Moving Forward - Pt. 2
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In the mid 1800’s, Thomas K. Beecher once substituted for his famous brother, Henry Ward Beecher, at the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York. Many curiosity seekers had come to hear the renowned Henry Beecher speak. Therefore, when Thomas Beecher appeared in the pulpit instead, some people got up and started for the doors.
Sensing that they were disappointed because he was substituting for his brother, Thomas raised his hand for silence and announced, “All those who came here this morning to worship Henry Ward Beecher may withdraw from the church; all who came to worship God may remain.”
Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 407–408.
Worship is well defined as the reverential response to the all-encompassing magnificence of God.
As you walk throughout the OT, you find several terms describing how worship took place.
Early on you would find those who were worshipping God:
bringing an offering to him.
hebrew verb - RUM - defining a bowing down in the presence of God - outward display of an inner attitude of reverence
Hebrew term - Haywah - implied the lifting up or exalting of God with praise.
These two terms (Rum and Haywah) Together, provide a rich image of worship: People both bow before God and lift him up in praise and wonder.
Esau McCaulley, “Worship,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).
Throughout the OT you find those who were responding to the acts and character of God. An overview of Worship throughout all of scripture gives a wide variety of places, people, and methods. The reflection of the heart of adoration for God manifested through
Singing, serving, bowing, dancing, praying, making music with stringed instruments and with drums. Throughout Scripture, you find people worshipping God with a joyful noise, and in silence; in isolation, and in community with others who have recognized the magnificence of God.
The historical means by which we have worshipped our Creator is broad. However, the focus is concise.
The Lexham Theological Workbook gives helpful insight into this central focus.
You see, The only proper object of worship is the one God who created and redeemed humanity (Deut 5:6–7; 6:4; 1 Cor 8:5–6; Isa 40:18–23; Col 1:15–20).
For example, when Moses reviewed the 10 commandments with the Israelites in Deuteronomy 5, he recalled what God said in vv. 6-7:
6 ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 7 ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.
God alone is worthy or our worship because He alone created and redeemed us.
When Paul was addressing the issue of meat that had been offered to idols in Corinth, he reminded the corinthians about truth.
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
Regardless of how they felt, the truth is that there is only one God who created us and redeemed us.
This is truth - and the heart cannot love what the mind does not know. This is truth - God alone is worthy of our worship - our reverential response - because He alone is our Creator and Redeemer.
Now, In the earliest times of the OT, (like Gen (Gen 8:20–21; 12:6–7)) worship involved sacrifice at an altar. During this stage of Israel’s history, there does not seem to be any limitation on the location of worship as long as Yahweh was the object of worship.
During the exodus narrative, Israelite worship came to be centered on the tabernacle (Exod 40:1–36) and occurred wherever the tabernacle was located (2 Sam 7:6). Before the choice of Zion during the Davidic monarchy, worship also took place at various high places, as long as it was not worship associated with other deities (1 Kgs 9:16–24).
Eventually, this changed too after God chose Jerusalem as his preferred place of worship (Pss 78:68; 132:13).
And now in the New Covenant, we find the early church gathering together for corporate worship. They would study, hear teaching, fellowship, observe the Lord’s supper, sing, and pray. Their public worship, as well as their private worship encompassed the entirety of their life - and it boiled down, in its simplest form, as obedience to God.
As we studied last year in Romans, we came to chapter 12 and learned
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Every act of obedience to Christ, no matter how mundane, when done to his glory, is an act of worship (e.g., Col 3:17).
17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Every act of obedience done for His glory is an act of worship.
And we know, our worship will find its consummation when people from every tribe, tongue, and nation join with the rest of creation in adoration before the throne of the Lamb as described in (Rev 5:11–14).
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
12 saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
But as we wait for what we know is coming, we do now what we will do then. We live lives of worship. Lives of reverential response to the all-encompassing magnificence of God!
Biblically, the forms of worship are diverse. Worship can take place in the context of confession, lament, praise, thanksgiving, and adoration.
Confession is a form of worship recognizing that people are sinners who stand in need of God’s grace (Psa 51:1–19).
Lament is a type of worship that recognizes the distance between the world as experienced, and as it should be, given God’s goodness, power, and love (Psa 44:1–26). It is a request for God to complete his project of making all things new.
Praise of God can be in response to his character or his saving acts (Exod 15:1–21).
Thanksgiving functions as a means of showing gratitude for what God has done (Psa 138:1–8).
Adoration involves contemplating and praising God for who he is (Psa 8:1–4).
And here is the key of worship it takes thought and response.
So whether it is confession, lament, praise, thanksgiving, or adoration - whether it is all alone or with a host of other people, true worship is grounded in our thoughts of God then our response to who we know Him to be.
So in your singing and silence, your dancing and your stillness, in your workplace and your hobby spot, in your busyness and your rest, in your struggle to do right and in your bold obedience - may we be a thinking people who respond reverently to the all-encompassing magnificence of God!
Look with me if you would at Psalm 8
1 O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?
v. 1 - The opening words set the theme of the psalm, which v. 9 then repeats. The majesty of God’s name (his revealed character) is seen in the dignity he gives to mankind. And although not all of humanity will acknowledge his Majesty, the truth remains that he is majestic.
The Lord is named excellent and He and His glory fill all the earth.
We find here that God is transcendent - meaning that God is distinguished from His creation.
Friend, he is not the big man upstairs. He is not your genie you bring out when you’re in crisis. He is above us..
But at the same time, He and His glory are here “on the earth”. So the truth of scripture is that He is transcendent - He is above, but he is also immanent - which means He has chosen to be among us.
So although He is not the big man upstairs, he is however our father.
He is transcendent yet immanent - he is above yet chooses to be close. He is that kind of God. The one who has the power to make all things, and choose to dwell among us.
v. 2 - this same God who is all powerful - shown through His transcendence and imminence, proves himself even through the simplest of things. like
2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
Worship is grounded in what I know to be true about God.
He created me. He redeemed me. He alone deserves my total affection and adoration.