Public worship is the public assembly of God's saints, meeting together to worship God publicly through the preaching of the word public prayer, and public praise. Public worship is just as important as private worship. It is so important that Christ Himself gives the promise of His special presence and blessing only to public worship, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20). One who says, "I don't need to worship God publicly, I can worship just as well on my own," is nothing more than a religious hypocrite. One who does not worship God publicly in reality does not worship God privately either. Public worship, the coming together as a church to hear the gospel preached is of utmost importance to the child of God. If a person can willingly and habitually absent themselves from public worship, one of two things is true.
(1) They are in a serious, spiritually sick condition. When one is physically sick they lose their appetite. When one is spiritually sick they lose their appetite for the Word preached. (2) They are lost.
I hope we have the same desire as the Gentiles who came to Jerusalem to worship at the Passover who found Philip and told him “Sir, we would see Jesus”. They hoped Philip would bring them into the presence of the Lord Jesus so they could enjoy His company for a little while.
What a blessing when the Lord sends us one of His preachers who can bring us into the presence of the Lord and show us the Lord Jesus Christ in the scriptures. The best thing a preacher can do for us is to preach the gospel so that we can see the Lord Jesus Christ with eyes of faith.
We need to see Jesus as:
The Son of God. We need to see the Lord Jesus in all His glory, the glory that He had with the Father before the world was. We need to see Him as sovereign King who can do with us as He pleases so we will fall at His feet and beg for mercy.
The Son of Man. We need to see Jesus not as a mere man, not even as an extraordinary man. We need to see Jesus as the God-Man, as God in human flesh who produced a perfect righteousness that He freely imputes to His people.
The Lamb of God. We need to see Jesus as these Gentiles would soon see Him - lifted up on the cross. We need to see the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sin of His elect. We need to see our Redeemer shedding His precious blood to atone for our sin. We need to see Him lifted up so that sinners like us can look and live.
The Risen Savior. Our Savior died under the wrath of God for the sin of His elect that was laid on Him, but He did not stay dead. He arose as the Victorious Savior whose blood put those sins away. We need to see Him risen again for our justification.
The Ascended Savior. We need to see Jesus as the successful Savior who ascended back to glory seated at His Father’s right hand where He sits making intercession for His people.
My heart’s desire is to see the Lord Jesus Christ. How I long for the day when, in a new body, I can see my Lord face to face. Until then, I would say to every preacher of the gospel, “Sir, we would see Jesus”.
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