Polls

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Articles & Posts

Should We Worship and Pray to Jesus?

Related image

We worship Jehovah. We do NOT worship any false Gods, any idols, any non-scriptural ideologies. We are to worship our Heavenly Father, Jehovah God. Let’s examine briefly Matthew 4:10 and Luke 4:8. “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

That seems pretty clear – We should worship and serve the Lord our God.  Should we not worship Christ? There are differences of opinion among Christians about that very thing. What say the scriptures?

The story of the angels announcing to the shepherds the arrival of a Savior is found in Luke 2 verses 10 through 20. The Shepherds went to see the babe in the manger. They did not worship this young Savior but when they left they glorified and praised God. No problem here. But there’s more.

Jesus was about two years old when the wise men paid him a visit. Matthew 2 verse 11 says – And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Jesus was being worshipped at age of 2. We read nothing in the passage that the wise men were criticised by God or Mary and Joseph, for worshipping the toddler.

Matthew 28:9 says – Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Jesus did not rebuke these disciples for worshipping him.

Matthew 20:20 – Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. Again, Jesus did not rebuke Zebedee’s wife but instead, explained the situation to her.

Notice that in this last text, the worship was followed by a petition – for a woman’s sons to be in prominent positions in the Kingdom.

Stephen also petitioned our risen lord. Acts 7:59 reads –  And as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. RSV

Hebrews 1:6 says – And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

And this next text seems to be a clincher when considering whether or not to worship our risen Lord.  Philippians 2:8-11 says – “8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  9  Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10  that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, 11  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

We also can conclude that it is perfectly okay to worship our risen Lord and to petition him for spiritual things.  But here is where we need to be careful. We don’t know the heart of the woman just mentioned. Was the object of her worship to get what she petitioned for?   Or was she fully committed to Christ and would accept however Jesus responded? Much the same as Abraham did.

We absolutely cannot judge her, but we can use her as an example.

We do not want to give you the impression that we should only worship and pray to our risen Lord. To me it is clear – worship and prayers are appropriate to either the Father or the Son.

Brethren, worship is such a vital part of our Christian walk. Worship does indeed have many facets. But the thing I learned in this study is this: All the parts of worship that we have been talking about are not the end all. Worship is more a state of heart and mind, not necessarily making sure we do each of the things mentioned perfectly.

We can be instant in prayer, we can sing beautiful hymns, we can sacrifice some of our life for our Brethren, we can, praise God when something really good happens to us or our brethren, we can bow during prayers and so forth. However, it just might behoove us to:

Pray without ceasing, have a song in my heart all the time, be ready to sacrifice our life for the Brethren at any given time, praise the Lord for all things all the time, even the trials, and I can bow my heart all the time, even when no one is praying at that time. In other words, worship is not just a list of things we should do. Worship is having these principles in our hearts all the time.

By Brother Dave Christiansen

71 comments to Should We Worship and Pray to Jesus?

  • I am faded out of jws after 50 years in the WT.one of the main reasons is the way Jesus has been pushed out and rarely mentioned now .also the major doctrine changes that make no sense since around 2010.such as the change of the faithfull slave being now only the 8,GB members.however since I woke up I have been praying to Jesus and my life has changed .I now have a whole different view of everything .I like the Bible students .however I can’t accept Jesus as Michael the archangel .

    • Peter K. (admin)

      Thanks John. I am glad you are open to the Christian liberty of personal Bible study and honest freedom of thought. Your studies on Michael the Archangel are your own and you should come to your own conclusions. If you want to let us know where you think we are wrong, we would be glad to hear your specific objections to our conclusions which we share here: https://www.friendsofjehovahswitnesses.com/wp-content/uploads/Who-is-Michael-the-Archangel-2014_08_27.pdf

      God bless your continued study of his Word and your devotion to Him rather to obedience to an organization.

    • Hi John, as Peter mentioned, Bible Students are not dogmatic when it comes to certain beliefs. These are things or subjects that YOU have to study on your own and decide for yourself whether or not it is truth or error. You won’t get disfellowshipped because you don’t believe a particular doctrine. We don’t have a governing body. Every ecclesia is independent. There is no central authority among us except Jesus and the Scriptures.

    • Hello John,I was a JW For over 40 years in Australia.I found the Bible Students in 2010,& Have never Looked back since!We have Bretheren all around the world,As as Bro Peter & Bro Rolando stated we do not have a governing Body,as it is not scriptual.I knew a Witness Family in my Last congregation & their name was “Ship” as well,English origin I think!God Bless.Richard.Tazzyman,Bible Student .Australia.

  • I go to PRAYER for the transfer of WEALTH from the wicked to Gods people. The devil has RULED for to long. Faith can move mountain’s.

  • Chris

    Again I’ll let you have the last word since its going to make you feel like you proved someone wrong. I hope jehovah opens your eyes.

  • Chris

    Marc. I’ll let you get that last word since it what you want. Have a great night.

  • Chris

    Preaching that jesus is the ain of God makes it a prayer to him? 😂😂😂

  • Chris

    I said im not going to argue with. I did this for years. It get nowhere. It seems your goal (being very unchristian) is to argue. Your whole point for coming on here was to argue. I get it. When I feel insecure in a belief I feel the need to argue it it’s ok. In the millennium your eyes will be opened along with the rest of mankind.

    Bible- One God the Father.
    You- One God father son holy spirit.

    Nust a to. Calling three one God doesnt make it so.

  • Marc Taylor

    You’ve heard it before but didn’t (because you couldn’t) refute the evidence I supplied.

    You affirm that Divine nature is Deity and add, “This same nature is promised to us as well and we will be as God as well.”

    And yet you haven’t supplied one example of latreuō being rendered unto Christians or OT saints.
    Thus your theory will not hold.

  • Chris

    Wow. John 20:28. I’ve never seen that before. You’ve opened my eyes. Pshhh. Easily refute. Thomas wasn’t calling him almighty god becasue just before jesus said he was ascending to his god. God doesnt have a God.

    http://www.followintruth.com/understanding-john-20-28-did-thomas-call-jesus-god-2

    • Marc Taylor

      Wow. The link you supplied points out that Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. You’ve opened my eyes. Pshhh. Easily refuted. He is BOTH God and the Son of God. Notice that in Acts 9:20 Paul preached that Jesus “is the Son of God.” And immediately after that the people knew this meant that Jesus is to be “called upon” in prayer (Acts 9:21). How is Jesus to be called upon in prayer? The same Paul who preached that He is the Son of God in Acts 9:20 also preached (Romans 10:8) that Jesus is to be called upon in prayer because He is YHWH (Romans 10:13).

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>