John 4:21

John 4:21

The Ideal of Christian Worship

I. In considering the ideal of Christian worship, look at the very evident symbolism of the Tabernacle and the Temple. There was the outer court for the general congregation. Here the sacrifice was actually offered. But it was in the Holy Place, within the first veil, into which only the priests might enter, that it was presented, while into the most Holy Place, within the second veil, the high priest alone entered once in each year, with the blood of the sacrifice of the great day of atonement. This inner holy of holies was symbolical of heaven, the place of the immediate presence of God.

II. From and after the completion of the work of Christ in His ascension and His gift at Pentecost, heaven and earth, spiritually, i.e.,in respect of spiritual privileges, became one. Access is free, the barrier is removed. So in the ideal view, that is, the only worthy, the only adequate, the only real and scriptural view, of Christian worship, heaven and earth are one, their worship one. (1) This spiritual and inner identity of the worship of heaven and earth has from the first been, as matter of fact, distinctly affirmed by the Catholic Church, whether intentionally, after deliberation, or unconsciously, as it were, by a true spiritual instinct. (2) The next link of unity between the worship of the Church militant and that of the Church at peace within the veil and this is a link far more deeply-underlying and essential is the identity in the view of the one Intercessory action of the one High Priest. His action is not confined to heaven. Wherever His Church is, there is He her Head; and wherever He is, and pleads, He is a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec at once the king and the priest of His city of righteousness and peace. And that this, His sacerdotal function which needs must last throughout this dispensation, until, from within the veil, He shall appear on earth again the second time without sin unto salvation, that this His intercession might not be without its visible exhibition here below, He offered Himself in the upper chamber, and bade His apostles show forth His death for a perpetual memorial of Him.

Canon Medd, Oxford University Herald,February 10th, 1883.

References: John 4:22. J. Clifford, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxii., p. 8. John 4:22. W. Hay Aitken, Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 401.