Jesus, Our Role Model for Worship – Part 3: Worship
David W Palmer
Jesus’s Lifestyle of Worshipful Submission
Was Jesus a Worshipper? No matter what our concept of worship is, we must all agree that Jesus is the perfect worshipper; he is therefore God’s role model for our worship. In view of how little emphasis the gospel writers put on Jesus’s singing, this leads us to ask a very profound question: What was worship in the life of Jesus? After all, if worship was his whole lifestyle, it must be obviously evident in the gospel descriptions of his life and ministry. So, what do we see in the gospel?
(John 17:4 NKJV) “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”
Jesus said this just prior to dying on the cross. In other words, he was summing up his time of ministry in his original (single-human) body on earth. From what he said, we can see that Jesus brought glory to God in everything he did; he served God perfectly; his spirit man had bowed to his Father’s will in every circumstance.
Jesus was undoubtedly a worshipper in spirit and in truth—the kind the Father seeks. He only did what he saw with his Father, and only said what he heard his Father say (John 5:19–20, etc.). Moreover, when their wills were in potential conflict, he always submitted to what his Father wanted (See for example: Luke 22:42). This is why he finished the work Father gave him to do, and why he fully glorified God on earth.
What was Jesus’s lifestyle of worship? It involved one surrender after another to the will of God. We see this nowhere better than in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus wrestled with his natural aversion to dying on the cross:
(Luke 22:42 NKJV) Saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Let’s now look at a quick summary of Jesus’s life of worship—where his inner man yielded to God’s will in humble submission:
A. Submission To Parents (Luke 2:51)—He Surrendered self-rule = submission to authority.
B. His Baptism (Mark 1:9–11)—He surrendered self-justification = trusting another to provide right standing.
C. His Father’s Son (Mark 1:11)—He surrendered self-identification = willing to imitate his Father, to becoming a replica of his Father—as opposed to being independent, unique and self-identified as his “own man.”
D. Led By The Holy Spirit Into the Wilderness (Mark 1:12)—He surrendered self-direction = allowing someone else to determine his destiny.
E. He Overcame Satan’s Temptations Through Trust in Another:
1. Stone to Bread. (Mat. 4:4)—He surrendered self-supplementation = trusting someone else (his Father) to supply his needs.
2. Pinnacle of the Temple. (Mat. 4:5–7)—He surrendered self-elevation = trusting someone else to exalt him in due time.
3. The Kingdoms of the World. (Mat. 4:9–10)—He surrendered self-gratification = trusting another to meet his need for significance.
F. He Arose a Great While Before Day … To Pray (Mark 1:35)—He surrendered self-reliance = through prayer he placed his reliance in God.
G. He Retreated To a Wilderness But Had to Minister (Mark 6:30–34)—He surrendered self-rights—the right to see to his own needs; instead, He saw to the needs of others! = Jesus trusted “compassion” to lead him, and other people’s faith to draw him.
As we, through faith and grace, set out to imitate Jesus’s life of worship in spirit, we note that this means a life of continually surrendering to the will of another in every area we encounter. We also note
