hile still gathered around the table following completion of the first Lord's Supper, the disciples recoiled in dismay as Jesus spoke to them again of His approaching departure, this time in unmistakably clear terms. He would now go to His Father, but they could not follow until later.

Philip's spontaneous plea reflected the bewilderment that surely lay in the minds of all the disciples: "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied" (John 14:8). Jesus' response to that request opens before us a penetrating insight into why the incarnation took place at all: "He who has seen me has seen the Father"(v. 9).*

Jesus' mission included opening before fallen, alienated humanity a vision of the true nature of God, and that truth is imbedded in His words. To be sure, He came to reconcile us to God by confronting sin in the flesh, and although suffering death for us, emerging triumphant over it and sin's originator, Satan. But in His ministry of three and one-half years prior to Calvary He would unfold before us a true and accurate representation of who the Father is and what is the true nature of His character. Sweeping aside misconceptions accumulated over a hundred generations, Jesus not only set before us a body of correct information about God, He demonstrated the character of God in human form. Never before in all eternity had the universe witnessed an event like this.

To Remove Distortion
Since Adam's fall into sin, humans no longer walk in person with God. So majestic is His nature that sin-weakened eyes cannot look upon Him. Only on rare occasions has He shared with us intimate glimmers of Himself, drawing aside the curtain that veils His presence. As a consequence, only in imagination could people conceive of Him, and this kind of guesswork is prone to error.

When Jesus began His ministry He came to His people, those of the covenant, to whom had been given the prophets and the writings, yet they " knew him not" (John 1:10). Preconceived opinions, buttressed by centuries of misleading ideas, had produced a variety of distortions of who He was. To some God seemed a remote figure, majestic, cold and demanding, a fearful monarch intent upon finding flaws among His subjects. He was the God of meticulous detail, before whom people trembled lest they transgress. To others He appeared as a distant manipulator, ever maneuvering His arsenal of predestined outcomes, before whom people leapt as grasshoppers. Skeptics wondered whether this God who had never been seen really was there after all. And to others He appeared as a biased, indulgent parent, distributing gifts to those who pleased Him, withholding from others.

All these distortions Jesus rejected, directing us instead to One perfect in holiness and majesty, yet tender and compassionate, One to whom we could speak in trust as a child speaks to its father.

Although human fathers have shortcomings, falling far short of the character of God, Jesus repeatedly cited fathers at their best as a model for thinking about God. In Him we find strength, security, and self-sacrificing love, always blended with tenderness, compassion, intimate concern, and wisdom.

In the beginning God had walked in Eden with His newly created human creatures, deliberately made in His image so they could experience the joy of intimate companionship with their Creator. This picture of God transformed His figure in the human mind, forever banishing the speculations that for thousands of years clouded our knowledge of Him. "He who has seen me has seen the Father."

With Jesus' coming, for the first time since Eden we came to know Him as He really is. He had come in a format we all could understand. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). So remarkable is this event that none of us can fully grasp the mystery of what it means for God to take on humanity, yet we have powerful evidence that it is true. This unique person is Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah-Redeemer, Immanuel, God with us. And "we have beheld his glory."

Announced at His birth by a chorus of angels, He now became One among us, but still our Lord. His ministry was like nothing before seen. Although accompanied by an unprecedented series of miraculous events, Jesus seldom pointed to them as evidence of who He was. Instead His identity was found in repeated citations from the Scriptures, where prophets of old had foreseen the coming and ministry of a redeemer. Even following His resurrection, Jesus employed this prophetic evidence as final proof of who He was. On the road to Emmaus He opened before two despairing believers this final, compelling evidence: "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27).

Jesus referred to Himself repeatedly as Lord, not merely in earthly terms, but of a kingdom already come among us, yet eternal in final glory. Heartfelt surrender to Him welcomes us into citizenship in that kingdom, one described long ago by the prophet Daniel as an "everlasting kingdom" (Dan. 7:27). We are adopted into the family of God, appointed to be ambassadors of the good news of His love and salvation, and privileged with the commission of representing Him as we carry His message to every nation and people. We are such recipients of grace that we marvel at what gifts He is showering upon us. It is not that we sought Him, but that He came in pursuit of us, the good shepherd searching for his sheep.

Contemporary Idols
Ever since the coming of sin to our world, people have been tempted to substitute someone or something else in the place of God. The panorama of human history is filled, one could almost say dominated by figures of the gods fashioned by the ancients, who created a god for every aspect of life. So powerful was this temptation that even the covenant people of God found themselves seduced by it, to which the prophets spoke in strong language, and sometimes in burning irony.

The prophet Jeremiah calls his people to consider what they are doing. He says, "Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good. There is none like thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. . . for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like thee" (Jer. 10:5-7).

In a display of monumental error, humans, created by God in His image, became the makers of gods created in their own image. The ultimate irony is that those who crafted such gods then bowed themselves before them in adoration, in complete reversal of the intention of the Creator.

Although today's world has become sophisticated, the temptation to allow something else in the place of the true God is still among us. Today's choices may be the persistent pursuit of power, fame, earthly glory, self-admiration, wealth, or another of the attractions in vogue in our day, but the effect becomes the same: to displace and misdirect the desire God planted in us to worship. Often we elevate things that hold a useful place in life, but when elevated above our dedication to God, they become the idols, the false gods of our time.

Our Heart Must Be In It
We ask ourselves, what does it really mean to worship? Is this summed up in performing an act dedicated to God? Without question, true worship includes acts. From the very beginning God instituted specific services through which His people would come to Him in worship. During the Exodus He outlined in great detail a tabernacle where His people could approach Him, with orderly services designed to teach them of His majesty and His provision for saving all who come to Him in faith.

Nor was such worship to flow only in narrow ethnic channels. Through the prophet Isaiah we catch the proportions of His sweeping invitation: "And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, . . . these will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God" (Isa. 56:6-8). This ideal finds fulfillment in the sweep of the gospel invitation to all the world. The promised Messiah has come, and in His ministry the invitation to salvation is extended to all people.

But Jesus Himself returned us to a theme earlier found on the lips of God's servants the prophets. While worship certainly includes coming before God in an ordered way, in bringing praises to Him, bending knees, and presenting offerings, another indispensable element of true worship appears even earlier: submitting the heart before Him. Repeatedly this lesson leaps out to us in the events and teachings of Jesus' ministry. The widow's mites comprised a monumental gift, not because of their monetary value, but for the prior wholehearted dedication of her heart before God. Jesus' lessons at the gate of the temple remind us again that the worship truly appropriate to bring before God begins with a response to Him in gratitude. Unless we understand this principle, all the ceremonies of mechanical religion fall before Him as powerless. His first desire is to see us accept the gentle invitation of the Spirit to come before Him in heart and in all life. Such service rises before Him as incense before His throne.

Why Worship?
One more question confronts us in today's ever more secular world. Why should we worship Him? Our answer can be a simple one. Because of who He is. It is only because He has revealed Himself to us that we can know Him. Without this we would have nothing better than speculation that leaves us uncertain of who we are, from where we have come, and what will be our destiny. It is exactly in answering these questions that we come to understand what matters as important today.

The Scriptures tell us of His Person through their commentary on how God views the activities of humans throughout history. We emerge as His creatures, the objects of His intimate concern, His redeemed people for whom He has an eternal plan. He Himself has come among us to show us the way, and according to His promises, before long He will return.

He is the God who speaks, who we come to behold as the all-powerful and all-knowing One, holy, against whose character the very ideas of right, wrong, and justice are measured and defined. At the same moment we find in Him ultimate grace, tenderness, compassion, with an intense interest in every element of our lives. His love is of a quality we struggle to understand, a kind of love that would lead Christ to lower Himself to our status in life, and pay an unthinkable final sacrifice on our behalf in order to ransom us from the captivity of sin. And in fact this God is far more than a beautiful, fanciful ideal, for He came among us in history, and as the apostle John reminds us, "we beheld His glory."

Ultimately a final choice stands before us, whether our life will be given to a pursuit of self, to be developed and satisfied to the best that circumstances allow, or returned to the altar of our magnificent Creator. The issues carry cosmic consequences, for they represent a choice between asserting human independence from God or joyfully presenting ourselves as His willing servants. Justifiably we give attention to the cosmic nature of the question of worship. It was in primal heaven itself that Lucifer raised controversy over who should receive honor, recognition, and worship. Again, when the incarnate Christ met Lucifer in the wilderness of Judaea at the beginning of His ministry, the same question emerged. Lucifer offered what appear to be rich rewards if only Jesus would worship him. This temptation Jesus resolutely rejected. And the reason? Because the issue relates to the very core nature of God and His universe. Only He merits worship.

Once more, prophecy tells us that as we approach the close of history the same foundational question will emerge: Who do we worship? In one last call to a world in rebellion, He sends messages by three angels. In the first angel's message is embedded a call to worship God as the creator of the heavens and the earth. Because the Creator is also our Redeemer, both join in the person of Christ, conveyed to all humanity in the gospel message. In the final conflict described in the book of Revelation, we encounter a people loyal to God, notable because, despite enormous pressures to conform , they remain loyal to God the Creator.

Who do we worship? Our wonderful Lord. Our task today is to introduce Him in all His wonder to a world that desperately needs to know Him. This is our assignment, but even more, our privilege. And the fruit of true worship carries a lively invitation to come and join with us on our pilgrimage to His kingdom. There we, and all who have come to know and love Him, will see Him face to face, and for all eternity share the joy of bringing our gift of adoration before Him.

*All Bible quotations are from the Revised Standard Version.

QUESTIONS FOR SHARING:
1. Why the incarnation? Why did Jesus come?
2. What are the greatest hindrances to worship in the church and in my personal life?
3. Worship will be an issue in earth's final drama. How do you see that developing? And how do your life and choices indicate where you will stand?

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Jan Paulsen is the world president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.