Many of us grew up referring to worship on Sundays as “going to church,” but corporate worship has traditionally been known as the Divine Service or The Lord’s Service. There is some ambiguity in this terminology. Is corporate worship the Church’s service to the Lord, or is it the Lord’s service to his people? There is truth in both perspectives, but the Bible makes clear that corporate worship is primarily the latter, the event in which God meets with his people to renew and bless them.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High.
Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.
(Psalm 50:12-15)
The Lord does not need anything, not from us, not from anyone, nor do we have anything to offer to God that is our own.
Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name.
But who am I, and who are my people, That we should be able to offer so willingly as this?
For all things come from You, And of Your own we have given You.
For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our fathers;
Our days on earth are as a shadow, And without hope.
(1Chr. 29:13-15)
The Church gathers on the Lord’s Day not because we have something to give to God but because of our need for God. Our worship is a sacrifice of thanksgiving (cf. Heb. 13:15). We praise our Redeemer for his mercy and grace. We give thanks that though we are weak and empty, God has blessed us out of his abundance.
Some believe this perspective will promote a selfish, man-centered view of corporate worship and that we should instead assemble together not for what we can get but for what we can give. But the opposite is true. The Church gathers not because it imagines it has something to offer God but because of our awareness of our deep need for God. We come empty, and he fills us. We come broken, and he restores us. We are weak, but he strengthens us. We are sinful, but he cleanses and sanctifies us.
Recognizing that corporate worship is God’s action reinforces that he alone has the right to determine what should be done and how. The service does not belong to man but to God. We are not in control of the event; he is. Every part of the service, if it is arranged biblically, reveals that God takes the initiative. He calls, and we assemble. He commands, and we confess. He cleanses, and we rejoice. He orders, and we are renewed. He invites, and we celebrate. He commissions, and we go forth to battle. God acts first, and the Church is enabled to respond by his grace.
Worship is not a meeting of equals. We do not come in order to negotiate or barter. The Lord is sovereign, and he controls the entire event from beginning to end, just as he controls every moment and experience of our lives. The Church is not ours to arrange as we please. She is the blood-bought Bride of Christ, the people whom God has redeemed and those with whom he has entered into covenant. It is neither a partnership nor an economic enterprise. The Church is a kingdom, and we are its citizens. If Jesus is Lord, then we are not.
Many churches have a low view of what happens on Sunday. The worship service is a weekly event similar to many other activities we schedule throughout the week. On Monday we go to work, on Saturday we go to the ballgame, and on Sunday we go to Church. But the Divine Service is unlike everything else in our lives. God summons us from death to life and darkness to light. Every call to worship is a command to resurrection. Like Lazarus, we come forth because we have been bidden by the Lord, and his word accomplishes what he commands. The Church assembles in the presence of God, not as equals but as the enemies whom he has subdued and made friends. We come not in wealth but in poverty, that we might receive our true inheritance and the wealth of an everlasting kingdom from the hand of the God who calls us to glory and joy.
When the Church gathers on Sunday, it may be in a cathedral, chapel, strip mall, or under a tree, but in reality the Church stands in the Holy Place, entering with boldness beyond the veil opened to us by our crucified, risen, and ascended Lord. We rise above the earthly plane that we might commune with saints and angels in the heavenly realm. Our bodies remain on earth, but we are in the Spirit, surrounding God’s throne with an innumerable host who sing praise to the Triune God night and day.
Your god is too small. However great we imagine him to be, our vision is inadequate. We think too much of ourselves and too little of him. This affects our perspective on worship. If only we could step back and see the Divine Service for what it is, from the perspective of heaven, we would never “go to church” the same way. Scripture enables us to gain this heavenly perspective, to catch glimpses of the heavenly reality that lies above and behind our earthly frame. The Lord’s Day is a summons to step into the presence of the Divine glory. O come, let us adore him.