Worship

Today, we take another look at this conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman. In the section that we will be looking at the conversation turns to a topic that was a sticking point between the Samaritans and the Jews: worship. It's not an accident that this topic is here. Jesus didn't control where the conversation went. He didn't choose to discuss worship. He is simply responding to what the woman brings up. And conversations are like that. Who knows where they will lead to? But that's not the case with John as he writes about Jesus. John chose to include this part of the conversation in his account of what happened. And for John, there is a good reason to do this. In one way or another, this part of the conversation explains something about Jesus and the Gospel. And that's what I want you to see. The Gospel of Jesus is all about worship. So, please listen as I read the text for this morning, John 4.19-24.

Since the Samaritans accepted only the five books of Moses there were some significant differences between them and the Jews. One of those differences had to do with worship. So, one big question was, ‘Where should God's Temple be placed?’ Limited to those five books, the Samaritans determined that the place for God's temple was Mt. Gerizim. The Jews decided otherwise. They taught that it was to be Mt. Zion on which Jerusalem and its Temple were built. So, the woman takes this opportunity to discuss this difference with Jesus. In his typical manner Jesus blows the whole discussion out of the water. He tells the woman that the debate is now history. He has come to change the situation so that which mountain and what temple is completely irrelevant. 'Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.' And why is that? 'But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.' Something has changed, and it's a big change. To get at this we're going to look at four words in our text: worship, spirit, truth, seeking. I'm going to say something about each and then put it all together to answer the question: What changes? Then we’ll see what difference this makes to you.

First word: worship. The first thing you need to see is that Temple worship was not a one day in the week thing. The Sabbath was not a special day of worship. It was a day of rest. (Re-read the Ten Commandments.) In fact, the Temple was busy with worshipers all the time. So, the point here is that worship wasn't about one special day. Temple worship, those acts of sacrifice and prayer and all the rest that happened there, was simply one aspect of worship. Worship was about the whole life. Read the prayers of David in the Psalms. What's he doing there? He's worshiping. Those prayers show that worship is about what you live for, what you hope in, what you desire most, where you find refuge and comfort, what you love, what you worry about and what gives you the strength to continue on. That's what worship has always been about.  And what happened in the Temple was one way for the people to express the fact that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was all of that to them. Read the prophets who condemned the people because they tried to limit worship just to what happened in the Temple. Worship is about all of life.

This notion of worship as all of life was true before and after Jesus' ministry. So, that's not the big change that Jesus is talking about. So, let's consider our next word, spirit. 

Jesus said we must worship ‘in spirit and truth’. There is quite a bit of discussion about how to understand this word, spirit. Some say it is about the Holy Spirit. Others say that it's about the human spirit. It's altogether possible that John includes them as other layers, but let me mention how I've come to understand it. What's key here is Jesus comment, 'God is spirit'. To understand that let's consider this phrase, 'Man is flesh'. This idea comes up at different times in the OT. So, some examples. 

A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.  [Isaiah 40]

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.  He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.'  [Psalm 78]

'Flesh' is a label that describes man, at least from one perspective. It highlights certain aspects of what he is, especially his weakness, frailty and limitations. And so, to try to drive home the wonder of the Incarnation of Jesus, John wrote, 'And the Word became flesh.'

This explains what Jesus is doing when he says, 'God is spirit'. Here, 'spirit' is a label for God. Just as 'flesh' highlights certain aspects of man, 'spirit' highlights certain aspects of God. This label is associated with things like power, mystery and the lack of limitations. So, Isaiah puts these two labels together to make a contrast. 'The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.' Jesus is highlighting some aspects about God here.

However, 'God is spirit' doesn't change. And worshiping him in terms of that label has not changed. We still haven't answered our question, 'What changes?' On to the next word.

'Truth' is a very important word to John. He uses it (and related words) a lot. As you read through his Gospel you'll find that it can have several meanings. It can be used in terms of true versus false. So, in this very conversation Jesus said, '…you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.' But there is another way that John uses this word. From the first chapter: 'The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.' Or from chapter 6: 'Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven."' Clearly, this isn't 'true versus false'. So, what is this about? This is the complete versus the partial or, maybe better, the real versus the shadowy. 

Consider the manna that God provided Israel. There are many things going on with that, but here's one. The manna was a picture of Jesus. Manna was God's provision for a needy people. So is Jesus. Manna was a gift of grace. So is Jesus. Manna was necessary to live. So is Jesus. Manna was the shadow. Jesus is the concrete. Manna was the picture. Jesus is the reality. The word 'truth' in our text is about what is real as opposed to what was a mere picture or shadow.

This explains something important about the Temple in Jerusalem. That building was not the true Temple. It was incomplete, partial. It was a shadow of what the real is. And we know that because we know that Jesus is the real Temple. Isn't that what Jesus was getting at when he said, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Jesus was talking about the true Temple, the real Temple. He was talking about himself.

We have three of our four words now. Let me pull them together. The topic is worship; what a person's life is about. Jesus tells the woman that there is coming a change. In fact, it has already come. Life has always been about the worship of God, living faithfully before him every day of the week. But there is something about this worship that has changed. Worship is no longer tied to what is partial, incomplete, shadowy. Now, it is about what is real; not the picture but the reality that the picture pointed to. Things have changed, and now we are in the era of what all of the partial was pointing to. Now, we are in the era of reality. And what has made this change? Jesus has come. In his coming, and especially in the Cross, things have been changed. And the OT pictures have been exchanged for NT reality. And that's why the debate about which mountain and what temple has become irrelevant.

We still have one more word to deal with: seeking. 'But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.' The Father is seeking a certain kind of person. He wants people who will worship him 'in spirit and truth'. That is, he wants people who will worship him as the God that he is and according to the real. And how will he find such people? Does he look down on earth from high above in heaven, trying to locate such people? No. That won't work. If he had done that, he would have found no one. So, instead God devises a mission both to create (or better ‘re-create’) and then to gather people like this. And he gives this mission to his Son. That's why in John Jesus often refers to the Father as 'the one who sent me'. 'Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.' So, in John's Gospel we find Jesus on a mission. He is sent to gather people who will worship the Father in spirit and truth, people who will worship the great and awesome God according to what is real. That's what he was doing with Nicodemus and that's what he's doing with the Samaritan woman. And as you read those conversations the key to becoming such a person is clear. It's all about believing in Jesus. Jesus' approach to Nicodemus was all about the work of the Spirit, about being born again. His approach to the woman was all about his offer of life, living water. But in both he was pursuing his mission of gathering a people who would worship the Father in spirit and truth. This is what 'seeking' is about, and it is also a big change.

Creating such a people is impossible without the Cross. It is his death and resurrection that causes the great transition from the era of the partial to the era of the real. Once Jesus completed this key aspect of his mission, he ascended into heaven as Lord of all. And as such he sent the Spirit who also has a mission. He is here among us to continue Jesus' mission. The Spirit is here to create and to gather worshipers of the Father. And he does that through the Church. The era of the partial and incomplete which was limited to Israel has now become the era of the real which now has spread throughout the world. The Spirit continues to create and to gather worshipers of the Father.

So, what has changed? Now we have an answer to our question. Worship has changed. It is now rooted in the real and not in the partial and shadowy. We worship the awesome God according to reality. And seeking has changed. What was limited to Israel is now spread throughout the nations. Worship. Spirit. Truth. Seeking. 

Now to answer the 'So what?' question. What difference does this make? What I have described defines you. Because of the mission given to Jesus and continued by the Spirit you have been made into a worshiper of the Father. You worship 'in spirit and truth'. So, life for you is all about focusing on the Father according to what is real, a reality that you can see, even though so many of your friends cannot. But you have not just been re-created as a worshiper. Having been gathered into the Church you now have a role in the mission, the seeking. The Spirit uses his Church to create and to gather worshipers. He did that to you. And he will use you to do that to others. You have a mission given, ultimately, by the Father. And this is the goal of that mission. 'After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”' That's the goal of the mission.

Your life is tied up with this mission. We are not people who do this, that and whatever during the week and then show up on Sundays for the weekly worship service. Worship of the Father is not a once a week thing. It is what our lives are about. And so, we are not people with this or that vocation who try to pursue that with Christian principles in mind. We are worshipers of the Father. That is the defining quality of who we are. The vocations and the hobbies and whatever else we do, fit in with that defining quality and not the other way around. That is what Jesus came to do for us and that is what the Spirit came to do in us. And out of that comes the sense of mission because we know that there are others who also need to become worshipers of the Father. Your life is tied up with this mission.

So, how do we pursue this mission? Are we all to become missionaries to distant lands? No, that is not the key. The Spirit may call you to that, but that is not what is laid upon all of us to do. Rather, the mission is advanced as we work at being more and more consistent in our worship of the Father. Our sin is the evidence of the worship of some other god. It is a turning away from worshiping the Father in spirit and truth. It is looking to something else for hope, comfort, love, strength. When we do that the mission is compromised because the key tool that the Spirit uses, whether here or in some distant land, is the quality of our worship of the Father.

The American Dream has morphed since I first encountered it some decades ago. It used to be simply a matter of having a nice, small house in the suburbs with 2.5 kids with the husband/father having a good enough job to support that. More has been added to that these days. But it doesn't matter. Any variation on that Dream is still wrong. And here’s why. It's tied up with the worship of another god, and as such it is in competition with the worship of the Father. Life is to be about him. That's what our worship is about. Now, let me be clear. Is it wrong to have a nice house in the suburbs? No. Is it wrong to have a good job to support a family? No. It's not even wrong to have 2.5 kids. And to go further, there is nothing wrong with getting them music lessons, dance, sports or whatever. And there's nothing wrong with them going to college and whatever else. It's not the things themselves. It's the worship of the Dream. Worship is what you give yourself to. Jesus has come so that we can give ourselves to the Father. And for some that will mean a nice house in the suburbs with 2.5 kids and a good job to support the family. There is no sin in such things. But for others it will be a small apartment with a shared bathroom in some far-away country with a pittance to live on. Neither situation is better or worse as long as it comes from the worship of the Father. And it is as we obey the call of the Spirit, whether in the suburbs or in that slum, that the mission advances. We advance that mission as we work at being more consistent, more faithful (to use a church word), in our worship of the Father. Things have changed. We now live in the era of the real. And part of what that means is that the Father is seeking worshipers, those who will worship him, the awesome God, according to what is real. And he seeks such through us. 

Now, why am I saying these things to you? For one thing, this was the next section in John 4. Jesus talked about worship. So, I had to talk about worship. But there is also another reason. It's because we are all tempted to worship something other than the Father. Take 30 seconds and consider our culture. What a mess! We all hear the voices telling us how we are supposed to navigate our way. And so many of those voices are actually just one voice, Satan's. He is the god of this world. He is the one that so many worship, though they don't see through his disguises. My goal, my calling as your pastor, is to shout what Jesus has to say about how you are to navigate your way. I do that gladly because I want to help you. Living in our world is hard. Today, I've reminded you who you are. You are worshipers of the Father. You are among those who worship him, who live for him, according to what is real. Every day of the week you are bombarded with temptations to live some other way. I want to warn you about that and encourage you. Be who you really are. That is your best defense. And more than a defense, it makes you an offensive weapon in the hand of the Spirit.

So, let me repeat in this context what I've told you in other contexts. You need to listen to the Spirit. His is the only voice that is true.  Be aware of the dangers, discuss them with him during your prayers and then listen to what he tells you. As you do that, as we do that together, we will become a tool that the Spirit will use to free other people from the false worship of this world.