Bowing Down
Biblical Worship • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 57 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Today we begin a new “mini-series” if you will on “Biblical Worship.”
The idea isn’t so much to examine the “acts of worship” but the “words translated” as worship with the hopes of gaining a better understanding on these particular words.
In a Wednesday night class I made mention of these five New Testament Greek words used for worship and Mark said it would be a good idea to have sermons on them, so here we are.
I had planned on getting to it earlier but Covid changed some of those plans, at least as far as timing was concerned.
The Greek word for worship we are going to examine today is “proskuneo” which also happens to be the most popular word translated as worship.
Worship
Worship
Defining The Word.
Defining The Word.
The Greek word “proskuneo” literally means…
“to incline the face to the ground.” 1
This happens to be an idiom.
An idiom is an expression that is peculiar to a specific people, in this case those that spoke “koine Greek.”
Therefore, the idea of this expression is that of prostrating oneself before another in an act of reverence and homage.
This is made abundantly clear in the usage of the word found 243 times between the Old Testament (LXX) and the New Testament.
So, let’s let the…
Bible Defining Itself.
Bible Defining Itself.
In the New Testament we find this word 60 different times with the majority of those times, 52 to be exact, translated as “worship” or some variant of such.
The other eight times we start to get an idea of the background of the word a few of which are…
2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something.
6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.
19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.
Summary
Summary
As anyone one can clearly see this word deals with the idea of “bowing down, face down” before God in homage and reverence.
However, what about…
Our Proskuneo
Our Proskuneo
Our Face To The Ground.
Our Face To The Ground.
Considering the definition I’m reminded of what a friend of mine, and fellow preacher, said not too many days ago.
He had need of “open heart surgery” and then posted how thankful he was to once again “be able to get on his knees in prayer and worship his God again.”
As I saw that, I realized how little I do that, how little I actually prostrate myself before my God and worship him.
Now, I’m not saying that the only way to worship God is to prostrate one’s self face down on the ground or kneeling oneself on the ground but it should give us pause that the “number one” word translated as “worship” is just that to kneel or prostrate face down on the ground.
9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.
25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Considering this is the case what does this mean for us today.
What is the…
Significance Today.
Significance Today.
The significance today is two fold really. First let’s consider the culture times we are in.
In August of 2016 San Francisco 49er’s, quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem.
As you all know this sparked much debate with many agreeing and many disagreeing with him.
If you fast forward to 2020 that act of kneeling during the national anthem has become the “battle cry” for the BLM movement particularly with the BLM organization.
Now there is no doubt that BLM because every soul is created by God and precious in his sight and there is also no doubt that no child of God can support the BLM organization because of it’s desire to push homosexuality and other sexual sins along with its desire to destroy what they call the “western nuclear family” which means “mom, dad, and children.”
However, concerning this lesson I want us to consider what else has sprung from that initial kneeling from Kaepernick and that is the idea that “all people” in particular “white people” need to kneel in support of blacks lives movement and before black people in general.
It’s along these lines I’m reminded of a very recent story of Giants pitcher Sam Coonrod who stated when asked why he didn’t kneel during the “moment honoring the BLM movement,” “So I just believe that I can’t kneel before anything besides God.”
Brothers and sisters this is true and biblical.
When have an three examples of this idea, in the N.T., of bowing before God’s creation rather than the Creator.
25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.”
10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, 9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
Secondly, and more importantly, the significance we must consider is that of our dedication to our worship to God. You and I know that we must all take a knee before our God, everyone of us.
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
This means our lives must be dedicated to the worship of God.
This means the worship of our God should be top priority in our lives especially when we have the opportunities to worship together in mimic of our home above in heaven.
If on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night we are not prioritizing our worship we need to reevaluate our priorities.
What do I mean by this?
If on Sunday afternoon we get so involved with other things that we “forget” about evening worship we have failed at prioritizing our worship of God.
If on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, or Wednesday night we simply choose to do other things than worship our God we have failed to prioritize our worship to God.
Planting crops, studying for tests, getting ready for shows, playing sports, or any other than that we prioritize over worshiping God is a failure to prioritize our worship of God.
Let us never forget that putting God first will yield us much greater gain than neglecting the worship of our God.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Summary
Summary
…
Conclusion
Conclusion
…
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Endnotes
Endnotes
Louw-Nida definition