Bring It

The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 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 seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Introduction

Today we start a new series about the role of the Holy Spirit in worship. My first or second year here I was in the midst of preaching a series on the Holy Spirit and I overheard 2 gentlemen talking over in the hall next door. One of them said something like this to the other, “Not getting much out of these sermons, that whole Holy Spirit thing kinda scares me and I don’t like to hear it preached.” At my first church I was asked to preach on the Holy Spirit because the Pastor before me refused to do it because it would only confuse people.

I am starting this series today because the worship team felt it was time to revisit the fundamentals of worship: spirit and truth. Today we will look at an important passage in all of the gospels about worship. let me give you a little context before we start to unpack this scripture.

Many of you probably know that the Samaritans and the Jews did not get along. The Samaritans were not Jews. The believed that only the first 5 books, that is the writings attributed to Moses were the only inspired authoritative word of God. They believed the proper place to worship was Mount Gerizim and this is based on Deuteronomy

Deut 11:

Deuteronomy 11:29 NRSV

When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

Deuteronomy 27:12 NRSV

When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim for the blessing of the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

Of course the Jews thought it was Mt Zion in Jerusalem. Also, when Alexander the great controlled the Middle East he helped the Samaritans build a Temple for YHWH. In 129BC the Jews led by the high priest John Hyrcanus destroyed that temple. So you can see why all the animosity between the two groups that claimed descendence from Abraham and worshiped YHWH. In fact the Samaritan said they were form the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh In Jesus time even with the Samaritan temple gone the Samaritan High priest still conducted sacrifices on the mountain.

The fact that Jesus traveled through Samaria would have rendered him and his disciples unclean!

it would be a good idea to point out that the Samaritans expected a Messiah too. They called the Messiah The Taheb or another Moses, the Taheb was found in Torah especially

Deuteronomy 18:15–18 NRSV

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.” Then the Lord replied to me: “They are right in what they have said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.

The did not ascribe any authority to the prophets so all there theology around The Taheb was based on Torah.

Today there are roughly 800 Samaritans left and they still recognize Mt Gerizim as the only place to worship. Here you see them climbing Mt Gerizim for the Feast of tabernacles

Exegesis

In biblical context this story follows Jesus encounter with Nicodemus. if you recall Nicodemus had no idea what jesus was talking about when he said you must be born from above. Jesus was somewhat amazed the Nicodemus well educated and a teacher could not understand what Jesus was talking about. This is an interesting contrast with a Samaritan woman who understands and goes away from this conversation as an evangelist in the village! You can see how this story would be scandalous! And John was writing for a Jewish Christian audience! More on the significance on that later.

We came into the story in the middle. Jesus has decide to go through Samaria as a short cut back to Galilee from Jerusalem. Most Jews would have taken the longer route. He stops at Jacob’s well to get a drink (Mount Gerizim would have been in view. As he stops a samaritan woman arrives at a strange time. Water was usually collected in the morning, but she comes in the afternoon. This is odd, and would indicate that she is probably a kind of outcast. I am not goin to talk anymore about that because it would led us down a rabbit trail. We are going o talk about worship. Jesus asks for her to get him a drink. The woman quickly points out that Jesus is breaking a lot of taboos by being a Jew and asking a Samaritan woman for help! Jesu tells her about living water, tells her to go get her husband. She replies that I have no husband. Jesus replies you are right for you’ve had 5 husbands and the man you are living with now is not your husband. Now we reached our text.

She replies, I see that you are a prophet. Is he the Taheb, she is probably thinking to herself. So she asks a question about worship.

John 4:19–20 NRSV

The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”

John 4:19 NRSV

The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.

It is important to point out that you here is actually plural, all ya’ll we say here in the south. She of course is referring to the Jews.

Jesus tells here, The hour is coming, in fact its here, that where you worship will not matter its how you worship that will matter. True worshippers will worship in truth and spirit, and the Father seeks those that worship in that manner.

Application

For John’s community of Jewish Christ followers these were words of comfort. First the see that Jesus includes everyone in the gospel no one is shut out, even a Samaritan women who has had 5 husbands. Even though they had been thrown out of the synagogue, they will see that Jesus still accepts them as they are. Second, they learn that they do not have to be in the synagogue to worship because God is not confined to a place. Now, John’s gospel, the majority of scholars believe, was written around 100AD, some 30 years after the destruction of the temple. Most of the Rabbis blamed the Jewish followers of Jesus caused that to happen. In other words it was God’s punishment for allowing those heretics in the Temple and synagogue.

When Jesus says hour he is referring to his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. So the hour is coming but is now here when true worshippers will worship in Spirit and truth. True worship can only take place only in and thorugh him because he is the true temple, the resurrection and the life.

John 2:19–22 NRSV

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus is the truth and God is the Spirit. The Holy Spirit. For us today, I want you to listen closely. If God seeks those who worship in truth and Spirit, that means we need to bring that on Sunday. We are here to give worship, not to receive anything. This isn’t about us, it is about giving God our love. It is about laying ourselves pn the altar. I will say in the communion liturgy this morning

When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

We are the sacrifice on this altar. We sacrifice ourselves to live as jesus would have us to live. This is Spirit and truth.

God is not going to show up here if we are not worshiping in Spirit and truth. he’s not goin to show up anywhere. I have preached in front of congregations that are dead. No Spirit no truth, and I assure you God is there but no one is in touch with Him at all. it is difficult to preach to those kind of audiences, in fact its impossible.

(Wesley Chapel change of Services)

We are here to lay all on the alter for God, in our worship we give it up for Jesus. In our consumerist culture when we are always looking for what is in it for us, worship is counter cultural. You cannot say I got nothing out of worship, you can say I gave God in worship all I had today.

Introduce Quote

"Rob told us that worship isn't the praise band entertaining the crowd, instead, GOD is our AUDIENCE. It sent shivers up and down my spine, and it still is right now. I mean, to think that I have been sooo clueless! I always want to sing the songs and mean it, but ahh!, I'll try to explain. I pictured God sitting there, watching me and expecting my whole heart.

And I finally understood the awesomeness of God. I mean, you always hear in the Old Testament how people tremble in fear of God, but I never got it. I never understood the fearful concept. And it is a wonderful thing to experience. To feel that you KNOW God is there, watching you. And that he always is.

But it hit me really hard. And I realized that sometimes I act like its about me. When its not at all. I love praise and recognition. I love it when people say good job and that was great and all of that good stuff. But that isn't the reason I do it at all.

My whole perspective has been turned around and I realize that I am here to please GOD, my CREATOR, my FATHER, my ALMIGHTY. Think of it. ALMIGHTY. What a powerful word that can be treated so lightly. But its true. He's big and he's wonderful. This may seem totally wack to some of you out there, but its true and I believe it with my whole heart. I can't believe that I go through all of these wonderful songs without really considering the words.

As David Glenn says in "High and Exalted": "He is high and exalted and worthy of praise." Goodness gracious. That is soo true. In a sense I'm glad I didn't have the opportunity to share this at "campfire" (haha we were INSIDE), because if I did, it wouldn't be right.

Kinda like how Rob said he thinks he loses his voice because God wants to talk too, or something like that. I guess that's it. And I'm glad that I can go out into the world now and worship all the time in everything I do."

Worship is a lifestyle. We should live our lives as if everyday is Sunday. That is what God created us for and what we must do. All the time. All week long.