Worship Is A Dialogue

By Mark Jones

A Big Deal

Christianity makes a big deal of corporate worship. When the church gathers on the Lord’s Day, it is primarily to worship God. By worship we are not speaking strictly about the praise and worship songs in a church service, but about everything from the call to worship to the closing benediction.

We need to ask ourselves, Are we coming for the ordinances (e.g., preaching, sacraments, hymns) or for communion with God through the ordinances?

The point of worship is to bring us to God, for that is why Christ died: (1 Pet. 3:18). We come, by faith, to draw near to God, not simply to “go to church.” In the Scriptures, we find many good and helpful principles concerning how corporate worship ought to be conducted. While there is some genuine liberty in how we order our corporate worship, there are certain non-negotiable elements that should characterize worship among God’s people over the ages and in different places.

Dialogue

Worship is covenantal insofar as God covenants with us through Jesus Christ to bless us and make us in the image of his Son. We become like what we worship (Ps. 115:8), which means for Christians we can have no other option than to worship Jesus.

Worship creates “two-way traffic” between the human soul and the triune God. It is shaped in the form of a dialogue: God speaks to us, and we speak to God. Worship is for the redeemed. After Noah and his family have been saved through the waters of baptism, God calls Noah and his family out of the ark (Gen. 8:15–16)—a “call to worship.” Noah responds to God’s call to come out with worship. (Gen. 8:20). God then responds to Noah’s worship with a promise. (Gen. 8:21)

Noah and his family are the visible church at this point in redemptive history. God continues to speak to Noah regarding both promises and commands, which are integral aspects of true worship. Careful readers of the Scriptures can find the “dialogical principle” throughout God’s word, which is simply this: God speaks, and we respond. God speaks in light of who he is and what he has done, and we respond back to God by praising him not only for who he is and what he has done, but also for what we will do as the redeemed.

Taken from Worship Is a Dialogue by Mark Jones, Copyright © February 13, 2020. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org