The Centrality of Worship
By John Piper
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t.
Worship is ultimate, not missions because God is ultimate, not man.
When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity.
But worship abides forever.
Worship, therefore, is the goal and fuel of missions: It is the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. “The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!” (Ps 97:1 ESV, emphasis added). “Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! O let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” (Ps 67:3-4 KJV Cambridge ed.; emphasis added). But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. We will never call out, “Let the nations be glad!” if we cannot say from the heart, “I rejoice in the Lord . . . I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High” (Ps 104:34 ESV; 9:2 KJV Cambridge ed.).
Missions begins and ends in worship. I am not pleading for the diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of 18 Orality Journal, Volume 5, Number 1, 2016 John Piper the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to “declare his glory among the nations” (Ps 96:3).
But when the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, then the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth.
Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claims upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God.
The deepest reason why our passion for God should fuel missions is that God’s passion for God fuels missions.
Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God’s delight in being God. And the deepest reason why worship is the goal in missions is that worship is God’s goal. We are confirmed in this goal by the biblical record of God’s relentless pursuit of praise among the nations. “Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!” (Ps 117:1 ESV)
If it is God’s goal it must be our goal. Probably no text in the Bible reveals the passion of God for his own glory more clearly and bluntly than Isaiah 48:9–11 where God says: For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. (ESV, emphasis added) I have found that for many people these words come like six hammer blows to a human-centered way of looking at the world: For my name’s sake! For the sake of my praise! For my own sake! For my own sake! How should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another!
SO WHATS THE MODALITY OF WORSHIP?
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