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Scripture Reading: Matt. 26:30; Heb. 2:12; Eph. 2:18; John 4:23-24
I. Worshipping the Father:
А. After eating the bread and drinking the cup — Matt. 26:26-30.
B. By praising — v. 30:
1. Christ, the Firstborn of God, taking the lead among His brothers — Heb. 2:12.
2. We, the many sons of God, following Christ in praising the Father.
C. Addressing praise to the Father:
1. Through the Son.
2. In the Spirit — Eph. 2:18.
D. Calling hymns:
1. According to the Father’s being.
2. According to the Father’s attributes.
E. By presenting Christ to God the Father:
1. As the peace offering — Lev. 3.
2. Enjoying Him before God the Father — 7:14-21, 28-34:
а. As our life supply — vv. 14-16.
b. As love in resurrection — vv. 29-31.
c. As power in ascension — vv. 32-34.
d. In cleanness — vv. 17-21.
Focus: The worshipping of the Father should be with the Son and in the Spirit (John 4:23-24).
In this lesson we want to see something further concerning the practice of the Lord’s table meeting. Matthew 26:30 says that after the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup, the Lord and the disciples sang a hymn. Then they went out to the Mount of Olives. Hebrews 2:12 is a strong verse telling us that after Christ’s resurrection He declared the Father’s name to the disciples and praised the Father in the midst of the church. Then Ephesians 2:18 says that through Christ (who died on the cross and who created the one new man of two peoples) and in the Spirit we come to the Father. This is a brief definition of the dispensing of the Triune God. John 4:23-24 says that the Father today seeks after those who will worship Him in their human spirit and in truthfulness. We worship the Father in our spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit and in Christ the Son as our reality who becomes our genuineness and sincerity for the true worship of God. We need to impress the saints with the truths revealed in these portions of Scripture.
In the previous lesson we shared concerning the practice of remembering the Lord at His table. Now we want to speak concerning worshipping the Father.
Matthew 26:26-30 shows that we should worship the Father after eating the bread and drinking the cup. Verses 26 through 29 show us that the bread was broken and eaten and that the cup was drunk. Then in verse 30 there was the singing of a hymn to the Father, showing that the worship to the Father must be after eating the bread and drinking the cup.
We worship the Father by praising. This is also based upon Matthew 26:30. This is a unique verse telling us that a hymn was sung. That means to praise. According to the Greek text, we may say that they “hymned a praise” to the Father. To worship the Father at the Lord’s table, we have to sing hymns of praise to Him.
Christ, the Firstborn of God, takes the lead among His brothers to sing hymns of praise to the Father. Hebrews 2:12 says, “I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.” The literal meaning according to the Greek is “I will hymn You.” Matthew 26:30 and Hebrews 2:12 show us the worship of the Father at the Lord’s table. In what kind of meeting can Christ sing hymns of praise to the Father in the midst of His brothers? Matthew 26:30 gives us the answer. Matthew 26:30 is a precious verse showing us that it was after the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup that Christ took the lead to sing hymns of praise to the Father among the disciples.
We, the many sons of God, follow Christ in praising the Father. In Matthew 26:30 it was not only Christ but also His disciples singing a hymn of praise with Him. So He took the lead, and the disciples followed Him. Today it should be the same. Christ, the Firstborn, takes the lead, and we, the many sons, follow Him to praise the Father.
Our addressing praise to the Father is through the Son and in the Spirit. In our remembrance of the Lord, we address all the praises to the Lord. Then when we turn to worship the Father, we have to address all our praises to Him. Ephesians 2:18 says, “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” Through the Son, as the One who died on the cross to abolish all the ordinances and to create the one new man of two peoples (v. 15), and in the Spirit we have access unto the Father.
Ephesians 1 reveals the Father’s choosing and predestinating us, the Son’s redeeming us, and the Spirit’s sealing us. Then 2:18 says that through the Son and in the Spirit, we approach the Father. In chapter 3 Paul says that he bowed his knees to the Father that He might strengthen us through His Spirit that Christ might make His home in our hearts (vv. 14-17). In chapter 4 there are three groups: one Body, one Spirit, and one hope; one Lord, one faith, and one baptism; and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in us all (vv. 4-6). These portions from Ephesians show us the divine economy of the Divine Trinity.
In our sharing it is helpful to link Ephesians 2:18 with Luke 15. Luke 15 reveals that the Son came as the Shepherd to seek after the lost sheep (vv. 1-7), that the Spirit as the woman enlightens the house and eventually finds the lost coin (vv. 8-10), and that the Father receives the returned son (vv. 11-32). This shows the divine economy of the Divine Trinity with the redeeming Son, the sanctifying Spirit, and the receiving Father. Through the Son and in the Spirit, we have access unto the Father. The Lord told three parables in Luke 15 to unveil the saving love of the Triune God toward sinners. The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son are one lost person in three aspects. Luke 15 shows that we cannot be sought for and found and brought to the Father directly. We can come to the Father only through Christ and in the Spirit.
Now we need to consider our calling of hymns in the section of worshipping the Father at the Lord’s table. We need to call hymns according to the Father’s being. The Father’s name was not revealed until the Lord Jesus came. He came to reveal the name of the Father (John 17:6, 26), the person of the Father. Thus, we have to call hymns according to the Father’s person, the Father’s being.
We also have to call hymns according to the Father’s attributes, such as His love, His kindness, and His glory. In the table of contents of our hymnal under the section entitled “Worship of the Father,” we have a number of hymns categorized according to the Father’s attributes. These attributes include His faithfulness, His greatness, His wisdom, His mercy, and His love.
We praise the Son according to His person and work, but there is no work with regard to the Father. We should praise the Father according to His being and attributes. We have to differentiate and discern the hymns according to these two categories: the Father’s being, what the Father is, and the Father’s attributes.
In our worship of the Father, we need to present Christ to Him as the peace offering (Lev. 3). This section is very crucial. To share this with the saints, we need to be clear about the type of the peace offering in the book of Leviticus.
At the Lord’s table meeting we enjoy Christ before God the Father (7:14-21, 28-34).
First, we enjoy Christ as our life supply (vv. 14-16). In offering the peace offering, some bread and flesh of the offering was assigned to the priests for their food. That signifies the life supply.
The breast of the offering was assigned to the priests as a wave offering. The breast signifies love, and the offering being waved signifies resurrection, so this typifies Christ as love in resurrection to be our life supply (vv. 29-31).
The right thigh was assigned to the priest as a heave offering. The right thigh is the strength for movement, signifying Christ as power in ascension (vv. 32-34). At the Lord’s table meeting we enjoy Christ before God the Father as power in ascension.
Thus, we see three kinds of supply with the peace offering: one is the bread and the flesh of the offering, the second is the breast, and the third is the thigh. One signifies the life supply; the other, love in resurrection; and the other, power in ascension. When Christ ascended to the third heaven, He poured out the Spirit of power. The Spirit of life was given on the day of resurrection, but the Spirit of power was poured out after His ascension. Love is a matter of life, so it is in resurrection, and power is in ascension.
The peace offering in Leviticus had to be presented to God in cleanness (vv. 17-21). This signifies that we enjoy the life supply, love in resurrection, and power in ascension in cleanness. We must be clean. If someone ate the peace offering when he was unclean, he would be cut off from the people. This means that if we are not in cleanness at the Lord’s table to present Christ to God the Father, we will be cut off. To be cut off means to lose the fellowship of God’s people.
We need to spend some time on this point concerning presenting Christ to God the Father as the peace offering. The peace offering is a wonderful type of Christ being offered to God. We need to see that this peace offering had an enjoyment of three aspects. First, the peace offering was God’s food, so it was for the enjoyment of God. Second, the peace offering was also for the enjoyment of the offering priest, the one who presented the offering. Third, the congregation enjoyed their portion of the peace offering under the condition of cleanness. This is all fulfilled in the Lord’s table meeting.
In the Lord’s table meeting, after the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup, on the one hand, Christ takes the lead to sing hymns of praise to God the Father, and we follow Him to do this. On the other hand, at the same time, we offer Him as the peace offering to God the Father for God’s satisfaction, and we enjoy Him as our life supply, as love in resurrection, and as power in ascension. Furthermore, we enjoy Him with one another in cleanness. This is the fulfillment of the presentation of the peace offering in the reality of the New Testament.
Actually, the section in the Lord’s table of worshipping the Father is a section to praise the Father and enjoy His Son with Him. Much of the time our worship to the Father at the Lord’s table meeting is inadequate. We need to practice presenting Christ as the peace offering to enjoy Him as our life supply, as our love in resurrection, and as our power in ascension with one another in cleanness.
The focus of this lesson can be expressed in the following statement: the worshipping of the Father should be with the Son and in the Spirit (John 4:23-24). We worship the Father with the Son as the reality and in the Spirit who dwells within our spirit. John 4:23-24 can be fulfilled in our worship to the Father at the Lord’s table meeting.
We need to consider the context of John 4:23-24 so that we can understand these verses properly. In verse 20 the Samaritan woman talked with the Lord, saying, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, yet you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship.” This refers back to Deuteronomy 12, where God ordained that His people worship Him in the unique place chosen by God and with the rich produce of the good land so that they would not be empty-handed when they appeared before God. All the Israelites had to come to the unique place with the rich produce, the rich offerings, of the good land.
The Lord Jesus indicated to the Samaritan woman that this worship was for the Old Testament age. Then He said, “An hour is coming, and it is now...” (John 4:23). In other words, the Lord was saying, “Now the time has come.” This means that the age had changed. Now in this new age God the Father is seeking after a kind of worship that is in spirit and truthfulness.
Here the spirit is our human spirit, and today our human spirit is the unique place where God’s dwelling place is. This is based upon Ephesians 2:22, which says that God’s dwelling place today is in our spirit. Since our spirit is the place where God’s dwelling place is, our spirit is today’s Jerusalem. We all need to worship God here. This is the unique place. If all Christians would worship God in their spirit, there would be no divisions. Our spirit is the uniting place, the unique center of God’s worship, typified by Jerusalem.
We also need to worship God in truthfulness. Truthfulness denotes the divine reality becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity (which are the opposite of the hypocrisy of the immoral Samaritan worshipper) for the true worship of God. The divine reality is Christ as the reality of all the offerings of the Old Testament. Christ is the reality of the rich produce of the good land for our offering.
In order to understand John 4:23-24 properly we have to look at the type in Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy we see the unique place with all the offerings. The Lord said that the unique place is our spirit, and the produce we offer today is not the produce of Canaan but all the riches of Christ. Thus, the unique place is our spirit, and the reality is Christ Himself with all His riches. When we partake of Christ as our reality, He becomes the reality within us. This reality within us then becomes our genuineness and sincerity in which we worship God the Father with the worship that He seeks. When we follow the Lord to worship the Father at the Lord’s table meeting, we worship the Father with Christ as the rich offerings in the spirit, that is, in our spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit. This is the real worship to God the Father according to His economy.
The Lord’s table meeting is a replacement of the Feast of the Passover. Actually, when the Lord set up His table, He and His disciples were attending the Passover feast. According to the custom of the Jewish Passover, they surely partook of the bread and the wine. Thus, the table meeting set up by the Lord was somewhat transitory. The Lord and the disciples first ate the passover (Matt. 26:20-25; Luke 22:14-18). Then the Lord established His table with the bread and the cup (Matt. 26:26-28; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26) to replace the Feast of the Passover because He was going to fulfill the type and be the real Passover to us (5:7). Luke 22 shows us that there were two kinds of eating and drinking. One was a part of the Passover (vv. 15-18). The other was a part of the Lord’s table (vv. 19-20). Today we are at the Lord’s table without any kind of transitory element.
At the Lord’s table we should not pray by asking the Lord to do things for us, but we surely need to praise. To praise requires much exercise of the spirit. We need to learn how to praise the Lord after we sing a hymn. We may merely shout, declare, and quote things from the hymnal in a mechanical way. But if the saints are richer and stronger, they will not need to merely quote the hymnal. They will praise the Lord with the thought of the hymn, recomposing some of the terms and phrases. We need to learn how to digest a hymn in our praise. This kind of digestion of a hymn is more living and informal.
In the Lord’s table meeting there needs to be more praise. Instead of praising, the saints may merely read from the hymnal. They must learn to go beyond merely reading a hymn to digesting a hymn. Instead of merely reading, “Oh, what a joy! Oh, what a rest!” (Hymns, #499), we can say, “O Lord, in Your life we enjoy the rest. What a rest we enjoy!” We can digest the terms in a hymn and make them a living praise to the Lord.
In the ancient times the believers had a custom of coming together for supper, the main meal of the day, with the rich bringing more and better food for the mutual enjoyment, and the poor, less food (1 Cor. 11:21-22). This was called a love feast (2 Pet. 2:13; Jude 12), and it came from the background of the Passover feast (Luke 22:13-20). At the end of their love feast they ate the Lord’s supper with the bread and the cup to remember the Lord (1 Cor. 11:23-25). This is the best way to have the Lord’s table.
We need to be deeply impressed that the crucial point in our service to the Lord is life. Life is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reality of the living Christ. If we help the saints get on the track of life, all the details of our practice will be spontaneously regulated by life. We need some regulation, and regulation helps. But we need to be careful. We are not for a certain regulated situation. A situation that is fully regulated can become like Forest Lawn Cemetery, a situation of death. Brother Nee took the lead to practice the truth with life. We must make it clear to the saints that we are not for the regulations but for life. If the saints grow in life adequately, spontaneously they will be regulated.
