The Spiritual Discipline Of Worship

John 4:1-26 (NIV)

1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

The Scriptures teach that God actively seeks a relationship with humanity. In Genesis, the LORD walked in the garden with the first humans (Gen 3:8). When Jesus was lifted up on the cross He drew all humanity to Himself (John 12:32). The overarching story of the Bible is one in which God actively initiates, restores, and maintains fellowship with us. In the parable of the "Prodigal Son," Jesus paints a picture with words of a Father who seeks out both the foolish and the religious and invites them into the closest relationship with Himself and the rest of the family. When He saw the younger son heading home, He ran to meet him. When the older son refused to come inside, He went out to him and invited him in.

Worship is our response to God's invitation into a relationship. Worship is more than a prescribed form. Our songs, hymns, bodily postures, set days, and meetings in facilities and locations are all ways that we respond in worship, but true worship is more than the sum of all of these. Worship is something that God initiates by grace and we respond to by faith. Worship is about liberty, not bondage. Jesus said that new wine must be put into new wineskins. The first-century Christians initially worshipped in the temple, and some even continued offering sacrifices. But, it did take long until the Spirit broke the mold. This is why over time various genres of music or worship styles have been used by Christians in their corporate worship services. Contrary to what one generation might think worship cannot be confined to Southern Gospel or a particular order of services.