When Do You Assemble to Worship?

 

Someone has asked, "When do you meet with other Christians as a body and worship?

 

According to Jesus in John 4, bowing submissively (that's the meaning of "worship" in that passage) is something that used to require going to the dwelling place of God, in some temple, on some mountain. You would step into God's presence, in his throne room, and bow before him to show your submission to him.

 

You've seen the movies and tv shows where the prisoner is brought before the king and told, "On your knees!" Or the petitioner comes before the king and face-plants to beg the king to do this or that.

 

That's the picture we're looking at in John 4. It's the same picture as the second of the ten commandments: "Thou shalt not bow down to idols nor serve them." (That word "serve" is the second-most common word behind the English word "worship", and is found in Rom 12:1.) It's the same picture we see when Naaman the leper asks forgiveness for when he bows in the temple of Rimmon as part of his job.

 

The woman at the well is asking, "Which church should we bow at?"

 

Jesus says that the bowing is different now. It's not in a physical place, at a specific time, performing specific "acts of worship". That's the Old Testament way of thinking, when God dwelt in a temple built by human hands, and you had to come bow before him three times a year.

 

But God is Spirit, and has moved out of that temple made by human hands, into your spirit. When and where are you not in spirit? When and where should you not be bowing, truthfully, in spirit?

 

That is the same question asked at the top of this post: "What is the time and place we are to appear before God in his temple in order to worship him?"

 

Jesus answers: "You don't get it. You don't go to a temple to bow before God. You bow before him in spirit, in your temple, truthfully, at all times and all places. That's what God wants from you as a worshipper."