Postmillennial Worship

Introduction

Postmillennialism is the conviction that prior to the Second Coming of Christ, the earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The church’s marching orders, meaning the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), will be successfully fulfilled. The nations of men will in fact be discipled. All the enemies of Christ will be subdued by the power of the gospel, with only one exception—that exception being death itself, which will be destroyed by the personal appearance of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:25-26).

The reference to postmillennial worship means that we believe that the right worship of God will be the central instrument that He will use to bring all this about. Right worship, offered up with the faith of Abraham (Rom. 4:13), will in fact receive Abraham’s promise.  

The Text

“For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same My name shall be great among the Gentiles; And in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: For my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 1:11).

Summary of the Text

In the first part of this chapter of Malachi, the prophet is chastising the people for their corrupt and lame worship of Him (v. 8). They do not honor God as they ought (v. 6). And as a consequence He no longer accepts their offerings (v. 10). And then comes the abrupt promise of our text. God will have the honor His name deserves, and He will fetch that honor from every point of the compass. His name will be great among the Gentiles—that would be you and me—and pure worship will then be offered to Him in every place.

The Authority of Christ

Jesus Christ has ascended into the heavenly places, into the court of the Ancient of Days, where He was given universal dominion (Dan. 7:13-14). He purchased all the nations of men with His own blood, and He intends to have them (Ps. 2:7-8). He told His followers that He had been granted all authority in Heaven and on earth, and that was why they were to fan out and disciple all the nations on earth (Matt. 28:18-20). The center of this activity in the New Testament consisted of planting churches, centers where this worship would be offered up.

We glorify the name of Christ as we worship Him in the heavenly places. And in the Lord’s Prayer, we ask for His kingdom to come, for His will to be done “on earth as it is in Heaven.” We are asking for the name of Christ to be exalted on earth in just the way we exalted it in Heaven.

Fight from the High Ground

We ascend into the heavenlies in our worship and we meet with our God there (Heb. 12:22). But this heavenly worship is not something that has somehow fearfully run away from the enemy on earth. Rather, as the book of Revelation shows us in great detail, the worship of the saints in heaven accomplishes God’s judgments and purposes on earth. The twenty-four elders worship God in heaven (Rev. 4:10), and the seven seals are opened in heaven (Rev. 5:5). But this does not leave the earth untouched or unaffected. What happens in heaven drives what happens on earth. Opened seals in Heaven bring about closures on earth.

So if you want to fight the culture war, you have to fight from the high ground. And the only high ground we can successfully fight from is the high ground of Heaven, where our Lord Jesus is seated at God’s right hand. Right this minute, as you are worshiping God, you are fighting from the high ground.

What Worship Does

Note that we are expressly told that we do not accomplish this mission by means of physical weapons. One of the things that has disturbed our local secularists is that they have heard us saying things like “all of Christ for all of life for all of Moscow.” This seems to them as though we want to get control by earthly means. But we are talking about spiritual warfare. At the same time, spiritual warfare is not ethereal warfare, or some form of make-believe warfare. It is not as though there are no results. Of course there are results—God intends the result of a saved world (John 3:17).

Echoes of the Celestial Coronation

So our worship services are a weekly celebration of that great coronation that happened two thousand years ago. And coronation celebrations always spell trouble for all pretenders to the throne. This is what Adonijah discovered to his dismay. His coronation party was quite overshadowed.

One celebration absolutely ruined the other celebration.

Warfare Through New Eyes

God established the antithesis at the very beginning of human history (Gen. 3:15). There is therefore a constant state of war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The Lord Jesus crushed the serpent’s head in His crucifixion and resurrection, but by His grace He permits us to participate in that struggle (Rom. 16:20). He crushes the adversary badly, bruising him under His heel. But remember, as His body, we are that heel. “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:22).

But there is more. Jesus promised us that in this conflict, the gates of Hades would never prevail against us (Matt. 16:18). But please note that the gates of Hades are not an offensive weapon. We are not besieged by the gates of Hades. We are the besiegers. We are not manning our tiny little Alamo, fighting desperately until we finally go under. It is the other way around.

This does not mean that our warfare is easy. Far from it. The first men up the scaling ladders can find the fighting pretty hot at the top of the wall. But it is the top of their wall. It is not fierce fighting on the top of our wall.

Proclaim Till He Comes

Every faithful sermon that declares Christ as Savior and Lord is a proclamation, but not just to the gathered believers. The message is also for unbelievers, as well as all the principalities and powers. Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which we do every seven days, we proclaim the vicarious death that conquers the whole world (1 Cor. 11:26). Every time the minister says, “let us worship the triune God,” it is a signal for all to pick up the celestial battering ram so that we might take another swing. And every time we open our mouths and our psalters to sing, we want to do so in a way so that Adonijah can hear it.