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We’ve just finished three Sundays looking at the pattern of evangelism in this passage of the woman at the well. Starting this morning, we’re going to zoom in on this one part of Jesus’ conversation with her. You remember that Jesus had just presented this woman with her sin. Knowing everything about her, he asked her to go get her husband. She said she didn’t have a husband. Jesus told her she was exactly right. Then He reminded her that she had had five husbands and was now living in an immoral relationship with another one. She was busted. And when she was busted, it brought conviction on her heart. And when she began to feel the pangs of conviction, she did what most of us do. She tried to side-step it. She didn’t try to justify her sin or talk around it. She just changed the subject. She changed the subject from the issue of her sin to the subject of worship. Even though Jesus didn’t allow her to distract Him from His main message of the Gospel… He did give her a few words of profound truth about worship. We have those few words recorded in the text that’s before us this morning. As a matter of fact, these few verses are some of the richest words in all of the New Testament on the subject of worship. Because of that, we’re going to spend some significant time zooming in on them. By significant time, if the Lord tarries, I mean at least three Sundays. Here’s what I need from you. I need you to come. See, this morning we’re going to look at spiritual worship. Next week we’re going to look at truthful worship. Then the following week we’re going to look at true worship. Each part will be self-contained. But if you just get this week’s teaching without the other two, you risk being unbalanced. And as you look around the church today, you can what unbalanced looks like. Truth without spirit is cold and dead. In the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 1-3, truth without spirit is the Ephesian church. It’s the church that lost its first love. Jesus said they must repent or He would remove them from His presence. He would no longer walk in their midst. Spirit without truth is empty, undisciplined and ultimately self-centered. Spirit without truth is the church at Sardis in Revelation 3. When people looked at them, they looked alive. They had a reputation for being exciting. But Jesus said that they were dead. He said that they needed to remember the truth they had learned in the past. Jesus said that they needed to repent or He would come to them in judgment as unexpectedly as a thief. The Bible is clear that we must worship God in spirit and truth. We can only get the full, balanced picture of worship when we spend time looking at each separately and then both together. That’s why you need to be here each time. Will you do that?
Even though the woman at the well was trying to divert attention from the conviction she was feeling, she asked a good question. She was a Samaritan and Jesus was a Jew. She knew that people called Jesus a rabbi which meant that He was a teacher. She also knew that He had looked into her heart and seen what she had hidden there. That’s why she called Him a prophet. So four things came together here. She was with a teacher. She was with a prophet. She had a good question. And what better way to change the subject that to ask a hotly debated question like this one. She basically asked—who is right? Were her people right in the way they worshipped God or were Jesus’ people right? You see, hundreds of years before, after King Solomon died, Israel was divided into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. The southern kingdom included Jerusalem which was where the temple was. The Old Testament law required that all of Israel was to worship God in the temple. Well, after the nation was split, the Jews of the northern kingdom wouldn’t go into the southern kingdom to worship in the temple. So they went against God’s law and made their own priests and built their own place of worship. Years later, both the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom were punished by God for their rebellion and sent into exile. While they were scattered among the nations in exile, some Jews from the northern kingdom began to intermarry with the pagan nations around them. The children of this intermarriage came to be known as Samaritans. They were looked at as half-breeds and the Jews hated them. Since the Jews hated them they weren’t allowed to worship in the rebuilt temple after the exile. So, since they weren’t allowed to worship in the temple, they carried on the tradition of the northern kingdom. They built their own place to worship. Remember that the Old Testament Scripture was all that they had at this time. The Samaritans didn’t even hold to all of that. They rejected everything but the Pentateuch—the books of Moses, the first 5 books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy were all that they believed in. Those five books say nothing about Jerusalem and the temple. They talk about the tabernacle of God, but don’t have a specific place for it to rest like in Jerusalem. So the Samaritans looked at Deuteronomy 11 and saw Mount Gerizim as the place where Israel proclaimed the blessings of obeying God’s commandments. So that’s the place they picked to build their temple. By the time of the woman at the well, the Samaritan temple had been destroyed. That was another bone of contention, because it was a Jew that did it. But even though their temple was still in ruins, that didn’t faze them. They put together another place and still gathered there to worship. As a matter of fact, to this day, there is still a handful of Samaritans who gather there to worship. The Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gerizim. The Jews worshipped on Mount Zion. But not only was the place of their worship different, the way they worshipped was different. Samaritan worship was exciting. It was lively. It was passionate. It was intensely emotional. If you were to walk into a Samaritan worship service, you couldn’t help but be emotionally stirred. Jewish worship was completely different. It was very liturgical. By that I mean that everything was in complete, rigid order. They had an order of service that had been the same from time immemorial. Daddy did it that way, granddaddy did it that way and his granddaddy did it that way. There was nothing spontaneous. There was little if any emotion. It was all focused on doing the exact right thing at the exact right time in the exact right way. Oh, and by the way—in the exact right place. The worship of the Jews and Samaritans was as different as day and night. So, even though the woman at the well was asking the question to take some heat off her conviction, it was a good question. Since they’re so different, who is right? And Jesus gave her an interesting answer. He told her neither one was right. Neither one was right because things had changed. He didn’t go into the whole history of it. He knew that the Old Testament prescribed that the Temple in Jerusalem was where they were supposed to worship. But He didn’t go there. He didn’t go there, because it was a new day. It was the beginning of a new chapter in God’s dealings with man. And this new chapter called for new worship. In verse 21, Jesus said “the hour cometh.” Whenever the word “hour” is used in that way in the New Testament, it is talking of a changing time period in the unfolding plan of God. In other words, there is a new phase coming—a new hour in God’s plan—a new chapter in His book. And when Jesus says that that hour is coming, it sounds to our ears like He’s speaking of a time in the future. Well, He is and He’s not. You can see it more clearly in verse 23. Jesus says that new hour is coming and it’s already here. What is the new hour that Jesus is talking about? He’s talking about Himself. Even though His work had not been completed on the cross yet, He was sitting there in front of the woman at that moment. The new chapter in the unfolding plan of God’s worship was before her. And Jesus told her that the new chapter He was opening before her was a chapter of new worship. That new kind of worship is characterized by two words—spirit and truth. This morning we’re going to look at the first of those two words—spirit. Since Jesus said that we must worship in spirit and truth, then we must know what He means by each of those. So, what is spiritual worship? Spiritual worship is liberating. It is animating. And it is sustaining. First, spiritual worship is liberating.
In the Old Testament after He gave Israel the Law, God commanded His worship to happen at a specific place of His choosing. First worship was to happen in the tabernacle. That lasted all the way until the time of Solomon. Then God promised David that his son Solomon would build Him a temple. From that time on, Israel was required to worship God in the temple. Deuteronomy 12:5 states it clearly: “But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come.” In other words, God told Israel that He would choose a place in their midst. He would choose that specific place and put His name there. Even though God is everywhere at all times, that specific place that He chose would be the place where He would meet with them. He required them to come to that place in order to offer their worship. One thing becomes more and more clear the more I study Scripture. And that’s that God never changes. Some things might look different to us. Some things are more clear to us because of His complete Word. But God Himself never changes. So if He required a specific place of His choosing in the Old Testament, He requires the same thing today. If He chose a specific place where He would meet with the Old Testament saints, He has chosen a specific place for us to meet with Him today. If God required His people to come to that place in order to offer their worship, He requires His people today to come to a specific place to offer our worship. As we sit in this building this morning, our mind automatically wants to make this the place. As a matter of fact, there are many churches today that carry the name of Temple or Tabernacle. I know there are many of us here this morning that look to the church building as a new version of the Old Testament temple. But it’s not. On this side of the cross, we don’t have any more temples. We don’t have any more tabernacles. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two. That signified many things, but one of the things it signified was that the place had changed. As a matter of fact, from that point forward, the temple was just a building. And that building was completely destroyed less than 40 years later. So if God never changes, and that building is destroyed, where is the place of worship today? The place of worship today is in the heart of every believer. Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” When Jesus saves you, you are His. You are the specific place where God has chosen to place His name. You are His habitation. You are the place where the Lord calls you to commune with Him and worship Him. We worship God corporately in a special way when we meet as the church gathered. But we also worship continually when we are apart from one another as the church scattered. The building is not where the Lord lives. The Lord lives in the hearts of believers. Worship is no longer tied to a building. Worship is no longer tied to certain objects. Worship is no longer tied to certain rituals. We have a certain order of service that we follow—that is not what makes it worship. We each have certain styles of service and music we like—that’s not what makes it worship. What makes it worship is the overflow of love we have in our hearts for Jesus. When we worship in spirit, we are liberated from a specific location. We are liberated from certain objects. We are liberated from rituals. We are liberated to pour out our love to Jesus in words, in praise, in actions and in song straight from our heart. Straight from our heart because that is the place where He has placed His name. Spiritual worship is liberating. But not only is spiritual worship liberating, it is animating. Spiritual worship is animating.
When you hear the word animating, you might think of animation. It’s the same word. Cartoons are called animation because when they were first invented, they were seen as bringing still pictures to life. So when something is animated, it is brought to life. In verse 23, Jesus told the woman that in this new chapter, true worshippers would worship God in spirit and truth. As I’ve said, we’re going to look at the truth part next week. But Jesus was telling her that in this new chapter we know of as the church age, people will worship God in spirit. That word spirit is from the Greek word pneuma. Does that sound familiar? Ever heard of pneumonia? It comes from the same word. If you’ve ever had pneumonia, you know that it is a disease that takes your breath away. Pneuma is the Greek word for breath. So in the Jewish mind, breath and spirit were the same thing. Breath was what animated you. It was what brought life to your body. When God created Adam in Genesis 2:7, the Bible says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” That breath that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils was the spirit of life. By the same token, when Jesus saves us, He brings us to new life in Him. Before He saves us, the Bible in Ephesians 2 says that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Verses 4-5 goes on to say, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” When Jesus saves you, He brings you to new life in Him. You are born again. The first time you were born into death. Now you are born into life. When Jesus brings you to new life in Him, He once again breathes into you the breath of life. He breathes His Holy Spirit into you as the animating person of your new life. When we worship in spirit, we are exhaling the breath of life that Jesus breathed into us when He saved us. Spiritual worship is animating. It is life-giving. Think of it this way—Dead people don’t exhale. You can force air into them all day long, but they will only spit it out. They won’t exhale on their own because there is no life there. And think of how impossible it would be for a living person to inhale all day long without exhaling. It is impossible for a person who is alive in Christ to inhale all of His blessings without exhaling praise and worship. Worshipping in spirit is when all of what animates us agrees with the Holy Spirit within us and breathes out praises and worship to God. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Spiritual worship means that there is a life-giving communion between our spirit and the Holy Spirit that freely pours out praise and worship to God. Spiritual worship is animating. It is liberating and it is animating. Finally, spiritual worship is sustaining.
The Lord has given us all we need in His written Word. On top of that, He has given us His Holy Spirit to shine the light on that Word and open our eyes to what it says. But God is good. He knows that even with all of that, we still needed some help. After all that, we still don’t get it. So, he gave us pictures too. He knew it wasn’t enough to tell us in His Word how much He loves us and how we’re supposed to respond to His love. He knew we still wouldn’t get it so He gave us the picture of marriage. Ephesians 5 clearly states that the relationship between a husband and wife is a picture of Jesus’ relationship to the church. When Jesus saves us, the Bible calls us the bride of Christ. Well, tell me, what should a marriage relationship look like? Is there ever an emotional outpouring of love in a marriage relationship? Are there ever times of deep, emotional expressions of love? Are they ever verbal? Are they ever expressed with gifts? Are those emotional outpourings ever expressed physically? Now, I want you to picture a marriage where none of those things existed. If I, as Miranda’s husband, never poured out my love to her with visible, verbal, giving, physical expressions… what would you think of that marriage? But I do my duty. I provide for her. I do the work that I’m supposed to do. I fulfill my obligations to her. Is that enough? Is that what a relationship really is? John Piper talks about coming home with a dozen roses for his wife. As he hands them to her, he says, “I’m giving you these because it’s my duty and I’m fulfilling my obligation.” How do you think she would have felt if he had done that? Not much love there. Not much relationship going on. But if he came home with that same dozen roses and said, “Honey I brought you these because I want to show you how much I love you. In some small way, I want to show you how worthy you are of being loved.” Do you think the response would have been better? Of course it would have. Because even though the action was the same, the attitude was different. One was motivated by obligation. The other was motivated by the expression of a loving relationship. Do you love Jesus? How do you show Him? The word worship comes from an Old English compound word. It was originally two words—worth and ship. So literally, the word worship means—showing worth. When you worship Christ, you are literally showing Him what you think of Him. I know we all are wired differently. Some of us are more emotional than others. But the sad fact is that some of us are just plain worried about what other people might think. Worship—especially in a corporate environment like this is about showing Jesus how worthy He is. It’s about crawling down inside the place of your heart and seeing what Jesus did for you. If He has saved you, that heart used to be a dead, cold heart of stone. If Jesus has saved you, when you look into the place of your heart, you see that He has made it alive. You see that He has placed His name on it. And when you see that, it should drive you to worship Him. Worship is about your spirit—the part of you that motivates you and drives you and makes you care… it’s about your spirit communing with the Holy Spirit of Christ who lives in you. And as you commune and fellowship with Him, you do what He does. The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. He always magnifies Christ. He is always in a continual state of worship, so when your spirit communes with the Holy Spirit, you join Him in what He’s doing. So I’m going to ask you again—do you love Jesus? If you say you do and you don’t pour out your heart in worship to Him, you’re fooling yourself. You’re relationship is based on duty like the Pharisees was. And that’s not a relationship at all—it’s an obligation.
After I pray, in these next few minutes of invitation, I want you to ask yourself—what is your relationship with Jesus? Do you have an overwhelming desire to tell Him and show Him how worthy He is? Or do you simply feel obligated to serve Him? One is worship. The other is Pharisaical. God seeks the one. He turns away from the other. If you are not worshipping the Lord in spirit, it can mean a couple of things. First it can mean you’re not capable of worshipping Him. If you have never submitted to Jesus as your Lord and Master, you are not capable of worshipping Him. You can sing and shout and wave your hands all you want to, but it is empty and hollow. It’s empty and hollow because there is no relationship there. You might be bringing roses to the door, but they’re on your casket. Because you’re dead. If that is you this morning, ask Jesus to make you alive in Him. Ask Him to save you. Submit to Him as Lord and worship Him as your King. Maybe you have professed faith in Christ, but haven’t been truly showing Him how worthy He really is. This morning is the time to see all that He’s done for you and pour out your heart to Him in liberating, animating, sustaining worship. If that means crying—so be it. If that means holding up your hands—so be it. If it means singing a little louder—so be it. Whatever it means, show Jesus how truly worthy He really is this morning. Show Him by asking Him to save you. Or show Him by pouring out your heart to Him in praise and worship.
