Worship in Spirit and in Truth: Thoughts on Worship from John 4

When people encountered Jesus in the gospels, their lives radically changed. That’s true of us today. It was certainly true of a particular woman in John 4.

A Divine Appointment

Jesus had left Judea towards Galilee and John 4:4 says he had to pass through Samaria. Technically, that is not accurate. In fact, he could have gotten through to Galilee by going around Samaria. That’s what Jews did, because Samaritans were have Jew/have Gentles, and were loathed by Jewish people. Jesus being a Jewish man, it is odd that he goes through Samaria. This was a divine, sovereignly ordained appointment because Jesus had to go through Samaria to encounter this woman.

When he gets to Samaria, Jesus sits by the well, and its about the 6th hour of day like, likely noon time. He is weary from his journey, seeing his full humanity.

Crossing Cultural Barriers

A woman comes to draw water and Jesus asked for a drink (John 4:7). The woman is shocked because a JEWISH MAN is speaking to a SAMARITAN WOMAN. It wasn’t kosher for Jews to speak to Samaritans, and it wasn’t appropriate for a man to speak to a woman in this context. But Jesus breaks these barriers to set the stage for the gospel to invade her life.

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have giving you living water.”

This woman Is confused because Jesus doesn’t have anything to draw water with, and there really is nowhere to get “living water.” She is thinking of a stream as apposed to a well.

She then asks, “You are not greater than our father Jacob are you, who gave us this well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”

She has no idea!!! Yes Jesus is greater than Jacob!!

Jesus then says, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become a will of water springing up to eternal life.”

The woman then asks, revealing she still doesn’t understand, “give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw.” Jesus is talking about salvation, and she is still thinking about actual water. We will see why she doesn’t want to come back to the well in just a moment.

Getting to the Point

Jesus asks her. “Go call your husband and come here.”

She responds, “I have no husband.”

Jesus replies, “You have correctly said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”

Yikes. Jesus has just laid her sinful lifestyle right there. He got right to the point. If Jesus said something like this to you, what would he reveal?

We can start putting some pieces together. This woman is an outcast in her society. All of the other women would have come to draw water before the sun came up, while it was still cool. This woman is coming when no one else is, in the heat of the day, because of her lifestyle, she is not welcome with the other women. She doesn’t want that. So she wants a drink of water that won’t make her thirsty again physically.

This woman, perceives that Jesus is a prophet. She then decides to change the subject.

“Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

True worshippers

While seeking to change the subject, Jesus is about to expose her heart. Jesus responds:

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 worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The woman wanted to change the subject, but Jesus reveals that worship is about the affections of our hearts. What are we truly pursuing. This woman wasn’t worshipping God, she was worshipping relationships. She was trying to be satisfied in her relationships with men, and it was coming up short. She was seeking fulfillment in creation, with what can only be satisfied with the creator. Where out affections and desires are, that is what we worship. She was not worshipping God at all.

Jesus then reveals that he is the Messiah, and it changed her life.

A changed life

So the woman left her water pot, and went into the city and said to the men, “Come see a man who told me all the things I have done, this is not the Christ is it."?”

The leaving of the water pot is significant. She is leaving her former life behind, and has now gone to interact with the very people she was trying to avoid, because now that she has had an encounter with Jesus, she feels no shame. She went to evangelize.

A changed life changes lives

What happens next as recorded in John 4:39 is incredible:

From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified…..41 “Many more believed because of His Word and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you have said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know this One is indeed the Savior of the Word.

A couple of things to not here about Worship:

Worship in spirit and in truth begins with a changed heart. This woman had to have her sin exposed and her heart changed.

Worship in spirit and in truth leads to a change of life. This woman in leaving her water pot synbolizes she’s leaving her old life behind. She cannot be a true worshipper of Jesus and keep sleeping around, getting married, and divorcing. She cannot worship God on Sunday, and sleep with someone who isn’t her husband on Monday.

Worship in spirit and in truth reveals our innermost desires. She didn’t desire God. She desired men. She exchanged the worship of the creator for the worship of the creature (Romans 1). Her desire was to please her self, not to please God. Our sin reveals what we truly worship. What is it that you are truly worshipping?

Worshipping in spirit and in truth leads to passionate evangelism. Someone who has truly experienced Jesus won’t just sing about it on Sunday morning, they won’t stop talking about him Monday through Saturday. A true worshipper tells everyone about Jesus.

If we are true worshippers of Jesus our lives will be radically changed by grace, and we will tell others so that they too may worship the Savior of the World.