At this time of congregations not meeting because of the Corona virus I hope this lesson will be of help.
A Worship Decoder
All around you in
the sanctuary are symbols that are codes to understanding the God we
worship and how we should worship Him. Here are the meanings of the
codes you see every Sunday.
Colors: The
colors for the Altar clothes and other items have their own meaning.
White: purity
and holiness Red: redemption, salvation sacrifice
Purple:
royalty and power Green: new life and provision
What
do these colors teach you about Jesus?
The Altar
The altar is a
reminder that Jesus is the Lamb of God sacrificed for us so all items
on the altar represents Jesus. Everything on the Altar should say
something about Jesus!
Cross:
reminds us that Jesus gave Himself for us. It also shows we should
be firmly established with God (vertical post) in order to reach out
to the lost and our brothers and sisters in Jesus (left and right
arms).
Offering plates:
reminds us that as God has given us everything He blesses us by
allowing us to give!
Bible: the
written Word of God reveals to us the Living Word of God Jesus Christ
Candles:
remind us that Jesus is the light of the world. The number of
candles teaches us too!
1 = “The Lord our
God is One God!”; 2 = Jesus is fully God and fully man; 3 = the
Trinity; 4 = four corners of the world and Gospel for the whole
world; 6 = creation (seldom used); 7 = fullness of creation and the
Sabbath; 12 = twelve tribes and twelve apostles the people of God
Altar cloth:
reminder of the Tabernacle made of curtains, the veil before the Holy
of Holies and the cloth used to humiliate Jesus during the Passion.
Communion
elements: The Body and Blood of Jesus are presented in different
ways in denominations.
The altar can also
contain olive oil to show the healing power of Jesus, incense to
remember the sweetness of the presence of Jesus and other items used
by different denominations.
The altar rail
The altar rail
places us before the altar so we can meditate upon Jesus and spend
time with Him in prayer! The middle is usually open to show that as
the sacrifice of Jesus rent the veil before the Holy of Holies we are
now allowed to enter into the presence of God ourselves and do not
need a priest.
Pulpits
Pulpits are for the
proclamation of the Word of God. The Bible is read and the Gospel
proclaimed by the preacher from them. Some have one while others
have two. With two pulpits the larger is usually used for preaching
and the smaller for announcements. Long ago the larger pulpit was
used for reading scripture and the smaller pulpit for preaching since
the scripture was primary.
Piano and Organ
From our Jewish
heritage music has been a part of worship. Many of the Psalms have
choir and music notations on them. Some denominations do not believe
in music because it is not directly mentioned in the New Testament.
But the Apostles would have known music in their worship.
Choir loft
The choir loft is
usually around the altar area. The choir is singing to God and so
should be pointed at the altar. In fact everyone in the sanctuary
should be pointed at the altar directing their worship to God.
Audio/visual
equipment
Audio/visual
equipment can be used to enhance worship with our video oriented
society. With audio/visual equipment has come a new problem, to not
let worship degenerate into entertainment.
