Gather to Worship?
Why is it when I leave a Sunday church service, or a time where I am with fellow believers, I feel re-energized or more full of joy? It’s because this is what God intended for us when we gather together to worship. This is a major purpose of Communal Worship.
Old Testament
There was a time when the believers had to wait to worship together. The Israelites escaped Egypt and were wandering the desert, and this is where God established his dwelling place among them (Ex 15:13,17). This dwelling place was a mobile tent, tabernacle, and where the priests would sacrifice animals for the sins of the people (Ex 29:44-46). God would make a covenant with the Israelites in this desert, Mosaic Covenant. He reminds them that He rescued them from Egypt and they will be His treasured possession if they adhere to the covenant (Ex 19:1-6). God establishes laws, terms, and all the guidelines to this covenant in Exodus, Leviticus, Number, and Deuteronomy. In these terms and guidelines, were times of mandatory celebration of the tabernacle; Passover, firstfruits and five others (Lev. 23). Other than these festivals there were not a lot of corporate worship gatherings, and the presence of God was restricted to only the Levitcal priesthood. But then Jesus came.
New Testament
Jesus comes to Earth and changes everything. In Him God fulfills His promises (2 Cor. 1:20). The old covenant is fulfilled in Christ and a new covenant is established: The Mosaic Covenant is transformed. Jesus became flesh and dwells among us (John 1:14), this changed the tabernacle model to Jesus now being that temple where we worship. Jesus redeems the old model by being the blood and redemption for our salvation (Heb. 7:27, 9:12). He dwells among/in us, is the redemptive blood sacrifice and is the ultimate High Priest (Heb. 4:14). We no longer have to sacrifice animals, go to a temple, or wait for the next festival to worship. So how do we sacrifice and worship now? Paul tells us that we are to sacrifice ourselves and this is our true worship (Rom. 12:1). We now worship God with our life, body ie. tongue, hands, brain and feet, giving praise to God boldly day in and day out. Worship is available to us as a lifestyle and the Holy Spirit lives in us and connects us all as one body: the temple of God.
What Now
The body is made up of many parts, or a building needs many parts to stand up and be supported. There aren’t a lot of buildings that I know that can be held up by one wall. We are image bearers of Christ and when we gather together we show the many facets of God’s glory in human form. The human form though, like a building, can get beat up, worn down, tired and even straight up broken. Buildings cannot fix themselves. Someone needs to come along and patch up those cracks, put a new layer of paint on, add a new support, and clean out the gutters. This is exactly what corporate worship is for; building up the body of Christ. We need it. As a group of believers we read and preach scripture (1 Tim 4:14), sing songs together (Eph 5:18-19; Col. 3:16); pray for one another (1 Tim 2:1-8), taking communion and seeing someone get baptized (Matt. 28:19, 1 Cor. 11:17-34), and encourage one another to do good (Heb. 10:24-25). As we praise God together we build each other up and encourage one another. We as a body of believers get the opportunity to help each other out, equip each other and build each other up by praising God (Eph. 4:11-16).
Communal Worship is important, not only for our understanding of who God is, but also for the opportunities to build others up and to be built up by others. God intended for us to be gathered together to worship and there is Joy in the House of the Lord.
