True Worship, The Road Map To God

John 4: 21-24 Jesus replied, "Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming--indeed it's here now--when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth." (NLT)

The fourth chapter of John's Gospel tells the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. Often times we examine the nature of the woman, who had many husbands and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. But the conversation continues after that and turns to worship; a topic we often misunderstand in the modern church experience. Worship today is often reduced to a rote set of a couple of songs designed to fire up the congregation before the offering is taken and then the Word is preached. But unlike the hymns of old, which reverently spoke about the sinful nature of man, modern worship is littered with songs about the promises of God and what He can do for me. Additionally, while corporate worship is very important, so is personal worship, a topic often ignored in the modern church. What worship actually represents is a road map to the presence of God. It is what we offer to He who created us. Now that may fly in the face of the "Jesus is my ATM" theology we see today but worship is the only thing we truly "sacrifice" to our God. If you view leaving the things of the world to serve God as a sacrifice, then you misunderstand and do not appreciate what He has saved you from. But when you worship despite your pain and circumstances that is true sacrifice.

Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. And don't forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God. Hebrews 13: 15-16 (NLT)

Doing good and sharing with those in need pleases God and may be sacrificial to us, but the only sacrifice that goes to God directly is our worship. Let's examine the nature of worship as Jesus taught us in the key verses. The preceding verse in this story shows one of the disagreements between the Samaritans and the Jews:

So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?" John 4: 20 (NLT)

The Samaritans and Jews did not get along; at all. The Jews looked down upon them as half breeds because their blood was a mix of Jewish and Gentile. They hated the Samaritans. It was the Samaritans who tried to stop the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem during the days of Nehemiah. They believed only in the Torah and rejected the rest of the Old Testament. They built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, where they claimed Moses had instructed the Israelites to worship not Jerusalem. This is the point of contention the woman is asking Jesus about when we come to our key verses. Jesus teaches her that the location of your body is irrelevant when it comes to worshipping God. It is the location of your heart that matters.

Sometimes the spirit of the old feud between the Jews and Samaritans can creep into our being as well. We can look at someone else and their style of worship with disdain. It is not that the Jews or the Samaritans were insincere. They were very sincere and they were very sincerely wrong. Jesus goes on to clarify by stating two principles that must be present for true worship. The first is that we must worship in Spirit. Why? Because God is Spirit. We have as believers the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us:

Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 1Corinthians 3: 16 (NLT)

Worship cannot be some detached ritual we suffer through to get to the Word during a church service beloved. It has to be a method of entering into the presence that lives within us. Remember, it is the Spirit that interprets God's Word for us:

But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. 1Corinthians 2: 10 (NLT)

In order for your worship to be pleasing to God, your life needs to be pleasing to Him. Your life is the ultimate form of worship. The Jews at this time did not worship God in spirit. They over-relied upon the regulations of man and in doing so choked the true spirit of God out of their daily lives. Jesus rebuked them for such:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Matthew 23: 23-24 (NIV)

They were so busy upholding the law they neglected the very spirit of the lawgiver! Do you think God honors the raising of our hands on Sunday if we behave like hell on Monday? We see in the days of the Prophet Amos, Israel had lost the spirit of God. People were dishonest and the least in society were suffering. Amos brings a sobering Word from God:

"I hate all your show and pretense--the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.  I won't even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise!  I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. Amos 5: 21-24 (NLT)

The number one reason people do not come to church and dismiss Christianity is the hypocrisy shown by the church. When you bear the name of Jesus, your life has to back it up. Note the harsh criticism from God here and how it can easily be attributed to the modern church. We must be vigilant to make sure that our worship is not about being "show and pretense." To avoid the hypocrisy of solemnity and piety while our lives are whitewashed tombs. Oh Lord let our worship never resound in the ears of God as "noisy hymns of praise." We can sometimes get it backwards. We have no problem raising our hands on Sunday but we will work on the mighty flood of justice and endless river of righteous living tomorrow. God wants your life first, then your worship. That is worshipping Him in Spirit His Spirit.

But worshipping in Spirit is not enough. It is only half the answer. The second aspect of worship is that we must worship in truth as well. Look at the comparison Jesus draws for the Samaritan woman at the well. He explains to her that the Samaritans know very little about the one they worship while the Jews know all about Him. Neither is desirable however. We already saw that while the Jews knew everything about God, they did not operate in the Spirit of who He is. To some extent, God became an intellectual venture instead of a Spiritual one. That is the danger today of legalism. Where we take the teachings of God and intellectualize them into stringent rules, ignoring the very Spirit of the Lord.

The Samaritans on the other hand did not know much about the God they were worshipping. Their doctrine was flawed. They dismissed everything after the Torah thus dismissing a great portion of who God is. They were not worshipping in truth. There are some who think that all that matters is sincerity and they are mistaken. What we believe is extremely important to God. Doctrine is extremely important to God:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. 2Timothy 3: 16-17 (NLT)

Salad bar theology, where you pick and choose what parts of the Bible you want to believe and discard the rest, is not the will of God. To do so and then worship makes no sense because who are you worshipping? The Bible teaches us that God is His Word. The Samaritans dismissed the vast majority of the Old Testament, yet would go to their temple and worship the God they already dismissed! While that sounds crazy, realize that it is even worse today. Entire denominations that once followed the Word of God are now dismissing portions of it as being culturally irrelevant or "symbolic." When God talks about worshipping in Spirit He is talking about our lives. When He talks about worshipping in truth, He is talking about our doctrine:

Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1Timothy 4: 16 (NIV)

Realize that anything that deviates from the full teaching of the Bible is merely man recreating God in his own image. It is becoming more and more pervasive as we enter into these end times. God has warned us:

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 1Timothy 4: 1-2 (NIV)

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2Timothy 4: 3-4 (NIV)

A renowned mega church pastor with a congregation of over 7,000 people recently decided that there is no hell. We have denominations ordaining openly gay ministers. One of the oldest sects of Christianity recently decided that the story of creation and the garden were merely symbolic and not meant to be taken literally. Yet amidst all of this they still pretend to worship God.

Realize that pretending is what we do when our doctrine does not line up yet we raise our hands to worship. Who exactly are we worshipping? God, or the version of God we would prefer? I will be the first to admit that I do not understand everything God demands. I often have more questions than answers. But God has let me in on a little fact. Some things of God are on a need to know basis and He has assured me that I do not need to know! Isn't that faith at its essence? To want to understand something so bad but to go ahead and believe anyway and adhere it to your life?

Does our worship glorify God today or does it distract from Him? Are we performing turning in the altar for a stage? We need to ask ourselves the hard questions today. Is what we do in worship on Sunday exactly the way we would worship at home in our room, when no one is watching? Would we dress the same? Shout the same? Remember the key verse says that God is looking for worshippers but they must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Is our Spirit right before God? Do we first worship Him with our lives and then our words? Do we raise our lives up to Him, or just our hands? Secondly, is our doctrine right before God? Have we selected portions of His Word to ignore that make us uncomfortable? Have we allowed God to create us in His image or have we recreated Him in ours? Worship is not about raising our hands but about inclining our hearts. It is not singing the loudest but living the most harmonious. It stems not from a desire to be seen but from a desire to see. Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth is not just a Bible verse; it is a road map to God.

Reverend Anthony Wade October 14, 2011