“THIS IS TRUE WORSHIP”
JOHN 4:3-26

I. Introduction
Open your Bibles to the maps in the back and locate the one labeled “Israel in Jesus’ Day,” or “The Ministry of Jesus.” One of the more well-known incidents in Jesus’ early ministry is the one that took place while He was traveling from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north. As you can readily see, the shortest and most direct route would take the traveler right through the heart of Samaria.

But Jews, whether traveling north to Galilee or south to Judea, would scrupulously avoid Samaria. Rather than setting foot on Samarian soil, they would cross the Jordan River, travel through Decapolis (modern Jordan), and then cross back over the river once they had completely bypassed Samarian territory.

Why would Jews go to all that trouble? Because, as John 4:9 tells us, “Jews have no deal-ings with Samaritans.” Why was that? The answer can be found in the OT when Jews who had not been taken in the Babylonian captivity began to intermarry with Gentiles who came into the land. As a result of those illicit unions, both Judaism and the pagan religions of the Gentiles were mixed together. It was the descendants of these relationships who became known as Samaritans.

In 538 B.C., when Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their tem-ple, the returning captives refused to allow the Samaritans to have any part in building or worshipping in the new temple in Jerusalem. So the Samaritans built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim, which the Jews promptly destroyed. It isn’t hard to see that by Jesus’ day the animosity and outright hatred between Jews and Samaritans ran deep. And so, “Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.” They wouldn’t even “soil themselves” by traveling through Samaritan territory.

In fact, the Jewish leaders’ utter contempt for Samaritans was so ingrained in them that when they accused Jesus of being possessed by a demon, they also said He was a Samaritan.
John 8:48
48 The Jews answered and said to (Jesus), “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

Also, after Jesus’ death, when the good news of the gospel began to spread, Samaritans were among the first Christians.
Acts 9:31
31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and, going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
Some of those Samaritan Christians remain to this day. There are about 200 of them who still live in the village of Shechem at the foot of Mt. Gerizim. According to Easton’s Bible Dictionary, they are the smallest and oldest Christian sect in the world. (turn to John 4)
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II. Text
Considering the tension and animosity that existed between the two peoples, it’s easy to see why the Samaritan woman was so surprised when Jesus, a Jew, met her at the well and initi-ated a conversation with her. Let’s begin at John 4:6 and lay the groundwork for what we will focus on this morning – the three truths that relate to true worship in vv. 21-24.

In John 4:6 we’re told it is noon. Jesus is weary and thirsty because He has probably been walking since early morning. In v. 7 He asks the woman who has come to the well if she will dip some water for Him to drink. In v. 9 she expresses her shock that He, a Jew, would even talk to her. After all, everyone knew that, “…Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”
Remember, according to the Jewish mindset of the day, these people were the scum of the earth. They wanted nothing to do with them.

Please bear with me for a moment here. This is where I go “from preachin’ to meddlin’.” I have a hard question for you. Actually, the question itself isn’t hard. It’s the answer – the honest answer – that may be hard for you. I can say that because it is hard for me. So here goes: Is there any group of people, any nationality, any skin color, any ethnicity, any crim-inal, any sexual orientation, or any individual human being, whom you, in your heart of hearts, see as being beneath contempt, or unworthy of your care and concern? Is there?

Or, to put it another way, is there anyone whose soul and eternal destiny means so little to you that you think to yourself, “Well, if God saves them and they go to heaven, I’ll just have to learn to live with them, but if He doesn’t and they go to hell, that’s all right too”?

Does it shame you to look deeply into your own hearts and see any of that down there? It should! It shames me when I look into mine and see such attitudes. Oh sure, we’re very good at hiding it and we don’t like to think about it, but such thoughts lurk down there in the dark corners and recesses of our hearts, don’t they? But Jesus shines a light into those corners and into those recesses, and he exposes them, doesn’t He?

This is one of the reasons we often say that the more clearly you see Christ for who He really is, the more clearly you will see yourself for who you really are. Whereas you and I often rank the value of souls based on what our fallen nature sees as their worthiness for salvation, the fact is that Jesus does not do that. This truth was established in the OT and re-affirmed in the NT.
Deuteronomy 10:17
17 “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality…”
When the Roman centurion Cornelius, a Gentile, came to saving faith, the Apostle Peter finally grasped this critical truth, and he said…
Acts 10:34-35
34 And opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality,
35 but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right, is welcome to Him.” (back to John 4 and the woman at the well)

So we find the Lord Jesus, the One who does not show partiality, speaking with this Samari-tan woman. And in John 4:10 He tells her that if she knew who He really was she would be asking Him for a drink and He would be giving her “living water.” She goes on to ask Him just where He would get this “living water” because He doesn’t have anything with which to draw water from the well. It’s clear that she’s unaware of the fact that Jesus isn’t talking about the water down in the well.
*John 4:13-14
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this (well) water shall thirst again;
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw.”

It’s obvious to us that Jesus is speaking of supernatural and eternal things, but the woman is focused solely on natural and temporal things. She is still lost in her spiritual darkness. So the Lord changes the subject. In v. 16 He tells the woman to go and get her husband. In v. 17 she says she doesn’t have a husband, and Jesus tells her that He knows she doesn’t have a husband. In v. 18 He tells her He knows she’s had five husbands and is currently living with a sixth guy who isn’t her husband at all. (That sounds just like today, doesn’t it? Who says the Bible isn’t up to date?)

While Jesus’ offer of living water seems to “go over her head,” his statement in v. 18 gets through to her. It gets her attention. But even more than just getting her attention, it exposes the first and greatest obstacle to the true worship of the true God. What is it? It’s sin! And now, whether she likes it or not, she is forced to face the reality of her sin. So she does two things. First, she tries to compliment Jesus. “I need to get out of this conversation. I know. If I say something nice about Him, He’ll be distracted and leave me alone.”
*John 4:19
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

Second, she goes for the controversial religious issue. In this case it’s about where God should be worshipped. Is it Mt. Gerizim in Samaria or is it the Temple in Jerusalem?
*John 4:20
20 “Our fathers (the first Samaritans) worshipped in this mountain (Gerizim) and you people (you “pure-bred” and arrogant Jews) say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

This is similar to those who say things to you like, “There are so many different religions. How can anyone know which one is true or right?” Or, “There are so many roads to hea-ven. How can you judge someone who may be taking a different path?” Or then there’s one of my all-time favorites… “You have your religion and I have mine.”

But, of course, the Lord Jesus is neither distracted nor dissuaded by the Samaritan woman’s attempts at deflection. And so, He zeroes in on the issue of worship. And why not – didn’t she bring it up? Thus He will speak to the where, the what, and the how of true worship.
We’ll begin by looking at the “where” of worship.
*John 4:21
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain (Gerizim), nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father.”

Just how important is the location of our worship? The reality is that there are a great many professing Christians who won’t come to Lighthouse because this building and this room don’t look like a church. They say things like, “Where are your steeples, your altars, your stained glass windows, or your pews? Where are your liturgies, your rituals, or your reli-gious trappings and traditions? Besides, your pastor wasn’t even ordained by a mainline denomination. You have no authority as a real church, etc., etc.”

But are those the things that make a church? The sad fact is that far too many people think so. They think that saying the right things at the right times, praying the right prayers and re-peating the right phrases are all part of a religious duty that makes one a Christian. But, of course, all of that is nothing more than forms of religion. None of it, by itself, has anything to do with saved souls and hearts that are humble and repentant before God.

If you need a certain time, or place, or ritual, or if you need to get into a particular mood, or gin up certain emotions, or hear a certain kind of music, or any other external stimulus in order for you to worship God, then you have a serious problem. While music and liturgies may assist a worshipping heart, they cannot, by themselves, transform a non-worshipping heart into a worshipping one.

Man-made worship, false worship that simply goes through the motions, is repugnant to a holy God. It means nothing to Him. Lest you think I am overstating the case, consider Psalm 51 where David pours out his heart in repentance for his sin.
Psalm 51:17
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
What God says to the nation of Israel about their worship is staggering, but it is also quite instructive for those in today’s church who think they can offer up spiritless, heartless, and false worship and get away with it.
*Isaiah 1:11-15
11 “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed cattle. And I take no plea-sure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.
12 “When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts?
13 “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, (your) incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies – I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
14 “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, they have become a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them.
15 “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you, yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

Could the Lord make it any clearer? Doing all the rights things with a wrong heart is worth-less. Every Sunday, when we come together to worship God, our hearts need to be like David’s – broken before God, contrite, and humble. And this is never more true than when we come together to share in the Lord’s Supper.

And we can be anywhere to worship God. We don’t need to be in a church building. We can be in our homes. We can be in a hospital room. I tell you that God was worshipped in spirit and in truth in my mother’s room during the last hours of her life of this earth. That room was filled with the Holy Spirit because it was filled with God’s people. That is no vain statement, not at all.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
20 For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

Do you need to be standing in a building with a steeple, in front of an altar, surrounded by stained glass, saying prayers written by someone else, and reciting a liturgy from a hymnal or other religious literature? No!

Worshipping God on Mt. Gerizim or the Temple in Jerusalem was never the issue. Wor-shipping God in a cathedral, a closet in your house, a jail cell, or a public school building isn’t the issue either. The issue is, always was, and always will be the condition of the wor-shipper’s heart, not his surroundings. And that leads to Jesus’ second point in His conver-sation with the woman at the well. We’ve looked at the “where” of worship. (back to John 4)
Now we’ll look at the “what” of worship.
*John 4:22 (Jesus speaking)
22 “You (Samaritans) worship that which you do not know; we (Jews) worship that which we (do) know, for salvation is from the Jews.”

Initially this may seem like a strange comment by Jesus, but it makes sense when you realize that the Samaritans only used the Pentateuch, the first five books of the OT. They rejected the other thirty-four. Therefore, the Samaritans worship was inaccurate and incomplete. By ignoring the Psalms, and all the prophets, they understood little or nothing of the coming Messiah. As a result, their worship was woefully inadequate. The bottom line was that they worshipped God in ignorance. They were sincere, but they were sincerely wrong.

Think about how that applies to the church today. Very little of the Christian church still believe the entire Word of God. This is even true of many evangelicals who believe in Jesus’ miracles and are willing to defend them, but don’t believe the first eleven chapters of Genesis or much of the prophecy that is laid out in Revelation.

How many professing Christians do you know who only believe certain parts of Scripture while thinking other parts are pure fiction or filled with errors. Isn’t it likely that such a view of Scripture could lead to inadequate and false worship? I’m just asking. Are those who reject various parts of God’s Word assuming that they know more than the Holy Spirit who guided the men who wrote the Word in the first place? Again, I’m just asking.

Furthermore, if some of Scripture, especially the “bookends,” Genesis and Revelation, are not true or are filled with error, then how could anyone believe Paul when he wrote this?
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

If books like Genesis and Revelation cannot be trusted, why would anyone feel compelled to trust the other sixty-four? And if they are wrong or filled with errors, what does it say about Paul? Doesn’t that say his writings are also in question? What about Peter who said this?
2 Peter 1:20-21
20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,
21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

If this statement is true then Genesis and Revelation were “spoke from God” too, weren’t they? If Peter’s statement is wrong or in error, then why would you trust anything he said?
You just can’t have it both ways.
Either all Scripture is what Paul and Peter say it is, inspired by God (“God-breathed”), spoken by the Holy Spirit, and absolutely trustworthy, or none of it is. Yet countless people who call themselves Christians regularly reject parts of the Bible they do not understand or do not find appealing. And in the process, they worship in ignorance. They neither know nor believe that their worship is in vain. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus addressed this very thing.
Matthew 15:8-9
8 “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.
9 “But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”

Look again at Luke 4:22. When Jesus says, “You (Samaritans) worship that which you do not know,” He is saying that by their rejection of most of the OT they worship God in their own way. They have little knowledge of God’s truth so they worship Him in ignorance. When He says, “We (the Jews) worship that which we know,” he is saying that the Jews, by accepting the entire OT as truth, at least had the right knowledge.

So both Samaritans and Jews worshipped God. The former did so with the right spirit. But where was the truth? The latter did so with the right knowledge and held to the letter of the law. But where was the spirit? Thus neither group, Samaritans nor Jews, worshipped God as He commands us to worship Him – in spirit and in truth. We’ve looked at the “where” of worship and “what” of worship. Now we’ll look at the “how” of worship.
*John 4:23-24
23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His wor-shippers.
24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

There is an order to how God is to be worshipped. When we go before God in prayer or in worship, the Scriptures teach that we are go to God the Father, through God the Son, by God the Holy Spirit. We neither pray to nor worship the saints, the apostles, the prophets, nor anyone else. We worship the God of the Bible.

The God of the Bible gives us access to Himself through the merits of His Son. He enables us to go to Him by the power of His Spirit. “To God – Through the Son – By the Spirit!” That’s what God has ordained. That’s His plan. If you try to go around that, or if you think you have a better plan, or if you just want to do it your own way, then you are not in God’s will. And if you are not in God’s will, then your worship is not in spirit and in truth, is it?

What is worshipping in spirit? The Bible describes true worship in terms of attitudes and actions. Think of attitude as including reverence, awe, and the fear of God. Think of actions as service, praise, and giving God the glory He deserves. If you need some examples of such worship, the Psalms are filled with expressions of God-pleasing and God-honoring worship. Here are just a few examples:
• “O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is Your name in all the earth (8:1).”
• “The heavens are telling of the glory of God… (19:1).”
• “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear (27:1)?”
• “Many, O LORD my God are the wonders which You have done… (40:5).”
• “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised… (48:1).”
• “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name (103:1).”

That barely scratches the surface of the worship that flows out of the Psalms. Do you get the idea? Real worship comes from a humble and contrite heart. That’s worship in spirit.

What is worshipping in truth? Let me try to answer that question with another question. Is your worship consistent with what God has revealed about Himself, His Son, and His truth in Scripture? In other words, do you worship based on what you know to be true, or is your worship based on something else? So can you worship God in spirit and in truth?
*Psalm 24:3-5
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, has not sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Listen, that which is taught from this pulpit (as well as every other pulpit) should enhance and increase your knowledge and understanding of who God is, what He has done, what He will do, and what He requires of you. Only then will you learn to worship God as He wants to be worshipped – in spirit and in truth. This is why our focus is preaching and teaching the Word of God, and it is why, by His grace, it will continue to be so. (back to John 4)
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III. Conclusion
In John 4:25 the Samaritan woman, hearing Jesus’ words, and knowing that the Messiah will one day come and “sort it all out,” expresses a basic yet still incomplete belief in God.
*John 4:26
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Those of us who are here this morning know who Jesus is and we are here to worship in spirit and in truth. One of the richest, deepest, and most reverent ways we can do this is by obeying His command to share this meal together until He comes for us.

We will take a few minutes to prepare our hearts. Confess your sins to God, praise Him, thank Him, tell Him how much you love Him, and then come to the table in great joy. You will be worshipping in spirit and in truth.