Theology of Worship

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Theology of Worship

• Class 8
• Worship and the New Covenant

2
Assignments

• Christology of Worship Due Friday
• Research paper/assignment Due Friday, March 27th
  
• Instructions next class

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Three Questions (opening of Peterson, ch. 3)

• How did the writers of the New Testament use and
  adapt Old Testament worship themes?
• In particular, what happened to Jewish hopes for
  the renewal of worship in a restored temple?
• How does the New Testament employ the key worship
  themes reviewed in chapter two?

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Worship themes from the O.T.

• The covenant
• The Law/ commandments
• The tabernacle/ the temple
• Symbol and reminder of Gods rule
• Gods earthly dwelling place
• Symbol of prophetic hope for Israels future
  restoration
• Sacrifices/ priesthood
• Forgiveness for sins
• Cleansing
• Sacred festivals

5
Development of O.T. themes

• Ch. 3 The temple (Gospels)
• Ch. 4 The covenant (Gospels)
• Ch. 5 The worshiping community (Acts)
• Ch. 6 Acceptable worship (epistles)
• Ch. 7 The people of God (epistles)
• Ch. 8 Priesthood sacrifice (Hebrews)
• Ch. 9 The eschatological view of worship (book
  of Revelation)

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Worship and the Temple

• Chapter 3

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Chapter 3 Jesus and the new temple

• The Gospels reveal that everything the temple
  stood for in the O.T. was summed up and fulfilled
  in Jesus.
• What did the temple stand for under the old
  covenant?

8
In the O.T., the temple stood for

• The temple stood for revelation and
  purification it was both the meeting place of
  heaven and earth and the place of sacrifice and
  purification from sin. Thus it found fulfillment
  in the incarnation of Christ . . . . The
  temple of the new age in Johns gospel is not the
  church but the crucified and resurrected Son of
  God (p. 97).

9
In the O.T., the temple stood for

• Revelation Jesus was the one who revealed the
  Father
• When a man believes in me, he does not believe
  in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he
  looks at me, he sees the one who sent me (John
  1244-45)
• Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father
  (John 149)

10
In the O.T., the temple stood for

• Purification sacrifice Jesus was the ultimate,
  final sacrifice
• He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not
  for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
  world (I John 22)
• But now Christ has appeared once for all . . .
  to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself
  (Heb. 926)

11
In the O.T., the temple stood for

• A meeting place of heaven and earth
• There I will meet with you and speak with you . .
  . . Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be
  their God (Ex. 2942-44)
• Emmanuel God with us (Matt. 123)

12
The Messianic Temple

• In the last days, the mountain of the LORDs
  temple will be established as chief among the
  mountains it will be raised above the hills, and
  all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will
  come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain
  of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He
  will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in
  his paths. . . . He will judge between the
  nations and will settle disputes for many people.
  . . . Nation will not take up sword against
  nation, nor will they train for war any more
  (Isa. 22-4).

13
Jesus teaching about the temple

• John 213-22 Jesus claims to be greater than the
  temple
• Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again
  in three days (vs. 19)
• Matthew 211-17
• My house will be called a house of prayer for
  all nations (vs. 13, Isa. 566-7)

14
Summary of N.T. teaching about the Temple

• Gods temple should be a place of access and
  worship for all people, not just the Jews.
• Jesus fulfilled O.T. prophecy about Gods
  purifying of the temple
• Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come
  to his temple the messenger of the covenant,
  whom you desire, will come, says the LORD
  Almighty (Mal. 31).

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Summary of N.T. teaching about the Temple

• Jesus is greater than the temple.
• Jesus is the temple.

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John 41-26 Jesus teaches about worship

• This passage gives foundational teaching about
• Evangelism
• About the temple
• About true worship

17
John 4 Jesus teaching about evangelism

• Jesus seeks out a Samaritan adulteress and talks
  to her about worship. She believes in him and
  brings the whole village to see Jesus.
• Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are
  ripe for harvest (vs. 35)
• Evangelism happens wherever God is at work.
  People are hungry and thirsty for the water of
  life and the bread of life. That hunger expresses
  the deep desire that all people have buried in
  their hearts for God.

18
John 4 Jesus teaching about the temple

• Her question (vs. 20) Where is the right place
  to worship?
• Her question reflected inadequate knowledge of
  God (vss. 21-22)
• Her question was the wrong question
• Worship is not about the location neither on
  this mountain nor in Jerusalem
• Worship is about a new way of relating to God
  (vss. 23-24)

19
The worship God seeks

• Yet a time is coming and has not come when
  the true worshipers will worship the Father in
  spirit and truth, for they are the kind of
  worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and
  his worshipers must worship in spirit and in
  truth (vss. 23-24).

20
Worship a matter of the heart

• Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to
  God the radiance of his worth. It is not a mere
  act of willpower by which we perform outward
  acts. Without the engagement of the heart, we do
  not really worship. The engagement of the hear in
  worship is the coming alive of the feelings and
  emotions of the heart. Where feelings for God are
  dead, worship is dead
• -John Piper

21
Worship a matter of the mind

• Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy
  and a church full (or half-full) of artificial
  admirers (like people who write generic
  anniversary cards for a living). On the other
  hand emotion without truth produces empty frenzy
  and cultivates shallow people who refuse the
  discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship
  comes from people who are deeply emotional and
  who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong
  affections for God rooted in truth are the bone
  and marrow of biblical worship.
• -John Piper

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Spirit and truth

• Unless you know how to worship in spirit and
  truth, even God will disappoint you
• Ravi Zacharias

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Questions

• If I know that God seeks for worshipers, how
  should this affect my personal worship? My
  corporate worship?
• How might worship in spirit and truth be
  expressed in my personal worship? In corporate
  worship?

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Worship and the New Covenant

• Chapter 4

25
The Covenant with Israel

• Exodus chapters 19 20 the terms of the
  covenant
• Exodus chapter 24 the ratification of the
  covenant

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Near-eastern covenants

• Political treaties between rulers and weaker
  principalities
• Protection from the lord
• Total allegiance required from the vassal
• Agreement to appear and bring tribute at
  specified times
• Requirement of periodic reading of the words of
  the treaty to the people
• Statements of benefits and blessing for
  faithfulness
• Statements of curses and punishments for
  unfaithfulness
• Incorporated a sign to remind of treaty
  obligationsoften a blood sacrifice
• Often involved a meal shared between the partners

27
Renewal of the covenant

• Joshua Josh. 241-28 (second generation)
• David I Chron. 15 (bringing the ark to
  Jerusalem)
• Josiah 2 Chron. chs. 34 35 (revival)
• Hezekiah 2 Chron. chs. 29-31 (revival)
• Ezra Ezra 9 10
• Nehemiah Neh. chs. 12 13

28
Replacement of the covenant

• The time is coming, declares the LORD, when
  I will make a new covenant with the house of
  Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not
  be like the covenant I made with their
  forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead
  them out of Egypt, because they broke my
  covenant, though I was a husband to them,
  declares the LORD. (Jer. 31 31-32)

29
Replacement of the covenant

• This is the covenant I will make with the
  house of Israel after that time, declares the
  LORD, I will write my law in their minds and
  write it on their hearts. I will be their God,
  and they will be my people . . . They will all
  know me from the least of them to the greatest
  (Jer. 31 33-34)

30
The new covenant

• Not with a nation of rebels, but with a faithful
  remnant (Leonard)
• Not with Israel
• Not with the church
• With his faithful Servant (Isa. 421-3, 6-7
  Matt. 1218-21)

31
The new covenant

• Gods covenant with Israel requires an obedience
  they can never give, an obedience that on Jesus,
  Gods servant can fulfill (Leonard).

32
Jesus worship

• Complete loyalty to his Father (Matt. 48-10)
• Deut. 613 Worship the LORD your God, and serve
  him only
• Jesus offers the perfect pattern or model of
  acceptable worship in his obedient lifestyle. Yet
  Jesus life is more than an example of
  sacrificial service. His obedience proves to be
  the means by which the messianic salvation is
  achieved (Peterson, p. 110).

33
Jesus obedience to his Fathers will

• Obedience to the requirements of the O.T. law
• His communion with his Father
• Laying down his life for his sheepa command
  from his Father (John 1017-18)
• Obedience to the point of death (Mt. 2636-46
  Mk. 1432-42 Lk. 2239-46)

34
Jesus and the synagogue

• Undoubtedly there are ways in which synagogue
  ideas and practices influenced the patter of
  early Christian gatherings. Nevertheless, it is
  clear from Jesus own preaching that he sought to
  establish a new centre for Israel, in himself and
  the salvation he proclaimed . . ., rather than in
  the synagogue, the temple, the law or the
  inherited customs of his people (Peterson,
  112-13).

35
Jesus and the Law of Moses

• Jesus takes the sacrificial system and the
  associated cult as given (Mt. 523-24).
• His teaching is generally more concerned with the
  ethical rather than the cultic.

36
Cleanness and uncleanness

• O.T. requirements for ritual washing were for the
  priests. The Pharisees, however, had extended
  priestly regulations to the layity in an attempt
  to sanctify the ordinary acts of life.
• Jesus teaching True purity before God cannot
  be obtained by scrupulous observance of cultic
  laws because rituals are unable to deal with the
  defilement that comes from within, from a
  rebellious and corrupt heart (Peterson, 114).

37
Cleanness and uncleanness

• Jesus teaching revealed the need for a change
  of heart towards Godin effect, the writing of
  Gods laws on their heartsand a new means of
  cleansing from the defilement caused by sin. In
  short, Jesus teaching point to the need for the
  promises of the new covenant in Jer. 3131-34 to
  be fulfilled (Peterson, 115).

38
The Sabbath

• The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath (Matt.
  98)
• At his trial, Jesus was counted worthy of death,
  less because he was a sabbath-breaker in the eyes
  of his contemporaries by more because of his
  claims about himself.

39
Jesus death

• Matt. 121 He will save his people from their
  sins.
• John 129 the Lamb of God, who takes away the
  sin of the world
• Mark 1045 the Son of man did not come to be
  served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
  ransom for many.

40
Jesus death

• John 1011, 17,18 I am the good shepherd. The
  good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. .
  . . The reason my father loves me is that I lay
  down my lifeonly to take it up again. No one
  takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own
  accord. I have authority to lay it down and
  authority to take it up. This command I received
  from my Father.
• Lk. 922 The Son of Man must suffer many things
  and be rejected . . . and he must be killed and
  on the third day be raise to life.

41
Jesus death

• Luke 2237 It is written And he was numbered
  with the transgressors and I tell you that this
  must be fulfilled in me (Jesus identifies
  himself with the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53).

42
The Last Supper

• Isa. 5312 The suffering Servant poured out
  his life unto death, and was numbered with the
  transgressors.
• Matt. 2628This is my blood, which is poured
  out for the forgiveness of sins.
• Mk. 1424 This is my blood of the covenant
• Lk. 2220 This cup is the new covenant in my
  blood, which is poured out for you.

43
The Last Supper

• Jesus death not only served to replace the
  temple and its sacrificial system in the plan and
  purpose of God (John 219-22) but also to
  re-establish the underlying covenant with Israel
  on a new basis (Peterson, 123).