CHRIST CHURCH

October 25, 2009: 10.00am

Worship in the Bible

(John 4:19-26;1 Cor 11:17-26)

As we some this morning to the last in our series on the subject of Worship, we come to look at worship in the Scriptures. We shall first see what it is that the Bible has to say about the matter of worship, and then go on to look at how worship was conducted in Bible times.

Let us start with what we mean by the word ‘worship’. Our word comes from Old English and means ‘worthiness’ or ‘meritorioriousness’ and this is essentially when used in a religious context means ‘giving God the recognition he deserves’ That must take centre-stage in any ‘act of worship’

The trouble comes when we actually look at the words in the Bible which get translated as ‘worship’

The Hebrew word and the Greek word both have the same connotation. The Hebrew word had to do with any service associated with work done in the temple. When we come to the New Testament we find the Greek word used in referring back to the Old Testament usage, or the offering of our lives in God’s service. That comes out most clearly in Romans chapter 12, where Paul says: “I urge you brothers in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship” (v1) This seems slightly at odds with what we traditionally think of as ‘worship’ This is partly due to the Greek word ‘leitourgia’ which is, of course, the derivate of our word ‘liturgy’ Other Greek words all connote obeissance and submission. All this can seem a step removed from our idea of a worship-service. It’s interesting to note that the German word for a church service is ‘Gottesdienst’-which means service of God.

So, when we come to look at worship in the Bible what do we find happening?

-Firstly, the Old Testament.

We do find instances of individual worship. When Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for his son, when the servant reahces Laban’s household he praises God: “Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD, saying, "Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives."

But in the Old Tesatement the emphasis is on thr ritual worship of the tabernacle and then of the Temple. Much of this devolved around the daily ritual (and G0d-ordained) sacrifices. Aside from this there would be the yearly remembrance of Passover where the worshippers would remember the deliverance from Egypt. Two points are worthy of note here (apart from the fact that Passover, too, was God-ordained). For one the people would remember in a dynamic way; they would be those taking part in that deliverance, and then they would pledge themselves anew to God. And then there was each day the ‘Day of Atonement’, a day still in the Jewish calendar (‘Yom Kip’pur)

The Old Testament worship would have been, literally, very bloody. But it would also have included some uninhibited singing, often using the ‘hymnbook of the Old Testament’ (the pslams, of course)

The Old Testament also records incidents of national renewal, under Josiah and later under Nehemiah, when the reading of the re-found Book of the Law led to a renewal of the nation’s spiritual life, and ther was much breast-beating, then a loud rejoicing.

During the exile to Babylon, with no Temple, the synagogue had become a new focus for worship, and here the elements of worship were (i) the ‘Shema’ (‘Hear, O Israel’), (ii) prayers, (iii) Scripture reading, (iv) exposition.

When we move on to the New Testament, we find firstly in the Gospels, that Jesus took part in both synagogue and Temple worship. His open support of Old Testament worship was, of course, accompanied by fierce criticism of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. We have also that exchange with the Samaritan woman. The point comes where Jesus declares to her: “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth“ (john 4:23). The context (and we heard it in context) was that worship is not about place or about ritual; true worship which honours God is Spirit-inspired.

We do not have much evidence of what happened after Jesus. There came a breaking away from the Jewish faith and thus from the synagogue and Temple, though the early Church did meet regularly in the Temple. Beyond that we do know that the Lord’s Day became the main day of worship: “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.” (Acts 20:7) when Paul made a passing visit to the new church in Ephesus.

The practice of ‘breaking bread’ goes back to those post-Pentecost meetings. We

read in Acts 2:42 that “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.“

There is a clue here as to what the main Christian act of worship was; one on which he has words to say to the church in Corinth; words we have heard this morning. And it that ‘breaking of bread’ which we are taking part in this morning. Paul was reminding his readers that they were remembering the Last Supper, and the Greek word ‘anamnesis’ has an active sense. When we abide the command of Jesus we do in a sense become those gathered in the upper room! No wonder Paul was to continue with words of warning the those who partook without thought to what they were doing, and in a sense this brings us back to those aspects of the true meaning of worship.

We may also note that the Lord’s Supper was in line of the Jewish Passover. Jesus instituted the Communion at the Passover. If that remembers the physical liberation from Egypt, then our Communion recalls for us that far greater deliverance; the deliverance from sin and death

So:

In ‘worship’ we meet together first and foremost to give God the honour due to him. We come with an attitude of humble reverence. It is then that we can truly be involved in worship which we could consider uninhibited.

But there is one other point to take from what the Bible says about worship. At the start this morning I wasn’t just giving us a lesson in semantics. Worship IS very much about the whole of life. We can worship God just as much on Monday morning by our day-to-day living.