How Then Should We Worship
“And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him”, Matthew 28:9 (NASB).
The angel at the tomb of Jesus had just announced to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary that Jesus had risen from the dead, and they should go quickly and tell His disciples. In obedience, these two ladies set off to tell the disciples. On their way, Jesus met and greeted them, and they experienced the resurrected Jesus. Matthew 28:9 tells us how the two women responded to the presence of Jesus. Matthew tells us that they took the feet of Jesus and worshipped him. To embrace Jesus' feet, they would have had to bow before Him; this is the true expression of worship. We worship the Lord through our obedience (John 14:15) and humbly bow before Him as He meets us as we go. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary expressed a humble heart that wanted nothing more than to give Jesus all the glory and honor He deserved, for they were in His presence.
Obeying God is the heart of worship. Jesus told the woman at the well that true worship is to worship in Spirit and truth (John 4:24). I love how Skip Heitzig puts it in his article titled Obeying God’s Word is the Heart of Worship*: “As you learn and grow in your faith, God empowers you to do what pleases Him. In that way, all you do becomes an act of worship—of saying, “You deserve my best, God, at home and work and in my community.” True worship—worship in spirit and truth—involves obedience to God’s commands because it engages our whole heart and so plays out in our actions." We need to worship Jesus in all that we say and do. Paul instructs us in Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." (NASB). Mary Magdalene and the other Mary obeyed the angel, and because of that, they had the privilege of being the first to meet Jesus. At that moment, their obedience was joined by Jesus’ presence. When Jesus appeared, they fell at the feet of Him and worshiped. It was the first Christian worship service after the resurrection. (Matthew 18:20)
Worship occurs in everything that we do when Jesus is the central focus. It does not only occur when we are in church, singing along with the praise band and the production set. It is more about our posture before God and our obedience to His Word than anything else. I find it interesting in some churches, the worship culture is all about what happens on the stage. It must be a well-produced set that centers around humanistic focus rather than Jesus. I believe that we need to be very careful when it comes to worship. The worship of anything besides Jesus is called idolatry. The women that Jesus met on their way to share the Good News with the disciples did not need a production to worship; they just worshipped with all they had at the feet of Jesus because of their obedience in the presence of Jesus.
Could it be that we need to obey God’s Word, and then fall at the feet of Jesus because we are always in His presence through the indwelling Holy Spirit?
*decisionmagazine.com/obeying-gods-word-heart-of-worship