The Lord Jesus had a very interesting conversation with a woman of Samaria in John 4:20-24 on the subject of “worship.” In verses 23-24 He told her “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” We learn in these verses that God the Father desires “true worshippers…to worship Him.” So, in answer to your first question, we worship God because He wants us to!

The word “worship” in this passage refers to “an act of homage or reverence.” Is not God worthy of our homage and praise? He most certainly is, for He is an awesome God and we should stand in awe of Him! In truth He is the ONLY ONE that deserves to be worshipped. You may recall that scene in Matthew 4 where the devil took Jesus up to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and then he said, in verse 9 “All these things will I give Thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” In verse 10 Jesus responded, “Get thee hence Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6:13, which is one of many verses that teach the same truth; God ALONE deserves our worship. So, He DESIRES our worship and He DESERVES our worship. Why does He deserve our worship? We could fill many pages to answer that, but surely He deserves our worship because He is our CREATOR and REDEEMER. In Revelation 4:11 we have a future scene in heaven where all believers will worship Him as CREATOR with these words, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” In Revelation 5:9 the redeemed are worshipping Him as REDEEMER by singing, “Thou art worthy to take the book…for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood.”

Why do we go to church? First of all, let’s be clear as to what the “church” is. Acts 2:47 informs us, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” The “church” is not a building or an organization, the church is made up of all those who have been saved. In Acts 2 we have the beginning of the church, for on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to indwell all who had believed on Christ as their Savior and to form them into one body, called the church. The apostle Paul taught this in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” The moment a sinner trusts in Christ he is added to the church. So, when we speak of “going to church” we are really talking about “the church going to meeting.” Again, it would take more space than we have to answer this question completely, but Acts 2:42 is a good place to start. Immediately after the church was formed we read “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” In this verse we see that the church began having meetings; they were gathered together to learn the doctrines that the apostles were teaching; they were gathered together to worship the Father and the Son in the breaking of bread; and they were gathered together to pray. The church still needs to be gathered for these same meetings and that’s “why the church goes to meeting.”  (178.10)  (DO)