John 4:23-24 - "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. God is
spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
In John chapter 4 the Lord Jesus is talking to the woman at the well and in the course of their conversation the subject of worship comes up. And in their discussion about worship the Lord Jesus makes several interesting points. God seeks true worshipers and true worshipers worship God in spirit and in truth. There is such a thing as false worship, but before we get into that let's get a very basic definition of worship. True worship is the adoration of a redeemed people, occupied completely with God Himself. There is an element of worship that has to do with bowing down before Him, or singing praises to His Name, but that's not the full extent of it. Worship is a lifestyle.
We were created for worship. Colossians 1:16 tells us concerning the Lord Jesus - "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him." That "for Him" is worship. If we're not living our lives completely for Christ then we are not fulfilling the purpose for which we were created. In Exodus chapter 20 when God gave Moses the ten commandments, He began the list talking about the subject of worship. In Exodus 20:2-6 He says - "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." This is false worship that God is talking about here, and He prohibits it. False worship is an adoration or serving of anything or anyone other than God Himself. And ultimately all false worship originates with and is directed toward Satan. Satan seeks worship, he wants to be like God, but He isn't. However, he has successfully blinded the world through many false religions and fooled mankind into worshiping him. We read of the Israelites in Deuteronomy 32:17 - "They sacrificed to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread." So God commands that no other gods are to be worshiped. But He also gives a positive commandment. He doesn't only command us what not to worship, but He also commands us to worship Him. We read in Deuteronomy 6:13 - "You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name." And the Lord Jesus quotes this to Satan in Matthew 4:10 saying - "You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only."
But this presents us with a problem. In order to be a true worshiper we must forsake all else and worship God alone. But because of our sin nature we cannot serve God, we don't qualify to worship or serve Him. Man in his fallen state cannot worship God. This is the problem with all false religions, God and fallen man are as far removed as sin is from holiness. And yet religions all over the world proceed with the assumption that fallen man can have dealings with God. This was the problem with the scribes and pharisees in Jesus' day, they were very religious, but Jesus said in Matthew 15:7-9 - "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”" They honored God with their lips, they looked and sounded very religious, but their worship was false because their hearts were far from Him. True worship is a matter of the heart, and they had not come to God on His terms. They looked very good outwardly, but we know from 1 Samuel 16:7 that - "God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Because mankind is separated from God due to our sin, our first need is to be awakened to our true state and our need of cleansing, and also our utter helplessness to help ourselves. But once we recognize this and confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And it's only after this transformation takes place in our lives that we can truly worship God.
Worship originates with God, it comes from Him through us and then back to Him. That's why the Lord Jesus said in John 4 that true worshipers worship the Father in spirit. Paul says in Philippians 3:3 - "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." Worship is not an outward show, like I said, it's a matter of the heart. Worship is an inward thing, we worship God through His Spirit who indwells us. We cannot stir up worship to God by exercising our senses. People will try to stir up worship in themselves by looking at religious pictures or statues, or by listening to "worship music." But we don't stir up our own hearts and spirits to worship God, He is the one who does it. If it doesn't originate with Him then it is false. A lot of church music today is orchestrated in such a way to stir up peoples emotions, and because of that people are often led into a false sense of worship. The song portion of many church services is even called the "worship service" and that's when we sing "worship songs." That's the portion of the service when we try to use this music to stir up our souls to worship God, but that's not how it works. You'll remember back Daniel chapter 3 when king Nebuchadnezzar erected a golden statue and commanded that everyone bow down and worship it. Three times in that chapter we're given a whole list of instruments that were played to aid the people in their worship of this idol. The people were told "that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up." I'm sure this orchestra must have sounded awesome, and it was used to aid the people in their false worship. Music can make you do some pretty strange things. This is just speculation, but there may have been some Hebrews in Babylon that were just overcome by the music and the reaction of the crowds around them that they fell down and worshiped the statue as well. Often our emotions our stirred up by music, because music is a very powerful thing, and because of that we can fool ourselves into thinking that we're worshiping God because the music is moving us. But that's not true worship. Singing is often the overflowing of a heart that is worshiping God, but it's not the source. the Lord Jesus said "from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Not the other way around. The writer says in Psalm 45:1 - "My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." The songs of the psalmists are an overflow of the worship with which God has filled their hearts. And musical instruments are often used in the psalms and elsewhere as an expression of worship and a praise to God. I'm certainly not against music or singing, I just think that we need to be aware that music does not inspire true worship, God does.
So how do we worship? Worship is not something we can turn on and off like a faucet. It originates with God and will flow through us to the extent that we are focusing on Him and allowing Him to live His life through us. True worshipers worship the Father in spirit, so as we live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit God will be glorified through us. Worship isn't about us, it's completely focused on Him. Psalm 95:6 says - "Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." And there are times when we come together for that sole purpose. The early church set aside a specific time to come together with one another and intentionally focus on Him, who He is and what He has done. Many churches today still have a meeting like this, it's often called "communion" or "the Lords supper" and it's a time when we come together for the express purpose of corporately, deliberately focusing on Him. And it's unique out of all the meetings of the church, because there is nothing in it about us. We have meetings where we come together for teaching or preaching, exhortation and encouraging one another, for fellowship, but in this meeting we come together simply to remember Him. To focus on Him and what He has done. A beautiful picture of worship is found in John 12:3 where we read - "Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." Mary was so overwhelmed with who He is that giving all that she had just came as a natural result. She was so caught up in Him that she glorified Him with all that she had and she didn't care who saw it. She was ridiculed for it by others, but she was commended by Christ Himself. This is what we were created for.
Another form of worship is the way that we live our everyday lives. Romans 12:1 says - "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." Presenting our bodies as a sacrifice to God is worship. Giving ourselves unreservedly to Him to serve Him, not only is that worship but it's our reasonable service of worship. A true worshiper, one who worships God in spirit and in truth, is someone who does everything they do for His glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says - "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." We tend to separate our lives into two categories, the spiritual, and the worldly. The spiritual things are the things like going to church and reading our Bibles and praying, and the worldly things are the things like going to work and eating and sleeping and things like that. But the Bible makes no such distinction, Here in this verse we're told that even in eating and drinking we're to do it in such a way that God is glorified. And living in that way is true worship. Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.
In Revelation chapters 4 and 5 the focus of the book changes from what's happening on the earth to what's going on in heaven. And what we see in heaven is pure worship. This is what's going to be going on for eternity, pure worship. And notice where the focus is. True worship focuses completely on Him. God is the origin and the object of true worship. Revelation 4:8-11 - "And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created.”"
Revelation 5:11-14 - "Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped."
In John chapter 4 the Lord Jesus is talking to the woman at the well and in the course of their conversation the subject of worship comes up. And in their discussion about worship the Lord Jesus makes several interesting points. God seeks true worshipers and true worshipers worship God in spirit and in truth. There is such a thing as false worship, but before we get into that let's get a very basic definition of worship. True worship is the adoration of a redeemed people, occupied completely with God Himself. There is an element of worship that has to do with bowing down before Him, or singing praises to His Name, but that's not the full extent of it. Worship is a lifestyle.
We were created for worship. Colossians 1:16 tells us concerning the Lord Jesus - "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him." That "for Him" is worship. If we're not living our lives completely for Christ then we are not fulfilling the purpose for which we were created. In Exodus chapter 20 when God gave Moses the ten commandments, He began the list talking about the subject of worship. In Exodus 20:2-6 He says - "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." This is false worship that God is talking about here, and He prohibits it. False worship is an adoration or serving of anything or anyone other than God Himself. And ultimately all false worship originates with and is directed toward Satan. Satan seeks worship, he wants to be like God, but He isn't. However, he has successfully blinded the world through many false religions and fooled mankind into worshiping him. We read of the Israelites in Deuteronomy 32:17 - "They sacrificed to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread." So God commands that no other gods are to be worshiped. But He also gives a positive commandment. He doesn't only command us what not to worship, but He also commands us to worship Him. We read in Deuteronomy 6:13 - "You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name." And the Lord Jesus quotes this to Satan in Matthew 4:10 saying - "You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only."
But this presents us with a problem. In order to be a true worshiper we must forsake all else and worship God alone. But because of our sin nature we cannot serve God, we don't qualify to worship or serve Him. Man in his fallen state cannot worship God. This is the problem with all false religions, God and fallen man are as far removed as sin is from holiness. And yet religions all over the world proceed with the assumption that fallen man can have dealings with God. This was the problem with the scribes and pharisees in Jesus' day, they were very religious, but Jesus said in Matthew 15:7-9 - "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”" They honored God with their lips, they looked and sounded very religious, but their worship was false because their hearts were far from Him. True worship is a matter of the heart, and they had not come to God on His terms. They looked very good outwardly, but we know from 1 Samuel 16:7 that - "God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Because mankind is separated from God due to our sin, our first need is to be awakened to our true state and our need of cleansing, and also our utter helplessness to help ourselves. But once we recognize this and confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And it's only after this transformation takes place in our lives that we can truly worship God.
Worship originates with God, it comes from Him through us and then back to Him. That's why the Lord Jesus said in John 4 that true worshipers worship the Father in spirit. Paul says in Philippians 3:3 - "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." Worship is not an outward show, like I said, it's a matter of the heart. Worship is an inward thing, we worship God through His Spirit who indwells us. We cannot stir up worship to God by exercising our senses. People will try to stir up worship in themselves by looking at religious pictures or statues, or by listening to "worship music." But we don't stir up our own hearts and spirits to worship God, He is the one who does it. If it doesn't originate with Him then it is false. A lot of church music today is orchestrated in such a way to stir up peoples emotions, and because of that people are often led into a false sense of worship. The song portion of many church services is even called the "worship service" and that's when we sing "worship songs." That's the portion of the service when we try to use this music to stir up our souls to worship God, but that's not how it works. You'll remember back Daniel chapter 3 when king Nebuchadnezzar erected a golden statue and commanded that everyone bow down and worship it. Three times in that chapter we're given a whole list of instruments that were played to aid the people in their worship of this idol. The people were told "that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up." I'm sure this orchestra must have sounded awesome, and it was used to aid the people in their false worship. Music can make you do some pretty strange things. This is just speculation, but there may have been some Hebrews in Babylon that were just overcome by the music and the reaction of the crowds around them that they fell down and worshiped the statue as well. Often our emotions our stirred up by music, because music is a very powerful thing, and because of that we can fool ourselves into thinking that we're worshiping God because the music is moving us. But that's not true worship. Singing is often the overflowing of a heart that is worshiping God, but it's not the source. the Lord Jesus said "from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Not the other way around. The writer says in Psalm 45:1 - "My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." The songs of the psalmists are an overflow of the worship with which God has filled their hearts. And musical instruments are often used in the psalms and elsewhere as an expression of worship and a praise to God. I'm certainly not against music or singing, I just think that we need to be aware that music does not inspire true worship, God does.
So how do we worship? Worship is not something we can turn on and off like a faucet. It originates with God and will flow through us to the extent that we are focusing on Him and allowing Him to live His life through us. True worshipers worship the Father in spirit, so as we live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit God will be glorified through us. Worship isn't about us, it's completely focused on Him. Psalm 95:6 says - "Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." And there are times when we come together for that sole purpose. The early church set aside a specific time to come together with one another and intentionally focus on Him, who He is and what He has done. Many churches today still have a meeting like this, it's often called "communion" or "the Lords supper" and it's a time when we come together for the express purpose of corporately, deliberately focusing on Him. And it's unique out of all the meetings of the church, because there is nothing in it about us. We have meetings where we come together for teaching or preaching, exhortation and encouraging one another, for fellowship, but in this meeting we come together simply to remember Him. To focus on Him and what He has done. A beautiful picture of worship is found in John 12:3 where we read - "Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." Mary was so overwhelmed with who He is that giving all that she had just came as a natural result. She was so caught up in Him that she glorified Him with all that she had and she didn't care who saw it. She was ridiculed for it by others, but she was commended by Christ Himself. This is what we were created for.
Another form of worship is the way that we live our everyday lives. Romans 12:1 says - "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." Presenting our bodies as a sacrifice to God is worship. Giving ourselves unreservedly to Him to serve Him, not only is that worship but it's our reasonable service of worship. A true worshiper, one who worships God in spirit and in truth, is someone who does everything they do for His glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says - "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." We tend to separate our lives into two categories, the spiritual, and the worldly. The spiritual things are the things like going to church and reading our Bibles and praying, and the worldly things are the things like going to work and eating and sleeping and things like that. But the Bible makes no such distinction, Here in this verse we're told that even in eating and drinking we're to do it in such a way that God is glorified. And living in that way is true worship. Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.
In Revelation chapters 4 and 5 the focus of the book changes from what's happening on the earth to what's going on in heaven. And what we see in heaven is pure worship. This is what's going to be going on for eternity, pure worship. And notice where the focus is. True worship focuses completely on Him. God is the origin and the object of true worship. Revelation 4:8-11 - "And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created.”"
Revelation 5:11-14 - "Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped."
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