Today in 21st century Christianity, one of the most misunderstood words or principles in the church is the word worship. If I were to ask you this morning to write down a succinct sentence describing worship, I would not be surprised if there were as many definitions as there are attendees. Today when we think of worship, we think of a church service, or what’s called worship music, or perhaps even a performance by a worship pastor or band. Usually the connotation is a church’s music service.
But as I indicated, I believe that’s a misunderstanding of what worship is supposed to be. In the passage we are looking at this morning, Jesus talks about worship with a Samaritan woman by the well. And in the process of having this conversation, He teaches us the Biblical meaning of worship and how we are to engage in it. In fact, in just 5 verses, the word worship or a derivative of it is used 10 times. I believe this scripture teaches that God wants us to worship Him, and that He has a plan for worship. So I want to look at this passage this morning and break down the principle of worship so that we might be sure we are accurate and authentic in our worship. Because as Jesus said in vs.24, God is Spirit, and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That’s an imperative statement. That we are to worship God, and we must worship Him as He wants us to.
So in order to understand this, I am going to apply all the standard questions to this principle of worship, like what, where, why, how and when. Rather than asking you to define worship according to your perception or experience, or rather than consulting any self appointed experts out there for their two cents worth, I want to go to the source, which is the word of God. Because I believe that what Jesus is saying is that we must get it right. God is not obligated to accept false worship, or improper worship, which does not meet His requirements.
So let’s start with what is worship? We could look it up in the dictionary and get a human definition. But let’s look it up in scripture. Worship simply means honor paid to a superior being. The common word in the New Testament Greek used for worship is prosekuneo, which means to kiss toward, and it came from that ancient custom of kissing the hand or foot of a superior. A person bowed down on the ground, bowed his head and kissed the hand in a sign of submission and honor.
But I think we can go a little deeper into all that scripture teaches us concerning worship by employing a principle of hermeneutics called the principle of first mention. The principle of first mention says that the first time a word or principle is mentioned in scripture provides a basis for how we are to perceive it or understand it going forward.
Now if you go to your concordance and look up worship, the first use of the word “worship” will be in Genesis 22, when Abraham takes Isaac to the mountain that God showed him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. And I am not going to take the time to review all of that story this morning as I’m sure most of you are very familiar with it and as a church we recently studied Genesis. But perhaps you never noticed the word worship there. Abraham says in vs.5, ““Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”
Now think about that for a moment. God asked Abraham to take his son and offer him as a sacrifice on an altar on Mt. Moriah. By the way, this is an interesting side note. When the Samaritan woman tries to wiggle out of the convicting questions of Jesus, she says something interesting. She says, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Now the mountain she and Jesus was on was called Gerizim, which was the place the Samaritans built their temple in opposition to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. But the thing was, both the Jews and the Samaritans believed that their temple was seated on Mt. Moriah, the spot where Abraham offered Isaac.
Now knowing that helps us to understand why she brings up worship, and then Jesus says to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” Jesus is saying the time is at hand when neither mountain is going to be the place of worship. There is going to be a new place, a new way to worship, which will not be defined geographically nor by the temple. So that’s the historical significance of Abraham taking Isaac to the mountain to offer him as a sacrifice. Both Samaritans and Jews claimed to have their temple on the correct mountain. And what Jesus indicates, by saying salvation is of the Jews, is that the Jews were on the correct mountain. But soon the temple location is not going to matter anymore. What had served as the source of an argument between them would be completely done away with when Jesus was sacrificed on Mt. Zion. The temple veil was rent from top to bottom, signifying that the way into the presence of God was open to all, through the blood of Jesus Christ.
But let’s think back to Abraham and Isaac for a moment. Abraham has been commanded to kill his son, and he speaks of this offering of his son on the altar as worship. Now that’s a heavy thought. Can you imagine comparing sacrificing your child as worship to God? Well, what can we learn from that first incident concerning worship? Number one, it shows us that worship involves an offering. Secondly, worship involves sacrifice. Thirdly, worship involves obedience. Fourthly, worship involves submission, humbling yourself. Abraham’s pride and joy was his son. And yet he was willing to humble himself in order to worship God.
Now that is the first mention of worship. But there are a couple of other early examples that come to mind which are not described as worship, but which obviously incorporate worship. The first one is that of Cain and Abel, in Genesis 4, when they come to bring an offering before God. “So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard.”
What does this example tell us about worship? Once again, that there was an offering, a sacrifice. We saw that already in the example of Abraham and Isaac. But what new thing do we learn about worship? That God accepts some worship but not others. God isn’t obligated to accept just any form of worship. To worship God in an unacceptable manner is to reduce God to an image, to reduce God to a material representation, to reduce God to an idol, or to reduce God to anything that is the result and product of your own thinking. I often hear people say, “Well, everyone is free to worship God as they believe Him to be.” But just because you sincerely believe something doesn’t make it true. If your definition of God doesn’t square with the Word of God, then your worship is unacceptable even though you may identify it with the true God.
And that correlates with what Jesus said in vs 24, that they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. It has to be a worship based on the truth that God has given us, if it is going to be acceptable to Him. So then we might define worship as a sacrificial offering, as obedience, as humbling yourself before God, and according to His truth. That answers the question of what is worship.
We could say from those examples what worship is not but we won’t take the time to produce a definitive list since that could go on forever. But let me give you just three: worship is not music, worship is not ceremony, worship is not a building. And you can do the rest of the list on your own.
So the scriptures have defined what worship is. Next, Where. Where should we worship. Well, we have already answered that to some degree. Worship is not restricted to a building, or an auditorium, or a mountain or even a temple. Jesus said in vs. 21, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” And then vs.24, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” The first reference to Spirit is capitalized because that refers to the nature of God; He is Spirit. That means He isn’t corporeal. But the second use of the word spirit in vs.24 is not capitalized, because it is speaking of our spirit. He is saying, we must worship God in our spirit. It’s not physical, it’s spiritual. It’s not a location but a state of the heart.
True worship must come from the heart. Worship is not dependent upon where you are, but who you are.1 Cor. 6:19 says we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. If you have been born again, then you are the temple of God because the Holy Spirit is dwelling in you. You don’t just come to church, you are the church.
Unfortunately, though a lot of people may have heard that truth, they don’t live in light of that truth. We get all cleaned up for Sunday morning, we dress a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way because we know we are in church. And yet on Monday we act completely different. We talk differently. We behave differently, seemingly unaware that the Lord of our temple is still in the building.
Worship then should be a way of life. Not just on Sunday. But in all our ways, in everything we do, we do it for the glory of God. We are obedient to what He asks us to do because our body is HIs temple. Our time is His time. Our possessions are His possessions. You can’t expect to have an intimate relationship with the God who dwells in us when we act like He isn’t there 6 days out of the week and then suddenly act all friendly to Him on Sunday. God isn’t blind. He was there all week. We just ignored His presence.
When we have a full time, 24/7 intimate relationship with God, then we are worshipping all the time in private. And what’s on the inside will reveal itself on the outside. In other words, what was private produces corporate. What is spiritual will produce physical. We are the church so we come together with the rest of the body as the church to serve the body. Not for ceremony and ritual, but to serve Him.
And that brings up another definition of worship. To serve God. Romans 12:1 gives us a great illustration of that. Paul says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Present your bodies as a sacrifice to serve God which he says is your spiritual service of worship. So serving God is worship. Once we are born again spiritually, we become holy, which results in being obedient, which in turn produces righteous living, in the fear or honor or reverence of God knowing that God is in you, and then God can use the body that you submit to Him in humility to serve Him. And that comprises worship. The where of worship then is wherever we are, we are the temple of God, and therefore all that we do is for the glory of God.
The next question is Who. Who do we worship? Well the answer of course is God. But Jesus narrows that title down further in vs. 21 and 23. Three times Jesus calls God the Father. That is specific. God is the Father of who? Well, first He is the Father of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of God. The only begotten of the Father. And we know who God is by who Jesus is. Jesus told Philip, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” He told the Jews in John 10:30, “I and the Father are One.”
Now that narrows God down. God is three persons in One; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Those that worship Allah cannot be worshipping God because Allah is not the father of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, because He is the only Son of God. And if you do not believe that Jesus is God’s Son, then you cannot worship the Father.
Secondly, God is the Father of the saints. The believers. Those that have been made holy by the blood of Jesus, that have been born again by the Holy Spirit. So that we are children of God. John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” So God then as our Father speaks of our relationship with Him. We are born again not of the flesh, but of the Spirit into the family of God.
And thirdly, God is Spirit. Vs.24, Jesus said, “God is Spirit.” That means that God is not corporeal. He is an invisible being. He does not have a body like we have, but He is eternal, divine, unknowable, unsearchable, holy and righteous. He is a being, but not a body. His essential nature is that He is Spirit. And so we must be made spiritual to have communion with God who is Spirit.
1Tim. 1:17 says, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.” Those qualities, eternal, immortal, invisible, are spiritual qualities. God is Spirit speaks to His immortal, eternal and invisible nature.
The next question is who can worship? Who can worship God? In vs. 23 Jesus said, "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.” First, note that God seeks worshippers. God wants to have a relationship with men, and so He has made it possible through Jesus Christ. But in order to have this relationship, Jesus said in John 3:16 that we must be born again. We must be born of the Spirit, and this is accomplished by faith in Christ.
So in order to worship Him, God must become our Father. We must be born again. The Holy Spirit must dwell in our hearts by faith. Just as the Old Testament saints had to bring a sacrifice to offer to God in order to worship, so Hebrews 10:14 tells us that “by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” The sacrifice of Jesus Christ has purchased for all who believe in Him the sanctification by which we may be reconciled to God.
The Old Testament priests had to always offer a sacrifice first for their sins and then the sins of the people before approaching the Holy of Holies into the presence of God. Heb 9:11-14, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Notice the phrase, “serve the living God.” So then, those that can worship God are those who have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
The next question, is how do we worship? And Jesus makes that clear in vs.24, we worship God in spirit and in truth. First we are made spiritual by new birth through faith in Jesus Christ. I think we have made that point. But also we must worship God in truth. According to His truth. Not according to our understanding of God, according to our concept of fairness or righteousness, or any standard other than God’s standard.
There are lots of people in our society who think they worship God, and they have self-invented some way to do that. I read about a lady in New Mexico who baked tortillas, named Mrs. Rubio. The Chicago Tribune recorded the story some years back, and one day she was frying a tortilla, and as she took the tortilla out of the pan and she said with a great amount of shock, “It is the face of Jesus.” Burned on that tortilla were marks from the skillet that she said looked like Jesus. And so, she was so thrilled she showed it to her husband who agreed that it must be Jesus. And she showed it to her family and they agreed, and to a neighbor and she agreed. And so she went to her priest to have the tortilla blessed. And the priest, who had not really been accustomed to blessing tortillas, was somewhat reluctant to do so, but nevertheless he did it. And she took the tortilla home and she built an altar in her house. She put the tortilla in glass and put piles of cotton around it so it looked like Jesus floating on a cloud. And within a matter of months, Mrs. Rubio had over 8,000 people come to the shrine of the Jesus of the Tortilla. And almost everyone unanimously agreed that it looked like Jesus except one reporter who said it looked to him like Leon Spinks. And so, people came and worshipped the tortilla and Mrs. Rubio gave her testimony which was recorded in the Chicago Tribune, and she said the tortilla had changed her life. And her husband agreed she’d been a more peaceful, happy, submissive wife ever since the tortilla had arrived.
Listen, we must worship God as He is, and for who He is, and not as we imagine Him to be. Anything less is idolatry. And the only way we can worship God as He is with any certainty is if we rely upon the truth of God’s word. In John 1 Jesus is presented as being with God in the beginning, and that He was God, and the Living Word was became flesh. In Hebrews 1:1 Jesus is the exact representation of the nature and character of God. And then in John 17 Jesus says that the word of God is truth. God has presented Himself in His word. When we combine the Living Word with the written word, then we are worshipping God in truth.
To worship God in spirit and in truth then signifies that of the heart and the head. Worship must be authentic and accurate. Worship in spirit speaks of our position. Our heart must be aligned with God by faith. When that happens the Holy Spirit dwells in us, linking the inner man with God. And truth speaks of information. God has revealed Himself most completely and accurately in the scriptures.
You know, just like in a physical relationship, knowledge produces intimacy. The more you know and learn about your spouse, the more you love them. We tend to worship God but a little, because we only know a little about God. But the more you know about God the more it produces true worship.
Spirit and the truth signifies worship from the heart and the head. But unfortunately, a lot of us worship God the way men observe Valentine’s Day. We know that it is Valentine’s Day because the calendar tells us. So we know that we have to respond by buying a card, maybe some chocolates or flowers. The expectations of what we know about Valentine’s Day produces a response on our part which is predetermined by our culture. But if that is all that it is, then it’s a form of legalism, a ceremony or ritual that your wife is going to know is not from the heart. But she wants much more than just fulfilling an obligation or a ritual. She wants romance, passion, love, intimacy, fellowship. She wants you, she wants your heart.
And so does God. He wants all of us. Yes, He wants us to follow His word. He has written down His expectations and requirements for worship. But when we just show up for church and drop a little offering in the box and sing a few songs and go through the rituals then we are missing the heart of worship. God wants your heart. He wants a heart that is surrendered to Him, a heart that wants to know Him, a heart that desires fellowship with Him. That comes from a right relationship with Him.
Finally, one last point. The result of worship. In vs 25 the Samaritan woman said to Jesus, "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 am He.” This is the most clear statement that Jesus ever makes concerning the fact that He is the Messiah with the possible exception of His response to Pilate before His crucifixion. But what did the Messiah accomplish? Jesus declared His purpose in John 14:6. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Through Jesus, and only through Jesus, has the way to God been made available. He is the peace between God and man. He has made it possible for us to be reconciled to God. So when we come to Him and worship Him, we have fellowship with God, we have the benefits of being the children of God, and we have the inheritance of ruling and reigning with Christ for eternity. Worshipping God in spirit and in truth is begun in justification, and it continues as our sanctification, and will be consummated in our glorification. We who worship God now as He has revealed Himself and according to His requirements, will worship Him forever and ever in glory. I don’t think that’s going to look like what popular imagery indicates though. I don’t think we will be sitting around on clouds playing harps, or even just having a praise service for eternity. But I think that we will be serving God for eternity, and all that we do will result in praise to His glory. Worship here on earth is just practice for what will go on for ever in eternity.
Therefore, in light of this revelation concerning worship which the Lord Jesus has given us, “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
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