Review: Worship is “in spirit and in truth.” God is to be worshiped in harmony with His own divine glory. John 4:23, 24. As God is a spiritual being of infinite perfection, in power and majesty, in righteousness and holiness, and in grace and mercy, so also are we to worship Him. Worship involves spiritual consecration of heart. Worship is to be “in truth,” that is, in harmony with God’s revelation of Himself and in harmony with His will for our worship.

Introduction: Biblical principles of worship.

The answer to the question of what is appropriate in public worship must be put in the context of Christian liberty as it touches the subject of worship.The Scriptural form and content of worship is to be explained in the light of this reality within the boundaries of God's Word. The internal principle of that worship and its public expression must also be explained

Lecture #2 Biblical and Reverent Worship

(5) Christian liberty and worship

The Christian church has a liberty in Christ which the people of God in the Old Testament did not possess.

• The church in the Old Testament was a child under the tutors and governors of the ceremonial law in which God told them how to worship Him in complete detail (Gal. 4:1, 2), extending to the design of the tabernacle and temple, the functions, vestments and labors of the priests, the sacrifices and feasts, and even the compounding of the incense offered on the altar of incense as the prayers of the people
  • The reason for this detail (often misunderstood) was not mere legislation. The elements were pictures of the gospel, speaking of heavenly and spiritual things, Hebrews 9:23. The sacrifices were pictures of the coming atonement of Christ on the cross. All the elements were shadows of the gospel, and in that shadow was found the true spiritual worship of God in Christ, Hebrews 10:1.
  • In their spiritual reality the ceremonies were the same worship of God which we have, but expressed in outward and visible forms as a picture book for a child who did not yet know how to serve God, and therefore differed nothing from a servant, Galatians 4:1.
  • The ceremonies were a representation of the gospel by promise, while we stand in the fulfillment of those promises. In the New Testament, the child, who is the same church (individual in Paul’s figure) has become an adult, Galatians 4:7.
• In harmony with this reality, the worship of the Old Testament church had also outward, visible expressions of inward spiritual attitudes.
• • Visible expressions of reverence in prayer such as taking off shoes in the presence of God’s holiness or bowing, bending, lifting up of hands, falling upon one’s face in prayer.
  • Visible expressions of joy and gladness such as leaping and jumping, David’s dancing for joy before the ark,clanging of cymbals and sounds of instruments as acts of worship in themselves by the Levites in the temple.
• These external forms as acts of worship have passed away in the New Testament, but the spiritual substance and content of worship remain in the Christian church. We are called by Christ, not to a different worship, but to the spiritual reality of true worship which is “in spirit and in truth,” John 4;23, 24. This is the difference between Old and New Testament worship, not a difference in essence, but a difference of form, rooted in spiritual maturity. New Testament worship is rooted in the same spiritual principles of godly, reverent worship in the Spirit, through not in external forms. The principle is a higher, not lesser one, a principle of true spirituality and reverence in worship, II Cor. 3:6-11; Hebrews 12:18-24. It is a principle accompanied by a more serious responsibility, Hebrews 12:25-29
  • The misuse of the Scriptures in this matter confronts us today. Keep in mind that New Testament worship is first and foremost, the worship of God, not the pleasing of men. Worship is corrputed by introducing Old Testament forms, as in Roman Catholic worship, in a pageantry intended to please the ear and eye It is corrupted by using Old Testament exhortations to the Levites in the temple (Psalm 150:5) as an excuse for pleasing the flesh and justifying human entertainment. The scriptures are misused by ignoring the spiritual point of Old Testament figures.
  • One example of this may be useful at this point. Lifting up holy hands, I Timothy 2:8, points to the holiness of the hands, not the gesture itself.The scriptures are not advocating mindless arm waving to draw attention to men. From the rest of the verse, it is plain that Paul’s (the Holy Spirit’s) intention is to talk about the spiritual disposition of the worshiper, “without wrath and doubting.” The New Testament is not interested in external forms of prayer posture. Using texts such as this to justify or dictate a prayer gesture is an abuse of Scripture. The reference has nothing to do with the modern practice of arm-waving which is more concerned with individualistic self-expression and the creation of certain feelings in worship. I Timothy 2:8 speaks only of men, limiting the lifting of holy hands to them, in public worship. The gesture itself, as Paul speaks of it in its context, is one of supplication, palms upward, arms extended. The “arms raised over the head, palms downward” gesture, insofar as can be determined, is only used in formal benedictions by officebearers pronouncing God’s blessing in His Name upon the people. This is seen in Jesus’ final pronouncement at His ascension, Luke 24:50; cf. Exodus 17:11. This gesture has nothing to do with the modern practice of arm-waving.
  • Also underlying the matter of worship is the scriptural relationship between Old and New Testaments, and between Israel and the church, which we will not pursue in greater detail at this point, except to note the the New Testament church is the Israel of God with Gentiles added, Eph. 2:19 and its worship, as we have seen, is the true but spiritual worship of the temple of God, Eph. 2:20-22.
• The New Testament Christian therefore is free from "weak and begggarly elements," Gal. 4:9. He is "dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world," and from types, shadows, and ceremonial ordinances, Col. 2:20-23. He has Christ. To reintroduce Old Testament forms and ceremonies is., in fact, a denial of the fulfilment of them in Christ and of the finished work of the cross.