John MacArthur
Much that transpires in the church today under the name “worship” is unacceptable to God. Scripture has at least four categories of false worship. God has designed worship to be honor and adoration directed to Himself. It has outward, inward, and upward dimensions and touches every area of a Christian’s life in doing good, sharing with others, and praising God. It is the basis for his behavior and his ministry. The church needs to return to the basic essence of true worship and not be distracted by activities that are void of honor and adoration of God.1
The word worship often evokes images of holy hardware and sacred rites. Most of the world’s religions reflect this. Many see beads, prayer wheels, sacred art, and such things as essential to the worship experience. In some systems the place of worship is paramount. In these religions, worship is not acceptable unless it involves a prescribed ceremony at some established holy site. Worship has thus come to mean ritual. Even in some Christian traditions candles, incense, holy vestments, and liturgy have become virtually synonymous with worship.
These elements and practices have sometimes lulled evangelicals into careless thinking about worship. Over the past decade or so, a number of new books from evangelical authors on the subject of worship have appeared. Some of these contain much excellent material, but many of them fall into the trap of equating worship with liturgy. Thus when they call for a deepening of the evangelical worship experience, quite often what they actually have in mind is more formal liturgy. One otherwise very fine book on worship repeatedly stated that evangelical worship is not as rich as that of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. The author seemed to imply that without a formal liturgy having ceremonial solemnity, worship is lame.
The number of people who share this perspective is astonishing. I heard a man on the radio recently say that he attends “an evangelical church for the preaching, and an Anglican high church for the worship.” This is a poor understanding of what Scripture teaches about worship.
Jesus himself addressed this error. Remember His conversation with the Samaritan woman? She was keen to know whether the most acceptable place to worship God was in the temple at Jerusalem or at the Samaritan holy place on Mount Gerizim (John 4:20). Jesus told her,
Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:21–24).
In other words, it is not the location or the external forms of worship that really matter, but the attitude of the worshiper’s heart toward God. Deepening our worship is not accomplished by more formal liturgy; indeed, that may actually be counterproductive. A deepening of true worship occurs when the heart of the worshiper becomes more earnest and when the truth consumes the mind of the worshiper. All worship not offered in spirit and in truth is utterly unacceptable to God, no matter how beautiful the external forms.
DEVIANT WORSHIP
Scripture is very clear about this. Approximately half of everything the Bible says about worship condemns false worship. The first two of the Ten Commandments are prohibitions against false worship:
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD Your God, am a jealous God (Ex. 20:2–5).
Consider how much of the Old Testament describes the evil consequences of false worship. Cain and Abel, the Israelites and golden calf at Sinai, Nadab and Abihu’s offering of strange fire, King Saul’s intrusion into the priest’s office, Eli’s wicked sons who pilfered what was offered to God, Elijah’s confrontations with Jezebel and the priests of Baal, and Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image are all variations on this same theme: God does not accept worship not offered in spirit and in truth.
Many people foolishly believe God will accept anything offered by well-meaning worshipers. It is clear, however, that sincerity is not the test of true worship. All self-styled or aberrant worship is utterly unacceptable to God. Consider how often these things are reiterated in the Old Testament law. And notice the severity of God’s threats against those who worship falsely:
You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments (Ex. 20:4–6).
Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim—for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God—lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invite you to eat of his sacrifice (34:12–15).
You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him, and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth (Deut. 6:13–15).
And it shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God, and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish (8:19).
Beware, lest your hearts be deceived and you turn away and serve other gods and worship them. Or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you (11:16–17).
Beware that you are not ensnared to follow [the nations], after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?” You shall not behave thus toward the LORD your God, for every abominable act which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it (12:30–32).
I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it (30:16–18).
Worship of False Gods
Scripture outlines at least four categories of unacceptable worship: worship of false gods, worship of the true God in a wrong form, worship of the true God in a self-styled manner, and worship of the true God with a wrong attitude. The God of the Bible is the only God, and He is a jealous God who will not tolerate the worship of another. In Isaiah 48:11, God said, “My glory will I not give to another.” Exodus 34:14 says, “You shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
The lure of false gods seems irresistible to those who turn away from the true God. Indeed, it is the natural tendency of sinful humanity to pursue false worship. Romans 1:21 indicts the entire human race for this very sin. “Even though they knew God,” the apostle Paul wrote, “they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks.” In fact, when they refused to worship God, they began to make images. They “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (v. 23).
They refused to worship God, turning instead to false gods. That is unacceptable. Verse 24 tells the consequences of worshiping a false god: “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.” Verse 26 says, “God gave them over to degrading passions.” Verse 28 adds, “God gave them over to a depraved mind.”
The result of their improper worship was that God simply gave them over to their sin and its consequences. Can you think of anything worse? Their sin grew to be the dominating factor in their lives. Ultimately, they faced judgment, with no excuse for their actions (1:32—2:1).
Everyone worships, even atheists. Atheists worship themselves. When people reject God, they always worship false gods of their own choice. Those gods are not necessarily personalities. People may worship money, material things, popularity, or power. All those things are as idolatrous as worshiping a stone god—idolatry which is precisely what God forbade in the first and second commandments.
Most people who worship material things do so without the consciousness that they are worshiping deities. Is that still idolatry? Absolutely. Job 31:24–28 says,
If I have put my confidence in gold,
And called fine gold my trust,
If I have gloated because my wealth was great,
And because my hand had secured so much;
If I have looked at the sun when it shone,
Or the moon going in splendor,
And my heart became secretly enticed,
And my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
That too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment,
For I would have denied God above.
Job was a righteous man who refused to worship his material wealth. To do so, he said, would be to deny God. That is a sobering thought, one that many Christians in this materialistic age would do well to ponder carefully. Professing Christians abhor the superstition and compromise of the Israelites when reading in the Old Testament about their constant turning to pagan worship, but they forget their own habit of putting their trust in material things and setting their hearts on houses, cars, and temporal goods. They are in fact guilty of the same sin of idolatry.
Idolatry has other forms as well. Habakkuk 1:15, 16 describes the false worship of the Chaldeans: “The Chaldeans bring all of them [the righteous] up with a hook, drag them away with their net, and gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore, they rejoice and are glad. Therefore, they offer a sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their fishing net.” “Their net” was their military might, and the god they worshiped was armed power, also a false god.
Even today, people formulate supernatural gods, supposed deities. The rise of the New Age movement has produced a revival of pagan religions. People today are worshiping earth goddesses, animals, spirit beings, and even mythological deities on a scale unknown since before the Middle Ages. That is nothing more than demon worship. First Corinthians 10:20 says that things sacrificed to idols are really sacrificed to demons. Therefore, if people worship false beings, they are actually worshiping the demons that impersonate those false gods.
What folly it is to worship creation rather than the Creator! In Acts 17:29 Paul made this observation: “Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.” Those created in God’s image dare not attempt to remake God into another image (see Rom. 1:21, 25).
Worship of the True God in a Wrong Form
Exodus 32:7–9 records God’s response when the Israelites made a golden calf to worship:
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed unto it, and said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
When the Israelites constructed the golden calf, they thought they were worshiping the true God, but by reducing Him to an image, they corrupted both their worship and their concept of God. This is why God forbids such idolatry. It is impossible to reduce God to a form represented by a statue or a painting. Those who worship such things may believe they worship the true God, but their worship denigrates God and is therefore unacceptable.
Years after the Sinai incident, Moses said to the assembled Israelites,
And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it. So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven (Deut. 4:14–19).
When God revealed Himself to the Israelites, he was unrepresented in any visible form. There was purposely no tangible representation of God. Why? Because God does not wish to be reduced to an image. That is true of God throughout the Scriptures.
Only the Incarnation of Christ was adequate to reveal God in a tangible form. “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18). There is, therefore, a tone of wonder in John’s words when he wrote,
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also (1 John 1:1–3, emphasis added).
Only the living person of Christ can reveal God in any visible or tangible form. To attempt to express God in any lesser image is to commit idolatry.
In fact, one must guard even his thoughts about God. To envision God as an old man with a beard sitting on a throne is unacceptable. Idolatry does not begin with a sculptor’s hammer; it begins in the mind. How should one visualize God? He should not! No visual conception of God can properly and adequately represent His eternal glory. That may be why the Bible describes God as light. It is impossible to make a statue of light.
Worship of the True God in a Self-Styled Manner
This is false worship just as surely as worshiping a stone idol is false worship. God does not accept it.
The Pharisees tried to worship the true God with a self-styled system, and Jesus told them, “You yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matt. 15:3). Their worship was an abomination.
The basis of the biblical rule for worship is the principle of sola Scriptura, Scripture alone. When it comes to worship, whatever the Scripture does not expressly command is forbidden. “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you” (Deut. 4:2). “Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it” (12:32). Both of those commandments appear in the context of laws given to regulate worship, and they limit all forms of worship to what the law expressly commanded.
Worship of the True God with a Wrong Attitude
By far the most subtle kind of false worship, more difficult to measure from outward appearances than any of the first three already mentioned, is the worship of the true God in the right way, with a wrong attitude. Even with the elimination of all false gods, all images of the true God, and all self-styled modes of worship, worship will still be unacceptable if the heart attitude is not right. True worship requires devotion of the whole heart, soul, mind, and strength (Luke 10:27). When it is time to give, one must give the best of all he has, not the leftovers (Prov. 3:9). Awe and reverence and a focus on the truth must fill his mind (Ps. 138:2). That is what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. How much present-day worship qualifies as acceptable under those guidelines?
In Malachi 1 God denounced the people of Israel for the inadequacy of their worship. “You are presenting defiled food upon my altar,” He said (v. 7). They were treating worship with disdain, with flippancy. By offering blind, lame, and sick animals (v. 8) instead of bringing the best they had, they were demonstrating contempt for the seriousness of worship. In verse 10, God said, “I am not pleased with you . . . nor will I accept an offering from you.” He declined to accept their worship, because their attitude was not right.
Amos also gave insight into the intensity of God’s hatred of worship with the wrong attitude. In Amos 5:21–24, God said,
I hate, I reject your festivals,
Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings.
Take away from Me the noise of your songs;
I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Hosea saw the same truth. Hosea 6:4–6 gives God’s words:
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
For your loyalty is like a morning cloud,
And like the dew which goes away early.
Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.
For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice,
And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
It was hypocrisy, not worship. The offerings were empty. Like many today, they were guilty of giving God the symbol, but not the reality.
Isaiah 1 contains the same indictment:
“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”
Says the LORD.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed cattle.
And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.
When you come to appear before Me,
Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?
Bring your worthless offerings no longer,
Incense is an abomination to Me.
New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts,
They have become a burden to Me.
I am weary of bearing them.
So when you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide My eyes from you,
Yes, even though you multiply your prayers,
I will not listen (vv.11–15).
Read carefully the minor prophets. The prophecies of Israel’s and Judah’s destruction resulted from their failure to worship God with the proper attitude.
Perhaps the greatest need in all of Christendom is for a clear understanding of the biblical teaching about worship. When the church fails to worship properly, it fails in every other area.
A fresh understanding of worship is a necessity. God has commanded it. Pastoral ministry depends on it. It is crucial to a personal relationship with Him and a testimony in this world. No one can afford to ignore it; too much is at stake.
WORSHIP AS GOD DESIGNED IT TO BE
Where do people go astray in their understanding of worship? Surely it is in a lack of understanding of what real worship is. As noted early in this chapter, most people think of worship as an external thing: ritual, performance, activity that takes place at a prescribed time and place, following predetermined forms. But that is not at all the spirit of true worship.
It is impossible to isolate or relegate worship to just one place, time, or segment of life. Verbally thanking and praising God while living a life of selfishness and carnality is a perversion. Appropriate acts of worship must be the overflow of a worshiping life.
In Psalm 45:1, David wrote, “My heart overflows with a good theme.” The Hebrew word for overflow means “to boil over,” and in a sense that is what praise actually is. Righteousness and love so warm the heart that, figuratively, it reaches the boiling point. Praise is the boiling over of a hot heart. It is reminiscent of what the disciples experienced on the road to Emmaus: “Were not our hearts burning within us?” (Luke 24:32). As God warms the heart with truth, righteousness, and love, the resulting life of praise that boils over is the truest expression of worship.
Here is a simple definition of worship: worship is honor and adoration directed to God. That definition is sufficiently detailed. A study of the concept of worship in the Word of God will fill that definition with richness.
The New Testament uses several words for worship. Two of them are particularly noteworthy. The first is proskuneō, a commonly used term whose literal meaning is “to kiss toward,” “to kiss the hand,” or “to bow down.” It is the word for worship used to signify humble adoration. The second word is latreuō, which suggests rendering honor or paying homage. Latreuō speaks of the kind of reverent veneration reserved solely for God.
Both terms carry the idea of giving, because worship is giving something to God. The Anglo-Saxon source of the English word is weorthscipe, which relates to the concept of worthiness. Worship is ascribing to God His worth, or stating and affirming His supreme value.
So to talk about worship is to talk about something we give to God. Modern Christianity seems committed, instead, to the idea that God should be giving to us. God does give to us abundantly, but we need to understand the balance of that truth. We are to render ceaseless honor and adoration to God. That consuming, selfless desire to give to God is the essence and the heart of worship. It begins with the giving first of ourselves, and then of our attitudes, and then of our possessions, until worship is a way of life.
Worship in Three Dimensions
A key adjective, used often in the New Testament to describe proper acts of worship, is the word acceptable. Every worshiper seeks to offer what is acceptable. Scripture specifies at least three categories of acceptable worship.
The outward dimension. First, how we behave toward others can reflect worship. Romans 14:18 says, “For he who in this way serves [latreuō] Christ is acceptable to God.” What is this acceptable offering given to God? The context reveals that it is being sensitive to a weaker brother. Verse 13 says, “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.” In other words, treating fellow Christians with the proper kind of sensitivity is an acceptable act of worship. It honors God, who created and loves that person, and it reflects God’s compassion and care.
Romans 15:16 implies that evangelism is a form of acceptable worship. Paul wrote that he received special grace “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that my offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable.” The Gentiles won to Jesus Christ by his ministry became an offering of worship to God. In addition, those who were won became worshipers themselves.
In Philippians 4:18, Paul thanked the Philippians for their monetary gift to help him in his ministry: “I have received everything in full, and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.” Here, acceptable worship consists of giving to those in need. That glorifies God by demonstrating His love.
So it is possible to express worship by sharing love with fellow believers, sharing the gospel with unbelievers, and meeting the needs of people on a very physical level. A single word sums it up: acceptable worship is giving. It is a love that shares.
The inward dimension. A second category of worship involves personal behavior. Ephesians 5:8–10 says, “Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” The word pleasing is from a Greek word that means “acceptable.” In this context, Paul referred to goodness, righteousness, and truth, saying clearly that to do good is an acceptable act of worship toward God.
He began 1 Timothy 2 by urging Christians to pray for those in authority in order that believers may live tranquil lives in godliness and dignity. Note carefully that the final words in verse 2 are “godliness and dignity.” Verse 3 goes on to say, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.”
So in addition to sharing with others as an act of worship (that is, the effect of worship on others), doing good is also an act of worship (that is, its effect in our own lives).
The upward dimension. Worship affects one other relationship, the relationship with God. Hebrews 13:15–16 marvelously sums up worship. Verse 15 says, “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” Worship in its Godward focus is thanksgiving and praise. With verse 16, the passage brings together all three categories of worship: “And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Praising God, doing good, and sharing with others all are legitimate, scriptural acts of worship. That includes in the concept of worship every activity and relationship of human living. The implication is that just as the Scriptures from cover to cover center on the subject of worship, so the believer should dedicate himself to the activity of worship, consumed with a desire to use every moment of his life to devote himself to doing good, sharing, and praising God.
Whole-Life Worship
The understanding that true worship touches each area of life enriches our original definition. We are to honor and adore God in everything.
Paul made a powerful statement in Romans 12:1–2 about the concept of whole-life worship. His words there follow what is possibly the greatest exposition of theology in all of Scripture. Those first eleven chapters of Romans are a monumental treatise, moving from the wrath of God through the redemption of man, to the plan of God for Israel and the church. They include all the great themes of redemptive theology, and Romans 12:1–2 are in response to them:
I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
“The mercies of God” are what Paul had described in the first eleven chapters. The theme of those chapters is God’s merciful work on behalf of mankind. Through eleven chapters of doctrine, Paul defined the Christian life and all its benefits. Now he said that the only adequate response to what God has done and the starting point for acceptable spiritual worship, is to present oneself as a living sacrifice.
First Peter 1 reiterates the same basic truth. Peter gave there a full and rich statement of what Christ has done for us:
May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (vv. 2–5).
Note the Christian response to that in 1 Peter 2:5: “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Peter’s argument is identical with Paul’s: Because of what God has done for us, we should be offering up acceptable spiritual sacrifices of worship.
Another New Testament passage that parallels Romans 12:1–2 is Hebrews 12:28–29. Verse 28 says, “Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken [again he is dealing with what God has done for us], let us show gratitude, by which we may offer [the word is a form of latreuō] to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.” Our all-inclusive response to God, our chief priority and the only activity that matters, is pure, acceptable worship.
The Order of Priorities
God’s Word repeatedly confirms the absolute priority of worship. Hebrews 11 contains a list of Old Testament heroes of faith. The first is Abel. His life echoed one word: worship. The single dominant issue in Abel’s story is that he was a true worshiper; he worshiped according to God’s will, and God accepted his offering. That is really all we know about his life.
The second person in Hebrews 11 is Enoch, whose single word of identification is walk. Enoch walked with God; he lived a godly, faithful, dedicated life. One day he walked from earth to heaven!
Third on the list is Noah. The word suggested by Noah is work. He spent 120 years building the ark. That is work, the work of faith.
Hebrews 11 has an order that goes beyond the chronological. It is an order of priorities: first comes worship, then walk, and then work. The order is the same as in the layout of the camp of Israel around the tabernacle. The priests, those whose function was to lead the people in worship, camped immediately around the tabernacle. Beyond them were the Levites, whose function was service. The positions illustrated that worship was the central activity, and service was secondary.
The law displayed the same order. Moses established specific age requirements for different ministries. According to Numbers 1:3, a young Israelite could serve as a soldier when he was twenty. Numbers 8:24 says that a Levite could begin to work in the tabernacle when he was twenty-five. But Numbers 4:3 says that to be a priest and lead the people in worship, a man had to be thirty. The reason is simple: Leading in worship demands the highest level of maturity, because as the first priority in the divine order, worship holds the greatest significance.
Activities of the angels shows the same order of priority. In Isaiah 6, the prophet described his vision:
In the year of king Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (vv. 1–3).
The seraphim are a class of angelic beings associated with the presence of God. It is particularly interesting to note that of their six wings, four related to worship and only two related to service. They covered their feet to protect the holiness of God. They covered their faces because they could not look upon His glory. With the two remaining wings, they flew and took care of whatever tasks their service required.
It is necessary to keep ministry in perspective. Gibbs correctly observed that ministry is that which comes down from the Father by the Son in the power of the Spirit through the human instrument. Worship starts in the human instrument and goes up by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Son to the Father.2
In the Old Testament, the prophet was a minister of God’s Word and spoke from God to the people. The priest, who led the worship, spoke from the people to God. Worship is the perfect element to balance with ministry, but the order of priority begins with worship, not ministry.
Luke 10 has the familiar account of Jesus’ visit to Mary and Martha:
Now as they were traveling along, He entered a certain village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord’s word, seated at His feet. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him, and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (vv. 38–42).
Worship is the primary essential, and service is a wonderful and necessary corollary to it. Worship is central in the will of God, the great sine qua non of all Christian experience.
Later Jesus taught a similar lesson, again at the home of Mary and Martha while Lazarus their brother, whom Jesus had raised from the dead, was there:
So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. Mary therefore took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii, and given to poor people?” Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. Jesus therefore said, “Let her alone, in order that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have Me” (John 12:2–8).
What Mary did was very humiliating. A woman’s hair is her glory; and a man’s feet, dirty with the dust or mud of the roads, are nobody’s glory. To use such costly ointment (worth a year’s wages) seemed incredibly wasteful to the pragmatists. Notice that Judas Iscariot represented a pragmatic outlook. Jesus rebuked him for such an attitude. Mary’s act was sincere worship, and Jesus commended her for understanding the priority.
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Tragically, the element of worship is largely absent from the church amid all its activity! A number of years ago I read a newspaper account of a christening party in a wealthy Boston suburb. The parents had opened their palatial home to friends and relatives, who had come to celebrate the wonderful event. As the party was progressing and the people were having a wonderful time eating, drinking, celebrating, and enjoying one another, someone said, “By the way, where is the baby?”
The heart of that mother jumped, and she instantly left the room and rushed into the master bedroom, where she had left the baby asleep in the middle of the massive bed. The baby was dead, smothered by the coats of the guests.
I have often thought about that in reference to the treatment the Lord Jesus Christ receives from His own church. We are busy supposedly celebrating Him, while He is smothering under the coats of the guests.
We have many activities and little worship. We are big on ministry and small on adoration. We are disastrously pragmatic. All we want to know about is what works. We want formulas and gimmicks, and somehow in the process, we leave out that to which God has called us.
We are too many Marthas and too few Marys. We are so deeply entrenched in the doing that we miss the being. We are programmed and informed and planned and busy—and we slight worship! We have our functions, our promotions, our objectives, our success-driven, numbers-conscious, traditionalistic, even faddish efforts. But too often acceptable, true, spiritual worship eludes us.
Years ago, A. W. Tozer called worship “the missing jewel of the church.” If he were still with us, I am sure he would reiterate that statement. In America 350,000 churches own 80 billion dollars worth of facilities dedicated to worshiping God. But how much true worship takes place?
A distinguished explorer was making a trek in the Amazon jungle. Native tribesmen were bearing his great burdens, and he was driving them with great force to cover a lot of ground rapidly. At the end of the third day they rested, and when morning came and it was time to embark again, the natives sat on the ground by their burdens. The explorer did everything he could to get them up and moving, but they would not budge. Finally, the chief said to him, “My friend, they are resting until their souls catch up to their bodies.”
Here’s hoping that will happen in the church.