Worship matters.
What do you worship? How do you worship? We all worship something. That’s what we’re going to see this morning. We’re going to hear from the Apostle Paul about what worship is.
These verses form one long sentence, with five participles modifying the imperative ‘be filled by the Spirit.’[1] That means there is one essential, and the others explains what flows from that one essential. If you have the others apart from being filled with the Spirit, you don’t have worship…at least worship of God.
Spirit-filled Christians worship.
When we talk about being filled, the typical imagery involves a glass being filled with liquid, or a box having something put in it. However, this is not the concept being filled by the Spirit conveys. Let me offer you three analogies that can help us understand this.[2]
The Greek word which is translated for us as “fill”[3] is used to describe how wind fills a sail, causing it to puff out and propel a ship forward. Think of when we say that sails are filled with wind; this is the initial thought Paul had - to be carried along. It's a beautiful thought, being carried along by the power of the Spirit of God. It means you're not relying on your own energy, ideas, or will. Instead, you are moved by the Spirit of God, following the path He has chosen for you. It's like those who wrote Scripture, who were carried by the Spirit of God. We should Imagine ourselves as nothing more than a stick floating in a creek, carried along by the Spirit of God. We're blown along like a sailboat in the wind. This is one aspect of being filled with the Spirit – being carried along in God's will, propelled by His guidance.
The second concept is permeation. The word for “filled” is sometimes used to describe something that permeates, similar to how salt works. Salt permeates and flavors whatever it's applied to. The Spirit of God wants to permeate your life so that you reflect His essence. When people are around you, they should sense the presence of God in your life, just as a glass of water tastes like orange Gatorade when you dissolve a packet in it. It's about flavoring your life with the Spirit of God.
However, the main idea, especially when compared to the gospel record, is one of control. “Filled” signifies total control. It’s like a glove. If I have a glove sitting here and I tell it to play the piano, what does the glove do? Nothing. It can't play the piano by itself. However, when I put my hand inside that glove and then attempt to play the piano, what happens? Noise…if you remember my piano playing skills from a few weeks ago.
You see, the glove, when filled by a hand, simply follows the hand's movements. It doesn't become self-righteous and ask the fingers for guidance; it just goes along. Furthermore, the glove doesn't resist or ask for permission to respond; it complies without question.
Similarly, as Christians, we are like that glove. You can lie still, you can make noise until the end, but you won't have any meaningful impact for God until you are filled with His Spirit. Just as a glove requires a hand to function, you need the power and guidance of the Spirit to accomplish anything significant in your Christian walk. And that includes your worship.
Worship is Trinitarian.
Our worship is in adoration of the God who is there. The God who is, as He is. Worship is because of and based on who God is. And God is three-in-one. We even see the Trinity at play in this verse. We are filled with the Spirit, giving thanks to God the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ. Our worship has content to it. God is the object of our worship. So, worship should primarily be vertical, centered on God and directed to God. But…
Worship has a horizontal component. (19)
Worship should be corporate. It should be together. It should be many voices as one. Remember, all this flows from being Spirit-filled. The music does have something to do with how readily the togetherness of the singing occurs, but that’s not the main component. You are the main component. If you are a spirit-filled believer, you will sing. You won’t be able to stop from singing, because you are grateful to God. It doesn’t matter if it’s an old song or a new song. Often, in the Bible, when salvation happened, they burst forth into a new song.[4] Because you can’t help but sing of God’s greatness!
Our worship of God isn't solely for ourselves, for personal gratification. Spirit-filled worship entails communal engagement, where believers come together to share in the expression of praise through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. The focus isn't on showcasing individual talents, as Colossians 3:16 instructs us to "teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." When we sing about who God is and what He has done, we are not just reminding ourselves, but we are reminding each other of who God is and what He has done.
So, right worship shouldn’t just make us feel, but it should inform. It is a tool for discipleship. I’ve led many worship bands, and I can tell you when people will raise their hands in worship. It’s when the bridge starts building and the drums start playing faster. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter what’s being sung. That’s not worship. There’s no content to it. You know what should cause your hands to go up in worship, or you to fall on your face in worship? It’s singing of the greatness of God. It’s singing the truth of the gospel.
Worship has a musical component. (19)
Of all the things you think the Spirit-filled life would bring, I bet singing wouldn’t be on your list. Song is the outward expression of our inward state. The phrases “songs, hymns, and spiritual songs” are used interchangeably throughout the Bible, though they can be distinguished slightly from one another.
“The first ‘psalm’, is employed by Luke of the Old Testament psalms, though it came to be used more generally of a song of praise (1 Cor 14:26; Col 3:16) of which the Old Testament psalms were probably regarded as prototypes. The second term, ‘hymn’, denotes any ‘festive hymn of praise’ (Isa 42:10; cf. Acts 16:25; Heb 2:12). In its two New Testament occurrences it refers to an expression of praise to God or Christ (Col 3:16 and here). The third word, ‘song’, is used in the New Testament of the song in which God’s acts are praised and glorified (cf. Rev 5:9; 14:3; 15:3).”[5]
Did you know God loves music? All throughout Scripture, you see music play a primary role. You see instruments played as early as the descendent of Cain, Jubal,[6] whose descendants played the lyre and pipe. You see David being a skilled musician and songwriter. His skillful music even played an essential role in his early effectiveness in playing for King Saul. Following David, you have temple worship of God. “The Levites were the temple employees. They numbered 36,000. More than ten percent of the Levites were assigned to the task of performing music in the temple. There were four thousand singers.”[7] We could go on an on. In the New Testament, right after Jesus and his disciples have the last supper, right before Jesus would go on to the cross, do you know what they did? They sang a hymn.[8] Many scholars think it’s likely they sang Psalm 118, the last of the Passover Psalms.[9] Do you know what the repeated refrain in that Psalm is? “His steadfast love endures forever.”
Imagine Jesus singing these words from this Psalm right before He goes to the cross to be our sacrifice:
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This is the day that the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we pray, O LORD!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
The LORD is God, he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures forever!”[10]
Music and singing isn’t just a major part of salvation, but many think God sung creation into existence in Genesis.[11] Genesis 1, in the original Hebrew, reads like a poem, with cadence and rhythm as God is speaking everything into existence. C.S. Lewis beautifully depicted this in his Chronicles of Narnia book “The Magicians Nephew.” In it you see Aslan bring Narnia into existence. And do you know how he does it? He sings. I want you to hear an excerpt from this book. The first time I read it to my son, I just wept.
“In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing… the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it… Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn't come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out… If you had seen and heard it..., you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves which were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing…
The Voice on the earth was now louder and more triumphant; but the voices in the sky, after singing loudly with it for a time, began to get fainter… Far away, and down near the horizon, the sky began to turn gray. A light wind, very fresh, began to stir. The sky, in that one place, grew slowly and steadily paler. You could see shapes of hills standing up dark against it. All the time the Voice went on singing… The eastern sky changed from white to pink and from pink to gold. The Voice rose and rose, till all the air was shaking with it. And just as it swelled to the mightiest and most glorious sound it had yet produced, the sun arose… The earth was of many colours: they were fresh, hot and vivid. They made you feel excited; until you saw the Singer himself, and then you forgot everything else.
It was a Lion. Huge, shaggy, and bright it stood facing the risen sun. Its mouth was wide open in song and it was about three hundred yards away… And as he walked and sang the valley grew green with grass. It spread out from the Lion like a pool. It ran up the sides of the little hills like a wave… Soon there were other things besides grass. The slopes grew dark with heather… And when he burst into a rapid series of lighter notes she was not surprised to see primroses suddenly appearing in every direction… But now the song had once more changed. It was more like what we should call a tune, but it was also far wilder. It made you want to run and jump and climb… Showers of birds came out of the trees. Butterflies fluttered. Bees got to work on the flowers as if they hadn’t a second to lose… And now you could hardly hear the song of the Lion; there was so much cawing, cooing, crowing, braying, neighing, baying, barking, lowing, bleating, and trumpeting… Then there came a swift flash like a fire (but it burnt nobody) either from the sky or from the Lion itself, and every drop of blood tingled in the children’s bodies, and the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying: ‘Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.’[12]
Not only do we see God’s song in creation and throughout creation’s history, but we see it in heaven and its place around God for all eternity.
Revelation 4:8 – And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
Revelation 5:8-14 – 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Music has a way of cutting through to the heart in whatever situation we are in. We have had a rough week this week. A pipe burst from our upstairs and flooded our kitchen. In the wake of that difficulty, with fans blasting and a large dehumidifier humming, I had noise cancelling headphones on, trying to watch a tv show to distract myself as I sought to wash dishes amidst my kitchen wreckage. My heart was anxious and a little downtrodden. And through all the noise, reverberating through my whole body, down to my soul, I heard a simple piano tune. It was my son practicing what he has learned in his piano lessons. And you know what I did? I just closed my eyes, and my soul was comforted amidst the chaos.
Music matters. It matters in life, and it matters in worship. But when it comes to worship, it should flow outward from within.
Worship flows from the heart. (19)
It doesn’t matter how you sound. What matters is that your worship comes from a rightly oriented heart.
* In Insanity of God, Dimitri’s heart song.[13]
Dmitri was the pastor of a small house church in the former Soviet Union, he was in prison for 17 years, more than 600 miles from his family. He was the only believer among 1,500 hardened criminals.
Dmitri would stand at the bars of his prison. Every morning, as the sun rose, he would stand and raise his hands in praise as high as he could reach up in the air. “He would sing his heart songs to Jesus,” Nik explains. Nik describes the prisoners’ disgusted response as they threw human waste, food, and garbage at Dmitri. They laughed and cursed him, rattling metal cups on their cages trying to drown him out. Eventually, these 1500 prisoners learned Dmitri’s worship song and used it to save him from the execution line.
Eventually, Dmitri’s guards began to despair. “We’ve tried everything, and nothing stops you from singing those stupid songs.” The communist officials explained their intent to execute him. “In 15 minutes, you’re going to be tied to that post. In 20 minutes, you’re going to be shot dead. We’re done with you.” Then, the jailers dragged him out of the prison cell towards the execution yard.
As they reached the door of the execution yard, 1500 hardened criminals stood at attention outside of their cells. With their arms raised in praise facing the East, they began to sing those heart songs that they heard the man sing all of those years…. And the guards, in sheer terror, let go of Dmitri and jumped away from him. They asked, “Who are you?” Dmitri responded, “I am the Son of the Living God, and Jesus is His name.”
Dimitri had a heart song. He couldn’t help but sing to the Lord because of what he’d been given in his salvation, even though he was in chains. I want to ask you…what keeps you from singing? Is it your heart? Worship, or a lack thereof, flows from the heart.
Worship flows from a grateful heart. (20)
It’s hard to praise someone you are ungrateful for. It’s easy to praise someone you are grateful for.
Those who engage in complaining, grumbling, whining, and fussing are not experiencing the fullness of the Spirit. Spirit-filled individuals are characterized by their thankfulness, which isn’t limited to good days, favorable circumstances, or special occasions. Instead, they offer unceasing gratitude to God, as exemplified by Psalm 34:1: "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth."
Furthermore, their thanksgiving is unconditional, extending to "everything," in alignment with 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to "give thanks in all circumstances." Ephesians 5:20 goes a step further, urging us to give thanks "for everything." This level of gratitude is made possible by a deep trust in Romans 8:28: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
You have every reason to give thanks. You will not truly worship until you give thanks in everything.
Worship is fostered in unity. (21)
Verse 21 provides a key characteristic of Spirit-filled Christians: “submitting to one another out of reverence to Christ." The term "submitting" originally had a military connotation, depicting soldiers aligning themselves under a commanding officer. Our commanding officer would be God. In this context, Paul uses it to convey that Spirit-filled individuals do not engage in power struggles, vie for leadership positions, or assert their own rights. Instead, Spirit-filled people are selfless and capable of mutual submission. This is what the rest of Ephesians 5 gets into.
Spirit-filled Christians practice mutual submission as an expression of reverence for Christ, not because others are inherently superior. It is done solely for the sake of Christ.
I heard it said once in seminary, about worship wars (which is when people fight and grumble over worship music), this seminary professor said, “When the older generation wishes there was more electric guitar because the younger generation is being neglected, and the younger generation wishes there were more hymns because the older generation is being neglected, that’s when we’ll get it right.” I agree.
Worship isn’t about us. Unless we’re worshiping ourselves. Together, we worship the One saved us and redeemed us, who has filled us with His Spirit, and has given us every reason to be thankful.
So, let’s worship.
[1] Peter T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, 386.
[2] These analogies came from https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1939/be-filled-with-the-spirit-part-1
[3] https://biblehub.com/greek/4137.htm
[4] Ex 15; Judges 5; Ps 33:3; 40:2-3; 96:1; 98:1-2; 144:9; 149:1; Rev 5:9
[5] Peter T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, 395.
[7] http://www.heraldmag.org/1999/99ja_7.htm
[9] https://www.crossway.org/articles/when-jesus-sang/
[11] https://www.ellieholcomb.com/blog-2/2018/10/18/who-sang-the-first-song-inspiration
[12] https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/reflections-september-2019/
