One of the great things Jesus did to reform worship occurred at the cleansing of the temple.  After his triumphal entry into Jerusalem , he exercised kingly and priestly authority by driving the money changers out of his house, the court of the gentiles (Matt. 21:12-13).  Although we’re not told explicitly that he used a whip as he did the first time (John 2), tossing the tables of the temple money changers would’ve set off a healthy brawl as this practice provided an enormous revenue stream to the high priestly family. 

Once the court was clear, Jesus quoted Isaiah, “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (56:7), and Jeremiah, “but you make it a den of robbers” (6:11).  Matthew’s account draws out the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy:

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say; “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree….  And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord…these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”  The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel , declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.” (56:4-8)

The departure of the money changers allowed the blind and the crippled to come to Christ in the temple for healing (21:14).  The outcasts, foreigners, lame and oppressed were liberated by worship, by their access to the Christ who is the life of the world.    

Throughout the story of Israel , worship of the true God is a liberating occasion.  Yahweh sent Abram into Canaan where he would bless the inhabitants enslaved to horrific sin (infanticide, slavery, oppression) that inevitably flows from the worship of false gods.  God would make Abram a blessing to these families and to all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:3).  To accomplish this, Abram began by worshipping in the midst of the Canaanites (12:6).  In Scripture, right worship brings health and glory to Israel and simultaneously the envy and conversion of the nations.  Solomon built the temple and prayed at its dedication that people from all over the earth—including non Jews—would pray toward it and that God would hear them.  The Queen of Sheba came from afar to worship and admire all that Yahweh had accomplished and given to the king. 

While the temple was regulated and parts of it reserved for circumcised Jews, another for priests, and one for the high priest only once a year, the court of the Gentiles provided a place for uncircumcised God-fearers to tithe and worship without compulsion to become Jews.  We see that worship is simultaneously uncompromisingly focused on God and regulated by him, but also accessible and inviting to those led by the Spirit to approach him.  In addition, synagogue worship, modeled after the temple, provided a less regulated worship without animal sacrifice that took place in all the barrios of Israel and throughout the Gentile nations during the exile.  Worship in the old covenant, obediently performed, was evangelistic, performed in public, in plain sight of the world in order that unbelievers would see Israel worshipping her God and come to know him just as the Psalmist said:

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call up on his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!  (105:1-2)

The command to worship and declare God’s glory before the nations continues in the new covenant.  At Pentecost, a mixed multitude from different nations and regions gathered together at Jerusalem for the feast.  Peter’s prophetic preaching challenged, perplexed, and ultimately converted the hearers who were cut to the heart (Acts 2:12, 37).  This glorious worship transformed Israel by fulfilling the prophecy of Joel just as Peter declared it: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21).  Paul mentioned the same verse from Joel in Romans 10 when speaking about the salvation that had come upon all nations through the means of preaching—all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (v13).  We are accustomed to think of the arrival of this preaching in terms of evangelistic crusades and mid week outreach efforts by campus ministers.  While all evangelism—whether street preaching, informal discussions about the gospel, or any other embodiment of faithful Christian living—is critical to the mission, the fundamental preaching happens in Lord’s day worship.  All preaching is informed and driven by the word preached to the corporate body of Christ.  Just as Abraham began worshipping in Canaan , faithful preachers declare the gospel during worship, and faith comes by hearing.   

While unbelievers ought to overhear, be drawn to and welcomed into worship, we must never lose sight that worship is for God and not man of any stripe.  Misunderstanding this causes the confusion of both seeker sensitive and anti-seeker sensitive camps.  One says that worship is for believers, and the other for unbelievers.  While the passages declaring God’s desire to be praised and worshipped among and by the nations could be multiplied, we never see Yahweh taking a poll or doing market research to learn about how the Canaanites dress or prefer their music.  Hebrews, which it turns out is a New Testament book, says that living under Christ’s reign is much scarier than Moses’ since Jesus shook heaven as well as earth. He requires acceptable worship with reverence and fear since God is a consuming fire (12:25-29).  While we don’t live under the tutor of the law and the requirements of animal sacrifice, the arrival of something better means that God is much nearer and therefore more to be feared and loved.  Churches that have embraced a casual approach in worship need come to terms with the objective fear and reverence required before the living, awesome (in the old, staggering sense) God.  And “traditional” churches need to remember that being reverent isn’t the same as being quiet, well-dressed and bored.  Right worship combines joy and enthusiasm with beauty and awe, and thus draws the nations.  

While worship shouldn’t mindlessly mimic and embrace unbelieving culture, neither should it become insular and only intelligible to the long-ago-initiated.  In 1 Corinthians 14, one of reasons Paul gives against the use of tongues in worship is on account of what unbelievers would think if they showed up—that the Christians are nuts (v23).  On the contrary, prophesy (or preaching) should not only be intelligible, but relevant and convicting to an outsider:

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. 

If and when unbelievers come to worship, they should be able to understand what is going on, be challenged by the preaching, and if the Spirit is kind, convert to Christ.  This is what Paul expects to happen.  While God’s worship should not be catered to unbelievers or made “seeker sensitive,” it ought to be conducted in the vernacular, unencumbered by specialized evangelical vocabulary that no outsider has any hope or desire to understand.  This issue is one that has to be applied with wisdom and discretion in different ways in different situations.  Certain unbelievers will always feel out place, and many Christians even after years of worship aren’t “comfortable” with everything in the liturgy, especially if the church is always growing and maturing.  But Paul’s requirements remain, and Christians should exercise evangelistic hospitality.

Where some churches introduce an unbiblical division of separate worship for believers and unbelievers (or exclusion for unbelievers altogether), the Bible makes no such distinction.[1]  Creating a separate service for unbelievers reveals an embarrassment or misunderstanding of the means of grace.  What converts a person, the clear declaration of God’s majesty and glorious acts, or superficial techniques and self-help messages so easily digested by the modern consumer?  How is God better revealed, in the rich and glorious music sung by the church for millennia, or trite and manipulatively emotional choruses? 

Some think an audience consisting of believers and unbelievers can’t be addressed effectively with the same message.  But the New Testament contains letters written to congregations with varying degrees of maturity among them.  Paul’s letter to the Romans is written to all the saints (v7), Jews and Gentiles, new and seasoned believers, and some on the edge of apostasy and heresy.  The letter is plain enough for a pagan considering the faith to understand the gospel (as so many have experienced who have converted reading it), yet deep enough for the most mature Christian to probe for decades.  Hebrews might have originally been a sermon delivered to Jewish Christians.  It contains some of the most difficult arguments in the New Testament, yet we’re told that the hearers were immature and needed to hear again the first principles (5:11-14). 

The problem of preaching intelligibly to unbelievers and yet challengingly to Christians is only difficult due to our modern habit.  One pastor joked once about growing up in an evangelical tradition where every Sunday all the Christians gathered together to learn about how to become Christians.  But like the sermons and epistles throughout the Bible, effective preaching addresses people of different ages, demographics, subcultures, walks of life, and stages of faith.  All people need to be continually taught and fed the grace of God, the ten commandments, the primacy of love, and the necessity of repentance and faith, and Christians ought to be constantly challenged by preaching that is sometimes over their heads. 

Evangelism that occurs during worship is no substitute for the friendship and discipling that happens throughout the week as Christians meet, serve, and interact in the community.  If this is happening the way it ought to, non Christians will be drawn to worship naturally.  Believers will be delighted and motivated to bring non Christians to worship, and conversations will occur outside the service just as they did in Acts 2.  The result will be congregations that grow not just by attracting Christians and the birth of new covenant believers, but also by the unconverted being gathered to God.