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| Dr. and Mrs. Victor Baugh |
and heard them. And when
I had heard and
seen,
I fell down to worship…
Revelation 22:8
When
we think of heaven and the beauty and blessing of being with Christ, we
certainly think of true authentic face to face worship. But when John the
Revelator was receiving the Word of God on Patmos, he was speaking of things to
come, experiencing things to come, basking in things to come. He was so caught
up he was literally seeing into the future beginning with Chapter 4 of the
Revelation. “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 show thee things which must be
hereafter’. And immediately I was in the Spirit …”
By
the time John got to Revelation 22, he was totally consumed by the Spirit of
God and the angel unto whom John wanted to bow down told him … “Don’t do it. I
am a fellow servant … worship God.”
If
we back up to John’s Gospel in 4:24, we find that he records the words of Jesus
as follows: “God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth.” That is simply and divinely expressed. In just a few
words, Jesus gives us vital information on worship. It is not just a religious
experience. In fact, it is not a religious experience at all. Worship is a
biblical and spiritual experience that is specifically set forth by Christ and
it does not include the dictates of the law. The Samaritan woman to whom Jesus
was speaking in John 4 needed far more than a lesson in religion. She needed a
Savior whom she could worship and call her own. She needed a Heavenly Father
she could depend on when all earthly friends and family have forsaken. She
needed the Holy Spirit to indwell, acting on her behalf as the Earnest of her
Expectation (her ticket to heaven), teaching her as only the Indweller can
teach, comforting her in times of need.
Jesus
spoke with her, telling her about the Water of Life. That was a spectacular
analogy as Jesus was sitting on the well when she came to draw water. Someone
once said, the Samaritan woman had no idea that the Well was sitting on the
well. As He spoke, He began to explain to her what true worship was all about.
“Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know
what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. For the hour cometh and now is,
when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for
the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
We
must remember that in John 1:11-12, the apostle says this: “He came unto his
own (the Jews) and his own received him not; but as many as received him to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name.”
There
is an old song of the faith that says, “Calvary Covers it All.” And that is
true, the blood of Christ was shed for the sins of the world. In Romans 1:16,
Paul reminded us that he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ “… for it is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew
first and also to all us other sinners
who need salvation (paraphrased). That includes those from all nations and
kindred and tongue who would come in faith believing.
So,
based upon John’s gospel, Paul’s epistles, and The Revelation of Jesus Christ
written by John on Patmos, we can conclude that real worship is done by those
who know Christ. It does not require a system. It requires a personal
relationship. It requires spiritual ears, so to speak. How many times did John
tell us, “… he who hath ears, let him hear.”
Have
you learned what it means to worship in the true sense of the
word? If not, you need to tune into Christ. He is the answer to all life’s
problems, but He deals with the sin problem first … or not at all. You must
know by now, you cannot approach a Holy God without first coming through the laver of cleansing (I John 1:9): “If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Victor
W. Baugh, Sr., Th.D., Ph.D.
Pastor,
St. Luke AME Church
Havana,
AL
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