As one compares Old Testament worship with New Testament worship, the most striking difference has to do with “spirit and truth.” Jesus spoke of this with the Samaritan woman. She wondered about which temple to use, the Samaritan one on Mount Gerizim or the Jewish one in Jerusalem. Jesus replied,
Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:21, 23-24)
Jesus contrasted physical temples with the true places of worship: spirit and truth. Worship in the fullest and best sense had never been realized before, but was now arriving. Only through Jesus’ death could the human spirit truly unite with the divine Spirit. The law’s shadows, including the temple, would give way to the truth—the spiritual reality—to which they had pointed (cf. John 1:14, 17). Ritualistic and external aspects of the old worship had been mere shadows of future realities. The new worship would be “living” (Romans 12:1). Its priests would offer “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).
Notice the key words living and spiritual.
Those inspired words, “living” and “spiritual,” summarize well the worship of the New Covenant. No longer do we use the material things of the Old Covenant—the temple, the animals, the incense, the instruments, the special oil lamp, the priestlyclothing, the altar and similar things. The Old Testament had many ceremonies and rituals, each with many physical details. New Testament Christianity is remarkably free of such external things. Its two main events are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Yet even these simple events have meaning only as they connect by faith with Jesus’ death and resurrection (Colossians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:20-26).