The very heart of Old Testament worship from Moses on is connected with the tabernacle and then the temple. But in the New Testament the focus of our worship changes to Jesus Himself. It is suggested in the New Testament that He is the temple, the priest, the Passover Lamb, the Bread of Life, etc. Therefore, worship of the Old Testament patterns and language changes from a place or a time to all of life in the New Testament. Worship is now for all the people of God at all times in all places and is connected to how they live out their lives.
New covenant worship suggests constant "worship". So we might say that when the New Testament Church gathers, it gathers to continue our worship that is already going on. When we gather to continue our worship we find mutual edification or encouragement among the gathered people of God as we sing praise together, edify and encourage one another in the faith, experience confession, public prayer, the ministry of God's Word, etc.
I have said on many occasions that our corporate worship can never surpass our personal worship. This makes our personal daily worship and obedience to God even more important, in that it determines our gathered worship to a great extent. What are you doing to improve your church's worship as we gather to continue our worship? mjm
