THE PATTERN FOR WORSHIP

 Remember that we are searching for the church that we read about in the Bible, the church that Jesus built, the one that will help us get to heaven. So we are looking for a place where the people worship as described in the scripture.

Worship is defined by the New College Edition Of The American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language as, “The reverent love and allegiance accorded a deity, idol, or sacred object.” We know that idol worship or worship of an object is sinful. Our worship of deity is our concern.

God has always demanded obedience. In Genesis 2:16-17, God told Adam and Eve that they were not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They ate, and God punished them.

In Genesis 4, we see that both Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God, but only Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable. God was not pleased with Cain because he made offerings that were not acceptable.

In Exodus 25:8-9, God asked the people to make Him a sanctuary, and they followed the pattern He gave them. Later, in Exodus 40, God was pleased with their work. Because He was pleased, He filled the tabernacle with His glory. The writer of Hebrews refers to this event in Hebrews 8:5.

God has given Christians a different pattern to follow. Paul tells us in Colossians 2:14 that the Old Law was nailed to the cross. We no longer offer sacrifices or live under the Ten Commandments. We live under a new law.

Acts 2 is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and the teachings of Jesus. It is the beginning of the church Jesus referred to in Matthew 14 when He told Peter that He would build His church. He didn’t mean a physical building like the tabernacles or the temple. The church was to be spiritual, comprised of Christians.

Jesus warned about the way some people want to worship Him. He said in Matthew 15:8-9 (KJV), “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” This is proof to us that some men teach what they want, not what God wants.

Paul warned the Galatians in chapter 1 verses 6-9 that there would be some that would pervert the gospel. He even told them that if an angel taught anything other than what he and the other apostles taught, they would be cursed.

John talks about, “Abiding in the doctrine”, in II John 9. There were many false teachers during John’s life, and he warned the people in first, second and third John about those that would teach false doctrines.

There are many commands in the New Testament. God’s commandments fall into two categories, generic and specific.

Generic commands are general commands like, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” Matthew 28:19-20. This is a general command because Jesus doesn’t say how to go. We can walk, drive, fly, take a boat, ride a bike, or use whatever means we want.

Specific commands are things like the Ten Commandments, God’s specific commands to Noah about building the ark, the command in Acts 2:38 to, “Repent and be baptized”. Those commands tell us exactly what we are to do. There is no choice about any of these.

Now that we understand that God has a pattern for our worship, we can begin to study the various aspects of our worship. Next we will look at what God says about our giving.

Sandra Oliver