The Definition Of WORSHIP

Reverent devotion and allegiance pledged to God; the rituals or ceremonies by which this reverence is expressed. The English word worship comes from the Old English word worthship, a word which denotes the worthiness of the one receiving the special honor or devotion.

In Old Testament times Abraham built altars to the Lord and called on His name <Gen. 12:8; 13:18>. This worship of God required no elaborate priesthood or ritual.

After God's appearance to Moses and the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, the foundations of Israelite ritual were laid. This worship took place in the light of history, especially the Exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt. Through Moses, God established the form and principles of Israelite worship <Exodus 25--31; 35--40>.

After the occupation of the Promised Land, Israel's exposure to Canaanite worship affected the nation's own worship. The Old Testament reveals clearly that Israel adopted some of the practices of the pagan people around them. At various times God's people lapsed into idolatry. Some idols were placed on pedestals and sometimes they were adorned or fastened with silver chains <Is. 40:19> or fastened with pegs lest they totter and fall <Is. 41:7>. Shrines and altars were sometimes erected to these pagan gods. But such idolatry was condemned by God and His special spokesmen, the PROPHETS of the Old Testament.

New Testament worship was characterized by a joy and thanksgiving because of God's gracious redemption in Christ. This early Christian worship focused on God's saving work in Jesus Christ. True worship was that which occurred under the inspiration of God's Spirit <John 4:23-24; Phil. 3:3>.

The Jewish Sabbath was quickly replaced by the first day of the week as the time for weekly public worship <Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2>; it was called the Lord's Day <Rev. 1:10>. This was the occasion for celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, since He arose on the first day of the week <Mark 16:2>.

At first worship services were conducted in private houses. Possibly for a time the first Christians worshipped in the synagogues as well as private homes. Some scholars believe the Jewish Christians would go to the synagogues on Saturday and to their own meeting on Sunday.

Many early Christians of Jewish background continued to follow the law and customs of their people. They observed the Sabbath and the Jewish holy days, such as the great annual festivals. However, the apostle Paul held himself free from any obligation to these and never laid an obligation to observe them on his converts <Col. 2:16>. The New Testament itself contains no references to any yearly Christian festivals. The KJV mention of Easter <Acts 12:4> is a mistranslation; the NKJV has Passover.
Although the New Testament does not instruct worshipers in a specific procedure to follow in their services, several elements appear regularly in the worship practices of the early church.

Prayer apparently had a leading place in Christian worship. The letters of Paul regularly open with references to prayer for fellow-Christians who are instructed to "pray without ceasing" <1 Thes. 5:17>. Praise, either by individuals or in hymns sung in common, reflects the frequent use of psalms in the synagogue. Also, possible fragments of Christian hymns appear scattered through the New Testament <Acts 4:24-30; Eph. 5:14; 1 Tim. 3:16; Rev. 4:8,11; 5:9-10,12-13>.

Lessons from the Bible to be read and studied were another part of the worship procedure of the New Testament church. Emphasis was probably given to the messianic prophecies, which had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. His teachings also received a primary place.

Prophecy, inspired preaching by one filled with the Holy Spirit, helped build up the church, the body of Christ <Eph. 12:6>. Contributions were also collected on the first day of each week <1 Cor. 16:2>. Other details about the worship procedures of the early Christians in the New Testament times are spotty. But these elements must have been regularly included in the weekly worship service.)

POINTS OF WORSHIP
-The 400 year gap, God was silently preparing the stage for His Son
-The Iron hand of Rome [Two Ideologies]
-We have a government that does not know God and how to worship
-We have replaced God for: money, cars, personal prestige, women, men, our bodies, fame, position, power, etc.
-We are told to obey the law
-The Jewish religion was weaken by the different schools of interpretation:
· The Pharisees [the fundamentalist of the day]
· The Sadducces [the liberals of the day] They openly admitted the nonexistence of angels.
-They both shared a common interest which was the coming of the Messiah, but that too was weaken because of no anointed word
-Religion became a burden the joy of worship became a ritual
-Zacharias and Elizabeth were worshippers
Despite the ridiculous religious ideologies and weak leadership they disregarded man's philosophies and held on to true theology. True teaching will always lead to true worship.

The women at the well of Jacob
-Jesus had to go through Samaria
-He sat by the well
-Give me something to drink
-The well is too deep
-The well was the object of pride to the people
-The well did not possess the water of life
-Our object of worship is the person of God not his performance
-The Lamb makes the worship possible- Through his BLOOD
-Worship is a person responding to a person- only one is recognized as being GREATER
-Many churches have taught us to become introspective while coming into His presence. So,
we focus in our failures, and we confess rather than profess, we regress rather than relax
-Worship is responding to the nature of God to the presence of God.
-We cannot worship until we get a glimpse of God.
-We need to get our sights off the kingdom and put it on the King
-We need to get our sights off the creation and on the Creator
-We must be careful not to put our own position before God [The disciples argued who would be the greatest]
-We must be careful of having right body indication but having wrong mind & heart position
A substitute object in our mind will bring with it an attitude in the heart

The book of Revelation
1. Revelation is the summary of all the books
2. In this book he is the Lion Lamb
3. Christ is the CENTER of every book if you don't see Jesus reread the book again
Our response is WORSHIP. The word worship comes from the word WORTHSHIP

CHAPTER FOUR
"THINGS THAT SHALL BE HEREAFTER"
Three major divisions to the book
The first division of Revelation was the vision of the glorified Lord (chapter one).
The second division consists of the letters to the churches (chapters two and three).
The third division begins with chapter four and closes with chapter twenty-two, verse five.
This comprises the prophetic portion of Revelation, although prophetic action does not begin until chapter six.

The battle between God & Satan, the church and the world
The scenes in Heaven, recorded in chapters four and five, introduce the first series of judgments, about which we read in chapter six. Throughout the church age there has been a conflict between good and evil, between righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness. The battle between God and Satan, the Holy Spirit and evil spirits, has been raging since the Church was born, and will continue until the Church is safely seated in the Heavens with the Lord Jesus.

The forces of evil released because of the Rapture. [The Holy Spirit will not be here]
After the Church is raptured, and the Holy Spirit will not be here to restrain the forces of evil, this earth will become a literal hell. The systems of this earth will be committed entirely to the devil, and he will rule in the person of the Beast (politically) and in the person of the Antichrist (religiously). However, the Church WILL BE raptured out of the earth before these terrible judgments begin to fall. The Rapture takes place in verses 1 through 3 of chapter four. As already noted, the overcomers will be caught up, and the masses will be "spued out" at the same time.

John does not record the facts concerning the Rapture
But Paul, to whom the mystery of the Church was revealed in full, unfolds to us the events during and immediately following the Rapture. We will be caught out and caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord (I Thess. 4:15-18).

Some have been taught that the Church will go through the tribulation
I realize that some of you who read these lines have been taught that the Church will go through the first half of the Tribulation. But I declare, according to the Scriptures, the Church WILL NOT GO THROUGH ANY PART of the Tribulation.

I make this statement because:

The Church has no part in the prophetic visions of John after chapter three
In the first three chapters of Revelation, the word CHURCH or CHURCHES occurs about twenty times. However, beginning with chapter four, up to the seventeenth verse of chapter twenty-two, the Church is not mentioned one time. The Church has no part in the prophetic visions given to John after chapter three.

Compare spiritual things with spiritual thing.
Therefore, if we compare spiritual things with spiritual, and if we "come now and reason together," we must conclude that the Church is not on earth from chapter four through chapter twenty-two, verse five. The church is in the air with Jesus, looking down upon the horrible judgments here on earth.

John was commanded to write the first, the second and the third
The second reason I emphatically state that the Church will not be here during any part of the Tribulation period, is the statement in Revelation 1:19--the key that unlocks the book. John was commanded to write: First, "THE THINGS WHICH THOU HAST SEEN"; secondly, "THE THINGS WHICH ARE"; and third, "THE THINGS WHICH SHALL BE after these things." These three divisions do not run concurrently. They do not occur at the same time.

John saw the Master
John saw the vision of the glorified Lord, and that was the end of it.

John heard the Message
Then he saw the churches in Asia Minor, he wrote the messages delivered to the churches, and that brings that division to a definite close.

John witness the Matter
The True Church is caught out, the lukewarm church

John saw the Multitude
is spued out --and then John records the things that happen AFTER the Laodiceans are spued out: "AFTER THIS I LOOKED, AND, BEHOLD, A DOOR WAS OPENED IN HEAVEN"

(Rev. 4:1) Therefore we conclude, according to the Word of God -- comparing spiritual things with spiritual, Scripture with Scripture--that chapter four and the following chapters record the things AFTER the Church is raptured.

We do not see the Lord in the midst of the candlesticks any more
The whole picture changes after chapter three. We do not see the Lord in the midst of the candlesticks any more. We do not see the Lord on earth any more; but we see a throne set in Heaven, and the Lord Jesus is sitting upon that throne.

The rainbow around the throne
There is a rainbow round about the throne, and we see the saints (the four and twenty elders) in Heaven, where they remain until chapter nineteen, at which time they come with the Lord out of Heaven, riding on white horses in judgment against this earth. When you forget your religious ideas -- what you have heard, what you have been taught by preachers, religions and denominations--and let the Word of God speak; when you listen instead of interpreting, you will have no trouble understanding Revelation.

A special blessing for those who read, heed and keep
The only way to understand Revelation is to let it speak, because this book contains the deep things of God and there is a special promise to those who read it and HEAR it--not to those who read and interpret it, nor to those who read it and say what they think about it. If you read the book, hear what the book has to say, and keep the things written therein, you are blessed; but whosoever adds to or takes from this book has the curse of God upon him.

The Lord will keep us from the temptation that will come upon the whole world
According to Revelation 3:10, the Church will not enter nor go through any part of the Great Tribulation period: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come UPON ALL THE WORLD, TO TRY THEM THAT DWELL UPON THE EARTH." This verse could have been in the message to Ephesus. It could have been in the message to Pergamos. It could have been in the message to Sardis . . . but it is not.

It is in the message to the church at Philadelphia [the BROTHERLY CHURCH]
-- the church of brotherly love . . . the True Church. The Bride of Christ is not to be tried upon the earth. The Bride of Christ WILL NOT BE TRIED! We will be rewarded for our stewardship, and we will either gain or lose, so far as rewards are concerned. But the Church, the Bride, will not be tried upon the earth nor any place else. The great "hour of temptation" that is coming upon the earth is the Great Tribulation, the "time of Jacob's trouble." That is the time when the Antichrist will reign and this earth will be hell on earth.
THE CHURCH WILL NOT BE HERE.

The Church is not appointed to wrath
According to the testimony of the Apostle Paul (who wrote inspired of God), we will not enter nor go through any part of the Great Tribulation: "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thess. 5:9). According to this Scripture, the Church is not appointed to judgment. The Church will not face either the wrath of God or the judgment of God, but will be caught up to meet Jesus in the clouds in the air. Then the judgment of Almighty God will fall upon this earth as described in Revelation six and following. The stage is set in Revelation 4 and 5, and the judgments break at the beginning of chapter six.

THE THRONE OF JESUS IN HEAVEN
Rev. 4:1-3:
1. After this I looked, and, behold, a door [was] opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard [was] as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

2. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and [one] sat on the throne.

3. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine
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stone: and [there was] a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

The entire situation changes here. Up to this point, John is seen here on earth, and EVENTS RECORDED IN CHAPTERS TWO AND THREE TOOK PLACE RIGHT HERE ON THIS EARTH. But the command of the Voice now is, "COME UP HITHER." Therefore, John leaves the earth and is caught up into Heaven to witness and record the visions that remain in the book of Revelation. Chapters four and five describe scenes and events that are beyond man's imagination.

In our present Scripture, the history of the Church on earth has been written. The overcomers have been translated to meet the Lord in the air. The guilty multitudes of earth have been spued out. The removal of the True Church sets the stage for the devil to take over. This he will do, as we will see in chapter six.

Verse 1: "After this (after the Church has run its course and all things concerning the Church have been fulfilled) I looked. . . and, behold, A DOOR [WAS] OPENED IN HEAVEN:" John 10:9 tells us that Jesus is that door. After His resurrection He ascended to Heaven, and called John (in the spirit) up to where He is. He opened the door -- and John stepped into Heaven to witness the events that were to follow. This is a true picture of the Rapture. John experienced in the spirit what we will literally experience when the Rapture takes place (I Thess. 4:14-18). When the Rapture occurs, the trumpet will sound, and the voice of the archangel will call the saints up. Jesus will not come to this earth when He comes in the Rapture . . . the saints will be caught up to meet Him in the air; but when He comes in judgment, He WILL come to the earth, and will stand on the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4).
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"And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me." This statement does not mean that John heard this voice FOR THE FIRST TIME after he was caught up into Heaven . . . it means the FIRST VOICE he heard (Rev. 1:10). He heard that voice here on earth, and now the same voice is speaking in Heaven. It is the voice of none other than the Lord Jesus Himself, as the trumpet summons John to come up from the earth to Heaven.

Verses 2 and 3: "And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and [one] sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and [there was] a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." The voice of Jesus said, "Come up hither," . . . and "IMMEDIATELY I was in the spirit." There was no delay -- not one split second. John was not actually caught up into Heaven bodily, for all this was part of John's vision. The expression "in the spirit" indicates that John's spirit for the moment left his body, and his spirit alone was caught away into Heaven to behold his glorified Lord. John's body was not yet glorified, and no man can behold the beauty and majesty of our glorified Lord in an unredeemed and mortal body.

The next statement, "A throne was set in Heaven," definitely and precisely fixes the seat of royal rule and authority. What a contrast to the thrones of earth -- thrones that have risen and fallen -- down through the centuries. But in this Scripture we have a throne that is eternal.

The throne was actually the first vision after John was translated in the spirit from earth to Heaven. The throne is the center of the heavenly scene, and is a symbol of Jehovah's universal government. He who sits upon
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the throne is not named, but is described significantly in the stones that are used to symbolize His appearance:

"And He that sat was to look upon like a JASPER, and a SARDINE stone." The two precious stones named here symbolize the glory and the majesty of God. His glory cannot be communicated, even to the most exalted of creatures. Jehovah God is light unapproachable. Paul describes it thus: "Which in his times he shall shew, [who is] the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling IN THE LIGHT WHICH NO MAN CAN APPROACH UNTO; WHOM NO MAN HATH SEEN, NOT CAN SEE: to whom [be] honour and power everlasting. Amen." (1 Timothy 6:15,16).

The Jasper and the Sardine (or Sardius) stones are mentioned in the list of precious stones set in the breastplate of the high priest (Ex. 28:17-20). Please read these Scriptures, for time and space will not permit me to give you the text of all the references used in this study. These same stones also are mentioned among those describing the glory of the king of Tyre (Ezek. 28:13). We find them mentioned again in the description of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:19,20).
# Ex 28:17-20 Eze 28:13 Re 21:19,20

The Holy Spirit uses these two stones to symbolize the brilliant glory and unsurpassed splendor of Jehovah God insofar as His glory can be displayed and symbolized to mortal man. The brilliance of the Jasper stone symbolizes the pure holiness of God, and the deep red of the Sardius symbolizes the blood atonement demanded by God for the remission of sins.

John tells us, "The light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a Jasper stone, CLEAR AS CRYSTAL" (Rev. 21:11). Note: CLEAR AS CRYSTAL. God's holiness
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is untouched, unmarred, unscarred -- PERFECT holiness! Without a doubt, Jesus was the One who John saw sitting upon the throne.

In the fourth chapter of Revelation, Jesus is described as a Jasper and a Sardine stone. The Jasper stone was clear -- clear as crystal.. The Sardine (or Sardius) was blood-red . . . the bloody stone. In Exodus 28, we read of these stones in the breastplate of the high priest. The Sardius (the blood-red) stone having to do with Reuben is mentioned first, and the Jasper stone last. Revelation 4 speaks first of the Jasper stone -- the clear white stone of Benjamin. This is not to be taken lightly. There is a definite reason for reversing of the stones, putting the first last, and the last first.

The Sardius was blood-red, speaking of the sacrifice of blood, pointing to the cross and the first coming of Jesus to shed His blood for the remission of sin. The name is derived from two Hebrew words meaning "behold the Son." It pointed to the person of whom John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). It also tells us that He (the Lord Jesus) was the first born of every creature, and the first begotten -- the ONLY begotten -- Son of God (John 3:16).

The Jasper, the last stone in the Old Testament breastplate, represented Benjamin. This was a clear stone, speaking of total victory. On the Jasper stone was Benjamin's name, which is a combination of two Hebrew words (BEN and JAMIN), so scholars tell us, meaning "the son of my right hand" . . . or, as one authority puts it, "the son of my power." The first and last stones pointed forward to the first and second coming of
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ABRAHAM
The Supreme Test of Abraham as a worship of God.
God's command for Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac was the crucial test of his faith. He was willing to give up his son in obedience to God, although at the last moment the Lord intervened to save Isaac <Gen. 22:1-13>. The Lord's promise of descendants as numerous as the stars of the heavens was once again reaffirmed as a result of Abraham's unquestioning obedience <Gen. 22:16-18>.

Gen 22:5
And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you." (NKJ)

The Hebrew word worship
7812 shachah (shaw-khaw');
a primitive root; to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God):
KJV-- bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.

The Holy Spirit gives us the desire to worship Him.
Ps 42:1
As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. (NKJ)
SUBJECT. [It is the cry of a man far removed from the outward ordinances and worship of God, sighing for the long-loved house of his God; and at the same time it is the voice of a spiritual believer, under depressions, longing for the renewal of the divine presence, struggling with doubts and fears, but yet holding his ground by faith in the living God. Most of the Lord's family have sailed on the sea which is here so graphically described. It is probable that David's flight from Absalom may have been the occasion for composing this Maschil.]

The cry of a heartsick person
Debarred EXCLUDED from public worship, David was heartsick. Ease he did not seek, honor he did not covet, but the enjoyment of communion with God was an urgent need of his soul; he viewed it not merely as the sweetest of all luxuries, but as an absolute necessity, like water to a stag. Like the parched traveler in the wilderness, whose skin bottle is empty, and who finds the wells dry, he must drink or die --- he must have his God or faint. His [soul,] his very self, his deepest life, was insatiable for a sense of the divine presence.

* The next best thing to living in the light of the Lord's love is to be unhappy till we have it, and to pant hourly after it. *

A DOSE OF GOD'S PRESENCE WILL ERADICATE THE SICKNESS OF LONELINESS

Worship compels us to want to see others filled
And the true lovers of God, they are always thinking upon him, sighing for him, panting after him, talking of him, and (if were possible) would engrave the name of the Lord Jesus upon the breasts of all the men in the world.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit
Eph 5:18
Ver. 18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, &c.] The sin of drunkenness here deported from, is a custom, or habit, of voluntary excessive drinking of any strong liquor, whereby the mind is disturbed, and deprived of the use of reason: though wine is only here mentioned, that being the usual liquor drank in the eastern countries, yet the same holds good of any other strong liquor in which is dissipation;

Ver 18. But be filled with the Spirit, when the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the spirit, which is compared to wine, for its antiquity, purity, and refreshing nature; and they are filled with it, who have a comfortable sense of it, and a firm persuasion of interest in it, and are delighted with the views of it, and are as it were inebriated with it; and they are filled with the spirit, in whom his grace is a well of living water, and out of whose belly flow rivers of it; and who have a large measure of spiritual peace and joy.

The Greek word "fill"
4137 pleroo (play-ro'-o);
from 4134; to make replete, i.e. (literally) to cram (a net), level up (a hollow), or (figuratively) to furnish (or imbue, diffuse, influence), satisfy, execute (an office), finish (a period or task), verify (or coincide with a prediction), etc.:

KJV-- accomplish, X after, (be) complete, end, expire, fill (up), fulfil, (be, make) full (come), fully preach, perfect, supply.

John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit of God from birth. [The power of not the person]
Luke 1:15
"For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. (NKJ)

The Shulamite women
Song 5:2-6
2 I sleep, but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying, "Open for me, [BEHOLD I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK], my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is covered with dew, my locks with the drops of the night."
3 I have taken off my robe; how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; how can I defile them?
4 My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door, and my heart yearned for him.
5 I arose to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock.
6 I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. (NKJ)

The Holy Spirit gives us revelation for worship.