What is Public Worship?
Christianity is the greatest Story ever told, and the Triune God is in the star role. We are doxological creatures. We’re hardwired for worship; and that’s because worship is our destiny. So what’s happening in public worship? Why is the gathering of the church, what some call corporate worship, important? I want you to imagine public worship as God’s divine theater where the drama of the Holy Script and our participation in it is renewed, affirmed, and sealed every week. Of course, God is present everywhere all the time as our omnipresent Creator. But public worship, or the divine service, is where this God renews his covenant as faithful Savior and King. You might say that it’s possible to meet God anywhere; but it’s promised that you will encounter God in public worship. In worship, the covenant God meets with His covenant people.
Central to understanding what public worship is all about is the idea of covenant. The Scriptures are largely in the form of a covenant treaty. That’s why there’s an “old testament” and “new testament” in our Bibles. Testament is another word for covenant. Testaments or covenant treaties were all over the ancient world. These treaties were oath-bound relationships involving mutual commitments. In days of old, powerful kings or suzerains would initiate diplomatic deals with smaller kingdoms, tribes, or individuals (vassals), promising security and protection. In return, the suzerain would receive exclusive loyalty and tribute from the vassal. These covenantal treaties would be comprised of various elements including (1) a historical prologue, explaining the story of the relationship, (2) a list of responsibilities and restrictions, (3) a summary list of sanctions - the rewards for maintaining loyalty and the penalties for breaking fealty, and finally (4) a celebratory meal to ratify the treaty. You can see a covenant treaty at work in the book of Exodus.
Exodus is all about worship. It’s a story about a people who go from slavery to a sanctuary. We learn that the whole purpose of God’s redemption out of Egypt was a transfer of ownership from Pharaoh to Yahweh for the goal of worship (Exodus 3:12, 18; 4:23; 5:3). Exodus meant freedom, but it was a liberty that was to be directed towards and consummated in an exclusive relationship of love and loyalty with Yahweh. Like a marriage. That covenant ceremony takes place in Exodus 19-24. Up to this point, the LORD has called Israel His son out of Egypt and brought him to the mountain of God, Sinai. He’s accomplished this divine call through words - the words He gave to His prophet, Moses. Just like the first creation, God has done something by speaking. His Word makes things happen.
After God’s call, the LORD recounts the exodus story (Exodus 19:3-4; 20:1-2). This was a rehearsal not merely of liberation from tyranny, but of divine covering and cleansing. Israel had been saved from the plague of the firstborn not because of their qualifications or ability, but by the blood of a substitute lamb. They’d been covered by God’s grace. But they’d also been baptized in the Red Sea and consecrated to God as His treasured possession (1 Corinthians 10; Exodus 19:5). These people were set apart.
Next came the commands. Covenants involved responsibilities and restrictions - and Yahweh’s covenant was no different. The Ten Words in Exodus 20 are a summary list of Israel’s responsibilities as God’s royal priesthood. This was their royal commission - to be priests to God for the sake of the nations. God’s call and invitation was to be met with Israel’s dialogical response. God speaks; we respond. You hear it in Exodus 19 and 24. “All this we will do!” Moses then confirms the covenant by throwing blood on the people of Israel (Exodus 24:8). It was in effect saying: you are bound by blood to keep this covenant.
The ceremony and covenant is then celebrated in a meal. Moses and Aaron and the representatives of Israel ascend the mountain and eat and drink before God (Exodus 24:9-11). Adam was designed, we were made, to feast before the Face of the Creator for all eternity. The covenant relationship that began with God’s call has now reached the climax; the wedding is consummated with a meal. And they lived happily ever after . . . ?
If you know the story, the marriage ends in tragedy. Israel is unfaithful to the covenant vows. Like Adam, they follow a counterfeit liturgy and bow to an idol. It takes the intercession of a mediator, Moses, for God to tabernacle with His people.
Now what’s the point of all this? A covenantal relationship with God isn’t a thing that passed away in the sands of Sinai. You have a covenant relationship with God too. In the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament, we discover that Christians are called and brought to a mountain. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24). Israel was brought to Sinai; we are brought to Zion. And Zion is a much better place.
What happens in public worship is a meeting of the Triune God with His chosen people. He has called us, summoned us by His Word, in both creation and re-creation, to hear His voice. Like Israel, He has said: “I Am the LORD your God.” Only this time, He’s set us free from an even greater Pharaoh - sin, Satan, and death. He’s covered us in more than the blood of a lamb - the Lamb of God has taken away our sin and shields us with His presence. In baptism, we’ve been united to Jesus and gone through the waters of judgment; through baptism we’ve received a transfer of ownership, a new identity, sealed in the Name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, so that we too are a royal priesthood. You now have a new commission. Finally, the covenant is celebrated in a meal. It’s a meal that’s confirmed not by us, but by the One who said “this is my blood of the new covenant” (Matthew 26). You leave the sanctuary not with a To-Do list or unsure of your relationship with God, but rather with a blessing, a good word, a benediction.
This covenant relationship is new and better. Israel had blood thrown on them requiring their personal, perfect, and perpetual love and loyalty. But in the new covenant, the true and better Israelite, Jesus, God’s Son brought out of Egypt gives his own life and blood that speaks a better word. It’s Jesus who is the loyal Israelite; Jesus the obedient Son; Jesus the better mediator; Jesus the faithful worshiper. In public worship, we meet with Jesus, the Lord and servant, the Suzerain-King and the loyal vassal. We meet in public worship for the covenant to be renewed and for us to be reminded that it’s not our doing, but salvation is from the LORD. Jesus said in Matthew 18:20 that “Where two or three are gathered in my Name there I am in the midst of them.” See it’s in and through Christ and His new covenant that all the commands and promises of God are “Yes.” Jesus has done it all. So the response from us is a celebratory “Amen” to the glory of the Holy Trinity (2 Corinthians 1:20).
