Don't Come In to God's Presence. Be in God's Presence.

 

Going to "worship service" was the way of the old covenant.

 

In the old covenant, God dwelt in his Holy Temple. To serve him, or to prostrate before ("worship") him, you went to where God was; you went into the temple. See Psalm 100:4:

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, and bless his name.

When you walked through the gate of the temple, you were in the presence of God, so you hit the dirt, face-down, to prostrate before ("worship") him.

 

But things are different in the new covenant. God no longer dwells in a house made by human hands, where we go to prostrate before him, nor does he need any human hands to serve him.

 

Instead of going to bow before him in this temple on this mountain or in that church building on that hill, we bow before him in spirit, because that's where he now dwells, in the temple of our bodies. He left the brick-and-mortar temple, to take up residence in his new temple, made of living stones; he dwells in his people now.

 

We no longer appear before him three times a year, at special worship services, or once a week, at special worship services. That's old testament thinking.

 

In the 300s A.D. the Catholics started building new brick-and-mortar "temples", and reintroduced to the church the old covenant mentality of "coming into the Holy Place to worship God". We inherited that old covenant thinking from the Catholics, and now defend it as if it is new covenant thinking.

 

But in the new covenant, we are now in God's presence continually; we no longer "enter into his courts" to prostrate before him as was done in the old covenant. We should continually be prostrate before him, in spirit, because we are continually before him.

Receive the Holy Breath

 

For consideration:

 

Genesis 2:7 (WEB) Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

 

John 6:63 It is the breath who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are breath, and are life.

 

John 20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Breath!"

 

Acts 2:4 They were all filled with the Holy Breath, and began to speak with other languages, as the Breath gave them the ability to speak.

 

Acts 2:17 ‘It will be in the last days, says God,

that I will pour out my Breath on all flesh.

Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

Your young men will see visions.

Your old men will dream dreams.

 

Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Breath.

The Lord's Supper as an Agape Feast?

 

It is my understanding that we really don't know what the Passover meal practices were in Jesus' day, but that the Jewish writings of a few centuries later described the Seder (Passover meal) as we basically know it today, and said these were ancient practices at that time. But I'm far from an expert, so I could be far off the mark.

 

It is interesting that Luke refers to a cup before Jesus breaks the bread, and then refers to "the cup after supper", as if was a thing then, like unto what we now know about the Four Cups of the Seder meal, one to open the Seder, one just before the main meal, one just after the main meal, and one to close the Seder. But that could just be coincidental wording.

 

Regardless, the meal in 1 Cor 11 *appears* to not be a yearly meal, as was the Passover Seder; it appears to be often enough to help feed the poor of the assembly (v. 22). We know that scripture mentions:

• eating meals daily as being a function of the earliest church (Acts 2:46),
• and a "sub-Jewish" class of widows being neglected in the daily serving of meals (Acts 6:1),
• and certain church shepherds who only fed themselves during "love [agape] feasts, when they feast with you" (Jude 1:12),
• and false teachers who "revel in their deceit while they feast with you" (2 Peter 2:1, 13).

It does not seem a stretch to assume (while remembering it's only an assumption) that the Lord's Supper in Corinth was one of these "agape feasts", which incorporated within a larger meal a segment dedicated to "showing the Lord's death until he come", just as the Passover was a full-blown meal with segments dedicated to certain remembrances (such as the modern-day Seder practice of taking the middle bread from the middle of a three-pocket bread-holder pouch, breaking it in half, wrapping half in a white linen cloth and hiding it for the kids to find, with the finder "redeeming" it for some little prize), which Jesus explained had always pointed to him ("This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me." - 1 Cor 11:24).

 

Like in the 2 Peter and Jude references, some in the church, particularly the [deceitful] shepherds and teachers, were using this meal as a "Feed Me" opportunity, rather than as a "Let's feed Jesus' sheep" opportunity. It wasn't the feast that Paul condemned or canceled; it was the selfishness attached thereto.

Bow and Serve

 

Ex 20:5 ...you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God,

In Hebrew, "bow" and "serve".

Matt 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”

In Greek, this root word for "worship" is "proskuneo" (προσκυνήσεις), which means "to bow submissively before", and the root word for "serve" is "latreia" (λατρεύσεις).

 

This is a common theme throughout the Bible: bow/prostrate, and serve.

 

Bowing/prostrating is just what it says; falling on your knees and planting your face to the ground, like you sometimes see Muslims on TV doing. It's the idea behind "every knee shall bow". It is not singing, or praying (although praying is often done while bowing), or running, or eating, or driving, or any other action verb. It is bowing//prostrating.

Serving is things like sacrificing animals, singing in the choir, playing an instrument in the praise activities, bringing an offering to God, cleaning the threshing floor, distributing food.

 

Neither of these has anything to do with emotion, or warm fuzzies, or loyalty, or fear. (Those are covered by other Hebrew and Greek words, also often [mis]translated as "worship".)

 

In Hezekiah's day (2 Chron 29), this king arranged for a "rededication service", to rededicate the people and the temple to Yahweh's ownership. During this service, the Levitical priesthood served with things like animal sacrifices and playing music, while the people bowed.

28 All the assembly worshiped (bowed), the singers sang (a service), and the trumpeters sounded (a service). All this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

29 When they had finished offering (a service), the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped (bowed submissively). 30 Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises (a service) to Yahweh with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. They sang (a service) praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped (bowed submissively).

In Paul's hypothetical Corinthian assembly, with its hypothetical unbelieving visitor:

1 Cor 14:24 But if all prophesy (a service), and someone unbelieving or unlearned comes in, he is reproved by all, and he is judged by all. 25 And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed. So he will fall down on his face and worship (bow submissively before) God, declaring that God is among you indeed.

"bow" and "serve". Only for God.

 

In Romans 12:1, Paul describes Christians as spiritual Levitical priests, performing services. But rather than serving in a brick-and-mortal temple, he says that our logical service ("latreia") is to present our bodies as living sacrifices, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

 

In John 4:4, when Jesus says that bowing ("proskuneo") is no longer to be based on a physical location, in this church sanctuary on this hill or that one on that hill, he says that true bowers are to bow in their spirit, truthfully. This is also a 24-7 proposition.

 

When we insist on "worshiping" the old way, in a dedicated holy building, on a dedicated holy day, we scoff at Jesus' teaching. It's not about bowing in a dedicated holy building, at a dedicated time, doing dedicated works of service. It's about being a holy building (know you not that you are the temple of God, who dwells in you?), and not just part-time, but full-time, always serving God in everything we do, in word and deed.