“SUNDAY: THE BIG SHOW”
JOHN 4:20-24
INTRODUCTION… Video “Sports Sunday: The Big Show” from Bluefishtv.com
I.. SUNDAY: THE BIG SHOW
There are so many things that a worship service is not. The comedic video that you just watched showed the Organized Church Rivalry Association… which is of course fake. It showed people tailgating in the parking lot before services. It showed people preparing for worship in the locker room and planning out songs like a football play. None of that really happens… at least at this church. There are many things that any church deals with when it comes to worship. The video shows outlandish things, but there are temptations that a church faces that are real.
* It is a real temptation to cater to everyone’s wishes when it comes to music and songs. Many people are highly offended when songs are played that they do not like. Perhaps you are one of those people who complain about song choice.
* It is a real temptation to make the worship time more entertaining and all about us. There is the temptation to try and make the church the most exciting place imaginable at the expense of Godly things. We live in a society that is image driven and in order to follow society the church must be exciting and entertaining and enticing. Perhaps you are one of those people who feel that church is boring and should change to be more like a TV show.
* It is a real temptation to compete with other churches and become something that we are not. People come to the staff of the church all the time with suggestions of how we should do things… not because of any other reason that another church does it that way. Some suggestions are good and some are not so good.
* It is a real temptation to leave worship and sermons on the surface level. There is a real temptation to let you all sit in the pews comfortable and not require commitment from you.
Any church that is striving to seek after God, to draw people close to Jesus, and that wishes to do things with excellence will encounter temptations like these. The temptation to be a Big Show is present. The temptation to water down the Gospel for the sake of excitement or entertainment is a real temptation. The church is not a Big Show. When you come to worship, it is not entertainment.
What should church and worship be?
What should be our attitude as we enter the sanctuary?
The passage that we are going to look at today to answer these important questions is John chapter 4. The chapter begins with Jesus traveling through Samaria. This was odd in Jesus’ day because most Jews walked all the way around Samaria and did not travel through it when traveling north to south or south to north. Jesus was traveling from the south to the north with His disciples (verses 1-4) and He chose to travel through this area. He stops in a town called Sychar to rest (verses 5-9). There was no rest stop or 7-11 that we read about, but Jesus does stop by the well outside of town. As a side note, I think it is interesting in the Gospel of John that Jesus is explained as “the Word made flesh” in chapter 1 and all throughout the Gospel the humanness of Jesus is shown… such as in this passage… walking Himself to exhaustion and needing to rest. Anyway, Jesus meets a woman there when He stops to rest and strikes up a conversation with her. Again we see something interesting for Jesus’ day because even the Samaritan woman was surprised that Jesus (a male Jew) was speaking to her in public. Jesus speaks to the woman about spiritual things. Jesus, taking a cue from the well which He was sitting at, describes living water to her and offers her some (verses 10-15). He is of course speaking about Himself and in the middle of the conversation, this woman exclaims ‘you are a prophet’ (verse 19) and the conversation focuses upon worship. And that conversation about worship is what we will focus on today. Let’s read together…
READ JOHN 4:20-24
The woman complains to Jesus about some of the attitudes the Jews had about worship. The Jews were telling the Samaritans that the only place they could worship was at the temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was a huge place with shops and money changers (Matthew 21:12, Mark 11:15, John 2:15) and many events. The Temple was where the priests would give sacrifices and where teaching about God went on. The Holy of Holies was there where the Jews believed the presence of God dwelt. It very well could have been overwhelming and a big show for many people. To be honest, prophets and kings in the past had said that Jerusalem was the only place to worship (2 Kings 18:22, Isaiah 27:13, Zechariah 14:17). They said those things to prevent the fickle people from worshipping idols, but over the centuries it had become twisted and oppressive for the Samaritans. The Samaritan woman complained to Jesus.
Jesus understands the woman’s complaint and says to her in verses 23 and 24, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” Jesus actually repeats Himself. I am thinking if the Son of God repeats Himself, it must be important. What does He say to us? He says that true worshippers of God will do so in Spirit and in Truth.
II. WORSHIP IN SPIRIT
Jesus tells us that we must worship God in Spirit. God is spirit. There is nothing material or earthly about God’s nature. Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman as well as passages in Hebrews 8 and 9 (8:13-9:1) tell us that the old order of things passed away because of Jesus. God used to be worshipped in an earthly sanctuary, but this was truly inefficient. God is larger than that. God is more than that. God is spirit and so must be worshipped in Spirit. The Jews had lost sight of the spiritual aspect of worship and were only concerned with the physical Temple centered worship. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that God is seeking people that worship Him not only in an earthly sanctuary, but understand that worship is a spiritual relationship.
This means that church, this church, is a spiritual place. This is where you come to connect the spirit in you with the Spirit of God. Of course, God being spirit means you can do this anywhere, but Scripture tells us that something important happens when we gather together and worship Him.
* Matthew 18:20 = “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”
* Hebrews 10:25 = “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
The church is a place that encourages you to develop your spiritual connection with God. The church is a place that teaches you how to pray and speak with God and his presence is there with you. The church should provide an atmosphere that is conducive to you connecting with God. That is the purpose of worship… connecting you or reconnecting you with God… through prayer, fellowship, song, instruments, humor, solemness, silence, clapping, listening, communion, offering, and studying God’s Word. And we should do our best to fight off temptations that deter us from our purpose of worshipping God in spirit.
How do we to worship in spirit? One of the steps we can take is to fight off those temptations to make church and worship non-spiritual. What temptations do you face that draw you away from spiritual worship at church?
> Are you tempted not to come to church when you think you are too busy and you find yourself here only when it is convenient for you or only when you have something you need?
> Are you tempted to stay in the lobby or the Family Life Center when worship starts to talk and fellowship when you should be in the sanctuary worshipping your God?
> Are you tempted to come in late so that church doesn’t take so long?
> Are you focused more on the type of songs used or the worship leader rather than the songs and the words being used to draw you close to God?
> Do you listen to the sermons only when the preacher is entertaining and tells you what you want to hear or are you distracted easily when you listen?
> Are you tempted to distract yourself with doodling, reading the bulletin, or flipping through the hymnal during communion, when we spiritually connect with God and thank Him for His Son?
There are so many temptations when it comes to worship. We are physical people. We live in a physical world that is often distracting. And yet, worship is very much a spiritual activity that requires us to connect with our inner life. Yet we can become distracted and not focus on the spiritual things.
ILLUSTRATION… Today in the Word, March 10, 1993.
Deeply immersed in meditation during a church service, Italian poet Dante Alighieri failed to kneel at the appropriate moment. His enemies hurried to the bishop and demanded that Dante be punished for his sacrilege. Dante defended himself by saying, "If those who accuse me had had their eyes and minds on God, as I had, they too would have failed to notice events around them, and they most certainly would not have noticed what I was doing."
How are you doing in this department… connecting the spirit inside you with the Spirit of God?
Are you worshipping in a way that cultivates your spiritual life with God?
Do you come to church prepared for a spiritual connection or something else?
Jesus not only explains to the Samaritan woman that true worshippers will do so in spirit, but they will also do so in truth.
III. WORSHIP IN TRUTH
ILLUSTRATION… Bits and Pieces, October, 1991
A woman’s red station wagon was crushed by an elephant at a circus. The owners of the animal apologized, explaining that the animal, for some reason, simply liked to sit on red cars. In spite of the damage, the woman’s car was still drivable. But on the way to the garage she was stopped short by an accident involving two other cars just ahead of her. When the ambulance arrived a few minutes later the attendants took one look at her car, and then ran over to assist her.
"Oh, I wasn’t involved in this accident," she explained. "An elephant sat on my car." The ambulance attendants quickly bundled her off to the hospital for possible shock and head injuries, despite the lady’s vehement protests.
I am not sure how this story connects… except that I thought it was funny… sometimes the truth is hard to discover. Sometimes the truth surprises us. Sometimes the truth means we have to look honestly at ourselves. We see many times in Scripture that God responds to those who live truthfully. Psalm 15 is one of those passages.
Psalm 15 says, “LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? 2 He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart 3 and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, 4 who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, 5 who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken” (verses 1-5). The psalm tells us that the one who dwells with God and lives with Him is the one who is blameless and speaks the truth. Truth will get you close to God because God is Truth.
How are we to worship in truth?
One step that we can take is to be honest with ourselves and with God about why we worship. This isn’t easy… the truth is rarely easy.
One of the first areas that we need to be truthful in is why we are here:
* Are you here because you feel obligated to come or someone made you come?
* Are you here just because you want to see people you know?
* Are you here because you have always gone to church and it’s the thing to do on Sundays?
* Are you here because when you leave you feel better about yourself and your life?
* Are you here to worship God?
The reasons why we are gathered here today are sometimes as varied as the numbers of people who attend. Yet, worshipping God in truth means we must be honest with ourselves why we are here. If we want to be the type of worshipers that Jesus describes to the Samaritan woman, we should be here because we crave to build up our relationship with God. We want to worship together with other believers in song and sermon and communion. That should be our motivation, but we are sinful people and what should be is not always reality. I want to encourage you to examine yourself and your motivation for being at church and pray to God to help your motivation be all about Him.
The second step we can take is to be honest with God about ourselves. 1 John 1:5-10 says plainly, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
When we come to this place to worship before God, we must come and purify ourselves. This is why the Old Testament spoke about cleanliness and purity in Leviticus and Numbers. When you come before God, we must purify ourselves by being honest about ourselves. We must confess sin. We must confess our immorality to Him. The Apostle John tells us that when we come to Him in Truth and confess, that He will purify us. The bond between our spirits is strengthened when we do this.
Faking your Christian life may work on everyone else, but it doesn’t work on God.
Living the way you want Monday thru Saturday will not allow you a spiritual connection with God.
Coming in the doors of the church with unconfessed sin and leaving with it is not God’s desire for you.
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION…http://patriot.net/~bmcgin/poems.html
BREATHE ON ME, BREATH OF GOD - by Edwin Hatch, 1835-1889
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until my will is one with Thine,
To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.
CONCLUSION
Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that a time would come when true worshippers of God would do wo in Spirit and Truth. Let that time be now!
