What Is Worship? [2Chr.7; Isa.1; Rom.1; Mat.2] PastorRodney’s Weblog podcast

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What Is Worship? [2Chr.7; Isa.1; Rom.1; Mat.2]

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2025/11/23 Thanksgiving; What Is Worship?; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20251123_what-is-worship.mp3

This is thanksgiving week; next Sunday begins the season of Advent (advent means ‘coming’), anticipating the coming of Messiah into the world, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas.

Today I’d like to look at worship. What is worship? We talk about a worship leader, a worship team or worship band, worship music (which has become its own genre of music). But what really is worship? What is it all about? Is it just one part of what we do as a church on Sunday mornings at our ‘worship service?’ Biblically, what is worship?

We’re taking a break from our study of Numbers, part of the five books of Moses. In the Genesis, worship looked like building an altar and killing an animal. After the Exodus, worship looked like an elaborate royal tent where priests killed animals in sacrifice and lit lamps and baked bread and burned incense and splattered blood.

That’s a very different picture from what most of us probably think of when we say ‘worship’. So what is worship?

The Posture of Worship

The majority of the words translated ‘worship’ both in Hebrew and Greek literally mean to fall prostrate, crouch, or bow to offer homage, reverence or adoration. They point to a body posture in the presence of a superior. Sometimes these words are combined ‘to bow down and worship’

Here’s a picture of Old Testament worship, at the dedication of Solomon’s temple, in 2 Chronicles 7

2 Chronicles 7:1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” 4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the LORD. 5 King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6 The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the LORD that King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD— for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises by their ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood.

Worship involved prayer, sacrifices, thanksgiving, music, a posture in the presence of God. The people ‘bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement’; the people stood.

CS Lewis comments in his insightful work ‘The Screwtape Letters’, a fictitious correspondence of a senor demon instructing his nephew on how to thwart praying, “The best thing, where it is possible, is to keep the patient from the serious intention of praying altogether. …At the very least, they can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers; for they constantly forget, what you must always remember, that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls” [Lewis, Screwtape, IV]. Body language communicates something. Physical posture says something. Bowing down, if nothing else, can help when our minds and hearts wander to remind us, that we got down on our knees for a reason.

But is worship merely an outward physical thing?

Isaiah 1:11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

Like most things there is tension between extremes; physical posture can be helpful, but empty posturing when the heart is not right is something the Lord hates.

Submission to Sovereignty

Genuine worship begins with a heart posture that God is God and I am not. He is King and I am his subject. He is high and exalted and it is right for me to lower myself in his presence. To pay him homage, to give him respect, to reverence him. Worship is not about me, it’s all about him. Worship is the opposite of pride, it’s me getting low in his presence so that he can be seen for who he is; exalted.

Worship Implies Obedience, Participation

Some of the words for worship are service words; we bow down and serve him. In Genesis 22, the Lord asked the unthinkable of Abraham. He asked him to offer up in sacrifice that which he treasured most, that which he had waited for, the fulfillment of God’s promises to him, his only son. Worship wasn’t merely a posture, it involved doing something. If God is God and God makes a demand, I must respond. That was the problem with the worship in Isaiah 1. They were going through the outward motions of sacrifices and prayers and observing holy days, but they missed the point, they weren’t doing what God instructed them, they weren’t doing good, advancing justice, caring for the helpless.

Worship isn’t something for spectators. Abraham said to his servants, ‘you stay here, I and the boy will go there and worship and we will come back’. The servants were there, but they were not part of the worship. Abraham and his son took the wood and the fire and the knife and carried it up the mountain to worship. And what amazing worship! Abraham was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. His only son was willing to lay his own life down in worship. But they got to watch God provide for himself a lamb for the sacrifice. They learned that God may demand it all, but God always gives more than we do.

Holy God, Sinful Man, Costly Sacrifice

Old Testament worship was rooted in sacrifice. Sacrifice was a continual reminder that the wages of sin is death. God graciously gave the blood of animals as a substitute for my own, and worship involved a lot of blood, reminding us that God is absolutely holy and graphically demonstrating the gravity of my sin. Worship was costly. But worship was never me doing something good to win God’s favor. Worship was taking God at his word and receiving what he had graciously given.

Worship a Response to God’s Salvation

Worship is a response to God’s provision, God’s salvation. In Exodus 4, the Lord sent Moses and Aaron with a message for the slaves who had cried out for rescue.

Exodus 4:31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

The Israelites were in no position to contribute anything; they were slaves. They were helpless to do anything but cry out for rescue. And when they heard that God had seen, God had responded, that God had visited his people, they responded to his grace with worship. Worship is a response to God’s saving grace.

Wrath for False Worship

If we jump ahead to the New Testament, to Romans 1, we see that worship is a big deal.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, … 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images … 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. … 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Worship is a big deal. God’s wrath is ignited when we worship the wrong things, and fail to worship him for who he really is. Truth matters in worship. We can’t just worship whatever we want however we want. God revealed enough of who he is in creation to hold us accountable. God is a God who wants to be known, and he reveals his eternal power and divine nature in creation. He revealed enough of himself for us to bow in humble submission and give him thanks.

But when we suppress his truth, when we exchange the truth about him for a lie, when we trade in his immortal glory for images, when we worship and serve what he created rather than the one who created it all, when we fail to acknowledge him as God, we bring down his wrath.

It matters that we worship him as he really is, not as we imagine him to be. It matters that we worship him as he reveals himself to be, not the way we like to think of him. It matters that we acknowledge him, that we honor him as God and give him thanks.

Romans 1:16 says:

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

True worship is treasuring the goodness and power of God in the gospel, that sinners like me who deserve his wrath can be saved by his might power.

Worship Jesus

Our word ‘worship’ comes from the Old English ‘weorthscipe’ from worth or worthy. In worship we are ascribing value or worth to the person or thing we worship. Who is worthy of our worship?

Matthew 2:1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

These wise men came to bow down and pay homage to the true and rightful king of the Jews. That probably felt pretty disrespectful to the then current king they weren’t bowing to. But worship discriminates. It recognizes what is true and legitimate and refuses to bow to anything less.

Matthew 2:10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Worship of the true King is not grudging; it is joyful. Although it was a profoundly humbling act for these foreigners of high status to bow down to a child, they thoroughly enjoyed it. They had the privilege of being among the first to bow the knee to King Jesus. One day every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

Their worship was planned. They had been watching, waiting. They must have planned their journey, and they planned their gifts. Sometimes we judge the value of something by its spontaneity, but the wise men show us that planned structured worship can be just as genuine and joy-filled.

Worship What We Treasure

What do you treasure? What do you value? That’s what you worship. How do you spend your time, your energy, your money? That’s what you worship. Are you worshiping the Creator, or the good things he has created?

To the rich man who asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus turned his attention to himself;

Mark 10:18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

You have a lot, but you are still pursuing something. Do you know who I am? Do you know what is truly good? There is stuff that’s keeping you from me. Get rid of that stuff, and come follow me. Are there treasures in your life that are getting in the way of treasuring the greatest thing? Is your pride in the way of humbling yourself and bowing the knee to King Jesus?

Jim Elliot, missionary and martyr, wrote ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.’

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

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