Today is Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church. It’s an appropriate time to talk about worship. This is something that is in flux among Protestants. There are fewer and fewer traditional services as many churches are moving to contemporary worship. The structure is simple; there are basically two elements: singing and sermon. A praise band has replaced the organ and there’s no liturgy. I find this regrettable. I think this contemporary format works fine for conferences, retreats, and seminars, but not on Sunday. We have liturgy because we want worship to be structured, substantive, spiritual, and centered on honoring God.
I remember a church I used to attend where they called the Sunday worship a “preaching service.” The pastor was eager to get the “non-essential preliminaries” over with so he could get to the important part--the sermon. Yet all elements of worship are equally important. Together--each thing we do in worship--forms a unified act of praise to our God.
So what is worship? I’d like to define worship, because it is so important, and not just for this life. We’re going to be spending eternity worshiping God.
1. Worship is adoration. The word “worship” means to bow down before God. It comes from the Old English word “worthship.” This word brings to mind the proclamation of Revelation 5:12: “Worthy is the Lamb to receive honor and glory and blessing.” When we begin to glimpse the reality of God, the natural reaction is to worship Him. In our worship…
We are declaring God’s worth.
We are paying reverent homage and respect.
We are offering praise.
We are responding to God’s greatness.
Worship is the highest form of love. Worship is our reply to what God has done. It is a “thank You” that refuses to be silenced. We’re taking God seriously. God is enthroned through the worship of His people. “O Come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!”
2. Worship is celebration. In Luke 14, Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a party! God is the Host, and we’re invited. We do so with joy and enthusiasm. God is alive, and He’s caused us to come alive in the new birth. Worship is not the funeral of a dead deity; it is a celebration of the exciting, exhilarating presence of a living Lord who makes possible our hope and joy. Worship celebrates what God has done in Christ, and what He is now doing in the world. Because we take God seriously, we approach Him in worship with expressions of joy!
3. Worship is spiritual. Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and truth,” Luke 4:24. Worship is a sacred time, set-apart…
Reminding us that there are matters of eternal significance;
Reminding us that we answer to God;
Reminding us that we need Him every hour.
Worship involves both faith and feeling. It is both spiritual and spirited. Professor Jack Davis of Gordon-Conwell Seminary writes: “American evangelical churches need to recover a sense of the holiness and majesty of God, and of the real, personal presence of the risen Christ in the midst of His people in the power of the Spirit as the central realities of biblical worship.” Warren Wiersbe writes, “We’re not worshiping God because of what He will do for us, but because of what He is to us.”
4. Worship is proclamation. All the world reveals God’s glory--our worship proclaims it! We are declaring the majesty of God. Our worship is directed both upward and outward, to God and to all people. It is our means of expressing our commitment to God and our dependence on Him. Through worship we are stating what God has done for us. When we tell people what we do on Sundays, we are admitting that we cannot effectively journey through life alone. Worship keeps us focused as we focus on God. We need to worship, to gain encouragement to face the world. Our broken world needs to know that we have resources they desperately need. Worship is an act of resistance against the idolatry of the age, and a proclamation of what is real and true and holy.
5. Worship is offering. We bring “a sacrifice of praise to God,” Hebrews 13:15. We bring ourselves as “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual worship,” Romans 12:1. In worship we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves. Our singing and our prayers remind us that all we have comes from Above, not from within. We offer ourselves to God in worship. We’re saying “yes” to God and “no” to the broken promises of the world. Yet this offering is not to buy favor (we’re not getting points for coming); it is in gratitude to God giving us new life and hope for eternity. We often come to worship as needy people. Psalm 51 says, “The sacrifices given to God are a broken and contrite heart.” And so worship is an offering of our lives to God…it’s not what we get out of worship that matters, but what we give.
6. Worship is togetherness. It’s not something we do best alone. And it’s not something we observe; it’s something we do, with others. The worship experience is rooted in community. It is a dialogue between God and His people. We gather together because we care about God and one another. Going to church isn’t like passively going to a movie, where we don’t know the people around us. In church we connect with others and participate in what’s happening. We’re more than an audience. We’re receiving and being a blessing. Jesus promises, “Where two or three are gathered in My Name, I am in their midst,” Matthew 18:20. Christianity is like a team sport; we engage in shared worship. It is together that we are God’s people, not as isolated individuals.
7. Worship is transformation. Worship isn’t just an hour we spend each week, it is a way of life. Worship proceeds from awe to pardon to dedication. We become like what we worship. It’s been said that, “Those who worship money become, eventually, human calculating machines. Those who worship sex become obsessed with their own attractiveness or prowess. Those who worship power become more and more ruthless. Those who worship God discover what it means to be fully alive” (N.T. Wright). “The best public worship is that which produces the best private Christianity” (J.C. Ryle).
8. Worship involves preparation. The “call to worship” comes before we enter the sanctuary. Worship starts the moment we begin to separate ourselves from the world so we can join with the Body of Christ. We’re praying for those who lead the worship, for each worshipper, and for ourselves. We’re focusing on God and setting aside all distractions. We’re going to church as worshippers, rather than going to church to worship…we’re already worshipping when we enter the sanctuary!
Finally, to worship is…
To stir the conscience by the holiness of God;
To feed the mind with the truth of God;
To awaken the imagination with the beauty of God;
To open the heart to the love and appreciation of God;
To devote the will to the purpose of God.
