1. Worship Involves Sacrifice - In New Testament times, worship consisted initially of sacrifice (of animals). However, the focus of worship for Christians is on self-sacrifice in honor and adoration of Christ. Worship appears to be the total response of grateful persons to the grace of God that comes to us in the work of Jesus Christ. It is no longer related to the temple notion of animal sacrifice, but rahter, in Christ the whole Church has become a Temple and a preisthood inhabited by the Holy Spirit, or presence of God.
2. Worship is Spiritual - Even though worship does involve rituals, our worship, from a New Testament perspective, is essentially spiritual. It was an internal attitude rather than a practice of external rituals. This understanding is also found in Isaiah 1:11-20 and Psalm 51:15-17
3. Worship Did Include Specific Practices - Some of the rituals in the New Testament include baptism; communion; laying on of hands; foot washing; lifting up hands in prayer and worship; the reading of Scriptures; and contributions for ministry to those in need. Because we are not given explicit instruction on how to practice these rituals, many variations of their practices emerged in the early churches. Of course, the early Church patterned much of its worship service after that of the Jewish synagogue service. Worship services at first were on the Sabbath (Saturday), but by the middle of the first century, many Christians were gathering regularly on the first day of the week out of respect for the time of Christ's resurrection. At first, however, followers of Jesus in Jerusalem gathered daily in the Temple for prayers.
4. Worship Was Filled with Charismatic Praise - The offering of enthusiastic praise and prayer under the influence of the Holy Spirit was characteristic of the early Church's worship. This was demonstrated through speech and tongues, or ecstatic speech. Each person was given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good and to build up the body of Christ.
5. Worship Was Didactic - The early Christians were a teaching community give instruction in their time of worship.
I will share the last five next week.
The above examples show us how the early Church lived out its life in worship of God. Worship, of course, was not a simple act done occasionally, but rather a way of life that involved one's complete dedication to honor Christ and give our complete lives to serve Him. Worship cannot be reduced to a few songs, a Scripture reading, a sermon, and a closing prayer. It is a whole life of submission to the call of God that comes to us in the proclamation of Good News. Christian worship is good-news oriented, even when reflective music is sung. We serve a God who does not abandon His children when this world's challenges are overwhelming, but comes to us in all circumstance of life.
This is actually an article taken from Worship Leader magazine by Dr. Lee Martin McDonald. It's a great article and his last paragraph reflects my personal view of worship. So in light of the early church, how is our worship?
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Oh yeah! getting a high five from me on that one!
ReplyDeleteMost of us have a tendency to compartmentalize our lives, i.e., this is what we do when we worship, this is what we do when we work, this is what we do when we socialize, this is what we do when we are with family, and this is what we do when alone. Also, for most of us, our spirituality and behavior declines with each successive compartment.
ReplyDeleteWe can enjoy what we do in worship all we want but it is only when we allow worship to spill over into all the other compartments of our lives that we experience the abundant life. Too often, even when we have a worship compartment, what we do in private spills over into and ruins the other compartments.
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