The True Worshippers

The True Story Of Worshipping The Heavenly Father God

John Chapter 4 (King James Version)

4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, 4:2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 4:3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. 4:4 And he must needs go through Samaria. 4:5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 4:6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her,Give me to drink. 4:8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 4:9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 4:11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 4:12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 4:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 4:15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 4:17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.4:25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 4:27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 4:28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 4:30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 4:31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 4:32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 4:33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 4:36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 4:37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 4:38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 4:40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.4:41 And many more believed because of his own word; 4:42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

WHAT IS TRUE WORSHIP?

As Christians, we understand the emptiness of the world. We understand that they are in a desperate search to find something to fill the void, the God shaped hole in their heart that cannot be filled with the things of the world. We understand that the lost are suffering from a cosmic loneliness. We can explain their emptiness, but what about the prevailing emptiness which haunts so many churches? When we look at so many churches where programs have substituted for praise, and works have substituted for worship, what we see are churches trying to do what the world is doing. We see churches trying to fill a God shaped void with world shaped ideas and the church, the people who are flocking to religious services every Sunday, they are empty because they have forgotten what true worship really is. That is what was going on during the life of Jesus. The Jews insisted that theirs was true worship because they worshipped at the Temple on Mt. Zion. The Samaritans declared that the Jews were worshipping in the wrong place, therefore their worship was false. Instead, the Samaritans insisted that the true place to worship was on Mt. Gerizim where they had build their own temple. We have to be careful that we don't stand on the mountain of our traditions and declare everyone else's worship false. True worship is not determined by the place or time. True worship is not determined by the style of music. True worship is not determined by the speed of the songs or the volume of the worship leader. True worship deals with issues and realities that go far deeper than these things.

What is worship?

To begin with, there is worship, and then there is "true worship." Jesus told the woman, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshippers will worship the Father . . . ." What is Jesus saying? First of all, He is saying that "true worshippers will worship the Father." True worship begins with who is being worshipped. It is not the worship of a mountain which is true worship. It is not the worship of tradition which is true worship. It is not the worship of my way, my will, my wants which is true worship. True worship begins at the foot of the throne of God. Second, Jesus is telling us that true worship ends at the foot of the throne. It is not God plus my denomination. It is not God plus the pope. It is not God plus the preacher. True worshippers worship God, and beside Him there is no other God.

II.

HOW IS TRUE WORSHIP EXPRESSED?

If there is such a thing as "true worship" and if any other type of worship is insufficient, then the question is, "How is true worship expressed?" How do we know that our worship is "true." How do we know that our expressions of worship are right? Jesus went on to say, "true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth." These are the only two qualifiers. Once we recognize who we worship, we must attend to how we worship. Not everything being done in the name of worship today, qualifies. Singing is a legitimate way to worship, but not everyone singing is worshipping. Some people sing to hear themselves sing. They are more concerned about themselves than they are with the One to whom we sing. Praising God is a legitimate way to worship God, but not everyone making a lot of noise is worshipping God. Sometimes the noise is simply a means to manipulate the emotions of the people. Or, even worse, an attempt to manipulate God. We shout real loud and long and we tell God, "You have to visit us, because you said you would inhabit the praises of your people!" In this case the praise is a vain attempt force God into attending a meeting where He is not the center of attention, we are. Jesus tells us that two things make worship real: spirit and truth. There is nothing in these two qualifiers which say which type, or style, of Christian music is appropriate. There is nothing in these two words which say what type of building is appropriate. There is nothing here addressing denominational differences. There are simply two words, "spirit and truth." It is important that we understand what Jesus means. It as vital to the life of the church that we experience true worship, as it is to the life of the geese that they fly south in the winter and north in the summer. Without true worship we cease to be the true church and our forms and our works mean nothing. We must worship God in spirit and in truth. So what does that mean? "spirit and truth?"

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A TRUE WORSHIP IS IN SPIRIT

To begin with, Jesus is saying that true worship is spiritual. He goes on to say that God is a Spirit and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Worship is a spiritual act which requires the response of man to the upward call of God. By saying that it is spiritual He is saying that the spirit of man is to commune with the God, who is a Spirit. True worship is the flesh of man in the background while the spirit of man moves to the foreground and on that spiritual plane man experiences and honors God. True worship has to move beyond the sound of the music, the tempo of the music, the temperature of the building, the personality on the stage or time on the clock. In true worship we enter a spiritual dimension and there, and only there, we truly worship God. Some folks recoil at this thought. For them it is too other worldly, too supernatural, too mystical. But Jesus said, there is no other way to worship, than in spirit and in truth.

B. TRUE WORSHIP IS IN TRUTH

There are two worlds in which we live. There is temporal material world. It is a world which is passing, it is decaying turning to dust. Then there is the spiritual world. It is in the spiritual realm where true worship occurs, but there are two realities of the spiritual world. There is the kingdom of God and there is the kingdom of darkness. Jesus said our worship must be spiritual, but it must also be truth. Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh to the Father but by me" (Jn. 14:6). For our worship to be true, we must come by the cross. We can only come boldly to the throne of grace when we come by Jesus. True worship is build upon the foundation of truth which Jesus came to build the church upon. True worship is not built upon what flesh and blood hath revealed, but what the Father in His Son was revealing to the world. It is the truth that we cannot save ourselves. It is the truth that we need a Savior. It is the truth that Jesus is the way. It is the truth that will set us free. It is the truth of the Gospel which will liberate our spirits from the kingdom of darkness so that we will have the liberty to worship God. Spiritual worship without truth leads to emotionalism or even to occultism. Truth without spirit leads to ritualism, formalism and legalism. But when we worship in spirit and in truth, our worship is always fresh and it is always real. When we worship in spirit and truth, our worship is in the right place, with the right God at the right time, for the right reason.

III. THIS IS WHAT THE FATHER SEEKS

Notice, finally, that Jesus said, "for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." "Seeking" simply means, "looking for." When you see someone going around like something is lost, you ask them, "What are you looking for?" Jesus is saying that the Father is looking for something. What is He looking for? True worshippers. It implies that although many are religious, and many are going through the ritual, and many are singing and doing church "stuff," God still has to look hard to find true worshippers. It is my desire that we become a worshipping church. What does that look like? It can take on many forms. Some Sundays it may take on a shout. Other Sundays it may be found in tears, but every Sunday it will be in spirit and in truth. Let the Father find you here, willing to rise above the present pressures of the flesh, willing to lift up your soul into the heavenlies and find yourself communing spirit to Spirit, deep calling unto deep until we are beholding the face of God. Let it be true, let it be through the Word of God and let it be in harmony with the will of God, and let it be true worship. There is something in us--something spiritual, something innate, something God created you with--which cries out to worship the Creator. The world will pervert it if it can. But the void of our heart will never be filled until we become true worshippers. This is my desire. I want to be a true worshipper. I want to move out of my selfish awareness of my wants, and into the spiritual realm of God's presence. I want to worship Him and I want to be changed by the experience. True worship liberates us and changes us. True worship brings us closer to the one whose image we bear. In worship the concrete floor beneath our feet truly becomes holy ground. In worship truth becomes a person and lives in our heart setting us free from the loneliness and the search for significance.

CONCLUSION

Are you empty? Is there a void in your life that nothing has been able to fill? Has coming to church become a burden? Is religious activity wearing you out? Are you like the woman at the well, coming to fill up the water pots, only to find them empty at the end of the day? Jesus told her that if she could become a true worshipper, she could have "a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:14). If you want to today you can trade your water pots for a fountain. You can stop going through the motions and find meaning and fulfillment in worshipping God in spirit and in truth. God is looking for you today.