Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth

Wow, it's been a while since I have written.

Anyway, on with the topic at hand. What is worship? We have been exploring this topic the past few weeks at Bethel.

First, we looked at worship in John 4. Here Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well. He confronted her with the gospel and at the end of the conversation she asked a controversial statement about worship. You see, the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other. The Samaritans worshiped on their own mountain. They only followed the Pentateuch. She wanted to know where the right place to worship was, Jerusalem or Samaria. Jesus told her that the Jews were right in the argument but that the argument was moot since things were going to be changing fast. Jesus' death and resurrection would change all of this.



These changes would drastically alter how God is worshiped. But yet the worship God is seeking has to do with heart over ritual. He said:

Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:21b-24, ESV)

In spirit and in truth. These are the requirements for those who will worship the Father. What does this mean? First, we must worship God inwardly. He is not interested in ceremony as much as what is going on in your heart. Just showing up and church and mouthing the words to the songs while your mind drifts elsewhere is not what God is looking for, yet we seem to want to be able to just check a requirement off of a list. True worship must be inward. Worship also must be in truth. It must conform to the truth God has revealed about himself in the Bible. In order to truly worship God, we must know him. We must worship according to truth. Therefore the content of our worship must conform to the Bible. Also, to be a true worshiper, we must believe the truth ourselves. One who denies what God has said will never be able to truly worship him unless he conforms to what God has said about himself.

Finally, we can see some other points of application in this passage as well. As Jesus is interacting with the woman, we see him dealing with her in the matter of faith and repentance. She had to believe him and turn her back on her sin. We can praise God that she did so. It was at this point that she asked about worship. If we want to be true worshipers of God, we also must come to him in repentance and faith.

If you would like to see the youtube of this sermon it is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO5rzQs9_-E&feature=plcp