Worship 3 Getting Personal With One Another

[HKHaugan]

We're still pursuing the question, “What is the form of worship?” We want to dispel the notion that worship is 'going to church' to get a recharge for the life that takes place between Sunday services. In the second delving into worship I hope it was established firmly that worship is an attitude in our heart wherever, with whomever and whatever we're about. Also it was clear that we only touched the surface of personal worship since each one who reads this series has their own attitudinal approach. It is, however, the way Jesus offered Himself wherever He was that becomes the vision of true worship. It's to Him we turn for every step we take in giving some direction to what it means to make worship the theme for our daily living experience.

When Jesus conversed with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4) she revealed her understanding of worship as a Samaritan centered on being at Mt. Gerizim and the Jews in Jerusalem's Temple. In other words she thought it was ethnicity and a physical place that determined worship, not the heart. Then Jesus revealed for her and for every generation the place of true worship, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn.4:22-24).” Worship then is first personal; an intention of the mind, a desire in the heart and a practice in the spirit. It is learning to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mk.12:30).”

But there is one more aspect of worship that carries the indentation of the Cross and that is the second call Jesus gives after offering our complete love to God, “Love your neighbor as yourself (Mk.12:31).” Grasp His Cross insight here, the vertical beam that calls for us to love God and the horizontal beam that calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Implicit in these calls is Jesus the example, the One who lays down His life first to the Father and then for others. For us that means that we love God toward others, to follow His direction as the way to love them. This is how the Holy Spirit works worship through us.

This brings us to the second form that makes worship an interpersonal experience, small groups. There are no such things as 'lone ranger' Christians. None of us can grow as Christians without the fellowship of other believers. When we accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord He gave us His Word and a family, the Body of Christ, in which we were given brothers and sisters to help us grow as disciples. When Jesus started His mission He chose 12 disciples and poured His life into them day after day. As they followed Him He taught them, performed miracles before them, prayed with them, lived out His mind, heart and Spirit before them. It became abundantly clear who He was and what He was calling them to do to be His followers together. They would become cross bearers and their cross would be the faith it took every next moment to love Him and others in the Spirit.

This small group of disciples would share spiritual and emotional intimacy in the Spirit. That was part of their growth pattern and would set the example for us to grow with one another under the Cross loving God (the vertical beam) toward each other (the horizontal beam). Thus they started fellowships of believers described like this, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had (Acts 4:32).” The earliest churches were fellowships worshiping Jesus in their hearts and together in their homes and then out in their communities each day because God was and is the ultimate meaning of worth. To know Him is to act out the worth He is, 'worth-ship.'

The best revelation of the Spirit's work in the small group is expressed in this passage from Acts 2:42-47, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

The context and perspective we need to maintain is the biblical Greek word 'proskeuno,' to kiss. This is like in Psalm 85:10 where righteousness (world relationships) and peace (relationship with God) have kissed each other. It's heart grabbing image comes in Luke 7 when “Mary wept tears onto Jesus' feet, wiped them with her hair, kissed them and anointed them with her perfume. That was pure worship, worship in the raw (previous article on worship).” The first from the Psalm exemplifies our vertical call and the second from Luke our horizontal call, the call of the Cross to worship the Lord and minister to others. To kiss is the spiritual meeting of the hearts of persons and the heart of God. Ultimately that kind of intimacy God has revealed in His Son Jesus and offered us in relationship with His Son. It takes place every time we humble ourselves before Him in prayer and then when we humble ourselves before Him in the presence of others. What does that look like for us?

To answer that is next. We'll look at Acts 2:42 a bit more closely because it is in the small group where we come to grips with what worship is meant to be, transparent adoration of God and sharing with one another. So let me make this comment before we go any further: a church congregation is only as spiritually strong as its small groups allow it to become.