TRUE WORSHIP THROUGH THE BLOOD OF JESUS

Sunday 6 January 2013.

Hebrew 10: 19-25 

"Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,

 by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful;

and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Colossians 2:6-18 

"As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him,

 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

 See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

 For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily,

 and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ;

 and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

 And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

 having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

 He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.

 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath.

 These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,"

John 4:23-24

"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.

 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

Jesus introduced true worship through His blood with simple practices that are based on a personal Father-children relationship with God. All other worship forms, including the Jewish worship system introduced by God through the law given through Moses, have then become outmoded and false worship.

In the beginning, mankind had peace when there was a personal relationship between the Creator and the cream of creation: Fellowship, Obedience to God’s Word regulated their relationship, and man enjoyed the full provision of God.

Man lost his peace as a result of the loss of personal relationship with God through 

i. Non-Observance of the Word

ii. Breaking of Fellowship

Man found out He was incomplete without God: He could not deal with natural and supernatural forces that were part of creation, and embarked on several forms of worship:

Every person on earth is engaged in one form of worship or the other. IS what you are engaged in the true worship?

Self worship – this considered man’s mental and physical powers as ultimate. Its rituals are self-discipline, fasting, long study, body building and dressing, and those who excel are worshiped  instead of God. And those who do not excel are despised!

Nature Worship – Idolatry is focusing attention on elements of the creation and working hard to please them, in exchange for their supplying what we are too limited to provide for ourselves. The rituals consist in a range of sacrifices, self-afflictions and observance of times when their powers peak, and places where they are most potent. 

Spirit Worship – is based on visions seen and supernatural phenomena apprehended. The spirits involved claim statuses and authority in the Divine Order system that gives them certain rights over their adherents. These spirits may be invoked through certain incantations and sacrifices. They also intervene in the lives of their worshipers through dreams, visions, which they must sometimes seek interpretation for.

Some combined all the three forms of false worship to various degrees but the personal relationship with God was still missing as the false worship focused on abilities and interventions that replaced faith in the Creator.

Through the law God rationalised mankind’s worship approaches and focused them on Himself:

1. He gave them fasting, abstentions, circumcisions and other personal disciplines mainly on health grounds, and as symbols of the repentance required in approaching God.

2. Idols were no-no, and ritualistic sacrifices were to be as prescribed and directed only to God.

3. God was the only spirit they were to seek, when they needed immediate interventions. And they could do this through His appointed mediums: priests and prophets who were custodians of His rituals.

The whole scheme of OT worship under the law was the use of a contrivance of what men had already fallen into as a means of pointing them to the true salvation of God with its true worship.

If Jesus had died before the law, would men have recognised their need for His atonement? Not quite! After they had tried and experienced the futility and often deceptions that characterised false worship, men would now cast their burdens at the feet of Him who had paid their debt and paved a way unto God for a personal relationship, ostensibly richer than that which pertained before.

Jesus’ death paid for man’s guilt, and put man in a position of personal relationship with God, where:

1. Neither Man nor anything in creation is the object of worship

2. No medium is needed to reach God: no angel, not pastor, not fetish priest, not prophet, not diviner, not saint!

3. No continuous sacrifice is needed anytime divine intervention is required

4. No special days, seasons or places are required to avail one’s self of Divine potency

True Worship, then, is availing yourself of this personal relationship through: 

i. Personal asking, thanking, waiting on and worshipping God – PRAYER Col 4:2

ii. Studying the Scriptures in order to understand the Lord well – WORD Col 3:16

iii. Acting on the Word of God, knowing that He is faithful – FAITH Col 3:17

iv. Living with other children of God in a true family way – FELLOWSHIP Col 3:13