Heart of Worship: 30 Days to Deeper PraiseSample

It’s Essential Worship, and today we are diving into a daunting Scripture, John 4, as we discuss Jesus and the Samaritan woman’s conversation on worship.

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth,” (John 4:21-24 NIV).

The famous story of the “Woman At The Well” opens with Jesus needing to go through Samaria. Key word here: need. The truth was, pious Jews would take the long way from Jerusalem to Galilee (circling around) just to avoid the Samaritans. No one really “needed” to go through Samaria - nor did they even want to. Samaritans were considered “half-breeds” in that time period because they were half-Jewish and half-Gentile. They were people from a generation that had intermarried with foreigners placed by the Assyrians whenever the northern kingdom of Israel was overthrown - thus disobeying God’s direct command, “do not intermarry with them,” given to the Jews in Deuteronomy 7:3 (NIV). Most importantly to know, within this context, Samaritans were hated - especially by the most religious of the Jews.

Any Rabbi would have avoided going through Samaria, as would most Jews, and yet, John 4:4 (NIV) says that Jesus “had to go through Samaria,”. Why? Because Jesus knew there were people worth saving there!

While waiting for the disciples to return with food, Jesus strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan woman drawing water at the well in Sychar (there is so much we could talk about here - but for today, we are going to talk about the Scripture above). Jesus and the woman end up discussing the concept of worship and our Lord had some profound things to say on the topic.

“Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem,” (v. 21).

Samaritans believed that Mount Gerazim was commissioned by Moses as the place to worship (rather than Jerusalem, the proper place). It was considered the holiest place for Samaritans - and the location that they believed that Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac. Yet, the Jews knew that the only dwelling place of the Lord was in the temple in Jerusalem - deep within the “holy of holies”. This entire argument was a huge moment of contention between Jews in Samaritans for generations. Yet, Jesus unravels it in a single sentence, “a time is coming…”.

For many years, God The Father could only be worshipped in a single spot (Jerusalem for the Jews and Mount Gerazim for the Samaritans). While Jesus acknowledges that the Samaritans are worshipping with only partial truth about where God is dwelling - after all, Jesus was a Jewish man who honored the presence of the Father in the temple - He also declares that a new time was upon them.

What time is this? A time for the veil to be torn and the Spirit of the Lord to dwell everywhere. Jesus was the Son of God - and He was on the move.

Not only was this good news for the Woman at The Well - but it’s actually INCREDIBLE news for us today as believers. It means that we no longer have to be sitting in a church pew in our Sunday best to worship the Lord or journey the whole way to Israel to offer the Lord our prayers.

Instead, we can worship Him in cars, in offices, on bathroom floors, in hospitals, at the lake, on the couch and wherever else we go. Location no longer matters, but instead worshiping “in the Spirit and in truth” is the type of worship “the Father seeks”. The Enduring Word Commentary puts it this way, instead of focusing so much on outward sacrifices or places, we focus on “spiritual realities”. And instead of focusing on a few books of the Bible or religious experiences, we focus on “the whole counsel of God’s Word”.

Our God is everywhere and so worthy of our praise!!

Application:

Have you ever been so focused on the things of God - that you actually miss God? So focused on serving, getting to Church on time, and checking Bible reading off your list that you actually miss the whole point?

If this resonates, take a moment to pray with us: Lord, we repent of the ways we have fallen short in worshipping You in Spirit and Truth. Show us a better way. We want to be Your children who truly know You and worship You for all that You are. We love You, and we want to shift our eyes to You and only You. Bring us back to You. Amen.

Go in peace today! He is worthy of our praise, may we all worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.