Worthy of It All - Understanding worship

There is a life that God has for each and every one of us. That life is more than a mundane existence, more than one where we simply talk about God without encountering Him. What He has for us is rooted in the very presence of God, a life that is built upon Him and in Him, a life where we can see and live in His glory.

Now, If I were to ask you to name a famous worshiper in the Bible, what would your answer be?
My favourite example of worship is actually found in the New Testament, with a person who chose to live a life of worship. Someone who wanted to sit at the feet of Jesus and to be close to Him.
John 12:1-8 (NLT) Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance. But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself. Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
If you want to understand what worship is, this passage demonstrates it. In it we have Jesus, and then we have two different people, each of whom react differently to Jesus’ presence. The first of these people was Mary. This was not Mary the mother of Jesus, but Mary the sister of Lazarus, who we often call Mary of Bethany.
Mary was a nobody. She was a woman in a middle-eastern society that did not hold women with much value. She held no status and had no worldly importance.
The second important character in this passage is Judas. Judas as the person in charge of the money bag is considered to be the best educated of the disciples, and perhaps the most respectable one of the disciples. He maybe had a background in finance. When they came to sit at a dinner prepared in Jesus’ honour, they each react very differently. Mary took a jar of expensive perfume, worth a year’s wages and used it to anoint Jesus’ feet. The average annual wage at the moment in the UK is around £37,000, so she took a perfume that was that expensive and precious and poured it onto Jesus. Later on in the book of John we read of how Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, but Mary is going even further than just washing feet, she is honouring them. She took everything that she had, probably most or even all of the wealth that she had in the world and she poured it out onto Him. This was an extravagant act, one demonstrating her overwhelming love and devotion to Him. In pouring this expensive oil over his feet, she was recognising the worth of Jesus and understanding that even his feet, the lowest part of his body deserved everything given to it.

What Mary demonstrated that day was true worship. To worship someone or something simply means that we give them worth. Worship literally means worth-ship It means that we think that they have value, and we recognise that value, and because they have value we honour them.

Not only do we recognise their worth, but we recognise their authority too.We know, and crucially we submit to their authority. There are people in society today such as magistrates or mayors who we still address as “your worship.” By using that title we are acknowledging their importance, or their worth and that we recognise the authority that they have over us.

The Greek word for worship is “Proskuneo” There are two parts to this word. The first part means to move towards (pros) and the second part is to kiss (kuneo.) Kissing in this sense is not a romantic action, but is actually a sign of devotion, submission and reverence. People traditionally kiss the ring of a king or even the pope as a sign of reverential submission. Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet is the perfect demonstration of prokuneo.

Romans 12:1 (NLT) And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

So worship is giving our entire lives as a living sacrifice for that which is worthy. It is submission before an authority that has real value. Because He is worthy, because He is valuable, we respond to His worthiness by honouring Him with everything that we have, by pouring our lives out onto Him. That is why Paul states that how we live is our true act of worship.

Mary demonstrated that when she poured her wealth on Jesus feet, she was giving Him everything, her entire life, all that she owned. She gave everything just to bless Jesus, to minster to Him, just to love Him. This was a true act of worship.

It is really interesting to contrast how Mary reacted to Jesus with how Judas reacted. When Judas sees this selfless, love filled act, his response is to draw attention to himself, and to demonstrate how spiritual he was. Judas points out that that perfume could have been sold, and the money given to the poor, and he was right! I never understood this verse when I was younger because Judas is right. That money could have gone a long way to helping those in need. But Judas wasn’t saying this because he cared for the poor, but because he wanted to draw attention to himself, He wanted to look spiritual before others, and of course he wanted some of the money for himself too.

Judas was concerned with how he looked in front of others, whereas Mary didn’t care what she looked like, and she had no interest in drawing attention to herself. She was only interested in honouring and surrendering Jesus.

We read of a similar situation in 2 Samuel 6:16.

2 Samuel 6:16 (NLT) But as the Ark of the LORD entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she was filled with contempt for him.

When the ark of the covenant was bring brought into Jerusalem, the whole of Israel celebrated with praising and music. David Himself danced and leapt with celebration, filled with excitement at what God had done and wanting to give Him the glory. But Michal did not care for this amazing act of God that was going on before her, instead she was consumed with anger and jealousy about her own situation, and despised David as he gave his all before the Lord.

The difference between Mary and Judas, David and Michal was very simple, it was the state of their hearts. Judas was doing and saying on the surface the more Christian thing.Yet God does not judge us by our appearance but by the heart. Judas was interested in self promotion, his heart did not desire Jesus, he only desired to promote himself. But Mary desired nothing for herself, her only desire was to be close to Jesus, and she happily paid the cost to be close to Him.

Last week we looked at when God was leading Samuel to chose a king for Israel, Samuel wanted to chose David’s strong and tall and experienced warrior brothers, but this is what God said:

1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT) But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

It’s no different today, God is looking for people who want to put their life out to Him, to life a lifestyle of worship in surrender to God. Just like we saw last week, these are the people whom God chooses for His purpose.

Worship is the correct response when we realise how worthy God is. It is the reaction of our hearts when we are faced with this mighty God.The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse into what is happening in the heavenlies. 

Revelation 5:11-14 (NLT) Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered— to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing.” And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honour and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.

We read how all the angels, all the living beings, all the elders are around God’s throne, and their response is to pour out praise and blessings and honour to God. And I guarantee that if we saw Him in this room now today we would have the same response. But here’s the thing, we are privileged to be in a position where we can worship Him even now upon the earth, just like they are in Heaven. In fact, as the Lord’s prayer teaches us, it is our purpose to do on the earth as it is in heaven. If we fix our eyes upon Him we too will see his worth and we will join in the with angels and the worship of heaven here upon the earth.

A life that is given over in worship is a life that is intimate with Jesus. Our desire for God directly corresponds with how close we are to Him. 

James 4:8 (NLT) Come close to God, and God will come close to you…

It’s a very simple equation, if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. The truth is that we are always as close to God as we want to be. If we want to have more of the reality of God in our lives, we have to learn to live a life full of worship.

The Bible makes it very clear that we can have that reality of His presence.

Hebrews 10:19-22 (NLT) And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. 

We need to realise the enormity of what we are being told here In Hebrews. It is urging us to go right into the presence of God.  In the Old Testament, God told Moses to construct a tabernacle, meaning a place of meeting.

This tabernacle was divided into 3 sections, the outer court, the holy place and the most holy place, or the holy of holies. The most holy place the presence of God lived in the Ark of the Covenant. Only the high priest could enter into the most holy place, only once a year and only after a lot of ceremony But Hebrews tells us that we can now boldly enter into the Holy of Holies because of Jesus’ blood. IIt urges us to go right on in to the presence of God.

We have a legal right to come into God’s presence, we have a pass to come in, and that pass is the blood of Christ. Despite this, many of us fail to take up that right. We’re too content with the things of the earth. We’re too content with a life that isn’t built upon Him. But God is looking for those with the same heart that Mary of Bethany had, those who see the worth in Jesus and are prepared to pour everything we have out to Him.

In the Old Testament, in the tabernacle and later the temple, God required a blood sacrifice before the priest could  enter into God’s presence. But that was never God’s desire, but it was a necessary law because of the fall of man and because of sin. But the sacrifice that God is really looking for is our hearts turned to Him. David understood this when he wrote

Psalms 51:16-17 (NLT) You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

He realised, even in Old Testament times that it wasn’t animal sacrifice that God desired, but our hearts broken and repentant before Him. David actually established his own tabernacle, one that was radically different from Moses’ tabernacle. Like Moses’ tabernacle it still had the ark of the covenant at its heart, which contained God’s presence. But unlike Moses’ tabernacle, it did not have the same sacrificial system. Instead it had musicians and worshipers continually ministering before God day and night, giving Him all the glory and honour that He deserved. This was effectively a New Testament church in the Old Testament.

About 200 years after David’s tabernacle, the prophet Amos said this, also quoted in Acts:

Acts 15:16-18 (NLT) ‘Afterward I will return and restore the fallen house of David. I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, so that the rest of humanity might seek the LORD, including the Gentiles— all those I have called to be mine. The LORD has spoken— he who made these things known so long ago.’

Amos was saying that in New Testament times, in the times that we are living in now, God will restore Davidic worship, He will restore worship that is based not upon animal sacrifice but upon ministry direct to God, where all of humanity can come and seek, and worship this living God.

So how do we worship as God wants us to? Let’s go back to this verse from Romans:

Romans 12:1 (NLT) And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

We worship Him by giving Him our entire lives. We give Him our life as a sacrifice to him. Because when we focus upon His worth, we can see that owe Him everything. If we have that understanding of worship then we can worship Him at work, when we’re out, or wherever we are. We worship Him by our love for Him and our obedience to Him. We become that living sacrifice.

But we also worship Him with our mouths.

Hebrews 13:15 (NLT) Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.

Hebrews tells us to continually offer Jesus a sacrifice of praise. So this means that praise is a sacrifice. This is the sacrifice that David had in His tabernacle, a continual 24/7 pouring out of love to Him. It’s not about being musical or about sounding nice, God doesn’t care about that. He wants us to have hearts that are overflowing with love and joy for Him, that give Him the glory that He deserves, pouring out onto Him just as Mary did and just as the worship of heaven is.

We sing many different types of song in church that are all correct and all have their proper place. Some are praise songs, thanking God for who He is. Some are songs that speak about the work that God has done in us. Some are songs that proclaim the truth of God. Some songs are designed to uplift and encourage us.
But a worship song is one that does not talk about God in the third person. A worship song is not a song about God, but rather it is a song sung to God,It focuses upon the holiness, the majesty of God, and it leads us into submission to Him.

A great example of this Holy, Holy Holy, written exactly 200 years ago.  It is sung to Him, It ministers to Him, and just like Mary we can sit at Jesus’ feet and pour out to Him. It is the worship that is described in Revelations 4:8, and it is the worship that is going on in Heaven right now. It helps us in the continuation of the worship of heaven here upon the earth.

It’s not about a particular song, it’s about our hearts pouring out in love, reverence and awe. The famous Matt Redman song “Heart of Worship,” says that “I’ll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself, is not what you have required.”

Let us join us now with the worship of Heaven as we minister before Him.