What should we do during corporate Worship?

In today’s blog of Worship Wednesdays, I want to ask what should we do during corporate worship? How should a church decide what elements belong in corporate worship? Some may say, whatever you feel the spirit leading you to do. We saw last week that we are to worship in spirit and truth, so certainly we ought to worship in spirit. But we also ought to worship in truth. So how do we decide what to do?

I want to echo the answer from Matt Merker’s book, “Corporate Worship.” He says, “God, by His Word, governs what the local church should do when it gathers.”

In all of life, our first and ultimate question ought to be, what does the Bible say. I am afraid there are two streams of thought in the church today that has cast off biblical authority when it comes to the church gathering. The first is tradition. So many churches across America have included things in their worship gathering that are not according to God’s Word. They have been doing it this way for 50 plus years, and “it is the way we have always done it.” Tradition often trumps Biblical authority when it comes to the elements of the worship gathering.

The second is novelty. Many new churches wanting to reject tradition, does new things in worship, and many of those aren’t according to Scripture. In this case, novelty trumps biblical authority.

Neither tradition nor novelty should dictate what we do in corporate worship, but God’s Word alone. It is our ultimate authority.

Thankfully, God’s Word tells us what we ought to do when we gather. He has not left that up to us to decide. This is what Baptists have believed for hundreds of years. The 1689 London Baptist confession of faith , which is from the year 1689 (if you didn’t figure that out) says this concerning worship:

But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.

So, God has told us in His Word how he desires to be worshipped. And we are not to worship him in any way other than how he has told us in the Scriptures.

In Genesis 8:20-21, we read that Noah built an altar to the Lord, offered burnt offerings. The Lord smelled the offering and it was a pleasing aroma to him. Noah had worshipped in the manner God has prescribed.

Yet in Leviticus 10:1-2, we read:

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.  And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

It seems a bit severe. They had made an offering to the Lord, and he consumed and killed them. The problem is they offered “strange fire.” They did not worship God according to his revealed word. They did what they wanted, worshipped God on their own terms, and it had serious consequences.

Essentially the problem is recorded in 10:3: “The Moses said to Aaron, It is what the Lord spoke saying, ‘By those who come near me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.’”

Nadab and Abihu were not treating God as holy nor honoring him in the way that they flippantly worshipped without regard for what God had commanded.

So, in our context today, in the year 2023, what has God commanded us to do during corporate worship? While every church may look different, God has told us what to do.

Merker answers this: “Following our Protestant Reformation heritage, we can summarize these elements under five headings: read the Word, pray the word, preach the Word, sing the Word, and see the Word.

• Read the Word: I. Timothy 4:13, “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.” Scripture shouldn’t just be preached, it ought to be read.

• Pray the Word: James 5:14, “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” 1 Timothy 2:1-2, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” We are called to be people of prayer.

• Preach the Word: 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction.” We are to preach the Word. In Nehemiah 8:1-8, I believe the Bible gives us a great model for biblical preaching.

And all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel. 2 Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. 4 Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam on his left hand. 5 Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. 6 Then Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place. 8 They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.

All the people were gathered, and all who could listen with understanding were present. He stood at a wooden podium which was made for this purpose. This was for several hours. This was not a 25 minutes sermon it was from early morning until mid day. Men, women, and children who could understand were all present. He opened the book, and he was standing on a platform above the rest, and when he began reading they stood up, and then they bowed low and worshipped the Lord their faces on the ground. They had a reverence for God’s Word. As they read it, they explained it, translating it to give the sense so that they understood the reading. They read the word, and explained it so that they could understand it.

This is preaching. It is not sprinking a verse or two in to share your motivational speech. It is reading God’s Word and explaining to to the congregation so that they can understand it.

• Sing the Word: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom and teaching, and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. How does the Word of God dwell in us? Through wisdom and teaching, but also by admonishing one another with songs. Through singing we admonish one another with the Word. If God’s Word is going to richly dwell in us through song, then our songs must be saturated with Scripture. And it is the word of Christ, the gospel that richly dwells in us, so our songs must be gospel centered. Many modern worship songs today could just as easily be sung to a girlfriend without changing the lyrics. That should not be. The Word of God must be clear in our songs, and our songs must communicate “the word of Christ.”

• See the Word: We do this through the ordinance of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Obviously this isn’t necessarily done each week. But both of these serve as visible pictures of what Jesus has done to save us from our sin.

If you are reading this and can think of something you are doing in your worship service that isn’t prescribed in Scripture, I would encourage you to petition to stop that practice. Whether you have been doing it for 50 years, or your new flashy pastor is doing something new to draw a crowd, if its not prescribed by the Bible, then it is the strange fire of Nadab and Abihu, and God is not pleased. What is acceptable worship to him is Worship according to His Word. When we worship God according to His Word, he is honored, glorified, and pleased. May this be our goal everytime we gather to worship our soverign, holy, wise, faithful, loving, gracious and merciful God.