How much of a priority should worship be in the church?

Worship holds the first and highest place. This is for us His people most clearly stated in the New Testament. Devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ in our life is the highest form of service and all other service must flow, and will flow, from faithfulness to the Person of our Lord.

Worship is the result of the exercise of the holy priesthood; ministry is the exercise of the gift the Lord has given to His servants. Worship is from the soul to God. Ministry is from God to the soul. The holy priests are to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Hebrews 13:15, says, "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name." There should be continually rising from the hearts of the saints, blessing, and praise, and worship.

The Lord has put us together first of all, to praise, and thank, and bless God. We must have God first: His due must be rendered to Him. We must not even put preaching the Gospel first. This is where Christendom has gone wrong. It has put the world first, and made the salvation of souls the first object. Now this is not what God looks for to be our first object. It is all right, in its place, and we cannot be too earnest in our endeavour to get souls saved, but God's claims on us, as His saints, and His holy priests, we must first respond to. Then go out after souls with all the energy possible.

Let us carefully note this. Praise is to be the primary and continual occupation of the believer. We, in our fancied wisdom, would put work in the first place. We are disposed to attach chief importance to bustling activity. We have such an overweening sense of the value of doing, that we lose sight of the place which worship occupies in the thoughts of God.

For the new nature has two, and but two, spheres of exercise; one sphere of its exercise is upward, and another sphere downward. Life goes out in praise and adoration towards God, as it is displayed in active goodness towards man. This includes of course those that are members of the same body, and none but the possessors of the life of Christ and of the Holy Ghost. Besides the love towards all mankind, and yet more intimately to his brethren, there is nothing that ought to stamp a Christian so much as worship. The love that was in Christ ought to be reproduced in the Christian. He has the same life, and that life is exercised in its own divine affections by the Spirit of God. But then, the highest sphere of its display is not downward, but upward. Hence, however precious service may be, whether in the higher part (namely, ministering to the church the grace of Christ and the truth of God), or in the giving out the gospel of God to the world (and these are the different parts of Christian ministry), precious as either may be, nothing equals worship. In the one case you are looking at man, or the saints; in the other case you are before our God and Father, and as much as God is above man, so is Christian worship even above Christian service.

In this chapter then we find that the water flows up to God in worship, and it is very important to bear that in mind. When people are saved they are often at once set to work. If you are saved, before you set yourself to work for the Lord, get right into the spirit of worship. The moral order in John's gospel is very important. The fourth of John follows the third, and the seventh of John the fourth. In the third we have the water coming down from God. In the fourth we have the "well of water springing up" — the worship of the renewed heart going up to God. In the seventh we shall find "rivers of water" flowing out, i.e. testimony for God in service of every kind. The importance of this order cannot be overrated. All service will be poor and fruitless, if we are not first of all rightly exercising our priestly functions in the assembly of God, and as children before the Father, in worship. In other words, the claims of the Father, the claims of God must ever supersede the claims, or the need of man. Herein lies the difference between worship and ministry. Worship is what flows from the heart to God, and must have the first place. Ministry is what flows from God to man. It is the exercise of a spiritual gift, as we shall see more fully hereafter.

Secondly, I have no doubt that worship, with the Lord's supper as the great and characterising centre of it, and not preaching, is the great object of Christians assembling themselves together. Preaching and teaching is the work of individuals, and goes on pari passu. But it is not the assembly's (and church simply means assembly) part to teach or set forth the gospel, but the apostle's, evangelist's, or whoever is able. The assembly is taught, and confesses the truth.

Thus, as the rule, all saints are now called to join in the worship of God. They are saved that they may, not serve only, looking down, but worship, looking up. hence the all-importance of the Lord's Supper, the centre of Christian worship, and of its celebration on each first day of the week. (1 Cor. 11; Acts 20.) But this will come more fully before us when we treat of worship itself, and of divers helps or hindrances to it.

The Lord's Supper, then, is the chief meeting of the Church. It is the only one distinctly specified, and it occurred weekly. It naturally follows that the breaking of bread gives character to the whole meeting. Teaching there may be, prayer, and exhortation; but the breaking of bread should ever be the prominent feature, and all else subordinated to and influenced by that. But if the Lord Himself is before us, and our state is right, praise and worship will predominate. Such a meeting will be a foretaste of that endless praise of heaven, when, gathered about Him, the whole company of the redeemed will burst forth in one eternal anthem of praise. "Till He come," may we anticipate that blessed time every Lord's day.

We have thus far sought to present some of the leading characteristics of Christian worship. But what has been said can apply to individuals entirely, and it must now be made plain that there is Church worship as well as individual, — corporate praise. Not that the ground, object, or materials of the praise are different, but God has provided that the Church shall praise as a whole. The truths we have been considering in previous papers thus far will serve to make this clear. The unity of the Church, the link of God's people by the Spirit to a glorified Christ and to one another — these and kindred truths necessitate the conclusion that we are "members one of another." When, therefore, we come together, if according to God's mind, we are not merely individuals, but form an assembly representing the whole Church. Our worship is now corporate. The praise and adoration are not merely of an individual, but of an assembly. Let us pause and admire the wisdom as well as the love of God in this provision. He knows we are social beings, that our joy as well as our sorrow needs to be shared, and that thus the one is increased and the other diminished. So in our highest service He has provided that we shall unitedly pour forth our tribute of praise and thanksgiving.

The great occasion for Church worship is when believers are gathered together on the first day of the week to break bread: not that praise should be limited to that time, but then we have it in its completeness. We are then, or should be, "gathered to His Name" (Matt. 18:20). The Lord is in our midst, to lead our praises (Heb. 2:12). The Holy Spirit is present to guide, according to the Word (1 Cor. 14:25); and the memorials of our Saviour's dying love are there to be partaken of.

He Himself is 'in the midst of the assembly,' not simply for our blessing, but for the glory of God. This unfeigned, joyous ascription of praise to God is the prime reason for the gathering of the church, the assembly of the living God. Let us zealously guard against its degeneration into anything less than this. Indeed this spirit of praise should be evident even when gathered for prayer in seeking the gracious blessing of God, or in the ministry of the Word of God to the saints. But the remembrance of the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread,-the central expression of the fellowship of the body of Christ, -is intended exclusively for the bringing of praise, thanksgiving, adoration to our God and Father through Jesus Christ our Lord.