Heart of Worship | Romans 2:25–29

Why Circumcision

Circumcision was a religious rite performed on Jewish men whereby their foreskin was removed. It was an act of worship, a way to set the Israelites apart from the world around them and to show their allegiance and worship of God.

Circumcision showed that Israel had been:

Cut out from the world by God to be his own special people (Ex. 19:1-6)

Cut themselves off from the world and its practices, choosing to obey and honor the God of Israel.

But unfortunately Israel had a history of unfaithfulness. One way they were unfaithful was by misunderstanding circumcision. For the Jews, the act of circumcision, which was an act of fidelity and obedience to God became instead a mystical charm that would save them. So Rabbis in Paul’s day would say ‘Circumcised men do not descend into Gehenna,’ and ‘Circumcision will deliver Israel from Gehenna.’

Rabbinic literature also views circumcision as a highly important rite for every male Jew. M. Nedarim 3, for example, closes with a number of quotations from second-century a.d. rabbis:

“Great is circumcision, whereby the covenant was made thirteen times” (the word “covenant” appears thirteen times in Genesis 17).

“Great is circumcision which (takes precedence over even the Sabbath).

“Great is circumcision, for despite all the religious duties which Abraham our father fulfilled, he was not called ‘perfect’ until he was circumcised, as it is written, ‘Walk before me and be thou perfect’ [Gen 17:1].”

So the Jews looked not to God but to the rites of worship to saved them. This was not a new problem. Throughout history, Israel had trusted in their own holiness, their own heritage to save them and did not worship God rightly.

Paul being a Jew certainly knew what God said to Israel in Deut. 30

Deuteronomy 30:6–10 ESV

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Paul’s day was not any different. The Jews were not worshipping God properly, trusting in their religion and heritage, and not in their relationship with God for salvation.

Jesus encountered a woman who was also confused about worship in John 4. The Samaritan woman asked Jesus questions about worship, and Jesus response was:

John 4:24 ESV

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Today, we are going to ask the question, what is the Heart of Worship? What does true worship of God look like?

True Worship Must Be in Truth

We live in a culture that is enamored with love. Love is the motto of our world.

We hear that Love makes the world go around.

That Love will keep us together.

That Love means Love.

At it’s core, we live in a culture that worships feelings.

Greg Morse notes that:

We live in an emoji world where self-expression and “being the true you” hold highest priority — no one can tell us how to feel. We quickly, even reflexively, lend our smiley, sad, crying, surprised, or mad faces via text or comment. And short of rolling on the floor, we deem it better to express any and all emotions rather than hold back and become “fake.” No other options exist. Our unfiltered emotional life can, and some say should, extend to any and all persons — spouses, parents, or strangers included. Some even commend yelling at God when upset. In all, the assumption stands: you are your emotions — for better or worse. To repress them is to repress yourself.

What we feel has become the supreme guide for all men in our culture.

But we rarely ask the question: “What is True?”

I grew up in a time where we were taught that what we felt wasn’t real. What we felt wasn’t what was important about us. What was true was what mattered.

I grew up in the “I am rubber you are glue” era. The era of words don’t matter.

But I was having a conversation with a child one night of VBS and they were hurt by the owrds of another student. I said that they shouldn’t let the words hurt them, that the words only had the power to hurt them if they gave it power.

The child was horrified and said, “WORDS hurt more than hitting!”

I was perplexed in that moment.

But this is the mindset of this world: What is true is what I think is true.

This is why a man can say he’s a woman, or a unicorn, yes that’s a real thing.

But Christianity at it’s core is a religion of truth.

It’s a religion that says something and what it says means something.

2 Sam. 6:7, “And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down on the spot for his irreverence, and he died there beside the ark of God.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you love God. But this is not true. You cannot worship God if we are not seeking to know him faithfully.

Worship without truth produces vain idol worshippers who have named their idol Yahweh but whose god is truly themselves. Doctrine matters. What we believe about God matters,

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” ― A.W. Tozer

True Worship Must Be in Spirit

We are also told that worship is Spiritual.

Colossians 2:11 ESV

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,

Philippians 3:3 ESV

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—

So what does it mean to worship God in the Spirit?

John Calvin’s comments on this text explain what it means to worship God in spirit: “The worship of God is said to consist in the spirit, because it is nothing else than that inward faith of the heart which produces prayer, and, next, purity of conscience and self-denial, that we may be dedicated to obedience to God as holy sacrifices.”

As R. C. Sproul notes:

“To worship God in spirit is to worship Him with the right spirit—to worship Him in true faith that believes what He says and that He rewards those who seek Him (Heb. 11:6). In other words, worship in spirit is not worship that merely goes through the motions. To worship in spirit is to set our hearts and minds on the Lord when we praise Him. (Spiritual worship is) to see that the worship we offer comes from the depths of our souls, from our inner spirits, from the very cores of our being.”

Woship that is not spiritual is rote and lifeless. Like a child attending a wedding, fidgeting and disinterested, a religion passionless and powerless to move the soul.

Worship without truth is pagan sentimentalism, a mishmash of do what makes you happy tripe devoid of authority and based on the inconstancy of the human heart.

True worship requires both.

Paul understood this, Jesus taught this, we must live this.

How do we Worship In Spirit and Truth?

John Piper writes, ““True worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. True worship comes only from spirits made alive and sensitive by the quickening of the Spirit of God” (Desiring God, 82). God’s Spirit ignites and energizes our spirit.

Ask the Spirit to give you a passion to be deeply emotional in your worship.

passionless worship leads to passionless faithfulness. our worship should be filled with great emotion based on deep love for God.

in his message to the church at Ephesus, Jesus said, “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first” (Rev. 2:4)

true worship requires deep love for God and deep love for the body. It’s not a selfish, me focused passion, but a zeal for God and his people!

Ask the spirit to give you a deep love for true doctrine.