___________________________________ The idea of emotion in the act of worship is often torn between two extremes. On one side, emotion is often frowned upon, not too much, but not too little as to seem unappreciative of the truth of Christ's redemptive work. On the other hand, emotion is in a sense, the driving factor of the "worship" that is taking place, and many times is deprived of the truth. However, when we look at this matter from a Biblical standpoint, both extremes are out of favor with the text; what is presented to us is rather a beautiful marriage of the two. Now, let's jump into the scriptures to see for ourselves, starting with John 4:24, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Here in this portion of the text, Jesus is talking to the Samaritan women at the well. In His dialogue with her, the focus is brought to worship. Here Jesus points out two driving factors of worship, the spirit, and the truth. Now it is important to realize the Jesus does not say, "in emotion and truth." This is because emotion is not the driving force of worship, but is rather birthed by the spirit through the revelation of the truth. To further understand this point we must remember that we as sinners, cannot by any means worship a God who is holy and abhors sin; the only way by which we can do so is through the cross of Jesus Christ. This is why the apostle Paul urges the believers in Rome by the mercies of God. See Romans 12:1, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." Now here is where the Holy Spirit comes in, take a look a Titus 3:5-6, "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior" In this portion of the text, the apostle Paul again draws attention to the mercy of God, except this time he also tells how this mercy has been applied to us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul more meticulously explains this process in Ephesians 2:1-9, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Again, notice the emphasis of the apostle Paul's writing, he again draws attention to the rich mercies of God just as he did in Titus 3:5, "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" And as he did in Romans 12:1 where he urges the believers to worship in light of the mercies of God, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
Now the main emphasis is all three of these texts is the mercy of God. In Romans 12:1, we see that we are to worship in-light of the mercies of God; in Titus 3:5-6, we are told how this mercy has been applied to us; and in Ephesians 2:1-9, we are told the degree to which this mercy has been applied to us, that we who were once dead in our trespasses and sins have been raised to life with Christ Jesus through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. However, only once the second is accomplished, can the third be understood, and only once the third is understood and the first be done. Only after the Holy Spirit has washed us and regenerated us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Spirit, will the extent to which this mercy has been applied to us be understood, and only after the richness of the mercy of God is understood will we as sinners be able to worship a holy God, for now we are sinners who have been redeemed by the grace of God.
we who were once dead in our trespasses and sins have been raised to life with Christ Jesus through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
Now, what does this all have to do with emotion? I would like to direct you back to my earlier statement, emotion is not the driving force of worship, but is rather birthed by the spirit through the revelation of the truth. In the texts we have just analyzed, it has become clear that the driving force of our worship is the truth of the mercy of God displayed towards us in Christ Jesus and made known to us through the Holy Spirit, hence why Jesus says in John 4:24, "In spirit and truth." We can only worship if the truth of the mercy of God displayed in Christ compels us to, and we can only be compelled if this truth is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, and after this revealed truth, be driven to worship with a correct, "holy emotion." I say "holy emotion," because the emotion we are talking about here is not the emotional buzz of listening to your favorite band, or seeing a close friend, no, this emotional response is the reaction of a heart that has been compelled to worship after gazing upon the mercies of God. Now to break it down, three primary emotions are seen in the scriptures when talking about the life of a believer: first, brokenness over sin; second, the joy of redemption; and lastly, gratitude for salvation. Let's dive into the first of these three, brokenness over sin. To do so, let's take a look Acts 2:22-24, "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it." Now jump down to Acts 2:36, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." Notice how both the portions of the text the Apostle Peter draws a significant amount of attention to the fact that they, meaning the house of Israel, are the ones who nailed the sinless Savior to a cross of wood. He emphasizes the sin that they committed, and notice their response in verse thirty-seven, "Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" Those who were gathered there, whose hearts were illuminated to the mercies of God, experienced brokenness over their sin. Now you may be asking, "Where is the mercy of God revealed in this text?" To answer that question let's got back to Act 2:23, "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." The most shocking part of this text is not that they have crucified the Son of God, but that even the crucifixion of the Son of God was to ultimately display the mercy of God. What they had meant for evil, God meant for good, (Genesis 50:20). God, though He in foreknowledge knew that they would nail His only begotten Son to a cross of wood, had already before the foundation of the world ordained that it should be, (Revelation 13:8). Why? Because He so loved the world, (John 3:16). It is this knowledge that caused them to be cut to the heart. That they were wretched sinners who were loved by a merciful, yet holy God. It is the truth of the mercy of God that caused them to be broken over their sin. Or take, for example, King David in Psalm 51. Thought that psalm David laments over his sin, but notice how David starts off the psalm in verse one, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy" David here can lament over his sin because He has experienced the mercy of God, which is why prays in verse twelve, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit." David was broken over his sin because he knew how merciful God had been towards him. However, Psalm 51 is not only a lament over David's sin but a plea to God to restore David's joy in God's salvation. This brings us to our second "holy emotion," the joy of redemption. In this passage we someone who has lost that joy, but in 1 Peter 1:3-4 we see the Apostle Peter writing of this joy, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you," Jump down to verses six through eight, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory," Here, the Apostle Peter points to the joy of redemption, we have received Christ. The apostle Paul also writes of this joy in Philippians as early chapter one where he says, "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice," (Philippians 1:18) And in verse twenty-one "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." The apostle Paul was so consumed by the joy of Christ, that death was only the gate by which he gained the fullness of Christ. This same apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3:7-8, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" The joy of redemption is the joy of gaining Christ. It is to behold the mercy of God displayed towards us in the cross and to rejoice in the fact that through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we have received Christ Himself as our joy.
The joy of redemption is the joy of gaining Christ.
Finally the last "holy emotion" we are going to look into is gratitude for salvation, or in other words, expressing thanks to God for His mercy displayed at the cross. In fact, this expression of gratitude can be seen at the beginning of letters such as Ephesians and 1 Peter, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places," (Ephesians 1:3). And, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," (1 Peter 1:3). In both of these verses, the respective authors bless God for the mercies bestowed towards them, the apostle Paul focuses on the spiritual blessings, while Peter focuses on the Christians hope, but both thank God for these mercies. Gratitude for salvation is to simply look at the cross, and thank God for His mercy, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, (Romans 5:8), the righteous for the unrighteousness, (1 Peter 3:18), that the sinless perfect Savior, became sin on our behalf, (1 Corinthians 5:21). My friends, let us look at this love, at this grace, at this mercy displayed towards us in Christ, not shying away from emotion, but worshiping in spirit and truth, with emotion, that we, in light of the mercies of God, filled with joy and gratitude, would be able to say like David in 2 Samuel 6:22, "I will make myself yet more contemptible than this" That we would so long to pour out all that we are in worship and in adoration of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessings
The Honest Worship Podcast
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Here are some songs that exalt the mercies of God.
"Man of Sorrows" - by Hillsong Worship
"Lamb of God" - by Vertical Worship
"His Mercy Is More" - by Matt Boswell and Boyce College Choir
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