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 showbread. 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 unto 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, the more we talk to Him, 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 was 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.