The Zurich reformer Heinrich Bullinger placed on the title page of several of his books the words, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matthew 17:5), as indicative of the source of authority for the gospel doctrines Bullinger published. These are words particularly pertinent to New Testament worship, because they direct us to the one whose voice is the sole rule for appropriate worship.

Throughout biblical history God has given his church ordinances of worship by which he is to be approached. Certain solemn forms and actions have been invested by God's Word with the significance of worship. God has been glorified as his people obeyed his instructions, employing these ordinances as the vehicles for rendering praise to him. Indeed, observance of these ordinances has been a test of the submission of God's people to his revealed will. In the garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was given to put Adam's obedience under trial. Circumcising the males of his household was the responsibility of Abraham. Remembering the Lord's death by the giving and receiving of bread and wine is a duty which no believer may ignore.

The Lord's designation of certain ordinances for worship continues in the New Testament church. No doubt the New Testament apostles use the language of an Old Testament ordinance to figuratively describe the believer seeking to honor God in all the course of life (Romans 12:1-2, I Peter 2:5). But far more commonly in the New Testament we read of worship ordinances as actions instituted to be kept when the church comes together in its assemblies: prayer, reading the Word, preaching, congregational singing of Psalms, baptism, the Lord's Supper.

What is it, then, that gives legitimacy to any particular activity, for it to be used as an ordinance of worship? Is it the experience of God's people, who find over a period of time that certain actions are conducive to feelings of reverence and adoration? Is it the value God's people see in them for dramatizing the truths of the gospel? Is it the likelihood of drawing unbelievers who might be impressed with activities that seem to be as sophisticated or entertaining as something they might see in the secular world? Is it the consensus judgment of the church's governing elders which should determine appropriate ordinances for us in worship?

In Mark 7: 3-13, Jesus instructs us that worship is vain when its practices are based on the traditions of men, and do not have a warrant in God's Word. "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Jesus cites these words from the book of the prophet Isaiah, disclosing that there is a continuity of principle here between Old and New Testament. It is in the commandments of God alone that we are to seek direction for acceptable worship. Worship has become misguided and lost its value when it is not an act of obedience to an authorizing command from God. It is not the authority of a human tradition which can make an action righteous, or invest an activity with the significance of being an ordinance of worship in Christ's church. Never in the Scriptures do men ordain by their own prerogative that a practice should have the value of being religious worship, and then meet with divine approval of their conduct. In Mark 7 we have such an instance of divine condemnation when men sanctioned religious practices not required by God.

What is it that has raised washing, eating, drinking and singing to the significance of being ordinances of worship for the New Testament church? Might painting, dancing and dramatic plays be given a similar standing? It is the Word of God alone which sanctions a sacramental association between the crucified body of Christ and the bread of the Lord's Supper. No other authority can draw that connection. Only the Word of God can provide the warrant that transforms any activity into a worship ordinance. True worship is an act of obedience rendered to a biblical command requiring the performance of that activity as a duty.

In this the sovereign Lord asserts his own wisdom and good pleasure in the determination of what will be acceptable forms of worship. According to Mark 7, worship activity is only glorifying to God when it is sanctioned by God's command. Without God's word of institution for the action we offer him, what we do in worship is lost. In passing from the Old Testament to the New Testament, God has not surrendered his exclusive prerogative as the determiner of worship ordinances. The differences between Old and New Testament worship lie elsewhere.

John 4:23-24 may reflect, in part, the need for inwardness in worship. Jesus frequently inculcates the necessity of inward integrity in worship (Matthew 5:23-24, 6:16-18, 12:7). This inward integrity is envisaged as showing itself in behavior. But central in John 4 is the imperative that worship be consonant with the nature of God. "God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Truth in worship means that the content and mode of our worship must correspond to the reality of who God is (Acts 17:16, 24-25, 29). It is this requisite which is provided for by divine revelation, and by divine prescription of such worship activities as are in accord with the glory of God. It is noteworthy that in this connection Jesus contrasts the errant procedures of Samaritan worship with knowledgeable forms of Jewish temple observance conformed to the pattern God has revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai (John 4:20-22, Acts 7:44, Hebrews 8:5). There would be changes in some of the specific forms as the church passed from Old to New Testament, and some of these changes would reflect the temporary character of old covenant type and shadow. What abides is that true worship is consonant with God's nature, and that the religious practices appropriate to the worship of the living and true God are derived from his revealed Word rather than from human judgment (Colossians 2:18-23, Romans 1:21-25).

Why is it such a common feature of church life in our day that activities never required by God in the Scriptures are introduced into worship? Is it not because men fear that the few and simple ordinances prescribed in Scripture will be insufficient to build the church? Is there not an underlying anxiety that further means beyond the biblical ordinances must be devised in order to secure the welfare and prosperity of the church?

Jesus sent the apostles to disciple and baptize the nations, and specified that the instruction they would give should be, "to observe all things that I have commanded you." The risen Savior accompanied this injunction with the assurance that his presence in grace and power would attend his church as it acted in observance of his commands. "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20). Christ has provided in the New Testament the institution of such ordinances of worship, and an eldership to dispense them, as will sufficiently minister to the holiness and comfort of his people and the increase of his kingdom, through his gracious presence in their midst (Matthew 18:20, Acts 1:8, 5:31-32).

Indeed the building of Christ's church may proceed by means of such suffering, humiliation and hardship as men would not choose (Matthew 16:21-23), and much is often done to avoid the pain, the humbling and the shame which God has always used in the growth of the kingdom. It was in the humiliation of God's Son that the kingdom was brought to birth, and the kingdom will not be built without painful self-denial, crucifying the flesh and losing of one's life in following Christ (Matthew 16:24-26, Mark 10:39, Colossians 1:24, I Corinthians 4:9-13).

Nevertheless Christ has given us his pledge that as his servants fulfil his mandate, conforming their teaching and practice to his requirements, Christ will be with the church, with all the redemptive blessings implicit in his divine presence. It is he who nourishes and cherishes the church, sanctifying it with the washing of water by the Word, which he does in part by supplying gifts and officers to his body, causing growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 5:25-29, 4:7-16, Matthew 16:16-19). The institutions given in Scripture, coupled with the presence of the Savior among his people, are sufficient to attain the Savior's purpose for his church.

What, then, are we to make of efforts to add institutions of worship not required by God? Will Christ be present to bless what his people ingeniously contrive as supplements to his institutions? Can God's benediction be secured for the variety of new worship activities devised by men for securing the church's prosperity? When we adhere to Christ's commands, we may expectantly rely upon God's promised presence, confident that the seed of his Word will bring forth fruit. But can we conjure the blessing of God upon our own inventions? When the Lord's few and simple ordinances must vie with human traditions in worship, human fancy may be satisfied, and there may be increase in numbers of people attending, in financial resources, in construction of facilities, and in ministry enterprises. But to the extent that this increase is not occurring through the observance of Christ's commands, is it the expansion of the kingdom of God? Can the kingdom come through eschewing the prescriptions of Christ in the Scripture?

The rebuke to our generation's fascination with extra-Scriptural worship practices is the apostles' persuasion that insufficient as they were in themselves, the ministry Christ commissioned them to carry out would be accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. As the apostles preached, the Holy Spirit would take the things of Christ and show them to men, bringing conviction and conversion. Through the Spirit alone will they be able ministers of the new testament (II Corinthians 3:2-12, I Corinthians 5:1-5, John 16:7-15). New Testament churches prayerfully conducting the biblical institutions of worship may trust in the ministry of the Spirit, who alone can regenerate and sanctify. Such undertakings, building with gold, silver and precious stones, will erect temples of eternal and enduring value, temples of godly character (I Corinthians 3:9-17). When biblical worship practices are altered to make the service more appealing to the spiritually uncommitted, what can be expected will be the character of the church being erected? But the comfort of following biblical requirements in worship is the knowledge that God is glorified by our obedient compliance, and the belief that God in his time will bring forth an unfading inheritance as a blessing upon our faithful worship.

Matthew 28:18-20 also discloses the function of church officers. The terms of their commission restrict them to practice and teach the commands of Christ. As Jesus the Messiah was set apart for a designated work which the Father sent him to do, Christ sends the eldership to carry out a task he has assigned them. His faithfulness as the Servant of the Lord consisted in his careful performance of the mission laid upon him, and likewise the elders have a responsibility delegated to them to dispense ordinances Christ has placed in their hands. Their authority is administrative and ministerial, not legislative. It is not for elders to make new rules and standards for worship, but as stewards of the mysteries of God theirs is to faithfully administer the institutions warranted by higher authority (I Corinthians 4:1-4, 9:16-17, Colossians 1:25, Titus 1:5-9). Biblical elders might be likened to judges and sheriffs, called not to make new laws, but to see that the provisions of existing legislation are fulfilled. Or like the trustees of a deed, they are entrusted with responsibility to see that the will of the testator is honored, and have no function to add supplementary stipulations to the deed. Conformity to Christ's commands is the measure of an elder's fidelity to his stewardship.

How shall this be reconciled with the notion that elders have a permissive liberty to admit new worship practices, insofar as all is done in a reverent and orderly manner? May we go beyond Scripture, and churchmen use their discretion to allow new activities not instituted in the Word of God? The wisdom which the Lord of the church has given to elders is not a wisdom to contrive or approve new practices, but the wisdom to administer biblical institutions in an edifying manner. The rule for what may be permitted in worship has not been changed to whatever may seem reasonable to the supervising elders. Rather the apostles are content to hand on to the church the institutions which they received from the Lord (I Corinthians 11:1-2, 23). Paul's injunction in I Corinthians 14 that the church's worship be conducted decently and in order, and his directions that men addressing the church in Corinth do so each in succession and always in a known tongue, are not a permission to devise new actions of worship, for the activity of the men is a given: they had a psalm, a doctrine, a tongue, a revelation, an interpretation. They were teaching from already extant Scripture, or delivering new revelation by tongues and prophesying. Who can be asked to submit to the contrivances of elders who impose themselves on other men's consciences by going beyond biblical ordinances, intruding themselves, instead of administering Christ's institutions? The primary responsibility of the eldership is to see that the church discharges the commands of Christ, not adding to them or departing from them.