Worship by Wandering Around
Worship in Spirit and Truth
(Worship by Wandering
Around)
John 4:23-24 (NASB)
23 "But an hour
is coming, and now is, when the true
worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the
Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him
must worship in spirit and truth."
For many years, the statement about worship Jesus made to
the Samaritan woman at the well left me wondering about His meaning.
Worship is a funny thing. If we think about it at all, we
typically associate it with the Sunday morning service at our church. This
morning I’d like to offer some insight into what Jesus was talking about when
He said, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit
and truth."
Let’s start by looking at how the word worship is defined.
The New Oxford
American Dictionary defines worship as, “[Coming] from Old English
“weorth-scipe” worthiness; acknowledgement of worth. [It is] the feeling or
expression of reverence and adoration for a deity; The acts or rites that make
up a formal expression of reverence for a deity; A religious ceremony or
ceremonies; To show reverence and adoration for (a deity); To honor with
religious rites.”
The Greek word translated worship is “proskuneo” (προσκυνέω). Proskuneo carries with
it the act of falling prostrate, kneeling, bowing and even kissing. According
to Kittle in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, “In the context
of the conversation with the Samaritan woman it means "genuine
worshippers." The words "to worship in spirit and in truth"
offer a definition of "genuine" undiluted proskunein (προσκυνεῖν). In this passage, the act of worship, which is concrete in
place and gesture, is lifted up to a new dimension: "spirit and
truth."” - Theological Dictionary of
the New Testament – Volume VI (Kittle).
Thinking about these definitions we can see that there are
two main thoughts in operation. First, the secular definition talks of rites
and ceremonies, and next, the word translated “worship” in Scripture talks
about bowing, kneeling, and falling prostrate. In these two main lines of
understanding, I think we begin to see the heart of what Jesus was telling the
Samaritan woman.
The secular definition of worship revolves around rituals,
rites, and ceremonies. It’s closer to the mark when it includes adoration and
reverence. As formal expressions of an inward attitude, rituals, rites, and
ceremonies are not bad in themselves, but they put the focus on us, rather than
on the One being worshipped. They’re all about what we do. The Old Testament indicates that observance of the Law and
its attendant ceremonies, sacrifices, and offerings isn’t what God is after.
Here’s how the Holy Spirit put it through the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 1:11-14 (NASB)
11 "What are
your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough
of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in
the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.
12 "When you
come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?
13 "Bring your
worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and
sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I
cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
14 "I hate your
new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me;
I am weary of bearing them.
God calls out not only the sacrifices and offerings, but the
ceremony, the assembly itself, the feasts and “holy” days, and even the
Sabbath, which He instituted in the Ten Commandments. Virtually no part of the
Mitzvah (the 613 laws in the Hebrew Scripture) is left untouched.
Since God Himself instituted these laws and handed them down
to Moses to be implemented, how can it be that these are not what He wants?
Isaiah, however, is not alone in giving this revelation.
Micah was also given a message about this.
Micah 6:6-8 (NASB)
6 With what shall I
come to the LORD And bow myself
before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling
calves?
7 Does the LORD take
delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my
firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has told you, O
man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to
love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
It is very clear that Father is not looking for religious
rituals, ceremonies, or observations. It is good for us to gather together to
be encouraged, to fellowship, and to learn from the Word, but it is not our
church attendance or observation of rituals, ceremonies, or rules that pleases
Him. Since worship is reverent adoration, falling prostrate, and bowing down,
it follows that we are only worshipping if what we are doing is what He is
looking for.
That sounds a little legalistic to my old Wesleyan ears and
I know I’m skating on dangerously thin ice here, so let me be absolutely clear.
I am most certainly not trying to lay condemnation or judgement on anyone here.
What I want to make clear is how resting in Jesus finished work and putting no
confidence in the flesh results in true worship without all the religious effort
required by ritual and ceremony. What’s more, true worship doesn’t just happen
on Sunday.
Last week at the end of our Sunday School lesson we talked
about the fact that we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. I
want to revisit that again today because we are talking about worshipping in spirit and truth.
To recap, our spirit is our essence; our living being—who we
are at the core. Our soul is comprised of our mind, our will, and our emotions.
I’m sure you don’t need my commentary on our bodies.
Religion is inherently fleshly and soulish. Ritual and
ceremony, in particular, appeal, to the mind, will, and emotions. It’s here
that we can easily be tripped up. When we practice the same behaviors over and
over, it’s easy to forget the meaning behind them. They become rote. We can
come to do them because that’s what we have always done, rather than out of
heartfelt reverence and adoration.
Jesus’ reaction to religious leaders provides some insight
into the problem.
Mark 7:5-7 (NASB)
5 The Pharisees and
the scribes *asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the
tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?"
6 And He said to
them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.
7 'BUT IN VAIN DO
THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'
Worship in spirit and in truth is different—it’s focused on
the One we worship. It is, in essence, agreement with Truth, walking by faith,
obedience from the heart—because we want
to. It’s bowing ourselves to God, to grace and truth, to love, to all that He
is because that is what is consistent
with who we are in Christ.
Here’s what the Spirit said to the Philippians through the Apostle
Paul:
Philippians 3:2-3 (NASB)
2 Beware of the dogs,
beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;
3 for we are the true
circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and
put no confidence in the flesh,
In other words, worship isn’t about what we do; it’s about
humbly and gratefully accepting what He did on our behalf.
Here is an example from Romans. I’ll read this from the New
American Standard first, but then I want to read the way The Message translation puts it.
(I’ve talked in the past about the value of multiple
translations. I wouldn’t recommend The
Message, by Eugene Peterson, as your primary study Bible. The translator
agrees with me on this, and says so himself in the introductory material. That
said, The Message sometimes adds
richness to text that can be hard to grasp due to the inadequacy of English to
concisely express the nuances of Greek or Hebrew.)
Romans 12:1 (NASB)
1 Therefore I urge
you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy
sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Romans 12:1 (MSG)
1 So here's what I
want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your
sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before
God as an offering. Embracing what God
does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
The Spirit elaborates on this idea in Paul’s letter to the
Colossians.
Colossians 2:6-23 (NASB)
6 Therefore as you have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
To paraphrase Ephesians 2:9 and
Philippians 3:3, We received Christ Jesus by grace through faith, and this not
of ourselves, it was the gift of God, so that we can put no confidence in the
flesh. That’s how we received Him, and that’s how we should walk in Him.
7 having been firmly
rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you
were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
8 See to it that no
one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the
tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather
than according to Christ.
This echoes the passage from Isaiah
29 that Jesus quoted in His response to the religious leaders that we read from
Mark 7 earlier.
Isaiah 29:13 (NASB)
13
… this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip
service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me
consists of tradition learned by rote…
God’s not looking for us to
religiously perform rituals and ceremonies by rote. He wants a relationship.
Something real that comes from the heart. Something completely true that comes
from the core of our being—our spirit.
Now back to Colossians 2, picking up at verse 9 where Paul
goes into great detail about what God has done for us and who we are in Him as
a result.
9 For in Him all the
fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is
the head over all rule and authority;
11 and in Him you
were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by
the circumcision of Christ;
12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through
faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 When you were dead
in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
14 having canceled out the certificate of debt
consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken
it out of the way, having nailed it to
the cross.
15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He
made a public display of them, having triumphed
over them through Him.
Next, He sets us free of guilt and doubt with regard to
religion.
16 Therefore no one
is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival
or a new moon or a Sabbath day—
17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to
come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
18 Let no one keep
defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of
the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by
his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding
fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together
by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.
20 If you have died
with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were
living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,
21 "Do not handle,
do not taste, do not touch!"
22 (which all refer
to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?
23 These are matters
which have, to be sure, the appearance of
wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the
body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
So we see over and over in Scripture that God wants our
hearts. He wants us to worship in spirit and truth. We do this by believing
what He says, believing who He is, believing that we are who He says we are in
Him. Understanding that we have the mind of Christ, we trust that it is He who
works in us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. When we walk
by faith rather than by what our senses tell us, we present our bodies (our
flesh) as living sacrifices.
We sacrifice the idea that our senses tell us what’s real
and lay it on the altar of the Word of Truth. We bow and prostrate ourselves to
the absolute truth of His love and grace flowing through us because of His life
being lived within us.
The Holy Spirit, through the writer of Hebrews, gives us
additional insight into worship in spirit and truth.
Hebrews 10:19-25 (NASB)
19 Therefore,
brethren, since we have confidence to
enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
Because of what Jesus has done for us, we can enter the
place formerly reserved for the high priest alone, and that only once per year.
And we do not enter the shadow, or model, of that place as the Hebrews did
under the old covenant. Verse 20 says that we enter…
20 by a new and living way which He
inaugurated for us through the veil, that
is, His flesh,
Remember that when Jesus finished His work, the veil of the
temple was torn from top to bottom. Here we see that this was a representation,
shadow, or model, of His flesh being broken for us. This begins to give much deeper
meaning to the bread we share when we celebrate Communion, doesn’t it? It also
helps us better understand the Holy of Holies. It is as if the high priest was
entering into Christ when he carried out his duties on the Day of Atonement
every year; and so it was. Atonement is made only in Christ.
So we enter the holy place by a new and living way through
Jesus’ flesh. Clearly this isn’t something we can do using our body, or even
using our mind, will, or emotions. It is a spiritual thing as we will see in
the coming verses.
Back to our text, picking up with verse 21:
21 and since we have
a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope
without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
When we know that our hearts have been sprinkled so clean
that we are fit to enter the holy place, we bow to what God says is true of us.
We are the righteousness of God in Him, according to II Corinthians 5:21. When
we trust Him, walking in full assurance of faith, we prostrate ourselves relying
completely on His faithfulness and placing no confidence in the flesh.
24 and let us
consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
25 not forsaking our
own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another;
and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
What could acknowledge God’s worth or express reverence and
adoration for Him more than having faith in Him, and living our “everyday,
ordinary, sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life” trusting
that what He says is true no matter
how things appear to our soul or feel to our flesh. This is not a long list of
things to do. This is rest in Christ. This is the freedom of worship in spirit
and truth.
I hope you are encouraged to know that true worship isn’t
about what ritual, rite, or ceremony you perform. I hope you are encouraged to
know that you don’t have to wait for Sunday morning to worship. I hope you are
encouraged to live a life of worship by walking in the Spirit who lives within
you and guides you into all truth.
As Eugene Peterson puts it: “Embracing what God does for you
is the best thing you can do for him.”
Nothing could revere and
adore Father more.
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