Worship & the Mission of the Church
St. Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” We were designed to enjoy covenantal communion with our Creator. Humanity’s chief end, our telos, was to know God, love God with our whole heart, and live with God in forever happiness to His glory. “Everybody worships.” What does humanity’s destiny of glorifying and enjoying God say about the purpose of the church?
When you think about the church’s mission, what comes to mind? A Sunday morning service? Growth and expansion through evangelism and missions? Changing the world through justice and mercy? Nurturing discipleship in small groups or programs? The Apostle Peter, writing to a fringe minority group in the first century, called the church priest-kings. Peter said that the church exists as a royal priesthood to “proclaim the excellencies” of God (1 Peter 2:9). The apostle is using language taken from the scroll of Isaiah, where Yahweh is speaking about a new kind of creation, a new exodus rescue operation where He will form a people to “declare my praise” (Isaiah 43:21). God’s people are designed for doxology; formed to shout about God’s mighty deeds. We are made royal priests of praise. That’s at the heart of what the church is all about.
Our mission as royal priests is part of the unfolding drama of God’s redemption. Adam was placed in Eden, God’s mountain-garden-sanctuary, in order “to work it and keep it.” This language isn’t to be understood agriculturally, but liturgically. Later, in Exodus, Yahweh will tell Moses that Israel is to be delivered out of the grinding slave work of Pharaoh (Exodus 1:13-14) and into the priestly service of God at Sinai (Exodus 3:12). The Hebrews’ “work” is similar to Adam’s in the Garden. Israel’s rescue wasn’t just political liberation, but liturgical freedom. They were now set free to worship the one true God. They were set free from enslaving misery to enjoy communion with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Back to Genesis. Adam was also commissioned to “keep” the Garden-Temple holy. “Keeping” is the idea of guardianship, as seen when the cherubim are charged with guarding the sanctity of Eden with a flaming sword (Genesis 3:24). The Levites were also tasked with guarding and keeping holy the sacred space of God at the entrance of the tabernacle (Numbers 1:53; 3:7-8, 10, 32; 8:26; 18:3; 31:30, 47). Adam’s commission was a priestly one of joyfully and gratefully serving and wisely guarding the holy place. But it’s our commission too. In Revelation, we are told that we are loved by God and freed in Jesus’ blood to be a kingdom and priests (Rev. 1:6; 5:10).
So what do priests do? Among a number of responsibilities, two significant ones were to teach (Deuteronomy 33:10) and to bless (Numbers 6:22-27). The priests were to teach others the oracles, commands, promises, and wisdom of God. They were also to place God’s Name on the people in blessing. Part of proclaiming God’s excellencies was teaching people about God’s mighty deeds in creation and redemption, and blessing people in the Name of the covenant LORD. This is what a holy nation, a royal priesthood does.
Teaching and blessing are also at the heart of Jesus’ Great Commission. In Matthew 28, the risen Priest-King and Messiah commissions the apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The primary site of disciple-making for Jesus seems to be the place where people are baptized and taught all that Jesus has commanded. Historically, that’s been understood to be in the context of the assembly of God’s people on the Lord’s Day. Teaching and blessing occur elsewhere too. It happens when we teach our children God’s Word through Scripture and song at home. It happens in committed friendships where we encourage one another and remind each other of God’s Word. It happens when we open our home to our neighbors, blessing them with hospitality and joyful feasting.
Jesus’ work as the Great Priest-King is pronounced at the end of Luke’s Gospel as well. Jesus unfolds the Scriptures to his followers and lifts up his hands to bless them leading them to worship and the continual blessing of God in the temple (Luke 24:13-53). Here you see the true Priest-King, whose consecrated life of holiness, full of teaching people God’s way and blessing them with Kingdom realities, whose sacrificial death on the cross atoned for our sin, whose resurrected, indestructible life makes him the High Priest of the Best Covenant, commissioning you and me to a life of teaching and blessing.
Of course, the church as a royal priesthood does this in a multitude of ways, with all our lives, in the places we work, and play, and live. But this priestly commission is in its most concentrated form in the divine liturgy of corporate worship. Stefan Paas says, “...you can see best what a church is by attending a celebration of this community of exiles and priests who in all sorts of ways are meaningfully connected to their neighborhood. They sing, sigh, lament, shout, pray, cheer to God on behalf of a world that does not know or recognize him. And they invite others to join.” The liturgy is the place where the church’s doxological purpose can best be experienced. It’s the sacred space where we’re again and again called, consecrated, communed with, and commissioned as a royal priesthood together. It’s where the nations are brought in and bound together; where God’s Triune Name is put on you in baptism and benediction; where we sit at the feet of our High Priest Jesus through the Word, receiving His law and promise. Then we’re sent out to teach and bless, and most of all, to proclaim His excellencies.
