The joy of worship
And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy (Luke 24:52).
When we remember the Lord Jesus, the hymns we sing, the prayers we offer, the scriptures we read, and the thoughts ministered all focus on the Person and the work of Christ. We come as individual believers to bow at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and worship, in the words of Paul, “the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” And at the same time, we come in fellowship with other members of the body of Christ to worship the One who “loved the Church and gave Himself for her.” We ponder in our hearts the journey the Saviour took from glory to the cross of Calvary. We remember His sufferings and the power and glory of His resurrection. With brothers and sisters in Christ, we raise a hymn of praise to the One who died but is now alive forever. Like Mary at the beginning of John 12, these meetings are to be times when the house is “filled with the fragrance of the oil” – in other words, when worship fills the meeting place. And it does not have to be a large meeting. Christ said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). The Lord Jesus provided the simplest emblems to represent His body and His blood. He also encouraged the smallest groups of His people to meet in His presence to remember Him, valuing each of us.
During these times, the Holy Spirit harmonises our acts of worship. Under His direction, we focus on the many and various aspects of the Lord’s Person and work. We can think of the Lord as the Christ of God, the Servant of God, the Son of Man, and the Son of God. And we can think of Him as the Saviour, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God, the Lord of Glory. Sometimes a single golden impression of the Lord runs through our worship. At other times the Spirit of God blends several thoughts together. But, fundamentally, there is a response of love to the Saviour who gave Himself for us. What is central to these acts of worship is what the Lord asks us to do: to remember Him. This remembrance focuses on the sacrifice of Himself in the bread and wine. He gave these emblems meaning because He never wanted us to lose the sense of the depth of His love for us. As we remember Him, we look up to where He is now: “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12).
Revelation 5 presents the Lord Jesus as a Lamb, bearing the marks of sacrifice. The Lamb receives the praise and worship of the whole of creation. In the physical and spiritual realms, every knee bows and every tongue confesses the worthiness of the Lamb. The love expressed by the Lord’s giving of Himself is the ground of all the purposes of God. It is love which cannot be fathomed. The thrill of worship never ceases. In Acts 1:11 the angels tell the disciples that this same Jesus will come again. Paul writes that “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Luke also writes at the end of his gospel that the disciples returned from witnessing the Lord’s ascension into heaven in glory, with “great joy” in their hearts. Whenever we come and pour out our worship remembering the Lord Jesus, He fills our hearts with Himself. He always sends us out to serve Him, full of the joy of His salvation.
