by Pastor Jim Kang
The fundamental reason churches exist is to glorify God. And one of the ways churches can glorify God is through corporate worship. However, how should the church worship? What should be done in worship? Even more fundamentally, what is worship? What is corporate worship? What should drive the corporate worship?
These are important questions that churches cannot afford to ignore. Hence, the purpose in this series of posts is to bring some clarity by raising simple journalistic questions, namely, who, why, when, where, what, and how in regards to worship. So far in the series, in addition to the introduction, two questions were answered:
In this post the question of when is addressed.
When to Worship Corporately?
Certainly, individuals can worship God by praying, singing, reading, or listening to God’s word on their own at any time. But there is a time when individuals of God’s redeemed come together corporately to worship their creator and redeemer. And that takes place on the first day of the week, which God’s people have affectionately called historically the Lord’s Day.
The reason Christians congregate corporately to worship God on the first day of the week is Jesus Christ was resurrected from his grave on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). The resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to Christian faith. Hence, it is central to Christian worship. So when Christians gather to worship, it is to remember and celebrate in light of that glorious event in God’s redemptive history.
Moreover, historically, the Protestant churches have always valued the importance of corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. For instance, according to Question 103 of the Heidelberg Catechism (written in 1563) asks: What does God require in the fourth commandment? The replied answer states:
In the first place, God wills that the ministry of the Gospel and schools be maintained, and that I, especially on the day of rest, diligently attend church to learn the Word of God, to use the Holy Sacraments, to call publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christian alms. In the second place, that all the days of my life I rest from my evil works, allow the Lord to work in me by His Spirit, and thus begin in this life the everlasting Sabbath.
Also, the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) written in 1646 states:
As it is of the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath (21.7).
The Baptists were no different. According to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (LBCF) states:
As it is of the law of nature, that, in general a proportion of time, by God’s appointment, be set apart for the worship of God, so by his Word, in a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week being abolished (22.7).
That particular confession of LBCF is almost identical to WCF, but the Baptists have inclusions at the end that states explicitly that the old covenant Sabbath has been abolished – i.e., “the observation of the last day of the week being abolished.”
Some Applications
Worshiping God requires giving our best, not our leftovers. That implies priority and preparation. One writer suggests the following:
We need to plan ahead. We know the importance of planning ahead because we do this regularly for the other days of the week. If we want a successful holiday outing with friends, we will often have to think about it in advance. If we want to be ready for a meeting with an important client, we will need to order some events ahead of time.
We often need to give thought to the next day if it is to run smoothly, and this is no less true for the day when, in a special way, we meet with each other and with the Lord. We need to prepare our hearts, reminding ourselves why we need and want to worship the Lord. Furthermore, we need to order our many tasks. For it is a known fact in the Christian community that if we do not carefully attend to our work on six days of the week, we will not easily find rest on the remaining day.
To put it negatively, if we neglect proper preparation, instead of finding rest in Christ, and refreshment in the fellowship of God’s people, we will find ourselves taking our work to church. But if we have focused on our work, and if we have taken the time to take stock of our week, then we will find our minds much more free on Sunday morning, afternoon, or evening. We will be less likely to be reviewing our own words and thoughts in the middle of the worship service, and more likely to focus on God’s Word, thinking his thoughts after him. Rest is principally defined as non-work in the Decalogue and elsewhere, but work and rest need to be tied together in our thinking, just as they are in the Scriptures.[1]
[1= Chad Van Dixhoorn, Confessing the Faith (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth, 2014), 293-294.