We have examined the two aspects of Worship that are laid out in the John 4:23-24 text – Spirit & Truth. In todays post I want to bring them both together and briefly explain the importance of this Scripture. It has been my aim to give you an overview of each aspect separately, but now we need to look at why they are joined together as an expression of worship.
Part 3
God is spirit, and God is true! Worship is all about God! We cannot get caught up in worshiping to get, or worshiping to manipulate, or anything of that nature. We must remember that our worship is directed towards God and must stay there!
The fact is, worship is an end in itself. It is for Good. To lose sight if Him is to lose sight of worship altogether. All begins and ends with Him.
The Worship God Seeks by David Ruis
The purest form of worship is just simply standing/bowing in awe of who God is and what He has done for us! Anything that we do outside of this is supposed to enhance this aspect of our worship, not minimize it.
In our society today there is a tendency to be “seeker-friendly”, and although that has its place it should not be where the Church operates from. One of the main functions (if not the main function) of the Church is to worship God, so we need to be careful that we are doing that in a God-honoring way. I believe that it is not very God-honoring to “dumb-down” the message of the Word of God in order to make it easier to understand, or in order not to offend those outside of the faith. So, we take theological words and/or ideals and either water down the implications of them, or sometimes even get rid of them in order to be current with the culture. I believe that we must not lose sight of the theological terms and we must teach them to our members in the Church today! What will we do when we are no longer able to define, or even use, such words as propitiation, redemption, salvation, gender, wrath, etc..?
This is all about worshiping in Truth. Truth requires us to say it as it is without watering the message down. I remember being new to these terms, and I remember the joy of hearing something that I wasn’t sure of its meaning, then going into my prayer closet and discovering what the meaning of a term was through prayer and the Word of God (and maybe Google occasionally). Isn’t that the joy of our personal relationship with the Author of the Bible? It is a treasure hunt! I do not want to take that away from someone else by only singing songs and praying prayers that go no deeper in our theological expressions than; love, joy, peace, hope, etc. How about;
“Behold him there! the risen Lamb, my perfect, spotless Righteousness, the great unchangeable I AM, the King of glory and of grace! One with Himself I cannot die, My soul is purchased by His blood; My life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ, my Saviour and my God with Christ, my Saviour and my God.
Before the Throne of God Above
or how about this song text;
When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. Where every realm of nature mine, My gift was still be far too small, Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
These words are expressing the everlasting truths of God’s Word, and they have substance that when we sing and recite will inevitably enhance our faith and our rhetoric. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” We need to be seekers of God who are well informed on how to speak the wonderful theological truths of God, and I hope that our songs and prayers are helping us to be informed in that way!
When we have these truths on our lips and we declare them from our hearts, then our spirits follow after such declarations with adoration and awe! Our spirits intertwine with our declarations. Take a look at what Jesus says in Matt. 12:35(b), “For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.” James states that blessing and cursing come from the same mouth, but that it should not be so because just as a salt water spring cannot produce fresh water a worshiper should not produce anything other than God-honoring speech.
How about the Elders in Revelation? Take a look at this text with me;
“Each one of the four living creatures had six wings and was full of eyes all around and inside. They never rest day or night, saying: “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God, the All-Powerful, Who was and who is, and who is still to come!” And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders throw themselves to the ground before the one who sits on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever, and they offer their crowns before his throne, saying: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created!” (Revelation 4:8-11)
Just think, right now in Heaven there is a worship service happening. Within that worship service, truth is being proclaimed about who God is and what He has done. Whenever that happens, there is a response that takes place that causes all of those around the throne to fall before Him and throw their crowns saying, “You are worthy..”. This is going to be so awesome to experience in the future, but I am here to say that we can, and should, be experiencing that sort of a worship service right now!! This is a great picture of worshiping in Spirit and Truth!
When spirit is mixed with the expression of Truth, I believe that is when God is most honored and His presence is made most manifest. When we declare back to God the Truths that He has revealed to us about Him, and then willfully align our wills (spirit) in subjection to those Truths, is when I believe that we are fulfilling this encouragement by Jesus that worshipers should worship God in spirit and truth. It is about our entire being aligning itself with the character and express truths of who God is, and declaring them emphatically that fulfills the call to worship God in spirit and in truth!
Romans 12:1 tells us that offering up our bodies (entire being) as living sacrifices to God, holy and pleasing to Him, is our true worship. I believe this will be my next post topic. What it means to offer up our bodies to God as holy and pleasing. I hope that you will join me as we continue to unpack the Scriptural view of worship and how it is applied to our lives every day. Do me a favor and share this with someone that you feel will be blessed by it. Thank you!
God bless you