What is Worship?

Dictionary definitions - ‘Church - a building used for public Christian worship ’, ‘worship - the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.’

How quickly we can move away from understanding the words that Jesus and his apostles used. Today there are many churches that do call themselves ‘places of worship’ and refer to the singing in their services as the ‘worship time.’ Emotional services and sermons are thought to bring the presence of God to the congregation. Some churches have ‘worship leaders,’ often musicians, who can stir up the congregation. However trying to feel the presence of God in communal services is not the focus of Biblical worship.

In the Bible ‘worship’ is defined as being an attitude of mind which affects our everyday actions. Paul wrote,

“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. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:1-2

True worship must be a seven day a week activity. Our deep-seated gratefulness or worshiop can be expressed in so many different ways such as helping to run a youth group, evangelism, joining with other Christians, helping others, as well as singing, but we must never restrict worship to singing!

One mother used to get frustrated at having to do the washing up everyday after her children had eaten. She realised that this was a wrong attitude so she put up a notice over the sink as a reminder.

“Divine service performed here three times daily.”

An Anglican friend visited her home and saw the notice. He wrote underneath,

“True. This is the way to change ‘tedium’ to ‘Te Deum’.

‘We praise you O Lord’ (the ‘Te Deum Laudamus,’) is an early Christian hymn written in 387AD that remains central in prayer book services.

False Worship

It is so easy to live our lives, go to church, sing the hymns and even listen to a sermon as an act of duty without there being any worshipping. Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah to some Pharisees whom Jesus saw as hypocrites,

“These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain;” Matthew 15:8-9 and Isaiah 29:13

When people worship like that, it is not recognised by the Lord because their hearts are not in tune with God. It is meaningless because there is no gratefulness or submission to Jesus in what is being performed.

Amos was a prophet when both Israel and Judah were reasonably settled. He warned God’s people that their hearts were far from God, in spite of their being outwardly religious. He wrote,

“I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” Amos 5:21-24

There are churches where the so-called worship leaders are known to be involved in extra-marital heterosexual or homosexual affairs. How can that be tolerated? The foundation of all worship must be a holy life. Without a commitment to live in obedience to the Lord Jesus there can be no worship.

True Worship

When Jesus was talking to the woman at Samaria she clearly had a wrong view of worship. She said,

“Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” John 4:20

Jesus corrected her,

“A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain not in Jerusalem . . . a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24

So Jesus is saying that true worship is an attitude of mind towards the Almighty Holy God that overflows into everything we do. True worship is to value God above everything else. Our English word, ‘worship,’ is derived from the ‘worth ship’ of our God and Saviour. He really is worth giving our lives to his service.

The writer to the Hebrews understands worship as being a continuous process that involves our speaking for Jesus and loving actions,

“Through Jesus therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:15-16

Public Worship

Public worship may take many forms.

When John the Baptist began his open air ministry it was largely based around preaching God’s word. His intention was to point people to Jesus.(John 1:22-34) and he called on people to change the direction of their lives and return to God.

When John was arrested, Jesus began his public ministry. Again this was based on teaching the word of God. The gospels tell us little about the liturgy of the synagogue services, the priority was always teaching God’s word. When the disciples were sent out in twos to prepare people for Jesus’ arrival, their ministry was to teach.

When the early church continued the work of Jesus, their emphasis was teaching the word of God. When three thousand men were baptised they were encouraged to learn more. It was said of each new Christian,

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Acts 2:42

They were worshipping by learning to think in a new way, by being taught to think as God thinks,

“. . . but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2

This was how they expressed their worship of the living God, their actions were a reflection of what they felt in their hearts. Note that it does not say ‘to prayers’ because the prayer was primarily their own prayer. The great revolution that Jesus emphasised was that faith had to be personal. The Jew could say ‘The Lord is God’, whereas the Christian says, ‘The Lord is my God.’

The ministry of the early church was to teach people about Jesus and what he had taught them. They were bold as the accounts of Peter, Stephen, Philip and Paul reveal. When the Jewish leaders began to persecute the Christians,

“Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.” Acts 8:4

They used every opportunity to tell people about Jesus. They would teach in the synagogue, in the open air and in homes. Although there are occasional mentions of corporate singing this was the result of deep thanksgiving to God.

Just because ‘worship’ must be individual does not mean that we can ‘go it alone.’ We desperately need the teaching and encouragement of meeting together. Thank God for Zoom in these days of ‘lockdown.’ When we become Christians we become members of the ‘people of God.’ The first Christians met together in the temple daily to be taught by the apostles. The Scriptures also teach us that another reason we must meet together is so that we can encourage each other.

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. 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 we see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25

What is done at church meetings today tends to be proscribed by tradition. Many churches have a formal fixed liturgy with some hymns and a short talk, others have a formal hymn sandwich mixed with someone praying and a long sermon, others spend a lot of time singing. Singing Christian hymns or songs, of itself, is not worship. In the Psalms there are many encouragements to sing but there singing reflects the gratefulness felt in people’s hearts. It is a great shame that so many modern, so-called Christian, songs focus on ourselves and not on the Lord we adore.

In the past some churches continued to have their proscribed evening ‘gospel service’ with a fixed format but no outsiders came to hear the Bible being taught! Surely the format of the meeting should be determined by what will attract people to meet Christians and hear the Bible being taught well. This lesson has been learned in children’s work where there is a mixture of fun, entertainment and teaching in a variety of ways. Should we not be more willing to do this with adults, particularly at a time when church attendance is going down, when people’s concentration is limited and their television diet tends to be ‘magazine’ style?

A Christian friend recently said that he preferred on-line YouTube services. When asked why he exclaimed,

“You can fast-forward over the boring bits!”

What a shame it is that many services contain what people do regard as ‘boring bits’, there is then no educational value in them and obviously there is no sense of worship at that time. It would be an interesting study to see how many of us also ‘fast-forward’ to the talk.

Today

How we need to rediscover this apostolic understanding of worship, of lives dedicated to showing Jesus to the world. This has always been done by Christians living holy, moral and loving lives. This must be combined with a prayerful longing to introduce people to Jesus and the salvation he offers.

A patient of mine was the church warden of a local village church. After the medical consultation was over I asked her how the church was going.

“It is getting difficult. We are getting smaller and we are getting older.”

“Oh dear,’ I replied, ‘Tell me, do members of the church talk about the Lord Jesus in the village?”

“Good gracious me no, we don’t even talk about him amongst ourselves!”

The only response I could think of was,

“I’m afraid that means that your church must die.”

Such churches and such Christians, of all denominations, exist throughout the world. They still go through the process of so-called worship but too often their members have never learned to really worship. True worship is a life that overflows with gratefulness and love for our Saviour. Anything else is sham worship,

“They worship me in vain.” Matthew 15:8-9 and Isaiah 29:13

BVP

June 2020