In the Old Testament, certain forms of worship are reprobated by God (Isaiah 1:11-15). He can reject what we think is appropriate. When the New Testament states that there is an approved worship of God, it also implies that certain attitudes or activities are not at all pleasing to Him.
Hebrews 12 : 28 « 28Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. » KJV
We don’t have to decide what honors God; rather, we should discover it in the Holy Scriptures. In the Old Testament, and many times, the people of Israel could not approach God until they respected the conditions that had been prescribed to them by the Lord. The worship that pleases God is to approach Him, to enter into a relationship with Him as He has prescribed and by means which make this worship possible. We cannot, by our own means, establish a proper relationship with God or please Him. God wants to be worshipped on the basis of the criteria that He has set, namely in spirit and truth.
The praise and worship that pleases God is based on a personal relationship with Him, through the only intermediary between men and Him : His Son Jesus Christ. And it is the third divine Person, the Holy Spirit, who will lead us into this praise and adoration, which is why the apostle Paul encouraged believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Since the fall, man is spiritually dead and separated from God. Therefore, his spirit cannot worship his Creator or communicate with Him. For man to be able to worship God again, he must reconcile with Him and regenerate his spirit; and it is by the Holy Spirit that the spirit of man is regenerated. It is therefore absolutely essential that man experience the conversion, which the Bible calls “the New Birth”, so that his spirit can again praise and adore his Creator.
The New Birth is the work of the Holy Spirit; it is impossible for anyone to produce it by himself.
The only worship that God accepts is that which is offered to Him in spirit and truth through Jesus Christ under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and emanating from a spirit that was regenerated at the New Birth.
John 4 : 24 « 24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. » KJV
Worship “in spirit and truth” implies that one has recognized that Jesus Christ is the Truth (John 14:6), He who reveals the Father and His purposes. It also implies that one has received the Holy Spirit, which is available to all who believe in Jesus Christ (John 7:37-39).
John 7 : 37-39 « 37In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) » KJV
Thus, each of the divine Persons plays an essential role in the implementation of the worship that is appropriate to the Father. It is manifested according to His truth, which itself is revealed through the Son. Jesus Christ is our High Priest who presents our praise and worship to God (Hebrews 9:24-25 and 6:19-20). Without His mediation, they would be nothing but noise.
Hebrews 9:24-25 « 24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 25Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others. » KJV
Hebrews 6:19-20 «19Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 20Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. » KJV
A people of priests and a holy nation
Jesus Christ is the living stone which men have rejected but which God has chosen, and to which He attaches great value.
1 Peter 2 : 6-8 « 6Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 7Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. » KJV
God is the Builder; He builds a new “spiritual home” with all those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, and it is Christ alone who is the “cornerstone” of this house. It is made up of living stones, and those who have come to Christ now form a group of consecrated priests, called to be a holy nation. They fulfill their priesthood by offering “spiritual sacrifices that God can accept through Jesus Christ”.
1 Peter 2 : 5 « 5Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. » KJV
Jesus Christ is at the very heart of worship; He is the one in whom heaven and earth meet, God and man reconcile. He is the only source of salvation and blessing for all nations.
John 4:4-42 relates a dialogue between a Samaritan woman and the Lord Jesus. Besides racial differences, there was a deep dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans about where to worship God, a point on which the Samaritan woman also challenged Jesus :
John 4 : 19-20 « 19The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 20Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. » KJV
The mountain to which she referred was Mount Gerizim, mentioned several times in the first five books of the Old Testament and which, during the earthly ministry of the Lord, was still for the Samaritans the only place suitable for worshipping God. For the Jews, Jerusalem was the only place where it was appropriate to worship, and every Jewish man of thirty years or more had to go to the temple of Jerusalem at least once a year.
Under the New Covenant, there is no longer a sacred building where God would be particularly present, nor even rites that allow believers to approach Him. The worship is therefore no longer linked to a physical place as thought by Jews and Samaritans, or other peoples even today. It is now done in every place, in spirit and in truth.
The apostle Paul began his first epistle to the Corinthians by addressing his greetings :
1 Corinthians 1 : 2 « 2…to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. » KJV
