Presentation 1
Biblical View of Culture & Worship

When I teach my students, I like to ask lots of questions, so I will ask you one…

What is the greatest commandment in the Bible? Matthew 22:37-38

Love God with all heart, soul, mind, strength = worship
Love neighbor as yourself

We will start today by studying what the Bible teaches us about the 2 most important matters to us as believers in Jesus Christ:

how we should worship God
how we should relate to the cultures (large community of people among whom we live)

We are going to talk about them in the opposite order:

Biblical perspective of culture
Biblical perspective of worship

Biblical Perspective of Culture

The Bible –as a whole – is one unfolding story of history; God’s work in the world

God teaches through all of Scripture how to live our lives – even in the OT teachings

Romans 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, …

The Bible teaches us principles of how to relate to the world – culture – in which we live

What is culture?: All of the beliefs, customs and attitudes of a group of people.

What makes your culture unique from the surrounding people groups?

We will look at the Biblical perspective about culture in 3 steps: Creation-fall-redemption

Quick overview:

Everything God created is good – Genesis

All the good gifts given to us by God in creation have been corrupted by human sin.
Jesus broke the power of sin and reclaimed all of what God created as good

Genesis 1: Creation

In Genesis 1 – God is the Creator/ the Worker, and each time after God creates something, he calls it “good” (vv. 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31)

Then God creates people: read Genesis 1:26-28

v26 God declares His plan:

“Let Us” … create man in His image & likeness &emdash; to be like &emdash; to reflect God
“Let him” … rule over ***all ***the spheres of creation, to look after the things He made – to do what God does
- we desire to create b/c we are made in His image
- we are to manage all of God’s creation
- God gave this command even before the fall

v27 God creates man in His image – note repetition, and note both genders, “male and female”.

By doing this, God equips man to do what he wants next….

v28 God calls man to rule over creation – note this call comes from God to man as a blessing

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
Fill the earth with the image/glory of God
- subdue it (the earth), control it, tame it
- rule over all parts of creation

Genesis 2:

v8 God creates a garden, puts man in it

v15 tells him to care for it, develop it, make it produce something

v18 God forms helper for man….like the man but different

Now man and woman are to cultivate and fill the earth

God is the one who first created a culture

Then God gave Adam cultural work to do

Name animals
Tend garden

Noah – build ark

Jacob made a coat

Ex 31 Bezalel & Oholiab

Gen 4 Jubal

Moses composed songs and sang

Miriam danced

Genesis 3: Fall

sin enters the world, now all of creation is affected by the fall

sin doesn’t take away God’s image from man, but it perverts how we relate to it

ex. idolatry takes something good (God’s gift) and makes it the end-goal (idol)

leads to the curse v14-19

v23 God sends man out of garden to cultivate ground – but now he will be fighting the curse

Genesis 4: Things go wrong

Murder (Cain kills Abel)

Culture develops

v17 Cain builds a city

v20 Cain’s descendants:

Jabal: father of nomads/herders of livestock
Jubal: father of those who play string and wind instruments (Note that this activity has the same dignity as farming and industry)
Tubal-Cain: father of those who make metal tools

How does man know how to make these things? Why does he do them?

B/c made in image of God who is the Creator

Even after God destroys world w flood b/c of wickedness, but saves Noah and family, …..

God repeats to Noah : Genesis 9:1-7. “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.”

Due to sin, ruling over all the spheres of creation will be more difficult.

Genesis 10:32 all the nations (plural) that came from Noah’s descendants

Genesis 11: Tower of Babel

Now people were making a culture for their own glory – not for God

Man says…Let us make bricks Let us make a city Let us build a tower/temple Let us make a name for ourselves……otherwise we’ll be scattered abroad.

(deliberately disobeying God’s call to fill the earth).

God stops this cultural project by “mixing” (Hebrew) their languages.

He multiplies languages, forcing them to fill the earth according to the language groups that He created the Nations.

The original order of God’s creation is still good, but man now perverts it for his sinful desires

Ex. human sexuality vs, prostitution

Summary: what wrong in the world is due to sin. Everything is affected because we rebel against God. Even our “creativity” can be used against God.

Even in people’s sin, God is working out his plan

Redemption: God’s plan to redeem the world was from the very beginning

Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised a deliverer Genesis 3:15

God worked out a rescue plan

v21 God sacrificed animals to make garments of skin

animals’ blood poured out/death to cover their shame.

This points to Jesus’ death, his blood covers our sins

God continues his work of creation in His people:

2 Cor 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Summary

God is a creator – worker – makes something of nothing that endures, has value in His sight. Man, b/c made in the image and likeness of God, makes something of the world that God has given us

“Culture” is what man makes of the world by – filling, ruling, subduing, cultivating & keeping.

God’s call to man to create, develop, and protect is still in force after man falls in sin. (Noah)

God intended there to be diversity of human cultures.
- told man to “fill earth” – so man must learn how to adapt to different areas
- acts 17:26
God made sure that there is a diversity of human cultures.
- Through the line of Noah
- At Babel
God redeems people from every culture.
- Psalm 87
- Acts 2:1-13 At Pentecost, gospel is preached in many languages
- Matt. 28: 18-20 Make disciples of all nations
God will be worshiped in new heaven/new earth by people of every culture, in their languages/culture.
- Rev 7: 9, 10

Human cultures still reflect the image of God even though in a broken way.

In all cultures, there are parts of it that reflect God’s good creation

hospitality, cooperation, generosity, volunteerism,.

But there are parts of every culture that sin has twisted:

Some parts can be worked on and made right by God:
- marriage, work ethic, education
Some parts are evil and need to be rejected and abandoned, (like a gangrenous limb amputated and removed),
- abortion, slavery, prostitution, human trafficking.

Bible teaches us God created culture: he was the first to make anything!

As God’s people made in His image, we too are to work in the cultures he’s given us

As Christians, we need to ask God to show us how to decide what is good and what is not good in our cultures, then to embrace what is good, reject what is evil, and reform what needs to be reshaped

Consider Matt 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.”

These are statements of fact – not a command

Because you are a disciple of Jesus, you are salt and light

If there is no difference b/w believers and unbelievers, disastrous results (as in a church that tries to be so relevant to culture, we’re no different)

Salt preserves and enriches, draws out natural flavor of food

In same way, Christians should enrich all aspects of society as God intended it to be

An idea from Mayr….

Group work: write down 4 best qualities about your community, i.e., things it does well (that are in the image of God), such as: generosity, sharing with each other, hard-workers).

Also write down the 4 worst qualities that your community struggles with.

(Example: USA Christians don’t worry much about sorcery, but they do struggle with love of money.) This will lead into finding Scripture passages that can help deal with these struggles.

Biblical Perspective of Worship

1. The chief end of man

What is the chief end of man? What is the purpose of our lives as believers in Christ?

The chief end of man is to glorify God ^[1] and enjoy him forever ^[2].

^[1] Romans 11:36; 1 Corinthians 10:31 ^[2] Psalm 73:25-28

2. Definition of worship in original languages

Hebrew = “bow yourself down”
Greek = “kneel/ get on your knees”

3. Scripture references re: worship

(look up and read)

Of course, only worship the Lord God….Luke 4:8….then….

What can we learn about worship from these passages? It can be….

assembled people of God 2 Chron 7:3, Heb 10:25; temple dedication; Ps 95:6
families – 1 Sam 1:19 Elkanah & Hannah
individual Gen 24:26 Abraham’s servant (Eliezar) finds a wife for Isaac
highly organized – 2 Chron 5:11-7:7
spontaneous –Matt 14:33 disciples after Jesus calms waves
not divided by generation Nehemiah 8:2, 6 (nor by culture – Is 56:6-7)
Offerings are worship Deut 26:10
Can include singing Ps 100:2; 1 Cor 14:26
Our attitude should be reverence and awe Heb 12:28
in Spirit and in truth (Jn 4:23)
- We worship only by being empowered through the Holy Spirit Phil 3:3
it’s what we’ll be doing in heaven Rev 22:3

In summary:

Present your bodies a living sacrifice Rom 12:1-2
1 Cor 10:31 (whatever you do….eat or drink….all to glory of God)

Everyone worships something or someone…..

As believers in Christ,

all of life is to be lived in worship to God –
- at home, at work, in public activities, or gathered as people of God

4. How do we know how to worship God?

It is not left to our own imagination

Scripture is sufficient for teaching us how to worship God;

God’s own revealed will , made known in Scripture

So, God tells us how to worship Him in Scripture.

5. Corporate worship from a Reformed perspective

Public worship is unique – Bible teaches that all of life should be honoring to God, but one day/wk – the Lord’s Day (Rev 1:1) – is especially to be honored by the Church as a time to gather in public/corporate worship (Synagogue met weekly Acts 13:42; Luke 4:16)

What does Scripture say?

Bible should be read (1Tim 4:13)
Should be in language people understand – so it can dwell richly Col3:16
Preaching from word (1 Tim 4:13; 2 Tim 4:2; Rom 10:14-15)
Prayers should be offered (Mat 21:13, Acts 4:24-30)
Sacraments rightly administered (Mat 28:19; 1 Cor 11:23-26)
Singing (Eph 5:19)
(offerings)

6. Brief history of “American” evangelical worship

(assuming American churches influence Peruvian worship services)

Current contemp evangelical American worship does not have long history

doesn’t grow out of past
much comes from dispensational theology
- dulls the sense that we can learn from the OT
- or even that OT is still in effect
- BUT Jesus didn’t reject Old Covenant – instead, it will be written on our hearts
  - Jer 31:33-34; Ezek 36:26-27; cf., Heb 8:10; 10:16; 2Cor 3:3)
grows out of 19^th c evangelicalism
- highly influ by camp meetings
- goal was to attract a crowd and convert sinners
- not meant to be expository preaching of Word
- not serving God in corporate praise (sound doctrine often not preached)
- often highly emotional

In public worship, we gather as a community to meet with God

the joy of coming into presence of God to worship is what gives us our energy
Jesus himself sings praise to God with us Heb 2:12

7. What worship is not

Not a Sunday event alone; it’s a way of life
Not just the singing part of the service
- Worship through music is only one part of worship.
A “feeling” of being close to God
Raising hands in the air does not mean you are truly worshipping

Nothing is more important in life than worship. We all worship something or someone.

Remember — Our enemy – the devil – is working to twist the worship of God (Mat 4:9; Eph 6:11-12, Jas 4:7)

8. Summary

(ask participants to summarize)

Corporate worship is a dialog b/w God and His people

God speaks: reading, preaching of Word and sacraments
His people respond by praise, prayer & offerings

Only possible through Jesus to enter God’s presence b/c of Jesus Hebrews 10:19

Consider starting composition on the first day of the seminar….to get them used to the idea.