The promise of Jesus to build his church was recently used by Haley Hughes of the Times-Georgian as a springboard into a well-written article which revealed the mindset of religious leaders in the West Georgia area.
The following is designed to show that Jesus, who is the builder, foundation, and Savior of His church, demands a voice in how those who assemble in His name should worship.
A woman of Samaria inquired of Jesus whether God is interested in where and how men worship Him (John 4:19, 20). In response Jesus said, “the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4: 23).
Three things are clear from Jesus’ response: (1) God seeks worshippers; (2) Worship must flow from the spirit or heart of the worshipper (cf. Matthew 15:8); (3) Worship must be offered “in truth.”
In a prayer that his followers be “one” Jesus asked the Father to “sanctify them through thy truth,” adding, “thy word is truth” (John 17:17). These words, from the founder of the church, make it plain that there is an alternative to man’s traditional or contemporary worship experiences, namely, that God be worshipped “in truth,” or according to his Word.
The Bible is filled with examples of those who sought, without God’s approval, to establish their own approach to worship. For example, “in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord…but unto Cain and his offering he [God] had not respect” (Genesis 4: 3, 5). “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1, 2, emphasis ours). “Bring no more vain oblations…the calling of assemblies…it is iniquity” (Isa. 1:13). The prophet continues in verse 15, “And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide my face from you, yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.”
When Jeroboam devised in his “own heart” a contemporary form of worship, God sent a prophet to cry against both Jeroboam and his altar (1 Kings 12:33; 13:1, 2). The case with Jeroboam teaches that worship devised in one’s own heart is a form of idolatry, and that changing divinely prescribed worship for the sake of convenience, or to suit the taste of man, is a sin. The apostle Paul warned that “will worship” and the “commandments of men” must be avoided when one attempts to approach his Creator (Colossians 2:20-23). Jesus said of certain Jews of his day, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). Yes, God is interested in how we worship him.
A noted Presbyterian professor of the 19th Century summarized the Scriptural teaching, “A divine warrant is necessary for every element of doctrine, government, and worship of the church; that is, whatsoever in these spheres is not commanded in the Scriptures, either expressly or by good and necessary consequence from their statements, is forbidden” (J. L. Girardeau, Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church,” 1888, p. 2). Popular Christian apologist, Ravi Zacharias, affirmed, “First, we need more than anything else today to return to the authority, the nobility, and the depth of the Scriptures” (cited in Edward E. Plowman, NIRR, Nov. 29, 1993, 3).
These writers echo the words of Paul who wrote, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17). To do a thing “in the name of the Lord Jesus” is to do it by his authority. The fact, then, that modern church leaders see nothing wrong with multiple forms of worship makes no difference in the final scheme of things. To be pleasing to God, we must have his authority for what we do in worship.
The Biblical idea, which seems to be lost in the “market-based approach” to worship, is that God is the one who is to be pleased. A certain form may be trendy or appealing to both the churched and the unchurched, but the question should be, “does it please God?”
David F Wells, in his book God in the Wasteland, warned, “I do not believe that modern evangelicals would ever knowingly deny biblical truth, and yet they have proved themselves regrettably liable to miscalculate the importance of that truth.” Also, “In the marketplace, everything is for us, for our pleasure, for our satisfaction, and we have come to assume that it must be so in the church as well. And so we transform the God of mercy into a God who is at our mercy” (pp. 113,114). Another writer has well said, “Therefore, even if it means swimming against the current of this age, a genuine return to the original proclamation and apologetic of the New Testament is the only lifeguard for rescuing imperiled human rationality and for reviving the souls of our contemporaries who are drowning in the depth of postmodern pointlessness and despair” (Phillip A. Gray, Training Manual For Cultural Combat, 281).
“O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” And again, “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” (Psalm 95:1, 6-7).
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