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Introduction to the series: important questions
- Worshippers enjoy healthier, more dynamic lives than non-worshippers. Why is that?
- What (if anything) does the Old Testament have to offer Christians?
- What disqualifies worship?
- How does true worship fortify lame spiritual lives?
- How does New Testament worship differ from the Old Testament variety?
- How has the church approached worship through the ages (and will it every learn from its own history)?
- Have our (mis)conceptions about heavenly worship demotivated us?
The essence of worship
- Reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power; an act of expressing such reverence
- A form of religious practice with its creed and ritual
- Extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem
- “It is a delusion to think that because we suddenly feel expansive and poetic in the presence of the storm or stars or space that we are spiritual. I need only remind you that drunkards or tyrants or criminals can have those ‘sublime’ feelings, too. Let’s not image that they constitute worship.” – A. W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship? 124
Worship in ancient (pagan) world
- Energetic
- Weather deities
- Noise, instruments
- Immoral: ritual prostitution
- Sacrifice: infants
- Mutual manipulation
- Stark contrast to ethical monotheism (readings from Isaiah 1)
7 Sanctuaries
- Eden as primal Temple (Genesis)
- Tabernacle (Exodus)
- Temple (1 Kings)
- [In exile: Babylon / Egypt / Samaria]
- 2nd Temple / Herod's Temple
- Christ’s body (John 2, 1)
- The Church (1 Cor 3)
- New Jerusalem (Rev 21)
Next podcast in this series: Seven grand passages on worship
