WHY
CHRISTIANS SHOULD WORSHIP JESUS
Worship : Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive
Concordance #7812 ; definition in Hebrew Dictionary / Old Testament meaning "to lie down prostrate in homage to royalty or God; to worship; act of
bowing down by an inferior before a superior.", …#5457 ; meaning “to
worship”……. and #4352 ; in Greek Dictionary / New Testament meaning “to do reverence to; an act of homage”.
This blog
post is a follow-up to my previous post titled: “Removing
Some Confusion About Jesus”. At that time I highlighted one source of the confusion that some
Christians and others faced when reading the Bible. That confusion stems from the different names
that the Scripture used to identify the Lord Jesus at different times during
the history of mankind. Remember, He was the Creator of the
heaven and the Earth as described in Genesis Chapter One. ((John 1: 1-3,
9-10; Colossians 1: 12-8) His existence pre-dated man. He was part of the
Spiritual Godhead (as God the Son) before He took on human
flesh and was born in Bethlehem. (Colossians 2: 8-9)
After
further thought, I’d like to reconsider pursuing the title theme. Instead I’d like to discuss the subject “worship” beyond several
reasons why Christians (and others) should worship our Lord Jesus. Many Christians already recognize that the
following reasons are more obvious than others, for example, through our Lord Jesus’ love for man…
·
He created a perfect world of heaven and the Earth, and gave man
dominion over it all. (Genesis 1: 26, 31; Also see above.)
·
He created man in the image of God as an eternal spirit-being.
(Genesis 1: 27)
·
He made each of us to be a unique individual, and has given us the
same choice He gave the first man Adam…whether to follow Him or follow His adversary
(good vs. evil). (Genesis 2: 15-17)
·
He created us at this special time in man’s and the Bible’s
history. Note my earlier blog post dated July 19, 2024, titled: “We Are Living
in The Third Day”. Also remember that Israel became a Nation in 1948,
fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel 37: 1-21.
·
Since we have sinned and incurred the death penalty because of
Adam’s sin, to restore us to Himself Jesus has submitted Himself to pay that
death penalty for us through His suffering and death on the Cross. (Romans 3:
21-26; 1 Corinthians 15: 45-49; See also https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-second-Adam.html )
·
For those who will believe what He has accomplished for us through
His death, burial and resurrection, we have obtained the salvation of our souls
with Hin for eternity. (1 Corinthians 15: 1-4; Romans 10: 9-13)
·
For believers, He has sent the Holy Spirit to awaken and guide our
individual spirits to pursue “good”, and not follow after “evil”. (Romans Chapter Eight) Also, individually, He has given us innumerable
blessings throughout our lives. (1 Corinthians Chapter 12)
In
light of my reconsideration of the focus of this post, I’d like to move to a
closer look at what the Bible says about “worship” historically from different
perspectives. Some examples include:
·
The first instances of worship
·
The significance of “calling on the name of the LORD”
·
The “altar” as the place of worship, including the Tabernacle and
the Temple
·
Jesus and the role of the Ark of the Covenant; and
·
Israel’s role in how Christians worship / High Holy Days,
Passover, Feast Days, Wave offerings, etc.
To
adequately address these various topics will require more than a single post.
BACKGROUND:
Remember that
from the Creation and the Garden of Eden, the LORD God (Jesus) has given man a
choice. God had given man total dominion over the perfect Earth and all its
creatures. At that time man was given
the choice of whether or not to recognize The LORD God as the Creator, return His love, and obey His
singular commandment. (Genesis 2: 15-17)
Instead, Adam and Eve made the choice to follow the guidance of the
Serpent / Satan, who was the Enemy of God. (Genesis 3: 6) Because of that bad choice, Adam / mankind lost dominion over the Earth
that the LORD God had given them.
By following
the deceitful guidance of the Serpent, man had chosen to “worship” (by paying
homage to) that Enemy above having faith
in God. As a result, Satan took dominion and became the “god of this
world”...the Earth (2 Corinthians 4: 4);
and the “prince of the power of the air”…the heaven of Genesis 1: 8. (Ephesians 2: 2) [Note: This does NOT include the
“Third Heaven” which is the abode of the One True God. (2 Corinthians 12: 1-4)]
SOME
HISTORY OF WORSHIP IN THE BIBLE:
Although the
word “worship” doesn’t appear until much later in man’s history, the concept
of “paying homage to our Creator” was implied early in Genesis Chapter Four.
Remember that was when Cain and Abel (the sons of Adam and Eve) were to
bring “offerings unto the LORD.” [As with some other areas of the
Scripture, we weren’t told beforehand what instructions had been given to them
and by whom. But that is some of what
makes the Bible such interesting reading!]
Both Cain and Abel were to bring offerings that demonstrated an
animal’s “blood sacrifice”. We later learned that this was to be reflective
of many coming uses of animal blood sacrifices. Note that the LORD God (Jesus) had made such
sacrifices to restore Adam and Eve to Himself after their sin in the Garden of
Eden. (Genesis 3: 2; Hebrews 9: 19-22).
Following the
killing of Abel by his brother Cain, Adam and Eve produced another son named
Seth. The Bible then records the following: “And to Seth, to him also there was
born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the
name of the LORD.” (Genesis 4: 26) (Highlight added) The significance
of “calling on the name of the LORD“ is that it confirms a recognition by the
speaker that the LORD is the source of their blessing in good times, and/ or
strength in times of trouble.
Several times
in the Old Testament this practice of “calling on the name of the LORD” was
accompanied by the speaker’s building an altar to worship the LORD. Note that after
the LORD made His momentous Covenant with Abram (later Abraham), Abram did both
these acts of worship. (Genesis 12: 1-8). Years later, the LORD made a related Covenant with Abraham’s
son Isaac , who followed by building an altar and “called upon the name of the
LORD”. (Genesis 26: 24-25. Still years
later, Isaac’s son Jacob purchased a parcel of land that would eventually be
included in Israel’s “Promised Land”. Jacob
then erected an altar there. He didn’t literally “call on the name of the LORD”
as his father and grandfather had done, but he called the altar “Eleloheisrael”,
meaning: “the mighty God of Israel”, definitely paying homage to God / the
LORD. (Genesis 33: 18-20)
Other Old
Testament references relative to Israel and “calling on the name of the
LORD” can be found in 1 Kings 18: 24, Psalm 116: 7, Joel 2: 32, and Zephaniah
3: 9.
In the New
Testament the reference to the “name of the Lord” took on additional
significance. Remember, the name “JESUS” occurs only in the New Testament. There the reference was to have the people
of Israel recognize that Jesus of Nazareth was their long-awaited
Messiah, who would be their King, and save them from their sins and their
enemies. Israel had only to believe it. (Matthew 1: 21; Luke 1: 68-75; John 1: 1-12, 20: 30-31; Acts 2: 21, 10: 38-43, 15: 14-17; 1
Corinthians 1: 1-2) Further, even after His death, burial and
resurrection, “the name of Jesus” was used by His Disciples to continue His
practices of healing and bringing other blessings to the people of Israel.
(Acts 2: 22-24, 36-43; 3: 1-16)
Some
additional references that might help your study of this topic are:
https://www.gotquestions.org/call-upon-the-name-of-the-Lord.html
https://www.openbible.info/topics/call_on_the_name_of_the_lord
https://www.biblefactspress.com/bible-facts/names-of-god/
Collectively
these and related references point to the Divinity of our Lord Jesus under His identity as “LORD” (Old Testament) and “Lord”
(New Testament)….both worthy of worship. In my next post I will continue this
discussion by looking at the “altar” and other places of worship, and their relationship
to Christianity today.
Dr. W. A.
(Bill) Robinson
No comments:
Post a Comment