MPC 28th January 2007.January 28 - Deuteronomy 12 "Summer Studies 5: A Biblical Theology of Worship"
Phil Campbell MPC 28th January 2007.
I want you to listen carefully to the wording of an email I received during the week. It's an advertisement. That perhaps you'll be interested in. For a product called EasyWorship.
And the email said this. "EasyWorship continues to rate number one in surveys as the best software for distraction free worship..."
Now if you're not sure yet what it's talking about, the message goes on to say, "Over 5000 churches responded to the question: Which software do you use for displaying songs? To which apparently 30.79% of churches responded that they use the EasyWorship program. Compared to 18.2% who use Microsoft PowerPoint. And a mere 8% for the technically minded, who use the system we use, which is called SundayPlus.
In short, EasyWorship is a computer program for flashing up the right songs on the screen at the right time. Which apparently equals easy worship. Distraction free.
Now I've got no problem with getting the right song words on the screen at the right time. In fact, I love it that our tech. team people at the back are right on the ball. And it's helpful. If we can all sing the right words at the right times.
But I wonder if that growing list of software products that promise to help us with our worship are actually missing the point. And reducing the idea of worshipping God to something that's almost as trivial and mundane as singing a few songs in church on a Sunday. When the Biblical view of worship is something much much more than that. Something in a sense much more demanding. In fact, something that can never be reduced to the level of easy. No matter what computer software package you buy.
In fact, in the final installment of our summer Biblical Theology series this morning, we're looking at a biblical theology of worship. Tracing through the issue of what it means to worship God. From the Old Testament to now. And we're going to end up with a verse that says this...
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.
Which ultimately might in fact be anything but easy. Do you see what it's saying? Offering the whole of yourself to God... as a living sacrifice. That's what spiritual worship is all about. Which is far more than singing some Sunday Songs. And is anything but easy.
But before we can make proper sense of a verse like that, we need to head backwards. To the Old Testament. And start the same journey we've made in the past few weeks as we've learned the method called biblical theology. Tracing through unfolding themes; from the Old Testament through to Jesus. And then ourselves.
And today we're going to be bringing together some key ingredients from the last few weeks. That you'll see reflected in that key verse from Romans. It's full of temple words. And sacrifice words. And priest words. That are being dragged out of the temple; and turned into a worship that affects every day life.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.
Words like offer. Which in the Greek is the technical word for the act of temple offering. The word sacrifice. Which again is a temple word for whatever goes on the altar. Usually dead. And the word worship. Which in the Greek is most commonly used for the liturgical acts of temple worship; the temple service... carried out by the priest.
So let's step back and piece it together. Particularly, if you've been here the past few weeks, thinking through the details of what we've learned about the Priesthood. And the Temple. And last week the sacrifices.
We're going to start the process back in Deuteronomy chapter 12. The book of the law. That God gave to Israel through Moses. It's a chapter we touched on a few weeks back. As we looked at the temple. But it's helpful, because it draws the threads together. It's the passage we read a few moments ago. And I just want to draw out a few details.
Here's how it starts. And if you've found it in your Bible, it's Deuteronomy 12 verse 2. Where Moses makes it very clear that the God of the universe has got to be worshipped his way and not in some way that people have just made up for themselves. So verse 2, when you come into your promised land, destroy completely all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their Gods. break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their Gods and wipe out their names from those places. "You must not worship the Lord your God in their way."
I hope you get the drift. When it comes to worshipping God, it's his way. And not some made up way. Because this is serious.
So let's keep reading and find out exactly what God's way looks like. When it comes to worship. First of all, it's got to be done in God's appointed place. Which is going to be the temple in the city of Jerusalem. They don't know it yet, because they're still outside the promised land. But God says, I'm going to take you to a place. Where my presence with Israel's going to be symbolised. And to worship me... that's where you'll have to come.
Keep reading. Verse 5.
But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go...
And it's to that place, and that place alone, to the temple in Jerusalem... that you've got to bring your sacrifices.
"To that place you must go". And "there," verse 6,
bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. there, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
There. And there alone. Verse 13 and 14.
Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please. Offer them only at the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.
So that's what Israel's worship is going to look like. Verse 27, at the temple in Jerusalem, with the help of the priests and the Levites, you'll present your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God; and that. And that alone... is how an Israelite worships God.
If you're still not clear on it, verse 30 says, don't go looking around at the other nations and think you can worship their way. God's going to drive them out. So whatever you do after they have been destroyed before you, verse 30, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, "How do these nations serve their gods? We'll do the same." Verse 31:
You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their Gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.
For Israel, the true way of worship of the true God requires the right place. The Jerusalem temple. The right priests. And the right sacrifice. Spotless and perfect. Anything else... is disastrous. In fact, it's idolatry.
Now if you've been here through the series this month, you'll have got the idea that the Bible actually tells a long, unfolding story. Which by and large in the Old Testament at least is a story of disaster. It's a story of the people of Israel systematically and ignoring and dismantling everything God tells them to do. I mean, sometimes I wonder if God would have been better off using reverse psychology, and giving Israel a bible that told them to do everything he didn't want them to do.
One temple. In Jerusalem. The one place of worship. One unified priesthood. The right kind of sacrifices.
Well, you might remember we looked at the book of 1 Kings last year. And we saw how the story of Israel unfolded under the rule of the Kings. We saw the civil war. The division. After the rule of King Solomon.
And the huge irony that within a generation of the temple in Jerusalem finally being built... Israel splits in two halves. And the tribe of judah stays on in Jerusalem with the temple. And the rest of Israel breaks away to the North.
And in 1 Kings chapter 16 verse 23, just in passing, you read these harmless looking words. Which you'll see on the screen...
In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah. He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.
Which seems fairly inconsequential. Until you read a bit further. And find this. Seven years later...
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him... He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.
One temple. In Jerusalem. And whatever you do, don't go off sacrificing in other places to other gods thinking the true God's going to be okay with it. There's only one place of worship. And one way of worship. And it's God's place. God's way.
And now they've split. And there's a second temple in Samaria. And the people of Israel are dancing around maypoles celebrating Asherah the godess of free love and fertility and sacrificing to Baal the god of the harvest. And thinking it's all quite okay.
Which leads as you follow the story through... to their destruction. And the story back in Jerusalem is not much better. And so in the words of the prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, these two harlot sisters, Jerusalem and Samaria, they get the punishment their unfaithfulness deserves.
The years go by. They gradually rebuilt. They patch things up. With Samaria re-populated by a multicultural mix that the Jews grow to despise. And always that same simmering tension; two halves of a Kingdom. The family feud that just won't go away. Two places of worship. Absolutely ignoring the fact that God said worship had to be done his way. In his place. And nowhere else.
Now that's interesting background when you turn to the New Testament, and listen in on a conversation between Jesus... and a samaritan woman.
Because it's exactly that issue that's on their minds. It's worth finding the page. It's a fascinating conversation. And loaded with implications. Particularly loaded with echoes of the prophet Jeremiah that if you're the studious type you might like to follow up.
Jesus has to go through Samaria. So verse 5, he comes to Sychar, a town with a history. And he sits down by the well around lunchtime.
A Samaritan woman comes to draw water. And surprisingly, Jesus asks her for a drink. While the disciples are off buying lunch. Verse 9, you'll notice it's surprising - because Jews and Samaritans just don't mix.
And on they go - to talk about things like living water. And eternal life. And unfaithfulness to husbands. Which is exactly what Jeremiah accused all Samaria of in the past.
But the verse I want to highlight is verse 20. Because here's where it cuts to the chase. They're on the mountain of Samaria. The ancient site of the rebel temple. The source of all the trouble.
And look what she says. The Samaritan woman says to Jesus, "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Which according to the law set down in Deuteronomy chapter 12, is exactly right.
To which Jesus says this. And it's a radical statement. See, in the past, the only right worship of God was when you brought the right spotless sacrifice to the right temple in Jerusalem. But listen to his words...
Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet an hour is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
The hour is just around the corner. When everything changes. The hour is just around the corner. When the worship of the temple with the priests and sacrifices will be neither here nor there. When the old debates about this mountain or that mountain will be put aside. Jesus says there's an hour just up ahead that's going to change the way you worship - whether you're a Samaritan or a Jew or anyone else. And it's going to be by the Spirit. And in truth. Instead of in the empty and corrupted ways of the temple.
And of course as John's gospel unfolds, Jesus talks about the hour that's coming again and again and again. Until the hour finally comes. And he hangs there on the cross. As the spotless sacrifice to end all sacrifices. The Lamb of God. Taking on himself the sins of the world.
No wonder worship's going to be different from that point on. With no more temple. No more priests. No more sacrifice.
Which brings us to the final question. Of our worship. Today. In the age when temple and sacrifice and priest are over and done with. What are we called on to do that reflects the way we honour God?
Because ultimately, that's what the word worship is all about. Our English word comes from the words worth-ship. And what is it we do that's going to show what we think of God's worth... when he's actually opened the way to his presence through Jesus already?
See, it can be that in our efforts to be religious we go back and reinvent the wheel. And we create Holy Buildings again and treat them like they're the temple. And it can be that in our efforts to be religious we re-invent holy human middle-men and call them priests again. Or it may be that we think we worship with our music. And that in the terms used by some Charismatic style churches that the right kind of songs sung the right kind of way can actually bring us into the presence of God. And so you buy your EasyWorship software so the words of your worship songs come up on the screen at just the right time for distraction free worship.
And it can be that somehow we get the idea that the worship of God can be confined to an hour or two on a Sunday. In the right kind of building. With the right kind of priest. With the right kind of songs. When the words of Romans 12 want to explode all that. And say the right service of God is much more than that. And is played out in the sacrificial way you live your life.
It says, in view of God's mercy to you, with the sacrifice of Jesus in mind, there's no need to sacrifice sheep any more. There's no need for a temple. But what you do need to do... is be a living sacrifice. What you do need to do, by the Spirit, is willingly commit yourself to Godly, sacrificial service anywhere. And anytime. As a response to God's mercy to you.
And so when you're in the kitchen after morning tea and you're washing up the 163rd coffee mug and you're doing it because you want to serve your brothers and sisters... then you're actually worshipping God. When you're so tempted to gossip to a friend over coffee and you bite your tongue and change the subject instead, you're actually worshipping God. In the the way you offer your body in service... your hands, your feet, your tongue... those mundane sounding day by day things... you're actually worshipping God in a way that delights him.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.
Which doesn't mean we stop gathering week by week to encourage one another. And sing God's praises. And hear from his word. But that the praises we sing with our lips on a Sunday... are actually reflected in the way we live our lives for the rest of the week. And there can be no such thing as a Sunday Christian.
It's timely too as we say goodbye to our Eatons Hill pioneers who'll be meeting in a school that they don't need a temple or a holy place or even the MPC auditorium to worship God in. And they don't even need someone to come and consecrate the out of school hours room they'll be meeting in. Because the worship they'll be doing will be played out all around the community. All around the city. In the way they, like the rest of us, live out faithful, sacrificial lives... in view of God's great mercy.
And whether you're at Eatons Hill or staying here at MPC, our job is always the same. To be calling people back to worship God his way. Instead of the way they choose to deal with him.
To worship God his way. Not by coming to a building. Not by looking for some emotional experience with the right kind of music. But by coming the Lord Jesus. In repentance and faith. And then living in his service.
That brings us to the end of our summer series on biblical theology. And the way the Bible works. It's full of implications, isn't it? For the way we read God's word. And relate to God. And relate to one another. And particularly the way we understand what we're doing as we meet for church. And what we're not doing. We've tried to capture it in one of our MPC core commitment statements, which says this: And I hope you'll think on it.
We are committed to regularly meeting together to encourage one another to worship God in lives of loving, sacrificial service. (Rom 12:1-2, Heb 10:24-25)
I wonder if you're willing to do that? Or you'd kind of just prefer easy worship? The kind you do for just an hour or so on a Sunday with a few songs on the screen?