The New Testament Concept of Worship - Essay Example

College: Table of contents page Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………3 OldTestament worship……………………………………………………………………..4 The New Testament concept of worship…………………………………………………....5 Simplicity of worship……………………………………………………………………….5 Mediation through Jesus Christ……………………………………………………………..6 Modern day inference to both testaments………………………………………………….7 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………9 References……………………………………………………………………………………10 Worship is the substance of a human being that drives him to seek the Ultimate. Christian worship is rooted generations before the modern day. It is sustained by godliness and a substance of existence that is reflected in reality and not just religion. Worship is beneficial to every aspect of the Christian realm. It is referred to both historical and mathematical evidence and gives essence to the very existence of man. Both the Old Testament and New Testaments revolve around the realities by beckoning all humanity to God’s presence. A great deal of contemporary Christians associate the word ‘worship’ with any routine religious activities like Sunday services without paying attention to discovering its meaning, development over the centuries and purpose. The Old Testament and New Testament explanations provided by Chapter one portray an inherent process down the generations from patriarchs to the prophets and to the early church. Worship in the Old Testament incorporated effervescence and diversity. It took into account the use of various instruments while praise involved graceful dance. Worship from the word ‘halal’ depicts a spiritual joy to jubilate with both gratefulness and reverence. ‘Hallelujah’ is ‘hala’ and ‘jah’ the name Yahweh that attributes joy and jubilation to Yahweh. It implies spontaneous and a will-driven act of regarding God. Worship is defined by giving worth to something. In Christianity, it is giving worth to the Almighty God above all else. It involves acknowledging His power and letting it be seen in one’s life. Worship is personal then communal.1 Davidic kind of worship involves psalms of reverence, praise and petition to God. It reveals a form of openness and brokenness with God that the Lord puts in His people. Worship is practical. It is giving worth to God Almighty in the spiritual realm that translates to the physical emotional and psychological aspects of humanity. It involves the use of more than words but music. It is inviting to other people to worship the Lord with stringed instruments, psalm 33:2 “praise the LORD with the harp, make music to Him on the ten-stringed lyre” clapping and shout. ” Psalm 27:6 …at His tabernacle I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.” Unlike the modern concept of physical tribute to gain spiritual sense, worship uses the spiritual dimension to gain other aspects, giving it the meaning of sustenance and dependence on God.2 The Old Testament biblical worship engaged a people’s own language. The name of God for example, YHWH and His various titles that He obtained among them have an authenticity and originality based on language. The names were obtained from experienced of the people with YHWH during the exodus and in the new land that He gave them. It was a formation that became their very culture. The patriarchs involved God in their day to day lives honoring Him with sacrifices of their animals’ blood. They constantly bowed before Him in reverence. They, unlike other cultures around them gave their entire selves to one God. In such devotion, they served only one God who they believed with their body minds and soul. Abraham for example, constantly conversed with God. He depended on Him for everything. The prophets as well dedicated their entire lives to service retaining that God does not change. They turned people back to the LORD when they deviated. They aided the society with healing and directions to worship. They portrayed the God of Israel as a good and loving God who cared for their welfare.3 The prophets in their dedication to God made it practical. Elijah for example prayed to God to raise the dead and provided for widows and the poor4. He went further to challenge prophets of Baal. Worship of Baal contrasted the ways of YHWH when such gods were just but pieces of block. Worship depended in that day on practicality and faith and not vision. However, each 5time people had faith, it came to pass that their desires were fulfilled. When they believed in the words of a prophet and those of God, He showed Himself in marvelous ways. The basis of worship is therefore, hope for things unseen, to come. Persistence of hope is an aspect of both the Old and New Testaments. It is therefore an aspect of believing then seeing. In the Old Testament, prophets assured the people, they believed and God came through for them. He promised freedom to the Hebrew people, land for them to settle and peace that came to pass. He promised David a throne and victory during battles which came to be every time. He promised the Messiah, who came to rescue people from their bondage to both sin and unknowingness. The patriarchs further bequeathed their lifestyle to the generations after them. They taught it to their children who taught it to their children after them. This way the originality of worship can be applied in life to benefit a person spiritually. Devotion is therefore an everyday dependence on God that trusts Him completely for protection and a warm embrace of love, provision and openness. Abraham often taught to Isaac about the LORD. These people were submissive to God; they would avoid anything that was potentially harmful to their relationship with Him. Sons were advised against marrying amidst gentile women since their culture did not resonate with the doctrines of YHWH, ‘lest you learn their ways and do them and be drawn from your God.’ While worship in the Old Testament incorporated a covenant with a group of people, the New Testament revolves around personal relationships with God through the Son of God. The New Testament is an assimilation of both traditional methods and the new ways put together in one yet directed to the same God. The gospels paint worship as dedication to godliness. It insists on the previous values of loving the LORD God with all our hearts, souls, mind and strength. It is therefore an extension of the Old Testament that God communicates through Jesus and the early Christians. It includes the same doctrine of the prophets now interpreted and explained conclusively. The New Testament especially wages against religism imposed by the teachers of Law and that keeps the hearts of men from worshipping God in Spirit and Truth. The Pharisees had lost the spiritual essence of godliness and mercy. They insisted on worshipping God with sacrifices and abiding to the law which they did not comprehend. The New Testament emphasizes simplicity of worship and its sincerity. Jesus illustrated with the woman who offered a single coin at the temple that spiritual wealth is measured by the content of the heart and its sincerity than the material quantity of a physical offering. He goes further to give worth to the kingdom of God and its spiritual aspect by telling the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the pure in heart and those that are persecuted for the sake of God’s name. Paul expounds further ‘…is anyone happy, let them sing a psalm’ this portrays the goodness of God than His harshness to provide us with emotional capacity to worship Him6. The New Testament or covenant has implications further that worship and tribute to God, petition and supplication through Jesus Christ the Great High Priest are essential. This provides a medium to the Father and the Godhead for followers of Christ as our Advocate. Communal worship further melts into fellowship in the overshadowing covenant. Implications are that the Savior predicted by the prophet shall come to bring His people back to God and gather the flock back home. Worship in this case emphasizes man’s dire need for God since He is rebellious and ever falling back over the generations except for Jesus. It depicts man’s need for salvation from himself since he cannot find direction without light and he is like a blind man. Jesus declares‘ I am the light of the world” that the world requires consistently. The world’s Savior does not leave us alone but sends a Helper, another Helper like Himself who is part of the Godhead to see us through life while providing us with direction. Jesus is the Good Shepherd we need to commune with and the Father in order to achieve satisfaction and care we need. Christians believe in the weakness of man as the reason he cannot be alone without consolation.7 Worship is also a portrayal of the agape love of God to man that we experience through Jesus. It is reflected expressly at the cross where He gave His life for all that desire the kingdom of God. Modern worship should therefore revolve around salvation and sustenance by the blood of Jesus. He is the centerpiece of Christianity and the Son of the Living God. Christian worship therefore, guided by the Holy Spirit who Jesus promised…I shall pray My Father and He will send you another Helper. The Holy Spirit brings Christians together in fellowship since He knows all the sheep in the flock redeemed by Jesus…I know My sheep and My sheep know Me, they know My voice and hear it and obey. Further Jesus said to His disciples …the world does not know the Holy Spirit, but you know Him because He lives in you. The Holy Spirit gives power to the disciples and Christians to declare God’s word and worship Him. Worship orbits around the grace of Jesus Christ which is undeserved love and favor by which we are saved and allowed to the presence of God. In the Old Testament, contact with God was limited to priests and prophets.8 In the New Testament, contact with God is provided by grace to anyone who seeks God with His heart by faith. Grace allows both worthy and unworthy, Jews and gentiles to enter the presence of God for the sake of Jesus the Savior and mercy. While yet none is worthy but they are made worthy by the sacrifice of Jesus. The concept of the New Testament is also told in the setting of the bride and groom. The bride is the church and the fellowship of believers that are the body of Jesus as the Groom. It expounds on worship as a daily thing involving no sacrifice of animals or material but the bodies of the brides to be kept in purity for the wedding day. Worship in this context implies that the Holy Spirit who with Jesus offers to God must live in the person as a temple. But your bodies are the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’ infers that the Holy Spirit offers His sacrifice in that temple. Moreover, it is a living sacrifice since God Himself is living and requires the worth of human life to treasure. Worship in the Christian concept also requires that a person confesses Jesus as the Savior and Son of God. The Holy Spirit empowers Christians through each day. He provides them with useful values for each day in fruits of the Holy Spirit that include love, joy, peace, patience , kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control. He teaches us to pray and commune with God since we ourselves lack words to day before God. He provides all means of survival in the presence of God by giving eloquence and tongues of speech. He provides gifts such as knowledge and teaching to aid in knowing God more. He intercedes before God with groans that cannot be uttered to seek favor before God and He presents our needs before God. The Holy Spirit is a crucial part of worship; He comforts Christians through troubles and consoles the bride in her wait for her groom. Essentially He prepares her to present her on the final day before the Groom and the Father. The hope of the final day is consolation for Christians that raises need for worship. Worship retains the union of God and a person giving that person assurance in the thing he does.9 The concept of personal relationship is apparent in both the New and Old Testaments. Both account for a hope of salvation in the Messiah and need for a union with God. The New Testament is a fulfillment of the old covenant and not a replacement for it. 10Old Testament prophets spoke into the future of the same that came to pass with the coming of Jesus, His life, death and resurrection. The New Testament uses fellowship to bring together people to God from the entire world including the Jews that are first in line. God sends these groups of people to invite the world to His kingdom. In the Kingdom of heaven worship is a combination of many 11things but which are aided by God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead. This includes singing, prayer that enhances communication and meditation. Worship is part of the human nature inscribed on his heart by the Maker to guide him to seeking after Him. This is because God loves His creation and wants to spend time with them show love. Modern day worship incorporates these factors during worship. References Frymer-Kensky, Tikva Simone. Christianity in Jewish Terms. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000. Garratt, David, Dale Garratt, Mark Hayes, Hilary Foged, and Rod Wallace. Scripture in Song. Volume Two, Songs of the Kingdom. [Auckland, N.Z.]: Scripture in Song, 1981. Hill, Andrew E. Enter His Courts with Praise: Old Testament Worship for the New Testament Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996. Moule, C. F. D. Worship in the New Testament. Richmond: John Knox Press, 1961. Parrinder, Edward Geoffrey. Worship in the Worlds Religions. New York: Association Press, 1961. Underhill, Evelyn. Worship. New York: Crossroad, 1982. Watts, Isaac, Isaac Watts, John Mycall, and Isaac Watts. The Psalms of David, Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and Applied to the Christian State and Worship. Newburyport [Mass.]: Printed and sold by John Mycall. Sold also by B. Larkin, J. White, D. West, and E. Larkin in Boston, 1790. Watts, Isaac. The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New-Testament, and Applied to the Christian State and Worship. Exeter [N.H.]: Published and sold by C. Norris & Co, 1815. Watts, Isaac, Timothy Green, and Judah Padock Spooner. The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament And Applied to the Christian State and Worship. By I. Watts, D.D. [Six Lines of Scripture Texts]. Norwich [Conn.]: Printed by Green & Spooner, 1773. Wilkinson, Philip. Christianity. New York: DK Pub, 2003. Read More