Worshiping the Risen Christ

Worshiping the Risen Christ

When I think and meditate upon the sacrifice Christ made for us on that torturous cross, I am heartsick at how so many professing believers have turned their back on Him and gone after a mess of pottage. Anything new, anything innovative, and anything intellectual is the modern ecclesiastical pursuit. The old rugged cross is now just that, old. It no longer stimulates the spirit and gives rise to hearts full of praise and worship.

Worship now is driven by music, and the more powerful the music the more people’s senses are moved. But the heart of worship cannot be motivated by music. Worship has become an entity in and of itself and it is often referred to as such. “Come and experience our wonderful praise and worship” says the church advertisement. But that boast is antithetical to true worship and elevates the worship technique rather than the Object of our worship. It has become a business and an ecclesiastical commodity used to allure people to a local church. Just how sad and pitiful and even sinful is the entire display.

If we caught a passing glimpse of the Risen Christ we would see just how paltry is our elevation of our own worship music and methods. I have led worship for years and I play the piano and write worship songs. So lest anyone believe I am against worship music I am not. I am demonstrative in my worship, however we must be very, very careful to sift through that which is remedial and that which is sacred and spiritual. The glory of God upon this earth is not found in music or carefully harmonized praise teams. It must be found living and soaring within the hallows of a believer’s contrite heart.

Worship is not an entity that should be commercialized and profiteered. Worship must touch God through the Spirit. So often the music is engineered to guide the senses and thereby suggest that the presence of God rises and falls upon the volume, beat, or harmonic essence of the music. I have experienced God’s presence many times. But one of the most powerful and humbling times of worship was on a dirt floor in Belize. Singing along with a semi out of tune guitar without electricity and in the sweltering heat, a few of us touched the hem of His garment and we were changed. We could not boast of our musical talent; we could not boast of any visual pageantry; we could not boast in the professional sound system; we could not boast in anything but Him. Christ was very gracious to a handful of imperfect but sincere believers that night.

Slowly but surely the western church has lost the presence of Christ and instead of fasting and prayer to seek it again, we have constructed artificial means that pretend to be His presence. And we have even constricted the worship time so that we can bring in the ark, worship the Risen Christ, and still have enough time to fare sumptuously and watch football. People even wear football jerseys to church. How very sad.

And while millions wallow in the redundant drone of predictable Sunday mornings, others have grown dissatisfied with the pedantic evangelical practices. And instead of seeking Christ with sacrificial prayer and a surrendered heart within the parameters of Scripture, they have become prey to any number of movements today which pride themselves with their innovation and their pretentious claims of something “new”.

A man lies in a sick bed. He begins to realize just how sick he is, and he begins to doubt that his doctors know how to treat his illness. These doctors give him the same medicine and the same treatment month after month. He grows weary and asks for something new. He is discomforted by what seems to be a useless and redundant approach to his sickness. He is correct.

So he calls for others doctors who agree that his former doctors were old school and did not have the medical vision to help him in his predicament. So they give him a handful of new pills. The man takes them and he begins to feel better. However the pills he took were slow working arsenic and will eventually kill him. So even though his assessment of his previous medical team was accurate, his dissatisfaction with them has led him to his death.

Millions of believers have grown dissatisfied with the modern evangelical church. And without much discernment they are leaving the stagnation they sense and have opened up their hearts to whatever is new and innovative. Liberalism or emergent or church growth or purpose driven are but a few of these movements which subtly compromise the faith once delivered unto the saints. And even more sinister, these movements relentlessly redefine Christ and mold Him into that which is culturally understandable, socially acceptable, and personally beneficial.

And at the very heart of all these movements is the removal of the Scriptural gyroscope which keeps the church on the course set out by the Spirit. Discussion groups, designed to bring in and hold onto members, flourish. The faith is now a dialogue which transforms itself by the power of everyone’s opinion. And a well oiled ecclesiastical machine rolls on with the efficiency of Whitney’s assembly line.

And so the crown of thorns is repackaged as earthly success. The path of suffering is eschewed in favor of a “lively worship service”. Experiencing God’s presence is no longer through prayer and fasting and self denial. It is now a creation of technology a la the Wizard of Oz. But oh the bloody sacrifice! Oh the agony of His death! Oh the brutality of His execution! Where are those “principles” to be found in today’s upbeat church gatherings? Communion is little more than a well organized observance which must not greatly affect the dismissal time. How little respect we give to our Redeemer, to say nothing of deep and heart changing worship.

If you do not cultivate your own spiritual path, and if you do not set your heart and mind to seek Him, you won’t. And the local business disguised as a church will be the extent of your spiritual food, and more tragic, the extent of the revelation of the Risen Christ. But one day all will see what the angels beheld on the first resurrection morning.