The Immateriality of God John 4:7 26

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1 The Immateriality of God John 4:7 26 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give Me a drink. For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. The woman said to Him, Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly. The woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such 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 (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. I. Introduction A. The Woman at the Well 1. The conversation initiated 2. The woman is perplexed 3. Jesus opens the door for a Gospel encounter by mentioning the gift of God 1

2 4. She challenges Jesus regarding His statement and so He demonstrates His spiritual authority by demonstrating His omniscience. 5. She diverts the conversation towards a typical religious dispute between Samaritans and Jews, i.e. the proper location of worship. - Blum says, Samaritan religion held that the one place of divinely ordered worship was on top of nearby Mount Gerizim, whereas the Jews said it was on the temple mount in Jerusalem Notice how Jesus responds: - John 4: Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. - MacDonald points out, In saying that salvation is of the Jews, the Lord was teaching that the Jewish people were appointed by God to be His messengers, and it was to them that the Scriptures had been given. Also, it was through the Jewish nation that the Messiah was given. He was born of a Jewish mother. 2 - Jesus is here correcting her theology but He is also doing much more. He is signaling a new economy in regards to worship. - In the new economy of worship, God is seeking true worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth. B. The Nature of True Worship 1. Spirit - The reason that God must be worshipped in spirit is that God IS Spirit. 1 Edwin A. Blum, John, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), William MacDonald, Believer s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995). 2

3 - He cannot be confined to one location, though in the Old Testament economy the sacrificial system was localized in the Tabernacle and eventually in the permanent Temple located in Jerusalem. 2. Truth - The element of truth in worship is emphasized in light of the Samaritan error. God was in the process of giving a full revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. Acceptable worship must be in accordance with God s full revelation. - We will look at this attribute of God next week. II. The Immateriality of God A. Definition: 1. What is God? - Grudem says, People have often wondered, what is God made of? Is he made of flesh and blood like ourselves? Certainly not. What then is the material that forms his being? Is God made of matter at all? Or is God pure energy? Or is he in some sense pure thought? 3 - Actually God is none of these. God is immaterial, He is spirit. 2. God is Spirit - Berkhof explains it well. He says, By teaching the spirituality of God theology stresses the fact that God has a substantial Being all His own and distinct from the world, and that this substantial Being is immaterial, invisible, and without composition or extension. It includes the thought that all the essential qualities which belong to the perfect idea of Spirit are found in Him: that He is a self-conscious and self-determining Being. Since He is Spirit in the most absolute, and in the purest sense of the word, there is in Him no composition of parts. - He continues, The idea of spirituality of necessity excludes the ascription of anything like corporeity to God, and thus condemns the fancies of some of the early Gnostics and medieval Mystics, and of all those sectarians of our own day who ascribe a body to God. It is true that the Bible speaks of the hands and feet, the eyes and ears, the mouth and nose of God, but in 3 Grudem, Systematic Theology,186 3

4 doing this it is speaking anthropomorphically or figuratively of Him who far transcends our human knowledge, and of whom we can only speak in a stammering fashion after the manner of men. - Furthermore, he says, By ascribing spirituality to God we also affirm that He has none of the properties belonging to matter, and that He cannot be discerned by the bodily senses. Paul speaks of Him as the King eternal, immortal, invisible (1 Tim. 1:17). 4 B. Biblical basis: 1. Jesus taught that God is spirit - John 4: Jesus indicated that spirits are without bodies. - Luke 24: But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. 3. God is bigger than the universe. - 1 Kings 8:27. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! 4. Yet all of God is everywhere present to it. - Psalm 139:7 10. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. 5. God is invisible - Colossians 1:15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 6. God is unapproachable. 4 L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 66. 4

5 - 1 Timothy 6: He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. C. Objections: 1. Panentheism - God is bipolar, having both a spirit and a body. The universe is God s body. 2. Finite godism - Many of the cults, such as the Mormons, deny God s immateriality. In his defense of Mormonism Mormon author Edward K. Watson says, Furthermore, they are mistaken when they think that God being Spirit contradicts Mormon theology. Of course God is Spirit or a Great Spirit because he is a spirit entity who possesses a glorious immortal physical body just like we are spirit entities who possess mortal physical bodies. 5 - Doctrine and Covenants 130:22. The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us. 3. Pantheism - God is everything, including all material existence. 4. Response - All of these views reject the infinitude of God and contradict Scripture either in that God is not distinct from His creation or that God is an effect and thus dependent on a cause for His existence. III. Significance: A. Idols 5 Edward K. Watson, Mormonism,

6 - That God is spirit means that any physical representation of Him is an offense against the divine nature. Idolatry blasphemes God by portraying the divine nature as a finite being. Charnock says, It is a disgrace to his nature. Whosoever thinks a carnal corruptible image to be fit for a representation of God, renders God no better than a carnal and a corporeal being. 6 B. Worship - While personal worship has always been in acts of obedience and reverence, communal worship was restricted. Now communal worship is universalized to any local assembly of believers. - This radically affects our concept of worship. While the Mosaic Covenant stipulated that Israel s main avenue of worship was restricted to the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle/Temple, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church on the day of Pentecost extended the realm of worship to any local in which the church is gathered. IV. Application A. Walk in the Spirit - Galatians 5:16. I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. - This is the avenue of maturity. - Galatians 3:1 2. O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? - Galatians 6:1. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. - 1 Corinthians 2:13 3:3. These things we also speak, not in words which man s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord 6 Charnock, Attributes of God, 193) 6

7 that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? B. War in the Spirit - Ephesians 6:12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. - 2 Corinthians 10:4 5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, C. Worship in the Spirit 1. Offer spiritual sacrifices - Romans 12:1 (ESV) - I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. - Hebrews 13:7. Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. 2. Seek spiritual blessings - Ephesians 1:3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 7