Worship in Songland: Worship in Spirit and Truth
Pastor Cole Parleir
Main Scripture
John 4:1-42
“Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on 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 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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" They went out of the town and were coming to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."”
John 4:1-42 ESV
The Point
Those who profess to worship God MUST do so in Spirit and in truth, coming into the light of Christ to do so. These are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.
1) God is spirit, so we must worship in spirit
a) What is not worshipping in spirit?
i) Lip service and ministry won't cut it
(1) “"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”- Matthew 7:21-23 ESV
ii) Going to the right place at the right time won’t cut it
(1) “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”- John 4:20-21 ESV
iii) Circumcision, a Jesus tattoo, or a bumper sticker won’t cut it
(1) “Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”- Romans 2:27-29 ESV
iv) Good deeds won’t cut it
(1) “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”- Romans 3:20 ESV
v) Money won’t cut it
(1) “"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”- Matthew 23:23 ESV
vi) Any ole Sacrifice/gift
(1) “"What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. "When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.”- Isaiah 1:11-13 ESV
b) What is worshipping in Spirit?
i) The interior life, the “secret life” away from man’s approval
(1) Clean hands and Pure heart
(a) “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah”- Psalms 24:3-6 ESV
(2) Our bodies as a living sacrifice
(a) “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.”- Romans 12:1 ESV
2) God is truth, so we must worship in truth as revealed through creation, the prophets of the Old Testament, and perfectly in the incarnation of His one and only Son Jesus the Christ.
a) The Samaritan woman was wrong in her understanding of the OT scriptures, wrong about God’s choosing of the Jewish nation to bring forth His Word, His prophets, and all this would lead her to ultimately missing the Messiah (the savior).
i) Because God Loves this woman Jesus had to correct her saying that Salvation comes from the Jews or she would not have recognized him as the savior.
3) God is light, so we must worship in the light
a) 1 John 1:5-10 ESV
i) “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” - 1 John 1:5-10 ESV
b) Darkness is not a thing, it’s the absence of a thing. It’s the absence of light. Death is not a thing, it’s the absence of life.
c) Jesus brought the Samaritan woman into the light so she could live and worship in Spirit and in truth
i) How did he do this?
(1) His presence just being with her. “The ministry of presence”.
(a) Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
(b) This in itself (Jesus being present) drove out shame because he was willing to associate with her until she was ready to surrender to the light of the truth of who He is and what that means for her as a sinner, as a Samaritan, and becoming a saint.
(2) His prophetic word of knowledge revealing her past and her present so that she can come into Jesus’ future of worship for her
(a) Jesus reveals the secrets of her heart disclosing her past and present so she will know that Father God sees her. She can ‘truthfully’ worship Him as the Son of God declaring that God is among them. This is Jesus ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit as described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor 14:24-25 ESV
(i) “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.” 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 ESV
Quotes
“Missions exists because worship doesn’t” - John Piper
“Don’t forget in the dark what God has shown you in the light”- Dan Staldorf
Application
Are you worshipping the Father in Spirit and truth? Do you have His Spirit in you guiding you into all truth? If not, or you’re not sure, prayer this prayer that King David prayed:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
Psalms 139:23-24 ESV
Now, tell your Heavenly Father you’re tired of being in spiritual darkness stumbling through life and that you want to be with Him in the light. Lay your old sinful and deceitful heart open before Him confessing you’ve been in the dark and that you now believe He sent His one and only son Jesus into the world to be the light of the world. Tell him you accept Jesus’ perfect life and sacrificial death on the cross in exchange for your sinful life and that God the Father raised Him from the dead. Tell Him you accept Jesus as Lord of your life moving forward. If you do, He promises to give you a new clean heart and the gift of the Holy Spirit TODAY to live inside of you and help you lead a new life worshipping Him in Spirit and truth.
More scriptures to meditate on
Psalms 139:11-12 ESV
“If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
https://www.bible.com/59/psa.139.11-12.esv
John 8:12 ESV
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."”
https://www.bible.com/59/jhn.8.12.esv
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 ESV
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
https://www.bible.com/59/2co.4.3-6.esv
Second City Church - Worship In Songland - Pastor Cole Parleir 2019