John 4:19-24
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Last time we learned that worship is as instinctive as the desire to eat. Yet look around you and most people don’t seem to worship; they are not going to church, temple or synagogue. In fact, with each year that passes fewer people attend a place of worship. Worship is a dying art, or so it seems.
But human beings must worship something. If you don’t worship God then you must find something else… usually yourself.
I was reading an old copy of Elle magazine recently (well, there’s nothing else to do in your cosmetic surgeon’s waiting room, is there?) and an interview with Eva Longhoria caught my eye, I think this is a pretty clear example of self-worship:
"I've always had a plan and being on a top-rated prime time television show was part of that plan. I want the best things that life has to offer me - the beautiful houses, the cars, the 10.000 thread count Egyptian sheets. What's more, I'm going to get them. I'm going to work my butt off and get everything I can."
Eva Longhoria, aka Gabrielle Solis of Desperate Housewives
Is that self-worship or is it just a healthy ambition? Read the rest of this and then you decide!
What is worship?
You can get a good answer to this question by taking a close look at the words used most frequently in the Bible. More than one Hebrew or Greek word is translated into the English word ‘worship’. Yet each of these words has a different ‘flavour’ or ‘colour’ to it. Those different colours give us a rich picture of what the Bible means by worship.
First, worship is service (the Hebrew word abodah, and the Greek latreuo are translated ‘to labour’ or ‘to serve as a slave’). Worship is, first and foremost, serving God, doing the things he requires and obeying his commands. Someone who worships God actually re-defines his or her life; Like Eva Longhoria I once had a plan, it included getting the best for myself, but now my plan is to fit in with God’s plans, and to serve him. This is worship, our active service for God.
Ambition is good, but it can become self-worship if we are not careful.
The second is that worship is reverence (the Hebrew word hishtahawa, and the Greek proskuneo both mean to prostrate oneself face-down on the ground. Proskuneo is made up of two words and literally means to kiss towards). Worship is to revere God above all others, to honour him, to love him; and to humble yourself before him.
The third thing is that worship is praising God. Praise saturates the Bible, especially its worship-songs. (the Greek words doxazo and eulogeo mean to glorify and to speak well of). This is telling God how great he is, and how much we appreciate his majesty, his greatness and his love. This is not for his benefit, but for ours; praise is immensely therapeutic! Worship is speaking out God’s greatness, in words that we sing or say.
When you know all this it becomes obvious that worship is bigger than anything you can do in a Christian meeting – it is giving God the reverence that we owe him in every aspect of our lives. Paul expresses this most powerfully in Romans 12:1 (here worship translates the Greek word latreuo - the emphasis is on our service of God). Words are not enough, songs are not enough, worship is one whole life sacrificed to serve God!
So how do we begin… how do we learn to worship… where do we start?
True worshippers…
Jesus revealed the secret in a conversation with a woman near the town of Sychar in Samaria (John 4:19-24) if you want to worship God you must worship ‘in spirit and truth’.
The meaning of this seems obvious. To worship properly you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and you need to be informed by God’s word, that’s the truth, isn’t it?
This is true, worship must be enlightened by God’s word and empowered by God’s Spirit, but this is not what Jesus is telling the woman in this conversation. Let’s take a closer look:
… worship in spirit
First, the word ‘spirit’ is here, not the Holy Spirit, but your spirit. You are looking at this right now through two amazingly complex video cameras – they are astonishing, superior to anything made by man. These cameras are fixed to the front of your face, we call them our eyes! The signal from your eyes is sent to your visual cortex, an area in your brain where the signal is processed. But who is watching me? What is watching me? You are… your very being… your self… your soul… your spirit!
God is seeking people who will serve him, revere him and exalt him from their spirit; the deepest part of their being. There is a simple reason for this; John tells us in verse 24, “God is spirit…” Maybe you know the expression, ‘soul mates’? Two people who just click because there is something deeply compatible between them. Worship is about becoming soul-mates with God – the deepest part of you enjoying his company.
There is a picture of this in Psalm 42:5-7. The poet who wrote this is very depressed, a long way from home and crying out to God to recover his lost joy. He pictures two waterfalls, both are in spate, full of water and roaring down mount Hermon. The sound of one deep chasm echoes in the other… “deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls”. Worship is the depth of my heart crying out to the depth of his heart, my spirit speaking to his spirit.
The idea is beautifully captured in Eugene Petersen’s translation of Jesus words to the woman in The Message:
“Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in worship. God is sheer being itself – spirit. Those who do it must worship out of their very being, in their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”
Eugene Petersen, The Message
This is what Jesus means when he tells us that worship must be in spirit. It is not about singing a few songs and going home, it is a heart-to-heart with God.
… and in truth
Secondly, Jesus says we must worship in truth. This does not mean what you may expect it to mean, not quite anyway. Now the Bible is God’s word, and it must be central in our worship… that is why we always read it and learn from it when we meet. Jesus himself was a great example to us of using scripture to worship God. But what he is teaching at this point is a bit more specific to himself (a little later Jesus says, “I am… the truth” John 14:6)
If you want a heart-to-heart with God you have to know what he is like.
If you want to praise him you need to know what he has done.
If we are to revere him then we need, somehow, to get a vision of his greatness
We can try our best to imagine this as we worship God, but imagination has it’s limits. John’s gospel begins where our imagination leaves off!
John 1:1-18
The word became flesh and lived amongst us – full of grace and truth – that’s Jesus. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Suddenly, the abstract becomes concrete! So if you want to worship God in truth then this Jesus must be at the centre of our worship!
That is why he always is!
So what is worship?
First, it is re-defining my life. I used to serve myself, I had a plan, but now I serve Christ, and am committed to his kingdom.
Second, it is reverence to him. Remember that Greek word for worship, proskuneo? It means literally ‘to kiss towards’. You kiss someone you love, and that is what we do when we worship – tell Jesus that we love him.
Finally, it is speaking well of him. We live in a world where hardly anyone has a good word for God. Men shake their fists at him. We meet to glorify him, to speak well of him. The world shakes it’s fist… we come to raise our hands!