This is the first in a series of brief pieces on biblical praise and worship.

How did John Hubley become interested in biblical praise and worship? Well, it took place exactly like this. I became deeply involved about a decade ago. I had unbearable head pain following invasive inner ear surgery. I could not sleep. I prayed and prayed but prayer seemed not to help. Someone suggested I try praising God. It worked a miracle. Prayer was asking God for grace I did not have. Praise was invoking grace God had already given in Christ. Deut 10:21 became a harbor of peace for me: “He (the Lord) is your praise, He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things.” Along with: “By Him (Christ) let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God” (Heb. 13:15).

Worship came into my life along a different path. I taught a group of pastors about the power of praise. They asked why I didn’t teach about worship. That request kicked me into an in-depth study of worship. I started in the Old Testament. I discovered worship was a verb. It defined a relationship to God; not a worship service about God. That made me curious. The Hebrew verb was shachah that the lexicon said meant bowing in obeisance to God. English translators rendered it at  times worship, bow down, or make obeisance. I wondered how worship got into the act. Then an amazing thing happened. I learned that a Bible Museum had been opened nearby. It had copies of William Tyndale’s first ever (1536) translations of the Hebrew into English. To make a long story short, he explained that he rendered shachah as worship because worship meant bow down in obeisance to God in the Middle English of his time.

In conclusion: Praise and worship are two distinct ways of relating to the Lord. Praise lifts up the grace of the Lord in saving and supporting us as His own. In worship we bow down in obeisance before the Lord as our King. We use psalms and songs in our praise to the Lord. We yield the issues of our lives to the Lord (Your will be done) as the primary expression of worship. No matter what style of worship service we may choose, we must remember that true worship is not synonymous with our worship service. Rather such worship becomes a life changing catalyst through habitually praising and humbly submitting all the issues of our daily lives as willful responses to God’s awesome grace. Amen.

Cover of the Action Guide

Truth You Should Know About Worship

by John Hubley, Th.D.
an Action Guide Sponsored by the Mindheart Foundation and the Worship Leaders Network

from the guide:

Worship today comes in many fascinating forms and styles. The reason is that we restless creatures like truth in many forms and styles. Diversity adds color and class to our creative instincts. However, what happens when we take the living God into our search for truth? I mean when we embrace the triune God of Scripture in our quest? What difference does that make in our search for insight into the worship of God?

The purpose of this course is to winnow truth from popular fancy so that as God’s ministers we pursue biblical worship devoted to the triune God. First, we consider truth about worship ingrained in the Bible; then show the impact of the triune God upon worship; however, not worship alone, but worship with justice. We purposely seek to present a theology for pastors and worship leaders interested in biblical theodicy*,  not theater.

This study seeks to inform worship leaders that the God they venerate is triune in being and action; is known, loved and served as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and involved in our governance and redemption. Biblical worship, creating an obeisant relationship to God that swells into participation with Christ in his saving works, is unveiled in Scripture, and solely in Scripture.

DECISIVE PRAISE AND WORSHIP: Actualizing our Devotion to the Lord is a resource workbook designed to accompany MindHeart seminars on praise and worship. The book is comprehensive enough to stand alone for the reader, but is most useful in the context of an accompanying seminar by the MindHeart team.

DECISIVE PRAISE AND WORSHIP: Actualizing our Devotion to the Lord goes beyond preoccupation with forms and styles of worship, and gets decisively to the essence of biblical worship as actualizing our “facedown” submission to the Lord.

Returning to True Worship…It’s About Time!

April 17, 2010

The teaching ministry of John Hubley, Th.D. and the Mindheart Foundation for Biblical Studies

Saturday, April 17       8:30AM – 2:45PM
Phoenix Seminary, 4222 East Thomas Road
Phoenix, AZ 85018
(www.phoenixseminary.edu)

Seminar objectives:

1. To present the true worship of the triune God though the study of keystone passages of Scripture relating to the five major themes.
2. To apply these truths to the ministries of pastors and worship leaders in the practice of corporate worship, whatever their organizational associations.

The biblical concepts and principles of worship covered in the seminar integrate into whatever traditional or contemporary forms or styles of corporate worship pastors and worship leaders embrace. It’s the view of this seminar that the Holy Bible is the inspired Word of God and therefore the sola Scriptura of wisdom about true worship.

It is also the view of this seminar that the culture of worship services in the churches of Christ, from the ancient past to the present moment, are the product of the Holy Spirit when they lift up Jesus Christ as the risen, crucified and ascended LORD. The seminar focuses wholly upon biblical passages and principles of worship.

SEMINAR AGENDA

8:30 AM         Registration
(Coffee, Continental Breakfast provided)

Session I:     Worship As Obeisance To Christ
Session II:    Worship As Participation With Christ
Session III:   Worship With Mercy & Justice
Session IV: Christ, Our True Worship Leader

Lunch and Fellowship.     (LUNCH PROVIDED)

Session V:   Creating A True Worship Praxis

The seminar utilizes five general sessions presenting a biblical theme and text followed by participant interaction. Each thematic session is taught by John Hubley, and each interactive session is facilitated by Gary Bloomquist.

Cost:   $40 per person, $35 for 2 or more from the same church/organization.   (Cost includes all sessions, a notebook of all resource & summary papers, breakfast & lunch.)

Registration:
To register online:  http://www.registrationfactory.com/v3/default.cfm?EventUUID=C0C3012F

For more information: Gary Bloomquist:   602-568-2075
www.worshipleadersnetwork.org
gary@worshipleadersnetwork.org

John Hubley

My subject is: Winnowing the will to worship. To start with: What in the world does winnowing have to do with worship? As a matter of fact, what is winnowing anyway? First of all, it’s an ancient term. It meant separating the chaff from the grain. Today, it simply means separating what’s worthy from what’s worthless. What’s worthless often gets in the way when we seek to worship our God.

The theme didn’t just pop into my head. It came right from the third chapter of Matthew. There are three events that Matthew tethered concerning the worship of God: I really mean the will to worship God. First, John the Baptist came preaching willful worship in the wilderness. Second, Jesus came with a will to worship under John’s ministry. Third, Satan tempted Jesus to break his bond of willful worship to the Father. Each event dealt with the will to worship. Worship doesn’t happen just around us but profoundly within us—it’s the product of our will—it’s our will to worship the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Let’s start with John. He baptized people unto repentance. Such baptism with repentance involved penitents submitting themselves in obedience to God. Actually, bowing in facedown obeisance to God was the Hebrew medium of worship. So you see, John zealously promoted true biblical worship in the wilderness. Here are his engaging words: “I baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Baptism is more than worship. Baptism is a will to worship. It turn us away from self-will to live for the will of the Father. That’s true repentance. However, John went beyond repentance. He promised that when the Christ came, He would baptize with the Spirit and with fire. He would ignite a fervent fire, kindle an intense will, in their hearts, to winnow worthless ways during their worship. The prophets Amos and Micah had years before warned people about equating worship with attending to attend the temple sacrifices; dancing to just dance lively to their favorite songs and lyrics during festivals.

Matthew continued: Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized by John. He was moved by the promise of the Holy Spirit and fire associated with baptism. He sought to bow in facedown obeisance to his Father at the start of his mission. But something went awry. John refused to baptize him. Instead, he pleaded, “I need to be baptized by You.” Jesus’ will to worship spiked like fermenting wine. He cried out: “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Wow! Jesus was tenacious. “Get with it, John!  It’s what’s required right now!  I must do what my will compels me to do: Worship the Father as His beloved and obeisant Son.” Quickly, John relented. When Jesus came up out of the water “the heavens were opened to Him, And He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’” Jesus was enthralled.

To recapitulate: John preached the baptism of repentance, the proclamation of the will to worship; to bury ones self-will in baptism; and to bow in facedown obeisance to the Father’s will. We perceived how Jesus pursued his passion for the Father, denying his self-will through baptism, and bowing in face down obeisance to the Father. Now we’ll examine what our role becomes in light of how Jesus dealt with Satan—ourselves responding in the same manner.

Matthew continued: Immediately, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus had declared his utter obeisance to the Father, and received His pleasure and delight. Jesus knew when he faced the devil he must uphold his obeisance, and maintain his integrity. Then, Satan taunted him about turning stones into bread, and falling from great heights without injury. Even though these were challenges to Jesus, they were not obstacles to sustaining his godly stature and his well-being. They were simply Satan’s slick preludes to undermine Jesus’ integrity, and destroy his mission as the Son of God.

Satan’s real clincher came with this enticing carrot: “All the kingdoms of the world are absolutely yours, Jesus, “If You will fall down and worship me”  “You who declared your awesome obeisance to the Father in baptism: Renounce your baptismal commitment to the Father; retract your calling as Messiah; abandon your mission to bear the sin of many and make intercession for transgressors.

Satan put everything of redemptive value up for grabs in his wicked effort to ravage the Father and degrade his Son. But comes a surprise!  Satan was amazed at Jesus’ response. Although Satan might have been prepared for the jolting surprise had he paid closer attention to Jesus’ awesome baptism.

Jesus exclaimed with the passion of his entire being: “Out of my sight, Satan, “You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only shall you serve”. What was Jesus doing? Did he simply demand the obvious: That Satan back off and bow down in obeisance to God? There’s much more to this than that. Let’s back up for a moment. Jesus’ viewed his worship of the Father as the ultimate will and moral fiber of his mission. He publicly presented himself as the ultimate and willful Worshiper. This is what he meant when he said:  “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent me” (John 6:38).

Was Jesus making an example of his baptism, or was he going much deeper, was he implying that we believers also participate in his obeisance to the Father through our own moment of baptism? Responding to his example is easy in its impact. Participating willfully in his submission to the Father is encompassing in its impact. He boldly challenged Satan to participate with the Son in his ultimate obeisance to the Father—to forsake his selfish desire to dominate the world, and boldly embrace the Son’s obeisance to the Father in both mission and justice.

Our will to worship becomes our participation in his will to worship. Participation involves much more than imitating his obeisance to the Father, although that’s certainly possible. But it’s willfully sharing with Him, it’s participating with Him, in our regenerate minds and imaginations, in his absolute obeisance to the Father, as if his submission becomes our own–for by faith through grace it surely does.

By participating in Jesus’ will to worship the Father, we actually winnow the self will from our worship. The wind of the Spirit effectively sweeps away our self will with its choking stress on outward forms and styles, and graciously frees us to make facedown obeisance to the Father through the Son in our lifestyle forever.

Whenever we read worship in the Bible, it portrays doing obeisance to God as the Lord. However, worship is expressed in many ways in the Bible through what we call liturgies. Liturgies portray various activities in which believers live out their obeisance to God.  For instance in the Old Testament, presenting tithes to God is a liturgy as is rendering sacrifices. In the New Testament being baptized, and sharing in the Lord’s Table are liturgies. They enable believers to live out their willful obeisance to Christ as the Lord.

Since the crucifixion, resurrection and glorification of Christ, worship (as obeisance) has now taken on an awesome intensive relationship to God. The apostles Paul and Peter portray worship as the believers’ participation with Christ in his death, resurrection and glorification. Portrayed as a mystery by these apostles, the true worshiper partakes in Christ’s obeisance to the Father by sharing in his death (dying to sin), his resurrection (living with justice), and his glorification (embracing his eternal glory).

Our biblical theology of worship so far has mentioned the Father and the Son, but not the Spirit. Throughout the Bible the Spirit is portrayed as the person of the triune God that enables worshipers to overcome sin and pride in order to do obeisance to God as Lord. In the New Testament, Jesus and the apostles portray the Spirit as carrying out Christ’s mission after his entrance into Heaven. Therefore, the Spirit now nurtures worshipers in doing obeisance to Christ through holy baptism and the Lord’s Table.

The Spirit served in Old and New Testaments in showing obeisance to God through instrumental music and sung lyrics. Serving the Spirit as worship leaders, Moses led the Israelites after escaping the Egyptians with the “Song of Moses” (Ex. 15:1-18); David openly danced in restoring the Ark to worship with singers and trumpets and stringed instruments (1 Chron.16:1-36), and the apostles sang psalms and hymns and spiritual song submitting themselves publicly to God and to one another (Eph. 5:17-21).

Now, since acknowledging the Spirit’s role in nurturing worshipers to do obeisance to God through bible-based music and liturgies, it follows logically and naturally that almost any vehicles of worship that exist to do obeisance to God is blessed by the Holy Spirit. No matter how a vehicle may please worshipers or doesn’t, if that vehicle expresses due obeisance to God in dealing the issues of their daily lives, it’s a vehicle of genuine worship. Without expressing due obeisance to the triune God, nothing is true worship.

To read the support document with this video click here (pdf format)