The Church

The word "church" means "the gathering." The church is not a building; it is the gathering of God’s people. After Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, Christians were commanded to go into all the world, discipling the nations and teaching them to observe all that He had commanded (Matthew 28:19-20). During the Temple era, the nations were called to come to Jerusalem to learn to worship the true God there. But with the fulfillment of the ceremonial law, public worship could now take place everywhere on earth.

Still, the principles of worship remained unchanged from the time of Adam. God is holy and can only be approached by those who are clean and covered by vicarious atonement. To approach God in any other way is the way of Cain. However, in Christ, those who were alienated from God are restored to communion with Him (Colossians 1:21-22). The outward signs and rituals of the ceremonial law always pointed to this truth, and now, in Christ, they are fulfilled. The instruments, played only by Levites, represented the glory of redemption accomplished. When Christ obtained our full redemption, the unique glory of the Temple worship was totally fulfilled.

We are told that our bodies are the temple of Holy Spirit (I Cor 6:19). Worship is to come out of us rather than be something done to us. The Word of God springs from our hearts and is confessed with our lips as worship the holy God. We should never return to external worship and long for its rituals. We now have purity of worship just as Christ said would happen to the Samaritan woman. Christian worship follows the principle given from the beginning that God is only to be worshiped as he commands because God is holy. God gives us the Bible from which we preach on Sunday, and he gives us the songs that we sing together.

The early Church understood this principle. They recognized, as the Jews did in the synagogue, that God must only be approached in worship as He commands. With the end of the Temple system, the use of musical instruments—an integral part of Levitical worship—ceased to be a part of Christian worship. Believers now approach God in Spirit and in truth, as Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:23-24). The Samaritans had introduced their own ways of worshiping the God of Jacob, diverging from the commands given in the Law of Moses. Jesus corrected this, teaching that true worship is not about external rituals but about the inner reality of a heart devoted to God.

Why does God command worship in this way? Because God is Spirit (John 4:24), and He desires worship that flows from inner truth rather than reliance on outward ceremonies. The external rituals of the ceremonial law, though divinely instituted, were always meant to point to Christ. Now that Christ has come and fulfilled their purpose, those rituals are no longer necessary.

As Jews sang in their synagogue without instruments, they were affirming that God had commanded the ceremonial law. As Christians sing in churches without instruments, they are affirming that God has ended the ceremonial law and given the reality in Christ. We don’t need outward forms anymore. We don’t need priests, sacrifices, incense, or instruments all associated with Temple music.

To return to the ceremonial law’s use of instruments is to fail to see the reality of Christ. The ending of the ceremonial law’s use of instruments does not open the door to doing whatever we want in worship any more than it opens the door to preaching from any book we want. The worship of God is still limited to his commands. We are to trust him as his children that he has given us the best and withheld no good thing from us.

Instead, the people of God now sing His inspired psalms with their lips, offering a sacrifice of praise to Him (Hebrews 13:15-16). They are to show they understand and affirm the Word of God. Worship is no longer mediated through Levites or accompanied by instruments tied to the Temple, but through the perfect mediation of Christ Himself. By His sacrifice, believers are cleansed and enabled to come directly before God, offering worship that is spiritual, heartfelt, and grounded in truth.

When we look at the New Testament, we see that the disciples recognize the Book of Psalms as their song book. Not only did they quote it more than any Old Testament book, but by giving it this name they are calling it their worship song book. In Acts 1:20 this is how Peter speaks about the Book of Psalms. It isn’t even the point he is making, which shows us they didn’t question the status of the Psalms. It was their book of worship songs. Then in Acts 2:25-36, Peter shows us that he and the disciples understood the Psalms to point to Christ. Psalm 110 is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament. The disciples understood the Psalms to be Christological. They didn’t complain that the Psalms are Old Testament and Christians need songs about Christ.