Worship is the Celebration of Faith of the People of God P. T. Mathew, Dallas* Worship is central to our faith; it is giving glory to God with the people of God. Worship is not an imitation, but a faithful expression of our commitment to Lord’s great commission and the celebration of faith of the people of God (Matthew 28: 19 and 20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”). Worship is an act of fellowship, giving and caring. The word worship is derived from an Anglo Saxon word, worth-ship- means worthiness to honor. In Greek the word Proskuneo, means worship, prostrate, bow down. In Hebrew Shachah, means worship, bow down, bend down etc. There are different forms and expressions of worship in the community. Worship has become as an entertainment to some, rather than repenting and rejoicing the forgiveness and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Emphasize is given on the festive nature of the occasion rather than the celebration of thanksgiving and meditation on its reason or eschatological significance of the worship. In the name of modern technology, we have adulterated the sanctity of our worship and converted our praise and worship celebrations into secular stage performances. The worship focuses on the holiness and the holy presence of the Lord. Entertainment focuses people on the performance or on the entertainer. Scripture says worship should be a delight, not just a duty. In the Old Testament, the great Jewish feasts were times of exuberant joy and heartfelt celebration. Some of them contained an element of sorrow and repentance for sin, but this led to the joy of knowing God’s forgiveness and mercy. Let us look in to the background of the following verses in the book of Ezekiel 47: 1-11, “And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from the south of the Altar” (Ezekiel 47:1b). This is the vision of the prophet Ezekiel. He saw a river emerging from the Temple, flowing eastward beginning to flow slowly as thin stream and becoming a deep river. Trees will grow along the banks and this river flows in to the Dead Sea and so this water of the river transforms the water of the Dead Sea for fish and other life forms. Worship shows the celebration of the life, the abundant life, provided by the power of the water that begins from the altar of the temple, flows through the sanctuary – the people – cleanse them and prepare them to cleanse the world, like the stream cleanses the water of the Dead Sea to grow life in it. Through the above vision Ezekiel sees the origin
of worship, the place of worship, the form of worship and the final result of worship. 1. Where to worship? We can see the answer of this in the conversation of Jesus with the Samaritan women at the well in John 4:20-24: “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” We can worship God in any place and at any time, provided we worship Him in truth and spirit. There is no particular place where we can see God, but we experience the presence of God in the place wherever we worship God in the truth and spirit. 2. Why do we worship? To glorify God and celebrate His Holiness. He is our creator and we are His creations. Celebrates God’s holiness and acknowledge the unworthiness of man. In the book of Isaiah chapter 6: verses 1-8 we can see the vision of Isaiah about the worship. Isaiah was seeing the glory of God in worship. In worship we should glorify God and see the glory of God. We should see the divine manifestation of the God. 3. Worship helps to have self examination, repent on our sins and enjoy the forgiveness of sins. Worship helps to find out the unclean nature and the emptiness of our life. The Samaritan woman was giving many excuses to Jesus when he asked her for a drink. Sometimes we are also like her, giving excuses to Jesus when he tries to shed lights in to our inner life to show the unclean nature of our life. The prophet Isaiah told us that he made self-examination and found out that ‘he was a man with unclean lips and living in the midst of people with unclean lips.’ What is this unclean lip? The gossiping lips, the slandering lips and the self boasting lips. The true worship helps us for self-examination of our life. It leads in
19 | P a g e F O C U S O c t o b e r 2 0 2 0 V o l . 8 , N o : 4
