Are We Supposed To Worship Jesus?

FROM A QUORA POST OF GODWIN GOZIEM JIREH

 Know that Jesus Christ who came from heaven to earth is God the Son (John 1:1, 14, 18; Hebrews 1:1–3; 1 John 5:20). He was worshipped, is still worshiped, and will be worshipped throughout eternity.

God the Father commanded all His angels to worship His Son Jesus when He was born on earth (Hebrews 1:6) and as soon as the Wise men from the East laid eyes on the infant Jesus, “they fell down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11).

All through the public ministry of Jesus, people from all walks of life recognized His divinity voluntarily and spontaneously worshipped Him. For example, Jesus accepted the freewill worship of the following persons:

• a leper who was healed - Matthew 8:2
• a nobleman whose son was healed - Matthew 9:18
• Jesus' disciples who saw Him walked on water- Matthew 14:33
• a Canaanite woman who requested Jesus to heal her daughter - Matthew 15:25
• the mother of James and John - Matthew 20:20
• a man tormented by evil spirits - Mark 5:6
• a blind man who was healed - John 9:38
• some women who met Jesus after His resurrection - Matthew 28:8-9; cf. Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10
• Jesus' disciples who saw Him after His resurrection - Matthew 28:17
• Apostle Thomas acknowledged Jesus as "My Lord and my God!" - John 20:28

Also know that all the angelic beings are currently worshipping the Father and Son Jesus (Revelation 5:11–14; 7:9–10) who are, spiritually speaking, “the temple of heaven” (Revelation 21:22). Eventually, all will worship Jesus someday; “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10–11).

So, from all the scriptural data presented so far, it is very obvious that we are posed to worship Jesus. Moreover, we find several passages in Scripture revering Jesus in worship as Lord and where the names attributed to Him indicate that other believers recognized Jesus as Deity- John 1:1–3, 14, 18; Acts 20:28; Philippians 2:5-8; Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:3, 8.

Putting God To The Test

 "Harden not your provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works for forty years," (cf. Heb. 3:9). 

In Hebrew, the word for testing can be interpreted to imply that one is already guilty and they must consequently have the burden of proof of one's innocence: contrary to our right to be considered innocent till proven guilty. The Israelites lacked faith and tried God's patience and therefore were tested in the Wilderness before being ready to enter the Promised Land. What they conceived was nothing short of treason against God and Moses and to see if  God was "worth following."  They came to the conclusion this God-thing was working well for them and longed for the "good old days" in Egypt. 

But they were not living in reality because they didn't have faith in God and know that He always acts in character and that's why and how we can know Him. It isn't all a matter of what works for you or what the end result is (pragmatic) but what is true that matters in the final analysis. Plato said something very pertinent: "If I want to know how to live in reality, I must know what God is really like"  God can be our Exemplar and we can emulate Him because we can see Jesus. The Israelites failed to believe in the God who is and worshiped their own figment of their imagination., a concocted and ill-conceived image of God in their own box.   We must accept God for who He is and not what we want Him to be for us.  It doesn't matter how strongly one believes error, it's still false; truth doesn't depend on whether one believes it or not; we can have false convictions and be sincerely wrong. 

God will make an impression on our hearts as we come to know Him in reality and we found out that He is true to Himself with no hypocrisy or contradiction. Gideon put God to the test with fleece and David said we should "taste and see that the LORD is good." In Malachi God challenges us to liberality in giving in exchange for blessing, to find out that we cannot out-give God.  But Jesus was tested by Satan and he challenged Christ to jump off a cliff to see if God's Word would prove true. This is the kind of testing that is sin; assuming we can make God prove Himself on purpose to test Him when we should know better. 

As Christians, we don't just believe in God, but in the God who is there!  We don't just believe He exists, but that He is the God who does exist.  We believe in the God who indwells us, that He is real and not silent.  He's not dead but the God who won't die! This kind of faith doesn't come from nothing but the experience of walking with the LORD.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Getting To Know The Holy Spirit

 The Spirit of God is not an apparition, vapor, essence, force, influence, or phantom.  He actually has a job description that unifies and completes the work of salvation.  The Father planned and purposed it, the Son accomplished and executed it, and the Spirit applies and reveals it. They work as a synergy whereas the sum of the parts has more effect than the individual parts separately together.  Jesus referred to Him as our Comforter or Counselor.  

Here is the shortlist of His tasks to usward: 

Guides to truth   John 16:13

Reveals Jesus    John 16:14

Comforts    John 14:16

Counsels   John 14:26

Imparts wisdom   Eph. 1:17

Prays for us     Romans 8:27

Gives us power Acts 1:8

Helps infirmities and weakness   Rom, 8:26

Gives spiritual gifts  1 Cor. 12:11

Gives spiritual fruit.  Gal. 5:22-23

He is also known to illuminate, enlighten, inspire the Word to us and open our eyes to wondrous things in the Word.  

NB: The Holy Spirit never seeks His own glory or attention but to glorify and reveal Christ to us.