John 4: 16-45

Timothy Ainilian

Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

John 4:23–24

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A. God condescends to us through the work of his son, by taking on flesh. He not only to the woman at the well who was a Samaritan, a woman and immoral, and he went to her. He does the same for us.

b. Jesus is the living water.

The woman is utterly hopeless as a human in sin. She has no hope of righteousness, is confused on what she believes, is an outcast from society. In the quiet and peace of the height of the day, when all else were seeking refuge from the hot desert, Jesus reaches this woman through the power of the holy spirit.

A. Verse 16. Jesus just told her there is something she needs, and its free, absolutely free. There is not a thing she can do to earn it. The woman is still responding with disbelief, incredulity, sarcasm.

Jesus here is going to turn the table on her, he changes the discourse. “Go call your husband”. Jesus knows her heart, he knows her sin, and now he calls attention to it. He knows that she needs the free gift of salvation. But first He needs to deal with her sin. We need to take note of this. We absolutely have a duty to go around proclaiming the great and amazing and free gift of salvation in Christ, but not at the expense of calling attention to people’s sin. It is sin that separates us from God. It does this in 3 ways

Sin brings us under God’s Judgement: ....”And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done”…we need to deal with our sin, the world needs to know about their sin. But they think “I am a good person...” they don’t see themselves as sinners worthy of judgement. already condemned

....And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done

Sin separates us from God because it offends and repels Gods holiness, His holy nature. .... “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”

And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men

Sin separates us from God because it makes us uneasy in his presence. Think of when adam and eve sinned, they hid themselves. The bad news must come in addition to the good news.

Jesus is the lamb of God. Jesus is the one who takes our sin upon himself. The woman needs the free gift, and Jesus will give it to her, but it must come with the realization of what he also takes. Jesus came to this woman to deal with her sin. Indeed, Jesus came into the world to deal with all sin. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says:

John, Volumes 1 & 2 Our Sin Separates Us from God

A gospel which merely says “Come to Jesus,” and offers Him as a Friend, and offers a marvellous new life, without convicting of sin, is not New Testament evangelism. The essence of evangelism is to start by preaching the law; and it is because the law has not been preached that we have had so much superficial evangelism.… This means that we must explain that mankind is confronted by the holiness of God, by His demands, and also by the consequences of sin.

The person who will not admit to sin, who does not admit they are a sinner, is worthy of the fiery judgment of God. and 10 000 years of hell will not be enough to satisfy the debt you owe to God. You must admit to the bad news of sin before you can hear the good news of salvation.

The Woman’s response

The woman is completely startled by Jesus’ piercing knowledge of her innermost, deepest personal thoughts and deeds. (do not for one minute forget that our lord may see the same in us). The woman now sees in Jesus the super natural making of a prophet. She feels a need to atone, to repent. But she doesn’t know what she believes. And so, she asks where the right place to worship is.

“you worship what you do not know” Jesus is saying the samaritans are confused. They have the pentateuch, but have mixed it with many other paganistic religions. The object of their worship was unknown. They do not know the true God of Israel due to lacking the whole scripture of God. Israel was knowledgeable of true worship because of scripture and what God had revealed about himself through it. The Jews were God’s chosen: for the preservation of the scriptures, the line that the messiah would come through. Jews rightly understood that God was the object of their worship.

But the Jews despised the nations around them rather than evangelizing to them.

Most people are like this woman and approach religion in much the same way. All humans are worshipping something. We were made that way. But, they do not understand what they worship, and worship the wrong object. The point is that true religion of Christianity is based on the revealed Word of God.

Worship in Spirit

Jesus tells her again that not only is the hour coming but is now here. People will worship in spirit. God is a spirit means that God is invisible, divine as opposed to human, life giving and unknowable to human beings unless he chooses to reveal himself. As “God is light, and God is love”, (1 jn 1:5, 4:8) so God is spirit: these are elements in the way god presents himself to human beings, in his gracious self disclosure in his son. And he has chosen to reveal himself: he has uttered his word i, His own self expression.

“ 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”().

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

().

D.A. Carson’s Pillar commentary states:

Phillips, R. D. (2014). John. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (1st ed., Vol. 1, p. 240). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

“Both in v.23 and v.24, the one preposition ‘in’ governs both nouns. There are not two separable characteristics of the worship that must be offered: it must be ‘in spirit and truth’, ie, essentially God-centered, made possible by the gift of the Holy Spirit and in personal knowledge of and conformity to Gods’s Word-made-flesh, the one who is God’s ‘truth’, the faithful exposition and fulfilment of God and his saving purposes.”

Worship in spirit is sincere and God-directed as opposed to worshipping ourselves and wanting to get something out of worship for ourselves. I will use zech 7:5 as an example. An earlier generation had been sent into captivity and Jerusalem destroyed, all as God’s chastening judgement for their sins. But God was faithful to his promise to restore a remnant and rebuild the temple. As this came closer to completion, a delegation of jews arrived and asked if they could stop the fasting and weeping that had developed during the exile. Now that God had restored them, the wanted to stop. God replies: “

English Standard Version Chapter 7

5 “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted

It would be useful to define worship:

Worship (Heb. verb ˓āḇaḏ, noun ˓aḇōḏâ; Gk. proskynéō; Saxon weorthscipe “worthship”).† To pay homage to or, literally, to ascribe worth to some person or thing, Hence, worship embraces the whole of the reverent life, including piety and liturgy

Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p. 1067). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

liturgy is to mean public worship

So it seemed that all their worship was for their own benefit. And this is where we must be so very careful as a church, as individuals: unless our worship is offered in sincerity to God, for his pleasure and Glory, out of love and trust in Him, God rejects it, as he rejected it from the Jews. :

English Standard Version Chapter 5

21 “I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

I will not look upon them.

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

24 But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

A.W. Pink quotes: “ Worship is a redeemed heart occupied with God, expressing itself in adoration and thanksgiving.”

2 examples: The man who works tirelessly at his job, goes above and beyond what is required, because the Lord has given him the work, and we are to work as if unto the Lord, and not unto men.

Worship is a redeemed heart occupied with God, expressing itself in adoration and thanksgiving.

The mother who tirelessly raises her children at home, unnoticed, unapplauded, in fact ridiculed by the world, if done for christ, with gratitude to God and desiring of his pleasure, it spiritual worship.

Phillips, R. D. (2014). John. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (1st ed., Vol. 1, p. 256). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

To worship in spirit is two fold: 1. it condemns anything that is self-centered. 2. It exalts everything we do as truly done unto God. To worship in spirit is a requirement for worshipping God.

John piper: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him”

Worship in truth

The first commandment says to “You shall have no other gods before me”. Doesn’t this require us to know who God is, to know what is true and untrue about Him??? So much of God’s character is revealed to us in the OT. But how often do you hear misconceptions of God?

God my cosmic bellhop

big guy in the sky

distant “greek” type god, zeus, rolling dice and playing with his world

unable to control…’where was god’

Hebrews 12:28-29

Hebrews 12:28–29 LEB

Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be thankful, through which let us serve God acceptably, with awe and reverence. For indeed our God is a consuming fire.

English Standard Version Chapter 12

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

A wrong view of God is the root of idolatry and false worship

example

Cain: failed to bring a blood sacrifice and was turned away by God

Nadab and Abihu brought unauthorized fire and “died before the Lord”

Golden calf made by Aaron

the calf and feast were offered to “Yahweh”. Yet, the israelites worshipped the true God in a false way, according to their designs, and God was furious!

What things are done today in church in order to satisfy the masses, the attendees, and not directed to God? Folks, worship is not a mindless activity. We must set our mind on God, on His will, and on his truth.

John 8:32 LEB

and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 17:3 LEB

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Romans 12:2 LEB

And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may approve what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.

Hebrews 8:10 LEB

For this is the covenant that I will decree with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I am putting my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they will be my people.

Carefully consider your worship.

Christ tells her: “I am” the translation of Yahweh, the same thing moses was told at the burning bush.

Harvest

The layout of this narrative, a rather long narrative compared to others, is pecuiliar. You will notice this section in which Christ’s disciples return and find him talking to the woman. They want him to have some food. Jesus says his food is to do the fathers will. What is the will? The sowing. Christ has The reaping that is taking place is by the church. (this from Jey Kanagaraj out of the New covenant Commentary)

John: A New Covenant Commentary Jesus’ Injunction on His Disciples’ Mission (4:27–38)

Two ideas become visible: First, the task of reaping is nothing but gathering fruit of what has already been sown, as per the proverbial saying, “One sows and another reaps” (4:37). Secondly, God’s mission includes a prior sowing. The people who believe and join God’s new community by the collective labor of the sower and reaper are the “fruit” of the harvest. Jesus sends the members of his society to reap that which they did not sow, but “others” have done the sowing already (4:38).

The OT prophets

John: A New Covenant Commentary Jesus’ Injunction on His Disciples’ Mission (4:27–38)

The reaping of Jesus’ followers will be the result of Jesus’ accomplishment of the Father’s work on the cross. The church’s mission ultimately flows from the Father who sent Jesus on a mission of saving the world. The church’s mission now is the continuation of Jesus’ mission (17:18; 20:21)

The samaritan woman led many in her village to salvation through her testimony. Many more believed after hearing for themselves.

All our labor is important. God uses men and women (sinful, forgiven men and women) to sow and reap. And we are always entering into the labor of another, especially Jesus’. His labor is always decisive. Especially the labor of the cross. This was his main food. My food is to accomplish the work God gave me to do. And with the cross in view, where he died for our sins, he said, “Father, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (). Let us enjoy the work set before us.