Challenges To/For Public Worship-3 Series

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

Attention:

Franklin County welcome sign off of both Ocklocknee River bridges:

"Welcome to Franklin County"—“World’s Best Oysters & Beaches”

Franklin County Commissioners realize we must have something to offer which must be exploited in order to bring others(along with their money, skills, livelihood, successes, etc) to our county.

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!

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(harmony/agreeability with God) in public worship.

What is consonant with/to public worship?

When is public worship consonant(harmonious/agreeable)?

10 challenges to (harmonious)public worship.

Previously we have found some Challenges to (harmonious)public worship are its...

1. OCCASION(:13)

2. INVITATION(:13-14)

3. PROTECTION(:15)

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

RESONATION(:16-17)

Explanation:(:16-17)Speak or Sound to you/Strike you/Make sense/Remember

:16—“And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”

Jesus spoke specifically to those merchants who were “selling doves.”

“Doves” were those sacrificed by the poor(Lev. 5:7, Lk. 2:22-24. )

Lev. 5:7—“‘If he is not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring to the LORD, for his trespass which he has committed, two turtledoves or two young pigeons: one as a sin offering & the other as a burnt offering.”[freewill]

Lev. 12:8—[Regarding a birthmother’s 7-day uncleanness]—“‘And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons--one as a burnt offering & the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, & she will be clean.’”

Lk. 2:22-24—“Now when the days of her[Mary] purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the LORD”), & to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.””

Concern for ‘the widow, the fatherless, & the alien’ is a common theme thruout God’s word.

We are called upon & equipped to “love your neighbor as yourself.”(Lev. 19:18; Mat. 22:37-40; Mk. 12:30-31; Rom. 13:9, etc.)

Jesus accused them of turning the temple into a ‘store’ instead of a place of reverence for God. Making the uncommon, common.

The temple is no place for “merchandising”(trading/selling/bartering) of any kind even if the “merchandise” is intended for or related to proper worship.

Mat. 21:13—[At Jesus’ 2nd temple cleansing]“And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”[Jer. 7:9-11]

True worship is always a ‘non-profit’ endeavor! Worship must be undertaken with a proper spirit which invites the Spirit’s freedom!

Worship is not about coming up with innovative methods of making worshipers give more. The church that is out to ‘make money’ has either intentionally or inadvertently set up money as their god over & above God’s honor.

“Sold”(See :14)—pwlew—

“Doves”(See :14)—peristera—

“Take...away”—airw—1) To raise up, elevate, lift up; 2) To take upon one's self & carry what has been raised up, to bear; 3) To bear away what has been raised, carry off. Strong—a primary root; To lift up; by implication--To take up or away; figuratively--To raise(the voice), keep in suspense (the mind), specially--To sail away (i.e. weigh anchor); by Hebraism [compare asn[To lift]]--To expiate sin.

“Make”(See :15)—poiew—

“House”2X—oikov—1) A house; 2) The inmates of a house, all the persons forming one family, a household; 3) Stock, family, descendants of one. Oikov denotes one's household establishment, one's entire property. Oikov is...narrower[than fulh or patria], a “household,” including all the inmates of a single house, being the unit of organization. Strong—A dwelling(more or less extensive, literal or figurative); by implication--A family (more or less related, literal or figuratively).

“Merchandise/Business”—emporion—1) A place were trade is carried on, especially--A seaport—1a) A mart, an emporium. Used 1X.

English=‘Emporium’

:17—“Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

When did the disciples remember? Before or after the Holy Spirit? Regardless they had to have become steeped in God’s written word in order to remember! The Holy Spirit caused them to remember the certain aspects of Jesus’ ministry & associate them with their prophecy in Scripture.

Their remembrance is of Ps. 69:9.

Ps. 69:8-9—“I have become a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother’s children; Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.”