So, You Want to Lead Worship: What Not to Do
An investigation into Malachi, and the Sacrifice of Praise
Welcome back to my series on leading worship. In my last post, we read two rather violent passages of scripture: Psalm 69 and Leviticus 10. I used them to show three things: first, that Biblical worship might look startlingly different than what we expect. Second, how God killed off two priests who made up their own ideas on worship. Hopefully, this stirred up a desire in to understand Biblical worship!
A third point I started to develop was that leading worship is much more than leading a band: it’s leading the congregation in worship, and instructing them how to worship God. Perhaps you’ve heard that worship should happen every day of the week — not just on Sunday. What will your congregation do without your leadership? Have you taught them songs they can sing if they are alone at two in the morning, waiting to hear the results from a medical test?
However, my last article was unfinished. I lured you in with, “Do you want to lead worship?” — and unhelpfully pulled the rug out from under your feet. “Here’s an obscure Bible story! Bet that caught you off guard! Anyways, good luck, and don’t mess up!” If my goal is to teach you what the Bible says about worship, then maybe I should actually… do that?
The Bible speaks much about worship. There’s simply too much to cover in one article. I’ve got another article planned after this, so I hope you keep coming back. In the mean time, it’s a little easier to teach what NOT to do!
Think about this: how would you teach someone to be a police officer? Well, there’s a whole bunch of things you need to know. How to drive an emergency vehicle, how to communicate on a radio, how to write reports, how to shoot a gun, squad tactics, hand to hand combat, field medicine, local law, state law, federal law, maps, fostering community relations, department structure — that’s a lot to take in!
But what if instead, you wanted to teach someone what NOT to do as a police officer? The first thing that comes to mind? Don’t abuse your power by speeding when there’s no emergency. This is a simple point, but says volumes: officers should not speed because they know they can get out of a ticket by flashing their credentials. This violates core principles of police work. No one is above the law!
Similarly, I think if we study an example of how NOT to worship, we will gain a deeper understanding of what worship is. Today, I want to read another thorny passage from the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. But if I may, I’d like to make a brief aside about the importance of the Old Testament.
An Aside: Don’t Discard the Old Testament!
There are some teachers today who think the Old Testament is no longer useful for Christians, and that we should “unhitch” ourselves from it. Often times, they come across a thorny passage (like Leviticus 10) and think: “I just don’t understand! I better not read that passage to anyone, in case they get the wrong ideas about God! I’d rather read them the New Testament passages where Jesus is loving and compassionate!”
I’ll be the first to admit: many passages intimidate me at first! The thorny passages aren’t just in the Old Testament, they’re in the New Testament too! But instead of shying away from these passages, we should wrestle with them until we understand them. Each time, I’ve been rewarded with a deeper understanding of God’s word!
But some teachers go a step further. They argue that the Old Testament disagrees with the New Testament! They teach that God said one thing back then, but now he says something entirely different! But this is false! Jesus himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17) How could Jesus disagree with the Old Testament, and say something like this?
The Old Testament is a shadow of the things that were to come — a flower that had yet to blossom.
Think of Moses. Remember how the Egyptians feared a Hebrew uprising, and massacred all the male babies? (Exodus 1:15-16) How when Moses was sent by God to save his people, the Hebrew children despised him, and wished that he would leave? (Exodus 5:20-21) How Moses desperately wanted to explain how God was coming to rescue them, “but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.” (Exodus 6:9)
Don’t you see the foreshadowing of Jesus in the person of Moses? Remember how King Herod feared a Hebrew revolution, and killed all the male babies? (Matthew 2:16-18) How Jesus was sent by God to save his people, (Mark 10:45) but his people rejected him? (John 19:15) How Jesus desperately wanted to explain how God was coming to rescue them, and how sad Jesus when the people he came to save wouldn’t hear? “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37)
So if you ever hear a teacher talking badly about the Old Testament, as if it’s an outdated relic that we can completely discard, as if it’s too embarrassing to have to explain the difficult parts, or as if it disagrees with the New Testament — young Christian, pay them no heed! This is a false teacher. Avoid them!
With that out of the way, I want to read a bit of Malachi with you.
Malachi: The One Man Play
The Book of Malachi is a one man play. Written by God, and directed by God. In it, there are two characters: God, and his people — the Israelites. Specifically, this play was written for Israel’s priests, who were failing at their duties.
The “one man” — or really, “one God” — nature of this play cannot be overlooked. God could have delivered this message to Israel in any number of ways. In Hosea, God gives Israel an object lesson: he commands his prophet to marry a prostitute. Her promiscuity and unfaithfulness to her husband is just like Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, and serves as a mirror for Israel to see how grotesque their sin is.
But Malachi has a lonely feel to it — the world’s most talented playwright delivering a magnificent play to an almost empty room. As if there weren’t even enough faithful actors to bring together for a play, God delivers both his own lines and Israel’s. Adding to the loneliness, Malachi was Israel’s final prophet. God ends the play abruptly in chapter 4, and leaves before the startled audience can even applaud. It would be 400 years until Israel heard from God again. “Will the last person leaving the theater please shut off the lights?”
The opening line of the play is devastating:
1 This is the message that the Lord gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi.
2 “I have always loved you,” says the Lord.
But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?”
Malachi is chock full of thorny passages. But like Jesus who wore a crown of thorns, the first thorn in the book pricks God. Rejected love has enough sting, but this is even more tragic. God doesn’t say, “I love you” as if he were speaking to someone he barely knew. God says, “I have always loved you.” God is married to his bride, Israel — and he’s reaffirming that his love has never failed.
But the love from his bride has gone cold. Israel reacts with surprise. “You love me?” Perhaps there is a hint of bitter sarcasm in their response. “I didn’t notice.” But I’m led to believe that Israel has forgotten God so much, that they don’t even recognize the “I Am” who delivered them out of Egypt.
6 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to the priests: “A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name!
“But you ask, ‘How have we ever shown contempt for your name?’
7 “You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar.
“Then you ask, ‘How have we defiled the sacrifices?’
“You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. 8 When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
(Astute readers will notice I just jumped over verses 3-5. What a thorny passage: “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated!” Sadly, I don’t have the time to get into what that means. But I wish I did!)
Previously in Leviticus 10, we saw God instantly kill Nadab and Abihu for offering “unauthorized” (or strange) fire on God’s altar. However, the Bible doesn’t explain what they specifically did wrong, and so we have to make an assumption. But in verses 7-8, God is specific: Israel is offering defiled sacrifices.
Animal sacrifice is something we don’t have to do today, which is good. (PETA would throw a fit.) It may be difficult to understand why God would tell Israel to slit the throats of a sheep and burn it — much more so why God would consider that pleasing. But remember: the Old Testament is a shadow of the things to come. Just as the blood of a lamb paid for sin, Christ was the spotless lamb (1 Peter 1:19), and his blood paid for our sins once and for all! (Hebrews 10) This is what Jesus meant when he said he came to fulfill the law!
This was the object lesson: you had sinned, and deserved to die. The Bible often describes sin as a stain — one that could not simply be washed out. For this offense, the sinner deserved death. However, God would accept a substitute on one condition: the substitute had to be perfect, the best of your flock.
In effect, God is saying: “This perfect animal hasn’t done anything wrong. Your punishment will fall on the animal as if it were you. In exchange, I will view you like the animal: perfect, having not done anything wrong.” If the animal is not perfect, it ruins the point of the object lesson.
But why would anyone offer an imperfect sacrifice?
Imagine for a moment, you lived back then as an Israelite. At first, it filled you with awe and wonder that God would extend mercy and forgiveness to you. Eagerly, you picked the best sheep in your flock, and sang God’s praises all week. But now? It’s a chore. What was it this time? You lied about something? Bah — it wasn’t that big a deal. And the priest is saying I have to bring a whole bull this time?
Fine. God can have that one. The sickest, scrawniest bull in my flock. Anyways, it’s not like God even gets the sacrifice. The priests eat the chuck roast, and leave God with the ground beef. (1 Samuel 2:12-17).
Young Christian! Don’t you see how quickly we take God’s mercies for granted? And how easy it is to justify our own disobedience by shifting the blame onto our circumstances? “Yes, I know I shouldn’t have cursed. I know I shouldn’t have looked at that. But it’s been a hard week. Besides, God will forgive me.”
How does God respond to this attitude?
10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.
It seems that as a starting point, those who lead worship shouldn’t offer imperfect sacrifices!
Don’t Offer an Imperfect Sacrifice!
"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name." - Hebrews 13:15
What does it mean to offer an imperfect sacrifice? For that matter, what does it mean to sacrifice? Admittedly, this verse puzzles me a little bit. A sacrifice is something that should cost me — but singing seems to be something that costs nothing. Fortunately, because Jesus fulfilled the law, we don’t need to offer animal sacrifices any more. Instead, the author of Hebrews teaches us to bring the sacrifice of praise!
Perhaps we could guess as to what it means for praise to be a sacrifice, and for us to offer one without blemish. When leading worship, we have to practice the songs we sing, which is a sacrifice of time. So therefore, we should make the most of practice, and put every effort into selecting the best songs, and playing our instruments well.
Certainly, this is a good attitude. But there is one better! I will teach you a little trick to reading the Bible: whenever you see the word “therefore”, you need to understand what it’s “there for”. We’ve run into the middle of a thought! Perhaps rewritten, the author is saying: “…so because of what I just explained, then let us offer the sacrifice of praise.” What was he just talking about? It seems important! Let’s go a few verses back to see.
11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
— Hebrews 13:11-14
(I promise, I didn’t intend to pick ANOTHER verse that pointed back to the Old Testament as a foreshadowing of things in the New Testament! When I wrote my little aside several days ago, I thought I’d have to remove it from the article because it didn’t fit… How awesome that God had this little morsel just waiting for me! Onward!)
More history for you — when Israel was in the desert, trash and other things were burned outside the camp. Not only is this intuitive, but God intended it as another object lesson on holiness. (Deut 23:14) Dirty things don’t get to exist in the same place as clean things! Sinful things don’t get to exist with holy things.
The author of Hebrews explains here that the animal sacrifices were burned outside the camp, and draws a parallel to Jesus: Jesus was crucified as a criminal on a hill outside the city. He was beaten, mocked, stripped, and executed as a criminal — the height of indignity for the King.
I can illustrate this indignity no better than C.S. Lewis, in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”.
“Stop!” said the Witch. “Let him first be shaved.”
Another roar of mean laughter went up from her followers as an ogre with a pair of shears came forward and squatted down by Aslan’s head. Snip-snip-snip went the shears and masses of curling gold began to fall to the ground. Then the ogre stood back and the children, watching from their hiding-place, could see the face of Aslan looking all small and different without its mane. The enemies also saw the difference.
“Why, he’s only a great cat after all!” cried one.
“Is that what we were afraid of?” said another.
And they surged round Aslan, jeering at him, saying things like “Puss, Puss! Poor Pussy,” and “How many mice have you caught today, Cat?” and “Would you like a saucer of milk, Pussums?”
“Oh, how can they?” said Lucy, tears streaming down her cheeks. “The brutes, the brutes!” for now that the first shock was over the shorn face of Aslan looked to her braver, and more beautiful, and more patient than ever.
“Muzzle him!” said the Witch. And even now, as they worked about his face putting on the muzzle, one bite from his jaws would have cost two or three of them their hands. But he never moved. And this seemed to enrage all that rabble. Everyone was at him now. Those who had been afraid to come near him even after he was bound began to find their courage, and for a few minutes the two girls could not even see him — so thickly was he surrounded by the whole crowd of creatures kicking him, hitting him, spitting on him, jeering at him.
(This scene has many parallels to the crucifixion account — which I will leave for you to find.) The author of Hebrews is saying that we should go outside the camp and suffer disgrace like Jesus did! But we are not merely going outside the gate to be burned alone — “Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.”
Here is the sacrifice of praise we are to offer: suffering indignity for the sake of Christ. This sacrifice is offering praise in spite of our circumstances, when we feel like it the least. In our sorrows and sufferings, we will meet Jesus.
Already, I’ve written more than I intended to. Briefly, I’ll illustrate this sacrifice of praise, and then conclude.
The Shipwreck of the Ville du Havre
It is the year 1873. Thanks to the Transatlantic Cable, messages can be sent from America to Europe instantly — a process that would have taken weeks by boat. Of course, the convenience of instant messaging comes with a steep cost. Correspondents pay by the word, so telegrams are often excessively curt, and without punctuation.
Horatio Spafford lived in Chicago at 159 LaSale St. He was a lawyer, and heavily invested in real estate. Only two years ago, the Chicago Fire destroyed his home, and much of his real estate investments. The year before that, the Spaffords lost their youngest son to scarlet fever. Horatio had planned to take a trip overseas with his family, but was delayed by business, and sent his wife and four children ahead.
On the morning of December 2nd, the headlines on the papers read: “Terrible collision at sea”. The Ville du Harve, which Spafford’s family was traveling on, had struck another ship on November 22nd, and sunk. Of the 313 souls on board, only 87 survived. At 5:40 AM that morning, a transatlantic telegram arrived from his wife.
It read,
Saved, alone. What shall I do? Mrs Goodwin, Children, Willie Culver, lost. Go with Lorriaux [French minister, a fellow survivor of shipwreck] until answer reply . . . Paris.
- [Anna] Spafford.
All in all, the telegram would have cost approximately $150 in today’s dollars — nothing in comparison to what had been lost. The Spafford’s were now childless. Of the Spafford’s four children lost at sea, Tanetta was the youngest at three years of age.
What did Spafford do to deserve this life? He had dedicated part of his life to ending slavery, and volunteered his home as a meeting place for abolitionists to gather. Was that offering not enough for God? For this, a fire destroys his home, and all his children die in a freak accident. One might wonder if God is punishing him. Another might ask — where is the God you worship?
Horatio quickly set sail to meet his wife. Approximately six days in the voyage, the captain let Horatio know that they were crossing over where the Ville du Harve sank. That day, Horatio penned these words — which have since become a timeless hymn.
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soulThough Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
Isaiah 53:4 reads, “…we considered him [Jesus] punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” — Isn’t that the same disgrace that Spafford bore? He could have cursed God, but instead, he offered the costly sacrifice of praise. Notice how in the second verse, Horatio Spafford meets Jesus outside the city gate. Jesus is no stranger to suffering, and Spafford rejoices in the companionship, and expresses his confidence in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”
Job 1:20-21
Conclusion
Goodness. This one was quite a bit longer than I had anticipated. I hope it was worth your time to read. Just to wrap up, let me summarize the points I was trying to make here.
First, and rather by accident, I took some time to explain the importance of the Old Testament, and teach you to be on guard against false teachers who try to throw it out. The Old Testament is a shadow of the New Testament, a flower yet to bloom.
Then, we discussed animal sacrifice in the Old Testament, and read from Malachi: written to the priests who failed at their duties. God was disgusted with their useless sacrifices, and would have preferred that someone bar the gates of the temple. A good first step for those wanting to lead worship? Let’s not repeat their mistake!
Finally, I showed how we don’t offer sacrifices like the Israelites do. Our sacrifice is praise. Just like the Old Testament sacrifices which were burned outside the gate, Jesus himself was sacrificed outside the gate. When we suffer for his name, we can meet him there, and offer sacrifices of praise to him there.
Through this, I hope to build your understanding of worship. God has laid down rules for worship, and following them in obedience is itself an act of worship. Our worship should not be half hearted, we must not offer a blemished sacrifice. Rather, the more we understand and trust God, the deeper we grow in a relationship, and the more meaningful our worship becomes — especially when the times get tough.
Young Christian, if you want to lead worship, I want to ask you: have you had the chance to offer a sacrifice “outside the camp”? Have you suffered like Horatio Spafford for the name of Christ? How did you react?
This is a challenging thing to get right. I know I have squandered many opportunities outside the camp. But regardless of your experience — your opportunity will come! Suffering in this life isn’t a matter of “if”, but a matter of “when”. And when the time finds you, I pray that you will remember what you learned here, and bring a precious sacrifice to God that will be a fragrant offering.
May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
May we shout for joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.
Psalm 20: 1-5