Worship

What does it mean to worship God? The word “worship” to us from Old English. It actually means “worthship.” Worship is the response to another in recognition of the worthiness of that person. How do we respond to the infinite, personal, almighty God? We cannot truly worship him unless we have come to an awareness and understanding of his true dignity and worth. That is why a lot of emotionalism without an intellectual apprehension of the dignity and the worth of God is not true worship.

True Worship

The Greek word for worship, proskuneo , means to prostrate oneself. One prostrates before another because of his awareness of the great worth and dignity of the other person as well as his awareness of his own unworthiness. And so in Psalm 95:6 we read, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” There is a recognition that God is the Creator. He is our God.

Karl Barth, the great Swiss theologian, once said, “Worship is the most glorious action that can take place in a human life.” What is the most glorious action? It is not eating and drinking, making money and building cities or going to other planets. No, the most glorious action that a creature can perform is to render acceptable worship to the one true and living God.

Therefore, worship is the recognition of the worth and dignity of the true God and our response in adoration as his creature. Why is idol making and idol worship the most reprehensible thing in the face of God? Because it is the exact opposite of true worship. It is a degradation of God. It means we are bringing God down to the level of a creature, or even down to the level of a creature’s handiwork. Therefore, God punishes idolaters because, as we read in Exodus 20:5, he is a jealous God.

How Can We Worship?

One of the most important passages in the New Testament in regard to worship is found in the fourth chapter of the gospel according to John where Jesus was speaking to a Samaritan woman. Beginning with verse 21 we read, “Jesus declared, ‘Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father’”—notice, worship is always rendered to God the Father—”‘neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know…’” It was false worship, in other words. It was nonsense. “We worship what we do know.” Notice the intellectual element in worship. You cannot worship without using your mind, because it is with your mind that you apprehend, to some degree, the worth of the exalted infinite God. “We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming, and has now come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” Must worship! It is not an option for a creature. It is a mandate, a necessity.

The question, of course, is, how can a sinner with defiled conscience, who is dead in his spirit and an enemy of God, come to God? And what type of God are we speaking about? We are speaking of God who is infinite; God who is personal; God who is sovereign, Lord of all; God who is almighty; God who is wisdom; God who is absolute holiness; God who is omnipresent—that is, he is everywhere in his fullness; God who is self-existing and self-sufficient; God who is omniscient; God who is the Creator of the whole cosmos and the whole universe is finite and nothing before him. How can a sinner come to such a transcendent, holy, other God and worship him by recognizing his true worth and dignity? A sinner is blind. He doesn’t understand who God really is. He has no true knowledge of God. He is an enemy of God and hates God. In fact, he refuses to worship God. The essence of sin is that one is an enemy of God, and one refuses to worship, honor, praise, and exalt him.

You Must Be Born Again

So it is interesting that in John 4 we are told that we must worship God in spirit and in truth. How can this happen? The way we can come to worship God is revealed in John 3 in terms of another must. In John 3:7 Jesus said, “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” That which is born of the flesh is flesh. We have to worship God in spirit; therefore, how can we have spirit? We must be born again. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. In other words, before we can worship God acceptably, we must be born of the Holy Spirit so that we have a spirit with which we can commune with God who is a spirit.

No unbeliever in Jesus Christ can worship God. He is incapable of it. We must be born again, which is a sovereign, mysterious work, unilateral work. It is a recreating work in which we have no part. God causes us to be born of the Spirit, and we become spirits.

Unless we are born again, Jesus says, we cannot see the kingdom of God, meaning we cannot understand and perceive the nature of the kingdom of God. And what is the heart of the kingdom of God? It is recognition of the King—God himself! Only a born again person is given the capacity to perceive the worth, the dignity, the transcendence, and the exalted nature of the one true and living God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So we say you must be born again.

Faith in Christ and His Work

In John 3:14-15 we are told, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man”—notice, another must—”must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.’” A person must not only be born of God, but he must also come to realize the centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ. He must realize the importance of the reconciling work of Jesus Christ on the cross, that Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross in our place. Jesus died for our sins and was raised up for our justification. A person must have faith in Jesus Christ and his work.

If we have been born of God and made able to understand the exaltedness and the transcendence of God the Father through our understanding of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are in a situation in which we can now worship the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. We are able to do that because we ourselves are now made spirit through regeneration.

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

In John 4:24 Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth.” I agree with Dr. James M. Boice who said in his commentary on John, “Many persons have been led astray in thinking that when Jesus spoke of ‘spirit’ in this verse He was speaking of the Holy Spirit. I do not believe that this is the case’” (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John: An Expositional Commentary, [Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company, 1985], 253). This “spirit” means our spirit, which we now have as a result of regeneration. So we must worship God in spirit. Our regenerated spirit has the capacity to worship God who is Spirit. It is spirit worshiping Spirit. God is a Spirit and is to be worshiped in spirit. Our resurrected spirit of man is capable of recognizing the worth of God, that he is Creator and the God of transcendent attributes, and worshiping him.

The second chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith gives a certain definition as to who God is. We should read that, because if we do, we will have some intellectual grasp of who God is. Intelligence is important in worship.

We must worship God not only in spirit but also in truth because truth reveals who God is. Because we are born again, we are able to appreciate truth. Here again, we must notice the importance of intelligence, especially the intelligence of a born again individual. We must worship in truth. That means, first of all, we must worship wholeheartedly, not with hypocrisy, as the Pharisees tended to do.

Second, it means we should worship him biblically. “Thy word is truth,” Jesus said in John 17:7. In other words, if we really want to worship God, which, according to Karl Barth, is the greatest and the most glorious action that a human can experience, then we must ask how can we worship God fully? Let me assure you, a person who asks such questions is directed to studying the Scripture, because worshiping in truth means worshiping biblically. It is in the Scripture that we begin to understand who God is.

Third, we must worship God Christocentrically. All worship that we render to God the Father is in recognition of what the Father has done for us in Jesus Christ, who himself said that he is the truth.

We find an important passage on worship in Philippians 3. In verse 3 Paul says, “For it is we who are the circumcision…” and there I would say “the circumcision” means “we are the covenant people” “…we who worship by the Spirit of God”—that is, we worship God by the Spirit of God—”who glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.”

Elements of True Worship

What are the elements of true worship? To answer that, again you have to read the Bible. And when you read the Bible, you discover certain elements of worship.

The first aspect of worship we notice is prayer. But how do we pray? We must pray in a way that is informed by the biblical revelation, by the truth. Our praise, our singing and our prayer should be done in a way that is biblically correct. Reading of Scripture is another element of worship. Preaching of the word is an important element, especially in Reformed churches. Confession of sin is an aspect of worship when we come to a holy God. Confession of faith—confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, especially in baptism, is an important aspect of worship. Celebration of the Lord’s Supper is an aspect of our worship. Giving gifts to God is an aspect of worship. That is why when you steal God’s money you are not worshiping acceptably. Fellowship is another aspect of worship—fellowship with God as well as fellowship with one another. We cannot have Holy Communion without fellowshiping with God’s people.

Additionally, all of our life is worship. And we should live remembering that whatsoever we do, we must do it for the glory of God. That is worship. All of our life is sacred, and there is no division of the sacred and the secular.

Place and Time of Worship

When and where do we worship? Now we just discovered from the Bible that God is a Spirit and, therefore, he is not limited to one place. We can worship God any place at any time. We can worship him any place because we know that God is omnipresent, meaning he is everywhere in his fullness.

When do we worship? We can worship any time. Isn’t that true? But particularly, as New Testament Christians, we worship on the Lord’s Day, which is Sunday. You read about that in Acts 20:7 and Revelation 1:10. Sunday is the Sabbath of Christians. Why? It is the day of resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is the day the Holy Spirit came upon the church on the day of Pentecost. It is the day New Testament Christians set apart for the worship of God.

Nature of True Worship

What should be the nature of our worship? I would say that we should worship in reverence with a sense of awe. Making jokes and all is not worship. Intelligent worship means that we understand the true worth of God and, therefore, come in awe and with a sense of wonder that this infinite, great, all-mighty, all-holy God has accepted us and made a way for us to come worship him, adore him, and engage in this most glorious act human beings can render.

When we worship God, we must also worship in purity. We cannot come to worship having committed sin and having been defiled. We must come to worship in purity with holy hands. Additionally, although we must come in reverence and in awe, we must also come to worship in great celebration and great joy because God has accepted us and forgiven all our sins. God has adopted us as his children. Thus, worship is a time of great celebration and great joy.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you enable people who are sinners to have a new spirit through the miracle of regeneration. We pray that you grant them great understanding into the person and work of Jesus Christ, that they may know that Jesus Christ died for their sins and was raised up for their justification. Lord, we pray that you enable them to worship God with intelligence as well as with emotion. We pray particularly that you rebuke our mindlessness and laziness of intellect. Help us to spend time in the study of your word, that we may come to know you more fully and worship you more acceptably. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.