The Fruit of Fearful Faith: Worship

12 The Fruit of Fearful Faith: Worship

I have always found it instructive to realize and emphasize that worship is nowhere specifically defined in the Bible. Nor do we ever find a divinely ordained outline of worship in the Bible. We certainly do not find anything like church bulletins or a printed order of worship in Holy Writ. However, the way many churches view their form of worship as untouchable, you would think it came down from heaven with the Ten Commandments!

In addition to this age-old tension in the church, we have the current debate and division over contemporary versus traditional worship. The younger people generally like informality and the more contemporary approach to worship. The older people prefer the more formal and traditional style of worship that they grew up with. Sadly, many churches are divided and will eventually split because of this different perspective of what authentic worship really is.

But when you take time to read and study the Bible, you find a great latitude in worship. That’s also why you see and experience such a diverse expression of worship in the church worldwide. In church after church where I have the joy and privilege of worshiping in other countries, I experience everything from form to freedom. There are millions who wor-

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ship through liturgy and millions who worship through liberty. Some like their worship to be spontaneous, while others like their worship to be more staid and predictable. For some, worship must be couched in ritual, rote, and reverence. For others, that totally quenches their spirit.

For some Christians, tradition plays an important role in their worship, while others prefer non-traditional. Some genuflect and kneel, while others raise their hands and dance in the Spirit. Some Christians dress up for worship, while others dress down. Some enjoy robes and vestments, while others do not. Many prefer the hails, bells, and smells of ancient church history. Others prefer a more contemporary expression of worship that is supercharged with lights, amplifiers, and high-tech video.

It seems that worship means different things to different people. Thankfully, there is a dynamic in worship that allows it to adapt to different tastes and temperaments and to different cultures and contexts. No one form of worship can claim to be right for everyone else in the Body of Christ. No one expression of worship can lay claim to being totally spiritual, while all others are labeled as carnal.

Our first question and concern should be, What does the Bible reveal about the nature of worship? As always, we must look at words and definitions associated with worship in the Bible. They must be our guidelines and guard rails for worship. So let’s hit the pause button and do some word studies about worship.

Essentially, the Old Testament word for worship means “to bow down” or “to prostrate oneself out of respect.” This needs to be seen in the Middle Eastern culture and context

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where position and protocol are deeply ingrained. In that part of the world where the Bible was first revealed, lines of authority were clearly defined and dictated social interaction. It was and is a patriarchal and matriarchal world where authority is revered and respected. To bow down and prostrate oneself in the presence of a higher authority is the norm.

I have often experienced this as I travel and minister in Africa and Asia. In many countries in Africa, children approach adults very respectfully and quietly. They often bow their heads for the adults to lay on their hand for a blessing. In some African countries, the women only approach the men bowed down, or on their knees, something that was very hard for me to adjust to from my cultural background!

In India, people often bow down and touch the feet of a person of higher authority to show respect and humility before them. Reverence and respect are often expressed by some token gift like a garland of flowers or a shawl of honor.

This respect is not necessarily earned through achievement. It is a matter of birth and birthright. Whoever is born in the king’s family, chiefly line, or priestly line is automatically revered and respected. They are honored for who they are rather than for what they have done. This is the social glue that holds their societies together.

However, these traditions do not tend to be the social norms in the West where equality and egalitarianism is emphasized between classes, races, and sexes. Everyone is seen on a level playing field. None are higher or more important than others. Therefore, there is little or no bowing and scraping in the presence of authority, whether man or God.

So, the Old Testament concept of worship based on an

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ingrained respect and reverence for everyone in authority is often hard for Westerners to grasp and relate to. Perhaps that is why there is familiarity that breeds contempt in our part of the world when it comes to authority, whether that authority is spiritual, social, educational, or political. This is seen in our churches when we feel and express near-equality with God in our attitude and action. We want to bounce into God’s presence, give Him a high five, say “What’s up, bro?” and then sit beside Him on His throne. After that, we go home having supposedly worshiped God in our own minds and hearts! Not necessarily. Often, we have only expressed ourselves and worshiped ourselves under the guise of worshiping God.

The primary New Testament word used for worship is proskuneo. It is used 60 times in the New Testament (24 times in the book of Revelation alone). But it needs to be read and interpreted through the lens of Old Testament worship. After all, all of the initial New Testament writers were Jews who were totally steeped in their Jewish religious tradition. They would have brought to their worship much of this Old Testament understanding of respect, reverence, and religious ritual. However, the newly converted Gentiles from pagan backgrounds would not have had these same understandings and religious conditioning. That’s why one of the early conflicts in the New Testament church was between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Both worshiped the same Lord, but tended to do so from very different cultural backgrounds and traditions that often clashed with each other. For the Jewish Christian, being kosher, or clean, was of great importance in worship. But most Gentiles had no such kosher consciousness.

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The word proskuneo means “to make obeisance, do reverence, to bow down to.” Interestingly, it comes from two words: pros, or “toward”; and kuneo, meaning “to kiss”; literally, “to kiss toward.” Again, in Middle Eastern culture, kissing the cheek, hand, or foot of the person in authority is the norm when entering their presence or greeting them. It is a way of showing love and respect. In one very real sense, then, worship is kissing God! It is lovemaking to God through our adoration and praise.

Therefore, whatever else may be involved in true biblical worship must arise out of a deep reverential fear, respectful love, humble awe, wonder, and adoration of the true and living God. So, even though worship is never clearly defined or outlined in the Bible, we can clearly see how it is related to the reverential fear of God as we read through Scripture, beginning with the book of Acts and the birth of the church. This attitude goes through the entire New Testament, ending with the Revelation where the church is glorified with the risen and exalted Christ.

• (After Pentecost) “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe [phobos, or fear; “And fear came upon every soul” kjv] at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles” (Acts 2:42–43). • (After judgment of Ananias and Sapphira) “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events” (Acts 5:11). • “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Sa-

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maria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened.

Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the

Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers” (Acts 9:31). • (After sons of Sceva exposed as frauds) “When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. . . . In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power” (Acts 19:17–20). • (John’s vision in Revelation) “Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice: ‘Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water’” (Revelation 14:7). • (Angels singing God’s praise after seven final plagues)

“Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed” (Revelation 15:3–4). • (Voice from the throne) “Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, both great and small!” (Revelation 19:5).

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Above and beyond everything else, reverential fear, holy fear, godly fear, and loving fear are to characterize our worship. In worship, we are to come into God’s presence with a sense of loving fear and fearful love.

Our worship is not to be like the false worship of apostate Israel, which God condemned through the prophet Isaiah: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught” (Isaiah 29:13–14). Nor is it to be like the religiosity, formalism, and dead liturgy that will be characteristic in the last days when people will have “a form of godliness” but will deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5).

We are not to have a form of godliness, but rather a fearful godliness. Our worship is not to be just lip service but life service. It is not to be half-hearted, but rather wholehearted. That kind of worship only comes from knowing, experiencing, fearing, and loving the true and living God.

It is this kind of worshiper that the Lord is seeking, just as Jesus taught: “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and 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 (John 4:23–24).

There is no better verse to summarize this fruit of fearful faith than the exhortation of the Apostle Paul: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1).

With that truth in mind, I often sing this familiar little cho-

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rus as a reminder to myself to be a living sacrifice that worships the Father in spirit and truth 24/7:

Lord prepare me To be a sanctuary Pure and holy Tried and true And with thanksgiving I’ll be a living Sanctuary for you

Amen!

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