Let me illustrate this so we can feel its full force. In the Old Testament, the most common word for worship is the Hebrew word hishtahavah (or a related form of that word). Its basic meaning is “bow down,” with the sense of reverence, respect, and honor. It occurs 171 times. In the Greek Old Testament, 164 of those instances of this Hebrew word ar

Missions is not God’s ultimate goal, worship is. And when this sinks into a person’s heart everything changes. The world is often turned on its head, and everything looks different—including the missionary enterprise.

Worship Let’s begin with a startling fact, namely, that the epistles of the New Testament contain very little instruction that deals explicitly with corporate worship—what we call worship services. Not that there were no corporate gatherings for worship. First Corinthians 14:23 speaks of “the whole church” assembling together, Acts 2:46 speaks of t

In other words, genuine, heartfelt praise is not artificially tacked on to joy. It is the consummation of joy. Joy in some beauty or some value is not complete until it is expressed in a kind of praise. Now, if God loves us the way the Bible says he does, then he would surely give us what is best for us. And what is best for us is himself. So if Go

The difference between the true God and the gods of the nations is that the true God carries and the other gods must be carried. God serves; they must be served. God glorifies his might by showing mercy. They glorify theirs by gathering slaves. So the vision of God as one whose passion for his glory moves him to mercy impels missions because he is

Therefore, we have strong evidence that the panta ta ethn in Luke 24:47 was understood by Jesus not merely as Gentile individuals but also as an array of world peoples who must hear the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.

I think the reason is found in the way Jesus treated worship in his life and teaching. His main statement is found in John 4:20–24. But before we look at this text, consider a few other things he said. For example, his attitude toward the temple, the main place of Jewish worship, was not at all what the Jewish leaders thought it should be.

So the truth is reaffirmed: God has given us prayer because Jesus has given us a mission. We are on this earth to press back the forces of darkness, and we are given access to headquarters by prayer to advance this cause. When we try to turn it into a civilian intercom to increase our conveniences, it stops working, and our faith begins to falter.

Jesus strips proskyneo of its last vestiges of localized and outward connotations.5 It will not be wrong for worship to be in a place or to use outward forms, but he makes explicit and central that this is not what makes worship worship. What makes worship worship is what happens “in spirit and truth”—with or without a place and with or without out