ENTERING INTO HEAVENLY WORSHIP-6
Summer Series “Growing in Worship”
A House of Prayer
Rev. Kevin L. Baker
Two men were talking together. The first challenged the other, "If you are so religious, let's hear you quote the Lord's Prayer. I bet you $10.00 you can't." The second responded, "Now I lay my down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." The first pulled out his wallet and fished out a ten dollar bill, muttering, "I didn't think you could do it!"
INTRO
· Today is our 9th message in the summer series on worship. May we learn a little more about prayer than these two prayer scholars!
· We have come a long way from entering into God’s presence to the preaching of the Gospel which we studied last week.
· As we progress through the worship service, we are going closer and closer to very presence of God.
· Remember, fundamentally, worship is about the Father seeking us
· The Temple of Heaven is our ultimate home; church on earth is our home away from home if you will.
· Worship under the New Covenant is a fulfilled and realized version of worship under the Old Covenant.
· The tabernacle and Temple were types, or shadows of the pattern of worship in heaven revealed and practiced on earth in the days before Jesus came.
· Now that Christ has come, all the shadows have become realities—a better priesthood, Temple, sacrifice, and so forth as learned about in the Book of Hebrews.
· Better does not mean that physical symbols of spiritual realities have been done away with (Gnosticism)—to the contrary. Christian worship is not about invisibleness, but about the invisible God becoming visible and tangible.
· Since we are physical/spiritual beings, God speaks to us in physical/spiritual realities with God becoming a man in the person of Christ his ultimate speaking to mankind.
· So, as we progress in our worship service each week, we make a journey similar to what the old covenant Temple service was like—we begin outside the Temple (which is the Church), and we ascend the holy mountain of God with singing to enter his presence.
· We enter by the cross with prayer; renewing our baptism through confession and absolution of sin so we have clean hands and a pure heart before God.
· We ask God to have mercy on us so we can live a holy life that is acceptable and pleasing to him; praise him, pray for God to bless the service of the Word, hear the readings, and sermon—NOW WE PRAY.
I. WE WORSHIP IN A HOUSE OF PRAYER
Matthew 21:13: "It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.' "
1 Timothy 2:1-3: 1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior,
· In our worship, there is a season prayer we call the prayers of the people. As you can see, Jesus says his house is a house of prayer, so when you come, expect to pray.
· St. Paul in giving Timothy instructions on worship says that request, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving should be made for everyone when we worship—we will do that in just a moment.
· He goes on to say we should pray for Kings and those in government authority so that the Church can have a peaceful and quiet life because governments can make war against nations and the Church which are times of history that are difficult.
· Paul says this kind of praying pleases God our Savior—Jesus Christ.
· I found some quotes on prayer that really capture how we should be mentally and spiritually prepared to come to Church to pray:
· "...Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons -- but they are helpless against our prayers." Sidlow Baxter
· Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you. Martin Luther
· "There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as prayer for him. William Law
·
If the request is wrong, God says,
"No." If the timing is wrong, God says, "Slow."
If you are wrong, God says, "Grow." But if the request is right, the timing is
right and you are right, God says, "Go!" Bill Hybels,
Too Busy Not To Pray, IVP, p. 74.
II. WE WORSHIP BY CONFESSING OUR FAITH IN CHRIST
· The Word of Faith is the ancient confession of the Church that Jesus Christ and none other is Lord.
· This passage in Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome tells us about how the early Church taught we become Christians—we believe in our hearts that Jesus is God, died for our sins, and was resurrected from the dead, and then make that confession before men with our mouths.
· When asked in Acts 2 what men must do to be saved, Peter said, “repent and be baptized.”
· The early Church as part of its worship gave people the opportunity to that. When we have a baptism service we confess the faith in the Apostles creed as a public identification with Christ who then confesses us before his father in heaven meaning Jesus says they are now part of our family.
· The early Church renewed their commitment in worship by confessing their faith. Since the fourth century, the Church has confessed their faith publicly in the Nicene Creed.
· We confess our faith after hearing the Gospel preached—Remember last week we learned from Paul that faith come by hearing the Word of God? We hear preaching and we respond by telling God—we believe.
III. WE WORSHIP BY KEEPING THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT THROUGH THE BOND OF PEACE
John 20:19
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together,
with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, "Peace be with you!"
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give
to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be
afraid.
· We have seen that Paul tells us to pray for peace, and that before and after the resurrection, Jesus greeted his disciples by giving them his peace.
· This greeting of peace is Shalom—a message saying that all is well between us.
· When Jesus prepared for the cross, he prayed for the disciples to be one as he and the father were one, because by our love for one another and our unity in that love, the whole world will know we are his disciples.
Ephesians 4:1-6: 1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
· In God’s will, we are to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace which is how we stay together as one without division, and discord.
· At this stage of our worship, we are now preparing to enter the Holy of Holies; to enter the very presence of God in the Great Thanksgiving of the Eucharist at the altar of the cross:
· Listen to what Jesus says:
Matthew 5:23-24 23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
· Right before we begin the eucharist in the offering of our lives and gifts to God, we have the peace because Jesus said that before we offer our lives to God at the altar, we should leave our gift at the altar and be reconciled to each other before we can truly offer our lives as a living sacrifice before God.
· I say this often, and will say it again now—Our Father invites us to his palace each Sunday to come and eat the Holy Supper, the New Covenant meal, and he says that as we prepare to come that he has a couple conditions for entrance.
· First, we need to come as one because in heaven, it is required that we all be one in Spirit; that we are a family that loves each other and is in unity—no fighting and feuding is allowed at the Table.
· So God is saying, every Sunday in worship, I am calling each of you to do your part in keeping the unity of the Spirit and keeping the Church one by making peace with each other as I have made peace with you by sending Jesus to lay down his life for you as the Lord your peace.
· Now, you lay down your lives for each other and greet each other as Jesus greets you—peace be with you.
· May I be bold and say something today? The Church has not been at peace and been one since 1054 AD when the Eastern and Western Churches separated from each other and entered into a 1000 year feud about a point of doctrine.
· The Roman Catholic Church initiated that fight, and reaped what they sowed in the Protestant Reformation—AN ARGUMENT OVER DOCTRINE.
· The Protestant churches are always arguing over finer points of doctrine. Since we live in an age when the Kingdom has already come in Christ, but has not yet come in its fullness, we know truth, but we do not know all truth exhaustively.
· Thus in doctrinal matters, we must be moderate in what we teach except when it comes to the central doctrines of the faith—the matters of the creed—the cross, sin, salvation by grace.
· In matters we do not agree on as Christians, we must learn to be more flexible maintaining unity while allowing for diversity. We might be willing to die for the Gospel, but not fight to the death over non-essentials. AUGUSTINE: ESSENTIALS UNITY, NON-ESSENTIALS DIVERSITY, ALL THINGS CHARITY.
· Toward the end of the 20th century in the 1970’s, a message of God came into the Church calling for unity, reconciliation, convergence of the ancient Catholic Orthodox Churches with each other and all the Protestant churches.
· We, the CEC, are part of that movement—part, and there are many others who have said yes to this vision. We are part of the first fruits of the reconciliation of the people of God divided.
· I believe the first 1000 years was a united Church, the second 1000 a divided Church, and the third 1000 is the age of reconciliation.
· As a church, we call out to all Christians to be at peace, and within our walls, God calls us to be at peace so we can be blessed peacemakers.
· The peace is prayer of forgiveness and reconciliation within the family of God.
For the sake of each of us he laid down his life--worth no less than the universe. He demands of us in return our lives for the sake of each other. St. Clement of Alexandria.
· Today, our prayer of faith is to demonstrate our love of God by laying down our lives for each other. By saying I forgive you; I love you; I am at peace with you.
· Then, we can pray and be heard for the Gospel to change the whole world from a place of war and hate to a place of peace and reconciliation.