True Worship
by
John
MacArthur, Jr.
Word
of Grace Communications
ã 1982, 1985 by
John MacArthur, Jr.
All
rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission
in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical articles or reviews.
Note:
Permission was received for Bible Bulletin Board (www.biblebb.com) to transcribe this book for
posting on their website, and all original copyrights and other rights are
still in effect.
Selected Scriptures
Tape GC 2009
6
True
Worship - Part 6
Outline
Introduction
Review
I. The
Importance of Worship
II. The Source (Basis) of Worship
III. The Object of Worship
A. God as Spirit (His Essential Nature)
Lesson
B. God as Father (His Essential Relationship)
1. The trinitarian designation of God
a) Jesus’ usage of the term “Father”
(1) John 5:17-18
(2) John 10:29-33
(3) John 17:1-5
(4) Matthew 11:27
(5) John 14:6-11a
b) The Apostles’ understanding of the term
“Father”
(1) Ephesians 1:3a
(2) Ephesians 1:17a
(3) 2 Corinthians 1:3
(4) Philippians 2:9-11
(5) Romans 15:6
(6) 1 Peter 1:3a
(7) 2 John 3
2. The trinitarian worship of God
a) The worship of the Son
(1) Defined in the unity of God
(2) Demonstrated in the early church
(3) Declared by the apostle Thomas
b) The worship of the Holy Spirit
IV. The Sphere (Place) of Worship
A. The
Symbolism of the Old Covenant
B. The
Reality of the New Covenant
1. The temple of our individual bodies
2. The temple of our collective assembly
70
a) Ephesians
b) 1 Peter 2:5a
c) 2 Corinthians 6:16b
d) 1 Corinthians 3:9b, 16-17
e) Hebrews 10:24-25a
Introduction
God seeks true worshipers who will worship Him in a
manner which is acceptable
to Him. We have seen that worship is the theme of
history, stretching from Genesis
through the end of Revelation. In the beginning, God
created man to worship Him,
but man rebelled. Since the rebellion, God has sought
to bring man back to the point
of true worship. That’s the purpose for the
redemptive plan.
Now, in order to understand worship, it is important
that we have a definition. So,
we began this series with a simple definition -
Worship is giving honor to God. Next
we looked at some key points that came out of that
definition. First, we saw that
worship is giving to God, not getting from Him. When
we get together as God’s
redeemed people in the congregation of fellowship,
we gather for the purpose of
worship - not to receive, but to give to God. When a
Jew in the old covenant went
to worship, he didn’t go to take something, he went
to give an offering of money as
well as a sacrifice. Everything was geared around
giving to God.
We also noted in our definition of worship that it
is in contrast to ministry. Ministry
is that which flows down from God to us, but worship
is that which flows up from us
to God. They provide a beautiful balance. In the Old
Testament, the prophet spoke
the words that came down from God to men; but there
was also a priest who spoke
up to God on the behalf of men. Ministry and worship
must always be held in balance.
Review
I. THE
IMPORTANCE OF WORSHIP (see pp. 11-43)
The end
of John 4:23 tells us why worship is so important. It’s important because
the
Father seeks true worshipers. If God seeks true worshipers, then true worship
is
important. In fact, I’m convinced that as Christians, the primary reason for
our
existence
is to worship God. It involves what we are (true worshipers) and what we
are to
do (truly worship). Worship is the very core of our existence as those who
have
been redeemed.
II. THE
SOURCE (BASIS) OF WORSHIP (see pp. 47-51)
Again,
in John
worship,
then is the efficacious, irresistible, redemptive seeking of the Father. God
is
drawing true worshipers into His kingdom. We’re redeemed to worship and are
transformed
into true worshipers. Perhaps the best definition of a Christian is found
in
Philippians 3:3 where it says that we are those “who worship God in the
spirit.”
Also,
according to Hebrews 10:16-25, since Christ has redeemed us, since His
sacrifice
has perfected us, and since we have been brought into God’s presence
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through
a new and living way, our response is to “draw near” to God - to
worship
Him. We are redeemed to worship. So the importance of worship
is seen
in the God seeking worshipers, and the source of worship is seen in God
redeeming
and saving us to that end.
III. THE
OBJECT OF WORSHIP
John 4:20-24 tells us to
worship God. But specifically, in verses 21, 23,
and 24,
Jesus says to worship God as Spirit and as Father.
A. God as
Spirit (His Essential Nature)
We’ve
already discussed this point at length (see pp. 51-72), but before
we
continue, let me refresh your memory. God is Spirit, and as such, He
cannot
be confined to a building, a temple, a grove, or a mountain. In
other
words, God cannot be confined to a place (see pp. 52-54). Also,
because
God is Spirit, He cannot be reduced to an image made with
hands
out of wood, brass, gold, silver, or any other substance (see pp.
51-52).
God is beyond being confined to a place or being reduced to an
image,
because He is an ever-living, ever-present, eternal Spirit - pervading
the
full universe and on into endless eternity with His conscious presence.
Now,
since God is Spirit and is everywhere at all times, our worship of
Him
is to be a way of life. In Acts 17:28a,
and
move, and have our being.” And since we move in the midst of His
spiritual
presence, worship is fitting and proper at all times. We don’t
have
to wait to walk into a church to worship, nor do we have to wait
until
our heads are bowed and our minds consciously drawn into God’s
throne
room. God is everywhere at all times and is therefore to be worshiped
everywhere
at all times. This is the seeking Father’s desire and can only
be
fulfilled by those of us who have been redeemed.
We
worship God as the eternal, omnipresent Spirit, but we can’t stop
there,
because in verse 21 and twice in verse 23, Jesus makes reference to
worshiping
“the Father.”
Lesson
Now we’ll pick up where we left off:
B. God as Father (His Essential Relationship)
I
think most people have misunderstood the concept of God as Father here
in
John 4. Usually when we see the term Father in reference to God, we
immediately
think of Him as our loving Father. Seeing the term in that way,
Jesus
would be saying, “Worship God as a vast, omnipresent, eternal Spirit,
but
also as an intimate, loving, personal Father.” Now, while it’s true that
God
is our loving Father and that we are His children, that isn’t what is being
discussed
in John 4. That is not the issue, nor is it the emphasis that Jesus
is
making. The emphasis here is:
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1. The trinitarian designation of God
God
is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is three Persons in one-
the
Trinity. And it is in this trinitarian sense that God is designated
here
as “the Father.” It is not primarily referring to us as His children,
it
is referring to His essential relationship within the Trinity.
Now,
watch this carefully. God is presented as the Father of the
Son
- and the Son is the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we worship
God
as Father, we’re not worshiping Him vaguely as the Father of
all
mankind (as the liberals might say), we’re worshiping Him as the
Father
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God cannot be worshiped apart from
this
designation.
a) Jesus’ usage of the term “Father”
In the New Testament, whenever God is
discussed as Father,
it
is primarily as the Father of Jesus Christ. Every time that Jesus
spoke
to God, He addressed Him as Father - except when sin
separated
them at the cross (Matt. 27:46). You say, “What did
Jesus
mean when He referred to God as His Father?” I don’t
believe
that He was emphasizing His submission, as a son submits
to
his father; nor do I believe that He was emphasizing His
generation,
as a son descends from his father. I believe that He
was
emphasizing His sameness of essence, as a son is with his
father.
If Jesus is the Son and God is the Father, then they are the
same
essence. That is the heart and soul of the relationship that
Jesus
constantly expresses with the Father. He is emphasizing the
sameness
of essence, the oneness of nature. Therefore, God can
never
be worshiped unless He is worshiped as the Father of the
Lord
Jesus Christ.
Let
me give you some examples that show that when Jesus referred
to
God as his Father, He was stating His deity, His equality with God.
(1) John 5:17-18 - Jesus answered the Jews who
were persecuting
Him
for healing someone on the Sabbath and said, “My Father
worketh
hitherto, and I work.” In other words, He calls the first
person
of the Trinity His Father and then says, “We work together.”
Verse
18 then tells us how the Jews perceived His comment:
“Therefore,
the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not
only
had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father,
making
himself equal with God.” They were right on target, because
that’s
exactly what Jesus was saying. Whenever Jesus called God
His
Father, He was speaking of their equality of essence, of nature,
of
deity.
(2) John 10:29-33 - Jesus said, “My Father, who
gave them to me, is
greater
than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s
hand.
I and my Father are one. Then
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the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them,
Many
good works have I shown you from my Father; for which
of
those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying,
For
a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because
that
thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”
You
see, when Jesus said that God was His Father, the Jews knew
that
Jesus was referring to His sameness of essence - His deity. They
knew
He was claiming to be equal with God.
(3) John 17:1-5 - Jesus prayed to His Father and
said, “Father, the hour
is
come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. As thou
has
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as
many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might
know
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.
I
have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou
gavest
me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”
Here,
Jesus equated Himself with the Father and then asked for the
full
glory that He had prior to the incarnation. He was equal with God,
and
His references to God as His Father were statements of His deity
(cf.
vv.11,21-25).
(4) Matthew 11:27 - Jesus said, “All things are
delivered unto me by my
Father,
and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth
any
man the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
will
reveal him.”
Here
in this marvelous passage, the Lord again presents the unique,
essential
oneness of the Father and the Son. There is intimacy of
knowledge
between the Father and the Son that is not available to human
perception,
because they are one.
(5) John 14:6-11a - “Jesus saith unto him, I am
the way, the truth, and the
life;
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye
should
have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know him,
and
have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and
it
sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been such a long time with
you,
and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me
hath
seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?
Believest
thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words
that
I speak unto you, I speak not myself; but the Father that dwelleth
in
me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the
Father in me.” The
Father and the Son are one.
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So, going back to John 4, when Jesus calls God Father, it’s not our
Father
that
He has in mind; it’s His Father. It’s a blatant outright statement of His
deity
- His equality with God.
You
say, “Why are you going through all of this, John?” Primarily because
there
are people who claim to worship God as the eternal, living Spirit who
is
everywhere present and might even claim to worship Him as their Father.
But if they deny that Jesus Christ is the
same as God the Father in essence,
their
worship is unacceptable. No one can acceptably worship God as Spirit
without
also worshiping God as the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
cannot
be defined or worshiped in any other terms. Anyone who denies the
deity
of Christ, yet claims to worship God, is a liar - because God and
Christ
are one.
b) The Apostles’ understanding of the term
“Father”
Throughout
the Epistles, God is worshiped and identified as the Father of
the
Lord Jesus Christ.
(1) Ephesians 1:3a -
to
God (one sentence that extends from verse 3 to verse 14) by saying,
“Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You see,
that
is how God is known.
(2) Ephesians 1:17a - In
Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.”
(3) 2 Corinthians 1:3 -
Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.”
(4) Philippians 2:9-11 - “Wherefore, God also
hath highly exalted him, and
given
him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.”
(5) Romans 15:6 - “That ye may with one mind and
one mouth glorify
God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God cannot be
worshiped
apart from a recognition that Jesus Christ, His Son, is equal
to
God. That’s His deity.
(6) 1 Peter 1:3a - Peter wrote, “Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord
Jesus
Christ.”
(7) 2 John 3 - John wrote, “Grace be with you,
mercy, and peace from
God,
the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father,
in truth and love.”
The
point is this - God is not just a floating spirit in whom anybody can sort of
plug
into anywhere they want, with any particular form they want—God is eternal,
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vast, and ever-present - to be worshiped at all times, by all people.
But the only way
someone
can come to God is to come to Him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s
why Jesus had to say, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6b).
God
can’t be worshiped apart from Jesus Christ.
2. The trinitarian worship of God
a) The worship of the Son
John
all
men should honor [or ‘worship’] the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He
that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father, who hath sent him.”
Did
you get that? We’re not only to worship the Father, we’re also to
worship
the Son.
(1) Defined in the unity of God
Somebody
once came to me and said, “I’ve been taught that it’s
blasphemous
to pray to anyone but the Father. Is that true?” I said,
“No,
that’s not true. It sounds like somebody has just gotten a little
bit
of knowledge, twisted a few scriptures, and is trying to pass himself
off
as a Bible teacher.” We can’t worship God the Father unless we
worship
the Son. We can’t even come before God the Father unless
we
come in the name of the Son. If we pray to the Father, we’re
praying to the Son - they’re one
and the same. If we honor the Father,
we’re
praising the Son. They come together - there’s no way to isolate
them.
Therefore, without Jesus Christ, no one worships at all! We have
every
right to go to the Son, to praise the Son, to petition the Son, just
as
we would the Father. We’re called upon to worship the Son.
(2) Demonstrated in the early church
From
the earliest years of the church, Christ was recognized as Lord.
He
was confessed as Lord in baptism (e.g.,
invoked
as Lord in the Christian assembly (e.g., Eph. 3:10-12; 2 Tim.1:
2b),
worshiped as Lord in anticipation of the day when every knee
should
bow (e.g.,
in
time of need (e.g., Heb. 4:14-16; 1 John 5:14-15). The bottom
line
in all worship is that Jesus Christ is Lord - that’s fundamental.
(3) Declared by the apostle Thomas
When
Thomas saw Jesus after the resurrection, he declared, “My Lord
and
my God” (John
God
is to be worshiped, but only as He is perceived to be one and the
same
with His Son. They are both to receive honor.
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So when we gather we are to worship the Father and
the Son. What