To proclaim to be a Christian means we worship what Jesus did and who He is– we represent His redemption in everything we do. And we should seek to honor Him in everything we do.
In the book of Malachi the people were treating and responding to God in ways that were dishonorable. Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets who preached around 430 B.C. His ministry was to the grandchildren of the people who had originally returned to Jerusalem after the time of exile in Babylon. Babylon had destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and burned the beautiful temple built by King Solomon. The original exiles had been away from their homeland for 70 years, and when they returned to Jerusalem the temple was a large pile of rubble. The book of Malachi wasn’t about the buildings that were a mess. The people were a mess, they were dejected and depressed. They were weary of waiting for God. Families were breaking up. Those who had money or power were oppressing others. Importantly their worship to God was a façade. Maybe, the people felt that God had let them down and they were mad at Him. Maybe there were other reasons. The account of Malachi tells us that their hearts and their worship was not for God.
Worship can be defined as “the reverence or adoration that one shows toward something or someone; holding a person or object in high esteem; or giving a person or an object a place of importance or honor.”
In the book of Malachi corporate worship to God involved an act of sacrifice – the slaughter of an animal and the shedding of blood. These acts of worship pictured the day when the Messiah would come and become the ultimate sacrifice, giving the ultimate form of worship in obedience to God and love for us through the giving of Himself in His death.
Thankfully today our sacrifice of worship is done differently as shown in Romans 12:1, “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.” We are no longer under the Old Testament with the burden of bringing animal blood to atone for sins and as our form of worship. Jesus fulfilled the law with His death and made a completely sufficient blood sacrifice for every sin. Which leaves us to practice worship in a post-resurrection way. We bring ourselves, our own lives, as a living sacrifice to God. This is holy and pleasing to Him.
Our pleasing worship to Jesus is to adore, to honor, and to pay homage to Jesus for what He has done and for who He is. He is worthy of our adoration, our reverence, and our worship for He alone provided our salvation and remission from sin and redemption through the shedding of His blood, His death and resurrection; Ephesians 1:7.
However, the Bible describes several different approaches to worship. The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 95:6 to bow down and kneel before the Lord; Job 1:20-21 describes Job worshipping by tearing his robe, shaving his head and falling prostrate on the ground. At times we are to bring an offering as a method of worship as in 1 Chronicles 16:29. We also worship God through prayer, using our voice, our stillness, our thoughts, our motives, and our spirit. When Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray Luke 11:2, He gave them the Lord’s prayer, a perfect model for prayer to God. Jesus taught to start prayer with “Hallowed be Your name.” He taught us that that even our prayers are a form of worship.
For our celebration of communion, I want to quickly overview the book of Malachi and highlight the different forms of worship we find there. We learn from Malachi some great principles about how God is worthy of our worship in every aspect of our life.
We Worship God by Loving God. Malachi 1:1-4.
We Worship God by our attitudes of affection for God. Malachi 1:5
We worship God when we honor our parents and employers. Malachi 1:6
We Worship God by serving God with our best. Malachi 1:7-10; 3:13-18
We Worship God by Honoring His name. Malachi 1:6-14; 3:9-13
We Worship God through our lifestyle and by living for God in everything we do. Malachi 1:11
We worship our God when we love other nations, tribes and tongues. Malachi 1:5,11,14
We Worship God in our work ethic. Malachi 2:4-9
We worship God when we obey Him. Malachi 2:1-3
We Worship God when we are faithful to our family and marriages. Malachi 2:10-16
We Worship God by learning from the past. Malachi 2:10-17
We Worship God by trusting Him for the future. 3:1-7
We Worship God in our stewardship of possessions. Malachi 3:8-11
We Worship God by being a generous giver. Malachi 3:8-12
We worship God when we turn to prayer. Malachi 3:13-18
We Worship God when we believe He is coming again. Malachi 4:1-6, (3:1-10).
I saved this for last even though it is out of my chronological order through Malachi.
We worship God when we celebrate Him. Malachi 4:2
The point, when we assemble to partake together in this communion table, as this high act of worship, it doesn’t end. We are encouraged to continue to worship Jesus this afternoon, tomorrow and forever.
We have many distractions in life. Our worship to Jesus isn’t just a certain time or activity. When believers met together to remember Christ’s sacrifice as represented by the cup and the bread, they then departed to worship Jesus the rest of the week.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Our tradition is to collect a special offering following our participation in the Lord’s Supper. This offering supplies for the needs for our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is a voluntary offering and we ask that you give as you are led. We base our giving on the Scriptural text:
I John 3:17-18; 23–24 “But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in Him? …let us not love with word or with tongue, but in-deed and truth. Now this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. And the people who keep His commandments abides in Him, and He in them. And we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.