Being a True Worshipper
John 4:20-26
FCF: We are all created with a propensity to worship.
Proposition: Because acceptable worship is through Christ, we must worship Him in spirit and truth.
Scripture Introduction:
We were created to worship God, yet we often spend more time each week in worship to false gods, such as money, television or sports than we do in worship to the true God, Jesus Christ. We see in John 4:20-26, Christ conversing with a pagan Samaritan woman in which He identifies what His requirements are for acceptable worship. Please turn to John 4:20-26.
Introduction:
It seems strange for us to think of idolatry as being something in the modern world but consider this:
• There are actually people who worship crawling creatures: in a museum in Egypt there is a monument to the scarab beetle.
• The Philistines actually worshiped flies. Hindus today won’t swat a fly lest it be an ancestor of theirs paying for his wrongs.
• Today you find that there are 330 million gods of the Hindus, 8 gods for every person.
• In China a Buddhist statue actual fell on a man and the family sued the Buddhas in the temple. The statue was found guilty and it and 14 other statues were actually beheaded.
• In America someone has said that the god of the last half of the 20th century is MATERIALISM. I can’t think of another generation that has spent more of their resources and time to accumulate more stuff than we do today. It is the reason many people go to school or choose the kind of work they do; to get bigger and better and nicer.
• False worship is plenteous and IDOLATRY is rampant in our world.
Since our innate nature is to worship; we spend all of our lives in worship. Every moment of everyday we are worshipping. The question is what or whom are we worshipping? The problem arises when we fall prey to offering worship either to ourselves or to some other god or we offer unacceptable worship to the one true God. We must take heed to John 4:20-26
and make sure we are worshipping God with a worship that is acceptable to Him. Because acceptable worship is through Christ, we must worship Him in spirit and truth.
I. Put your faith in Christ. v. 20-22
A. Sinners worship in darkness. v. 20-21
1. People are concerned about the act of worship.
2. God is concerned about the object of worship.
Explanation:
v. 20 -- We are all born in spiritual darkness. Thus, we do not know how to offer acceptable worship to God and we are humanly unable to offer acceptable worship to God. But, we are born with an innate need to worship. As a result we worship false gods. In this passage Christ answers the Samaritan woman’s question and pours light into her mind on the spirituality of all true worship, as of its glorious Object, and so brings her insensibly to the point at which He could disclose to her wondering mind who she was speaking to.
She ingeniously shifts the subject from a personal to a public question. It is not, "Alas,
what a wicked life am I leading!" but "Lo, what a wonderful prophet I got into conversation with!” Worship is no longer going to be through the old covenant. A new covenant of salvation through Christ is about to take place.
Ought to worship – better, must worship. She puts it as a divine obligation. Worship is in the “present infinitive” which refers to continuous or repeated action. We don’t just worship God on Sundays or when we read the Bible. We worship seven days a week 24 hours a day.
v. 21 – Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me -- “believe” means “to have faith”. It is in the “aorist imperative” and thus means a command for doing something in the future that is a simple action. Jesus is saying “trust in me” as your Savior! Believe me! Have faith in me; not your ritualistic worship.
B. Christians worship in the Light. v. 22
1. Worship involves knowing the truth.
2. Worship requires salvation through Christ.
Explanation:
v. 22 -- There is a sharp contrast here between the “ye” and “we”. It seems to imply a
significant difference between the two positions of worship (true and false) offered in this verse.
Ye know not what – literally, what ye know not., rightly, that which ye know not Compare Act 17:23. Christ suggested that the Samaritans were ignorant, not only of the true object of worship, but knew not what they themselves worshipped: or, at least, were not agreed in it. Know what we worship -- literally, and as Rev., we worship that which we know. The neuter that which is used of the true as of the unreal object of worship.
for salvation is of the Jews. -- Salvation -- “the salvation” seems here to mean the Savior, the Messiah, as it does in Luk_2:30; Act_4:12 : and so the woman appears to have understood it, Joh_4:25. Is of the Jews Rev., rightly, from the Jews; not therefore belongs to, but proceeds from. This passage illustrates John’s habit of confirming the divine authority of the Old Testament revelation, and of showing its fulfillment in Christ. It was to the Jews that the promises were made; and it was in their prophetic Scriptures, which the Samaritans rejected,
that Jesus Christ was proclaimed and described. See Isa_11:3.
They were not obeying the true God, nor offering the worship which he had commanded or would approve. They were ignorant of Scripture by choice. Sound familiar?
Illustration: The Matrix
In the 1999 film, The Matrix, we are taken to the year 2199. The world has been taken over by computers and is being run by AI: artificial intelligence. The computers need the energy that comes from human bodies, so they keep a supply of genetically engineered humans in a permanently anaesthetized state. These harvested humans live in this computer generated dream world of artificial reality and never understand that they are captives of an evil empire.
They live in a comatose state in this new world which is called, The Matrix. The humans think themselves free and conscious, going to work, living normal everyday lives. The Matrix world has literally blinded everyone’s eyes to the truth and enslaves them in a world of bondage.
The humans see no need to change. They are also unable to change the way things are because of their comatose state. There are a few people who have escaped the Matrix and are connected to reality. What
they see is that there are two worlds. The Matrix world is an evil world that is fueled by deception and control. The computers are controlling humans in this false world, yet the Matrix appears very real. The other world is the actual real world. It offers a world of freedom and choices.
In the movie, Morpheus, who is free from the computers control tries to explain the Matrix to Neo and says: “Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?” Morpheus goes on to offer Neo a chance to understand or see the truth. He holds out two pills, a red pill and a blue pill. The blue pill is a pleasant analgesic which will blur over the pain his honest enquiry is creating. If he swallows the blue pill, he’ll be comfortably back in the Matrix. The other option is to take the red pill which will open his eyes to understand real freedom, to carve out a place in the alternate reality.
In the same way the vast majority of our society is living in a world of deception today.
They, the unsaved people of the world, are spiritually dead and unable to awake from their dream. They are ignorant of the very real spiritual world and only understand or know what they see because they are being controlled by an evil empire lead by Satan himself. They are trapped in carnality and have never known anything different.
Application:
At the heart of the Gospel is the idea that we are all caught in the Matrix, in a false view of reality. We fail to see the world as it truly is; we fail to see it as God sees it. The world is in a
permanently anaesthetized state. Jesus Christ provides our remedy! He seeks out the lost with a
desire to rescue the perishing and open their eyes to reality. If you are willing, He wants to give you a red pill and open your eyes to the truth; the truth of the Gospel. All the while Satan continues to offer each of you a blue pill to keep you in a comatose state, living a life of vanity.
John 8:32: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Have you been rescued from the darkness? Is Christ your Light today? Have you personally chosen to come to Christ for salvation? Have you repented of your sin? Or, are you still living in a comatose state, in darkness, living out your life separated from Jesus Christ; separated from the truth? Receive Him today as your personal Lord and Savior! Leave the
world of darkness, the Matrix and become a true worshipper.
Many Christians have taken the red pill; you have come to Christ for salvation but you have been slipped a blue pill by Satan or by your old flesh. It is time to awake out of your slumber. It is time to respond to the word of God. We must refuse to be duped by the fantasy world, the world of pleasure and darkness We are commanded to worship Christ! We are to worship Him daily in the light of His word. Christian live in the Light; and offer God acceptable
worship. Take a red pill each day in the word of God. Allow the Holy Spirit to keep your eyes open to reality. Keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ! Offer each day of your life as a living sacrifice, as acceptable worship to Christ.
Dad, when you go to work tomorrow make every decision based on the principles of the word of God. Be an example to your co-workers; be a witness to them. At lunch testify of God’s goodness; let people know how God is working in your life. Mom, when you interact with your husband, children or neighbors base your behavior and decisions on the word of God.
When you are mistreated while driving on the road or when your neighbor cuts his grass and blows his weeds on your yard, respond correctly by following the principles of the word of God. There are no decisions we should make in our own wisdom. We must continually seek the truth and live according to it. Read your Bible everyday. Commit yourself today to worship in the Light, the light of Jesus Christ. No other worship is acceptable to God.
Transition:
Not only must you put your faith in Christ but you must now keep your worship on Christ.
II. Keep your worship on Christ. v. 23-26
A. True worshippers worship in spirit. 23-24
1. God desire is for spiritual worship.
2. God’s design is for man to worship with his spirit.
Explanation:
v. 23 -- But the hour cometh, and now is, is a reference to a crisis, to something new. The time is at hand, says the Lord, when a worship of forms, or at holy places, will not meet the demands of the Father.
Worship the Father in spirit and in truth: Jesus and the Father are one. “The Father and I are one” John 10:30 Through Christ we come to the Father and spiritually commune with Him. No man can come in any other way (Joh_14:6). The Father seeketh
such to worship him. Worship is in the present participle form expressing continuous or repeated action.
v. 24 -- God is a Spirit. Rather, "God is Spirit." His essential nature is spirit. This
declaration is fundamental. Since he is Spirit, He must receive spiritual worship. God is present in His own realm, to which man as such has no access. God’s essential relationship is worshiped in spirit. To worship God in spirit is not a possibility that is always and everywhere open to man. But it is through the gospel of Christ that this possibility has been opened to men. Spiritual worship or worship in spirit, is distinguished from place or form or other sensual limitations (Joh_4:21). True worship includes a spiritual sense of the object worshipped and a spiritual communion with that object. Communion with God requires a life that is lived separated from sin. God accepts worship that is offered in holiness.
Must (dei). Here is the real necessity (dei), not the one used by the woman about the right place of worship (Joh_4:20).
In spirit -- Spirit is the highest, deepest, noblest part of our humanity, the point of contact between God and man (Rom_1:9); G4151, which is the rational and immortal soul.
These Greek terms of spirit exactly correspond respectively to the Hebrew [H5315], [H7307] and
[H2416]: - heart (+ -ily), life, mind, soul, + us, + you. The phrase in spirit and in truth describes
the two essential characteristics of true worship. True worship includes the manifestation of the moral consciousness in feelings, motions of the will, “moods of elevation, excitements,” etc.
B. True worshippers worship in truth. 25-26
1. Christ is the true Messiah.
2. Christ’s word is absolute truth.
Explanation:
And in truth, as distinguished from the false conceptions resulting from imperfect knowledge (Joh_4:22). It includes also a truthful conception of the object. In Jesus, the Father is seen (Joh_14:9) and known (Luk_10:22). Thus the truthful conception is gained. He is the Truth (Joh_14:6). To worship in truth is not merely to worship in sincerity, but with a worship corresponding to the nature of its object.
“Truth” -- it is the truth about the death and resurrection of Jesus, to which witness is borne in 16:7 and 17:19. Knowing the truth is to enter into a liberating experience of being a disciple of the Lord; the knowledge of God through Jesus. Truth is a quality of action, not simply an abstract concept. Truth is not the teaching about God transmitted by Jesus but is God’s very reality revealing itself – occurring! – in Jesus. Jesus is the revelatory Word of God.
He reveals truth. Truth is the ultimate reality of God’s own person and character, as witnessed by Jesus, the Father Himself, the Spirit, Scripture, and others. See Ephesians 4:21. Truth starts from the essential nature of God. It finds its expression in the gospel whereby God saves men.
It outflows from lives founded on truth and showing forth truth. John pictures the Father as seeking worshippers, a doctrine running all through the Gospel Joh_3:16; Joh_6:44; Joh_15:16; 1Jo_4:10).
When he is come -- “Whenever that one comes.” Wistfully she turns to this dim hope as a bare possibility about this strange “prophet.” He will declare unto us all things -- to announce fully.
Illustration:
Arthur Pink wrote about how some people do not worship:
• They bring their bodies to the house of prayer but not their souls. They worship with their
mouths but not in spirit and in truth.
• They boast of their orthodoxy but disregard the precepts of Christ.
• Multitudes of professing Christians abstain from external acts of violence, yet hesitate not to rob their neighbors of a good name by spreading evil reports against them.
• They contribute regularly to the church but shrink not from misrepresenting their goods and cheating their customers persuading themselves that business is business.
• They have more regard for the laws of man than those of God for His fear is not before their eyes.
We learn from these people that it is much easier to identify ourselves as a true worshipper than it is to actually be a true worshipper and then demonstrate a life of true worship.
Application:
A true worshipper will not only worship the correct God, Jesus Christ, but he will also worship Him in the correct way (acceptable worship). There are scores of people who attend
church on a given Sunday with the purpose and in an effort to worship God; but in reality they are not offering worship that is acceptable to God. They are in a sense wasting their time. True worship must be directed towards the correct object, Christ and done in the correct manner, the way which He has prescribed in the Scriptures. We must worship Christ in spirit and truth.
Since spiritual worship requires a life separated from sin, we must confess our sins on a
regular basis, so that, we can offer God acceptable worship. We must worship with our spirit which represents our whole being. We must worship in truth; founded in the true Messiah and according to His truth (Scripture).
Our behavior will reflect and represent our worship. Thus, we cannot argue with our spouse on the way to church and then walk into the church building and offer acceptable worship to God. Husbands when you go home this afternoon and sit down to watch the football game and your wife asks you to help her fix the dinner by setting the table you must respond
with a willing humble heart if you want God to accept your service as acceptable worship. Don’t respond with a grumpy attitude because it will reduce your service to vain worship.
Wives, when your husband asks you to iron his shirt for work, you must respond in a God honoring way
so that your service, or worship is acceptable to God. Children, when your parents ask you to clean your room this week, you must respond in willful obedience if you want your service to be acceptable worship to God. Determine today by God’s grace to offer acceptable worship to God everyday.
Conclusion:
We have seen today the importance of making sure the worship we offer to God is a worship that He will accept as pleasing to Him. We must be sure we are rightly related to God through salvation in Christ and that we worship the Father/Christ in spirit and truth.
There was an elderly woman who was a true saint of God in her long life of devotion. She knew much of the Bible by heart and would repeat long passages from memory. But as the years went by, the strength went and with it the memory gradually went too. Finally, there came the time when she was able only to quote one passage: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able, to keep that which I have committed, unto him against that day." But by and by that also seemed to slip. So there came a time when all she could say was "...that
which I have committed to him..." But toward the last, as she hovered between this world and the next, her memory failed even more. Her loved ones would see her lips moving and, thinking that she might need something, they would bend down and listen for her request. Time and again they found her repeating only one word from this song over and over and over. It was the same word: "HIM! HIM! HIM!" She had lost the whole song -- she had lost the entire Bible – with the single exception of this one word. And what a word it is! She had capsulated her entire life in this one word! Life is "HIM," Jesus Christ. Worship is giving—giving everything to Him.
Worship is about Christ! It is found in Him at the moment of our salvation and it must be kept on Him each moment of every day. When you find yourself out of fellowship with God,a drift, worshiping some false god like yourself and your own way immediately repent of your sin and ask God for his grace to help you worship Him. Life is short and only what is done in acceptable worship to Christ will last. Don’t allow days, weeks or even years of your life to be
wasted. Keep your heart confessed up, keep your mind on Christ, and keep your worship (your life) from being wood, hay and stubble. Because true worship is through Christ, we must worship Him in spirit and truth.
ILLUSTRATIONS ARE NOT ORIGINAL WITH THE AUTHOR OF THIS SERMON.
