And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, 5but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So, the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Genesis 4:3-7
Godly and acceptable worship is not haphazard or anything goes!
See Genesis 4:1-15
Why was all this precision and specific ordering of things so necessary? The simple answer is, because that’s what God commanded. But God commanded it because for 400 hundred years they had lived in Egypt immersed in the culture of idol worship and the pagan practices of the Egyptians. They remembered little of their heritage from their ancestors Abraham Isaac and Jacob and many knew little of Joseph. So, it was necessary for God to purge their minds and hearts of the ways of Egypt and reveal Himself and His ways to them.
Even after God had delivered them from bondage in Egypt, even after He parted the Red Sea so that they crossed over and escaped Pharaoh’s army, they still resorted to idol worship in the wilderness. Left to their own devices they made an idol for themselves, a golden calf, in the manner of the Egyptians, while Moses was on the Mountain with God.
What does all this mean for us today? Are we to adopt a pattern worship on the order of the Tabernacle of Moses? I don’t believe so, because that Tabernacle was a temporary place of worship while Israel sojourned in the wilderness until they came into the promised land. It remained the center of worship until the kingdom was divided and the Ark was stolen by the Philistines. When the Ark was finally returned to Israel it first rested in the house of Abimelech until David brought it up to Jerusalem and placed it in the Tabernacle he erected on Mt Zion.
At that time, The Tabernacle of Moses was still at Mount Sinai with all its furnishings, curtains and altars. But the Tabernacle of David only contained the Ark of The Presence. After this time the Temple of Solomon was built and the Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies behind the veil, and the order of worship under the Aaronic priesthood was established in the Temple, from that time until the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus spoke in the Temple and there He drove out the money changers, saying, … “It is written, “My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” Luke 19:46
Now concerning worship, Jesus said to the woman at the well, that the time was coming and indeed was now, that neither in this mountain, speaking of the Tabernacle of Moses, nor in Jerusalem, speaking of the Temple of Solomon, will either place be the place where men worship God, But the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Then, at His crucifixion the veil of the Temple was rent in two from top to bottom, signifying the end of the worship by the constrictures of the Law of Moses, and opening the way to the presence of the God to all who would come to Him by the new and Living Way, by faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord. As Jesus said of Himself, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22
To worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth is in part about what we do in those times of gathering together as the body of believers, to sing, to pray to hear the preaching of the Word and to bring Him our offerings of ourselves and our resources, the first fruits of all our increase.
But though these are essential fundamentals, the deeper worship, in Spirit and in Truth, happens when we spend private time meditating in the Word, when we share with others the things that the Holy Spirt has revealed to us, when we live the life of Christ in the world, taking up our cross daily and following Him, when we give to the poor, when we support the work of ministry, take our places in leadership, when we resist the devil, when we do not compromise our faith in God our Father and is Word, or shrink from declaring Him for fear of what others may think of us, when we live our faith out loud, when we show compassion and mercy, when we stand for the truth even if it costs us everything.
This is worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth. We worship in Spirit according to the Word of God, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; by utterance and by understanding. We worship in truth by acknowledgment of God’s exclusive worthiness to be worshipped, in the transparency of our hearts and minds, and our innermost thoughts and desires open before Almighty God; no false posturing, or pretense.
Worship of God is not about a single geographical place or about performing a set of religious rituals, it’s about a person, not an abstract concept, but a tangible person in whose likeness we were and are created. Do we want to see God? Then look to Jesus. He said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. THINKL ABOUT THAT! REALLY MEDITATE ON THAT! What would the posture and attitude of our worship be if Jesus literally stood before us as we worshipped Him?
If we believe that God has raised Him from the dead, then He is alive, and since He promised to come and live in us, He is quite literally present with us all the time, even right now. Therefore, every moment of everyday is an opportunity to worship Him in spirit and in truth. The manner of our lives as living epistles in the world are being read by all. So, we also worship when we
let the world see our message written in how we live and what we do daily. To paraphrase John Wesley and St. Francis of Assisi who said, “Preach the Gospel, and when necessary, use words,” I exhort you to Worship God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and whenever you have the opportunity, SING!!!