WORSHIP/SACRIFICE/PRAYER

WORSHIP/SACRIFICE/PRAYER

1. The first time, the word ‘worship’ comes in the Bible is when Abraham takes Isaac to sacrifice. Isaac asked, ‘We have the fire, the sword but where is the sacrifice?” Even as a young boy, Isaac knew that worship required, sacrifice. (Gen. 22:5-7)

2. All OT Patriarchs, like Noah (7 clean animals), Abraham (4 altars), Isaac (1), Jacob (2), wherever they had an encounter with God, they built altars with locally available unpolished stones and worshipped Him with a sacrifice. Moses asked Pharaoh ten times to let his people go to offer sacrifice to God in the wilderness.

3. On the day of the dedication, God told Solomon that the Jerusalem temple would be “A House of sacrifice (slaughter)”. Solomon worshipped God by offering 22,000 calves and 120,000 sheep, and then he prayed and then God spoke to them. (2 Chron. 5:6; 7:5.12, 14)

4. Twice a day, every day Jews repented by offering a Sin offering (Chatat); and made a total submission by sacrificing a burnt offering (Olah). They then reconciled with God by offering a Peace offering (Shelamim) and then presented a Gift offering (Mincha) as thanks giving to the King of kings.

5. Every Jew knew that worship took place at the altar of sacrifice, “I will meet with you and speak to you at the door of the tabernacle.” All the offerings were blood sacrifices except Mincha (Gift) which was a bloodless offering of grain flour mixed with oil and salt. (Ex. 29:42)

6. Yeshua said, “I am the door, he who enters through me will be saved.” Thousands of animals were sacrificed during the Feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Feast of Tabernacles. All the devotees knew that no one could appear before the Lord, at the gate of the temple, empty handed. (Deut. 16:16.  Exo. 29:42; John 10:9; Psa. 100:4)

7. The High Priest offered a “Special sacrifice” once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur=Covering); first for his own sin and then for ‘all Israel’. He sprinkled the blood on the Mercy Seat but the body was burnt outside the camp. Yeshua was crucified outside the camp and asked us to offer praises of our lips outside our comfort zones. (Hebrew 7:27; 13:11-15)

8. Animal sacrifice was a “shadow” of future reality that Yeshua turned into substance by offering his own body to be crucified outside the city as the final Salvation Sacrifice. However, His full and final sacrifice, offered for our atonement, does not exempt us from glorifying God with the bloodless gift (mincha) offering of a broken and contrite heart as a sacrifice well pleasing to God. (Psalm 51:17; 96:8; Heb. 13:11-15; 1 Peter 2:5)

9. Basic sense of mincha is "to pay tribute, a gift."! A gift brought by a subject to please his king. What could  be more pleasing to God the King, than a gift of saved souls?

10. The only Bible Yeshua had was the Old Testament and He fully believed in it, “The Scripture cannot be broken.” Today Jews gather at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem only to pray, as they know that God cannot be worshipped without offering a sacrifice. (John 10:35)

11. The priest in the OT did not baptize anyone nor did he serve the Lord’s Supper or teach, as Rabbis did that. The priest’s only function was to offer sacrifice at the altar.

12. The OT is the history of Jews. The OT and NT were written by Jews. The early church was Jewish. Yeshua was a Jew and he will return only when the Jews will say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” The Law will go forth from Zion. The Gentile church is a wild branch, grafted and sustained on the root and fat of the Jewish olive tree. We cannot grasp Christian faith without recognizing our Jewish roots. (Rom. 11:17,24)

13. In 325 AD, in the Council of Nicaea, Emperor Constantine forbade everything Jewish. Being a sun worshipper, he replaced Sabbath with Sunday and worship from house churches into church buildings and appointed salaried priests for worship. Since then the Messianic Jewish church withered and the pagan church prospered.

14. Today’s worship “services” is a human invention grounded upon traditions of men; having no warrant in Scripture, such a worship remains repugnant to the Word of God. (Mark 7:8; Col 2:8; Gal. 1:8; Prov. 14:12)

15. Paul put it succinctly, “As a minister of Christ, my priestly service is offering (prosphora=gift, bloodless sacrifice) of sanctified Gentiles to God.” (Romans 15:16)

16. Huge numbers of the sons of Ishmael are yet to come to His altar and glorify the house of His glory. (Isaiah 60:6,7)

17. The shift of the altar (the church) from the Jewish temple to the Gentile home for making disciples of the nations was prophesied by the prophet Malachi, “From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense (prayer) shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering (mincha, a bloodless oblation, sacrifice): for my name shall be great among the heathen, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 1:11)

18. God is now building His temple with living stones like you and me for offering up spiritual sacrifices, where we are the Priests. It is the fire of God (Holy Spirit) that sanctifies the sinner through His Word. (1Peter 2:5,9)

19. Not academic tags but it is only the blood of the Lamb that makes us Royal Priests whose primary ministry is to worship God by first offering up our own bodies and souls as living sacrifice which is reasonable service (latreia = worship) and then offering up of other lost souls as sweet smelling sacrifice to our God. (1Peter 2:5,9; Romans 12:1,2; Rev. 5:9,10).

20. The altar was either made of mud or of unhewn stones. Hewing and polishing polluted the altar (Exodus 20:24,25). The church is now the altar, built with simple unpolished living stones like us to offer broken and contrite hearts as sacrifice, to worship God in spirit and in truth. (1Cor. 14:24,25; John 4:24; 1Peter 2:5)

21. The Lord is now crying out to us to give him back his church so that he can restore her as an altar of sacrifice, where repentant souls can be offered continually, from the rising of the sun to its going down, as living sacrifice and a fragrant aroma to God. (2 Chron. 7:12)