The Christian’s First Priority (2)

As we mentioned last time, in view of Paul’s words in Ephesians 1:3—Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—we see that the first priority of the true Christian is to worship.

It’s vitally important in our day to reemphasize that Scripture is dominated by the principle of worship, both in the Old Testament and the New.

First, in the Old Testament we see that the First Commandment commands us to worship God and God alone (Ex. 20:2-6). The establishment of the Tabernacle (Ex. 25) was for worship. The encampment around the Tabernacle (Num. 1:52-2:2) was designed to facilitate worship. The example of the Seraphim (Is. 6:1-2) is one of the most beautiful and powerful pictures of worship in Scripture. The many exhortations of the Psalmist make worship the central function of God’s people. Just one example is Ps. 95:6-7a: “Oh, come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For He is our God.” This is not the attitude in most contemporary worship services. With hands raised high, the catch phrase of most “worship leaders” is, “I’m going to lead you into God’s presence.” Such attitudes should frighten us, for even if such words are said with the purest of motives, the concept is still flawed. Many have the wrong method of worship because they don’t know who God is.

Second, the New Testament is just as strong in its emphasis on worship. The Magi came for the express purpose to worship (Matthew 2:2). Satan’s ultimate attack on our Lord was a matter of the object of worship, to whom our Lord answered, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:8-10). John 4:20-24 is perhaps the most important New Testament passage on worship, where the word “worship” is mentioned 10 times showing its priority and proper manner. Additionally, there are many other challenges to proper worship (Acts 17:23; Phil. 3:3; Heb. 1:6; I Peter 2:5; Rev. 4:10-11).

I am reminded often of pastor and author A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), and have read everything he wrote. In his day, over 40 years ago, he wrote much about worship and its demise. In words that could have been penned today, he wrote, for example: “Within the last quarter of a century we have actually seen a major shift in the beliefs and practices of the evangelical wing of the church so radical as to amount to a complete sellout; and all this behind the cloak of fervent orthodoxy. With Bibles under their arms and bundles of tracts in their pockets, religious persons now meet to carry on “services” so carnal, so pagan, that they can hardly be distinguished from the old vaudeville shows of earlier days. And for a preacher or a writer to challenge this heresy is to invite ridicule and abuse from every quarter” (Of God and Men, pp. 17-18).

Indeed, with today’s emphasis on drama, comedy, and other entertainment, “old vaudeville shows” is an accurate summary. People today want entertainment instead of truth. Elsewhere Tozer writes: “I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven” (Whatever Happened to Worship?, p. 13). And once again, “You know, the church started out with a Bible, then it got a hymnbook, and for years that was it—a Bible and a hymnbook. The average church now certainly wouldn’t be able to operate on just a hymnbook and the Bible. Now we have to have all kinds of truck. A lot of people couldn’t serve God at all without at least a vanload of equipment to keep them happy” (The Tozer Pulpit, I.2.40). Yes, today we need multimedia presentations, slideshows, live bands, and much to “minister to people’s needs.” But may we ask ourselves, What is heaven going to be like? Well, not one of the Biblical descriptions implies that we are going to be entertained throughout eternity. Heaven will be a place of worship—and many today are not preparing.