Defining Christian Worship Biblically John 4:19-26

Defining Christian Worship Biblically John 4:19-26 Introduction: The most common New Testament word used for worship is proskuneo, which means to kiss towards. It also implies lying prostrate before. In its simplest form, worship means to pay honor toward something or someone. It is used in the Scriptures indiscriminately. It is not a Christian word or concept. Everyone worships something and/or someone. What does vary and determine the nature of worship is the object and the forms of its expression. Our goal here this morning is to define it biblically. To look in the Word of God to answer the question, what is Christians worship today? Next week we will attempt to confine Christian worship. After we define it we will look at its various expressions both, particularly focusing on the corporate nature. And, when our pastor returns, he will focus heavily on the individual nature of Christian worship. Our ultimate goal is that by defining it biblically, confining it biblically, the Holy Spirit will refine it biblically here are Heritage Baptist Church. The passage of Scripture that we are going to use to begin this great journey is John 4:19-26. Here we find an encounter between Jesus and a woman from Samaria at Jacob s well, located in Sychar, a town of Samaria. It was at the sixth hour, which is noon, and it would have been in the heat of the day. Jesus was wearied from traveling, as he and the disciples were avoiding the angering Pharisees. They were perturbed that Jesus was baptizing more people than John the Baptist at this point, although John tells us that Jesus never actually baptized anyone. His disciples did the baptizing. Jesus sends his disciples into town to grab some food while he hung around the well. Jacob s well, now located inside an orthodox church, was unique in that it was dug above a reliable flowing stream of water that remains to this day. An interesting note about the well is that in verse 6 the word used for well is pege, which refers to a running spring, but in verses 11 & 12 the word is phrear, which means a dug-out well or cistern. Jacob s well is both. Knowing this can help us understand how the woman may have perceived Jesus initial comments in verse 10 and can give us a little more depth to what Jesus is saying in verse 14. What s really important for understanding this passage is understanding the theology of the Samaritan s and how that has shaped this woman. The Samaritans, like the Sadducees, believed only the Pentateuch was the revealed and inspired Word of God. They did not believe the historical books, the Psalms, or the prophets were divine. Therefore, the Samaritan s theology was built upon only the Torah, the first five books of the Law of Moses. This shaped their view of worship and of the Messiah, and that greatly impacts how we should interpret this passage. The Samaritans believed that Mount Gerizim was the place where God wanted to meet with His covenant people for worship. They based this idea from their texts and it is

not a crazy idea if the Pentateuch was all you are using to determine this. However, the Jews saw Jerusalem as the place God wanted the Temple built so they could meet Him there. This is based largely on the rest of the Old Testament texts. So the Samaritans built a temple on Mount Gerizim and the Jews in Jerusalem. The Samaritan s also held a very different view of the Messiah, or the Christ. They believed he would come for the purpose of revealing all truth. In other words, they had a lot of empty spaces in their knowledge of God, and they knew that. So, they believed the primary reason for the coming Messiah was to reveal the rest of the truth to them and make sense of God and his worship. In some sense, their view was better than the distorted political view of the Jews. Doctrine and worship were not the only things that divided the Samaritans and the Jews. During the Assyrian invasion of 722-721BC, the prominent Jews were exiled while many commoners remained. These commoners intermarried foreigners and inter-mingled religious practices and ideas. D.A. Carson describes the Jewish view of Samaritans as, halfbreeds whose religion was tainted by various unacceptable elements. So all this helps us to understand more accurately why the woman was surprised Jesus, a Jew asked her, a woman from Samaria, for a drink of water. It also helps us to interpret their conversation and actions more accurately. So let s do that. 1. Salvation is the Foundation for Christian Worship Jesus asked the woman for a drink and she replied perhaps a bit sarcastically, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? He immediately responds by saying, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Many commentators see this passage as a contrast to Jesus encounter with Nicodemus, recorded in the previous chapter. Both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman stood face to face with Jesus, but for very different reasons. Nicodemus was a prominent member of society. He was very religious and he was a ruler of the Jews. The woman was a woman, a Samarian, a well-known sinner and most likely the town s outcast. She had been married five times and is now with a man in an immoral relationship. However, the central theme of both conversations was about the necessity of regeneration of the Holy Spirit for belief and ultimately for salvation. Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again and it is the Holy Spirit s work to do that, just as he tells the woman, if you could see with eyes of faith who I am and the gift of the Holy Spirit I give, you would have asked me for it and I would give it to you. Seeing only with eyes of flesh she questions his ability to perform this great task of giving her living water. I believe she thinks he is talking about reaching the stream that flows underneath and giving her a continuous supply line from it. Because she says, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? A key word that I would like to point out here is the word knew. Jesus is making a reference to her lack of knowledge; particularly, a knowledge that if she possessed it would

change her response significantly. Before we assume we KNOW what He is talking about let us look at a possibility. We assume the gift of God is salvation. That is possible. But, it is also possible that Jesus was speaking to her in her religious context about the Torah. Samaritan s only ascribed to the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, much like the Sadducees. The Samaritan s referred to the Torah as the supreme gift of God. 1 Jesus could be saying to the woman that if she really knew her Torah, and we will see that she thinks she does, and knew that it pointed to him, than she would have responded in worship by humbly seeking salvation in Him. The woman then proposes a religious question to Jesus, which is why I believe the gift of God refers to the Torah. She says, 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock. Jesus responds with another teaching on true salvation. He says, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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. In other words, this water is physical and it can only meet physical needs. However, living water is spiritual and it can satisfy eternally. This water is the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives to those who believe. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and leads us to truth and faith and ultimately eternal life. After Jesus calls her out on her sin she begins to see with eyes of faith as she says, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. She is not quite there yet, but she recognizes that he is one sent from God. This is where the theological question of where one must worship God comes in. I don t believe it is to avoid the discussion of her sin. I believe she sincerely wants to know where to meet God and she believes she has found a prophet of God, who better to ask? Jesus answers her question with a profound statement. She wants to know which side is right. He says, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. The hour is coming when there will be neither option because the temple will be destroyed in Jerusalem in 70AD and the temple on Mount Gerizim was already destroyed around 112BC. The Samaritans continued to worship in that area at altars they had erected there. But soon, when Jesus completes his earthly mission, the place of worship will no longer matter. The physical place of worship will no longer matter because the true nature of Christian worship under the New Covenant will be completely spiritual and according to what we will know. However, you cannot enter the spiritual realm and know God without being born again. 1 Odeberg, 150. 218

2. Christian Worship is Spiritual 23 But the hour is coming, (Neither temple will exist by AD70) and is now here (the process had begun), when the true worshipers (genuinely born again believers) will worship (pay honor to) the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people (not such people are seeking the Father) to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Christian worship is spiritual by nature because God is spirit. The earthly physical cannot enter into the spiritual realm, particularly the sinful physical into the holy spiritual. Two aspects of humanity must be changed before it can enter into God s actual presence; it must be purified from sin and it must be glorified in substance. Until the body is glorified in substance, it can go into the spiritual presence of God as long as it has been purified from sin and guilt. The essence of what Jesus is saying is since God is spirit and man must come to him through his (man s) spirit. The spirit is essentially the heart. This is only possible through the Holy Spirit s work in us. Until the Holy Spirit grants us the second birth, we are Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman at the well. We cannot but see the physical. We are unable to discern spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned). The place no longer matters because it is a spiritual place where we meet God to worship Him. The place we meet is for mere practicality. This spreads beyond location, as we will look at next week. This truth penetrates and influences every aspect of Christian worship. It is through the heart or spirit that we pay honor to God. Jesus made it clear that everything is a heart issue. You can perform every physical act of worship and be far from God. 3. Christian Worship is in Truth What does it mean to worship in truth? The easy answer is according to the Bible. We know the Bible is truth. But, what we really need to know is, the Bible alone is truth. That does not mean that 2+2=4 is untruth because it s not in the Bible. All that is necessary for worship, life, and salvation are found in Scripture and the Scripture alone is the final and infallible authority on those issues. It is because of what Scripture tells us about reality that 2+2=4, and it is because of the promises of Scripture that 2+2 will continue to =4 as long as we live in this age. The Scripture s answer to the question is loaded. Truth according to the Bible is: - The Word of God the Father. (John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth). - The Holy Spirit. (John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come).

- Jesus (John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me). The loaded answer to the question of what is truth is the Trinity. Christian worship is Trinitarian. It involves the Word of God the Father, the person and work of the Son, Jesus Christ, and the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. If you want to be a true worshipper of God, you must come byt the Holy Spirit, with your whole heart in faith to Jesus the Son, believing in His finished work on the cross. Conclusion: 25 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. 26 Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. Remember what we said about the Samaritan s view of the Messiah? They expected him to come and reveal the fullness of God and how to know and worship him. Jesus told her that he is the Messiah, the one called The Christ. This is the only time he revealed his messiahship prior to his trial (Mk. 9:41). Jesus is the Messiah and has come and has told us all that we need to know to have a relationship with God to be a true worshipper of God. It is through hearing the gospel, as it is recorded in the Word of God, that you may come to trust in the Lord for salvation. If you truly desire to be a worshipper of God, trust in his perfect life, his death on the cross for your sin, and his victory over death through his resurrection.

CG Questions 1. What makes salvation the foundation for Christian worship? Why is salvation necessary for a person to be a true worshipper of God? A person must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God. Without the new birth, a person is unable to discern spiritual things. Yet, God is spirit and can only be worshipped in spirit. 2. How would you describe to an unbeliever what it means to worship God in spirit? Our spirit is closely related to our hearts, head, and faith. We worship what we know about God that has been revealed to us through the Bible. We worship with our hearts in that we do it as a loving response to what He has done for us. We worship by faith because we cannot see God with our eyes. 3. How would you describe to an unbeliever what it means to worship God in truth? We worship God according to what He has reveled about himself in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is the only source of truth on religious and moral realities. The Bible teaches us that Christian worship is Trinitarian. We know God the Father because He reveled Himself to us in the Bible. We also worship through the Holy Spirit of God, which is also truth. The Spirit leads us into understanding God s truth. Jesus is also truth through which we must worship God. He made the way into the presence of God for us. It is through Him that we have a relationship with God the Father. 4. Can anyone share something you learned through the sermon this morning? 5. As you engage in worship activities this week like prayer, singing praise, serving others, think about the Trinitarian nature of what you are doing.