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Scripture Reading: Acts 5:42; 42, 2:46; 12:12
In the home meetings we have to tell the attendants that Christian meetings are for the worship of God and the Lord Jesus. To worship God and the Lord Jesus does not necessarily mean that we have to kneel down or bow down to adore Him with praises and thanks. We can worship God and the Lord Jesus by preaching the gospel, teaching the truth (Acts 5:42), breaking bread to remember the Lord (2:46), fellowshipping one with another (v. 42), and praying (v. 42; 12:12). In our understanding, in our realization, and in our spirit we should do all things with the sense of worshipping God and the Lord Jesus. We should make this matter clear to all the saints. The New Testament does not indicate to us that to worship God and the Lord Jesus is just a matter of kneeling down or bowing down. The New Testament does tell us, however, that in our Christian meetings we should preach the gospel, teach the truth, break bread to remember the Lord, fellowship one with another, and pray.
To be one with the Lord in preaching the gospel for the salvation of sinners is a kind of worship. When we go out to knock on people’s doors to afford the Lord a way to save them, this is counted as a kind of worship to God and the Lord Jesus. John 4 records the Lord Jesus conversing with a sinful Samaritan woman regarding drinking the living water (vv. 10, 14). Eventually, the Lord Jesus revealed that to contact God the Spirit with our spirit is to drink of the living water (v. 24), and to drink of the living water is to render real worship to God. The sinner was satisfied with the Savior’s living water, and the Savior was satisfied with God’s will in satisfying the sinner (v. 32). The revelation in John 4 shows us that the worship of God is contrary to the concept of religion.
The Muslims worship God by taking off their shoes and bowing down in prayer for a long period of time. Although this is a mere religious form, they consider that what they are doing is the best worship rendered to God. We Christians do not worship God and the Lord Jesus in that way. One of the ways in which we worship God is by preaching the Lord Jesus as the gospel to save sinners. The Bible does not tell us definitely that when we worship God and the Lord Jesus, we should bow down or kneel down. To think that worshipping God and the Lord Jesus is merely a matter of bowing down or kneeling down is according to the religious concept. We must drop our religious and natural concepts concerning the proper worship of God and the Lord Jesus.
Soon after I received the Lord, I met with a group of Christians who had a prayer meeting every Tuesday night. During that meeting, they always sang a hymn first, and then they knelt down to pray for at least one hour. Quite often while we were kneeling, a number of people fell asleep. I do not think that this constituted a pleasant worship to God. Rather, when we talk one with another in our spirit, the Spirit of God, who is God Himself, participates in our talking. This is the best worship.
Suppose that a loving mother prepared a good dinner for her son who came back home from school after half a year. If this son knelt down and bowed down to the mother and even fell asleep in this posture, do you think the mother would be pleased? She might rebuke her son. The mother will feel happy and pleasant if her son eats the food she has prepared and if he talks to her while he eats. There is a similar record of mutual fellowship in the Old Testament in Genesis 18 between Abraham and God.
Genesis 18 gives us a record of the Lord Jesus coming to Abraham in the form of a man even before His incarnation. Abraham prepared water for the washing of His physical feet (v. 4), and he asked his wife to prepare a good meal (vv. 6-8). That man with the two angels ate that dinner, and Abraham served it. We may have never considered that the record in Genesis 18 shows us Abraham’s worship to God. Abraham even walked with Jehovah to send Him off, and during this walk, Jehovah talked to Abraham, and Abraham prayed (vv. 16-33). Actually, Abraham’s prayer was a personal, human, and friendly talk with Jehovah. According to James 2:23, Abraham was called a friend of God. God, as Abraham’s friend, opened up His heart to Abraham to tell him of the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. By this talk Abraham’s divine Friend indicated that Abraham’s nephew, Lot, would be damaged. We may say that Abraham’s talk to Jehovah was a prayer. Abraham asked Jehovah to do something in order to spare Lot’s life and family.
In Genesis 18 there is a record of Abraham’s worship, Abraham’s prayer, but his worship to God, his prayer, was not in a religious way. His prayer was a personal, human talk. Genesis 18 gives us a record of two friends talking to one another while they walked together. What a beautiful picture of genuine prayer and worship! Even in the ancient times in the Old Testament, God came to visit Abraham in a human form and in a human way to receive Abraham’s service, Abraham’s worship, Abraham’s prayer. Abraham’s worship, his prayer, was his conversing with God in an intimate, human way as a friend, and this is the best prayer.
I was taught from my youth that the best way to pray was to kneel down. There is nothing wrong with kneeling in prayer, but prayer is not merely a matter of kneeling. The best way to worship, to pray, is to talk to God, to converse with the Lord Jesus in a human way as a part of our daily walk. The picture of the Lord Jesus coming as a friend to Abraham in Genesis 18 is marvelous. The Lord was not sitting on a throne in Genesis 18, telling Abraham, “I am your Master. I am the sovereign One. You have to bow down to Me.” The Lord came to Abraham in a human way, visiting Abraham as a friend. He received worship in a human way from His human friend, and He talked to His human friend in a very intimate and personal way. Abraham’s worship of God in Genesis 18 was well pleasing to God. Abraham and Jehovah’s talking together like intimate friends is the best worship, the best prayer.
In one of the beginning meetings with the new ones, we need to let them know that the real worship to God is to talk to Him as our friend. We need to tell them that the very God has our human nature and that He is the same as we are. Furthermore, they need to realize that we are sons of God who have the divine life and the divine nature, so we are the same as He is. He is divine and human, and we are human and divine. Thus, we can have an intimate conversation, an intimate contact, with our Triune God. God does not like us to merely see Him as the almighty God. God desires us to realize that He is like us and that we are like Him. From the very beginning of man’s creation before his fall, man was made in the image of God.
We need to make God known to the new ones. Do not go to the new homes and tell them, “Now let us worship God. He is the holy, almighty God. He is so high, and we are so low. He is so great, and we are so small. Let us all kneel down.” If we instruct the new ones in this way, we are similar to the Muslims. We need to take some time to explain to the new ones and to teach them to know God by talking to Him in an intimate way. The desire of God’s heart is for man to worship Him in an intimate, friendly way. God is not happy with our worshipping Him with the concept that we are small, fearing God to the uttermost and bowing down to the great God. God wants us to enjoy Him as our food and our drink. When we go to the home meetings, we need to forget about the natural, religious way to meet as in Christianity. That way to meet is not scriptural.
The proper worship of the Lord Jesus can also be seen in the house of Simon the leper in Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were (John 12:1-3; cf. Mark 14:3; Matt. 26:6-7). These dear saints were rendering the Lord Jesus the highest standard of worship, and the Lord was happy. This meeting in this house was composed of the cleansed sinners typified by Simon the leper. Martha was serving, Lazarus was testifying, and Mary was loving. While the religious service was continuing to be practiced in the temple, the Lord Jesus was sitting in the house of Simon the leper, receiving His believers’ intimate, personal worship.
While the Lord Jesus was walking on this earth, a formal, religious, Judaic worship was going on in the temple. At that time did God prefer the Judaic worship in the temple or the worship that can be seen in the house of Simon the leper? In Simon the leper’s house, there was no sacrifice, no burning of incense, and no bread of the Presence. By that time God was disgusted with the Judaic, religious worship by the priests according to formalities. Eventually, in A.D. 70 the Lord allowed the Roman army under Titus to destroy Jerusalem with the temple, fulfilling the Lord’s prophecy in Matthew 24:2 concerning the temple, that there would not be one stone left upon another stone. The worship in religion and the worship in reality are in two different realms. Christianity has brought the church into the religious world, but today in the Lord’s recovery we are endeavoring to enjoy the Lord by being rescued from Christianity.
We must be deeply impressed that we should not perform in a religious or pious way. We need to be men of God who are talking to the Lord all the time. We need to live a life of calling on His name and talking to Him and bring this life into the meetings. Eventually, our life becomes our worship. We should worship the Lord in the way that we live; there should be no difference. Our meeting is an exhibition of our daily life. If Christ is not the content of our daily life, what we do in the meetings is a performance in which we are the actors. To meet in this way is a falsehood to God. We must be genuine in our worship. God likes our human worship in our human spirit.
Many of us may hold on to the concept of religious worship. Many Christians today prefer to have big meetings according to schedules with a proper pastor and choir clothed in long gowns. To have a big meeting with a pastor and a choir is the proper worship to God according to their concept. The worship in many cathedrals and chapels is religious, formal, and quiet. This is in contrast with a meeting in a home where the saints are declaring, “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah! O Lord Jesus, You are my food. You are my drink. You are my enjoyment!” The Lord Jesus prefers that we eat Him, drink Him, enjoy Him. All the religious people would highly appraise the formal and quiet service. They might say that it is not right to make noise in the presence of God. But the Psalms tell us that we need to make a joyful noise to the Lord (66:1; 81:1; 95:1-2; 98:4, 6; 100:1).
We have to drop Christianity’s way to meet, which is the religious way. The new ones whom we meet with may already have Christianity’s way to worship God in their concept. We have to spend time to bring them into the realization that the real worship of God is in our spirit and is a matter of enjoying Christ as our life and life supply, our food, our drink, and our everything. We have to tell the new ones that the more we enjoy the Lord, the more He is worshipped. The more we enjoy Him, talk to Him, and contact Him in a friendly and intimate way, the more He will be happy. We enjoy the Lord by conversing with Him and opening our heart to Him. Our enjoying Him in such a way is well pleasing and pleasant to Him. We worship God in the spirit, in life, in enjoying Him.
When the Lord’s death was imminent, He enacted the New Testament by establishing the Lord’s table (Matt. 26:26-30). Concerning the bread of the Lord’s table, the Lord said that this was His body, and He told the disciples to take and eat in remembrance of Him. To eat Him is to remember Him, to worship Him. In like manner, the Lord charged us to drink the cup of the Lord’s table in remembrance of Him. Thus, to drink Him is to worship Him. In John 4 the Lord Jesus indicated that drinking Him as the living water is the way to worship God. The Lord Jesus linked the drinking of Him and the worship of God together. These two items are one thing. The best way to worship God is to drink Him, to take Him as the living water. This real revelation of the true worship of God and the Lord Jesus must revolutionize our entire concept. As long as we have such a realization with a revolutionized concept concerning the worship of God and the Lord Jesus, we will know how to set up home meetings.
We need to lead and promote each one of the attendants in the home meetings to learn to take part in the activities in the meetings. We need to take the lead, but we should not do everything for everyone. When the new ones in the home meetings follow our lead, we need to promote. We should not say to the new believers, “Let us sing Hymns, #49.” This is the wrong way. We should not call a hymn, but it is good to ask, “May we sing a hymn?” When they say yes, we should ask, “Who will select the hymn?” or “What number would you like to sing?” Let them select and call the hymn.
If you do everything in the first few meetings with the new believers, they will consider you as a pastor who goes to their home to conduct a worship service to God. Do not say, “Please let us read John 3:16.” If you feel that it is the right time to read some verses, propose this matter to them. You should say, “Would you like to read some verses?” When they respond that they would, you should not say, “Let us read John 3:16.” Ask them what they would like to read. They may want to read the last verse of Revelation 22. Do not say to them, “Let’s not read that verse because it does not suit today’s meeting.” Say Amen to what they want to do. Let them read the verse they choose. By doing this, you will be practicing to promote each one of them to learn to take part in the activities in the meetings. You may have a burden to read John 3:16, but it is better to drop the reading of this verse and let the new ones decide what to read. The environment may indicate that your burden for this verse was not of the Lord. If it was of the Lord, someone would surely say, “Let us read John 3:16.” You have to believe in the Lord. You have to believe that the Lord is moving in the reading of the verses. Do not make up your mind to read certain verses in a definite and sure way. Leave the entire meeting in the hand of the Holy Spirit.
You may feel that to conduct the home meeting in this way is to make the meeting a mess. But it is not bad to have a mess. I am a person who likes to have everything in order, but when three of my grandchildren come to visit me, they make a mess of things. When they come to my house, they may get into mischief, but I am always pleased to see them. If they do not come back after a period of time, I miss them and expect them to come back again. I believe that my heart toward my grandchildren is somewhat like God’s heart toward the new believers. If my little grandsons were trembling and fearful of offending me when they came to my house, that would not make me happy. When they are so energetic and full of life, my wife and I are happy and full of joy. Most grandparents like to have their grandchildren come to “bother” them. My grandchildren’s “bothering” is quite pleasant to me. God also needs some enjoyment and happiness from His children.
Our God is not only divine but also very human. He partook of the human nature, and He likes to receive the human worship. We must worship God according to His economy. The religious way to meet of Christianity puts aside God’s economy. It makes everything formal, scheduled, and dead. Christianity is full of formalities. The Lord Jesus did not meet with people in that way when He was on this earth.
We need to lead the attendants into the practice of selecting hymns, singing hymns, praying, reading and pray-reading the holy Word, giving testimonies, and fellowshipping one with another. By leading the attendants into such a practice, we will set a good example for them to follow and copy. We should not give orders but make suggestions to the attendants so that they may learn to take the initiative in the activities in the meetings. Let the new ones do things and let them take the initiative in all the activities in the meetings.
We should also take the chance to occasionally give words of life supply, not as a pastor, a preacher, or a teacher but as one of the attendants. We should not make ourselves another class of people in the home meetings. Finally, we need to take the chance to pray and to call a hymn at the right juncture as one among the attendants. We need to take the fellowship in this chapter and put it into practice. Then we will have good home meetings according to the heart’s desire of our God and of our Lord Jesus.
