As we have seen through this series called How to Spell Worship With Your Family, worship truly begins by God revealing Himself through creation and wonder all around us, through acts of power and amazement, through His Word, through the Holy Spirit, and most clearly through the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. This is what worship is really about. It’s much more than music or a song, although these are important gifts and tools given to express our love and worship. Worship is a day-to-day lifestyle of pouring ourselves out in response to all that God is, says, and does.
Now, what would your answer be if I asked you who the greatest worshipper of all time was? If your answer is anything other than Jesus, than you’d be wrong. He is the perfect model. He is the perfect example. Therefore, when we become more and more like the greatest worshipper, we become more and more of a worshipper ourselves.
The word “Christian” comes from the Greek work christianos which mean “little Christ.” Acts 11:26 gives us the place when this term was first used. “They were there a whole year, meeting with the church and teaching a lot of people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were for the first time called Christians” (The Message). The meaning of this word gives a fundamental truth about what it means to be a follower of Christ. However, this term as been skewed in the past two centuries with the Americanized misunderstanding of what being a Christian actually entails. The fact of the matter is that being a Christian involves dying to oneself through Christ’s death, and letting Christ live within us by His resurrection, and then becoming a “little Christ” in the world to make disciples of every nation (Galatians 2:20).
1. WE WORSHIP WHEN WE LOOK LIKE CHRIST.
Countless books have been written on the characteristics of how Christ lived. So, I will not try to exhaust this idea by any stretch of the imagination. However, it’s important to zoom in on two key characteristics that are crucial for the believer to imitate: Christ’s holiness and humility.
Holiness is not just defined by the absence of doing sinful things, but also by doing the right things. Romans 12:1 gives us one of the greatest definitions of worship when Paul urges us to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (NIV). With Christ as our main model, we are charged to worship God in the beauty and splendor of His holiness (Psalm 96:9 NIV).
Another way we imitate Christ is by living out His humility. In Andrews Murry’s book Humility, he addresses the chief characteristic of Christ as he explains, “There can be but one answer: it is His humility. What is the incarnation but His heavenly humility, His emptying Himself and becoming man? What is His life on earth but humility? ‘He humbles Himself and become obedient unto death.’ And what is His ascension and His glory, but humility exalted to the throne and crowned with glory? ‘He humbled Himself, therefore God highly exalted Him.’ In heaven, where He was with the Father, in His birth, and His life, in His Death, in His sitting on the throne, it is all, it is nothing but humility.”
We, too, must live our days with a deep humility that communicates a submissive spirit to the will of the Father and understand that humility is not necessarily just thinking less of yourself, but rather seeing yourself in the right biblical perspective. The more we look like Christ, the more we will worship in a way that God desires.
2. WE WORSHIP WHEN WE SOUND LIKE CHRIST.
Holiness and humility certainly played a part in how Jesus sounded, spoke, and responded to people and circumstances through His life and ministry. If we are to sound like Christ sounded, and if this is truly a form of worship, then we must study His communication tactics. He spoke with tones of love, truth, clarity, boldness, dependence on the Father, compassion, and even at times, a righteous anger. The topics of His tone were about the Kingdom of God, stages of life, sin, money, spiritual truth and concepts through parables, salvation, sacrifice, and of course, Himself. As “little Christs,” we can speak the language of Jesus and when we do, it’s like sweet music to the Father’s ear.
3. WE WORSHIP WHEN WE THINK LIKE CHRIST.
Lastly, we must think as Christ thinks. Paul conveys this idea in Philippians 2:5 when he says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (NIV). Every single thought from the mind of our Savior was pure, innocent, wise and loving. It can be easy at times to think one thing and filter your speech to convey something different. But Jesus allowed His thoughts, words, and actions to all build perfectly on one another which brought great power to the message of the gospel. Paul continues later in Philippians 4:8 with this same idea, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (NIV). We could then safely define a life of worship as, “when Christ-like thoughts produce Christlike words, which overflow into Christlike actions, which ultimately builds a Christlike life.”
So, for a quick recap… the greatest worshipper that ever walked the earth was Jesus Christ. He is the both the model and the primary object of our worship. The more we look, sound, and think like Christ, the more we will genuinely worship.
