We should agree to consult the church historic as a guide and standard for expressions of reverence. The prayers, songs, sermons, liturgies of Christians across 2000 years and five continents are neither infallible nor our final authority. They are, however, highly illuminating, instructive, and corrective, living as we do in an age of flippancy, irreverence and amusement. Their errors are likely not ours are are therefore highly visible to us and easily avoided. Our own errors are invisible to us, and seen more clearly when the contrast of earlier ages highlight our own deficiencies and faults. By allowing the church triumphant to have a voice at the table, our decisions on reverence will not be an echo chamber for our prejudices. We will hear what thousands of Christians before our time considered reverence to be.

Will Christians ever agree on whether certain acts of worship are reverent? In glory, perhaps, but on this side of Heaven, unanimity is impossible. A more modest goal is that thoughtful Christians should limit their discussion about reverence to those who agree on some basic principles. Proverbs warns against debating with fools and scoffers, and many a Christian has disobeyed this advice and found only angst, dishonour and wasted time. Serious discussion can be conducted only by serious people. What then should be the marks of serious-mindedness when it comes to discussing reverence?
First, we should agree that reverence toward God is required (Prov. 1:7, 9:10; Heb. 12:28-29). Few will disagree with this premise, but it is nonetheless important to state, since God Himself states it. We are not debating over a mere cosmetic preference, but over a fundamental posture towards God.
Second, we should agree that it is possible to be irreverent towards God. Again, this sounds pedantic and almost patronising to state, but it is important that we agree that somewhere on the worship spectrum people cross a line from acceptable to unacceptable worship. We may certainly disagree on where that point is, but if it is always further out than what people are actually doing, it may as well not exist. Sincerity and good intentions are ever taken by modern evangelicals to be the panacea for any perceived irreverence, and consequently few are ever charged with heteropathy. This is the equivalent of acquitting criminals by asking them if they meant to be evil, and releasing them if they answer “no”. No one thinks his evil is unwarranted evil; similarly, no one thinks he is being deliberately irreverent.
Third, we should agree that God’s Word regulates worship, and that the primary guard against irreverence is to restrict ourselves to what God commands by precept or inferred principle.
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In God’s providence, John Knox led one of the most interesting lives of the Reformers. He was a preacher, a pastor, a galley-slave on a ship, a Bible translator, commentator, and a Reformer. It was during these years that he lived in various countries and served alongside some impressive figures—such as John Calvin in Geneva. John Knox’s preaching gift continued to be sharpened into a powerful voice for the glory of God. As he labored in the pulpit as a pastor he would remark, “The public preaching of the word of God is the chief ordinary means of salvation.”

When you survey history, there are certain men who are clearly marked out by God for the purpose of accomplishing great things and monumentous tasks. There is no doubt about it—John Knox is one such figure. Knox was born in Haddington in 1514 to humble beginnings. Although he was a man of shorter stature physically, it’s safe to say that John Knox would become one of the most towering figures of church history. He was a man on a mission, as he famously stated, “Give me Scotland, or I die.”
Knox would be raised up by God to lead the Scottish Reformation. Sometimes God will take a nobody and use him to shake the world. The power of God on a person’s life is not based on the approval of man nor the paper certificates of seminaries and educational institutions. Although Knox was a scholar and author, at the heart of his ministry was the pulpit.
The Era of the Preacher
There is no question about it, the times of his life often mark a man. However, by the end of Knox’s life, it could be well said that he marked his times. When Patrick Hamilton was burned at the stake in St. Andrews, John Knox was about 14 years of age. Knox would eventually be educated at St. Andrews and to this day on the sidewalk in front of St. Salvador’s Chapel remains a large “PH” which is a constant reminder that walking in the footsteps of Jesus is not always safe. Knox learned the story of Patrick Hamilton—”the heretic.”
John Knox was raised in an era where the Roman Catholic Church held a strangle hold on the Bible. It was the time in history when taking a different position than the Roman Catholic Church could result in your public burning. Although Knox was only seven years of age when Luther took his famous stand in the city of Worms, Germany—the writing of Luther would eventually reach the shore of Scotland where he would be influenced by the German Reformer.
John Knox was ordained to the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church and returned home after his education where he would serve as a tutor and a notary, which was an important role in interpreting documents.
We are not given specific information or details about Knox’s conversion to faith. He was influenced by one preacher who first gave him a taste of truth. He stated later that it was John 17 where, “I first cast my anchor.” By 1543, Knox was a Christian and his journey of faith erupted into action. He would be directly influenced by a fiery preacher named George Wishart as he would, interestingly enough, serve as a bodyguard for the Scottish herald.
He wasn’t merely there as a guard, Knox was a student of Wishart—a disciple. He learned a model of boldness, a Reformed perspective of doctrine, and he would later learn what it means to die for your faith as Wishart was arrested, condemned as a heretic by Cardinal David Beaton (uncle to the deceased Archbishop James Beaton, who presided over the martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton) and burned at the stake in 1546.
The Power of Knox’s Preaching
In God’s providence, John Knox led one of the most interesting lives of the Reformers. He was a preacher, a pastor, a galley-slave on a ship, a Bible translator, commentator, and a Reformer. It was during these years that he lived in various countries and served alongside some impressive figures—such as John Calvin in Geneva. John Knox’s preaching gift continued to be sharpened into a powerful voice for the glory of God.
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Worship is a response that comes when the Spirit gives our hearts an apprehension of the righteousness of Jesus provided in the gospel as we praise His glorious grace. This, according to the Apostle, characterizes a life of discipleship. To be a disciple of Jesus is to forgo all confidence in anything but Jesus and to glory in His person and work with the melody of heart and tongue.

If I can borrow (and slightly modify) a turn of phrase I once heard, I would say that discipleship exists because worship does not. The very reason Jesus has given His church the mandate to disciple the nations is because He desires a people from every tribe, language, and nation to join together in an unbroken harmonious symphony of praise to the triune God. That means, as we faithfully fulfill the mandate of discipleship, we need to endeavor to draw people to the vistas of worship.

In writing to the church at Philippi, the Apostle Paul draws a connection between discipleship and worship: “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3). The reason Paul appeals to circumcision is because of the context into which he is writing. As it was given by God, circumcision was intended to be a sign in the flesh that physically marked out the people of God—it was a sign of God’s covenant. Those who were circumcised according to the promise of Abraham were followers of Jehovah.

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