Why Do We Worship?
By Pastor Ben Workentine, Discipleship Pastor at St. Mark Ministries
May the words of my mouth and meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
“Why do we worship?”
This question was posed at a gathering of Christians. Before anyone could answer, Riker stepped in. He’s a firecracker 4-year-old – high energy, high octane. Somebody was always putting a brand-new battery in that kid’s pack. And he’s also known as a kid who loves to eat.
So Riker knew the right answer to this question: “Because we’re hungry!”
You know what? That’s not half bad! We gather to worship because we’re hungry.
Is that how you view it? Is that why we gather for online or in-person worship at St. Mark Ministries? Because you’re hungry?
It’s so easy to act like we’re not. To come into this place and sing but barely above a whisper, to listen in order to critique, to pray while holding on to a healthy dose of skepticism. To come to communion or watch a baptism with an apology on our lips about how it might look to an outsider.
When we come to worship, it’s so easy to come half-heartedly, to be disengaged, disconnected.
And it’s understandable. A place like this, a heart like this, lends itself much more readily to disconnect than to devotion. But what would it look like if we worshiped as spiritually hungry as Riker was hungry for mac and cheese, with eyes that get as big as dinner plates?
That’s what the first-century church was like. That’s the description in Acts Chapter 2 (NIV). That’s where we turn next to see what kind of posture and rhythms gather God’s people.
Worship in the Early Christian Church
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.” Acts 2:42-43 (NIV)
That last sentence really sings, doesn’t it? They were “filled with awe.”
You know, it’s always disappointing to me when I read this passage, or one like it, that talks about “awe” in the early church, and there’s nothing written in there about them being filled with awe because they had such a great pastor. It doesn’t say that, does it? It has nothing to say about a perfect program just starting up, or a beautiful building, or a glitzy ad campaign.
“Awe” for them was organic. It was natural. It came from the realization that when they gathered, wherever that might be – in a big building, a small building, in a basement, in a living room – whatever space it was, it was the place where earth and heaven brushed up against each other. And they got a glimpse into mysteries beyond their ability to understand.
It wasn’t about who was gathered, but about the one who gathered them. It wasn’t about the place they gathered in. It was about the throne room connected to that place.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s take it one phrase at a time, because at the very beginning, it starts out with “they devoted themselves.”
In other words, they were committed. They were all in. If God were pizza, these were teenagers lined up at the all-you-can-eat buffet. You don’t use the word “devoted” about something that’s optional, something that’s take-it-or-leave-it. You’re “devoted” to something essential, central, something that gives life.
Can You Worship God Anywhere?
Maybe you’ve heard somebody say, or maybe you’ve said, “I can worship God anywhere. I can worship him in a deer stand.”
And that’s true! You can worship him in the deer stand. You can worship him on the lake. You can worship him when you’re typing up the agenda for the meeting tomorrow. You can worship him as you pour cereal for your kids’ breakfast. You can worship him as you change the oil, talk to your spouse, every time you pull out your phone. You can – and you should – take every one of those opportunities as worship. That’s true.
But these verses are talking specifically about what it looks like when God’s people gather for public worship, when they come together.
What is it about public worship that inspires such devotion? You have to remember the context.
All the things that were happening around this time, 2,000 years ago, these people were meeting for the first time without Jesus. He had just ascended to heaven. He wasn’t with them. But when they gathered publicly, they knew Jesus was keeping his promise to be with them always.
When they gathered, there was power because it was His Word, His body, His blood, His presence. It was His kingdom being built among them. When they gathered, they could relax into the protective umbrella of Jesus, someone many of them had known for years.
They didn’t have to pretend. They didn’t have to be afraid. They didn’t have to be somebody else. Not in this place.
When they gathered, what they heard, what they experienced, shattered echo chambers. It turned the world’s values on their ear. It was a place where the dead came to life.
What is it like for you when you gather in this place? What do you hear? No doubt you hear Bertha singing a little bit too loudly and a little bit off-pitch. That’s true. But I hope you listen a little more carefully. Listen past that because you’ll hear words that have the power to change the world.
When we gather in this place, we sit at a table groaning under the weight of platters of forgiveness, of pictures of hope.
What is it like to gather here? This is the only place where a famished soul can be fed.
Where else would we go?
So why is it that we still hold back? We still have a portion of ourselves in reserve even here.
Maybe it’s because if I sang out, I wasn’t feeling it. Maybe I feel a little bit like a fake. Maybe it’s because if I prayed what was really in my heart, really on my mind, I’d have to admit that I’m afraid. Maybe if I leaned into the table with both elbows down, ready to dig in, then I’d have to admit that I’m not self-sufficient.
Or maybe the problem is everyone else.
Because if I really sang, if I really leaned into worship, if I was here wholeheartedly, what would they think of me? Would I be that Christian, that bizarre, that free Christian, the one who is really a Christian?
It’s so much easier to lean back, to push away, to stand aloof, and to roll my eyes. That’s way easier than actually believing that Christ is here. Because if he were really here, then there’d be no option to stay the same.
The problem is, when I push away from the table, when I have one foot ready to leave, I miss the best of what’s here.
What Do We “Get” Out of Worship?
This all starts with the apostles’ teaching. That’s the first thing they were devoted to. But it is noticeable that it is not a pastor’s opinion. It is not a thousand pastors’ opinions. This is the apostles’ teaching – an ancient truth that for nearly 2,000 years has been accurately diagnosing what ails the human condition and has been offering the only medicine that offers any real healing.
Time and again, Jesus shows up in the apostles’ teaching to pull us out of our narratives and place us in a much bigger story of an eternal kingdom that He’s building.
So we don’t gather in this place for a TED talk or an inspirational pick-me-up. We gather together for public worship because here is the water of life. Water for parched souls.
And when we kneel in front of a well this deep with water this alive, you don’t sip. You gulp. You take in as much as you can handle.
Asking questions like:
- “What is this pointing out in me?”
- “What is it confronting in me?”
- “What sin is there?”
- “What comfort is it offering as it points me to a Savior who came, who died, who rose, who’s coming again for me?”
- “What is this calling me toward?”
- “What reality is this opening up and helping me see?”
When you come with your life in shambles because your marriage is falling apart around you, Jesus comes close and says, “I’m preparing a place for you.” John 14:2-3 (NIV)
When you feel set adrift without purpose, Jesus comes close and says, “Whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV)
When you’re standing tall and proud because everything’s going well, He says, “Careful, don’t build your house on sand because that house will crumble.” Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
When you lie awake at night replaying that shameful, stupid decision, Jesus comes close and says, “Come to me, you who are weary, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
When fear strikes and you stand paralyzed, Jesus says, “Fear not, for I have overcome this world.” John 16:33
We gather to worship because this is the food we need.
Learning from the Early Christians’ Devotion to Worship
That spiritual food was not the only thing those early believers were devoted to. In fact, this section lists three more things. (Acts 2:42-43 (NIV))
They Were Devoted to Fellowship
There was a community, a commitment between believers that if one person was suffering, another would come alongside. When one person was missing out on something, another would provide. When one was ready to vent, to cry out, to struggle, to suffer – not in silence anymore – another was there to listen, unhurried and other-centered.
They Were Devoted to Breaking Bread (Communion)
They were committed when they gathered together to take this bread and break it. Whatever else they were doing, however else they were celebrating, whatever else they were talking about, they did at least this: They broke the bread, gave thanks, and they took Jesus up on His invitation to take and eat. Then they would take the wine, give thanks, and hear Jesus’ invitation to take and drink. They celebrated this meal with meaning. It was the cornerstone of their gathering. Because when Jesus offers forgiveness and resurrection in a tangible way, you wouldn’t find any of them caught dead not taking Jesus up on that invitation. They celebrated. They were devoted.
They Were Devoted to Praying for Each Other
Once the weight of sin, of shame, of guilt was lifted off their shoulders through that meal, through that forgiveness, then they would circle up, throw their arms around each other, and carry each other’s burdens. That’s what it means to be devoted to prayer.
That sounds awesome, doesn’t it? It sounds like the kind of place that I need to be, and you too
Because the truth is, we’re spiritually more malnourished than we care to admit. Maybe even more malnourished than we know.
We self-medicate, for sure. Business, distraction, entertainment, fake connection. But none of those satisfy, at least not for any amount of time.
In an Instagram-ready world, what we need most is someone to come close, who can mend the brokenhearted, who can heal the sick, who can free the captive, who can forgive the sinner.
“Take and eat. Take and drink for the forgiveness of your sins.” Matthew 26:26-28 (NIV)
We might come half-dead from doom scrolling. Jesus comes fully alive.
We might come confident in our ruse that everything is okay. Jesus comes for the forgiveness of your sins.
We might come dead inside from our shame. Jesus brings resurrection.
And here’s what we cannot miss: It is for our halfhearted worship – our disconnected, guarded, reserved worship – for not being all in, that Jesus died in the first place. It was that skepticism, that reserve, that the Father nailed to a cross.
Jesus didn’t wait for you to be devoted before He came. He came and now waits for your devotion.
Worship is a Glimpse of Heaven
This is the amazing thing about gathering for public worship. It’s not just the people we see that gather. It’s about the God who comes and gathers with us.
We’re never going to come exactly the way we want to. But that doesn’t keep God away. You’ve never diminished God’s presence by being distracted. You’ve never chased Him away because you’ve been tired. You’ve never lessened His promises because you’re struggling to believe.
He’s not fragile. He’s faithful.
And just when you catch a glimpse of that, just when you start to understand that, that’s when He sends you. When we gather for public worship, we stand on a threshold to a throne room. We get to peek into eternal mysteries that are beyond our ability to understand. We get to participate with the 10,000 times 10,000 who sing out to the Lamb who was slain, who now sits on the throne.
Which means that when you sing in worship, it’s not just the people around you who hear you. You get to join in the thunderous songs of that heavenly host!
It means when you bow your head, it’s not just to keep yourself focused. It is to join the uncountable numbers who bow in front of that throne!
This is the place where the hungry are fed. This is the place where we get to be ourselves, to be without fear, without hesitation, without reservation. That’s what it means to be in awe.
But we can’t stay here. One day we’ll get to sit down at that banquet feast with the Lamb at the head of the table, and we’ll get to stay for a while – stay for eternity.
But that day is not today. In the meantime, we have a mission to make that table crowded. We get to be like servers carrying platters of food to a world choking on its own empty calories.
What would it mean for our school, for our community, for our neighborhood, for our world if we gathered in this place to worship as if Jesus were really here? And what if He really sent us to a world that was hungry?
Worship is huge. We worship because we’re hungry. We worship because the world is hungry.
If Jesus is really here, the only thing that doesn’t make sense is to hold anything back. We bring it all. We bring all of the shame, all the guilt, all the questions, all the uncertainties. We bring all of the anxieties. We bring everything because Jesus is really here, fully alive, ready to bless, ready to send. How could we possibly come half-heartedly?
What does this look like for you?
Maybe it looks like the next song you sing: It’s not whispered, it’s shouted, arms out, arms up.
Maybe it starts simply with a brief prayer.
Maybe it means coming a minute or two early next week to sit in your seat at church. Sit down in that row for some reflection and a quiet prayer: “Jesus, I’m hungry. I need the food you’ve brought. Thanks for showing up.”
And then be ready. Ready for Jesus to gather. Ready for Him to speak. Ready for Him to feed. Ready for Him to send.
Because the world is hungry. It’s starving. This is the food they need. That’s why we gather.