ETERNAL TREASURE - WORSHIP ACCEPTABLE TO GOD

 

JESUS SUMMARIZED TRUE WORSHIP in two words: spirit and truth (John 4:23). Spirit is inward and unseen; truth is outward and seen. What is seen comes from what is unseen, the heart. Hypocrites are those who appear outwardly what they are not inwardly. Jesus accused the scribes and Pharisees of hypocrisy. Outwardly they appeared righteous, but inwardly they were full of extortion and self-indulgence (Matthew 23:25, 26 NKJV).

The scribes and Pharisees giving to the poor, praying, and fasting were to be seen of people (Matthew 6:1, 5, 16). God sees the heart, the inward thoughts and motives (1 Samuel 16:7). They were not worshiping in spirit and truth. In the Old Testament, we read of the same problem. “Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (Amos 5:23, 24 NIV).

The people were not worshiping in spirit. “. . . thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). As a result of not worshiping in spirit, they were not worshiping in truth. “. . . thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). Lack of worship in spirit and truth is problematic among Christians in every generation. The history of the Church has been marred by the sad accounts of Christians persecuting Christians: burning, torturing, imprisoning, etc. 

         Persecution of Christians by Christians is contradictory to the new commandment. “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). The persecutors were not worshiping in spirit and truth. What they did was far worse than what they accused the persecuted of doing.

Worship in spirit and in truth goes far beyond gathering at a certain time and place to sing, pray, and listen to a sermon. It is more than singing well or poorly, loudly or softly, hymns or choruses, instrumental or non-instrumental, simplistic or ritualistic, icons or no icons, etc.

Experiencing what we consider the best worship service possible on Sunday morning may not be worshiping in spirit and in truth. Worship in spirit and truth is not confined to a time and place. It is continual, and wherever the true worshiper goes—home, place of employment, school, market, or sporting event—is a place of worship in spirit and in truth.

God is Spirit. To worship him in spirit, we must receive his Spirit, the Holy Spirit. We receive his Spirit when we repent of our sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are then partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, heirs of God, and a joint heir with Christ (Romans 8:15-17). We are prepared to worship God in spirit.

Old Testament truth was outward on tablets of stone, and the sinful human nature within rebelled against it. But in the New Testament, the sinful human nature is crucified with Christ. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

The true worshiper’s spirit is made alive by being resurrected with Christ. “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). God’s character, the fruit of the Spirit, and God’s power, the gifts of the Spirit are given to the person resurrected with Christ to do outwardly what is present inwardly.

Jesus said God's word is truth (John 17:17). To worship in truth is outward. It is obeying the commandments of Jesus. The spirit of the priest in fellowship with the High Priest receives from him wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). They are words that describe the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) with the new heart and new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26) that has been given a new commandment (John 13:34, 35) for the new covenant (Hebrews 12:24) to worship in spirit and truth.

Witnessing of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than witnessing of a past event; it is living the life of crucifixion and resurrection—worship in spirit and in truth in the present. That which takes place inwardly in the Holy of Holies of the heart of the priest also takes place outwardly in the worship service with other believers.

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22–24).

In the worship service, the Eternal enters the temporal and the Immortal enters the mortal, and for that brief time of worship the temporal enters the Eternal, and the mortal enters the Immortal.

Worship with other priests keeps us from being swallowed up by the temporal and losing sight of the Eternal. The experience of worship helps us to better appreciate the exhortation not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together with other priests (Hebrews 10:19–25).

Excerpted from GRACE & SHALOM by Robert P. Holland