Challenges To/For Public Worship-2 Series

CHALLENGES To/For PUBLIC WORSHIP-II—John 2:12-25

DYNAMICS Of PUBLIC WORSHIP

Attention:

Legend of ‘FB’s BBQ & Grill’—

The local Southern Baptist Church(First Baptist) needed to pay off their long-standing indebtedness. The leadership, losing their patience, decided they needed to ‘go public’ as it were, & held a public BBQ. It was a huge success! In fact it was so successful that they began having a yearly BBQ contest which continued to grow exponentially every year. Their debt was quickly paid off & they even began to have surplus money available for the first time since anyone could remember! The growth compelled them to build a series of buildings specifically for the contest. The BBQ eventually came unto its own, with the church fading entirely out of the picture, & the business calling itself, ‘The First Baptist BBQ & Grill,’ later shortened to ‘FB’s BBQ & Grill.’

The Church can be tempted toward many directions regarding the manner & message of its Public Worship. There are real Challenges to bringing about Public Worship!...There are dynamics which, if we deny, will keep our church & the public from being able to fully worship in s(S)pirit & truth!

Need:

Disappointment with your worship experience.

Restoring Propriety/Precedence to Worship

Jesus made it plain that the temple worship had become tainted with improprieties.

Public Worship is to be free from impropriety.

OR

There is to be consonance(agreeability with God) in public worship.

What is consonant with/to public worship?

When is public worship consonant(agreeable/harmonious)?

Some challenges to (consonant)public worship.

Previously we have found a Challenge to (harmonious)public worship is its...

1. OCCASION(:13)

Furthermore...

2—A challenge to (harmonious)public worship is its...

INVITATION(:13-14)

Explanation:(:13-14)Potential

:13—“Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, & Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”

:14—“And He found in the temple those who sold oxen & sheep & doves, & the moneychangers doing business.”

Jesus entered the temple grounds. ‘Possibly’...in the Court of the Gentiles, businessmen were selling oxen & sheep & doves for sacrifice, presumably unblemished & without spot.

The sale of these animals was(or rather began as) a true service to travelers. Rather than travel with herds of animals which could be injured on the way—& thus possibly be rejected as an inappropriate sacrifice—it was more feasible to carry currency which would be exchanged for the corresponding appropriate currency required for use at the temple.

There were along with the “sellers” of sacrificial animals, people set up within the temple who would exchange one’s foreign currency for that required for use in the temple. Currency representative of a pagan nation would be an affront to God’s holiness.

Mt. 22:15-22—Then the Pharisees went & plotted how they might entangle Him[Jesus] in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, & teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their wickedness, & said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image & inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, & to God the things that are God’s.” When they had heard these words, they marveled, & left Him & went their way.”

“In the court of the Gentiles in the temple of Jerusalem were the seats of those who sold such animals for sacrifice as had been selected, examined, & approved, together with incense, oil, & other things needed in making offerings & in worship; & the magnitude of this traffic had introduced the banker's or broker’s business.”—Thayer

*Worship’s Invitation is to honor God!...In the midst of a world that is far too comfortable & careless with God, even to the point of discrediting, or even discarding God.

“Found”—euriskw—2Aorist Active Indicative—1) To come upon, hit upon, to meet with; 2) To find by enquiry, thought, examination, scrutiny, observation, to find out by practice & experience; 3) To find out for one's self, to acquire, get, obtain, procure. Strong—a prolonged form of a primary eurw; which(together with another cognate form eurew) is used for it in all the tenses except the present & imperfect; To find(literally or figuratively).

“In”—en—

“Temple”—ieron—1) A sacred place, temple. The temple of Jerusalem consisted of the whole of the sacred enclosure, embracing the entire aggregate of buildings, balconies, porticos, courts (that is that of the men of Israel, that of the women, & that of the priests), belonging to the temple;.... Also there were the courts where Jesus or the apostles taught or encountered adversaries, & the like, "in the temple"; also the courts of the temple, of the Gentiles &/or court of the women, out of which Jesus drove the buyers & sellers & the money changers,. Ierov means sacred, implying some special relation to God, so that it may not be violated. This is the commonest word for holy in classical Greek, & expresses their usual conception of holiness, but it is rare in the N.T. because it fails to express the fullness of the N.T. conception. Strong—A sacred place, i.e. The entire precincts(whereas naov denotes the central sanctuary itself) of the Temple (at Jerusalem or elsewhere).