ENTERING INTO HEAVENLY WORSHIP
Summer Series “Growing in Worship”
Rev. Kevin L. Baker
C.S. Lewis, the British author, recognized the changelessness of the liturgy as an extremely important and very valuable characteristic for practical reasons. He went so far as to say it should be like an old shoe: something that fits, something that doesn't have to be broken in all the time, something you don't even notice is there. He concluded these observations by saying "The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God."
· In 1998 and 1999, I had two profound experiences that changed my life forever. In 1998, God asked me why I worshipped him the way I did in a revival style church, and in 1999 I went to St. James Anglican Cathedral in Toronto to a chorale eucharist.
· In that service as I passed through the choir seated on both sides of the aisle as I approached the altar with the thurifer waving incense, with the priest in his vestments, the acolytes in their albs, with candles, stained glass, and icons I was forever captured by the kind of worship God established for his people to come into his.
· As great as an experience is, remember, first and foremost, that the Apostles and the first Christian disciples were Jews. That is, they were Jews who recognized and accepted Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah.
· From their heritage with its history of liturgical interaction with God, came the Jewish form of biblical worship, the basic structure, the "origin" of Christian worship.
· The synagogue service of Word and Prayer combined with the Sacramental services and holy days became the basis from which the Church, God’s people in the New Covenant worshipped liturgically. The Greek word for prayer is the word liturgizing. It is used in Acts 1-2 when you see the 120 praying in the upper room—it says they were doing the liturgy of Word, Prayer, and Sacrament.
· For this reason, we see in Church history a highly developed Christian liturgical order in use even by the end of the first century —and lasting unchanged for over 1500 years till some Protestants decided they could tell God how he was to be approached in worship versus God revealing to man how he is to be worshipped.
· Today, I would like to begin walking through the worship service as we know it. Our worship is built on the foundations built from the days of the Tabernacle of Moses, through the Temple of Solomon, to the rebuilt Temple of Zerubbabel, to Herod’s Temple in the days of Jesus till we come into the days of the Temple of the Holy Spirit—the Church of the Living God.
· To understand worship, we need to understand that worship is not a new invention, but an unchanging continuation of revelation God has given to his people so that what God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.
· To understand Christian worship, you must also understand that Jesus Christ is the ultimate Sacrament. Defined as an outward physical symbol of an inward spiritual grace, the incarnation of Jesus stands at the center of history as God speaking that the physical world is God’s means of communicating his spiritual grace.
· Jesus, the eternal God and invisible Spirit took on the visible form of man and flesh and is forever 100% God and 100% man.
· Why did God send Jesus in the incarnation as his ultimate revelation and speaking to us? Why is the common stuff of our life girded with physical symbols that have inner meaning: wedding rings, diplomas, medals, badges, handshakes, flags, birthday candles, Christmas wrappings, bridal gowns, school colors, roses, lilies, kisses, table settings—they all say through symbol.
· God has forever spoken spiritually through physical symbol because God made man to be the image or icon/symbol of God. As the symbol of God, we speak the language of symbol in everything we do and say, by the way we dress, the way we do business, and the way we worship.
· By a physical disobedient act of eating from a real tree, a real man plunged the human race into sin and its dire effects.
· By the obedience of another real man, Jesus Christ whose death on that same tree was a drinking of God’s cup of wrath to redeems us, we now through physical acts of being washed in the waters of baptism and eating and drinking the Covenant Meal we call the Meal of Thanksgiving or Eucharist receive God’s saving grace.
· With that basic framework in place, I would like to begin to walk you through our worship—what we do, what it means, and why we do it this way.
I. WORSHIP BEGINS WITH GATHERING TOGETHER
Passage Psalm 95:1-2:
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
· Last week, I spent much time explaining to you how the Old Covenant Sabbath Day has been transformed into the New Covenant Lord’s Day of Worship.
· I did this, because it is the very first aspect of the worship service and something we might take for granted or assume.
· God calls us in Ps. 95 and in many others places and times to come and worship; to bow down and kneel before him in humbler submission because as our Creator and Savior He is worthy to be praised.
· In essence, what evangelism is, is the Church going into the world and making the Gospel call to come and worship the true God—and none other--not Mohammed, not Buddha, not idols made by man’s hands, not yourself, not the State, not other people like celebrities.
· Every Sunday, from the four winds all over the world people gather. When we gather to worship, we separate ourselves from the world.
· When we come to worship where we go to live M-S as aliens and strangers, we live in the world but not of it. We are not living under the same system of life as people who reject God.
· We live as citizens of heaven and as ambassadors of the Holy Nation.
1 Peter 2:9
(Whole Chapter)
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you
out of darkness into his wonderful light.
· As ambassadors, God’s Kingdom on earth is a nation of people made up of people from every nation, tribe, and tongue issuing the Gospel call to people outside of the Church be reconciled to God.
· Notice in Ps. 95, that the call is to come and worship—not to come and evangelize the lost. Remember 166 hours of our week is spent outside of our worship for the purpose of going inot the world to make disciples.
· The Church at worship is called to come together in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.
· The Gathering for Worship is a call to find Sabbath rest from our labors, to be healed and strengthened, and to ascend in fellowship together up the Holy Mountain and to sup with God in his presence before we are told “The service is ended. Go forth!.”
· So, first, we heed God’s call to come and worship. We get up out of bed, and make our journey from north, south, east, and west and we come to the sacred space at the sacred time separating ourselves from the rest of the world to be with God.
· As we gather, we sing a song to celebrate that we are gathering together in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day with Jesus in the presence of God, all the saints and angels in heaven, and with one another! Is it in your heart to be glad and rejoice when we come? Then next Sunday let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
II. ONCE GATHERED, WE THEN ENTER INTO GOD’S VERY PRESENCE
· Hidden in the simplicity of sacred spaces on earth is the King of all kings, the Ruler of all rulers, the Creator and Maker of all.
· When you come to church each week, do you realize that you have been given an invitation to come to the palace of a King, and to worship before his throne?
· I have become very convinced that we simply do not do this an old way we want.
· In the beginning, when we first hear God call in our hearts to come and worship, God is so gracious and kind to receive us “Just as We Are.” Over time though, as we grow in our love for God and understanding of his ways, we will want to grow in our love and learn to extol and glorify him in the ways that bring Him the most joy.
Passage John 14:6: 6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
· As we enter into God’s presence, a person called a crucifier carries Christ’s cross like Simon of Cyrene did on the Way of the Cross on Good Friday.
· When we see the cross each week, we remember Good Friday, and God is saying to us that Jesus is the only Way of Salvation. He is the only truth and the only life—and that truth and life is signified in the symbol of the cross—the symbol of the saving act of Christ’s death and power over death.
· We do not live in a world where all roads men try to take to God get you to heaven. There is only one road that does not dead end on earth—it is called The Way of the Cross. We are called to take up the cross and follow Jesus as disciples.
· You also see a person called a thurifer who carries a thurible of hot coals burning incense.
· Why would we do this in Church?
Passage Malachi 1:11:
11 My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the
setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to
my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD
Almighty.
· This prophecy by the prophet Malachi spoke of a day that would come when God’s name would be made great among all nations of the earth so that 24 hours a day incense and pure offerings would be made.
· In the Old Tabernacle, the altar of incense burned 24 hours a day as the physical sign that the work of the priests to raise their offering of prayer to God for the people was being done.
· I did a study of the word incense using a concordance and found it 136 times with the Malachi prophecy being the last, and then ten more in the New Testament teaching the same principle about prayer.
·
Revelation 5:8
(Whole Chapter)
And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders
fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden
bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
·
Revelation 8:3
(Whole Chapter)
Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was
given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the
golden altar before the throne.
·
Revelation 8:4
(Whole Chapter)
The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went
up before God from the angel's hand.
Passage Mark 11:17: 17And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: " 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'[a]? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'[b]"
· I want to conclude by telling you that Jesus said God’s house is a house of prayer. When we come to worship, it is synonymous with prayer.
Exodus 19:6
(Whole Chapter)
you [ Or possession, for the whole earth is mine. 6 You ] will be for me a
kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are
to speak to the Israelites."
1 Peter 2:9
(Whole Chapter)
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you
out of darkness into his wonderful light.
· Earlier we read 1 Peter 2:9-10. All of God’s people in the Old and New Covenants were a kingdom of priests and a holy nation belonging to God.
· We are called to come and to pray all of the things we pray in the Lord’s prayer in God’s house as part of worship—to our Father in heaven, to make his name holy, for his kingdom and will to come on earth as in heaven, for daily bread, for forgiveness and to forgive others, and to glorify the Kingdom.
· When you see incense, I want you to always see the smoke rising to heaven where the angels before God’s throne offering the prayers that you, the saints on earth, are making before the throne of God.
· I like how the great preacher Stuart Briscoe put it:
When our children were small and we were trying to teach them to pray, we had three kinds of prayer: "Please prayers," Thank you prayers," and "Sorry prayers."
S. Briscoe, Getting into God, p. 55.
· In the Old Testament, when you went to the Temple to worship, you entered the gates of the Holy City with thanksgiving in your hearts, and then into the courts of the King’s Palace with praise.
· In the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Church, as we enter God’s presence in worship, we begin by greeting God with praise and thanksgiving:
BLESSED BE GOD, FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT, AND BLESSED BE HIS KINGDOM FOREVER!
· As we enter God’s presence, we make the sing of the cross as we say those opening words of acclamation. The cross is the most ancient Christian symbol of Christianity, and making the sign of the cross
Passage Psalm 24:3-5: 3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. [a] 5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.