True Worship | Worshipping God in Spirit and Truth (John 4:19-26)

Topic: True Worship | Worshipping God in Spirit and Truth

Reading: John 4:19-26

19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Introduction and Overview

Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well. This is an interesting conversation as there are many insights revealed. And we note that these are powerful insights. But they are not given to the spiritual leaders of that time. Jesus gives these insights to a woman, probably shunned by her own people as she was living with a man not her husband. But Jesus makes no distinction. We see in her responses that she is a woman of insight and one who is familiar with the religious differences between the Samaritans and the Jews. She was also aware of the reason for the animosity between the Samaritans and the Jews.

To this woman Jesus reveals several truths. The truth about Himself and who He was. And also the truth about worshipping God. Jesus showed her what true worship was meant to be. He told her that God seeks people worshipping God in spirit and truth. The physical forms and processes of worship based upon a place of worship were not the true worship. True worship is about the spirit because God is spirit.

Finally we see that this woman is aware that the Messiah is coming. She is aware that when He does come, the Messiah will show them all things. He will show them true worship. And it is to this shunned woman that Jesus reveals in plain speech that He is the Messiah. Jesus often spoke in riddles when asked this question by the scribes and Pharisees. But with this woman He offered this information and spoke plainly stating that He was and is indeed the Messiah.

Key points from reading:

• Jesus teaches that the need for places of worship is not necessary or even desirable.
• Jesus shows that true worship is and will be done by those worshipping God in spirit and truth.
• Jesus states clearly and plainly that He is the Messiah (Messiah and Christ are the same words, the first being the Hebrew and the second being Greek).

Discussion:

Scripture: John 4:19-20 – Where is the place of true worship?

• In previous verses covering this conversation we saw Jesus reveal information about the woman that He could or should not have known. Jesus had revealed that she had been married five times and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. The woman immediately recognised that Jesus was a prophet.
• However, she knows that Jesus is a Jew, so she asks Him questions about worship. She says that the Jews claim the only place for true worship is in the Temple at Jerusalem. The Samaritans however had built their own temple on Mt Gerazim where they believed was the place of true worship. This was quite a sticking point and one of the key reasons why the Samaritans and the Jews hated each other. About one hundred and ten years earlier, the Jews under the leadership of John Hyrcanus, destroyed the Samaritan temple, which they did not rebuild. However, they still saw the site of that temple as their holy place and it was their specific place of worship. The woman was aware of this and given that she saw Jesus as a prophet, questioned im about it.

Scripture: John 4:21-22 – True worship is not about a place

• It was then that Jesus gave a deeply spiritual and important answer that still resonates today. He told her that true worship was neither in the Temple at Jerusalem or on Mt Gerazim. True worship was not restricted or constrained to a place. Places of worship meant nothing to God. And then Jesus gave her information about true worship that we all need to understand.
• This is a message that is not understood down to this day. The broad church has built houses of worship and those places form the focus of worship for many churches and many people. But the truth of worshipping God and Jesus Christ has nothing to do with a place. Recall when Jesus walked the earth. He taught people wherever He happened to be, in the streets, in houses, in the wilderness in the open, by the seaside sitting in a boat, and sometimes in a synagogue. And you should note that a synagogue was not necessarily a place of worship as we know them today. The synagogue was a meeting place where people came together for many things. It was probably more like a community hall that was also used for religious worship on the sabbath.
• Actually building churches creates problems and takes the focus of worship away from true worship. Churches that build and own infrastructure are constantly seeking funds to build, repair, maintain, and purchase items they use in worship. Such things were never required or suggested by Jesus or any of the early apostles and disciples. In fact having bricks and mortar infrastructure takes the focus of the church away from true worship. It promotes pride and material things that are even opposed to true worship.
• Jesus never suggested a place of worship needed to be built. Even under the Old Covenant originally there was no specific place of worship. Moses was instructed to build a tent as the place of meeting where the people and priests could come before God. But the tent was packed up and moved with the people. It was mobile so they could take the meeting place with them. It was not until David was king that a permanent site for a temple was discussed, and it was not until Solomon that the Temple was first built. But we see in the next scriptures that true worship was never about a place of worship. It was about our relationship with God, and Jesus was pointing in that direction in His conversation with the woman at the well.

Scripture: John 4:23-24 – True Worship

• In these verses Jesus explains what true worship is and why it is the way to worship God. He explains that true worship is not about a place of worship. You don’t have to go anywhere specific to worship God. The true worshippers of God are those worshipping in spirit and truth. Worshipping in spirit and truth does not require a place of worship. It is about the power of faith and the working of the Holy Spirit.
• True worship requires that we learn the truth, and we are told elsewhere that Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life, and it is in His words that we find the truth. The Father pointed us to Jesus too. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain (See Mark 9:2-7) the Father spoke to Peter, James and John saying, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” Listen to Him because the words of Jesus are the words of truth that we need to learn, understand, and follow to be able to worship in spirit and truth.
• It is in the words of Jesus that we learn how we are to follow Him and to receive the Holy Spirit so that we can worship in spirit and truth. And nowhere in the words of the Father or Jesus Christ are we instructed to worship in buildings made by man. True worshippers worship God in spirit and truth.

Scripture: John 4:25-26 – Who is the Christ and Messiah?

• After all of the previous conversation the woman makes an interesting comment. She knows that the Messiah is coming and that He will make all things known. She was perhaps wondering who Jesus was and whether He might be the Messiah or Christ, given the things that He revealed to her. She stated that they were awaiting the Messiah, as were the Jews, and that when He came, the Messiah would reveal all things to them. Jesus was doing that with her and so we might presume she thought perhaps this was the Messiah standing and speaking to her. And that would be a reasonable assumption, especially seeing what she did after the conversation with Jesus when she returned to the nearby town of Sychar.
• What was different about the way Jesus handled her question was that He did not speak in riddles. He did not beat around the bush, as He sometimes did when the Jewish leaders asked the same questions. Those men did not believe in Him. They did not and would not have accepted Jesus as being the Messiah, because they were looking for a king and a leader to defeat the Romans. They did not accept that the Messiah could be the son of a carpenter, a humble man and a man of the people. But this woman was not like them. She had no agenda or expectations other than that the Messiah would make all things known to them.
• And Jesus told her plainly that He was the Messiah and Christ they were all waiting for. Clearly the woman was amazed and astounded at that revelation as we will see in the next sections that will be covered in the next post.

Prayer Points:

• Pray and ask God to guide you to understand the fullness of the way to worship God. Seek what it means to worship God in Spirit and truth, remembering the words of Jesus that God is spirit and those who worship Him MUST worship in spirit and truth.