MESSAGE FOR APRIL 12, #1 IN A SERIES ON WORSHIP

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1 1 MESSAGE FOR APRIL 12, #1 IN A SERIES ON WORSHIP This morning we begin a new series of messages on a topic that lies near the very heart of our spiritual lives, both as a church and even more, as individuals. We want to spend some extended time thinking about worship. We want to do this in a God-centered, truth-driven approach to corporate worship in the hope that God through his word might by his Spirit-- transform us into worshippers who will increasingly worship him in Spirit and in truth. After beginning this series today, we ll continue next week and then I ll be out of the pulpit for few weeks while I m traveling abroad to spend some time with our missionaries. After I return, we ll again pick up the series, Lord willing. The idea for this series came from our Worship Ministry Team. As you may know, each fall, we spend some time teaching all who are involved in the music ministry here--a theology of worship with the goal of enabling them to approach their worship ministries with a God-centered, truth-driven heart. We do this in part because many musicians in the church were trained in the world of music performance. As we ll see, leading worship is very different than performing on a stage. There s nothing wrong with concerts they re wonderful. However, anything we do in the church to mutate worship into a performance--or to turn the worship Center into a concert hall or a lecture hall is not centered on God, but on us. The Worship Ministry Team thought that our church at large would profit from some of the same sort of education we yearly give to those who lead in worship. So, in the weeks to follow, you ll be receiving an expanded version of what we give to all our music providers every year. As we said, we ll spend time seeing what the Bible teaches that should impact our corporate worship services, but before we look at that, today we need to back up about 10,000 feet in order to not miss the forest for the trees. We must first see what the Bible teaches about worship in a more general sense this morning and hopefully lay a foundation for what s to come. In order to do that, we must first know that worship is not a static concept in the Bible it evolves. What I mean by that is--when God fulfilled his New Covenant in giving his Son Jesus as the Lamb of God and as he

2 gave his Holy Spirit to his people, those huge events in salvation history profoundly changed what the Bible means by worship. This evolution of worship is not some new discovery or teaching--any good Bible dictionary can trace the development of the Biblical teaching. 2 The main indicators of this evolutionary understanding of worship in the Bible is seen is in the dramatic shift in the terminology used for worship and what constitutes worship in the Bible. The main Old Testament word for worship is translated in the Greek Old Testament, proskuneo. This word literally means to bow. It s used of worship to God or some pagan deity but sometimes this bowing down is an expression of respect or honor for a human ruler or superior but it always involved some sort of bow or other physical gesture of honor. There is an overriding physical element expressed here and it carries connotations of place and form and ceremony. There is a strong external component. This is something that involves physical expression often at a particular physical place the Jerusalem temple or some pagan altar. As one scholar says, the use of this word almost always demands or implies visible majesty before which the worshipper bows. 1 This bowing occurs in those contexts when the worshipper believes God is manifestly present. It is an outward show of respect or reverence. Jews would bow or prokuneo in and around the temple or before that, the tabernacle. There was a physical focal point to their worship. It s fascinating when you get to the New Testament because with very few exceptions this word for worship is found only in the gospels, Acts and Revelation. That is in those books where Jesus God in the flesh is physically present to receive this worship. When Jesus ascends to the Father, the concept of worship and the words used to describe it--changes. The New Testament authors almost never uses this word in contexts where Jesus wasn t physically present. 1 This phrase and much of the previous specific information related to proskuneo are taken from: Kittel, G., Bromiley, G.W., & Friedrich, G. (Eds.). (1964-). Theological dictionary of the New Testament (electronic ed., Vol. 6, pp ) Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

3 3 In the rest of the New Testament, the Biblical authors predominantly use another word for worship. They use a word that communicates the inward, spiritual nature of true worship. When Jesus is not present physically, the stress on worship is the inward and spiritual rather than the outward and bodily. We see this shift in biblical teaching anticipated in John s gospel in one of the most important texts on worship in the New Testament. In John chapter four, Jesus is in dialogue with the Samaritan women at the well. She s lived an immoral life and Jesus, without condemning her, tells her that he knew all about her immorality. This makes her uncomfortable and she switches the subject to a theological question the Samaritans and Jews regularly argued about. She says to him in verse 20, 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. 1 Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 2 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Do you hear how the woman s question is consistent with the Old Testament concept of worship? She s concerned about externals WHERE we worship. Jesus, who will bring the New Covenant, reveals that a new understanding of worship will be necessary (in what we know as the age of the Spirit) when he has physically departed this world. His main point is that a time in salvation history is coming when God will seek after a different kind of worship and a different kind of worshipper. He says it this way, true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. We must see that he s greatly broadening the understanding of what is worship and what it is to be a worshipper. It s not about going to a particular place or developing a certain outward form or expression of worship. It s not external it s internal; it s a matter of the heart. The word that Paul,

4 4 Peter and James use for worship is the word latreuo. It s also found in the Old Testament, but has a much broader meaning there as well. It basically means to serve. For instance, Moses in Exodus 23 is forbidding the Jews to worship the pagan gods of the people living around them and says in verse 24, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. Notice Moses uses both words--to bow down worship or proskuneo and to serve latreuo. Though service to God is not the most frequent Old Testament understanding of worship, we see it here and it s THIS word that these other New Testament authors pick up on and use to express what worship is. When Paul in particular uses it as a word for worshipping God, he s clearly NOT talking about a kind of worship that is localized or external in practice. Paul consistently teaches that worship is spiritual a spiritual expression to God that can happen anywhere and at any time. In fact he refers to virtually all of life as worship when lived in the right spirit. 2 He speak of this in Romans 12:1. Paul has just finished his masterful treatment of the gospel 11 chapters of it. In response to the glories of the gospel and what God has done for us in Christ to set us free, Paul gives application. 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. In response to God s work in Christ for you, present your bodies your lives as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Notice he s still using the language of Old Testament worship sacrifice, but he greatly expands its meaning. A New Testament worshipper sacrifices to God, not with an animal offered up at the temple that was fulfilled in Christ. A New Testament worshipper is one who gives his/her daily life in sacrificial service to God. Paul says that this is holy and acceptable to God it s a form of spiritual worship. Spiritual worship that 2 Piper, Gravity and Gladness in Worship.

5 hearkens back to John chapter four where Jesus says worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The implication is New Testament worship is in our heart s attitude expressed through sacrificial service to him in loving response to what he s done for us in Christ through the gospel. It also conveys the ministry of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to worship. There s nothing ceremonial or localized here. It s internal and expressed in day-to-day sacrificial acts of love through the Spirit of God. That s the fundamental expression of worship God receives from his people after Pentecost and before the second coming. Let s repeat that--that s the fundamental expression of worship God receives from his people after Pentecost and before the second coming. Is that our fundamental understanding or expression of our worship to God? 5 We see multiple times the New Testament authors using this spiritual, internal latreuo worship, but conveying that through the use of Old Testament worship terminology. Hebrews 13:15-16 says, 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Again, the author uses the Old Testament word sacrifice but uses it to mean praise from our lips and doing good and sharing what we have with those who lack. That is worship, New Testament style. Paul is speaking of his own ministry and notice the language he uses to describe it in Romans 15:16. He says that God had given him grace, 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. That s the language of temple worship. We see the same dynamic at work in Philippians 2:17 where Paul says, 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Paul using terms Old Testament words related to external, localized worship but applies them to describe his daily worship in life and ministry and the faith of the Philippians.

6 He uses this same language of Old Testament worship to describe the ministry of the churches he d planted. The Philippians had sent Paul an offering to Paul and he responds in 4:18, 18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Paul sees the giving of the Philippians to be an expression of worship. Do you hear how much the concept of worship has broadened to go way beyond bowing down before a god? 6 You also see this in the words the New Testament uses for God s people, the church. Peter tells the churches he s writing in First Peter 2:5, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. God considers the church a priesthood because he consecrated her for his holy purposes and because he receives her acts of love as priestly offerings-worship. There are others. In Ephesians 2:21, Paul calls the church a holy temple in the Lord. In the next verse, he calls the church a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. In First Peter 2:9 the church is called a chosen race, a royal priesthood One scholar, summarizes this truth by saying that Jesus death has introduced the age of the Holy Spirit, when all acceptable worship must be spiritual, that is, Spirit-inspired and the spiritual sacrifices of Christians include acts of worship, such as praise and prayer but also acts of witness and service, such as evangelism, gifts to the ministry and gifts to the poor, and comprehensive attitudes and expressions of devotion, such as faith, the consecration of one s life to the will of God and the laying down of one s life for the sake of the gospel. The priests who present these sacrifices are Christians, and the sanctuary where they present them is not the temple in Jerusalem but heaven, to which those who are in the Spirit already have access. 3 The Old Testament external forms of worship have been fulfilled in Christ and the life of the church. The Old Testament forms are the seeds of what God wants to receive from his people. In the New Testament, the seeds 3 Beckwith, R. T. (2000). Sacrifice. In T. D. Alexander & B. S. Rosner (Eds.), New dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., p. 761). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press

7 7 have sprouted and have grown into a beautiful flowering plant that manifests the glory of Christ through daily lives that are offered as sacrifices of worship within the New Temple, the body of Christ. John Piper says it this way. Worship in the New Testament is being significantly de-institutionalized, de-localized, de-externalized. The whole thrust is being taken off of ceremony and seasons and places and forms and is being shifted to what is happening in the heart not just on Sunday, but every day and all the time in all of life. 4 Paul teaches that those believers who are filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit are continually in worship to God in some way. When you read the marks of being filled or under the influence of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians five, he says, 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, He s not thinking of corporate worship alone here. He broadens it to include hearts that worship the Lord always. Again, Piper comments on Paul s intention. His burden is to call for a radical, inward authenticity of worship and an all-encompassing pervasiveness of worship in all of life. Place and form are not of the essence. Spirit and truth are allimportant. 5 The fact that the stress in the New Testament is on the internal and not the external is not only taught but it is implied in several ways. For instance, nowhere do any of the New Testament authors provide an order of service for gathered worship or even list the elements of corporate worship. One reason for this is the Holy Spirit would never prescribe a first century, Hellenistic worship style for people in Haiti or the inner city of Chicago or other cultures that are radically different. But the lack of any prescribed form of worship also tells us that it s not about the form it s about the heart. Does this mean that form is irrelevant? No, it s important that we put truthdriven thought behind the form of a gathered worship service. The form 4 Piper, Gravity and Gladness.. 5 Piper, Gladness and Gravity

8 8 should express truth as well, but no one form is inspired by God. Paul tells Timothy that the public reading of Scripture should be done in gathered worship and there are instructions about the corporate worship of the Corinthian church to curb some horrific abuses. But the vast majority of the emphasis on worship in the New Testament is about how we live 24/7, 365 days a year. It s more about a life than an event. Is that the way we view worship? Or is worship to us predominantly what is done during minutes on Sunday morning? That s an intensely deficient understanding of what the bible teaches about worship. In light of these Biblical truths about worship, what are some points of application for our lives? The most obvious is Worship should be our ready response to God on a continual basis. What does this look like on a practical basis? Bob Kaughlin, in his excellent book Worship Matters, says this: Its doing everything to draw attention to his greatness and goodness. It s doing the things that God commanded us to do and avoiding the things he has forbidden, all with a heart that seeks to please and reflect the Savior whose sacrifice rescued us from eternal damnation. It s love for our spouse and children, serving others, spending our money, helping the poor, driving our car, going to school, and working our jobs in ways that bring glory to the Savior whose praise will never cease. Biblically speaking, there s no sacred/secular distinction in our lives. Every moment is an opportunity to worship God. Church buildings aren t sacred, and family rooms aren t secular; both are places where God can be worshiped in spirit and truth. 6 Is he saying that worship is about consciously saying to God I give this to you, I do this for you, I offer this in worship to you? Not necessarily it simply means to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and live that out on a moment by moment basis as you personally walk with the living God. When two people walk together, they converse. When people walk with God they converse they pray and the worship him for what he brings into his/her life. For the believer, the call to worship comes at conversion, not every Sunday. 7 Again, we must ask ourselves do we believe and therefore live 6 Kaughlin, Bob, Worship Matters, Sovereign Grace Ministries, Published by Crossway, Wheaton, IL. 2008, p Best, Harold, as quoted in Kaughlin, Worship Matters, p. 207.

9 9 out the truth that for the believer all of life is offered to God as worship? If we re not concerned about this truth, nothing else we say about gathered or corporate worship really makes much practical difference to us. If we re not living as worshippers, then what we do in here in this Worship Center, no matter what we call it, will probably not be worship. And that leads us to our second point. With respect to gathered worship, we must evaluate worship services far more on the basis of the hearts of worship we bring to them than in the public leading of worship. There is in the evangelical church today some very unbiblical thinking about gathered worship. In light of what we ve said about all of life being worship how does that impact your understanding of the following statement: The worship was really good at that church? That should give you a bit of a headache. That statement may have meaning. It may mean that when I entered a particular church, people had clearly come prepared to worship because they d been living lives of worship offered to God when they walked through the door. Good worship would imply leadership not doing anything to impeded or distract from that previously existing worship and doing what can be done to encourage that worship only in a corporate setting. The problem is that s not the way many evangelicals think about good worship in a church. A person who doesn t offer worship to God on a more continual basis is not really in a position evaluate the gathered worship experience because they re certainly part of the problem. If you have a bunch of continual worshippers assemble, they don t require much to have a very satisfying, God-honoring service. They meet God. Those who ve traveled crossculturally know that in places like Africa, on Sunday morning, they may have a drum or some other very basic instrument as they gather in a large hut and someone is there who preaches the word. That s all they need because they were worshipping when they walked through the door of the place the church gathers. The ironic thing is--a person who doesn t worship regularly in his/her private life as a lifestyle will typically have very high expectations of corporate worship leaders. This is partly because even though they don t know this about themselves, what they re really expecting from worship is for it to be

10 very impressive externally expertly performed music, profound and engaging, preaching--so they can have enjoy the music or message as ends in themselves. That is even though they think they may be worshipping because their pulse quickens, they aren t really worshipping, they re just enjoying the show. They ve been entertained they feel much the same way when they leave the church as when they leave the cinema. 10 Another related reason people who don t worship as a lifestyle have very high expectations of worship is because, even though they aren t conscious of it, they expect corporate worship to spiritually defibrillate them. You ve probably seen enough medical programs to know that defibrillation is what doctors do as they work to re-start someone s dormant heart through a strong pulse of electricity applied to the chest or directly to the heart. People who aren t living lives of worship to God, when they come into gathered worship often feel cold to God. It s easy for these folks to come to expect the music or sermon (or whatever other element of worship) to act as the paddles that will jolt them back to life to make them feel love or joy in the Lord. If they should happen to leave the service feeling as cold as they did when they came in, they often blame the people leading worship the preacher or praise team or music leaders. They walk out with their dead hearts and may think, That church doesn t have good worship. It should be self-evident that it s not the responsibility of those who lead gathered or corporate worship services to raise the dead or awaken the comatose. When we leave a worship service and don t feel like we ve encountered the living God, we should first look into our own hearts before blaming others for not zapping us back to life. Again, many often mistake their own emotional response to elements in a corporate worship (like the volume of the worship music or the gifts of the preacher or praise team) they mistake the emotional response that can come from upbeat, loud or very well-performed music or stimulating preaching for a spiritual experience with God. In fact, they may not have worshipped at all they just got excited and because they don t worship

11 during their daily lives, they don t have the discernment to know the difference between genuine worship and an emotion. 11 Please don t hear this as an excuse for mediocrity in worship leading. For reasons that will unfold in the weeks to come, Mount of Olives strives to continually improve our corporate worship leading. But that doesn t mean our ultimate goal is to have a scary good or (as one sister says) a smokin hot praise team, preacher, phenomenal choir or anything else. Those are not the same things. We leaders must work intently to present to the Lord our very best and not be a distraction to those who come prepared to worship. There s no excuse for worship leaders (like me) to do mediocre preparation and presentation to God of my worship offering and then turn around and blame the low intensity corporate worship on those in attendance. The point is merely to say if you come into a church service with a heart filled with worship, you ll probably have a soul-satisfying time of worship in the church assuming the worship is centered on God and not us and driven by the truth. Likewise, if you come in and you haven t thought intently about God the past week, much less haven t seen your life as worship, thanking him for all things, you probably won t worship in church irrespective of how emotionally moved you may become. Emotions are easily manipulated--- our hearts---which is where the worship comes from, are another matter entirely. May God give all of us the grace to be worshippers, daily, hourly offering our lives to God as living sacrifices for his glory and our joy.