The Necessity of maturity in worship

The crux of this class is has been the acceptable forms of worship as we gather corporately. Yet besides the form of our worship, I believe there also is need for theological depth in our worship, allowing us progress in our sanctification. The book of Hebrews tells us there is a certain level of maturity that believers should possess in relation to our spiritual lives.

In Hebrew Chapter 5:11-6:3 in verse 12 of chapter 5 the author says, “By this time you ought to be teachers” yet the believers in this passage need to be taught once again the “basics” about God. The writer goes on to say believers need to leave the elementary understanding of Christ and move on to maturity. The mature believer should not need to have reaffirmed and reestablished the primary issues regarding faith and salvation.

This is not to say doctrine concerning Christ is not necessary, but for those who are mature and should have reached a point where they could and should be teaching other believers should have no misconceptions about the basis of their faith. Mature believers should not have question of whether it is better for them to turn back to the life they formerly lived as unbelievers. They should be pressing past the primary doctrines, while also being able to account for the faith they have to others.

With maturity of the believers being a point of emphasis for the believers in the book of Hebrews I do not think it is, a stretch to ask what is the level of maturity in our own churches. In his 2008 book Christless Christianity Michael Horton testifies to the many shortcomings of the evangelical church today as the depth of theology and understanding has been traded in for ways to improve our morality and transform our lives through a __ (you fill in the blank) step plan.

We need never to assume the power and the work of the cross, because this leads us away from the cross and the one to whom all the glory belongs. A sure contributor to the artificial Christianity in the evangelical church today is substituting God’s prescribed as worship for what man desires. God’s word prescribes specific forms of acceptable worship. For us to deviate from what God has intended for worship to consist of is to undermine his authority and omniscience regarding himself and what he desires.

Now our worship does not go without advantage to the believer. As we are cooperating in corporate worship as God intended we grow in our sanctification, which is manifest in our growth in the areas of knowledge about God, our love for God. Ultimately, our worship in a right way brings the ultimate glory to God. The God who the book of Revelation 5:13b says, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” This proclamation does not come as a random happening or by chance, the proclamation is given in response to the Lamb’s (Jesus’) shed blood as to ransom his people from sin and bondage. This is a clear happening of God being worshiped because of what has been revealed about God, a model for us to consider the next time we gather for worship.