Lesson 1
John 4:19-24
Christians, who are spiritually mature in the 21st
century, sense there is something missing in the evangelical church, especially
in America. The trumpet gives an uncertain sound. Every conceivable explanation
has been given to explain this missing link in Christendom. Some have suggested
we need less tradition and more freedom of expression. Others have said we need
more Bible teaching and less experience. Still others say we need less doctrine
and more mystical experience in Christianity. May I humbly suggest that the
missing link in modern day evangelicalism is Biblical worship, individually and
collectively.
Our evangelical churches may have sound preaching, good fellowship,
sharp organization and myriad of activities, but they seem to have lost the
ability to worship. The modern evangelical church is not cultivating the art of
worship. A proper attitude of worship will give a balance between tradition and
free forms of worship, and biblical knowledge and experience.
We must give deep thought and contemplation to the
subject of worship, and if we have lost a spirit of worship, we must search for
it until we find it. Why were we created? Did God create us to make a living,
have a good time, and raise a family? Did He create us to be religious and go
to church? Perhaps we think that God created us that we might serve Him. There
is truth in this, for Christians do serve God and will serve Him through all
eternity (Rev. 22:3). Service, however, is not the primary reason God
created a human being. The first and basic reason God created a living soul was
so that person could worship God. Service to God is always secondary to worship
of the one, true and living God. The Presbyterians, who wrote the Westminster
Shorter Catechism, were absolutely right when they said, ÒManÕs chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.Ó ÒSo whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the
glory of GodÓ(1 Cor. 10:31). ÒFor from him and through him and to
him are all things. To him be the glory forever! AmenÓ (Rom. 11:36).
When most of us think of worship, we think of a
Sunday morning worship service, but this is only a small part of worship.
Worship is first and foremost individual and personal when a regenerated human
spirit comes into contact with the living God as He is manifested in Christ
Jesus, the Lord. Worship is knowing, loving, obeying
and standing in awe of the sovereign, infinite, almighty God of the universe.
Those who are personal worshippers of God will worship Him in all of life and
gather together collectively to worship Him as an assembly of worshipers.
Collective worship is important but it is only effective
as each individual Christian has been worshipping God in his own daily
experience.
GOD IS SEEKING WORSHIPERS - John 4:19-24
ÒÔSirÕ the
woman said, ÔI can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim
that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.Õ Jesus declared, ÔBelieve me, woman, a
time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship
the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what
we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of
worshipers the Father seeks. God
is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truthÕÓ (John
4:19-24).
The clearest revelation about the true meaning of
worship in the Bible is given to us in John 4:19-24 where Christ encounters the
Samaritan woman by the well. The subject of worship only comes up at the end of
the conversation with this woman because the main topic of discussion was her
desperate need of salvation. We are told that Christ Òhad to pass through SamariaÓ
(4:4). Why? There was a sinful woman who had five husbands and was
presently living with a man who was not her husband (4:17) and she was to be
saved. Christ went through Samaria because it was a definite part of His plan
to save this woman who deserved nothing from God but damnation. This was a
unique encounter because Samaritans and Jews hated one another. Christ, the
master-evangelist, got to know this woman before He
witnessed to her. He met her where she was in life and asked her to do him a
favor; that is, to give Him a drink of water. Christ broke through all of her
prejudices and sins in order to bring her to a saving relationship with
Himself. He pointed her to Himself as the one who quenches a personÕs
spiritual thirst for reality by giving that person eternal life and the forgiveness
of sins.
It is significant that this woman was a Samaritan,
and her ancestry was part of the ten tribes of Israel who broke from the tribes
of Judah and Benjamin. Only Judah and Benjamin remained true to the revelation
of God given originally to the twelve tribes of Israel. The apostate ten tribes
set up a rival religion in Samaria to the religion of the Jews in Jerusalem.
The Samaritans had their own priesthood, sacrificial system and temple
that set on Mr. Gerizim. The woman
said that her fathers worshiped on Mt. Gerizim, and, as a typical Samaritan,
she slammed Jerusalem as the only place of worship (4:20). She, as all Jews and
Samaritans, put her emphasis upon a place
of worship, for no Jew or Samaritan could think of worship apart from a
temple. For them, God was primarily located in a place, a temple.
True worship in the Old Testament came from the
heart but it was limited because it was centered on the physical aids to
worship—a literal temple, physical animal sacrifices, and a physical
priesthood. A Jew and a Samaritan always thought of worship primarily in terms
of a place.
Christ immediately corrected her thinking and said, ÒBelieve me, woman, a time is coming when
you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in JerusalemÓ (John
4:20). Christ made it clear that since He had come, worship would take on a
new dimension. All the Old Testament physical kinds of worship were but types
or shadows of Christ. The Old Testament kind of worship would pass off the
scene and something totally new, fresh and dynamic would replace this physical
kind of worship. With the coming of Christ, the physical is replaced by the
spiritual.
The Lord Jesus went on to tell this woman that the time is coming Òwhen true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truthÓ (4:23). Real worship would not be going through outward forms, but will take on a new, dynamic, spiritual dimension that is inward. ÒSpirit and truth may mean: 1) Worship will be in freedom of the human spirit as it communes with the Father through Christ, and worship will also be bound up in truth; that is, the truth of GodÕs Holy Word and our response to it in truthfulness and honesty. Worship will spontaneously flow out from the inner recesses of a manÕs spiritual being. This real form of worship frees a person from endless ritual and legalistic practices which kill the very spirit of Christ. 2) The ÒspiritÓ may refer to the Holy Spirit in His Pentecostal power, and ÒtruthÓ refers to the truth of the gospel, with emphasis on the death, resurrection, ascension and return of Christ. This would make worship unique to the New Covenant age.
Then our Lord told the woman, ÒFor such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.Ó The
Heavenly Father is constantly seeking men and women who will worship Him in
spirit and in truth. God wants Christians to shed the externals of physical
worship and spiritually worship Him in spirit and in truth, which will result
in, power and dynamic in the life.
Finally the Lord made a statement that staggers the
human mind, ÒGod is spirit, and his
worshipers must worship in spirit and in truthÓ (John 4:24). In
essence, Christ is saying that there is no real worship of God unless it is
done in spirit and in truth. All of manÕs externals and endless rituals are
worthless if there is not worship in spirit and in truth. God is seeking these
kinds of worshippers.
God has a purpose behind every act He accomplishes.
He never acts without intelligent design. God created
man for a specific purpose. He originally created man that he might be a
worshipper of the Most High God. God had no basic external or internal need for
manÕs worship and fellowship. God could have gone on for all eternity without
man, for He is a self-sufficient God who does not need anything or anyone. Yet,
God created man, so we conclude that God wants man to worship Him. Of all the
created animals, only man has the capacity to worship the living God. While God
does not need our worship, He wants it because we are His creatures and He is
delighted when His creatures elevate, extol and exalt Him as the sovereign
God.
Have
you ever been to the place in your private devotional life in which you said,
ÒIÕm not getting a thing out of devotions. Why should
I read my Bible and pray for I am not receiving a thing!Ó O, selfish man! Did
it ever occur to you that God was enjoying your worship? That He delighted
in your fellowship, and that you were pleasing God in these acts? You were
created to worship God and God loves it when His people acknowledge their
dependence on Him and give Him praise and adoration.
We are told that God in the original creation of
Adam and Eve made man in His own image. ÒAnd
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and
female He created themÓ (Gen. 1:27). This does not mean that God has a body
like a human being, for the Bible tells us that God is spirit (John 4:23). It
is not the material aspects of man but the immaterial aspects that are made in
the image of God. God is a person and a person consists of will, mind and
emotion, or as some say, volition, intellect and sensibility. God has a
sovereign will, an infinite mind and a complete emotional make-up. When God
created man, He created him also with will, mind and emotion. Why? So that man
could rightly worship the one, true and living God. God gave man a mind so that
he could know God. He gave him a will so he could obey God, and He gave man
emotions so he could love God. Adam and Eve had a perfect worship of God. They
were learning much about God and His purposes; they were obeying His commands
and receiving great blessing, and they were loving
God, entering into deep fellowship with Him.
Because God created within people the capacity for
worship, all men worship. Every
one, everywhere worships something.
Worship is the fundamental drive of life. Atheists worship.
Infidels worship. Skeptics
worship. All people worship for
worship is the basic difference between humans and animals. Animals do not worship. Why then do all people worship? God has set eternity in manÕs heart as
the Book of Ecclesiastes tells us.
ÒHe has made everything beautiful
in its time. He has also set
eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from
the beginning to endÓ (Eccl. 3:11).
This urge from God causes men everywhere to worship. Deep within all of us is the cry for
God. If people are not worshiping
the true God, they are worshiping a god of their own imagination. Their god may be a stick or a stone, or
money, power, sex and fame, or man, nature or Satan. Man will find something to
worship because worship is a universal phenomenon.
No one knows how long Adam and Eve experienced
perfect worship, but God gave them a free will under the sovereignty of God.
Adam and Eve disobeyed GodÕs command not to eat of the forbidden fruit. They
rebelled against GodÕs sovereign command and became sinners at enmity with
God.
Adam and EveÕs natures became corrupted by sin, so
that their minds were alienated from God, their wills were in rebellion to
God and their emotions were estranged from God. The image of God in them had
become deeply marred by sin but not completely destroyed. Because of sin, our
original parents could not know God with their minds, love God with their
emotions or obey God with their wills. Their capacity to worship God aright was
lost. Perfect worship was marred by sin.
According to the Bible, this sin nature has passed
from Adam and Eve to every member of the human race. As sinners, we cannot
worship God rightly or perfectly. Yet, we know that the image of God is still
stamped upon every created human being. Every member of the human race has a corrupted
image but not a destroyed image. Because of the sin nature, every person
has a mind, a will and emotions, which operate but do so against the one, true
and living God as He is manifested in Christ and revealed in Scripture.
This explains how it is that there is a natural
instinct in all men to worship something. Man is a worshiping creature that
distinguishes him from all the other animals. He was originally created to
worship the true God but because of sin he is not able to do so even though there
is enough of the image of God remaining in him, which allows him to be aware of
his need to worship. Some people worship sticks and stones; others worship
birds and creeping things. Still others worship men. Some worship spirits and
demons. Some of GodÕs creatures have more light and they worship an imperfect
concept of God such as the Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and the
modernistic Christian liberals. All men worship something but no man can
worship the one, true and living God apart from divine revelation and divine
intervention on the part of God because man is basically sinful. No created
human being is by nature an atheist. For a man to become an atheist, he must be
educated into this belief, which is also a form of humanistic religion and worship.
All men, by GodÕs image on their souls, are worshippers but sin has invaded
their existence so they cannot worship God as they
ought.
God sent His Son Jesus Christ into this world for
the purpose of forgiving sin and granting eternal life so that a person can
come alive to God and worship God. When a person trusts Christ as personal Lord
and Savior, God begins to restore the marred image of God in man because of sin
through the renewing process of the Holy Spirit. In the born again believer,
God begins to enlighten the mind so the person can know God. God progressively
frees the will so it can obey God, and He releases the emotions of a Christian
so he can love God more. The Christian, and only the Christian, can worship the
one, true and living God as He is manifested in Christ and revealed in Holy
Scriptures. GodÕs purpose, then, for sending His Son to die for sinners was
that He might restore to us the ability to worship. As Christians, we can worship
God aright but we will never worship Him perfectly, for we are still in this
sinful body that is being progressively delivered from sin.
A.W. Tozer in his booklet, Worship: The Missing Jewel of
the Evangelical Church, said:
ÒNow, God Almighty sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world for a purpose, and what was the purpose? To hear the average evangelist nowadays youÕd think God sent Christ that we might give up tobacco; that Christ came into the world that we might escape hell; that He sent His Son into the world that when at last we get old and tired we might have some place to go. Now all of these things are true. Jesus Christ does save us from bad habits and He does redeem us from hell and He does prepare us a place in heaven but that is not the ultimate purpose of redemption. The purpose of God in sending His Son to die and rise and live and be at the right hand of God the Father was that He might restore to us the missing jewel, the jewel of worship.Ó
Christians, God has saved you and is renewing your mind so you may know God. Are you using your mind to know more about GodÕs person and works? Are you studying the Bible so you will interact with GodÕs revelation about Himself? Are you grappling with doctrine so you can know God better and live a more consistent Christian life?
ÒAll Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good workÓ (2 Tim. 3:16).
You are not truly worshiping God unless you are using your mind for His
glory.
ÒI keep asking
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your
heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he
has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his
incomparably great power for us who believeÓ (Eph. 1:17-19).
John
Stott in the book Your Mind Matters
says,
ÒAll Christian worship, public
and private, should be an intelligent response to GodÕs self-revelation in His
words and works recorded in Scripture.Ó
Martin
Luther, seeing the importance of the Bible to oneÕs life, wrote:
ÒIn truth you cannot read
the Scripture too much;
And what you read, you
cannot read too well.
And what you read well, you
cannot too well understand;
And what you understand, you
cannot too well teach;
And what you teach well, you
cannot too well live.Ó
Christians, are you obeying God with your will? God
is setting your will free that you may keep His commandments. You are not
worshipping God unless you are desirous to keep GodÕs laws and precepts as
they are revealed in Scripture. Obedience to God is basic if a Christian is to
truly worship God.
ÒI have kept
my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for
you yourself have taught me. How
sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong pathÓ (Psa. 119:101-104).
Christians, are you loving God with your emotions?
God wants you to feel for Him as well as know and obey Him. ÒJesus replied, ÔLove the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mindÕÓ (Matt.
22:37). God is renewing your sinful emotions so you might feel and
experience the one, true and living God.
Worship, then, is about knowing God in an intimate, personal and dynamic way, which involves the mind, the will and the emotions. Are you experiencing God? Do you really know Him? Is the motivation of your heart to obey and please God? God is seeking true worshippers and He is always pleased when He finds them. The true worshipper can and will say,
ÒAs the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living GodÓ (Psa. 42:1-2).