Why We Worship the Way We Do
INTRODUCTION
The apostle Paul wanted to sing in the Spirit, but wanted to sing with the mind also (1 Cor. 14:15). In a similar way, we come here week after week to worship God in the Spirit of God. But it is important for us to understand what we are doing, and why we are doing it. Otherwise we will drift into a mindless routine—which is quite different from a Spirit-led routine. We are now worshiping, and we should understand what we do because it is the most important thing that any of us can do. Your assigned purpose in being created was to be a worshiper of God. Nothing is more important than this, and it is because of this that all the less important aspects of your life can be integrated and can come to have any significant importance at all. It is either homo adorans or homo demens. Christ or chaos.
THE TEXT
“And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving (Col. 2:4-7).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
In verse 4, Paul warns against the seductive power of a certain kind of religious approach, the kind that always fails to approach Christ. Watch out for the smooth talkers and sophists. Guard against those who prefer being credentialed to being wise. Even though Paul was not present with the Colossians (v. 5), he was with them in the spirit. He rejoiced as he beheld their order (taxis), and the rock-solid nature of their faith in Jesus Christ. The word taxis is a military term, and should be understood as a kind of regimentation. But note that this order was both disciplined and alive. It was not the order of a row of gravestones, but rather the order of a military troop, arms at the ready. It was more than such order that pleased Paul, but it was certainly not less. The fact that we have a disciplined liturgy, printed in a bulletin, is not an instance of us quenching the Spirit. Rather, it is an example of the Spirit quenching us. Everything must be according to the Word.
Paul then urged the Colossians to walk in Christ Jesus in just the same way they had received Him (v. 6), which was of course by grace through faith. As they did so, they would be rooted and built up in the Christian faith, in just the way they had been taught. The overflow of this, whenever it is happening, is an abundance of gratitude. As with all things of this nature, we measure whether or not it is happening by the fruit. So with all that said, why do we do what we do?
THE STRUCTURE OF WORSHIP
Consider first the broad outline of our worship service here. We find five basic elements:
Call to Worship—we invoke the name of God, and we enter His gates with adoration and worship;
Confession of Sin—we wipe our feet at the door;
Consecration—we offer ourselves up to God as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable;
Communion—we sit down for table fellowship with our Lord;
Commissioning—we are sent by Him out into the world.
The first and last elements “bookend” the service. The first invites us in from the world to assemble before the Lord to worship Him. The last sends us out into the world in order to function as ambassadors of right worship. Call and commission.
The central three elements follow a basic biblical pattern of sacrifice, as it is found in the Old Testament. In the worship of the Older Covenant, God commonly required three kinds of sacrifices together. When they were offered together, they came in this order. First was the guilt offering (confession of sin: Lev. 17), then the ascension or burnt offering (consecration: Lev. 16:24-25), and then the peace offering (communion: Dt. 12:17-19). We see this overall pattern in Lev. 9 and 2 Chron. 29:20-36.
Worship that follows this basic pattern intentionally is called by us covenant renewal worship.
FILLING IT ALL IN
We find in various places of Scripture that certain particular practices are called for in New Covenant worship. One of the things we therefore do is to look at the nature of that practice and decide where it would best fit within this structure. For example, the Bible requires the public reading of Scripture in worship (1 Tim. 4:13). So where do we put it? That seems best to fit under Consecration. The Bible commands us to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19). Where do we place the different kinds of songs? That would depend—is it a song of penitence or praise? We are commanded to have preaching (1 Tim. 4:2). Where does that go? In doing this, we are seeking to be obedient while arranging our worship intelligently. The Bible gives us the shelves, and it also gives us the elements that are to go on the shelves, which we arrange in the light of Christian prudence.
POSTURE AND DEMEANOR
A very common temptation among the Reformed is to over-engineer the intellectual aspects of our faith. Reason and systematics have their place, but not every place. Reformed people need to be reminded that they have bodies, and that these too are involved in our worship. The body is more than a carrying case for the brain. This is why we lift up holy hands in the Gloria Patri (1 Tim. 2:8), and why we kneel in confession (Ps. 95:6). We stand for the reading of Scripture in order to show deep respect for God’s Word (Neh. 8:5). Our overall demeanor is to be solemnity mixed with gladness. “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord” (Ps. 122:1).
CONVERSATION BETWEEN GOD AND HIS PEOPLE
Worship is a time of meeting. During this time, God speaks to the people through His ordained representatives (as in the Scripture reading, in the assurance of pardon, or through the sermon). During this time, the people also speak to God, either through their appointed representatives (as in the prayers of petition), or all together with one voice (as with a hymn or psalm, or the creed). We should therefore learn how to think of the worship service as a large conversation, with a direction and theme, and not as a disparate collection of random spiritual artifacts, crammed into a shoebox.
In the Call to Worship: God says, “Come, meet with Me.” We respond, “First, let us praise Your majesty.” Having done so, God warns us through the Exhortation not to approach Him with unclean hearts. We respond by Confession. God responds by declaring that we have His Assurance of Pardon. Having received forgiveness, in the time of Consecration, you offer up all that you have, and just as the animal was consumed on the altar, your offering of yourself ascends up to Heaven in a column of smoke. God then seals His receipt of your offering by inviting you to sit down with the Lord at His Table, in a time of Communion. When the conversation is complete, you then receive His Commission to go out into the world.
This worship service is a conversation in which all of you are called to actively participate. I would particularly say something to you children. You are welcome here, and you are supposed to be learning how to do what all the rest of us are learning how to do. You have more important things to do than squirming. As you all participate, you are following the most important conversation in the world, which is between God and His people. This conversation, and conversations like it all around the world, are the places where the future of our planet is being determined.
WORSHIP IS WARFARE
Just one more thing. We again return to the passage in Colossians. The order we are cultivating here is not the order of porcelain figurines in a China hutch, neatly arranged on a shelf. The order we are pursuing is alive and disciplined, the order of a well-trained military unit. And why? Because every Lord’s Day we go into battle. But as God’s people we fight on earth from the high ground of heaven.
We ascend into the heavenlies in our worship and meet with our God there (Heb. 12:22). But this heavenly worship is not something that has fearfully run away from the enemy on earth. We do not retreat to Heaven. Rather, as the book of Revelation shows in great detail, the worship of the saints in heaven accomplishes God’s judgments on earth. We fight from that high ground. The twenty-four elders worship God in Heaven (Rev. 4:10), and the seven seals are opened in Heaven (Rev. 5:5).
But this does not leave the earth untouched—quite the opposite. In fact, the only way to touch the earth is if we reach toward it from Heaven.