Worship by Wandering Around

Worship by Wandering Around

John 4:23–24 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.” (NASB95)

For many years, the statement Jesus made to the Samaritan woman at the well about worship 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. I would 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 us start by looking at how the word worship is defined in the secular world. 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.”

For a more theological definition we will look to the Greek. The word translated worship is προσκυνέω (proskuneo). 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 προσκυνεῖν (proskunein). In this passage, the act of worship, which is concrete in place and gesture, is lifted up to a new dimension: "spirit and truth."”

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 is 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 are all about what we do. The Old Testament indicates that observance of the Law and its attendant ceremonies, sacrifices, and offerings is not what God is after. Here is how the Holy Spirit put it through the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 1:11–14 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.” (NASB95)

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 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?” (NASB95)

Father is not looking for religious rituals, ceremonies, or observations. It is good for us to gather to be encouraged, to fellowship, and to learn from the Word, but it is not our church attendance or observation of rites, 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 am skating on dangerously thin ice here, so let me be clear. I am most certainly not trying to lay condemnation or judgement on anyone. 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. More than that, true worship does not just happen on Sunday.

If you read my studies, you have heard me say many times that we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. I want to reiterate that 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 am confident you do not 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 is here that we can easily be tripped up. When we practice the same behaviors over and over, it is easy to forget the meaning behind them. They can become rote. We can come to do them because that is 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 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?” 6And 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.’ (NASB95)

Worship in spirit and in truth is different—it is focused on the One we worship. It is, in essence, agreement with Truth. It is walking by faith. It is obedience from the heart—because we want to. It is 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 is what the Spirit said to the Philippians through the Apostle Paul:

Philippians 3:2–3 2 “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; 3for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,” (NASB95)

In other words, worship is not about what we do; it is about humbly and gratefully accepting what He did on our behalf. Here is an example from Romans. I will quote this from the New American Standard Bible first, but then I will include the way The Message translation puts it.

(I think there is great value in the use of multiple translations. I would not 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 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.” (NASB95)

Eugene Petersen says it this way: 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 2:6 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 cannot put confidence in the flesh. That is how we received Him, and that is how we should walk in Him.

Paul goes on in Colossians 2:7–8 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. 8See 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.” (NASB95)

This echoes the passage we read earlier from Mark 7 where Jesus quoted from Isaiah 29 in His response to the religious leaders.

Isaiah 29:13 13 “Then the Lord said, “Because 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, (NASB95)

God is 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 going back to Colossians 2 and picking up at verse 9, Paul goes into great detail about what God has done for us and who we are in Him as a result.

Colossians 2:9–23 9 “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 11and 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; 12having 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. 13When 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, 14having 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. 15When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. 16Therefore 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— 17things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 18Let 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, 19and 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. 20If 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? 23These 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.” (NASB95)

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 as living sacrifices.

We sacrifice the idea that our senses tell us what is real. We lay that 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. Let me unpack Hebrews 10:19-25 just a bit.

Hebrews 10:19 19 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,” (NASB95)

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… “by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,” Hebrews 10:20 (NASB95)

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. It also helps us better understand the Holy of Holies. By example, the high priest was entering into Christ when he carried out his duties on the Day of Atonement every year. Full atonement, propitiation, is made only in Christ.

So, we enter the holy place by a new and living way through Jesus’ flesh. Clearly this is not 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 in Hebrews, picking up with verse 21. Hebrews 10:21–23 21 “and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let 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. 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; (NASB95)

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 2 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.

Hebrews 10:24–25 24 “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25not 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.” (NASB95)

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” (MSG) 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 is not about what ritual, rite, or ceremony you perform. I hope you are encouraged to know that you do not 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.