How Should the Church Worship?
Today we will be reading from John 4:7-26
Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost literally means 50 or the 50th. On that 50th day Jews from all over the known world were coming into Jerusalem for the Festival of the First Fruits which celebrated the beginning of the Wheat harvest.
This was a celebration of the Lord’s pouring out of His bountiful mercy with the start of another harvest. So, these faithful Jewish men were bringing in the best of the very first yield of their wheat harvest.
Little did they know that there would be another demonstration of the Lord’s bountiful mercy and the start of a spiritual harvest.
For on that very day, in His bountiful mercy, the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit on all mankind!
But things were going to be different now.
The Most Holy Place in the temple had been torn open by God when Jesus died on the cross. Therefore we now have direct access to the Father through Jesus.
And, now, the Holy Spirit has, in essence, come out to us from the Most Holy Place to be with us and to guide us. Us! All of us who seek Him! Praise His name forever.
Now the temple worship of continual sacrifices is over. What will worship be like from this point forward?
Jesus tells us Himself in John chapter 4 …
Let’s read John 4:7-26
(Prayer for help)
What will our worship be like?
Re-read John 4:23-24
Right there is the attitude of our worship from that point forward.
The rest of the New Testament was written within 50 years of Jesus’ death and in all of that time do we see an outline of what a worship service should be?
We do not. Is that because we humans would have made it into a “law” and declared that this is the way and no other way is acceptable?
So, if we do not have prescribed pattern of worship, what is it that we DO see in the New Testament?
We see elements of their worship gatherings:
- We see the proclamation of the Scriptures (preaching/teaching)
- We see the Lord’s Supper - communion
- We see the singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
- We see offerings being given
- We see prayer
- We see discussion (as we would do in a Bible study session)
- We see the fellowship of believers encouraging one another
This was very different for those who had come out of Judaism where their worship was comprised of following a rigid format that was repeated over and over the same way each time.
So, how do we worship here at Crossroads Church of The Nazarene? Is our worship acceptable to the Lord?
We know that we have a general flow to our service. Most of us do not need to even look at the outline of the service to know what is coming up next other than the song selections. Have we fallen into a rigid, legalistic pattern?
Let me tell you some of the thoughts I have about our worship services.
First of all, my hope is that we WILL worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.
That the Lord will be glorified and honored in all we do.
That there will be no “self” in the service.
That our worship and our prayers will rise up before Him as a sweet aroma.
That when we leave the time of worship the Lord and what He has taught us we will be more like Jesus than when we came in.
That we will leave the worship service worshiping Him!
That is why the worship ministry team is off to the side of the platform and not spread across it. The ministry team should NOT be the center of attention. If we could be behind a screen or up in a balcony out of sight it would be best but we are not set up for that.
This is important to help us worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.
During our time of worshiping the Lord in song He alone is to be the focus.
Our music selection is intentional. There is a mix of the great hymns of the past and of newer worship music. All of it must be Biblical. All of it must be singable. All of it must glorify God or cause us to seek to be more like Him.
If at all possible it is best if it can be pure Scripture with such songs as the “Revelation Song” or “Mighty Is Our God” as we sang this morning or “Jesus Messiah”. What wonderful songs about our wonderful Lord, praise His name forever!
This helps us to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.
Our times of gathering in the offerings we have brought to the Lord are always prefaced with Scripture and often these Scriptures are not about bringing in offerings but about the giving nature of God Himself and how our desire is to be like Him! And not just with money but with our very lives.
In the giving of our offerings we worship the Lord in spirit and it truth.
In our times of prayer we often do pray for earthly needs.
We often pray for someone’s health or their difficult situations but more importantly, we always pray to Him with reverence, acknowledging His greatness.
We always pray to Him with thanksgiving for His provision and more importantly His gift of eternal life.
We always pray to Him for strength to live in a way that honors and glorifies His great name.
In our prayers His kingdom come and His will be done is ultimate desire of our hearts because we worship Him in spirit and in truth.
When we remember the Lord’s suffering and sacrifice with communion it is difficult to mess that up for the only focus of the act of worship is to remember what He has done for us until He returns.
The only way to possibly mess that up would be to make the elements of the communion or their preparation more important than the remembrance of Jesus’ suffering.
But, then, we would not be worshiping Him in spirit and in truth.
And all of the preaching is based on the Bible, God’s holy Word.
Nothing else is reliable. Nothing else is God speaking directly to us through the prophets and the apostles. We want to hear His voice. We want to know His words. In the Bible we see the Lord shouting, “Do you want to know Me? Do you want a relationship with Me? Here I AM!!!”
This is where we get the truth part of worshiping Him in spirit and in truth.
You see, my hope as co-pastor, is that from the opening moment of our worship services to the very end Jesus is the focus, the Lord is glorified and the Holy Spirit has access to our hearts to receive the praise due to Him and to make that changes in our hearts that need to be made. And that our very lives are changed each Sunday so that we become walking, talking examples of those who worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.
I know we do not serve the Lord this way perfectly, I confess that we do not have it all figured out but the intention of our heart is to worship Him in a way that brings joy to His heart and that He waits anxiously each week for the time when we come and bow before Him with praise and adoration.
(Pause a few moments to allow the change in direction of the sermon - a silent segue)
Lately I have been watching some videos on YouTube by a group called One for Israel Ministry. These are amazing testimonies of men and women who were raised in the Jewish religion and how they came to discover that Jesus actually IS their Messiah and how they came to faith in Him.
I LOVE to hear these testimonies. They are usually 6 to 10 minutes in length. Many of them were raised going to the synagogue each week and going through the traditional Jewish service rituals.
Many of them had also gone to special schools where they would learn certain Scriptures and prayers in the Hebrew language. They would learn the history of Israel and they would learn about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but were never taught that you can actually KNOW God.
I remember one person told his rabbi that he wanted to know God and the rabbi hit him with his umbrella!
In another case a young girl was taught that the Lord puts all of the good things into one side of a balance scale and all of the bad things you have done in the other side of the scale and whichever one was heavier would decide your eternal destiny.
Can you imagine anything more frustrating than knowing there IS a God but that you can never know Him!
Most of them had no idea that Jesus is Jewish!
Most of them never knew that all of the apostles were Jewish!
In many cases Isaiah 53 is hidden from them and it certainly a surprise for them to open the very first page of the New Testament to see that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and even down through King David. They are also amazed to read of Jesus quoting Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament.
And you can just see the joy in their eyes when they learn that they too can know the God of Israel, personally, in spirit and in truth.
Do you know Him or do you just know about Him? (communion)
