God has mandated a specific way to worship, and he will ONLY accept that kind of worship.
In this part one post on how to identify Christ's true church, his one and only body (Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:4), I'd like to explain that a church can be identified as the Lord's true church if it follows this pattern of worship:
1. Commemorating the Lord's death by partaking in the Communion/Lord's supper EVERY Sunday (Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:19-20; Acts 20:7)
2. Singing (without musical instruments, which is a whole topic in itself that we'll talk about in a later post) (Matthew 26:30; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16)
3. Giving (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)
4. Praying(1 Timothy 2:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; James 5:16)
5. Preaching (Acts 20:7; Acts 15:30)
Acts 2:42 tells us that the members of the church "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."
In John 4:24 Jesus said, "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." This implies that it's possible to worship in error. In Matthew 15:9, Jesus also accused the Pharisees of worshipping in vain, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. This also implies that we can worship in vain.
The New Testament gives no authorization to use things like concerts, dramas, plays, orchestra performances, choir performances, solo performances, testimonies, magic shows, light shows, circus shows, etc in worship. This kind of worship is not in truth, and it is vain.
I feel like a lot of people think of God as being a laid back, gentle giant in the sky, raining down blessings from Heaven like a white-haired grandpaw passing out candy to the little kids at church. In fact, I've heard some denominational preachers irreverently refer to God as "Daddy" and "PaPa." People think that as long as they're sincere, they're free to worship God however they want, and God will love them all the more for it. They think God will accept any and all kinds of worship because after all, a loving daddy or candy-giving grandpaw could never be angry with a child who is sincere, even if the child fails to follow the instructions properly. I think they're unaware that God has both goodness AND severity (Romans 11:22). He even warns Christians to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).
The God of today is the same God who struck Nadab and Abihu dead for worshipping with strange fire. He's the same God who struck Uzzah dead when he tried to steady the falling ark of the covenant. He's the same God who dethroned Saul for offering the burnt offering when he had no authority to do so. These people were obviously sncere in their actions, but they failed to follow God's instructions. God punished them for it. The same goes with us today. If we don't worship God as he has instructed, we'll be punished.
In Colossians 3:17, we're told, "and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus..." This verse teaches that we look to Christ's word as the authority for all we do in worship. The same concept is seen in 1 Peter 4:11, "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God..." Finally, we're warned in Revelation to not "add or take away from that which is written." (Revelation 22:18-19)
I never want to come across as a know-it-all, and I never want to make people feel like I'm criticizing them. I hope you haven't felt like that when reading this post. The purpose of this post is to point out things that maybe you've never been told or never realized. At any rate, I hope this helps us better identify a church as the Lord's church by the way it worships.
