ordered worship service because God was to display His glory to them, Lev. 9:6. God's glory refers to His weightiness, significance, splendor and beauty. God's weightiness conveys that His people must take His Person, word and worship seriously. It is unthinkable therefore for anyone who claims to know and serve God to merely blow off public worship as if were an option like tinted windows or cruise control. The sacrificial system showed God’s importance by impressing upon His people the gravity of approaching Him in the way He specified. Additionally, the sacrificial system demonstrates that we must be careful to only utilize elements in worship that are specifically prescribed or positively described in Scripture.
Finally, Spirit-filled, Biblically driven worship is dogmatically Christ-centered. The Person and work of Jesus Christ must be the theme, subject, substance and focus of our worship. That only makes sense since the Person and work of Christ is the theme, subject, substance and focus of Scripture, history, salvation and life itself. Take a look at Lev. 9:8-11 and think about that passage in the light of Christ. Here is blessed, biblically driven, Christ centered worship at its best. Jesus dear ones is our great high priest who unlike Aaron brought His offering to the actual temple in heaven, not the copy Moses had constructed for Aaron to serve in. Jesus unlike Aaron didn’t need to bring an offering for His own sin because He had none. He lived a perfectly sinless life on our behalf and every one of His thoughts, motives, actions and reactions was completely blameless in the eyes of God the Father. Jesus unlike Aaron offered His own blood on the actual altar in heaven to cleanse all of His people from the sin that would doom us into spending an eternity apart from God’s presence and life flourishing worship. Jesus unlike Aaron suffered outside the camp wholly offering Himself to suffer the just penalty of God’s law, the righteous for the unrighteous. Jesus and Jesus alone is the only one worth our time, souls, and worship.
For Christ, His Church and the Truth
LL