True Worship in Knowing God
John 4:13-26,
When we come to worship, what is the most important thing? I think we all would say the most important thing is to know the God to whom we are speaking. In that book by A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, here's what he says,
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
When we come to worship, what is the most important thing? I think we all would say the most important thing is to know the God to whom we are speaking. In that book by A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, here's what he says,
"What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The sad thing is most people don't know the true and living God."
The Samaritan woman here in John chapter 4 obviously doesn't know God. Jesus even says to her, verse 22, “You worship what you do not know.” And here's what makes the Christian so different from anybody else in the world in terms of all the other religions. We worship the true God, a God we know and a God we love. And that knowledge is not simply a head knowledge, it’s a spiritual knowledge, it's an intimate knowledge, a saving knowledge. John 17:3, “And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
But here's the good news, this woman will come to a true knowledge of God and her Savior. And when we first meet her, she is hopelessly carnal, living in adultery, no sense of any shame. But Jesus, the great fisher of men, will go fishing. He starts off with a beautiful image of living water and tells her that whoever drinks will never thirst again, verses 13 and 14. Then he presses her conscience and asks her to call her husband. He knows she's living in sin. But she tries to evade him, “I don't have a husband.” And then Jesus suddenly shines the spotlight, or you could even say the floodlight, of the moral law upon her life, John 4:17, 18. The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” She is shocked. He knows. And she makes another attempt to run and hide. She quickly changes the subject and starts talking about worship. She knows there is controversy, a worship war, taking place between the Samaritans and the Jews at that time. And Jesus, you could call him the soul hunter, chases her. The woman has a worship problem. She thinks she's running away from her problem, but that's her problem. It’s a worship problem, it's a problem of idolatry. That's the biggest problem when it comes to sinners, the sin of idolatry, worshiping a false god. She's worshiping here, you could say she's worshiping herself, her pleasures; she's worshiping the men in her life and she is desperately trying to fill the empty gaping holes in her life with the empty cisterns of one broken relationship after another.
But Jesus teaches this woman about true worship. And there are two great things that he says that never change, notice what they are, verse 23, God seeks worshippers. And when God seeks and finds a sinner and saves them by grace, they become a true worshiper. That was true of Nicodemus, that was true of the Samaritan woman, that's true of Saul of Tarsus. And if you are one of those people who was lost but now is found, you will be a true worshiper. And listen, God is far more eager than we are when it comes to the matter of worship. He wants to hear from us more than we want to hear from him.
And notice the kind of worshipers he seeks. This is the second great thing here, verse 24, “God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” If we are going to worship the true God, we have to know the truth of who he is. That's why we need our Bibles. The truth of his holiness, the truth of his greatness, the truth of his goodness, the truth of his love etc., etc. We worship him in truth and we also are to worship him in spirit. Now, there's a great divide among the commentators as to what the spirit refers to. Does it refer to our spirit, the human spirit, or does it refer to the divine spirit? I think it's purposely ambiguous, it refers to both of them. The spirit often is descriptive of the inner man. We don't worship God with mere externals, outward actions, but the totality of the inward man, our affections, the mind, the heart, the intellect. But there's also the big S; you could say the big S, the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8, the Holy Spirit, when it comes to worship, is both our interceder and our helper when we pray.
So, here we are tonight to worship God. I trust we worship God by prayer, conscious that God is constantly seeking worshipers and we are to worship him in spirit and in truth. So let's go to him, believing that what the Bible says is true about him.
But here's the good news, this woman will come to a true knowledge of God and her Savior. And when we first meet her, she is hopelessly carnal, living in adultery, no sense of any shame. But Jesus, the great fisher of men, will go fishing. He starts off with a beautiful image of living water and tells her that whoever drinks will never thirst again, verses 13 and 14. Then he presses her conscience and asks her to call her husband. He knows she's living in sin. But she tries to evade him, “I don't have a husband.” And then Jesus suddenly shines the spotlight, or you could even say the floodlight, of the moral law upon her life, John 4:17, 18. The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” She is shocked. He knows. And she makes another attempt to run and hide. She quickly changes the subject and starts talking about worship. She knows there is controversy, a worship war, taking place between the Samaritans and the Jews at that time. And Jesus, you could call him the soul hunter, chases her. The woman has a worship problem. She thinks she's running away from her problem, but that's her problem. It’s a worship problem, it's a problem of idolatry. That's the biggest problem when it comes to sinners, the sin of idolatry, worshiping a false god. She's worshiping here, you could say she's worshiping herself, her pleasures; she's worshiping the men in her life and she is desperately trying to fill the empty gaping holes in her life with the empty cisterns of one broken relationship after another.
But Jesus teaches this woman about true worship. And there are two great things that he says that never change, notice what they are, verse 23, God seeks worshippers. And when God seeks and finds a sinner and saves them by grace, they become a true worshiper. That was true of Nicodemus, that was true of the Samaritan woman, that's true of Saul of Tarsus. And if you are one of those people who was lost but now is found, you will be a true worshiper. And listen, God is far more eager than we are when it comes to the matter of worship. He wants to hear from us more than we want to hear from him.
And notice the kind of worshipers he seeks. This is the second great thing here, verse 24, “God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” If we are going to worship the true God, we have to know the truth of who he is. That's why we need our Bibles. The truth of his holiness, the truth of his greatness, the truth of his goodness, the truth of his love etc., etc. We worship him in truth and we also are to worship him in spirit. Now, there's a great divide among the commentators as to what the spirit refers to. Does it refer to our spirit, the human spirit, or does it refer to the divine spirit? I think it's purposely ambiguous, it refers to both of them. The spirit often is descriptive of the inner man. We don't worship God with mere externals, outward actions, but the totality of the inward man, our affections, the mind, the heart, the intellect. But there's also the big S; you could say the big S, the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8, the Holy Spirit, when it comes to worship, is both our interceder and our helper when we pray.
So, here we are tonight to worship God. I trust we worship God by prayer, conscious that God is constantly seeking worshipers and we are to worship him in spirit and in truth. So let's go to him, believing that what the Bible says is true about him.
Posted in Pastor Devotional