Full Text for Lutheran Worship 2- Volume 54 - Definition of Worship in the 16th Century (Video)

ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN WORSHIP 2 54.LW2 Captioning provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 ******** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ******** >> DAVID: Please allow me to ask a question out of the Lutheran Confessions. What is the best definition of worship we find in the confessions of the sixteenth century? >> DR. JAMES BRAUER: The best definition, I believe, is in the apology, Article 24, The Mass, Paragraph 27. Now, why this spot? What would it come up there? Because in the Augsburg Confession, they confessed this justification by faith or by grace through faith doctrine. It was challenged by the Roman Catholic teachers because it rejected good works. And they argued back that the mass should be thought of as a good work that pleases is God. And it is effective just by doing it. So the response to that, the longer document of the apology, comes back and deals with the whole argument once more piece by piece. And then finally, they get to the center of this with Article 24 on the mass. And now, Melanchthon has prepared this really significant argument that explains how the Levitical worship and the worship of Christ are different. And they need to attack the notion that the outward act is the thing that God is looking for. So in summary then, we get a nice definition in Paragraph 27 of Article 24. �In summary, the worship of the New Testament is spiritual. That is, it is the righteousness of faith in the heart and the fruits of faith.� Now, think about what was just said. The worship that God seeks, the New Testament worship that God seeks, is spiritual. It's not a thing that can be seen. It's inside where faith is. And so it's located in the heart. Now, some interpreters of this maybe press too hard on this heart language, but that's the biblical picture where faith exists. It is not a way to say heartfelt, that it's a focusing on my desire to be strong in it. This is like a mystery. This is a gift. This is not my doing. So I can't go there. It is faith in the heart, and more than that, it actually works. The flow from that faith, the fruits of faith, are also the spiritual response to God. It must be connected to faith, or the outward act is nothing before God. Now, they lay that out in this little context of quoting Hebrews 13 and going on to say what Jeremiah said, and you can look at the context, but I'm going to quote Jeremiah now. "For in that day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: Obey my voice, and I will be your God. �How may we suppose that the Israelites received this sermon which seems to conflict openly with Moses. Clearly God had given the Father's commands about burnt offerings and sacrificial victims. But Jeremiah condemns an opinion about sacrifices that God had not delivered, namely, that these acts of worship please God *ex opera operato,� by their outward act. �However, concerning faith he adds that God had commanded obey my voice. That is, believe that I am your God, and that I want to be recognized when I show mercy and help you for I did not need your sacrifices. Believe that I want to be God and that one who justifies and saves not because of works, but because of my word and promise. Truly and from the heart seek and expect help from me.�" So the center of it is God's mercy. Faith receives that mercy. This is the kind of worship God is looking for. When we have this definition as pastors, we can look past the made up definitions that it's my outward act because the English definition is just focused on what I'm doing. And this Biblical way of looking at it focuses on what God is doing and doing within me that gets me to receive it with faith.