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| Ministry of Worship Lectures 1-5 Study Notes Here are the current lecture study notes. For a printable/downloadable version for each lecture, click on the links provided below. New notes will be posted after the lecture is presented. This page was last modified on Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Lecture 1 - Why Offer a Class on Worship - January 27, 2009
1. Why do a class on worship? One, even though worship is almost a universal human expression, there is no agreement in what it means to worship.
2. Even within Christianity, there is no agreement about the nature and practice of worship. Many Christians do not feel like they have worshiped if they don’t worship in their own particular style of worship. The controversies rage between contemporary and traditional styles of worship. There exists tension between high and low liturgical churches. Even within same denominational groups, there are “worship wars” raging over what kind of music is to be used as a tool of worship. Many Christians, or congregations for that matter, feel that worship is dead, or they stand at uncertain crossroads of what style of worship is believed to be true worship.
3. One reason for the uncertainty is the breakdown of distinct denominational worshiping styles. According to Robert Webber:
The interdenominational character of many denominations and the freedom of worship leaders to draw from the many styles of worship is changing the worship of many churches. For this reason, there seems to be a great deal of anxiety among pastors and other worship leaders. What kind of worship could possibly meet the changes that are taking place in the church? (Worship Old and New by Robert E. Webber, page 12)
4. It is my belief that we desperately need to understand what Biblical Christ-centered worship is about, and somehow get that information out to people. So this course begins seeking a more insightful Biblical and historical understanding of worship so that we might apply it to our churches in a sound Biblical way.
5. A further example of what some people believe is happening to our worship experience is articulated in Marva J. Dawn’s book “Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for This Urgent Time.” She believes that “Christian worship at the turn of the century is being affected adversely by aspects of our culture that ‘dumb down’ everything” (page 4). She gets this expression, “dumb down” from a book called “Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don’t Think” written by Jane Healy. In Healy’s book, she believes that children aren’t smarter today than most people believe and in fact, according to her children who have been raised on a steady diet of television, have “smaller brains” (page 6). According to Dawn, Healy who has studied fourth grade reading tests from 1964, l982, and advanced reading tests for the ninth grade in 1988, found that the 1988 tests are shockingly easier than the 1964 fourth grade tests. She goes on the say “we don’t notice the children’s brains are smaller, that they are less able to think and cannot verbalize as well as their predecessors, because the educational system has simply “dumbed down” the tests.
6. Dawn quotes the following paragraph from Healy’s book, and interjects worship, worshipers, and church into the quote to make her point about worship:
If we wish to remain a literate culture, someone is going to have to take responsibility for teaching children at all socioeconomic levels how to talk, listen, and think…before the neural foundations for verbal expression, sustained attention, and analytic thought end up as piles of shaving under the workbench of plasticity.
Students (or worship participants) from all walks of life now come with brains poorly adapted for the mental habits that teachers (churches) have traditionally assumed. In the past, deep wells of language and mental persistence had already been filled for most children by experiences at home…Now teachers must fill the gaps before attempting to draw skills from brains that lack the underlying cognitive and linguistic base (churches must fill gaps in foundational faith and its language, and I might add family values).
We care deeply about the “smartness” of our children, but our culture (churches) lacks patience with the slow, time-consuming handwork by which intellects (faith) are woven. The quiet spaces of childhood (and worship?) have been disrupted by media assault and instant sensory gratification. Children (worshipers) have been yoked to hectic adult schedules, and assailed by societal anxieties (page 6). 7. You may not agree with her assessment of the mental and cognitive abilities of our children or of the quality of our worship services but it does stand to illustrate how different people feel about what’s going on in worship.
8. What research being done on worship suggests that there is much confusion over what biblical worship is and how it can be understood in the frame work of our modern worship experiences (Dawn, p. 10). She sees the purpose of the church as being Praise and building character of its people.
Where do we begin?
Lecture 2 - Methodology Of Worship - 2/10/2009 Handout 1. First off, it is my belief that everyone worships (the only question is what and how?)!!! Paul Tillich, a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the twentieth century. He coined the term, “Ultimate Concern.” In one of his books, entitled “New Being,” he uses Mary and Martha to illustrate this point:
Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10: 38-41)
2. According to Tillich, Mary’s way was the one thing that is needed, he writes:
Martha’s way is not contemptible. On the contrary, it is the way which keeps the world running. It is the driving force which preserves and enriches life and culture. Without it Jesus could not have talked to Mary and Mary could not have listened to Jesus. Once I heard a sermon dedicated to the justification and glorification of Martha. This can be done. There are innumerable concerns in our lives and in human life generally which demand attention, devotion, passion. But they do not demand infinite attention, unconditional devotion, and ultimate passion. They are important, often very important for you and for me and for the whole of mankind. But they are not ultimately important. And therefore Jesus praises not Martha, but Mary. She has chosen the right thing, the one thing man needs, the only thing of ultimate concern for every man (The New Being).
3. The question is not if we worship, but who and what we worship. It is hard, if not impossible, not to be “ultimately concerned” about something or someone, or a multitude of ultimate passions that we might make our lives revolve around at various times. What are some of the ultimate concerns that people have today (not important, important, very important, ultimate concern)? As Pastors and worship leaders how do we help people get to the point of Christ being their ultimate concern?
4. The chief passion and “ultimate concern” that most people have is simply themselves. Hence, making it hard to do as Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9: 23, NIV) Why is it so hard to do this?
5. What does it mean to take up one’s cross? It is not simply “something that we must bear” our burden of suffering—it is our death. The cross was a cruel instrument of death. So Jesus is saying: “if you are going to follow me and be one of my disciples (or if you’re going to truly worship me) you are going to have to learn to die to the old false god (or the ultimate concern) of your own self that is directing and guiding your life.” The god of ourselves and our own self-interests is by far the most difficult false god that we will ever have to stop worshiping.
6. What then is worship? In the most general sense, worship is the giving of our time, energy, and love in the most ultimate sense. According to Harold Best, “worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of chosen or choosing god.” (Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts, by Harold M. Best.) 7. Several things about this general definition of worship are noteworthy.
a. Paul Tillich would say: “…in light of chosen or choosing ‘ultimate concern.’” (I believe that Tillich’s terminology is good in helping secular minded people to understand what we mean by false gods.)
b. It could be argued that sometimes we don’t choose our “ultimate concerns,” they choose us. Take addiction for example, not many people literally start out by saying “I am going to become an alcoholic.” However, after a time it does seem that the alcohol has chosen them and they cannot say no.
c. Pouring is an appropriate term because it suggests extravagance. Worship is about extravagance. Especially about the extravagance of giving of one’s self. As a Christian, I think worship is giving oneself in extravagant love to our Creator and Savior. In fact, N.T. Wright says in his little book “For All God’s Worth” that: “Worship is nothing more or less than love on it knees before the beloved” (page 9). Wright encourages his readers to read Paul’s love chapter (1 Corinthians 13) and substitute worship for love. It would read something like this… “Though we sing with tongues of men and angels, if we are not truly worshipping the living God, we are noisy gongs and clanging cymbals…Worship is humble and glad; worship forgets itself in remembering God; worship celebrates the truth as God’s truth, not its own. True worship doesn’t put on a show or make a fuss; true worship isn’t forced, isn’t half-hearted, doesn’t keep looking at its watch, and doesn’t worry what the person in the next pew may be doing. True worship is open to God, adoring God, waiting for God, trusting God even in the dark” (see pages 8-9).
d. In short, worship is about giving of oneself in excess to the point that one is changed by the act of giving and being in love. Given this definition, as stingy as people are with their time, energy, money, and themselves it could be argued that most Christians don’t worship.
e. Such an outpouring of the giving of one’s love and one’s self in worship dictates the person worshiping to be controlled or strongly influenced for better or worse depending on the object of one’s devotion. Worshiping the true and living God is the greatest and most wonderful thing that a person can do, worshiping anything short of the Living God is sinful and disastrous.
f. The word continuous is also appropriate because it speaks of the relentless and ongoing nature of worship. Faithfulness to one’s spouse is supposed to be continued for as long as the two shall live. Faithfulness to God is also supposed to be continuous and everlasting. Worshiping one’s ultimate concern (if indeed it is truly ultimate) will usually not be periodic or sporadic, but ongoing in nature. According to Best:
Worship does not stop and start, despite our notions to the contrary. Once we place emphasis on specific times, places and methods, we misunderstand worship’s biblical meaning. Worship my ebb and flow, may take on various appearances and may be unconscious or conscious, intense and ecstatic or quiet and commonplace, but it is continuous. When we sin, worship does not stop. It changes directions and reverts back to what it once was, even if only for instant. Repentance—the turning from and (re)turning to—is the only solution. g. Hence we will argue here that worship is more than just an event one day a week, it is a continuous ongoing experience that never stops only changes direction from one object to another.
8. I’ve asked the question what is worship? And we will come up with a working definition of worship, but coming up with an agreeable and satisfactory definition of worship will be difficult, because as the author of your textbook says: “Christian worship defies definition; worship can only be experienced.” (Franklin Segler and Randall Bradley, Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice, page 5). You might say that it is easier to describe than to nail down and define.
9. Therefore the same authors also quote William Temple in his book, The Hope of a New World in saying, to worship is:
-to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God. -to feed the mind with the truth of God. -to purge the imagination by the beauty of God. -to open the heart to the love of God. -to devote the will to the purpose of God. (Segler & Bradley, page 3) 10. Segler and Bradley follow this quote up by giving six characteristics of Christian worship which all pastors and worship leaders would do well in remembering: mystery, celebration, life, dialogue, offering, and eschatological fulfillment (see page 7-9).
11. Maybe the best we can do is describe worship, as Segler and Bradly suggest, but as I said before we need to come up with a working definition of what worship might mean.
12. To that end we turn to David Peterson’s book, Engaging With God: A Biblical theology of Worship. Peterson’s premise for the book is that “worshiping the living and true God is essentially an engagement with him on the terms that he proposes and in the way that he alone makes possible” (page 20).
13. By engaging Peterson means: “How can God be known and approached? What must God do to enable his people to meet with him? What difference has the coming of Jesus made to biblical perspectives on the subject?”
14. To all of this talk about worship and engaging in the worship of God, most Christian commentators (at least the ones I’ve read) would agree God is the one who initiates the meeting and we respond as He tells us to.
15. Therefore, from Peterson and Best, I would like to offer our definition for worship that we will use in this course:
“Christian worship is meeting (engaging) God in a continuous outpouring of all that we are, all that we do, and all that we can ever become in such way that reflects God’s initiative and our appropriate biblical response.”
[Use this as a thesis statement for an example paper on worship. The body of the paper would be: 1) worship is meeting God, 2) It giving all you have to God in love 3) worship is God’s initiative 4) worship is our biblical response. Tell them to find a better definition of biblical worship and defend it in a paper.]
Biblical Foundations of Worship
16. First, not all attempts at worship are acceptable to God. For example in the Old Testament: Genesis 4: 3-7 Cain and Abel, Exodus 32, the golden calf; and Isaiah 1: 10-17 just name a few. In the New Testament Paul urges his readers to present their bodies as living sacrifices transformed by the renewing of their minds to be the accepted worship of God. Further on in the Book of Romans Paul tells the Romans that worshiping and pleasing God is not a matter of eating or drinking, but instead the practice of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17-18). Hebrews urges its readers to approach God in reverence and awe, while remembering that good deeds and sharing with one another are such sacrifices that God is pleased” (Hebrew 12: 28-29; 13:16).
17. We cannot simply determine for ourselves what is honoring Him. The Bible tells us that God must draw us into relationship with himself before we can respond to Him.
Lecture 3 - Ministry Of Worship - 2/17/2009
1. 1. According to Peterson, the “greatest concern of people in the ancient world was to where the presence of a god could be found and to know the names of gods so they could be approached and communion with them established” (Peterson, page 24).
2. Against this background, the Lord God made Himself known in certain localities and these localities came to be identified as the dwelling or meeting places, and their altars were erected and worship established (Jacob at Bethel; see Genesis 28: 16-22; 13: 14-18; 28: 10-22). Heaven, of course, was known as God’s actual dwelling-place (Genesis 11:5; 18:21; 21:17; 22:11, 24: 7, 28:12) but God was not limited to Heaven alone. He could and He did make manifest his character and will for His people at these places which took on special significance for His people. Even today churches have special significances and even special names because of the memory of past experiences with the Lord.
3. The most famous example of an encounter with God was at a place in which Moses received the name of God—Mt. Sinai. Today people search for that mountain in which Moses encountered God because of its spiritual and historical significance. Some people think that it is located in the southern part of Saudi Arabia.
4. At these places (or in some cases the promises of these places, see #5) and during the corresponding encounter with God, promises were made and relationships were established. At Bethel, Jacob was promised the land on which he was lying, that his descendants would be like the dust of the earth, all the people of the earth would be blessed through him, and God would not leave him until all of things were done.
5. Before that Abram was told to leave his country and go to the land that God would show him, and he would make:
“…you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the people on the earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12: 2-3).
6. In the Song of Moses (Exodus 15: 1-18) which celebrates the victory of the Exodus and the anticipated conquest of Canaan, the promised land is described as the “mountain” of God’s inheritance—“the place, O Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established. The Lord will reign forever and ever” (Exodus 15: 17-18).
7. Often these places became the bedrock on which the covenant or the future covenant took form.
8. The covenant itself became the basis for the relationship between God and His people. The covenant was an agreement between God and His people that signified a durable and ongoing relationship. The covenant was unconditional in nature as the Lord God spoke to Abram in Genesis 12 when God promises to make Abram and his descendents a great nation. It was made more conditional in Genesis 17: 9 when God says to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendents after you for the generations to come after you, the covenant you are to keep.”
9. On Sinai, Moses was told in conditional covenantal terms what it meant to be uniquely drawn into a relationship with the Living God:
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19: 5-6).
The common factor in the three bold-faced terms above was the separation from other nations in order to be at God’s disposal. In the New Testament, the writers see a connection between the Exodus event and the Christ and see the church as the new Israel (See 1 Peter 2:9).
Their salvation out of Egypt had been in fulfillment of the covenant made with the patriarchs and now they were being told how to keep that covenant and live out the relationship it implied. The terms of the agreement were the Ten Commandments and other stipulations of the Book of the Covenant. The Book of the Covenant is usually identified with the Ten Commandments and the regulations of obedience found in Exodus 20-23 and later laws of Leviticus. The meeting with God at Sinai was to inaugurate to total-life pattern of service or worship for the nation (Peterson, page 28).
10. Discussion question: Paul’s promise in Roman 11, in which he declares “all of Israel will be saved” - is God’s covenant conditional or unconditional? Does it truly have promises and obligations, or just promises? Short-term yes it is conditional, but long-term in Israel’s case, I don’t know.
1. “Like other nations in the ancient world, Israel expressed its relationship (or its covenant) with God through sacrifice and ritual, using sacred enclosures, and depending upon the mediation of priests.” It had an expression of worship called a cult.
2. A cult in this sense is defined not as an extreme religious group, but the “expression of religious experience in concrete external actions performed within the congregations of community, preferably by officially appointed exponents and in set forms (Peterson, page 30).”
3. James F. White makes reference to cultic worship in his book “Introduction to Christian Worship” by saying in the Latin word for cult is an agricultural term meaning to cultivate. It emphasizes the mutual responsibility between the farmer and the land and the animals. It is a relationship of giving and receiving in which the two are bound together (White, page 27). In worship we cultivate our relationship with God through very tangible and concrete means performed within our own communities of faith.
4. The cult also had a very important function of distinguishing between the areas of the sacred and the profane. One such expression of the cult in Israel’s history was the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the dwelling place of God (see Exodus 25:9). God’s presence was not linked to any kind of image because God spoke to them at Sinai out of fire (see Deuteronomy 4:14-20). Instead, God’s presence with them was to be proclaimed and expressed by this tent-sanctuary.
5. God’s presence was also expressed by the Ark of the Covenant which was a chest containing the Tables of the Covenant (10 Commandments), which clearly represented God’s presence and God’s continuing rule over them (Exodus 25:10-22).
6. Exodus 25:22 clearly states that God would meet and speak with Moses above the “mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the Ark of the Covenant.” The ark was the footstool of God’s throne, and the throne room (tabernacle) was an expression of God’s presence in midst of His people as they travel to the Promised Land.
7. Imagine the tabernacle (and with the Ark within) stood in the center of the camp, and as it traveled with them, it was a constant reminder of the fact that God was with them. But it also became a very tangible and concrete expression of the truth that human beings could not come into God’s presence on their own terms.
8. All the cultic means of acknowledging God’s relationship with Israel through priests, sacrifice, Holy of Holies, purification, etc., was a strict protocol for approaching the Living Holy God and what it meant to live in His presence. Have we lost that sense of respect for approaching God, or has that been changed by the Cross? Could be a good term paper!
9. This strict protocol for approaching God was, in addition, for the protection of God’s people. The Old Testament writers often spoke of the “glory of the Lord.” This expression was a reference to the manifest presence of the living God. God Himself was and is invisible but made himself known though this glory. In some contexts the presence of God was associated with clouds, lightning, and fire, yet these natural phenomena were not to be identified with or as God. They only served to conceal the true power, majesty and magnificence of God, which could destroy anyone to whom God might reveal himself fully (Exodus 24:17; 33:20-23). God conceals himself in order to protect His people and reveal Himself in a limited way. Cultic protocol protected God’s people from a Holy God whose unfiltered holiness was just too much for them to bear.
10. God also conceals Himself in order to reveal Himself through His word. Exodus 32-34 indicates that Moses was to the people what they wanted the calf to be—a leader and mediator of the divine presence. This teaching has profound implications for Israel’s service to God, for it ultimately means that the Law, which has its origin in the revelation given to Moses at Sinai, is the source of the true knowledge of God and therefore of the worship which is acceptable to God, God “presences himself through his word” (Peterson, page 35).
11. Another example of this is with Elijah as he flees to Mt. Horeb after killing 400 prophets of Baal. He is spending the night in a cave hiding from Jezebel and is told to “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is going to pass by” (1 Kings 19: 13). What follows is a powerful wind, earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in them. Instead, there came a still small voice which Elijah heard and responded to. God makes His presence known and felt though His spoken word.
12. Another very important cultic expression of Israel’s worship was the sacrifice. Sacrifice is often misunderstood as giving up something such as time, money, and even one’s life, but in the ancient world sacrifice usually involved setting something apart from common usage for the benefit of the gods. The object of sacrifice and really religion in general was to secure the good will of the gods by faithfully carrying out their rituals. In addition in the Scriptures, covenants between God and His people were always secured with a sacrifice. For example, consider Noah [Genesis 8:20-9:17], Abram [Genesis 15:9-21], Isaac [Genesis 26:24-25], and Jacob [Genesis 31: 43-55, 35:6-12]. The covenant between Israel was no exception [Exodus 24:5-6]. For further discussion, see section #5-2.
13. Even though God did initiate a relationship and a covenant with Abraham and the patriarchs, the turning point of salvation history in the Old Testament is found in the great saving events of the Exodus. According to Robert E. Webber in “Worship: Old and New,” the epicenter from which all the facets of worship proceed is an event (page 20). From the event a covenant is made and then things proceed from there (see Webber, same page).
14. According to Webber, the event orientation of worship is clearly seen in the Old Testament with a meeting between God and His people after they were delivered out of Egypt (page 20). Exodus 19-24 speaks of this with the focal point being the meeting that took place between God and Israel at the foot of Mt. Sinai (read Exodus 24:1-8).
15. This meeting between God and Israel is important because it contains the most basic structural elements for the meeting between God and His people. According to Webber, these elements are the very stuff of public worship and are found in greater detail in Judeo-Christian worship.
a. As we have seen, all meeting between God and human beings is convened by God (Webber, page 21).
b. People were arranged in structure of responsibility. The picture is not that of leaders and audience but of full participation of those congregated together. Each had his or her own part to play. Participation is a fundamental aspect of worship.
c. The meeting between God and his people is characterized by the proclamation of the Word. In other words, worship is not complete without hearing from God.
d. The people accept the conditions of the covenant (10 Commandments and the Book of Covenant, a literary deposit of commands that God has given Moses, Exodus 20:22-23:19) and make a commitment to hear and obey the Word of God. An essential aspect of worship is a continuous renewal of personal commitments.
e. The meeting is climaxed by a symbol of ratification, a sealing of the agreement. The Old Testament used blood sacrifice as a way of demonstrating relationship between people. In the New Testament what is/has become the sign of the relationship between the church and God (The Lord’s Supper)?
16. Biblical worship is rooted in a saving event, and is based on a covenant that has two central foci:
one, obedience to the 10 commandments and Book of the Covenant, Exodus 20:22-23: 19, and
two, the ratification of the covenant through an act of sacrifice.
(The Sacrifice Nature of Biblical Worship)
17. As said before, covenants between God and his people were always secured with a sacrifice (Exodus 24:5-6). It was a fundamental sign of relationship with God that was set in time, space, and cultic ritual. The central feature of the sacrificial system of the Bible was the notion of atonement. On the day of atonement the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies carrying the blood of the sacrifice, which was sprinkled on the lid of the ark to make atonement for the entire nation (Leviticus 16:1-34). The sacrificial animal was understood to be the substitution for the people of the nation. This blood atoned for Israel’s sins symbolically and although the sin remained it was covered by the blood of the sacrifice so that God no longer looked upon it.
18. In the New Testament, the concept of sacrifice is equally as important in the worship of the church. Hebrews 9 clearly declares the sacrificial nature of the work of Jesus Christ. In Romans 3:25 Paul declares that Jesus Christ is the new propitiation or expiation. What is the difference between the two terms? A good paper! Jesus Christ is our covering, our atonement.
19. The Lord’s Supper is given as a perpetual sign of the all-important culminating sacrifice of Jesus Christ and of His victory over sin, death, and evil.
(Appointed times of Biblical Worship)
20. Exodus 31:16-17 charges the Israelites to observe the Sabbath. Such an observance was to remember God’s acts of creation and God’s work of redemption from Egypt. At first, the New Testament church assembled for worship on the Sabbath (Acts 17:1-2; 18:4). But soon it came to designate the first day of the week to worship and to remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ—the Lord’s Day. The Lord’s Day is mentioned in the The Didache which was an early non-canonical first century instructional manual for gentile converts who were being prepared for life in the fellowship of Christian living. Most importantly, the Lord’s Day had been firmly established by the time that John wrote the book of Revelation in which he mentions worshiping on the Lord’s Day in Revelation 1:10.
(The People Respond)
21. God initiates a relationship and therefore worship and we respond as God wishes us to respond.
22. How do God’s people respond (remember, anticipating, celebrating, and serving)? Remembering is a central theme to biblical worship. We remember his saving deeds by telling and acting out the story of redemption.
23. The Old Testament saving deed is the Exodus. How do they remember? By telling their children from generation to generation! How is it acted out? By the Passover!
24. The Christian saving deed is the cross and resurrection. How do we tell the story? By Preaching! How do we act it out? By the Lord’s Supper!
25. Look in Deuteronomy 6:21-25. The answer God gave Moses, and the answer that Moses handed down to the people, was the telling of their story of redemption. God is telling them what to remember.
26. Preaching in the New Testament tells the story of redemption (Acts 2: 22-36), and the Lord’s Supper is the acting out what the church does in remembrance (1 Corinthians 11:24).
Lecture 5 - Ministry Of Worship - 3/2/2009
1. acts and brings the power of the saving event into the worshiping community. The worshipers then respond in faith, remembering and celebrating God’s saving deeds through these sacred actions.
2. Consequently, the sacred actions become the meeting point for God’s saving presence, and the worshiper’s response of praise and thanksgiving.
3. The New Testament describes how Jesus Christ supersedes the temple cult (Mark 14:58, 15:38, John 2:19-21), and how the church (His body) becomes the new dwelling place (temple) of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21-22). The sense that there is a physical side to spiritual life and activity, a sense that came from the temple, continued in New Testament worship (see Webber, page 35).
4. Public worship, in Old and New, “goes deeper than the outward acts of worship (for example it is more than just eating [crackers] or drinking [grape juice]) and prescribes the inner, heartfelt response of the people of God. God wants more than ritual. God wants the worship of the inner person” (Webber, page 29).
5. For example the word for worship in Hebrew is the verb ‘shachah’ in which grammarians call the reflexive form. This verb means ‘to bow down’ or to ‘prostrate oneself.’ It denotes the gesture of a subject’s bowing down to a ruler or master. It points to both an inner and an outer homage to God as a token of awe and surrender” (Webber, page 29). See Genesis 24:26-27. It is a heartfelt response to God’s acts of blessings and salvation (Psalms 66:4).
6. Another heartfelt word for worship in the Old Testament is ‘avad’ which literally means to ‘serve’ (Exodus 3:12). The concept of worship as service implies a total lifestyle of allegiance to God (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). A similar use of the word in Greek is found in Romans 12:1. Worship is a lifestyle of service to God that comes out of both an inward and outward commitment to Him.
7. Another verb used for worship is Hebrew ‘yare’; its Greek equivalent is ‘phobeomai’. Both denote fear, awe, and respect to obey his voice (1 Samuel 12:14), to walk in his ways (Deuteronomy 8:6), to keep his commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13), and to turn away from evil (Job 1:1).
8. Sill yet another verb is ‘hodah’ to give thanks (Psalm 136:1). To give thanks means to ‘make confession’ in the sense of affirming the Lord as God. In the Greek, Philippians 2:10-11 is a powerful picture of the purpose of Christian worship.
Worship During David’s Time
9. When Israel settle the Promised Land, it was inevitable that some center of worship might be established. “The history of the temple is the chief concern of 1 and 2 Kings” (Webber, page 35). 1 Chronicles 15 (2 Samuel 6) gives us the account of the Ark of the Covenant coming into Jerusalem after it was lost to the Philistines. Since the temple was not completed until Solomon’s reign, David needed a place of worship. He erected a tent for worship, a tent that was called, at various times, “David’s tabernacle.” The worship in David’s tabernacle differed substantially from the worship in Moses’ tabernacle. In David’s tabernacle, there was no animal sacrifice (Webber, page 35). The Levites led the people day and night in praising the Lord through song, musical instruments, and dance (1 Chronicles 16:4; 25: 1 [musical prophecy?], 6).
10. According to Webber (page 35), Davidic worship clearly demonstrated that Israel’s worship involved more than the sacrificial system. It illustrated the freedom, joy, and celebrative nature of non-sacrificial worship. These themes of worship were emphasized in the festivals of Israel.
11. Which was the most frequent of the festivals?
The Sabbath, which was instituted as a special sign of God’s relationship with Israel (Exodus 31:2-17). That praise, thanksgiving, and celebration stood at the very heart of Israel’s religion and was demonstrated not only by the Sabbath but by the various joyous feasts celebrated throughout the year. See the names and scripture given for the festivals in Webber, page 36.
12. The synagogue, literally the gathering place or place of assembly, became another place of worship after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The synagogue really developed in exile where the synagogue became the religious, educational, and social center of Jewish life. However, worship in the synagogue had no sacred rituals and did not support a sacrificial ministry. Its focus was on the reading and studying the Word of God.
13. The synagogue stressed the affirmation of faith, like the ‘shema’ which was given in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. It also stressed prayer and the study of the Torah. A special reverence was given to the Scriptures because they embodied the traditions of the people of Israel. A primary duty of every Jew was to study the Torah and pass its teachings on to the next generation (Deuteronomy 6:7).
14. The reading of the Torah was usually followed by a sermon (Luke 4:16-30). The sermon interpreted the scripture and applied the readings to daily life.
The New Testament
15. The study of New Testament Christian worship is more difficult and complex because of the fragmentary nature of the sources. According to Webber, there is no single highly developed statement on worship in the New Testament, but instead became a gradually growing principle in the process of development.
16. First off, it must be remembered that early Christian worship started and remained in the synagogues until issue of the Messiahship of Jesus forced them to go into the privacy and safety of their own homes—to end result, Christian worship developed characteristics of its own.
17. According to Webber, the basis of New Testament worship may be discovered by examining the attitude of Jesus toward worship and the meaning of the Christ event.
18. Jesus supported Israelite worship. Luke and John both tell us that Jesus taught in the temple (Luke 19:47; John 7:14; 10:22-24) and all four Gospels give us the cleansing of the temple which shows Jesus’ love for His Father’s house. Jesus went regularly to the synagogue on the Sabbath, “as was His custom” (Luke 4:16). He attended the feasts and major festivals of Israel.
The question is, do you think that Jesus ever made a personal sacrifice for Himself in the Temple? If so, what does that say about His personal understanding of Himself?
19. Jesus believed that He superseded the Old Testament institution of worship! He was greater than the temple (Matthew 12:6; John 2:19), and rendered its rituals obsolete. When Jesus celebrated his final Passover, he viewed himself as the final sacrifice and the true lamb of God (Matthew 26:26, 28).
20. Jesus also assumed the right to reinterpret the customs of Jewish worship. Conflict over the Sabbath, “Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). The cleanness, uncleanness, fasting and prayer in which in each of these cases Jesus is proclaiming himself and His understanding of what was good and right before God as superior to everything before Him.
21. The Christ Event, in the same way the Exodus is the focal point and celebration of salvation history in the Old Testament, the New Testament proclaims Jesus as leading his people out of their bondage to sin.
22. The birth of Christ generated a significant amount of worship literature that praised God for fulfilling Old Testament prophecies. For example, the key note of the birth narratives is Mary in the Magnificat, meaning glorifies (Luke 1:46-55). Perhaps one of the earliest hymns of the church, the resurrection, the incarnation, the ascension, and other events become much of the content of Christian worship.
23. Many themes in the New Testament are so pervasive that many scholars view portions of the New Testament as products of early worship (Webber, page 43). Paul’s Christological hymn in Philippians 2:6-11 and John’s famous prologue as being good cases in point (Webber, begin at page 44).
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