We've been talking together about what it means to be a believer priest.
One of the responsibilities that we have as priests unto God is that of worship.
A.W. Tozer has said that worship is the missing jewel in the evangelical church, and if that
is in fact the case, then I believe that we ought to search diligently for that precious
treasure and seek to add the understanding of what it means to our lives as well as the
action to our lives.
We've seen in previous study together that worship simply means giving honor and glory
to God that is due him, because of who he is and what he has done. It is a scribing
worth to God. And how shall we do that?
Well, if something is done more than just in one service or two services a week, we
have tried to show you that from the word of God's standpoint, real worship is a way
of life. It means to live well pleasing to the Lord. Last Sunday night we noted in a
number of passages how we live well pleasing to him. We live a life of worship which is
well pleasing to God when we are considerate for other believers, especially those who
are weaker in the faith, according to Romans chapter 14. We live a life of worship that
is well pleasing to the Lord when we are involved in winning the lost, Romans chapter 15.
A life that is well pleasing to the Lord and is therefore a life of worship is one that
is a life that gives, including the giving of substance, of money, to the work of the
Lord, Philippians chapter 4. It means also to conform my lifestyle to the qualities of
goodness, righteousness, and truth, Ephesians chapter 5.
And finally it means to conduct myself with a seriousness about life. Not that I am to
go around half depressed, but there is to be a gravity, a seriousness about my attitude
toward the way that I live. I should recognize the preciousness of life, 1 Timothy chapter
2. Now if I live that way, it means that when I get together with you on Sunday, that the
worship service is simply going to be the overflow of my heart and your heart. That's
what worship, corporate worship is. It is the overflow of our hearts because of the
overflow of our hearts because of the way that we have been living the whole last week.
It should not be a disruption or a change in us as we come to church. It is a very natural
thing for us to do, to share together in the worship of our Lord. And we have seen too
that worship is a divine priority. It ought to come before our walk with God, it ought
to come before our work for God, worship. I was noting this evening that as soon as
Noah and his family got off the ark, what was the first thing they did? They built an
altar and they worshiped God. The very first thing they did. When Abram left Ur of the
Chaldees and got into the land that God had promised him, what was the first thing that
he did? As soon as he got to Shechem, he built an altar. And then he traveled on to Bethel
and there he built an altar. Worship is God's priority for our lives. It's a daily priority,
I hope for all of us. Not just those few minutes that we can spend in prayer and in study of
the word, but daily in our lifestyle, worship of God is to be the priority, to live well-pleasing
to him. Perhaps the key to true worship is discovered in John chapter 4. I'm going to
ask you to turn there with me to look again at the conversation that Jesus had with the
woman at the well in Samaria. This well is located at Shechem where Abram built his first
altar. John chapter 4. We'll start in verse 5.
So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave
to his son Joseph, and Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being worried from his journey,
was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria
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, therefore, said to him, How is it that you,
being a Jew, ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings
with Samaritans? Jesus answered and said to her, 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 given you
living water. And she said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep. Where then do you get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob,
are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus
answered and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever
drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall
give him shall become in him a well of water, springing up to eternal life. The woman said
to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way
here to draw. He said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered
and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have well 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. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our
fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming
when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. You worship
that which you do not know. We worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father
in spirit and truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers. God is spirit,
and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Let's bow together. Lord,
our prayer is that as we come to this text, that you would show us truth here, and then
that you would apply that to our lives so that we may be true worshippers. In Jesus'
name, amen. Two simple questions I'd like to approach
tonight as we look at the text that we've read. The first one is, whom are we to worship
if we are to be true worshippers of God? Secondly, how then am I to worship? First, who am I
to worship if I am to be a true worshipper, as Jesus puts it? Well, he says twice here,
you shall worship the Father. Do you notice that? Verse 21, verse 23. Verse 21 says, the
hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father.
Verse 23, the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. And then in
verse 24, he gives us a further insight. He says, God is spirit. So in answer to the question,
whom am I to worship? The answer is, I am to worship the Father who is spirit. I believe
it's significant that Jesus uses the term Father again and again as he speaks to people.
This term Father is filled with meaning. It is a term of dearness and intimacy which
our Lord wants us to know with God. When we think of one who is Father, we think of one
who is in the first place a begetor, who is the source of something, or who is the progenitor
of the family. I believe that thought is involved here. Jesus told his disciples when they pray,
they should say, our what? Our Father. After his resurrection, he said to his disciples
through Mary, I ascend to my Father and your Father. And then he said, I ascend to my Father
and your Father. In the Old Testament, the Jews could not call God their Father in a
personal sense. He was the Father of the nation of Israel. God identified himself as Father
to them, as a people, as a corporate body. But our Lord wants us to know that we may
call him Father personally. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians, I beg you, please, please,
the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians, I bow my knees before the Father from whom the whole
family, in heaven and on earth, derives its name. God the Father is the progenitor of
a spiritual family. He causes us to be born into his family through the word of God which
is implanted in us and by the quickening of the Holy Spirit when we trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. We at that moment become a part of his family. And that family, as Paul says,
is right now divided between heaven and earth. There are many who are in heaven. There are
those of us who are still on the earth. But we are one family, God's family. Again, in
Galatians 4, the Apostle says, Because you are sons, notice that, because you are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son in our hearts, crying, Abba, what? Father. And
so when we speak to our fathers because he is our begetter, he is the one who has caused
us to be born anew. And then when we think of Father, we think of one who has authority.
And that, too, is appropriate. The Apostle, again in Ephesians 3, says, There is one God
and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. The first phrase there
says he is above all. All authority is the Father's and he has committed it to the Son.
And then when we think of the word Father, we think of one who provides, don't we? And
that's why Jesus said in the prayer for the disciples, Our Father, give us this day our
daily bread. He wants us to realize that our Father is our provider. Again, the Apostle
says, I bow to the Father that he would grant you. And then he talks about strength in the
inner man, the spiritual needs that we have. He is our provider. Again, in Timothy, he
writes about God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. God wants us to enjoy
life to its fullest and he provides for us so that we might. And so whom are we to worship?
We are to worship the Father. But it says we are to worship the Father who is Spirit.
That is a key verse in the Bible telling us of God's essential nature that God is Spirit.
It means in other words that he does not have a body of flesh and bones despite what the
Mormons say. He is Spirit. He is immaterial. As the Apostle says it again to Timothy, immortal
invisible God. He is the eternal, unchanging, living Spirit who is everywhere, present at
all times. It's not that he can be everywhere when he wants to be, but it is that at every
instant he is everywhere. He is omnipresent. And he is that because he is Spirit. And so
that affects our worship. We are to worship the Father who is Spirit, who is everywhere
present all at the same time. I've heard some people say, well yes, I sure agree with that
and I don't have to go to church to worship. I can go out in the woods in my backyard and
worship. I don't have to go to church. Have you ever had people say that to you? Sure,
I guess we all have. But the fact is that that is not true. Although the Father who
is Spirit is everywhere present at once, he has commanded us not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together, hasn't he? And the fact is that in a very special sense he dwells
in the church though he is everywhere present. In the Old Testament there was the tabernacle
and then the temple. It wasn't that God confined himself to that one place, but that
was the place where the people were to focus upon for his presence. He was everywhere present
in the Old Testament too. Today we do not say that God dwells in this building. He does
when you are here, but he leaves with you. Because you see today the temple of God is
not the church, the structure. It is the church, the body, the people. We are a living temple.
Keep your finger here in John 4 and go over to Ephesians chapter 2 for a moment. Ephesians
chapter 2. I'll begin reading in verse 19. Previously
we have looked at the preceding verses in conjunction with our peace with God. But in
verse 19 he goes on to say, So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are
fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. Having been built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom
the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. There is
truth here that I'm sure is far beyond our ability to comprehend, but let's notice at
least this. That you and I in this age are the dwelling place of God. And that as his
people when we gather together for corporate worship, there is a very special sense in
which he is here. We are his living temple. We are like living stones that are being fitted
into place for his dwelling in the Spirit. So when you and I gather for worship, it is
in a very special sense that we say God is present. He is present because we are here,
not because he lives in this place. Who are we to worship then? We are to worship the
Father who is Spirit. Now a word concerning the Son. It is impossible to worship the Father
who is Spirit and to fail to worship God the Son, Jesus Christ. They are identified together
as being one in essence. So one cannot say I worship God, but I reject Jesus Christ.
That is impossible. No man has seen the Father at any time. Why? Because he is Spirit. But
the only begotten Son has led him forth expounded so that we can understand God and see him,
so that we can say he who has seen the Son has seen the Father. They are one in essence.
Have you ever noticed the times when there is a phrase like the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ? Before coming over tonight, I started going through the introductions
to Paul's epistles. Do you know that in every single one of them, without exception,
there is that phrase or one very, very close to it? He speaks about God the Father and
our Lord Jesus Christ, or God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As soon as he begins
writing his inspired epistles, the Apostle wants us to notice that we cannot separate
God the Father from God the Son. So as we gather for worship, we are not worshiping
the Father who is Spirit to the exclusion of God the Son. We worship them as the triune
God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But Jesus, as he expresses
our worship, says we are to worship the Father. That is a general statement. Likewise, generally
we are commanded to pray to the Father. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with addressing
a prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ or to praying to God the Spirit. But that is the exception
rather than the rule. Most of our praying should be directed to the Father through the
Son by the empowering of the Spirit. We worship God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Then in answer to the second question, how then are we to worship? I want you to notice
what Jesus says in John chapter 4. He says, verse 23, the true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and truth. Again in verse 24, those who worship him must worship in
spirit and truth. Two important phrases that we want to look at briefly. What does it mean
to worship the Father in spirit? Well, we have already said that God cannot be confined
to a building. The purpose of the Old Testament tabernacle and later the temple, the purpose
of the Old Testament ritual and ceremony was simply to stimulate and to focus worship.
That is why there were times when God told the people, don't bring me your sacrifices,
bring me your repentant hearts. God was not as concerned about the ceremony as he was
the heart. He instituted the ceremony. He had them construct the building so that their
focus of worship would be on him. But unfortunately the Jews caused their worship later to focus
on the ritual and the building and forsook the God who instituted it. How capable we
all are of that, of maintaining the form, the outward, the ritual and forsaking the
living worship of the living God. It's true when we come to the Lord's Supper. There
are some people who give an undue emphasis to the elements of the Lord's Supper. There
are those who say that it becomes the body and blood of Christ. There are those who say
that there is some mystical presence with the elements, that Christ is with them in
his body and his blood in some way, though they don't become literally body and blood.
The former position is the one of the Roman Catholic Church. The latter position is the
Lutheran position. One is called transubstantiation, which means that these elements are changed
into the body and the blood of Christ. The other is consubstantiation, which means that
he is present with these elements in some mystical sense that is rather undefinable.
We believe the Bible teaches neither of these positions, but that rather the Bible says
that these elements are only elements. These elements are given to us so that our focus
may be upon Jesus Christ. We don't want to focus upon what we are doing to the exclusion
of the Lord. Rather, we want to allow these elements to bring us into his presence in
a very special sense so that we remember him as he commanded us to. God intends for this
to prod and to stimulate the heart to worship. He says, this do in remembrance of me. In
other words, what we are about to do tonight is to cause us to remember him, to concentrate
our focus upon him, to worship him. We worship not in rituals or in ceremonies or in symbols.
We do not worship in a temple. We do not come to a church building because God is here,
but rather we are to worship in spirit. That suggests, says John MacArthur, that God is
to be worshiped everywhere at all times by his people. We don't have to be here to worship.
We may worship anywhere and at all times. If the day should come, God forbid, that in
this land we would lose our freedom of worship. We might as well gather under a tree somewhere
and worship there. God will be just as present in that case without the organ and the piano
and the pews and the roof as he is present with us now. Because he is present as we gather
together. We are his temple. We are to worship in spirit. And we are to be careful as we
come to ceremony. We come to elements like this. Not to focus upon them as an end in
themselves, but to allow these things to bring us into the presence of the living Christ
as we focus on him. And then he says we are to worship not only in spirit, but in truth.
I believe what that means is that the true worshiper recognizes the truth about himself
and God. I believe that this Samaritan woman was short on both counts here. Her worship
was not one in spirit. She wanted to argue about where to worship. Whether in this mountain,
Mount Gerizim to the Samaritans, or in that mountain in Jerusalem. She was hung up on
the place. And so Jesus says if you are going to truly worship the Father, you have to worship
in spirit. And then she wanted to look over her sin. To put it under the rug so to speak.
As she talked about worshiping God. It was a matter of an intellectual conversation.
She didn't want to go much deeper than that. The ritual was fine to talk about, but that
was the farthest she wanted to go. Nonetheless Jesus said go call your husband. And immediately
he unmasked her hypocrisy. The truth was revealed. And so then she could become a candidate
as she faced herself and she faced God for being a true worshiper. For a true worshiper
worships in spirit and in truth. One who worships God today must worship in truth. Men attempt
to put God on their own level. Sometimes we do that too, don't we? Sometimes read Psalm
51 and notice what God says to his people in that psalm. It condemns the outward. It
condemns the ritual. The superficial religion. God expresses his concern there about those
who talk about his covenant and yet who deny him in the way that they live. And he says
to his people, your folly is that you thought that I was just like you. You thought that
you could live like you wanted to and that I would accept that. He condemns them for
that attitude. And men today still attempt to create God in their own image. But God
demands that true worshipers see him as he really is. That they learn the truth about
him. And how is he? What is the truth about God? The fact is that he is glorious in his
holiness. Perhaps that is the brightest diamond of all of God's attributes. God's holiness.
Worship brings a confrontation with sin in my life. I believe that is what Jesus did
with this woman. He confronted her with her sin. And when I come to worship God day in
and day out, as I meet with you for corporate worship, it brings me into a confrontation
with sin in my life. And I see myself as I really am. That is what happened to Isaiah,
isn't it? As he was confronted with who God really is, he saw himself as he really
was. And he fell on his face and cried out, woe is me. I am an unclean man. Wasn't that
Job's experience as well? He says, I have heard of you with the hearing of my ear, but
now my eye has seen you. Wherefore I retract myself and I repent in dust and ashes. What
happened to Job? He saw himself as he really was. You see, worship does that when we worship
in truth. And so the genuine, the true worshipper sees God as he is and sees himself as he the
worshipper really is. And that brings him to a point of genuine worship. As we come
to the Lord's table tonight, that should be our experience. Having worshipped with God
through this week and having met together in the fellowship of worship on this Lord's
Day, we now come to the Lord's table when we will be brought to a realization of the
price that was paid for our redemption from sin. And we see the holiness of God as it
is reflected in these elements. His holiness demanding a perfect sacrifice for our sin.
That sacrifice being the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, as
we come to this table, we see ourselves as we really are. As needy people. People who
by the grace of God have been justified and redeemed. But people nonetheless who need
cleansing in our daily walk. This is a good time for us to examine ourselves as we are
commanded in scripture. So that as we come to this table, we come with prepared hearts
so that we may be true worshipers. Let's bow together.
Heavenly Father, help us to be true worshipers. To understand what that means as we meditate
on it. Then to practice true worship. We confess that so often our worship revolves around
place. It revolves around material things, even like these elements that we're about
to partake of. Teach us what it means to worship in spirit. And then teach us what it means
to worship in truth. Cause us to see you as you really are, glorious in holiness. And
deliver us from self deceit so that we may see ourselves as we really are. Allow that
then to bring us into confession and humility before you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
As the men come and as we prepare for this time, I'm going to ask you just to sit and
pray.