INTRODUCTION
- Today, we will dive into the subject of worship.
- What is worship?
- The dictionary defines worship as the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity, the acts or rites that make up a formal expression of reverence for a deity, or a religious ceremony or ceremonies.
- In the context of our faith, what is worship?
- Is worship a location?
- Is worship about style (type of music)
- Is worship about having that hallelujah feeling?
- Worship is a fundamental aspect of our faith, a profound response to God's character and what He has done for us.
- It’s more than just a ritual or a routine; it’s a deep, heartfelt connection with our Creator.
- In John 4:23-24, Jesus reveals to us the true essence of worship.
- The context of our passage is that Jesus was left by a well as His disciples went to get supplies.
- Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for water, and a conversation ensues.
- I want to read some of the passage for context/
John 4:10–18 (NET 2nd ed.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do you get this living water?
12 Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”
13 Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty again.
14 But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”
15 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.”
16 He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.”
17 The woman replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said, ‘I have no husband,’
18 for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”
- This is where the conversation gets interesting and takes a turn.
- Have you ever had a conversation with someone, and the conversation starts to get uncomfortable?
- What do you do when that happens?
- YOU CHANGE THE SUBJECT!
- The woman changes the subject to a question concerning worship.
John 4:19–22 (NET 2nd ed.)
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You people worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews.
- This conversation is significant.
- These words were spoken to a Samaritan woman, breaking the barriers of cultural and religious divides.
- In this conversation, Jesus defined the heart of worship.
- He pointed her—and us—to the reality that worship is not confined to a place or a specific set of actions but is a profound spiritual experience that begins with God Himself.
- In our passage, we will examine three essential truths concerning worship.
- Let’s turn to our passage.
John 4:23 (NET 2nd ed.)
23 But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.
SERMON
I. Worship begins with God.
- Back to the question about what worship is, worship is, first and foremost, about God.
- Worship begins and ends with God as the center of our worship.
- Anything less is not worshipping God; we would be worshipping ourselves.
- The Samaritan woman’s question was about the form of worship and where the proper place to worship was.
- Do we worship on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem?
- Is worship only about location, style, and ascetics, or is there more to worship?
- The question was not a bad one.
- Up until that point in history, the nation of Israel's worship was centered on the Tabernacle and then the Temple.
- For the Samaritans, worship centered on Mount Gerizim.
- We typically worship at church together.
- Worship can mean many things to many people, but when you boil them all down, they tend to focus on feelings (I feel the Spirit moving), style (centered around music), location, or other things I like.
- Now, don’t get me wrong; all of those things can impact our ability to worship, but they should not be the core of our worship.
- Let me hit that thought in a minute.
- Let’s go to Isaiah 6:1-8.
Isaiah 6:1–8 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple.
2 Seraphs stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly.
3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies! His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!”
4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.”
6 But then one of the seraphs flew toward me. In his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.”
8 I heard the voice of the Lord say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?” I answered, “Here I am, send me!”
- When you look at this passage, it is not about Isaiah but rather about Isaiah’s response to God!
- An analysis of the passage shows that worship is:
- (1) an awareness of the presence of God,
- (2) a consciousness of sin and unworthiness on the part of the worshipper,
- (3) a sense of cleansing and forgiveness, and
- (4) a response of the soul with reference to doing God’s will: “Here am I, send me!”
- See, for Isaiah, it was all about God!
- Remember the dictionary definition of worship?
- The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity; the acts or rites that make up a formal expression of reverence for a deity; a religious ceremony or ceremonies.
- When Isaiah was in God's presence, he had emotions, but he was driven by his reverence for God to do something, to change, and to answer God's call!
- HERE I AM, SEND ME!
- When we think about worship, our minds often turn to what we do: the songs we sing, the prayers we offer, or the ways we serve.
- However, true worship doesn’t start with us; it starts and ends with God.
- He is the origin and object of all genuine worship.
- With that said, if God is the object of our worship, we can worship Him in a church, in a barn, on the street, anywhere.
- Our worship does not depend on location.
- If God is the center of our worship, worship style will not matter because we are focused on God and nothing else!
- Worship should not be about my emotions, desires, or will. but only about God!
- We will have emotions, as Isaiah did, and we can have preferences concerning style and location, but if our worship is about exalting THEE rather than exalting ME, those things will not stop us from worshipping God!
- From the very beginning of Scripture, we see that worship is fundamentally about God.
- In Genesis, God created humanity in His image, establishing a relationship that was intended to be one of reverence, love, and worship.
- This was not merely a one-sided relationship; God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, showing us that worship is not just about acknowledging God’s greatness but about responding to His personal and loving presence.
- Worship begins with recognizing who God is—His character, His majesty, His holiness.
- It is a response to the revelation of God’s nature.
- When Moses encountered God in the burning bush, he was drawn to remove his sandals because he stood on holy ground (Exodus 3:5).
- The presence of God demanded reverence, awe, and worship.
- Moses didn’t initiate that moment; God did.
- And Moses’ response was one of worship—humbling himself before the Holy One.
- Worship is more than a Sunday morning activity.
- Worship is a continual response to the reality of who God is.
- Every moment of our lives can be an act of worship when we live in the awareness of God’s presence and respond to Him with love, adoration, and obedience. As the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 12:1:
Romans 12:1 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service.
Let’s look at our passage again.
John 4:23–24 (NET 2nd ed.)
23 But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.
24 God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
II. Worshipping God must be done in spirit.
- When Jesus speaks of worshipping “in spirit,” He is calling us to a form of worship that transcends the physical and enters into the spiritual realm.
- It reminds us that worship is not just about rituals, traditions, or the physical location where we gather.
- It’s not confined to a temple, a church building, or even a specific set of practices.
- Instead, worship is a spiritual act that involves the entirety of our inner being—our heart, soul, and spirit.
- True worship is our total being focusing on God!
- In the Old Testament, worship was often associated with physical acts, such as sacrifices, offerings, and temple rituals.
- While these were important, they were meant to point to a deeper reality: a heart fully engaged with God.
Isaiah 29:13 (NET 2nd ed.)
13 The sovereign master says, “These people say they are loyal to me; they say wonderful things about me, but they are not really loyal to me. Their worship consists of nothing but man-made ritual.
- This verse highlights the danger of worship that is merely external, disconnected from the inner life.
- God desires worship that flows from a heart deeply connected to Him.
- Worship in spirit means that our worship is sincere and authentic.
- It’s not just going through the motions or saying the right words; it’s about a genuine connection with God.
- It’s about our spirit being in tune with the Holy Spirit.
- When our spirit aligns with God’s Spirit, worship becomes a living, breathing expression of our relationship with Him.
- Verses 23-24 emphasize God's nature as a pure spirit, unlike the physical conceptions of gods held by many nations.
- Because God is spirit, He is not confined to physical locations like temples or churches made by human hands.
- This means worship is not bound to a particular place but can occur at any time and in any place, as long as the worshiper approaches with sincerity (spirit) and according to the truth (aligning with God's revealed word and teachings).
- This is in stark contrast to the ritualistic and location-based worship practices of the time.
- Spiritual worship is also intimate and personal.
- It’s in the depths of our spirit that we truly encounter God.
- In moments of prayer, reflection, and quiet communion, our spirit connects with God in a way that words often cannot express.
- This is why worship in spirit is not limited to what we do publicly; it’s deeply personal and often happens in the quietness of our own hearts.
- Let’s look at our passage one more time.
John 4:23–24 (NET 2nd ed.)
23 But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers.
24 God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
III. Worshipping God must be built on truth.
- Worshipping "in truth" means worshipping not through the medium of shadows and types (like sacrifices and offerings) but in the true way of direct access to God through Jesus Christ.
- Worship "in truth" involves adhering to the New Testament pattern of worship, which is based on sincerity and aligns with the teachings and revelations given through Christ.
- This type of worship is genuine and free from the external pomp and ceremony that characterized Old Testament worship.
- “Truth” also means that we are to worship what is true about God.
- In other words, worshiping “in truth” occurs when we worship in accordance with what God has revealed about himself.
- That is part of true worship.
- Spirit and truth are two of the characteristic, fundamental elements in God’s nature and ours.
- To worship God in truth means that we do not make up our own version of God; we worship the true God!
- While worship in spirit connects us to God at the deepest level of our being, worship in truth ensures that our worship is grounded in the reality of who God is and what He has revealed to us.
- To worship in truth means to worship God as He truly is, not as we imagine or wish Him to be.
- In a world where subjective feelings and personal experiences are often elevated above all else, Jesus’ call to worship in truth anchors our worship in the unchanging reality of God’s nature and His Word.
- Truth is not a matter of personal preference or opinion; it is rooted in God's character and the revelation of Scripture.
CONCLUSION
- The main thing we need to understand is that God is the object of our worship, and we are to worship Him in spirit and truth!
- The Father seeks people who will worship Him in this manner.
- It is evident that many people try to worship God neither in spirit nor in truth.
- Their worship is self-focused and based on a God of their own making.
- True worship means we worship God for who He is, not for who we want Him to be.
