That’s Why We Worship - John 4:4-24
"Worshiping God In Spirit And Truth"
Intro: A few years ago the Chicago Tribune reported the story of a New Mexico woman who was frying tortillas when she noticed that the skillet burns on one of her tortillas resembled the face of Jesus. Excited, she showed it to her husband and neighbors, and they all agreed that there was a face etched on the tortilla and that it truly bore a resemblance to Jesus.
So the woman went to her priest to have the tortilla blessed. She testified that the tortilla had changed her life, and her husband agreed that she had been a more peaceful, happy, submissive wife since the tortilla had arrived. The priest, not accustomed to blessing tortillas, was somewhat reluctant but agreed to do it.
The woman took the tortilla home, put it in a glass case with piles of cotton to make it look like it was floating on clouds, built a special altar for it, and opened the little shrine to visitors. Within a few months, more than eight thousand people came to the shrine of the Jesus of The Tortilla, and all of them agreed that the face in the burn marks on the tortilla was the face of Jesus (except for one reporter who said he thought it looked like former heavy-weight boxing champion Leon Spinks!
Psalm 29:1,2 says, "Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness."
Did the experience and actions of the woman in New Mexico and her tortilla qualify as worship? What makes for real worship? How do you know when it’s happened? How do you know when it hasn’t? How do you know when God is pleased with our worship? When can we say that God is not pleased with the way someone is worshiping? These are good questions. Some would suggest that we have no right to make these kinds of judgement calls. Different strokes for different folks - who are we to question what another thinks constitutes worship?
It’s an old dilemma or question. In fact, Jesus encountered a woman one time who had the same questions. It is found in John 4. The encounter began when Jesus was traveling through Samaria. The people of Samaria were enemies of the people of Israel. Both sides thought they were the true heirs of the covenant with Abraham and each thought only they truly worshiped God the right way. Jesus stops to get a drink from a well (not just any well, but one that Jacob had dug about two thousand years earlier.) He meets a woman there and begins a conversation with her. That alone was incredible. She had two strikes against her - being a Samaritan and a woman. But Jesus was that way . . . accepting and different than others of His day. In the midst of their conversation, it becomes apparent to the woman that Jesus is a great prophet. She seizes the moment to answer a question that has bugged her for a long time. In verse 19 she says, "‘Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.’ Her question was "Who’s got it right?" Jesus answers her saying, ‘Believe Me, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know so little about the One you worship, while we Jews know all about Him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in sprit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship Him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said, ‘I know the Messiah will come - the One who is called Christ. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus told her, ‘I am the Messiah.’"
What was Jesus saying here? What does that mean - to worship in spirit and truth? Contained in Jesus’ words are the answer to those age old questions. Let’s look a little deeper.
I. Worship in spirit.
A. What is it?
- The word "spirit" here does not have the definite article in the original language, so it does not refer to the Holy Spirit. Rather it is referring to our own inner life, emotions, will, our heart.
- To worship God in spirit is to connect with God - person to person. It is offering up ourselves to Him in praise.
- Worship in spirit is not restricted to one form or method, and yet expression is an important part of it. What we feel about God must be expressed.
- Illus: The wife who is starved for her husband’s affection. She asks, "how come you never say you love me?" He responds, "I told you when we got married that I loved you. If I change my mind I’ll let you know." It’s not very convincing to the wife is it? True love has to be expressed . . . somehow, someway.
- Psalm 51:15 says, "O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise."
- what we know to be true about God and what we feel in our hearts about Him must be expressed somehow.
- Likewise, what is expressed must be first felt. Formality without feeling is not pleasing to God.
- Matthew 7:21-23
- Like singing "Celebrate Jesus celebrate"
- Worship is spirit begins when we come face to face with who God is and what He has done. When we see Him as the great Creator and also as Savior, our spirits are filled with awe and wonder and gratitude and it leads to worship - expression of what we feel.
B. How does it take place?
1. In the heart not a building.
- vs. 21 - it isn’t about a place.
- there is no appointed place or time, but a humble spirit is required.
- unfortunately, some of the coldest and unmeaningful worship can take place in a church building. And some of the most meaningful worship can take place in the strangest of places like a prison cell in Philippi where Paul and Barnabas were being held prisoner.
- It is dangerous to think that we have to be in a church building to worship, as if picking up a songbook, saying a few prayers, listening to a sermon and taking communion automatically means we have worshiped. Those things can take place and only be a shell, an unmeaningful shell. This building is not a magical place. It might facilitate our worship, aid us in worship, but so may your closet. But it does not make what we do worshipful any more than the movie theater or the ball field or our own family rooms.
- True worship takes place anywhere: Woman in Cincinnati who had the plaque over her kitchen sink, "Worship conducted here three times daily."
2. With varying methods and preferences.
- There is no one right way to express your worship to God. No one style of music or one type of instrument or one posture of the body. The Bible is full of various forms of expression.
- some people composed and sang songs, like Miriam after God delivered the Hebrew nation across the Red Sea or Mary when she had been visited with the news of her miraculous pregnancy and it all began to sink in.
- David danced before the Lord and a lot of other people when God had made Israel victorious in bringing the Ark of The Covenant home. (2 Sam. 6:14) His wife was upset, concerned about how other people might have thought it was undignified or silly. David never gave a thought to how it looked to anyone but God. The audience was God, not the people around him.
- Wise men made a spiritual pilgrimage and made an offering of gifts at the birth of Jesus as a way of worshiping.
- When Peter and John healed a lame man in the name of Jesus, he went walking and leaping and praising God in the temple.
- Paul told Timothy that he wanted men everywhere to pray lifting holy hands (1 Tim. 2:8)
- Mary, a friend of Jesus, broke a vase of expensive perfume over His feet and washed them with her hair. (Interesting: others in the room objected to this expression of worship)
- The early church met often to take the Lord’s supper together
- The book of Revelation is full of references to those who fall down prostrate on their faces in worship.
- Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that He is God
-And we could go on and on.
You see, in each mode of expression, what was happening was something that started in the heart and led to a physical expression. The expression itself was not the key but what was in the heart. In fact, the expression often seems to be a "knee-jerk" reaction in some cases - an automatic response to the awe that strikes the heart. They couldn’t help it.
- Ilus: A true story - a woman entered a Haagen-Dazs store on the Kansas City Plaza for an ice-cream cone. After making her selection, she turned and found herself face to face with Paul Newman. He was in town filming the movie Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Newman’s blue eyes caused her knees to buckle. She managed to pay for her cone, then left the shop, heart pounding. When she gained her composure, she realized she didn’t have hr cone. She started back to the store to get it and met Newman at the door. "Are you looking for your ice-cream cone?" he asked. She nodded, unable to speak. "You put it in your purse with your change." When was the last time the presence of God quickened your pulse?
Two thoughts on this point: Everyone has their own cultural ecstasy - an expression of worship that really touches their emotions and feels natural. That’s good, and it’s ok to seek opportunities to worship in that way, whatever it is. However, like Paul in 1 Cor. 9:22, we need to seek to be mature and unselfish enough to accommodate others as they come along. Nothing will stifle good worship like a judgmental eye. This goes both ways - from the one who freely expresses their feelings and wonders about the quiet and still ones to the quiet and still ones who look with apprehension at the ones who cannot seem to contain themselves.
I think we do this pretty well. I really think we have a great bunch of seniors for instance - who I know might prefer a different style of music to suit their own preference, but like Ralph Bloss, only have words of encouragement for the hard work of our worship team.
God desires anyone who will worship Him in spirit. He also, though, desires that we worship Him in truth. What is that all about?
II. Worship in truth. (involves two things)
A. Involves accuracy
- This is what we talked about the past two weeks. Knowing what God has revealed about Himself. Not just having our own idea of what God is like or what we wish He is like, but honestly searching His word to find out who He is and what He has done.
- as Creator and Ruler
- as Redeemer, Savior
- this is where the Samaritans got it wrong. (See vs. 22). They were sincere about their worship, but they had bad information about God to base it on.
- sincerity alone is does not make for acceptable worship.
- The Jewish leaders, on the other hand, made the opposite mistake. They had all the truthful information about God (vs. 22), but they often lacked sincerity of heart.
Both are critical for worship that God desires from us. The person who makes a shrine to the Jesus of The Tortilla has missed something - the truth. But the person who knows the Bible forward and backward and can expound on the nature of God but feels nothing that moves him to express his love to God has missed something just as critical. And that lead to the second inference about worshiping in truth.
B. Involves authenticity (not hypocritical)
- Romans 12:1,2 says that we are to give God our lives as our spiritual service of worship. Worship is not only confined to a place and a time like Sunday morning church, it is a lifestyle. Worship happens here but continues as you go out that door. Worship happens when we live out what we say we believe. Worship happens when you are careful with the language you use at work or with the guys. Worship is happening when you take the time to visit a lonely person. Worship happens when you share a bit of your faith with someone. Worship happens when you decide not to watch that movie that mocks a pure lifestyle. Worship happens whenever you present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God because of who He is and what He has done.
That is why the greatest commandment is "you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and with all of your strength." It is in spirit and in truth.
Conclusion: When we really worship God as He desires, four things will happen. I’ll call them the four E’s of worship.
1. Exalting - God is glorified, adored.
2. Exemplifying - we as believers, are purified (Ps. 24:4,5)
3. Edifying - The church body is built up- only makes sense, that as individuals are drawing near to God, we are drawing near to each other and becoming a stronger church.
4. Evangelizing - When people see our genuine worship of God, in our daily lives as well as corporately, they will want to know the God and the Savior we so affectionately and carefully follow and has changed our lives.
Let’s strive to be known as people who worship God in spirit and in truth.
But worship in spirit and truth is not even possible until you know the Son of God as your Savior and Lord. The only way you can draw near to God is to first connect with Him through His Son. We looked at the truth last week that God has provided for your salvation from the penalty of your sin against Him, but He only provided one way for it - the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.
