Text: Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 2:1-13

The Church was commissioned in a worship service. (Matthew 28:16-20). After the disciples worshiped the resurrected Lord in that Galilean encounter, Jesus told them, All power is given unto Me and I am commissioning you to go in My name with that power.

• They would receive the infusion of that power shortly, but the commission to go with that power was being given now.
• Even among the Lord’s closest, “some doubted.” Doubt, while a hindrance, is not necessarily a disqualification for being God’s chosen servant.

The Church was born in a worship service. (Acts 2:1-13) At Pentecost, it was the worship of the Lord (not the proclamation of the gospel) at a miraculous dimension that both ushered in the power of God’s Kingdom and offended the taste of people.

• Even today, there are those who will move in the profusion of the power of God released through worship, but there will be people in the midst of that who either doubt or mock.

The worship of the Lord releases the power, the pathway and the purpose of what He wants to do in His Church. Throughout Scripture, whenever the Church is at prayer or in worship, there is great release of divine power. The most notable episode is in the outflow that took place at a worship meeting at Antioch (Acts 13) that determined the flow of history and the course of Western civilization.

Worship creates a place for God’s rule to be reinstated. Man not only lost fellowship with God at the fall of Adam, but he lost the partnership and dominion God intended for him over the earth, and ceded that rule to the Prince of Darkness.

At the Cross, the Lord restored that rulership through Jesus Christ and broke the powers of hell. Where the people of God worship, divine power flows to penetrate the darkness and counter-attack the operations of hell. Through the worshiping Body of Christ, the Lord is able to re-establish His rulership through His redeemed.

Worship is the means by which He re-establishes rulership. Where God’s presence is, there will be power. Where worship is released, God’s presence will abide. Our hearts are the ground on which the battle is decided. If we will worship, God’s power and rule will be established in and through us to flow to others.

Worship generates the power for God’s rule to be extended — for evangelism, for sacrificial giving, for intercession, and to break up the strongholds of hell.

Human worship is man beginning… Holiness of worship is man becoming. Man—as sons and daughters unto God—begins worship with a commitment. Through worship, man becomes transformed into kings and priests unto God (Read Revelation 1:6). Worship brings about the kingly privileges and an extension of the Kingdom rule of Jesus Christ.

Fear and pride are close traveling companions. We are born into this earth with inherent fear; we enter life with our fists clenched and the rest of life is spent learning how to let go.

• The “faces” we wear to hide our fears are facades of pride.
• Worship confronts pride because it requires openness, forthrightness, acknowledgement of need, and presentation of self.

Worship is to be physical, vocal, expressive, according to Biblical guidelines. The physical expression of worship is intended to gently lead those fears that make us hesitant to participate into confrontation with pride. In order for power to be released, the carnality of fear and pride inherent in us all must be confronted.

God’s love for us is not in proportion to our worship. Saving grace is released at Calvary, not according to worship. He releases His power and His glory to us in proportion to our worship. At Calvary, our relationship as sons and daughters is restored; through worship, Kingdom dimension and rulership are added to our lives.

People can get to heaven without worship. But with worship, the Church becomes a center for the power of God to be released and shake up the kingdom of darkness. Wholeness, dimension and substance are increased in people who worship.

Worship and fellowship are the substance of everything—communication with God and communication with people (Read Matthew 22:36).

• People only become truly restored in themselves when they worship God; and
• When, brought into communication with other people, they confront pride;
• Then there comes the release of divine power and purpose in their lives.

“The chief end of man is to worship God and to enjoy Him forever.” (Westminster Catechism). There is high purpose and destiny of things we will do in partnership with the Lord forever, but the dynamic of it will be generated because we live in an eternal, ongoing true worship relationship with Him. We are only the distance of worship away from the throne of God.