Worship Jesus

Introduction

Miles and Lina Photo Engagement

Last week I proclaimed a social media fast…as an act of worship to focus on worshiping the Lord.

I’d love to hear how that is gong for you….As for me I haven’t touched social media once yet and honestly it is great.

I feel free from the noise

I am sure in November I will be back to social media but hopefully not like I was before.

We have been in a series on worship and one of

Replacement of Old Testaments instruments of worship

One of the greatest concerns of people in the ancient world was to know where the holy places were.

Think about it, what if you are traveling and your animals go and graze on a holy place and then they relieve themselves?

What if you went behind a tree to go to the bathroom and then accidentally desecrate a holy place

What will the god of that place do?

So you have to know where you are worshiping!

So in this series on worship my main point throughout the whole series is that the only thing that will really last into eternity, in heaven is the worship of the Lord

You won’t need your knowledge in heaven

Your ability to put on a great sales presentation won’t be needed

Your engineering skills are amazing here but unnecessary

I am sorry to inform those who work in medicine that in the presence of the great physician your skills while important here are worthless in heaven!

The only thing that lasts in heaven is worship!

So we are learning for a while just though the Bible what it says about worship….

SO I want to start with an interesting story…The story is the counter narrative to the tower of Babel.

If you don’t know that story Early in Genesis, all of human kind come together and they build a tower…The tower is really this overthrowing of God

They are going to get to the heavens on their own power, by their own works

They are going to overthrow the god’s and make a name for themselves…

And then much later in Genesis 28:10-22

Jacob is on his way to find a wife and he has a dream. Lets look at that story now:

Now if you are new to the Bible…What happens at this point of the story is that Adam and Eve sin, they are exiled from the garden

All of humanity grows to be really sinful and God calls a man out of that Sinful humanity…

He will create a new people…And that is Israel…

Israel has three great patriarchs and that is Abraham, Isaac and his son Jacob

The name Jacob in the Bible means deceiver and that is exactly how he operates…Until he has some encounters with the living God.

So where we pick up in the story, Jacob is still a deceiver and he is headed to his uncle’s house to find a wife.

Genesis 28:10–22 NIV

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

This story is so amazing

Since we have not been studying the book of Genesis and maybe this is a new story to you let me give you the cliff-notes version of what we just read.

Jacob has an older brother named Esau. Jacob has been very deceptive…Basically his whole life is lying to his father, lying to his uncle, his life has been one of deceit. But He will actually be a picture of repentance and honoring the Lord down the line in the story

his brother Esau is the picture of human wisdom and contempt for God. He will continually make the wrong decision…

In the story just before, Esau even goes after the wrong wife in an attempt to imitate his brother but its sort of a picture of him falling short again.

So now Jacob is on his way north to meet with his uncle Laban because, he has daughters and his mom wants him to marry in the family

and on his way he is just passing through this ordinary place and it was dark so he went to sleep!

He uses a rock for a pillow, as a real man does…All of you sissy’s on feather pillows

And he has this dream and in this dream he sees a staircase or a ladder in some translations and angels go up and down the latter at will and the Lord is at the top with a message just for Jacob

God gave him three promises: Desendents, the land he was sleeping on and that all peoples on the earth would be blessed through him!

Ultimately though, what God showed Jacob is that its not through building a huge tower that you can climb to heaven, but heaven comes to us.

God opened Jacob’s eyes to the spiritual realm, and basically showed him that heaven is closer than he thinks. It is closer than the air he breathes

and the Lord is there in the midst of him

So when Jacob wakes up, his pillow becomes a pillar

That land gets renamed to Bethel which means house of God

and for generations the land is holy to the Lord.

People will travel to Bethel because Jacob saw the Lord there!

From this point on, Places became holy and for a time in Israel’s history the big question shifted probably a little bit from the most important question that Pastor Bethany asked you in this series: WHO is God?

to where is God?

In fact years later when God’s presence was at the temple of the Lord and Israel was conqured and being shipped off to Babylon

The big concern for the exiles was God’s presence

When they go to Babylon…How could God be with them…He lives in Jerusalem?

You need to know where to find God in order to worship him

Jacob’s response to God’s Revelation:

Jacob’s pillow becomes a pillar

Literally the pillow Jacob used now is stood upright and he makes it a pillar

Look when the Lord shows up in your life, take your pillow and make a pillar

Make a monument of what the Lord has done in your life! ‘

Remember it.

I am not saying you should go build all of these alter’s around your house but what do you have to do in in your life to remember the faithfulness of the Lord and to declair. Lord you are good!

There has been times when the Lord has moved and I have texted my wife because I just want to remember the moment.

It is okay to make a monument to remember the faithfulness of the Lord.

My wife has this picture that she saves on her phone and treasures..>it is a total non discript photo we were just at the beach and she had this really distinct impression that we were supposed to adopt a little boy…

And she holds on to that and when we see that photo, our pillow becomes a pillar and we remember what the Lord has done for us!

I have a bunch of little artifacts in my life that when I see them I just remember what God has done in my life and my pillow becomes a pillar… becomes a monument to the Lord…A way for me to remember and say, thank you Lord!

There is a very specific spot of the freeway, the 210 East to the 57 South where when I am making that bend memories come flooding back…This is where the Lord called you to ministry! But when I make that turn My pillow becomes a pillar and it directs me to worship the Lord…

I’m convinced that there is northing special about Jacob’s rock pillow…It’s just a rock…But when it is turned upright and oil is poured over it there is this reminder that The Lord showed up to me…

As long as you don’t fall into the trap of worshiping the monument rather than the maker

But seriously if the Lord moves in your life make a reminder of that

It’s in those reminders that we are reminded to worship the Lord!

If God has rescued you from something set up a pillar as a reminder of the power of God

Jacob gives a tenth

Now out of response to God’s promise…that he will own all this land and have all of these desendents, I think Jacob assumes rightly that he will amass wealth…and as a way to worship the Lord, he gives a tenth

A tenth to say, Lord all I have is yours

You are the provider of my life and I live by your grace.

It is the exact same Princaple as tithing today.

So Jacob made a monument to say this is the spot where God changed my life and in response to the promise God made…

I will always be with you

Jacob realized that God was going to give him wealth…

For Jacob tithing became an act of worship…I will return to the Lord what he has provide for me…

This is the exact same thing the Bible calls every christian to today…

Return to the Lord what he has provide for you…

We live by the provision of the Lord and as an act of faith God’s people are called to give a tenth to the Lord as an act of worship.

Now I told you we are going to start in the Old testament and move to the new testament…

Why does this story of Jacob’s Ladder matter

John 1:43–51 NIV

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

Do you get it?

Jesus calls this man Nathanial, he becomes a disciple of Jesus.,.. and he tells him he saw him under a fig tree….Nathaniel immediately believes that Jesus is the Messiah…We don’t know what Nathanal was doing under the fig tree we just know that Jesus saw him there.

and because he believes look at what Jesus tells him

John 1:51 NIV

He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

The latter isn’t a place, it is a person

Bethel becomes the House of God….

Jesus is saying, I am the new bethel!

Jesus is saying that I am the person and the place where heaven and earth meet!

The entire new testament declares that Jesus not the temple, not the place of bethel, not the ark of the covenant are who we are to be worshiping…That Jesus is the person in whch heaven and earth meet…

Heaven meets earth in the life of Jesus and he is the ladder to heaven!

In his life we find grace and truth

In his life we find wholeness

in his life we find forgiveness

In his life we find the kind of life that is really life!

And we see this all though the New Testament

I just want to list a few places

When Jesus is born…

While he is still a baby Magi from the east come and what do they say?

Matthew 2:2 NIV

and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

Where is the king, we are coming to worship him…In greek the word is: PRO-SKU-NEY-OH proskynein which a root for this word is an affectionate kiss.

or a dog kissing a hand, it means to bow. or to be made low

So think of what they are saying in the fullness of this word…

The foreign visitors who are coming to find Jesus want to bow and kiss his hand!

They are worshiping him as Lord and king!

In Matthew 14 there is a story where Jesus walks on water and peter gets out of the boat with him and all of the disciples are amazed

and this was their response

Matthew 14:33 NIV

Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Worship is the appropriate response to the moving of the Lord

Let’s look at another quick story

Jesus goes to the house of a Canaanite woman

This is a big thick story that we can’t break down at the moment but we see this woman come before Jesus and this happens

Matthew 15:25 NIV

The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

She knelt PRO-SKU-NEY-OH before Jesus: This is the exact same word for worship

See in John’s gospel, John wants us to see Jesus is the New house of God, he is the ladder by which we can meet God

in Matthew’s Gospel…In these three stories we have Royal visitors from the east, regular disciples of Jesus and a Canaanite woman all worshiping Jesus

Matthew is painting a picture of something that Paul will write later on

Philippians 2:10 NIV

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

All nations will come to Jesus and worship Him

Heaven and earth meet up in his life and it is not that you have do do some kind of crazy gymnastics to follow Jesus

You don’t have to travel to Israel to find him…You don’t need to go seek out holy places you simply need to submit your life to Jesus

I truly believe every human being has this incrediable power available to them called Prayer…and when you pray, Jesus comes up to you…He is near!

He comes to us!

Gospel of John

John 1:14 NIV

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The son of God makes his dwelling among us

Heaven and earth now intersect not at the particular location of the temple but where Jesus is

This is why Jesus is worthy of praise. He comes to us!

The Lord makes his dwelling among his treasured possessions, you and me.

Jesus is the new bethel…He is the Ladder

I think Jesus is making the point that he is the only way to the father

Look one of the most concequencial conversations on worship in the entire Bible is found in a conversation between Jesus and a samaritan woman

And I just want to point out here that this is one of the reasons why I love the gospels

This woman would have been considered a throw away woman in society

Even though she was probably a victim, in her day she would have been seen as a harlot and Jesus redeems her life before her vary eyes..>he gives her truth that leads to purpose

And what I love about John’s gospel is that Jesus will have intensley theological conversations with people….In Chapter 3 he has one with Nicodemus and he can’t seem to get this conversation…he can’t wrap his head around it

And then he has a conversation with a Samaritan woman who has had a rough life and she is more theologically robust than the teacher of Israel

There is a debate that she is trying to draw Jesus into…Where will we worship?

See..She sees herself as a decedent of Jacob

Jacob dug the well in her town and just a days walk away from her is Bethel…

And she is like…You Jews say Jerusalem is the place where you should worship but look, we are in the land of Jacob…His bones are literally here

God showed up to Jacob..>See this is where he is!

And look how Jesus responds to her

John 4:21–26 NIV

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

True worship happens in spirit and truth, the Father seeks those worshipers! (John 4:23)

What does it mean to worship in spirit and truth…Think about the opposite of spirit and truth…It is flesh and falseness!

Think about the fruit of the spirit….Peace patinece gentleness kindness and self control

The acts of the flesh are obvious!

New International Version (2011) Chapter 5

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like

How are you worshiping God

Think about falseness: I find it very interesting that this is the land of Jacob and Jacob literally means deciever and that is what he did with all of his life…and it was only when He was honest about his life that he eventually found freedom and forgiveness

Jacob was not living in truth in the beginning

See Jesus tells \us through the book of John that he is the way the truth and the life! no one comes to the father but through him

See God seeks after the kind of person that doesn't have a fleshy and false life

this is what Jesus says!

The kind of person who seeks truth!

The kind of person who rejects the flesh!

I will probably unpack the woman at the well more later but I want you to see how revolutionary this is

The father seeks these people!

God is searching for people who will worship him….He is looking for you! Can you believe that?

Response

Communion

There is something that Jesus did when he was with his disciples…He turned a pillow into a pillar

Jesus took the meal of the passover

The meal that was about God rescuing his people and being with his people in their darkest time

and he said..>this is really about me

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

And then look he directed people to do this in remembrance

In other words…As an act of worship to remember that Jesus gave his life for you

In other words, this is something we do on a regular basis…We take a pillow and make a pillar…

Prayer team