What is acceptable worship? This is a question Christians should be deeply concerned with. God created us to worship him, but sin distorts and misdirects worship. Because sin pollutes everything, not all that is called worship is acceptable to God. From the beginning of the Bible, we see acceptable and unacceptable worship. Cain brought an offering to the Lord that the Lord did not regard (Gen. 4:3-4). His worship was not acceptable to the Lord, while Abel brought an offering to the Lord that was accepted.
In the Old Testament, what constitutes acceptable worship seems more straightforward. The laws regarding sacrifices make clear what kind of animal or food should be brought for a sin offering or an offering of thanksgiving. One could then deduce that acceptable worship to the Lord means doing exactly as he has commanded. However, even these offerings made in accordance with the law were not always accepted by the Lord. The prophets repeatedly condemned Israel for its worship, even when it was done in accordance with the law:
When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
— Isaiah 1:12–14
What then is acceptable worship to the Lord?
We find the answer throughout the Bible, but in Hebrews 12, we have a good place to start for New Covenant Christians. At the end of the chapter, there is this exhortation: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). I believe that the last verses of Hebrews 12 summarize and respond to what has come before. This chapter is about acceptable worship. So what is acceptable worship to God?
First, only people who are grateful for Jesus can offer acceptable worship to God. Verse 28 says, “Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken…” We have received a kingdom. This is the kingdom of Christ, and by faith we have entered into it. In Hebrews 1, the author uses the Old Testament to argue that Jesus is God and the promised King to sit forever on the throne of David. Paul tells us in Colossians 1 that through faith in Christ, we have been transferred from the domain of darkness, or the kingdom of darkness, to the kingdom of Light, the kingdom of Christ. Hebrews 12 contrasts the kingdom under the Mosaic law with the kingdom of Christ. Acceptable worship begins with gratitude for Jesus.
Second, acceptable worship is practical and active holiness. The discussion of discipline (5-11) and the exhortation to obedience (12-17) are part and parcel with acceptable worship. Acceptable worship is not merely external actions, but a heart that motivates the right actions: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matt. 15:7-9). Acceptable worship is not simply internal, but also active and external. In chapter 12, specific commands are given: strive for peace (14); allow no root of bitterness to spring up (15); do not be sexually immoral (16).
Third, acceptable worship is hearing and receiving the Word of God. “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking” (Heb. 12:25). The initial recipients of the book of Hebrews were Jews, tempted to abandon Christ to return to the regulations of the old covenant. In essence, some were saying acceptable worship to God would be a return to Judaism. However, Hebrews argues that the worship regulations of the Old Covenant, though given by God, are no longer acceptable to him because they were pointing to Christ. Therefore, if you ignore God’s Word in Christ, you cannot offer acceptable worship to God. Acceptable worship is a response to hearing God’s Word and is in step with God’s Word. God defines what is acceptable worship.
Fourth, acceptable worship is done with reverence and awe. Our worship is done with an awareness of God’s holiness (purity and set-apartness), his transcendence (distance from creation because of his holiness), and his immanence (his nearness to his creation). Worshipping with reverence and awe is to think right thoughts about God. Too many people pit God against himself, viewing him as all wrath under the old covenant and all grace under the new. Many church-goers view God as a genie in the sky or a powerful being who exists to give us what we want. They think of Jesus as a spiritual guru who has come to help us achieve the life we have dreamed of. These unbiblical and small thoughts of God produce irreverent, casual, and unacceptable worship.
Charles Spurgeon, commenting on Hebrews 12:28-29, says, “Let us not think that we are not to be reverent because we gather at the gospel’s call. Let us not dream that God, who is a consuming fire on the top of Sinai, is less terrible under the gospel than under the law, for it is not so. The God who gave the law on Sinai has never changed: the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of Moses, who overthrew Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, and slew Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and the multitudes of murmurers, idolaters, and fornicators in the wilderness—‘this is God our God forever and ever. He will guide us until death’ (Psa 48:14).”
These four things that constitute acceptable worship are personal before they are corporate. When we gather corporately to worship, we come as people grateful for Jesus, fighting sin in our lives, hearing and responding to the Word of God, and living our lives as if God really does exist. And yet, in all these areas we fail, and so our corporate worship also helps open our eyes to the reality of who our God is, and how he is to be worshipped.