“We really need to get together.” “Yes, let’s get it on the calendar sometime.” “Sounds great – see you soon!” How many times in the past several months have you had some form of that exchange with another person? And… how many times has that agreed upon get together actually happened? What determines if it does or doesn’t? If the same person brings it up repeatedly, is it more likely to happen because you can tell they’re really craving your company? Do you make the decision whether or not the exchange was just being polite, with no real intention of following through (although one could argue that leading another on isn’t all that polite). Or, if the person is a priority in your life, do you stop right then and there and get a date on the calendar?
What if you got a text message from God asking if you could get together with him? Would you politely respond with “Yes, let’s get it on the calendar sometime soon!” but then proceed to ghost him or fail to follow up? Or would you drop everything, whatever you were doing at the moment, and immediately schedule it?
I have good news for you this morning – it’s already been scheduled on the calendar for you every Sunday morning at church. How convenient – you don’t even have to stress out about figuring when to fit it in – it’s already done for you!
Rethinking Religion gives us the opportunity to evaluate our relationship with God as it is reflected in our worship. Now if you were to skip that evaluation and jump ahead to conclude that the answer is simply to go to church every Sunday, you’d be wrong… sort of.
Sort of? Wouldn’t going to church every Sunday be the ideal? Isn’t that what God is looking for? He’s still waiting for that perfect church with 100% perfect attendance from 100% of the members. Wouldn’t that accomplish the bottom line of what God really wants from each of us?
No. No, it wouldn’t. Remember that friend reaching out to get together? Let’s suppose you were able to make it work. You set up a coffee date and met at your favorite spot. You spent 60 minutes together catching up. The only problem? She had her laptop open and was scrolling on her phone the whole time you visited. Would you feel filled up, satisfied that you finally were able to get together and spend some time together? You know the answer.
Something similar can happen even with the Sunday morning “regulars” in attendance. We can show up without really showing up. For some of us, the habit of going to church every week may have already been instilled in us from childhood (if that’s you, thank your parents – it’s among one of the greatest things they could have done for you!). But as with anything that becomes habitual, church can also become so routine that can we fly through it disengaged as if we’re on autopilot.
Or, worship can become more about fulfilling a responsibility than finding refreshment. Or, we’re there more to keep tabs on everyone else who is or isn’t there than we are for ourselves. Or, we’re there to make sure that everyone behaves properly and things are carried out in an orderly fashion, focusing more on what’s going on externally with others than what’s going on internally in my own heart. So if regular attenders aren’t careful when it comes to worship, it’s very possible to show up without showing up.
But that in no way leaves the absentees off the hook. It might be easy to bash all those regular attenders for being there for the wrong reasons, feeling as if that somehow justifies one’s absence. But what’s easier to fix – working on the motives of one who is already in the habit of being there regularly, or having to do that and having to break the bad habit of being absent? Those neglecting worship don’t need to point to the distractions of regular worshippers to justify their absence – they already offer more than enough sad excuses for not going to church as it is!
But you know what? We also need to acknowledge that there are understandable reasons one might have for not being in church.
It would be hard to blame someone for not going to church if his only experience anytime he has attended was to be scolded or shamed by the pastor or others for not being there more often! And it would be hard to blame someone for not going to church if rather than feeling warmly welcomed and at home, they received a cold reception and dagger stares for sitting in someone else’s spot. And it would be hard to blame someone for not going to church if the only message was that they never measure up enough for God. And it would be hard to blame someone for not going to church if her only recollection of church was a painful memory or family experience associated with it. And if worship is where God longs to dispense his grace to the guilty, why do we sometimes sprinkle our parting comments to others with more guilt after the service?
All of this is to say, when anyone walks through the doors of a church on a Sunday morning, they may appear to be empty-handed, but don’t ever underestimate the amount of emotional or spiritual baggage they could be carrying with them as they step inside. Be sensitive to that, and take a page out of Jesus’ “Lost” parables in Luke 15. Simply rejoice every time anyone walks through the doors.
Do you notice we haven’t even dug into the words and actions of Jesus yet? Are we ready to? What makes us ready? Are you going to continue reading hoping to find what someone else needs to hear about worship, or are you open to hearing God has to say to you about your worship? If so, let’s look at John.
Jesus had to deal with people being in church for the wrong reason. That was pretty clear from the interaction described in John 2. “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” (vss. 13-16).
Remember how Jesus as a boy was the Kevin McCallister of his family, only rather than his family leaving him at home, he was left behind at the temple, where he talked theology with the religious experts? How different that encounter at the temple must have been compared to what he experienced on the occasion recorded for us here! Instead of facilitating a conversational deep dive into spiritual truths and reflecting on God’s promises for his people, that sacred space had become a strip mall for small business to be conducted.
It’s likely the vendors had become so good at deceiving themselves that they were convinced they were genuinely providing a necessary service to foreigners. After all, with so many out of town visitors coming for the Passover, they would need animals for their sacrifices, so they’d conveniently be able to purchase them right there in the temple courts. And if they needed to exchange their foreign currency to purchase those animals, the money changers were there ready to serve. So in their own minds, the sellers’ actions were completely justified.
But Jesus didn’t just see what was in their minds; he also saw their hearts. Jesus saw hearts that were seizing an opportunity to profit, to make a buck. And while there’s nothing sinful about working hard to make money, there was most definitely something wrong with using God’s house to do it. The matter of selling for profit in the same sacred space where God longs to dispense his blessings for free just wouldn’t fly.
Here we have an example of what God doesn’t want in worship. So what does he want? We see it in the disciples’ application of the next verse, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (v.17). What drove Jesus’ actions that day? He had such a passion for his Father’s house that he couldn’t stand to see such a precious place so misused. His heart longed for God’s house.
That’s what God wants from you and me in worship: a heart that longs for his house. We can get so wrapped up in the details of worship that we overlook God’s real desire: he wants our hearts. When he has our hearts, everything else in our lives follows.
Think of a blossoming relationship between two people that is in its first stages. They can’t stop thinking about spending time with each other and everything revolves around that special someone. God wants us to think of him that way.
Now I realize that perspective may not appeal to some guys all that much, to talk about the heart and love and emotions, but can you question the masculinity of Jesus coming in and flipping tables upside down? And why? Because he was all-in when it came to passion and zeal. And to my fellow male Christians – husbands, fathers, leaders – honestly, we need more of that passion in Christianity.
That doesn’t mean you need to show up and start tearing up the pews on a Sunday morning. But imagine if rather than a high-paying job, a fast car, or nice threads, a guy’s passion, zeal, and heart for God were his most admirable and attractive qualities. How influential could he be to other Christians witnessing how he puts his Savior first and holds him up as the greatest, most valuable treasure?
But what if you don’t have that kind of zeal? Jesus has you covered!
That’s what makes Jesus so amazing as our Savior. He lived the holy life, filled with perfect passion, that we never could! That includes a holy zeal and passion for his Father’s house. The Father sees his Son’s zeal in you by faith. You don’t have to fake it. You don’t have to pretend it’s there – it is already there because of Jesus. His zeal was everything God required of us. We call that Jesus’ active obedience. He kept God’s law – event the Third Commandment to “Remember that Sabbath Day by keeping it holy” perfectly in your place. Let Jesus’ zeal fuel yours.
What else did Jesus do for you? Exactly as he promised in verse 19. “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’” John explains for us, his readers, that Jesus was not talking about the physical temple, as the Jewish crowd supposed. “But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (v.21-22).
Jesus predicted his death and resurrection. But he did more than predict those events; he fulfilled them. He did what none of those animals being sold in the courts could ever do. As the perfect Lamb they all foreshadowed, Jesus alone actually paid for sin with his life. All sin. Hearts absent from worship while bodies are present. Neglecting Word and worship altogether as optional or unimportant. All paid for in full and proven by his resurrection three days later, just as he had said. God accepted his payment for our woeful worship.
That brings us to the why of worship. Jesus is why. Jesus’ heart is not just for his Father’s house, but for you. You are why he was willing to allow his temple to be destroyed on the cross. You are why he was raised again in three days. His heart for you is why he longs to fill you with his presence and his promises in worship. His heart for you is why he invites you each week to come clean with your sins so he can send you off with a clean heart as you depart his house for all that your week holds. He knows the drain of living and surviving in a sin-infested world – remember he lived here, too! And so he longs to fill you with the grace necessary to overcome, to live with confidence and joy and purpose and meaning!
I could close by highlighting the many amazing blessings that come as a result of regular worship, but really there’s just one that matters. The rest all flow from that one: Jesus. Jesus is the reason we worship. Let Jesus be enough for you to take him up on his standing invitation to get together again soon.