Worship in Biblical Perspective
The Revelation and Redemption are the basis of acceptable worship in Biblical Perspective
Text: John 4:4-42
Worship is the oldest practice in the history of mankind. There is no culture in the history which has not practiced some form of worship. We were created to worship and the essence of worship can be found in the first of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) This actually teaches us three vital truths about worship.
First we worship God because he is God. — Against atheism. The first commandment is first because God’s revelation and man’s response are foundational to everything else.
Second, God alone is worthy to receive worship — which forbids idolatry. So it requires that all services and acts of worship, which we tender unto the true God, with utmost sincerity, reverence and devotion. Worship means “to give honor, homage, reverence, respect, adoration, praise, or glory to a superior being.” Worship is not entertainment, it is not enhanced by bolster or artistic or the rock band. We do not approach God based on spectacles and sounds... but a deep reverence and revelation in our SPIRIT of the ONE WHO is being "WORSHIPPED."
Third there is only one God, Maker of heaven and earth. Anything or anyone else claiming the title god is a disgrace. When we give our highest attention or allegiance to anything or anyone other than God, we are worshiping what is false. Since God is the object of our worship, He and He alone have the right to determine how we are to worship Him. We read in Jeremiah 10:23, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps." We are not granted the option of directing our own ways. God is the One who we look to for guidance and direction.
God expects us to worship Him as an expression of love and gratitude to Him. God does not have a self-esteem problem. He does not need praise and worship to boost His self-image. Bible says, "God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives life, breath, and all things." (Acts 17:24-25) These imply God’s desire for the attention of His creation is rooted in love. He commands praise and worship in order to benefit the worshipper. When God is truly the only one we worship, every other part of life can take its rightful place.
Jesus said “they worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” (Mark 7:7) This is a alarming Scripture, because most people in the world today adhere to manmade rules . The Bible warns about following the traditions of men instead of the word of God. Jesus continued, in Mark 7:9, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions." “Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that." (Mark 7:13) It is tragic that so many people have label of worship without spirit of worship. They have religion without truth. Why should we need to study worship? Because it is a matter of great importance to God and false worship leads to dire consequences. Our worship not only honors and magnifies God, but it is also for our own security and strength.
This is why the first reason we need to study worship because there is so much confusion and so little understanding and practice of worship. The Second reason we should search the Scriptures on the subject of worship, because of the consequences of true and false worship. The third reason, and by far the primary one for considering the subject of worship worthy of our consideration is because worship is of great importance to God.
In John 4:4-42 we read about Jesus’ conversation with a lone Samaritan woman who had come to get water from a well located about a half mile from the city of Sychar in Samaria.. She was a Samaritan, a race of people that the Jews utterly despised as having no claim on their God, and she was an outcast and looked down upon by her own people. This is evidenced by the fact that she came alone to draw water from the community well when, during biblical times, drawing water and chatting at the well was the social highpoint of a woman’s day. However, this woman was ostracized and marked as immoral, an unmarried woman living openly with the sixth in a series of men. This woman was bound by sin and blinded by Satan. She had been confused, misused her life and was broken by sorrow. This story of Samaritan woman, recorded only in the Gospel of John, is a revealing one, full of many truths and powerful lessons for us today. It helps us deal with many modern theological issues.
Jesus had a divine appointment with the woman at the well and overleaps the barriers that separated him from this woman. He was a rabbi, and according to the rabbinical law, rabbis were instructed to never talk to a woman in public. In fact the rabbinical law said, "It is better to burn the law than to give it to a woman." In that culture women were regarded as totally unable to understand complicated subjects like theology and religion. Ever since the days of Nehemiah, 450 years earlier, this race of Samaritans -- who had been brought in by the Assyrians to populate the area after they had removed the Jewish population -- were regarded as a hated, heretical Jewish cult. The Samaritans accepted only the five books of Moses, and they had mingled with the Law of Moses pagan, idolatrous practices. They had even erected a temple on Mt. Gerizim as a rival to the temple in Jerusalem. Thus they were regarded by the Jews as reprobates, and were hated even more than the Gentiles. No wonder, then, that this Samaritan woman was surprised when Jesus addressed her.
We don't know her name or age. But her conversation with the Lord is his longest one-on-one chat recorded in Scripture. It was high noon on a hot day. Jews didn't normally travel on a Samaritan road, but Jesus chose to walk this way anyhow. Jesus, tired from traveling, chose a sensible rest stop—Jacob's well outside the town of Sychar—while waiting for his disciples to go into town for food. When this woman appeared with clay jar in hand, Jesus made a simple request: "Will you give me a drink?" (John 4:7). The woman, who understands her low social status in the eyes of a Jew, is astonished that this pious Jew requests water from her. In spite of all social prohibition Jesus was willing to toss out the rules, but our woman at the well wasn't. "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman," she reminded him. "How can you ask me for a drink?" (John 4:9). She focused on the human tradition; Jesus focused on divine grace. Our Lord encounters a moral outcast and displays for our instruction the proper approach to take with such a person. Jesus uses the water as a metaphor to teach this woman. He speaks about the living water, which gives eternal life, divine grace, or God's life within the soul.
Jesus told her, "Go, call your husband and come back" (John 4:16). Not an odd request, since women couldn't converse alone with a man in a public place. But Jesus' request was more about uncovering truth than about following society's rules. When she confessed, "I have no husband" (John 4:17), Jesus affirmed her answer, then gently exposed her sin: "The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband" (John 4:18).
What is it that causes a woman to have five husbands and then keep on living with 6th men anyhow? It sounds like the life of a movie story. The hunger after the thrill and excitement of falling in lust and romantic love is a most remarkable phenomenon to which the human race is victim. There is no solid satisfaction in any career for a woman like this. There is no home, no true freedom, no hope, no joy, no expectation for tomorrow, and no contentment. She is only one among the millions of miserable women. This is the kind of woman Jesus met at the well. He knew that somehow he must gently lead her to face the thing that was destroying her; that she must understand what it was that was ruining her life and keeping her from the satisfaction of her thirst. So gently, plainly, forthrightly, but without condemnation, Jesus led her to see what was wrong.
She changed the subject in the middle of confrontation. She talked about worship, Jerusalem, the differences between Jews and Samaritans. Again, we get her evasion. Her response is very revealing: Here was the root of her problems. First Her Relationships Were Wrong. Jesus told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." (Jn. 4:16-18) Second Her Reasoning Was Wrong. "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. (Jn. 4:19) Finally, the woman at the well acknowledged. "When [the Messiah] comes, he will explain everything to us" (John 4:25). How stunned she must have been at Jesus' revelation: "I who speak to you am he" (John 4:26).
The next moment, the arrival of his disciples confirmed his identity and gave the woman time to process the truth: The Anointed One had come! Overjoyed, she left her water jar and went back into town to urge her neighbors, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (John 4:29).In any century, our response to the Lord is the same. We confront our true selves, experience God's grace, and share the good news.
Third Her Religion Was Wrong. “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Woman," Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. “But the time is coming--indeed it's here now--when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.” (John 4:20-23) God's greatest desire and man's greatest need is for a Spirit to spirit relationship. God created an environment of His Presence in which man is to dwell and experience the fullness of this relationship. God commands worship because He and He alone is worthy of it. He is the only being that truly deserves worship. He requests that we acknowledge His greatness, His power and His glory. The Bible says: Rev 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
God must save us from the darkness of ignorance and the corruption of sin, to a true knowledge of himself, if we are to worship him acceptably. Thus, the Old Testament insists that people of Israel could only draw near to the Lord because of his gracious initiative and provision. He uniquely revealed his character and will to them, and rescued them from captivity in Egypt, establishing them in the land where they could serve him without hindrance. So the Revelation and redemption are the basis of acceptable worship in biblical thoughts. Sincere worship is that which is not of the lip merely, but of the heart. Spiritual worship is not irrational or ceremonial or traditional, but such as proceeds from a nature convinced of the truth, revelation of God and appreciative of the Divine attributes. True worship is rejoicing in the faithfulness, the righteousness, the love, of that adorable Being who is justly praised and honored. Consistent worship; is truly harmonious with the language and the attitudes of devotion.
Fundamentally, then, worship in the Bible means believing the gospel and responding with one’s whole life and being to the person and work of God’s Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Worship is the humble response of regenerate men to the self-disclosure of the Most High God. It is based upon the work of God. It is achieved through the activity of God. It is directed to God. It is expressed by the hearts of gratitude, lips in praise and by the life in service. God also expects us to be obedient to Him. He wants not only for us to love Him; He wants us to act justly toward each other, to show love and compassion to others. In this way, we present ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to Him. This glorifies God and is our “reasonable service” (Romans 12:1) When we worship with an obedient heart and an open and repentant spirit, God is glorified, believers are purified, the church is edified, and the lost are evangelized. These are all the elements of true worship. God demands, seeks, and requests our worship because He deserves it, because it is the nature of believers to worship Him, and because our eternal destiny depends upon it. That is the theme of redemptive history: to worship the true, living, and glorious God.
God is the one who holds our eternal destiny in His hands. Our salvation depends on whether our worship is pleasing to God or not. God does not need our worship; He is complete in Himself, even without receiving the worship of His creatures. We, however, aren’t complete. In our fallen state, we have separated ourselves from God. Worship draws us closer to Him. While worshiping God changes us for the better, the primary aim of our worship is not self-improvement. While God doesn’t need our worship in order to be complete, our worship is still an obligation—something that we owe to God. But it is a duty that we can perform cheerfully, knowing that, in doing so, we are participating briefly in the life of heaven. Worship is a time when we pay deep, sincere, awesome respect, love, and fear to the one who created us. God makes it clear that He seeks those who will worship Him “in spirit and in truth” Worship should cause us to reflect on the majesty and graciousness of God and Christ, contrasted to our own unworthiness.
Our worship not only honors and magnifies God, but it is also for our own edification and strength. Worship to the living God helps us develop a God-like character. We become like unto those we admire and worship. When we worship God we tend to value what God values and gradually take on the characteristics and qualities of God, but never to His level. When we worship God we develop such traits as forgiveness, tenderness, justice, righteousness, purity, kindness, and love.
The worship God has prescribed is the only way we can be pleasing to Him in this life and achieve eternal life with Him in eternity. In broad terms, acceptable worship means relating to God or engaging with God on the terms that he proposes and in the manner that he alone makes possible. It involves honoring, serving and respecting Him, discarding any tie that hinders an exclusive relationship with Him. For worship to be acceptable to God, we must have obedient lives. The ritual is not enough – the attitude is what is most important. Worship involves our entire relationship with God: our words, our attitudes, and our actions.
God is seeking true worshipers. It is only in the Word of God that we can learn what worship is pleasing to God. God in his great wisdom has given clear principles and practices to guide the worship. Worship is not an occasion for us to hear sermons about us, sing songs about us, or focus on how to make ourselves feel happily inspired. Since we are prone to worship ourselves as idols, true worship is an important occasion to redirect our worship back to God.
God wants worship not only with our lips, but also in our hearts. He wants our worship to be sincere — he wants to be the most important thing in our lives, that we are truly submissive to him. He wants our worship to affect our behavior, that we make sacrifices that we put to death the deeds of selfishness, that we seek justice, be merciful and humble, and help others. He wants us not just to obey him, but to serve in ways that go beyond specific commands. We are to worship wherever we go, doing all things to God’s glory, praying always, giving thanks always, never ceasing to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. Our worship involves how we work, how we drive, and how we choose what to watch on television. Our relationship with God involves all our heart, mind, soul and strength. God wants all of us, not just part of us, as we worship him. The real test of worship is not what happens at church, but what happens at home, and on the job, and wherever we go. Is God important enough to make a difference in the way we live, in the way we work, in the way we get along with other people? When the Holy Spirit lives in us, when we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, worship is a part of everyday life. God bless you
