WHAT IS WORSHIP?

JOHN 4:19-26

          The woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her. “Woman believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in 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 from the Jews. But an hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

          The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak, to you, I am He” (NASB).

INTRODUCTION

          An elderly lady was stone-deaf. She was always present at the worship services of her church unless she was ill. “Do give me the secret of your loyalty to the Lord’s house,” her pastor said to her one day. She answered, “Even though I can’t hear one word you say, I love God’s house and the fellowship of God’s children. When in His house, I feel that the Savior is meeting with us. It is not enough for me to worship God alone at home. It is my duty and privilege to worship Him publicly in the church service.”

          Today I would like us to examine the question, “What Is Worship?”

          In recent years the word “worship” has become a household word. Worship has won a prominent place in Christian discussions. Seminars and workshops on worship are conducted in the United States and other parts of the world. Theological Seminaries have designed curriculum for theology and music schools. When I attended Seminary, it was required of me to take a course in worship before graduation.

          The English word “worship” came from the old English “worthship.” The term “worship” is used for “worthiness, dignity, or merit, the recognition accorded or due to these, the paying of homage or respect.” In religious circles the term is used for the reverential devotion, service, or honor given to God, whether corporate or individual.

          The term “worship,” appears many times in both the Old and New Testaments. The main Old Testament term for “worship” is shachah, which means to “bow down” or to “prostrate” oneself. The Old Testament term carries an idea of the reverential attitude of mind or body or both, combined with the notions of religious adoration, obedience, and service. The Greek word which is often used in the New Testament for worship is proskuneo, which literally means to “kiss the hand towards one” or to prostrate oneself before another in token of reverence. This is the word that Jesus used in His dialogue with the woman of Sychar, when He said, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Providentially, this is the text for our message today. Therefore, let’s go into the biblical text and see what the Lord has to teach us.

I.                  THE WHERE OF WORSHIP VV. 19-20

          For everyone who has been a part of Sunday school since childhood has heard something about Jesus and the woman at the well or Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4. That passage is the favorite of many evangelists and pastors including me. In that passage we see the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in the region of Samaria. Before we get to verse 19, we find out that Jesus has shared some profound truth and insight with the woman that has baffled her. In verse 19, what Jesus has said has impressed on the woman the realization that the person who is speaking to her is no ordinary man. The woman gives expression to this conviction by calling Him a “prophet.” The function of a prophet in the Scriptures was usually to tell forth a message he had from God. However, there is evidence that among the people of this time a prophet was sometimes held to have a special insight into people (Luke 7:39). It is possible that this Samaritan woman was gradually groping toward the recognition that Jesus was the Christ.

          The Samaritans were a half-breed Jews. They came into existence when the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem, burned the city, and razed the temple. When the Jewish people returned from captivity in Babylon, the Samaritans had mingled with the remnant of the Jewish people who were left in Israel. You can gain an understanding of the prolonged animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans when you read Ezra and Nehemiah.

          The Samaritans like some of the cults today, accepted only the first five books of the Bible, which are sometimes called the Torah or Pentateuch. They jettisoned the remaining of the Jewish Scripture, which today we call the Old Testament. It goes without saying that the Samaritans acknowledged no prophet after Moses other than the one spoken of in Deuteronomy 18:15-18, and him they regarded as the Messiah. Therefore, for her to speak of Jesus as a prophet was to move into the area of messianic speculation.

          The recognition or the admission of the plausibility that Jesus is a prophet causes her to move to a bone of contention between the Samaritans and the Jews. The bone of contention has to do with the place of worship. This is the reason we teach Christians who are trying to share Christ with people of other faiths to refrain from controversial religious issues and stay with the presentation of the gospel. The Samaritans on one hand, held Mount Gerazim to be their sacred place of the worship of God. But the Jews on the other hand, insisted that Jerusalem was the place to worship the one true God. The Jews held that the Law teaches that there can be only one place for the temple (Deut. 12:5). Mount Gerazim was the scene of the blessing of the Hebrew people when they came into the Promised Land (Deut. 11:29; 27:12). The Samaritans also read in their Bibles that an altar was commanded to be set up on this mountain (Deut 27:4ff.). The Samaritans also had a tradition that it was Mount Gerazim that Abraham’s offering of Isaac took place and they held that it was here that Abraham met Melchizedek.

          Since this Samaritan woman perceives Jesus to be a prophet she wants Jesus’ opinion on this ongoing bitter controversy. What makes the controversy even bitter is that during the Inter-Testamental period, which is also known as the Maccabean period, a Jewish leader by the name of John Hyrcarnus destroyed the Samaritan temple in 128 B.C. You can imagine the animosity that the destruction of the temple brought between the Samaritans and the Jews. The woman wants to know Jesus’ take in this bitter and controversial matter. Therefore, she introduces the controversial topic. However, hardly did the woman know that she has brought about a subject, which Jesus was dying to expand. The Samaritan woman has opened up the way for Jesus to speak of the essential nature of God and of worship that should be offered Him. I have heard of some Africans in the United States who find it difficult to worship God here. They speak of the euphoric sense of their past experience of worship when they were in Africa. However, in this text as we will soon see, worship does not depend on geographic location. Genuine worship of the Lord can occur at any place, because the Creator God is Omnipresent.

II.               THE WHAT OF WORSHIP VV. 21-22

          In His response to the woman’s controversial topic, Jesus teaches us a lesson. The lesson is that Jesus refuses to be drawn into an argument. You cannot argue a person into the Kingdom of God. The New Testament teaches us to refrain from arguments. Rather, Jesus solemnly predicts that a time is coming when worship will be possible in neither place. Genuine worship is spiritual. It is not dependent on places and things. The woman has appealed to the example of “our fathers.” Jesus points her to the Father. The woman was basing her controversial topic on Samaritan tradition (“our fathers”). Jesus is basing His answer in divine revelation (“the Father”). The woman’s concern is “the where or the place of worship.” Jesus’ concern is the what” or the essential nature of worship. Jesus points out to the woman the inadequacy of         the Samaritan worship. There should be a caution here else you will misrepresent what Jesus is teaching here. Jesus does not doubt that the Samaritans worship the one God. Jesus is not saying that the Samaritans worship a false god or an idol. That is not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is not attacking their sincerity. What Jesus is saying is that since the Samaritans have chosen only the Torah and jettisoned the rest of the Hebrew Bible, their worship is inadequate. Half truth cannot be a whole truth. Half knowledge can be very dangerous. Half obedience is complete disobedience (King Saul). It is true that God speaks about worship in the Pentateuch, but if the Samaritans have embraced the entire Old Testament Scriptures, they would have known that God told David that his son will build Him a temple in Jerusalem. What Jesus is saying is that since the Samaritans have a partial revelation of the truth of God, their worship is suspect and their worship of God is inauthentic. What Jesus is implying is that the Samaritans’ knowledge of God is very limited. Jesus is saying that the Samaritans stand outside the stream of God’s revelation, so that what they worship cannot be characterized by truth and knowledge. The pronoun “you” (plural) is emphatic and the pronoun “we” is also emphatic. When Jesus says that “salvation comes from the Jews,” He does not mean that all Jews will be saved. The entire Gospel stands against such a thesis. What Jesus is saying is that since the Jews have the complete revelation of God, it could be said that they are the vehicle of that revelation, the historical matrix, out of which that revelation emerges (Ps. 76:1). In this debate Jesus comes down decisively on the side of the Jews. The messianic salvation comes from the Jewish nation. The Messiah is a Jew. From hindsight we see that the early disciples of Jesus and the Apostles were all of Jewish stock.

III.           THE HOW OF WORSHIP VV. 23-26

          Jesus takes the topic, which the Samaritan woman has brought about, a step further. He says, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”  “A time is coming and has now come” is a reference to a crisis to something new. In the person of Jesus, we see not only the appearing of old truths (whether they are held by Jews or Samaritans), but the appearing of God’s definitive revelation. In due course Jesus will die that atoning death, which will bring salvation to the world. Jesus is saying that disputes between Jews and Samaritans concerning the geographical location of worship will fade away. True or genuine worshipers will not base their worship on either location. On the contrary, true worshipers worship “in spirit and truth.” In Spirit is not a reference to the Holy Spirit. Rather it has to do with the human spirit. The combination “spirit and truth” points to the need for complete sincerity and complete reality in our approach to God. God the Father seeks such people to worship Him. The God who is love, the God who seeks the best for people, and therefore a God who actively seeks them out. The essential nature of God is spirit. God is spirit, He is invisible, not human; He is divine. Therefore, in real worship our human spirit is in fellowship with the God who is spirit. Not only that, we are also to worship God in truth. This means that we are to know this God who has given revelation of Himself to us in His Word. We are to know this God who has revealed Himself in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. Since God is spirit, it is reasonable that only those He has chosen to reveal Himself to can worship Him in spirit and truth (Matt. 11:25). This is why I have a problem with churches that worship without opening the Bible. This is why I have problem with churches, whose worship is not Bible-centered. God does not want us to worship Him in ignorance. He wants us to worship Him in spirit and truth. Our worship should be in tune with His spirit and His truth as revealed in His Word. For example, when we come before the Lord’s presence and His Spirit convicts us of sin through His Word or in song, we must do something about it. If we need to apologize to someone, we should not brush it aside. If we need to mend some relationship we must do so. If we have some unconfessed sins, we must confess them and repent of them. Jesus says that it is a “must,” that is a divine necessity to worship God in “spirit and truth.” Jesus says that God seeks; He looks for such people to worship Him. Therefore, the debate that is prevalent today in Christian circles about the “how” or “where” of worship is unimportant. The reason is that you and I cannot dictate the “how” or the “where” of worship. We must come only in the way that the Holy Spirit opens for us.

          When Jesus showed the Samaritan woman the insufficiency and the inadequacy of the Samaritan worship, she confessed that when the Messiah comes all these controversies will be resolved. The Samaritans, though they rejected the rest of the Old Testament, there were Messianic prophecies in the Pentateuch, which they held dear. The Samaritan woman knew that the prophesied Messiah, though would be a Jew, He would have the authority of God and she looked to Him to tell people everything. When the Samaritan woman expressed her dim knowledge of the coming Messiah, Jesus in words of simple dignity, revealed Himself to her. “I who speaks to you, I am He.” This is one of the rare occasions that Jesus makes His identity as the Messiah known.

          The question is do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Until you have a supernatural encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, you cannot worship God in spirit and truth. Jesus is God in the flesh. He is the one who has revealed the Father. Therefore, “the what” and “the how” of true worship is dependent on whether you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and whether you espouse the written Scriptures as inspired and special revelation of God.