Communion With the Christ:: Worship

Worship

“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises" Heb: 2:12

Worship, is a highly personal act that we preform together. Even in a gathering of many our Lord still meets us as individuals. Worship is an expression of our grasping who the great God is and deepens and grows out of our relationship with the Creator God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Worship, helps us to understand our proper practical relationship with our God. Worship, helps us to be re-calibrated and be renewed spiritually.

Worship

From the very beginning the people of God have always worshiped. After being called by God. Abram the Patriarch and the “father of the faithful” built an alter and worshiped the Lord.

"Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him."Gen:12:6-7

Old Covenant

Under the Old Covenant, which the Lord had made with the Children of Israel, there were elaborate sacraments, rituals and ceremonies, a specific day of the week, Holy days and times of worship, all presided over by a sanctified priesthood who ministered first in the Wilderness Tabernacle then at the glorious Temple of God at Jerusalem.

The structure of worship was highly formalized, but the end was always the same; that God's people of Israel would come to know the Creator God and serve Him alone.

In whatever way worship is conducted, the most important thing is, that, the God of the Holy Bible be the object of all our worship both public and private.

"I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me"Isaiah:45:5

A Book of Worship

All through the pages of the Scriptures we see Patriarchs, Prophets, Priest, Kings, Apostles and everyday people worshiping the Great God. Sacrifices offered, prayers uttered and hymns are sung, all in an expression of worship and adoration toward and for the Great God.

Spirit and Truth

The New Testament its self gives us very few specifics regarding the liturgy or “format” of worship of the first century Apostolic Christian Church. The very first Christians had been Jews and had been familiar with the Temple worship at Jerusalem and the Synagogue system that was found in the small towns and communities scattered around Palestine and the Roman Empire.

For a time, the early Christians began to meet together, at first, in the Temple courts.

"Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:46-47

"One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon."Acts:3:1

However, it became obvious to the early Christians, either by revelation or necessity, that they could not stay in the Temple courts or the Synagogues. Christians then began to meet when and where they could, often meeting of the first day of the week (Sunday) in order to have a weekly reminder of the Resurrection of Jesus. The early Christians, by the late first century came to call the first day of the week, The Lord’s Day.

The Christian Community sought to worship in "Spirit and in Truth" with now a focus upon our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself stated that the worship of the true God would be more than just prescribed rituals at a given place and time, but rather, would transcend all such conventions. That the worship of the Great God would be "in Spirit and in truth".

Jesus in His discussion with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in the village of Sychar speaks of this worship "in Spirit and in truth”.

"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is here , when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth" . The woman said to Him, "I know that the Messiah is coming (He Who is called the Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all theses things". Jesus said to her,"I who speak to you am He". Jhn: 4:20-26

Jesus, in this conversation with the Samaritan woman regarding worship, connects the revelation of his Messiahship to the proper worship of God, that is, when we come to believe in Jesus, we are then free to worship the Father as he always intended us to do, that is "in Spirit and in truth" in the person of Jesus. We are no longer bound to a given place or time to worship, as Jesus said " neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father." We are now in a relationship with God not in a religion.

Revelation and Worship, Theology and Doxology

This speaks to us that when we come to believe in Jesus, when we see who Jesus is, and that in Jesus alone we have the most complete perfect revelation of the Great God, and we come to see that Jesus is fully God and yet fully human, the one who saves us, then we are truly free of "religion”.

This truth was addressed by the Theologian Karl Barth when he said "right Theology leads to right Doxology".

Right Theology centered upon our Lord Jesus always will lead us to a right worship of God in the person of his Holy Son Jesus and this leads us ever deeper into this relationship with the Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Worship in Jesus

In the epistle of Hebrews, written to the Jewish Christians, who before their conversion and coming to faith in Jesus, saw their relationship with God through the view of the Old Covenant centered at the Temple of God at Jerusalem, and derived their identity from that relationship. Now, their identity was to be found in Jesus, not in a ceremonial religion.

The Holy Spirit moves the author of the Hebrews Epistle to address this very thing. The Holy Spirit constructs, using Old Testament Scriptures, the "Divine Conversation “that God has within himself, and then the author elaborates upon this "Divine Conversation ".

Speaking of worship, The Holy Spirit inspires the quote from Psalm:22:22 to speak for Jesus regarding the worship found in the Christian Church. This verse teaches us a powerful truth regarding worship, our’s and, more so, the humanity of Jesus' worship of the Father.

" He says,: “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises. “And again, “I will put my trust in him. “And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me" Heb:2:12-13

This tells us, that it is Jesus who truly leads us in worship when the body of the Church comes together, and who, through the inspiration of the Spirit preaches, that is "declares your name" and who, as well, leads in the adoration and lifting up of Hymns to God "in the assembly I will sing your praises.". It is Jesus' perfect worship of the Father, as our divine High Priest which we are participating in, and with him.

Only Jesus can worship the Father perfectly. Jesus, in his humanity lives perfectly and worships perfectly. Our worship would not be able to be thus. Only Jesus can do this, for he is fully God yet Fully human. We, in union, through his humanity, are able to worship.

The Open Door in Heaven

While on the Island of Patmos St. John the Apostle sees a door standing open in Heaven and hears the invitation "come up here". St. John then finds himself, by way of this open door, in the heights of Heaven, there St. John witness the Heavenly worship of the Great God Rev:4:1-11.

Jesus is that Open door through whom we gain access to and join in with the Host of Heavens worship of the Great God. In John 10 Jesus tells us he is the Door, or gate through which we enter.

Jesus is there in Heaven and by Jesus alone we join in worship God. This also tells us that when we worship, even if we are few in numbers, as humanity may count numbers, we are in fact, surrounded by an innumerable company of heavenly worshipers of God and from our Great God's eternal vantage point we are seen to have joined as part of an eternal host of worshipers.

Drawn to Worship

Jhn: 6:44 tells us that "no man come to me unless the Father draw him”. This “being drawn” to Christ is not just at our moment of conversion, but all our lives. This means, that through the Holy Spirit we are always being drawn to Jesus all our lives, led by the Holy Spirit to worship our God in the person of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit will gently, relentlessly lead us to come to our Lord. It is the Holy Spirit who will lay it on our hearts to come and worship, to pray to read the word of God to come into the midst of the Church and gather to join in worship.

We of our own selves would rather attend our own pursuits. St. Paul wrote "there is none who seek after God" Rom: 3:11. If we are worshiping the Great God, it is because we have yielded to and chosen to respond to the Holy Spirit's lead to do so.

In Spirit

When we worship, the Holy Spirit will speak to us regarding the very Son of God; Jesus Christ and give us an ever-deepening revelation about Jesus, and in doing so, we receive a deeper revelation of the Father whom Jesus came to reveal to us.

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me" Jhn:15:26

The Holy Spirit will speak to us about and glorify our Lord Jesus.

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” Jhn: 16:13-15

Jesus is the perfect revelation of God, "he who sees me sees the One Who sent Me" Jhn:12:45

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves."Jhn:14:6-11

When we come to our Lord Jesus to worship, we come to all of God the Father, the Son the Holy Spirit. "for in him all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" Cos:2:9

Our Priesthood

All who are Christians are called to be a Priesthood to our God. Our lives should be lives of worship which honors our God and reflects the transformation which we have in Jesus Christ.

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."1Pet:2:9-10

St. Paul wrote to the Christians at Roman, that living lives of worship is reasonable and our responsibility as Children of God who have been transformed through Christ.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Rom: 12:1-2

Our lives should declare the praises of God in how we live and conduct ourselves. Worship in an ongoing part of our lives it does not just begin and end when we come together, but always in how we live is an act of worship. Eternal life is not just a state or duration of life but rather a quality and way of life that brings glory to God.

Gather Together

Heb: 10:25 admonishes Christians to "not forsake the assembling of yourselves together”. The Greek word for Church, Ekklesia, comes from the classic Greek of Athens, it refers to a summoned assembly of the people who came together to govern. This body had two words that were to govern all their proceedings, Isonomier meaning Equality and Eleutheria meaning Freedom. That is, all had the equality and freedom to participate in this gathering of the Ekklesia.

When the church comes together all should be able to participate the worship of God. It is God himself who summons us to gather and worship in freedom each using their gifts for the good and building up of the whole.

When we gather, Jesus Christ by way of the Holy Spirit, makes his divine presences known. Jesus gives a greater revelation of who he is.

The Early Church understood through the Scriptural narratives that when the Disciples came together after the resurrection, that Jesus was there in their gathering together also. They understood that, through his post resurrection appearances, Jesus was establishing for us, that when the church is together, he is there also, this is true even for us today and forever. John: 20:19-28, Mark:16:14, Luke:24:33-49, Matthew:28:16-20

When we Christians gather to praise him, our Lord makes himself known to us in a unique way. Psalm: 22:3- tells us that "God inhabits the Praises of His people."

Our praises of him does not "work up" his presences, but rather, it shows us what is already true, that Jesus is with us.

God Works in The Worship

At the very outset of the creation, the Angelic Host sang praises as God brought the natural universe into being.

"Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? "Job: 38:4-7

If God created the natural universe at the Angles' songs of praise, what might our Lord created, while we, who are Children of God sing praises to him?

We are doing far more than just singing songs or socializing we are involved in the workings of God; beyond anything we might have ever imaged. God works as we worship.

Worship is a vital part of the Christian life. We are called to join in and Worship the Great God. the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Benediction: May we each and all worship the Great God in the person of his Holy Son Jesus Christ that we might come to know him ever deeper, today tomorrow and forevermore. Amen