The New Testament is chock full of warnings against going back to the shadows, to maintaining all those elements of worship that Jesus fulfilled. Yea and amen says me. It is a mistake, however, to utterly separate Old Testament temple worship from our worship in our new covenant context.
We must, of course, jettison anything that would suggest that the once for all sacrifice of Jesus is somehow incomplete. Animal sacrifices, an important part of temple worship, are no more. Even when our sacraments have a connection to Old Covenant sacraments, like the Day of Atonement and the Lord’s Supper, circumcision and baptism, our sacraments are to be bloodless.
But there was more to temple worship than sacrifices, and more to sacrifices than blood. First of all, prayer was a central part of temple worship. Jesus Himself, when tossing the moneychangers out of the temple, explained that the temple is to be a house of prayer. Prayer is increasingly being pushed aside in the contemporary church to make room for more entertainment. Jesus might not drive the moneychangers out in our day but He might drive out the “coffee brewers.”
Second, temple worship was musical. David, with respect to the tabernacle, and Solomon with respect to the temple, brought the beauty of music praising the living God into the worship of God’s people. We are called to sing. Along with our prayers ascending as a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord, so our songs of praise ascend to His throne, which is itself the praises of His people (see Psalm 22:3).
Finally, temple worship was sacrificial, and so ought the worship of the church be. Of course Jesus died once for all. Of course “it is finished.” Such was the case in the New Testament, yet we are repeatedly called to offer up ourselves, our praises as sacrifices before God. We go to present ourselves not to atone for ourselves, but in response to our having been atoned for.
Sacrifices, however, while certainly very much about substitution, are not only about substitution. In temple worship the death of the sacrifice was not the end. The burning of the sacrifice was not the end. The end was the feasting, the meal shared among the priest, the family offering the sacrifice and the Heavenly Father that welcomes them into His blessed presence.
Temple worship was not merely the downloading of information from the priest into the minds of the congregation. It was even more entering into the presence of the living God. We do not merely pray and sing our praises about God, but bring them to God.
Worship is the fulfillment of His will being done on earth as it is in heaven, the undoing of the division rent between us and our Father in the fall. He calls us. Because of Jesus He welcomes us. We draw near. And He feeds us. May He open our eyes to see all that He has given us in worship, to see Him.
This is the eighteenth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday November 3 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.