The whole series on worship is about answering the one question – Is my worship authentic or am I worshipping in vain?
Worship in the Bible basically means bowing down, literally or figuratively. Our English word for worship is a shortened form of worthship which comes from an old Anglo Saxon word, weorthscipe.
• Weorth = worth
• Scipe = ship
Worship is to bow down or recognize, appreciate, and acknowledge God’s worthship. It is attributing worth to the object of our worship. God is worthy of our worship. When we worship, we recognize the worth-ship of the Triune God. We worship the Father through the Son in the Spirit. This is proper theology. God is spiritual in essence. The object of our love feast of worship is God: to see Him, know Him, and enjoy His presence.
- Psa 27:4 One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.
- Psa 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
- Psa 37:4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Technically speaking, worship includes every aspect of our life, personal worship, not just limited to a Sunday worship service or corporate worship. Bowing down is another way of indicating submission to God’s will or authority. Our whole life is to be an act of worship of the whole heart in obedience to His Word, on a personal and corporate basis.
If we obeyed Christ by giving a glass of water to the thirsty, feeding the hungry, praying for others, giving of our time and money to others, witnessing to others, working in the church in whatever capacity (daycare, usher, custodian, greeter, parking attendant, teaching, et cetera), we have done it unto Him. This also is an act of worship.
Service is also a form of worship. Service that keeps one constantly out of a main worship service creates an imbalance; worship is not exclusively serving. Conversely, singing and praising God’s worth exclusively without some form of service to God is an imbalance as well. The fact that God gave spiritual gifts to every believer to edify the body of Christ supports this. Worship includes both a “sanctuary” time and a serving time. Faith without works is dead, declared the Lord’s half-brother, James (Jas 2:20, 26, 18).
Question: why do we come to church anyway?
• Networking
• Role playing,
• Keeping the peace with the spouse,
• Looks good on the public resume,
• Keeping up appearances,
• Good place to catch a husband or wife,
• People can hear me perform,
• Social clubbing,
• Makes you feel important,
• Likes showing off the newest fashion or car,
• Getting free coffee and food,
• Receive the praise of men,
• Showing off how much you give,
• Showing off how much you know,
• Showing off how spiritual you are,
• To be seen of men?
What if that was all taken away, would we still go to church? Dr. Piper asked, “Would we still go to heaven where all the gifts are if God wasn’t there?" We go to church to do what? Worship. When people talk about going to church you don’t associate the word “work,” but worship. Since we don’t know a person’s heart, we naturally assume that is why they are going to church, primarily to worship God, secondarily for fellowship among other believers.
Psa 18:3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised.
There are five prerequisites or pillars of authentic worship, regardless of the form of worship we choose. If any of these requirements is missing in our worship, the form is merely a vain religious act, going through the motions; it has no meaning. The lips are close but the heart is far away.
(1) The worshipper must be a child of God.
A worshipper must be born again. We see this with Nicodemus (Jn 3:3) and with the woman at the well when Jesus was addressing her lifestyle (Jn 4:16-18). If Jesus does not live within the heart, there is absolutely no way a Samaritan or Jew or Gentile can offer acceptable worship to Yahweh! Any worship that leaves Jesus out of the equation is false worship. Read what Jesus said about this - No one comes to the Father except through Me (Jn 14:6).
(2) The worshipper must be in fellowship with God.
Sin must be addressed whether an unbeliever or a believer. Fellowship with God must not be broken by unconfessed sin (1 Jn 1:8-9; Psa 51:6; 66:18). Worship will never be acceptable with one foot in the church and one foot in the world.
(3) The worshipper will worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Jn 4:23).
Though the context deals specifically with the Father, comparing Scripture with Scripture reveals that both the Son and the Holy Spirit possess the nature of God and are objects of worship.
o Jesus is Yahweh
- Jn 10:30-33 I and My Father are one." (31) Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. (32) Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?" (33) The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." Cf. Jn 14:6.
- Heb 10:15-17 (quotation from Jeremiah (31:33-34) But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, (16) "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR HEARTS, AND IN THEIR MINDS I WILL WRITE THEM," (17) then He adds, "THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE." Worship involves the triune Godhead! We worship the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.
(4) The true worshipper must worship in spirit (Jn 4:23-24).
Worship is not limited to any particular place or time. The spirit transcends the physical. John 4:21 Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. Unlike worship in truth which has a limited boundary (conformity to divine revelation from Genesis to Revelation, 66 books exclusively).
- 2 Chr 2:6 - But who is able to build Him a temple, since heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?
- 2 Chr 6:18 - "But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!
- 1 Kgs 8:27 - "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!
- Isa 66:1 - Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?
- Acts 7:48-49 - "However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 'HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND EARTH IS MY FOOTSTOOL. WHAT HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME? SAYS THE LORD, OR WHAT IS THE PLACE OF MY REST?
- Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
- in spirit transforms the physical to spiritual, limited to unlimited, outward to inward, visible to invisible, and tangible to intangible unlike the previous form of worship in the temple of Jerusalem.
- in spirit does not make the local church irrelevant (Heb 10:25). God has instituted the local church to carry out His mission to the world.
As we grow in grace in the knowledge of the Word, our appreciation of the worth of the God we worship will develop. Our conception of God must be based on Genesis to Revelation, 66 books exclusively.
Since we are living in an age of apostasy, a general turning away from the Truth, many believers are turning away from the Word of God. When a believer chooses to turn away from the truth to spiritual error, true worship is suspended in the heart of that person for one of the pillars of true worship is in truth. When we turn from the authority of the Scriptures and look to some other, true worship goes south.
Jer 2:11-13 Has a nation changed its gods, Which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory For what does not profit. (12) Be astonished, O heavens, at this, And be horribly afraid; Be very desolate," says the LORD. (13) "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.
We get another view of what false worship is; something is taking the place of God - broken cisterns that hold no water (v. 13). Authentic, true worship drinks from the fountain of living water (v. 13).
This was Jesus’ cry in John 7:38, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
John 7:39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.
Though the New Testament says little about the content and form of worship (cf. Acts 2; 1 Cor 12-14), there are five prerequisites for authentic worship, five foundational truths for true worship:
(1) Must be born again.
(2) Must be in fellowship.
(3) Must include the triune God as the object of worship.
(4) Must be in spirit.
(5) Must be according to truth.
These are the five pillars of worship. If any of the underpinning is missing, no matter how sincere, our worship becomes unacceptable to God. The biggest skirmish around worship wars is music. The kind of music will take care of itself if the whole heart (the seat of the intellect, the emotions, and the will) is engaged in the five foundational truths of worship. Emphasizing one element of the heart over the other always leads to an imbalance in worship, and music can become part of that imbalance if superficial and repetitious.
Good sermons, prayers, psalms, hymns express and inspire worship. These forms of worship help the mind to apprehend the truth of God’s reality and the affections to appreciate the truth of God’s reality. Forms of worship should provide the kindling to ignite the awareness and affections of God’s worthiness with biblical passion. True worship reflects the radiance of God’s worthiness. When we worship Him, we see Him for who He really is, spend time in His presence, and basking in His glory with unspeakable joy!
Exo 34:29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.
Exo 34:30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
Exo 34:31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them.
Exo 34:32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
Exo 34:33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
Exo 34:34 But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded.
Exo 34:35 And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.
2 Cor 3:7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
2 Cor 3:13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.
2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
We radiate Christ-likeness the more we apprehend, appreciate, and apply the truth of God’s Word to our lives. This is where renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2) and growing in grace (2 Pet 3:18) come into play. True worship radiates God’s worthiness with biblical passion. The more we grow into Christ-likeness, the greater the awareness and the deeper the appreciation of God’s worthiness.
There is a story told of a man who fell into the river and was drowning that illustrates what worship is. He cried out for help (prayer). A man heard his cry for help and dove into the water at his own peril and rescued the drowning man. The man was so appreciative of the man saving his life that he thanked and praised his rescuer profusely (thanksgiving and praise). It turns out that this rescuer was a very wealthy man who invited the man, who cried out for help, to his home for supper. During the course of the meal the man learned more about his rescuer, and came to admire the man not only for saving his life but because of the qualities and virtues of his character (worship). So worship is an expression of not only gratitude (prayer, thanksgiving, and praise) for what the Lord has done, but also it is an appreciation of the excellencies of His Person.
John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. Are you a true worshipper?
