The Manner of Worship

John 4:23-24

Download 🎧

Listen 🎧

We continue our series on worship and so far we have covered two of the topics I announced out of the text. We have looked at The Object of Our Worship, that is, who we are to worship or who do we direct our worship to. The last time I spoke, we considered The place of Worship, that is where we are to worship. We noted three things out of that sermon and by way of recap, I indicated that Jesus’ statement in the verses 21 and 23: “the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… But the hour is coming, and is now here…” meant that “A New Era Of Worship Has Come”. We noted also that to worship in spirit and truth was an indication worship is a heart thing there The Heart Becomes The New Place of Worship. And I concluded that because God is spirit, it meant then that worship can take place anywhere.

Today, we come to look at The Manner of Worship in which I will seek to answer the question, How Are We To Worship God? I will consider three things: The Manner of Worship Is Prescribed By God, The Manner of Worship Must Be According To Scripture and The Manner of Worship Must Be In Sincerity. 

The Manner of Worship Is Prescribed By God vv. 23-24

Now, to know how to worship, the first thing we must understand is that The Manner of Worship Is Prescribed By God. That is to say, how we worship is determined by God. The verses 23-24 is a clear prescription of how God is to be worshipped. He is to be worshipped in spirit and truth. We will come to that later, but if God is the object of our worship, then it makes sense that to know how to worship God, we must go to God. No one can tell us how to worship him than himself. And truly, God has not left how he is to be worshipped to our inventions and creativity. God has not left his worship to our discretion and individual choices and preferences.

Some Christians and churches have made worship about themselves. Worship is for their enjoyment. Yes, worship is to be lively and participatory, but surely worship is not for our entertainment and good feeling. We are not the Object of worship. We don’t meet to entertain ourselves or have fun in corporate worship, but rather we meet to worship God. 

Unfortunately, worship in many churches and among Christians have become self-centered, sensational and emotional. In churches where praise and worship is part of their worship, you are likely to hear something like “as a Christian, you cannot go to the disco. So this is your disco so dance your heart out.” Now this is not hearsay or speculation. I have heard this being said by a worship leader before. So people come to church, to do what they cannot do in the world. Is this what biblical worship is? Bringing the world into the church?

Now to say The Manner of Worship is Prescribed by God is not enough. Don’t you think so?  A question will naturally arise: “how do we know what God has prescribed? Listen to this from the Westminster Confession of Faith

The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is good, and doth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.

What we read clearly tells us there is God and this God is to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. Now the confession goes ahead to tell us how this is to be done. It has not been left for us to decide or figure out, but rather God has revealed it to us: “But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will.” 

The Manner Of Worship Must Be According To Scripture

What is God’s revealed will? The Bible. That’s where God has revealed his will. And the confession is so clear that God is not to be worshipped in any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture. This means that The Manner of Worship Must Be According To Scripture

 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:29).

God has not hidden his will about worship from us. Christian worship is not ignorant worship. Christian worship is knowledge driven. That’s the point Jesus makes in verse 22: “You worship what you do not know: we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews”

Here is a clear distinction between ignorant worship and worship according to truth. “You worship what you do not know”. See, worship can be offered ignorantly. Worship can be blind worship. Worship can be false worship. We can do things just because others are doing it. But you and I in our worship of God must know why we do what we do. We must worship with understanding: “We worship, Jesus said, what we know”: This tells us worship must be offered in knowledge. Christian worship must be grounded in revealed truth. God has revealed himself to us in Scripture and the first point by which we will know God is faith in Jesus Christ. You havent started to worship 

In fact, how can you love God or worship him properly if you don’t know him. It is just like our human relationships. For a meaningful and thriving relationship, we have to know about ourselves. Whether in a marriage, courtship, friendship…It is required we know one another. How can you call someone a best friend yet the person doesnt know what you like or dislike? What makes you happy and what makes you sad? We must know all these about those we are close to. This is the same thing in our relationship with God. Our love for God must be driven by what we know of God: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

This is important. And as individuals, this is why we must study our Scriptures. Read books. And in this age of technology, information is all over. All of us must be known to be growing in our knowledge in our worship of God. In the Bible, we see in many places how God prescribes his worship. When God asked Moses to built the tabernacle, he was given specific instructions. And God was careful to tell Moses “See that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain (Exodus 25:40). Then after the work was completed, and Moses went inspecting it, we are told that “And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it, as theLORD had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them” (Exodus 39:43). This is one of the clearest places we see God commanded how something ought to be done. In the 10 commandments, we see a clear prescription for worship in Scripture: 

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 a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments (Exodus 20:1-6)

In fact, all throughout Scriptures, we see God speaking of how he is to be worshipped: according to his word and his commandment, not according to our dictates. All the “you shall nots” and “you shalls” are God’s clear instruction about worship. Now these things are not things to be taken for granted. Worship is a serious matter and when we come together for worship, we must worship according to the Scriptures or God’s commands. In the bible, we know the story of two people who were killed for going against God’s command: Uzzah — He touched the Ark and died. And this was clear violations of God’s command. The Sons of Aaron and their strange incense ( Leviticus 10:1). So what does this mean for the New Testament believer? Some Christians tend to make a distinction between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. Maybe because we do not see records of God acting out instantly when his commands about worship is violated. But we will be presumptuous to think we know what God is doing in every individual or church’s life for violation of his commands. Paul gives us something to think about. In talking about worship, he said “But all things must be done decently and in order” (1Corinthians 14:40). 

This is a clear Regulation of Worship. We cannot act anyhow in worship. We cannot behave anyhow in worship. We cannot bring anything to God in worship. Worship is to a Holy God and we must worship him according to what he has prescribed in his worship: “in spirit and in truth” And we in the Reformed world call this The Regulative Principle Of Worship. 

The Regulative Principle guides how worship is to be conducted. John Calvin in his book The Necessity of Reforming the Church states that  “God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by his Word” This means we cannot worship God in anyway we like that is not clearly spelt out in Scripture. You see, this is crucial. In our everyday lives, don’t we have instructions to follow? There are rules for driving for example. Companies have stated policies and standards to follow. Schools have rules they operate by and those of us who are parents follow these rules. Madams and Masters who have apprentices have rules their apprentice must follow. When you visit a palace there are ways we are to conduct ourselves.

But why do we then think that we can introduce anything in the worship of God? So that these days, it is as if everything happening in the world must also happen in the church. Churches now bring comedians to their pulpits to entertain the congregation. Go to the churches that dance and go and see what they do there. Every form of dance in the world comes into the church. And the disorder during these times is glaring. Someone will say but David danced? No, David didn’t dance in corporate worship, people easily forget this. Okay, David danced and his cloths fell off. Does that mean someone can dance in church and let go of his trousers or skirt? Your guess is as good as mine what will happen. This is why we worship the way we worship. We worship according to The Regulative Principle Of Worship. We do what we see in the Scriptures So what must be in our worship? The Regulative Principle is clear: Reading the Bible (1 Tim. 4:13); Preaching the Bible (2 Tim. 4:2); Singing the Bible, that is the Psalms and hymns  and music that is sound and teaches Sound Christian doctrine (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), Praying, Observing the Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper the Bible. And sometimes we may call a fast or thanksgiving. 

The Manner Of Worship Must Be In Sincerity

When Jesus said the true worshippers must worship in spirit and truth, a point in there will mean that there are false worshippers. And if there are false worshippers, it means there is false worship. In fact, in contrast to true worship, there is all kind of worship: There is vain worship. There is false worship. There is hypocritical worship. And all these kind of worship, God abhors. This tell tells us Worship Must Be In  Sincerity. That phrase in spirit and truth simply means sincere worship. Worship that is from the heart. Worship that seeks to please God rather than human beings. And when we have God as the Object of our worship, then we are aware he knows our hearts and therefore we can’t hide from him. We can put up a good showing, but not before God because he sees everything going on in our hearts. In Malachi, God rebuked the priest for offering vain worship and polluted worship (Malachi 1:6-8).

Now worship that is sincere and acceptable before God must first and foremost be worship offered in faith through Jesus Christ. This means that no worship is acceptable to God outside of Christ. And the beginning of true worship then is faith in Christ. Because every human being by virtue of their sinful nature is separated from God and cannot indeed please God outside of Christ. So to offer acceptable worship then is to be in Christ: “Salvation is of the Jews” It means that God’s plan of salvation is worked out through the Jews and Jesus Christ being a Jew as a human being is the one through whom Salvation comes. If you don’t have any relationship with Jesus through faith for the forgiveness of your sins, then everything I have spoken about so far, is of no use to you. You can’t call yourself a true worshipper when you haven’t believed in Jesus. In Christian beliefs, there is no other way to God apart from Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

 

Facebook Comments