Restoring the Priority of Worship
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
What do you do when you return home after being gone for a long period of time? You’re on vacation and have been gone for two weeks, what is the thing that is important to you?
What do you do when you buy a new home? You go to the closing, sign 35k papers and the title agent hands you the keys and says congratulations. What do you do?
The reason for these questions is that what we do first often shows our priorities, doesn’t it? You buy a house, as we did ours, and our first priority was to make the house livable. This meant redoing the bathroom and shower, putting new carpet in the bedrooms, and tearing up the carpet in the living room that was stained and using the hardwood floors.
The same way, when we come home, often the first thing that is done is getting some milk and a few other essentials from the store, and then washing laundry.
Your priority is not the mud room, the laundry room that no one sees when they come over to visit. In fact, we still have a room, which we’ve never painted or done anything with. It’s livable, in fact I use it as an office, Cameron uses it for his college classes. But there are other priorities that have been more urgent.
I’m saying all of that to point out the situation the Jews returning to Jerusalem found themselves in. 70 years have passed. The city has been largely desolate, largely empty, largely run down, and now, the people are returning home for the first time in so many years. And what we see happening is so interesting.
I am contending that we find ourselves much in the same place that the ancient exiles. A place that has been devastated, has been ruined by sin, by lawlessness, and it is up to us, as the church, to rebuild from the ashes that have devastated and ruined our country.
The question for us this morning is this. What is our priority? The priority of the Jewish exiles, as seen in this chapter, is the priority of restoring worship. And I will contend with you that we will never see the work of God, the revival we so desperately need if we do not make worship a priority in our lives. We must restore the priority of worship.
I. The Explanation of the text.
I. The Explanation of the text.
We notice in verses 1 and 2 these words.
When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.
Reading about this chapter seems to indicate that the people of Israel had been in the land of Jerusalem for a few months. They had settled in the devastated towns and began to slowly rebuild these cities that were ruined.
And notice what happens with the leadership of the Jews. Jeshua, Zerubbabel, and the fellow priests and the kinsmen, all joined together to rebuild the altar of God.
Why? Because that was what the Lord required of them.
But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.
And I want you to notice, this was not an easy thing to do.
They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.
Now I was looking into some commentaries as to why they were filled with fear. One pointed out that In order to build the new altar, the people had to destroy the previous one used by the Jews, Samaritans, and foreigners who lived near Jerusalem during the exile (Jer 41:5). The destruction of the altar surely infuriated these groups, which may account for the rift between those who returned from Babylon and those who remained in the land (Ezra 4:1–5).
In 721 B.C., the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. Many of the people of Israel were led off to Assyria as captives, but some remained in the land and intermarried with foreigners planted there by the Assyrians. These half-Jewish, half-Gentile people became known as the Samaritans.
The Samaritans, being a mix of already spiritually corrupt Israelites and pagan foreigners, created a religion for themselves that the Jews considered heresy. This accounts for the exchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4.
But they were upset that the Jews wanted to come back and destroy the false altar, they wanted to restore true worship to God. And so you can imagine the threats and warnings against the Jews.
Can I take a detour and mention that the world does not care that people call themselves religious, that people attend church or mass or synagogue, or the mosque. That it’s ok to give thoughts and prayers, to say God bless you, and on and on. but if you get serious about worshiping the One True God. If you become serious about living what you believe. if you get serious about the whole Bible, all of God’s word. If you say that you will live according to his word, that you believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, if you believe in the sanctity of every human life, this world has problems with you. If you believe a holy God who judges sin and you proclaim that only through faith in Christ can one have a relationship with God, you will threatened and mocked and ridiculed.
The most recent Supreme Court nominee is being attacked for her religious ideology. The group of believers she belongs to have been erroneously linked to the dystopian Handmaid’s Tale book and novel. She is being called an expletive nut job, she is told that the dogma lives loudly in her. She’ crazy for having 7 children and her adoption of two Haitian children are called into question simply because of her race.
there is no doubt that I would have serious issues with her theology. And her judicial philosophy and temperament is something that should be discussed and debated by the Senate. But the truth is, people who are serious about their religion are the biggest threat to our enlightened culture and society. We’re the problem.
Nevertheless, the rebuilding of the altar, the restoration of worship continued despite the fear that was there. Courage is not lack of fear; it is the will to act in spite of fear.
And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord.
In years past, the seventh month had been a great month religiously for Israel. Three religious festivals were held in the seventh month: the Feast of Trumpets on the 1st day (Lev. 23:23–25), the Day of Atonement on the 10th day (Lev. 23:26–32), and the Feast of Tabernacles on days 15–21 (Lev. 23:33–36, 39–43; Num. 29:12–39; cf. Ezra 3:4).
But it was more than just rebuilding the altar, notice what happens in the second part of the chapter.
Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the Lord.
And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel.
And notice what happens
And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,
so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
There is debate as to whether or not the weeping was one of joy, remembering the former temple, or of sorrow, in remembering the greatness of the former temple and how this one did not measure up. Regardless, this was not a dispassionate, half hearted plea or whimper, this was brought from the depths of the hearts of the worshipers.
II. Application of the text.
II. Application of the text.
Now clearly we don’t live in Jerusalem. WE don’t require a temple in order to please God. In fact, we are the temple of God. We’re not required to keep festivals and feasts. In fact, we find the fulfillment of these days in Christ. He is out passover lamb, He is the one who will come at the end of time.
But there are principles that can be seen from this chapter. Let’s talk about those.
A. What is True Worship?
A. What is True Worship?
Worship is a term that we throw around in the church quite a bit. We come to Sunday worship. We have a time of worship. We even say that the fast songs are praise, while the slow songs are worship. I disagree with that, but whatever.
But worship is so much more.
wor•ship \ˈwər-shəp also ˈwȯr-\ noun
[Middle English worshipe worthiness, respect, reverence paid to a divine being, from Old English weorthscipe worthiness, respect, from weorth worthy, worth + -scipe -ship] before 12th century
worship. The act of adoring and praising God, that is, ascribing worth to God as the one who deserves homage and service. The church, which is to be a worshiping community (1 Pet 2:5), expresses its worship corporately and publicly (liturgically) through prayer; through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; through the reading and exposition of Scripture; through observance of the sacraments; and through individual and corporate living in holiness and service.
worship. The adoration and praise of God, ascribing to him the value and worth that is due to him. Worship includes a recognition of one’s own dependence on God and is inspired by God’s greatness as well as God’s goodness as extended to oneself and others. Theologians typically claim that God does not require worship from humans because of any need to be praised on his part but because worship deepens a relation to God on our part and leads to our own fulfillment.
Did you hear those words? Worship is describing worth, admiration, adoration to God, but also includes a recognition of our dependence upon him. Realizing we need Him more than anything else in our lives.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans: An Introduction and Commentary 1. The Living Sacrifice (12:1–2)
Your spiritual worship. NEB, ‘the worship offered by mind and heart.’ The noun is latreia, used already in 9:4 of the ‘worship’ ordained for the Israelites. The adjective is logikos (from logos, ‘word’, ‘reason’), which may mean either ‘reasonable’ (the service of obedient lives is the only reasonable or logical response to the grace of God) or ‘spiritual’ (as in 1 Pet. 2:2, ‘spiritual milk’). Here ‘spiritual worship’ is probably set in contrast with the externalities of Israel’s temple cult.
Romans 1. Among Believers (12:1–21)
Paul said that the offering of one’s body as a living sacrifice is a “spiritual act of worship.” This expression has been variously translated as “spiritual service, reasonable worship, rational service,” and so on. Perhaps the best paraphrase is that of Knox, “This is the worship due from you as rational creatures.”9 In view of God’s acts of mercy it is entirely fitting that we commit ourselves without reservation to him. To teach that accepting the free gift of God’s grace does not necessarily involve a moral obligation on our part is a heresy of gigantic proportions. The popular cliche “He is Lord of all or not Lord at all” is absolutely right.
This is true worship. The offering of our hearts, our souls, our minds and strength to God, recognizing and realizing that He is Lord of our lives. He is God over all. He is the one we depend upon.
The story is told of The citizens of Feldkirch, Austria, didn't know what to do. Napoleon's massive army was preparing to attack. Soldiers had been spotted on the heights above the little town, which was situated on the Austrian border. A council of citizens was hastily summoned to decide whether they should try to defend themselves or display the white flag of surrender. It happened to be Easter Sunday, and the people had gathered in the local church. The pastor rose and said, "Friends, we have been counting on our own strength, and apparently that has failed. As this is the day of our Lord's resurrection, let us just ring the bells, have our services as usual, and leave the matter in His hands. We know only our weakness, and not the power of God to defend us." The council accepted his plan and the church bells rang. The enemy, hearing the sudden peal, concluded that the Austrian army had arrived during the night to defend the town. Before the service ended, the enemy broke camp and left.
The point is, we must give our lives to Him in true worship.
II. Making Worship a Priority in our daily lives.
II. Making Worship a Priority in our daily lives.
My second point is this. Making worship a priority in our lives. And part of that is this shameless plug. Attending church on the Lord’s day, being faithful to come regularly. I know that vacations, sometimes work interferes, but are we able to commit ourselves to the regular worship of God corporately as a body?
But let’s think more than just Sunday morning. What about your every day? What about your life? Do you live your life, day by day, in recognition that you need His grace, you need His presence in your life? Do you understand that everything you have is from God and you must have His mercy in your life each and every day? Is this important and vital to you?
Do you seek His counsel in His Word daily? Do you thank Him for the blessings of each day? Do you seek His guidance and counsel through regular prayer each and every day?
I want to go back to Romans 12 and read it from the Message translation.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Conclusion
Conclusion