Bible Study › Lesson 10 of 10
How Do We Worship?
A Christian has been added to the church and is told not to forsake assembling with it. What happens when the church assembles? This lesson looks at what the Scriptures say about worship... what God wants, what He rejects, and what the first Christians actually did.
23But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. 24God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
How does Jesus say true worshipers must worship, and whom does He say the Father is seeking?
Show the answer from the text
In spirit and in truth. The Father is seeking such people to worship Him. Both words matter. "In spirit" means from the heart, sincerely. "In truth" means according to what God has revealed. Sincere worship done the wrong way is not what the Father is seeking, and correct worship done without the heart is not either.
8‘These people draw near to Me with their mouths, and they honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”
What makes worship vain, according to Jesus?
Show the answer from the text
Honoring God with the lips while the heart is far from Him, and teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Jesus says such worship is in vain... it accomplishes nothing. So worship can be sincere, well-attended, and empty, if what is done in it came from men instead of from God.
17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
In whose name are we to do whatever we do, in word or deed?
Show the answer from the text
In the name of the Lord Jesus. To do something in someone's name is to do it by his authority. That is the test for everything in worship: did the Lord authorize it? If He did not, the fact that it is beautiful, traditional, or popular does not make it His.
7On the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread. Since Paul was ready to leave the next day, he talked to them and kept on speaking until midnight.
On what day did the disciples come together, and for what purpose?
Show the answer from the text
On the first day of the week, to break bread. Paul also preached to them. This is the pattern: the church gathered on Sunday, the day of the resurrection, to partake of the Lord's Supper and hear the word. It was not once a month or once a quarter. It was the first day of the week.
26For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
What does eating the bread and drinking the cup proclaim, and for how long is it to be done?
Show the answer from the text
It proclaims the Lord's death, until He comes. The Lord's Supper is not a ceremony the church may keep or drop. It is how Christians remember what Jesus did, and Paul says it continues until Jesus returns.
19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,
What kind of music does Paul describe, and on what instrument is the melody made?
Show the answer from the text
Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, speaking to one another, singing and making melody in the heart to the Lord. The instrument named is the heart. Every passage about music in the New Testament church says the same thing: sing. The first Christians sang, and nothing else, for hundreds of years. Adding a mechanical instrument is adding something the Lord did not name.
1Now about the collection for the saints, you are to do as I directed the churches of Galatia: 2On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a portion of his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will be needed.
When were the Corinthians told to lay something aside, and in what proportion?
Show the answer from the text
On the first day of every week, each one as he had prospered. Giving was part of the first-day assembly, it was done by every member, and it was in proportion to what God had given each one. Paul calls it an order he had given to the churches, not a suggestion to one.
In short
God wants worship in spirit and in truth, and He rejects worship built on the commandments of men, however sincere. The standard is the authority of the Lord Jesus... what He and His apostles taught the church to do.
What they taught is plain in the text. The church met on the first day of the week. It partook of the Lord's Supper to proclaim His death until He comes. It heard the word preached. It sang, making melody in the heart. It gave as each had prospered. And it prayed. None of that is complicated, and none of it needs to be improved on. A congregation that does these things, and only these things, is worshiping the way the New Testament church worshiped.
Go deeper: What Is True Worship? | Mechanical Instruments In Worship