Sermon Prep – Craig Allen
Topic: The Holy Spirit helps us Worship
Title:
“Spiritual Worship”
For Website:
Part 1: Sermon Text (p.2-10) [highlights
indicate Ppt slides]
Part 2: “Bonus” Worship Extras, including additional
Scriptures (p.11-23)
BIG IDEA QUESTION: What Worship is Acceptable to God?
1.
God is seeking True Spiritual Worshipers
2.
The Sphere of Acceptable Worship – is the human
spirit
3.
The Content of Acceptable Worship – is Truth
about Jesus
4.
True Spiritual Worship is the work of the Holy
Spirit in us
KEY IDEA:
Spiritual Worship is when the indwelling Holy
Spirit transforms our human spirit with truth about Jesus and prompts us to
respond to God.
John 4
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a
prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews
claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you
will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You
Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for
salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come
when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they
are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and
his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ)
"is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
SERMON
INTRO:
God is seeking True Spiritual Worshipers.
Has he found you?
John 4:23-24 includes an arresting phrase. It tells us there is a
kind of worship sought by the Father – Or rather, there is a kind of worshiper
that God is continually seeking:
“true worshipers . . . they are the
kind of worshipers the Father seeks”
Think about this:
God, the Heavenly Father, who created everything that is,
the only One whose opinion about anything really matters,
the One who is fully complete within Himself & who
has no needs, is searching for something; He is seeking someone!
– He has a “TO DO” LIST for today,
and at the top of His list, as it is every day, is this phrase:
“Looking for Genuine Spiritual Worshipers!”
As He looks down on SW Denver – who will
He find today? Will he find you? Me? Us?
I want to raise this question:
WHAT
IS TRUE SPIRITUAL WORSHIP?
Many of the comments I’ve received over
15 years of Worship Leadership in several churches have appeared to evaluate the
caliber of the worship services by how much people “enjoyed the worship.” Depending on the intended service style, that might come through in
comments like,
“That rocked!”; OR
“that hymn took me right back to my
childhood”; OR
“I didn’t get much out of that worship”.
So often, comments like these from
well-intentioned people reveal how easy it is to become a “spectator”, or
worse, an “evaluator” of worship – rather than a “participant” making an
extravagant offering to their Lord.
Every week as a Worship Pastor I want
and try my best to:
-
craft services that are interesting and creative, that have a focus and
an effective flow,
-
choose great songs and have
creative arrangements
-
use excellent musicians who are
well-prepared and stylistically appropriate
-
be as culturally relevant and
personally genuine as we can be
But I increasingly realize how the goal
of true spiritual worship is beyond my control. Something else is
needed!
And I wonder frequently: What kind of Worship is God looking for?
If I want to get my wife a gift for her Birthday, shouldn’t I try to
find out what she’s interested in, rather than
what I like? (or she might get expensive music equipment.)
If Worship is for God, what does He
Desire?
Commonly, when people are asked at the
end of their life, “What would you do differently if you had life to live
again?”, most people say things like, “I would spend more time with my family
and people I love, and less time pursuing ‘stuff’ that really didn’t matter.”
For those of us who say our relationship
with God is the most important relationship we have, and this relationship is
expressed by the word, “worship” – how do we approach God so that we can hope
to hear the marvelous words, “Well done, good and faithful worshiper. You have
worshiped well. Enter into the fullness of my Joy!”
The question we are going to address
today is this:
What
“worship” is acceptable to God?
Or, according to God,
What
is true Spiritual Worship?
I believe this is best
answered by Jesus in John 4 in His remarkable discussion to the Samaritan Woman
at the Well.
[Story – John 4]
The setting of this story has Jesus, a Jewish man, engaging conversation with a Samaritan woman – something that was a cultural taboo due to various religious and racial barriers that caused Jews to despise Samaritans. At the height of noontime heat, Jesus asks the woman for water as he has a physical thirst. As the conversation progresses, He offers her Gatorade for her soul – what He calls “living water” – that will quench her spiritual thirst. As she is eager to get this endless supply of water, Jesus kindly exposes her public disgrace – that she is a 5-time divorcee and is now presently in a sinful relationship – living with a man whom she is not married to. She realizes she is in the Presence of a true Prophet, and currently in the midst of an awkward topic of conversation. This opens the door to a discussion on Worship.
In this conversation, to this most
unlikely person, Jesus gives His most profound teaching on worship – and
answers the question, “What is TRUE SPIRITUAL WORSHIP”?
In verse 20, she raises the issue:
20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews
claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
Her issue actually involves
two intertwined questions of worship:
1. Where is the
PLACE of proper worship (acceptable to God)?
On
which mountaintop do we worship? (Mt.
Gerazim or Jerusalem?)
Where
is God’s Presence to be found?
2. Who is right? Samaritans
or Jews? Who has the correct spiritual lineage? Who has the goods on access to
God?
The Samaritans rejected all the Old Testament except their own
version of the first five books – the Law of Moses. Their knowledge of Truth
about God was limited. God continued to reveal Himself over time, and they
missed it.
Jesus reply is loaded. He
answers:
"Believe me, woman, a time is
coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship
what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is
coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God
is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth."
v.22 Jesus
answers both questions as she has phrased them, but then will take his answers
to a new plane. He says, the Jews have been right, it has been proper to
worship in Jerusalem – so far – up ‘til now… but things are about to change.
Jesus’ confirms that people are responsible to God for all He has
revealed. People cannot just decide to believe whatever they want to believe,
or make a god in their own image, or self-design their own religion.
EX: I had a close friend while growing up whom I witnessed to for
years: His Mom told me more than once as I talked to them about the Bible,
“Kevin and I have our own religion.” It was basically an eclectic mix of
Christmas Catholicism and Ben Franklin “do-it-yourself-ism”. The problem is – a
create-your-own-religion mix doesn’t work with God. It doesn’t bring salvation
nor result in worship that God accepts. Fortunately for Kevin, after being away
from home for 5 years he came to faith in Jesus and has been a faithful
believer for about 15 years now.
When Jesus described the
kind of worship God is seeking -- the kind of worshiper God is
searching for -- He twice uses the phrase: “worship in spirit and truth”;
the 2nd time emphasizing that this is the way we “must worship.”
For years I have thought:
whatever “in Spirit and Truth” means – is the central thrust of NT worship.
This is at the very heart of Jesus’ teaching on what kind of worship is
acceptable to the Father. How we decide to interpret “in Spirit and Truth”
really matters!
The most common “take” on
this, and one I taught for years but now no longer teach, is that these are 2
separate concepts: “in spirit” is often thought to mean “with spirit” or
in a “spirited” manner, which usually gets interpreted to mean “with my heart”
or with my emotions.
The phrase “in truth”
is then often thought to mean the truths of Scripture, or having right
doctrine, or thinking rightly – which gets understood to mean worshiping with
my mind.
So, the common net result
with this “take” is that Jesus is calling us to worship God with both our Heart
(Emotions) and our Head (our thinking).
Now, understand me
carefully! These are true aspects of
worship! These are common themes
throughout both Testaments.
There are many wonderful
verses on Heart Worship:
“Delight yourself in the LORD, and
He will give you the desires of your heart.”
Notice – the call to worship
is not out of “duty” or mere “commitment,” it is delight!
Illust: (Piper variant
– Anniversary dinner: “my responsibility, duty, etc.)
From the negative side, hear
the prophet Isaiah’s mourning over Israel’s false worship:
Isaiah 29:13
13 The Lord says: "These
people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by men.”
“Traditionalism” has never
been acceptable to God, in any dress. Outward actions including all the
right spoken words don’t matter if the heart isn’t in it. God is not terribly
interested in “rules taught by men” for their own sake, whatever they are.
When Jesus was asked to
choose the Greatest of all OT Commands, He gave both a command of Worship and a
Command of Edification – both passionate relational commands – both commands of
Love that flow from a right heart, and combined them.
From Mark 12:
“And you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than
these."
Jesus affirmed these 2 OT
commands are still in place for Christians.
Biblical worship has always
included a heart love for God, focused on Truth about God, and acts of service
toward Him.
YET – as true and important
as these emphases are, I do not believe they get us to the core essence of what
Jesus is referring to as “Spirit and Truth worship” in John 4.
Have you ever been too
distracted or too discouraged to worship God with your feelings and affections?
Any Engineers in the room who struggle with expressing love to God?
How do we motivate our
hearts and minds to respond to God in love? Where does the internal power
to do this come from?
The Apostle Paul offers good
news to answer this question:
6And
because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying, "Abba! Father!"
We find from Paul, as we’re
about to find from Jesus, that the Holy Spirit is the one who causes us to see
God as our Heavenly Father, and to respond intimately to Him, to express
affection to Him as our spiritual “Daddy”.
Oh, how we men, especially, need the Holy Spirit in our worship.
One strong reason for not
interpreting “spirit & truth” as “heart and mind” worship, is because that
would not fit Jesus’ emphasis here – “heart and mind” worship has always
been in play – It would not have been new!
In the immediate context,
Jesus is announcing the Dawning of a New Day with a new kind of worship.
Notice the time clues:
v. 21
“a time is coming when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”
v. 23
“Yet a time is coming and has now come…”
What have been the forms of
“Traditional Worship” are passing away. Temple worship will be destroyed within
a generation, fulfilled in 70 AD, never again to be re-established by God. The
New Covenant is replacing the Old – it’s being announced and will shortly be
inaugurated at Pentecost. Acceptable Worship is about to change – forever.
Jesus is announcing the beginning of true “Contemporary Worship!” When
did it start? 2000 years ago! His emphasis
is now on New Aspects of a new kind of Worship.
This new kind of worship has
2 new aspects:
New Aspect – Part 1 – “Worship in
Spirit”
that
is invaded and controlled by the Holy Spirit –
This
results in “Spiritual” Worship
Paul
wrote of this:
22In Him you
also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
We, the Church of Christ
have become the place of worship – the very dwelling place of God’s
Spirit. It is now the Holy Spirit who
gives meaning to the phrase “worshiping in spirit.”
An example is seen in Mary
when she was filled with the Holy Spirit and responded:
Luke
1:46-47 “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in
God my Savior.”
It was described by Jesus in
John 3, the very context preceeding John 4, where Jesus was addressing the Holy
Spirit’s role in Conversion.
5Jesus
answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit…
John Piper explains this
verse to mean:
“True worship comes only from spirits made alive
and sensitive by the quickening of the Spirit of God.”
By the time we’ve reached
John 4, Jesus had already defined what “spirit” meant in terms of acceptable
worship! It meant the human spirit that the “wind” of God has transformed and
redirected Godward. It meant the entire inner being of the believer who has
been regenerated by the power of the Spirit, and responds to God – not
out of the flesh, or obligation, or habit, or tradition – but out of the
leadings and promptings of the Holy Spirit who resides within him.
-
A month ago, I showed how
vibrant worship manifests itself among a community of believers as a result of
the “filling” work of the Holy Spirit, in a community, according to Eph. 5.
-
We saw also how John 7
referred to “rivers of living water that would spring from people” who kept
coming to Jesus, and that He was referring specifically to the Holy Spirit.
-
And Jesus makes the same
promise here in John 4 to the Woman at the well, as He offers her the same
“living water.” He is offering her life in the Holy Spirit, and tells
her that it is this Holy Spirit generated worship that is now acceptable
to the Father, under the New Covenant.
From the time of Jesus onward, the power for acceptable
worship is through the Holy Spirit!
[APPLICATION:]
- True Worship isn’t limited to any place or building.
- Spiritual worship can happen wherever regenerated believers gather and are sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
o (our homes – when we say bedtime prayers with our children;
§ I think it happened this week when my daughter Emily and I sang “Shout to the Lord” together as I put her to bed.
o in our neighborhoods – when you are prompted within your spirit by the Holy Spirit to mow someone’s lawn, or watch someone’s children so the parents can have a date night.
o In the mountains! – when we’re caught up in awe and the Holy Spirit causes our human spirit to gasp at the beauty and wonder around us.
o In a Sunday School classroom teaching our upcoming generation truths about Jesus
Spiritual
worship happens in the sphere of the human spirit whenever a believer is
prompted by the Holy Spirit to honor God with his life.
New Aspect – part 2 – “Truth” about
Christ
Again, we want to see from John Himself the context of how he uses words.
25The woman
said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he
comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
Immediately after Jesus says
believers “must worship in spirit and truth,” the conversation
changes to the Person of Jesus. The woman says, “Messiah is coming. When
He comes He will tell us all things.” She’s saying, “He’ll present the Truth to
us.”
And Jesus’ response is: “I
am He!” I’m the One. I am the source of Truth.
I am the Truth of God in
human flesh.
Later, John 14 makes that
unmistakably clear:
Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ "
[STORY: Dr. Laura – article and Fax letter]
Many of you have likely listened to Dr. Laura on the radio. She is the 2nd most-listened to radio talk show host, after Rush Limbaugh. Rather than focusing on politics, her show is about making right choices in the midst of “moral dilemmas.” She has relied heavily on her Jewish training the past 10 years since she converted from Atheism to Judaism. Last week, I read an article on the internet where she expressed that she has left Judaism behind as it “just didn’t fulfill something in me that I needed.” No joke!
No Christ, no Holy Spirit. No reality!
She went on to say, “I have envied all my Christian friends who really, universally, deeply, feel loved by God … and (are) feeling connected to Him.”
I felt compelled by the Spirit of God to write her a fax and tell her the Truth about Jesus, as I assume hundred of other Christians likely did. Pray for her! She appears ripe to come to the Truth!
There is a TRUTH
content to worship, and now under the New Covenant, Spiritual Worship that is
acceptable to God must be accurate about Jesus!
Who Jesus is – He’s the Son of God, come in human flesh; He’s the
eternal Word of God; He’s the embodiment of TRUTH itself.
and it must be accurate
about What Jesus has done – He lived a sinless life, He died on the
cross for my sins and yours, He rose from the dead on the 3rd day.
He ascended to the Right Hand of the Father and is co-reigning over God’s
Spiritual Kingdom. He offers salvation freely to all who will believe in Him,
and He presently intercedes for all who know Him.
“We have confidence to enter the Most
Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened
for us through the curtain, that is, his body” (Heb. 10:19)
This is how we worship the
Father in Truth – through the access provided by Jesus to the very Presence of
God.
[STORY: N&E response to LDS church]
A year or so ago we were with relatives who are Mormon. We actually attended their “Sacrament and Testimony” service with them, partly out of interest and partly hoping that they would come experience true worship with us sometime. Afterward we asked our then 5-year-olds what they thought. Their answers were perceptive. Emily said, “I like our church better, because we sing songs about Jesus.” Nathan followed up and said, “I like our church better – because we have drums!” Actually I think both comments revealed that our kids had experienced the vibrancy of “spirit and truth” worship in our church, and could tell the difference that truth about Jesus makes.
In Revelation 19 we
see a picture of climactic Heavenly Worship – a vision of our Heavenly Future:
6Then I
heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many
waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying
out,
"Hallelujah! For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
7Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
The way we are made ready
for eternity is to become the kind of Spirit and Truth worshipers NOW that the
Father is seeking!
It is
through the Person and Power of the Holy Spirit that these two aspects of
“worship in Spirit and Truth” are joined together.
John Piper explains it this
way in his book, Desiring God
“Perhaps we can tie things together with this
picture:
The fuel of worship is the truth of God, the
furnace of worship is the spirit of man, and the heat of worship is the vital
affections of reverence, contrition, trust, gratitude and joy.
But there is
something missing from this picture. There is furnace, fuel and heat, but no fire.
The fuel of truth in the furnace of our spirit does not automatically
produce the heat of worship. There must be ignition and fire. This is the Holy
Spirit.”
In fact, several times in
John’s gospel he clearly brings these issues of “spirit” and “truth” together
in the very Person of the Holy Spirit, specifically calling Him the “Spirit of
Truth”.
13 (Jesus said): When the “Spirit
of truth” comes, He will guide you into all the truth …14 He
will glorify me”.
Really, “spirit and truth”
are not so much 2 separate concepts, as they are 2-aspects of how the Holy
Spirit helps us to worship.
He invades the sphere of
our human spirits with the Truth about Jesus. He glorifies Jesus and prompts us
to worship the Father.
Paul
expressed it clearly: Phil. 3:3
3we … worship
by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus,
and put no confidence in the flesh—
The
Flesh counts for Nothing in worship! We
put NO CONFIDENCE in it! All the
results we desire, the kind of worship you long for – is the work of the Holy
Spirit who gives life – to you, to me, to us; HE enlivens our worship and makes
it acceptable to the Father, as we pursue Him.
[CONCLUSION:]
[STORY: Lisa and worship CD]
Yesterday morning, Lisa came down from the bedroom where a worshipful CD by Dave Irish had been playing. She said, “Craig, have you listened to the words on this CD?” I said, “Yeah, it was ministering to me yesterday morning.” She said – “The truths of those songs we so real”. We had both experienced private worship that the Holy Spirit used in our inner spirit. When we worship during the week, we then bring that benefit into our Sunday morning experience.
I try my very hardest to
help provide an environment conducive to worshiping the Father in this place.
But at the end of the day, I know that spiritual worship is a spiritual
calling accomplished by spiritual means.
Together, all of us need to
pursue being sensitive to the Holy Spirit when we gather – allowing Him to be
the river of “living water” through us that invades our inner spirit and causes
us to interact with Truth about Jesus and erupt in worship toward the Father.
Each of us – each of you -- bring that dynamic to our music, our
prayers, our sermons.
What Worship is acceptable to God?
-
It takes place in
the Sphere of our Human Spirit (wherever you are)
-
It interacts with
the Truth about Jesus and His transforming Gospel
-
It is led by the
Holy Spirit who regenerates us and continues to rejuvenate us as we respond to
His promptings.
-
It wells up into
worship of the Father
Or, said more succinctly:
Spiritual Worship is when the indwelling Holy
Spirit transforms our human spirit with truth about Jesus and prompts us to
respond to God.
This is worship God accepts.
This is Spiritual Worship!
(compiled by Craig Allen – SGC)
(Some of my favorite musings
on worship include:)
A.W. Tozer:
“Why did Christ come? In
order that He might make worshipers out of rebels. We were created to worship.
Worship is the normal employment of moral beings.”
Eugene Peterson:
“Worship is the strategy
by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the
presence of God.”
John Piper:
“Worship is the adoration
and praise of that which delights us… We worship God for the pleasure to be had
in Him.”
Marva Dawn:
“Worship is the (intimate)
language of love and growth between believers and God.”
John Piper:
Almost everyone would agree that biblical worship involves some kind of
outward act. The very word in Hebrew means to bow down. Worship is bowing,
lifting hands, praying, singing, reciting, preaching, performing rites of
eating, cleansing, ordaining, and so on.
“Honor and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his
sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord
glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.” (Psalm 96:6-8)
“The engagement of the heart in worship is the coming alive of the
feelings and emotions and affections of the heart. Where feelings for God are
dead, worship is dead.”
Rich article on spiritual worship: see John Piper – reprint of Chapter 3
“Worship: The
Feast of Christian Hedonism”
From Desiring God
http://www.desiringgod.org/dg/id45_m.htm
The 2 Primary meaning of
OT & NT words translated as “worship”:
-
to bow down – in honor and
adoration
-
to serve or minister – to God
The 2 Primary meanings of the range of words
translated as “praise”:
-
to publicly acknowledge
-
to celebrate, express delight in
Robert Webber reminds us
that there is common ground in all these meanings and it is the active nature
of Worship by us toward God:
“Worship
is never something done to us or for us, but always by us.” (Robert Webber)
Biblical
worship always involves Personal, Active, Intentional Response to God:
for Who He Is & for What He’s Done or Has Promised to Do.
Appropriate Worship Responses or Expressions toward
God can be seen in what the Bible has Commanded or Described: Look at this glorious list!
-
Singing
/ Spoken praises and testimonies / Declaring Truth together / Reading Scripture
-
Kneeling
/ Lying Prostrate / Bowing Down / Clapping Hands / Raising Hands / Dancing
-
Being
Silent / Reflection on God’s Truth / Praying / Interceding for others / preach
the word Musical instruments / Observing the Lord’s Supper / celebrating
Baptism / giving offerings
-
enjoying
fellowship / Serving others / Ministering to the Poor and Needy / fasting
-
Exercising
Spiritual Gifts and manifestations of the Spirit in Community settings
(and
there’s more).
Throughout
the history of the Church, entire denominations have been started or split by
the picking and choosing of which of these expressions people were going
to participate in or not participate in. For what it’s worth – I’m in favor of
pursuing doing the whole list!
But what God has always
cared about most is our motivation – our love for Him, as a Response to His
love for us.
Spiritual worship happens
in the sphere of the human spirit whenever a believer is prompted by the Holy
Spirit to honor God with his life.
In Romans 12:1, Paul
writes:
1”I appeal to you therefore,
brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
John
6:63
63The Spirit gives life; the flesh
counts for nothing.
Wayne Grudem: Systematic
Theology. P.
1010-1011 on “Worship”:
“Ultimately, worship is a
spiritual activity and it must be empowered by the Holy Spirit working within
us. This means that we must pray that the Holy Spirit will enable us to worship
rightly.”
“Is there anything we can
do to make worship more effective? We must remember that worship is a spiritual
matter, and the primary solutions will therefore be spiritual ones.”
John Frame. Worship in Spirit and Truth. P.7, re: John 4:23-24
Jesus
“was not merely predicting a more sincere or heartfelt worship among his
people. Rather, He was referring to the new things that God was preparing to do
for our salvation. The ‘truth’ is the truth of the gospel, the good news of
salvation in Jesus. The ‘spirit’ is the ‘Spirit of Truth’ who comes to bear
powerful witness to that gospel.”
Highlights from Leon
Morris: Commentary on the Gospel of
John
p. 271-272, 294-295
“We should omit the indefinite article before ‘Spirit’ (i.e. NIV,
v. 24). Greek has no such article…His meaning is, ‘God’s essential nature is
spirit.’ … Since He is essentially spirit it follows that the worship brought
to Him must be essentially of a spiritual kind. Notice the ‘must.’ Jesus is not
speaking merely of a desirable element in worship. He is speaking of something
that is absolutely necessary.”
(In John’s gospel, Jesus)
“is full of grace a truth” (1:14). “The master could say, ‘I am … the Truth’
(14:6). So truth is not the teaching about God transmitted by Jesus but is
God’s very reality revealing itself – occurring! – in Jesus. … There can only
be one meaning of (the Greek word for “truth”) in the Fourth Gospel: it is the
truth about the death and resurrection of Jesus…”
“Truth can be associated
with the Spirit (who was to continue Christ’s work). Indeed, this forms a
distinctive feature of the teaching of this Gospel. The Spirit is ‘the Spirit
of truth’ (14:17, 15:26, 16:13).”
In both v.23 and v.24, “the
linking of the two nouns (‘spirit and truth’) under a single preposition shows
that they belong together. There is one complex idea.”
John
Piper re: John 3:6
“In John 3:6 Jesus connects
God's Spirit and our spirit in a remarkable way.
He says, ‘That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ In other
words, until the Holy Spirit quickens our spirit with the flame of life, our
spirit is so dead and unresponsive it does not even qualify as spirit. Only that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So when Jesus says that true worshipers
worship the Father ‘in spirit’ he must mean that true worship comes only from
spirits made alive and sensitive by the quickening of the Spirit of God.”
SUPPLEMENTAL
SCRIPTURES:
Key
SCRIPTURES for
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the
true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is
seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who
worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Worshipful “thirst” for
God
As the deer pants for
streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and
meet with God?
Psalm 27:4
"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”
Psalm 16:11
"In thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand
are pleasures for evermore."
False Worship /
Worshipers God is Seeking
13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me
with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
Isaiah 43:4-7 (ed.)
4 …You are precious and honored in my sight,
and … I love you …
5 Do not be afraid, for I am
with you;
… 7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made."
Psalm 51?
The sacrifices of God are a
… contrite heart
28And one of the scribes came up and heard them
disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him,
"Which commandment is the most important of all?" 29Jesus
answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the
Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
31 The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There
is no other commandment greater than these."
(both quoted from Deut. –
OT commands for Israel. First already recognized as prominent. Nothing new
about these, except that they encompass and supercede all other commands.
Luke 1:46-47 (Mary’s
response to being “filled with the Spirit”):
“My soul magnifies the
Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
5Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit… 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you
hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it
is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John 6
63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I
have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,[5] to
be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him,
for he dwells with you and will be in you.
26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to
you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father,
he will bear witness about me.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide
you into all the truth …14 He will glorify me, for he will
take what is mine and declare it to you.
26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our
weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he
who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit
intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of
his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
3For we are the real circumcision, who worship by the
Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
22In him you also are being built together into a
dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
18And do not get drunk with wine, for that is
debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19addressing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord
with all your heart, 20giving thanks always and for everything to
God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21submitting to
one another out of reverence for Christ.
5you yourselves like living stones are being built up
as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ….
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Romans 11-12
36For from him and through him and to him are all
things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
1I appeal to you
therefore, brothers,[5] by
the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.[6]
9Let
love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10Love
one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
11Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,[11]
serve the Lord. 12Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be
constant in prayer. 13Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek
to show hospitality.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
15Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16Live
in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.[12]
Never be conceited. 17Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought
to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18If possible, so far
as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19Beloved, never
avenge yourselves, but leave it[13]
to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay,
says the Lord." 20To the contrary, "if your enemy is
hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so
doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 21Do not be
overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have
chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [1]
will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
10so that through the church the manifold wisdom of
God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly
places. 11This was according to the eternal purpose that he has
realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have boldness and
access with confidence through our faith in him.
Jesus answered, ‘I am the
way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’
"
11Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the
living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of
myriads and thousands of thousands, 12saying with a loud voice,
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom
and might and honor and glory and blessing!" 13And I heard
every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and
all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the
Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" 14And
the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and
worshiped.
1After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice
of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
3Once more they cried
out, "Hallelujah!
4And
the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped
God who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" 5And
from the throne came a voice saying, "Praise our God, all
you his servants, you who fear him,
small and great."
6Then I heard what seemed to
be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the
sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying
out, "Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
7Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
RE: John 4 response to
Samaritan Woman:
v.21 Jesus’
answer concerning PLACE of worship:
-
Things are about to change:
Soon, neither Mt. Gerazim nor Jerusalem will be the PLACE of worship. From here on out, worship will not be about
WHERE, but HOW? Worship will not be concerned with cultic rituals associated
with a tabernacle or temple on a particular mountain top where God is to be
found. Soon, worship will become an INTERNAL issue where the new dwelling of
God is within us!
He points the Samaritan
woman to a new Realm, a new Sphere.
Wherever the Spirit of God is – you can worship.
v.23 “the hour is coming, and is now here”
-
The birth of “contemporary
worship”!
-
A new era, new model, new
approach to worship is announced
-
The new place: within the
Human Spirit, where God will dwell by His Spirit
“true
worshipers”
-
Now a distinction among false
(external) and true (internal) worshipers
“will
worship the Father in Spirit and Truth” -- the Father is seeking such as these:
-
What is “Spirit and Truth”?
-
Common: Worship must have heart and head. Worship must
engage emotions and thought.
-
More than an issue of HEART
and MIND (so common). This would not have been new!
v.24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship in Spirit and truth.”
-
Our spiritual worship must be
related to God’s spiritual reality…
o
Worship Anywhere (not
just in Worship Center)
o
Worship is a Spiritual
Communion with God, not just external acts
-
As God is “Spirit”, so is our
worship.
-
God is not material, i.e.
residing by nature in a Place. Worship is not about a place; nor a form; not a
style. Not a building, not a service
order, not a time…
-
It
doesn’t say we can worship God anyway we want, but the way we "must
worship Him.”
Worship IN SPIRIT:
-
In the new sphere of
the regenerated human spirit – where God the Holy Spirit will indwell and make
us alive toward Him. (Worship wherever
you are—Inside out!)
-
Through The Personal
Presence of the Holy Spirit – fueling our worship and making it acceptable to
the Father. (be sensitive to Him, be
leadable, be “filled” with the Spirit)
Worship IN TRUTH:
-
According to the Truth
of the Gospel of Jesus: We have access to the Father through Jesus’
death and resurrection and present mediation.
-
The Holy Spirit is the
“Spirit of Truth” and applies Jesus’ truth to our lives and makes our worship
acceptable to the Father.
In both cases, it is the
Holy Spirit who empowers (human) “spirit” and “truth” (about Jesus) and brings
them together into worship that is acceptable to the Father.
v. 25-26 “Messiah is coming”… Jesus said to her,
"I who speak to you am he.”
-
“Spirit &
Truth” Worship: Worship the Father in your Spirit according to Truth about
Jesus.
-
Spiritual Worship:
led and empowered by the Holy Spirit who indwells us.
Where is God’s Presence
where we may Worship Him? In our Spirit!
Within us! Wherever believers
are. Individually and especially corporately, we become the dwelling place for
God, through His Spirit, as we worship!
How do we worship?
We need the Holy Spirit’s
help!
If you attend Worship Services, let’s
say 3x/mo. for 75 min. over 40 years of your life – you will spend about 1800
hours in public worship. Some of you could easily double that amount. But these
numbers work out to 75 “around the clock 24/hour days”; or fully 2 ½ months of
life sitting in worship services. The coffee had better be good!
And then there is the rest of life to
consider as a Worshiper before God, where we are accountable to Him for every
minute we breath oxygen.
Can you imagine finding out when life is
over that those 1800 hours you spent, not including the time and stress of
getting ready and getting the family here, nor the sleeping in, the newspaper
reading and Broncos games you sacrificed – imagine finding out that it was all
in vain. What if all the time and effort you expended was found to not be
pleasing to God?
I know that Google.com can find the answer to just about any
question that exists, so I decided to “google” the word “Spiritual”
and see what came up. The first two sites listed said very little about
Scripture, but much about our present day culture around us.
The
first “hit” took me to a website on what is called “KABBALAH”: (I immediately
felt all relaxed as NuAge meditation music started playing through my computer
speaker), and I read this description:
Simply put, Kabbalah gives you the tools you
need to achieve happiness, and to bring the Light of the Creator into your
life, and ultimately we will achieve true fulfillment for ourselves and
for all humanity. It is the way to gain the peace and joy you
want and deserve at the very core of your being.”
The 2nd
“hit” was similar. It was called: ”THE COUNSEL ON SPIRITUAL PRACTICES:” It read:
“CSP has a twofold mission: to identify and develop
approaches to primary religious experience that can be used safely and
effectively,
(you wouldn’t want dangerous worship, now would you?) and to help
individuals and spiritual communities bring the insights, grace, and joy that
arise from direct perception of the divine into their daily lives. (my favorite part:) The Council on Spiritual Practices
has no doctrine or liturgy of its own.
In other words, they neither believe nor practice
anything in particular!
I don’t think this is the kind of “spiritual” worship
God is seeking!
So I looked up the 2nd word, “worship”,
and decided to “Yahoo” this time. Two of the four official sponsors of the
topic “worship” were a bit disturbing: One was a Single’s Personals site –
“Christian singles seeking singles to worship together.” And if that
sounds a little questionable, the 2nd sponsor was a Gay and Lesbian
Church advertising for homosexual worshipers.
Of the Top 10 “hits” on the subject of worship, the
Top 3 Christian sites were merchandisers hawking CDs as their primary
contribution to worship.
I fear, sometimes in this place called
“the Church”, our answers or comments aren’t always terribly closer to the mark
than the Web.
A Young Worship Leader
about to take on a new responsibility will commonly say:
“Hey, I get to do
worship” – when speaking of the
awesome privilege and responsibility of leading believers to the throne of God
and His grace.
Or musicians may refer to
their part of a service as
“the Worship set” – as if worshiping God is all about choosing a group
of cool songs.
Common nice, but
misguided comments I’ve heard from congregations in churches I’ve served in
over the last 15 years have included:
“Great worship last
week, I really enjoyed it” – as if
the talent and entertainment value of the musicians is any appropriate way we
gauge whether true worship occurred.
“I didn’t really like
the worship” – as if “the worship”
was something outside of the person making the comment, or done to the person,
where they considered themselves as an observer or critic, rather than as a
participant.
“I can’t worship to a
piano music” or “I can’t worship to drums” – as if a certain instrument nullifies God’s Truth or
emasculates the Power of the Holy Spirit.
“What a service! Oh we
sang the Doxology. That just takes me back to my childhood” – as if worship is just sentimental reminiscing on
good-‘ol days gone by.
Or -- likely the most
common question I receive is -- “How Did Worship go?” – And I frequently
find my first response can too often reveal I have been derailed in my
thinking, as I say something like: “We really nailed it, the team was great, no
major trainwrecks -- good Sunday!”, as if having a tight band, good
transitions, and vocalists who sing in tune is what empowers people to respond
rightly to God.
Now I am all for:
-
choosing great songs
-
using creative arrangements
so we don’t bore people musically
-
rehearsing the musicians well
so they are stimulating and not a distraction
-
filling the services with
both deep and practical truth from Scripture
-
crafting a service order that
has a focus and continuity; creativity and climax
-
being as culturally relevant
and personally genuine as we can be
But -- How much better it
is to hear comments like:
-
“Today
– I worshiped well.
-
I
expressed my love to God from the bottom of my heart.
-
It
was so good to sing to the Lord and sense Him transforming me
-
As
we prayed together, I sensed the power of the Holy Spirit working among the
congregation.
-
I
realized again in the midst of worship – how grateful I am to have Jesus as my
Savior.
-
It’s
been awhile since I’ve thought about God quite like that – He is truly awesome!
-
I
can’t put it into words, but as we sang and prayed – I experienced God’s
Presence. He was so near and so real – I needed that!
-
During
our service – I felt God prompting me to confess a sin I’ve been hanging onto,
and I felt His forgiveness – it was amazing.
-
After
today’s message, I feel convicted about my selfish use of time – I realize I
need to find a place to serve in this body where I can use my gift. I don’t
want to waste my life; I just really want to be used by God!