Called to Worship Him

Called to Worship Him

“Worship in Education”

 

November 14, 2020

Larry R Evans

 

Study Questions

 

1.     Does worshiping “Him who made the heavens, the earth,” etc. challenge the prevailing worldview of society? Why is this significant with the anarchy taking place in many parts of the world? What role does education have? [Consider insights gained from the fall of the Roman Empire.]

2.    What helped bring about Roman political authoritarianism and how did “worship” play a hand in allowing it?

3.    How did worship define the worldview of the three Hebrews in Daniel 3?

4.    How can we “waste our time in worship” or is that even possible?

5.    Is worship for us or is it for God? Is there another alternative?

6.    Why go to church if there is Zoom?

7.     What does the Bible mean by worshiping in “spirit and truth”?

8.    In times of crisis, how could the “day” of worship have any bearing on the faith experience of the believer and society in general?

 

Introduction

 

At times we can become so familiar with Bible verses and Bible stories that we lose the impact they were intended to have both then and later.  Losing the real-life setting is one way of doing that.  One example is the familiar passage found in Revelation 14:6,7,

And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the eternal Good News to proclaim to the people who belong to this world—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. “Fear God,” he shouted. “Give glory to him. For the time has come when he will sit as judge. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all the springs of water.” [NLT]

“There is a flow,” said Francis Schaeffer, 

to history and culture. This flow is rooted and has its wellspring in the thoughts of people. People are unique in the inner life of the mind—what they are in their thought world determines how they act.” (How Then Shall We Live, p.19). 

 

Each of us has a worldview or presuppositions that determine how we see ourselves and the world around us. In recent times, we’ve seen rabid discontent displayed in extreme ways--ways that led to destruction of property, to physical beatings of one another as to murder as well.  

 

Schaeffer, in his review of the Roman Empire, makes an interesting observation,

The Greeks and later the Romans also tried to build society upon their gods. But these gods were not big enough because they were finite, limited. Even all their gods put together were not infinite. Actually, the gods in Greek and Roman thinking were like men and women larger than life, but not basically different from human men and women. . . . The gods were amplified humanity, not divinity. (p.21)

 

Historically, our opening text was written during this era. The humanly crafted gods could not give an adequate foundation for life.  Morals, values, and decision-making were determined by their limited presuppositions on what really mattered in life.  What mattered was what they wanted for themselves. 

The result?  

Armed gangs terrorized the city of Rome and the normal processes of government were disrupted as rivals fought for power. Self-interest became more significant than social order. (p.21)

In desperation to regain some kind of control Rome turned to the only kind of leadership they thought could bring order out of chaos: an authoritarian government. 

The Romans made Caesar dictator for life “in the hope that the government of a single person would give them time to breathe after so many civil wars and calamities. (p.21)

 

A meaning for the verb “worship” is, “to treat (someone or something) with the reverence and adoration appropriate to a deity.”  To worship, then, is like a blank check . . . fill it in as you please (whatever you call an asset—things, people, positions) but remember, it is only as good as long as the reserves last.  The question remains, Who or what do you worship?

 

Schaeffer, after describing the early Christians, concluded, 

A culture or an individual with a weak base can stand only when the pressure on it is not too great. . .. when such pressures come only time is needed—and often not a great deal of time—before there is a collapse. (p.23)

 

Called to Worship . . . Him

Babylon & Rome: Challenging Times for God’s People

 

Babylon, Daniel 3, This chapter is about the choices three Hebrews made under the most trying of circumstances! Their total and exclusive commitment is challenged. They had certain presuppositions that led them to act in certain ways come what may. 

 

In the translation of Daniel 3 by the NIV, the word “image” is used 10 times and the word “worship” is used 11 times.  They were not punished for worshiping God but because they would worship only their God but not the Babylonian gods.  If they wished to keep their “god” in the loop that would be fine, but they had to add the Babylonian gods to their worship list.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? (Dan. 7:14)

Rome and Daniel 7.  This chapter also addresses total and exclusive commitment.  It is not about denying worship.  It is about changing commitment.

He shall speak pompous words against the Most High,

Shall persecute the saints of the Most High,

And shall intend to change times and law. (Dan. 7:25)

Notice how Schaeffer describes the faith of the Christians during the early years of the Christian Church.

Thus the Christians not only had knowledge about the universe and mankind that people cannot find out by themselves, but they had absolute, universal values by which to live and by which to judge the society and the political state in which they lived. And they had grounds for the basic dignity, and value of the individual as unique in being made in the image of God. (p.22)

The Roman Christians had a faith that rested on God’s revealed Word and they did not accept the polytheistic religion that was pervasive in their own culture.

 

“Don’t Waste Your Time in Worship”

 

That’s the title of a book written by James L. Christensen.  In it he tells of a comment written to a newspaper for its editorial section.  The writer wrote, “You can worship anywhere and any way you like; it is all pleasing to God.” Based on what we’ve seen with the three Hebrews of Daniel 3 (including in Daniel 7) and the Romans in New Testament times, do agree with the editorial comment?  Why or Why not?

 

Is it possible to waste our time in worship? Should that be a concern? Why?

 

Christensen cites a letter to “Dear Abby”

I’m a 66-year-pold man who has been a professional singer since 7. (My father was a famous singer.)

Over the years I have sung and lectured in just about every type of church you can name. This exposure has given me a fairly good education as to what kind of people attend church. But why they attend puzzles me.

During the 60’s, I visited over 300 churches. On my own I conducted a survey, containing only one questions that could be answered voluntarily (and would be kept confidential): ‘Why do you attend church?’

The response was revealing and surprising. More than 50 percent wrote, ‘Because it is the thing to do.’ 

Less than one percent mentioned anything about worshiping . . . (p.12)

What is worship?  Have you ever left church feeling like you really did worship?  Or felt like you had not?  What do you believe worship is?

 

Norval Pease, described worship this way, worship is 

A response of a man to a personal encounter with God. Man worshiped, not to appease a God whom he feared but to express his gratitude and love to a God who had revealed Himself to him. (And Worship Him, p.13)

Our relationship with God, in and out of worship, is to some very confusing.  One teacher explained it by comparing it with an unborn baby’s relationship with its mother. The child in its mother’s womb cannot see its mother’s face or hear her speak in audible ways. It can only feel the wall of the abdomen. Its world is terribly limited. If the baby could take voice, it might say, ‘There is no mother’; all the while it is surrounded by its mother. Many people are that way about God. They see the wall, but not the Someone with whom the wall is associated.  The world is the clothing of God in which we see His beauty, order, and purpose.  (Christensen, p.41)

Is It for Us or Is It for Him?

What is acceptable worship? What’s the difference between a performance and a worship service?  It’s really should not be complicated.  It’s the audience.  Who is the audience in a performance? What about a worship service? One helpful passage is found in the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman.

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21-24)

Worship in Spirit.

1.    Worship must be in the Holy Spirit. 

a.    Worship is the work of the Holy Spirit whose ministry is inseparable to Jesus’s own work. He is t0 glorify Jesus. (John 16:14)

b.   The Holy Spirit makes the presence of Jesus actual in the experience of the faithful worshiper. He glorifies the Lord in the hearts of the worshipers. He must not be grieved away. This brings a recognition and admission of our unworthiness because of our sin which brings us out of gratitude to Jesus.

c.    A sense of unity of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:27) to each believer.

2.    Worship must be spiritual activity in contrast to activity which is purely. Intellectual or physical. Faith in God’s Word, produced by the Holy Spirit, is essential for conversion.

 

Worship in Truth.

1.     Our worship must be in and through Jesus who identified Himself as “the Truth” (John 14:6)

2.    Our worship must be consistent with His revelation of Himself in the Scriptures—a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart (Ps. 51:16,17)

3.    Acceptable worship is offered in a truthful way; there is no pretense or insincerity. (Isa. 29:13; Mk 7:6,7)

 

We repeat our question: Is Worship for Us or Is It for

        Him?

Robert G. Rayburn in O Come, Let Us Worship, says it well:

It is the presence of Jesus Christ Himself in Corporate worship which makes it what it is. Then let us remember that while Jesus lived all of His earthly life for the glory of God His Father and not to please Himself, at the same time He was here in this world not ‘to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45, NASB), p. 131.

The answer seems to be inherent in the ministry of Jesus. To bring glory to God is to enrich the experience of the worshiper.

 

Conclusion

The last message to be given to the people of this world before Christ comes is given by those who have a faith built on the absolute assurance of their God who created them, knows them, gave His life for them and is with them through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  (Rev. 12:17; 14:12).  This is in stark contrast to the secular Roman whose gods were of their own creations and left them and their society destitute in the face of political turmoil.

 

Further Reflection

Concerns expressed by Ellen White in Education:

With such teaching given at the very outset of life, when impulse is strongest, and the demand for self-restraint and purity is most urgent, where are the safeguards of virtue? what is to prevent the world from becoming a second Sodom? Ed 228.1

At the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not only divine, but human. The centralizing of wealth and power; the vast combinations for the enriching of the few at the expense of the many; the combinations of the poorer classes for the defense of their interests and claims; the spirit of unrest, of riot and bloodshed; the world-wide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution—all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France. Ed 228.2

 

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