Worship The Lord With Truth And Spirit Series

AMC, 27.07.2025

Text: John 4:20-24

Theme: Worship in Spirit and Truth

Greetings: The Lord is good and his love endures forever.

Introduction: According to every confession, creed, and catechism coming out of the Protestant Reformation, the purpose of man, or the chief end of man, is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.  When we do this, we worship God.

Today, I would like to leave with you from this passage about the worshipped of God. The person of worship, the palace of worship, and the perspectives of worship.

Thomas Godwin: In the Old Testament, the main word for “worship” is hishtahavah, which meant to “bow down” with the sense of reverence and respect and honor.  It found 169 occurrences in the Old Testament.  In the Greek version of the Old Testament, 164 of those instances of this Hebrew word are translated by the Greek word proskuneo. 

In the Greek New Testament, this is the main word for worship, but something really interesting appears.  Proskuneo is found 29 times in the Gospels.  People would often bow down worshipfully before Jesus.  The Book of Revelation has 24 times, where the angels and elders often bow down before God. But in the letters of Paul it occurs only once, in 1 Corinthians 14:25.  It doesn’t occur at all in the letters of Peter, James, and John.  Two instances in Hebrews are Old Testament quotations, and three instances in Acts do not refer to Christian worship. 

John 4: 21: Person of worship

God of the universe, The Father, The Spirit.

Bible ref. Comments: John 4:24 makes a clear point that God, Himself, is spirit. God is not simply a more complex physical being, or a limited creature. In other words, God is not restricted to seeing, hearing, or being in a single location, like the false gods of most religions.

Jesus uses the Samaritan woman’s reference to the Samaritan fathers and draw her attention to the one all-important Father. The Samaritan fathers seem very prominent in her mind. Jesus shifts the focus Not to the real Jewish fathers but the Father who aims to be worshipped, but not in any particular place.

Jesus says that the one to be worshipped is “the Father,” he raises the question of who are his children. The answer is found. John 1:12: “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

So Jesus made her to realise that when it comes to worship, place is not an issue, but the person whether he is having born again experience, and believe on his Son.

John Piper: Jesus was the new temple — the new meeting place with God. The temple was about to pass away as the focal point of worship. And what would be in its place? A new mountain? A new city? A new building? No. A new person. The Son.

John 3:35: “The Father loves the Son”

John 5:19: “Whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise”.

John 5:22: “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son”

John 5:23: “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him”.

John 5:26: “As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”

John 14:23: “The Father [is] glorified in the Son”.

John 4: 21: Place of worship

Mountain, Jerusalem, Neither mountain nor in Jerusalem, Everywhere and everyday and every time

Samaritan women offered an argument about places of worship, Jesus didn’t take the bait. Jesus was more interested in winning her soul than in winning an argument with Her. The Samaritans also only accepted the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture, and rejected the rest.

The historical context of this passage shows that worship was often tied to a specific location, and that ideology had become deeply ingrained in the mindsets of the people. Old Testament worship was often centred and focused around a given location, e.g., on the mountain or in Jerusalem. Historically, both Jews and Samaritans recognised that God had commanded their forefathers to seek a place and choose from among all tribes to put his name there for his dwelling and to worship Him. “But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation1 there.” (Deuteronomy 12:5). However, both groups drew different conclusions.

Many commentators say that the woman was referring to Mt Gerizim (Deuteronomy 11:29, 27:12, Joshua 8:33, Judges 9:7). which was the scene of the blessing of the people as they came into the promised land. They had a tradition that Abraham’s offering of Isaac took place on this mountain and they held that it was here that Abraham met Melchizedek. The Jacob well was at the foot of Mt Gerizim.