Sermon Tone Analysis

I’m about ready to give up entirely on trying to communicate with anyone under 35.

A year or so ago I recall using the word “low key” with the teens, and they all laughed at me.

I was personally crushed.

I’m still somewhat traumatized and try to avoid any conversation with them.

And, I’m still not exactly sure what “low key” means anymore.

I’m about ready to give up entirely on trying to communicate with anyone under 35.

A year or so ago I recall using the word “low key” with the teens, and they all laughed at me.

I was personally crushed.

I’m still somewhat traumatized and try to avoid any conversation with them.

And, I’m still not exactly sure what “low key” means anymore.

I’m about ready to give up entirely on trying to communicate with anyone under 35.

A year or so ago I recall using the word “low key” with the teens, and they all laughed at me.

I was personally crushed.

I’m still somewhat traumatized and try to avoid any conversation with them.

And, I’m still not exactly sure what “low key” means anymore.

Of course, google offered me a definition and seems to indicate that “low key” is now somewhat synonymous with “kind of” or “slightly.”

“I lowkey like her.” “I’m lowkey sad that my roommate is moving out.”

Or, my favorite, “I lowkey wanna eat an entire cake.”

Of course, after being harassed by the teens, I highkey wanted to eat an entire cake!

The meaning of words has changed so drastically, and I just can’t seem to keep up.

I recall one really funny interaction I saw between a mom and her son.

(Mom) Your great aunt just passed away.

LOL

(Son) Why is that funny?

(Mom) It’s not funny David!

Wht do you mean?

(Son) Mom lol means laughing out loud!

(Mom) Oh my goodness!!

I sent that to everyone I thought it meant lots of love.

I have to call everyone back

Communicating can be really dangerous.

The words we choose to use are very important.

Both, using the correct word and using it correctly is extremely important in order to communicate the idea you desire.

So then, I offer you the word “worship.”

What comes to mind?

Maybe a time of singing comes to mind, maybe ideas such as worship service, a style of music, a certain liturgy, or an experience.

In our context, we likely think of “praise and worship.”

I love the worship at our church, it’s so genuine and relevant.

We have a time of worship prior to the message each Sunday.

Our worship band does an amazing job of worship each week.

In our current church culture, worship is very often defined primarily by music, a style, a level of energy, a group, etc. Regardless of your understanding, most of us would agree that worship is important – even if we are not exactly sure or in agreement as to what worship really is.

So then, we need to define worship.

We are going to do that, but before we do let’s first see the context once again.

The Context

The Samaritan Woman.

When the Samaritan woman realized that Jesus was an important religious figure, her first question involved the proper place of worship.

She inquires to Jesus, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” ().

Her question exposes the error of Samaritan worship.

While the Samaritans had accepted the books of Moses, they had not accepted any of the following Old Testament.

The rest of the canon revealed to the Jews a proper place of worship and the appropriate manner and directions in worship.

This is why Jesus says, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” ().

In spirit and truth.

Much discussion surrounds the wording “in spirit and truth.”

Many, if not most commentators consider this phrase to be a hendiadys.

A hendiadys is the expression of a single idea by two words connected.

Michaels.

“Spirit and truth,” like “grace and truth,” are a hendiadys, that is, coordinate grammatically but not coordinate in meaning.

Just as “truth” specified what “grace” or gift it was that Jesus possessed and brought into the world (1:14, 17), so “truth” here defines “Spirit” as “true” Spirit, or “Spirit of truth” (see 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; ).[1]

Lenski.

They shall worship the Father “in spirit and truth.”

One preposition joins the two nouns and thus makes of the two one idea.[2]

While the grammatical evidence points to the phrase equating to a singular idea, it seems likely that the singular idea implies multiple aspects.

For instance, I often use the phrase “warm and comfy.”

By the phrase I intend to communicate a singular idea but the context likely involves a number of aspects.

I likely refer to a warm drink along with sitting or laying on a comfy couch or in front of a warm fire place with a comfy blanket.

No one of those elements equates to “warm and comfy” by themselves but all of them (or some of them) together communicate the singular idea of “warm and comfy.”

I would like to propose that “in spirit and truth” communicates one idea but that one idea involves multiple aspects.

First, our worship is no longer confined primarily to physical places and external practices (i.e.

physical sacrifices in the physical temple).

Jesus tells the woman that the Jews are correct in their place of worship.

But, he goes on to admit that the place of worship will soon be irrelevant.

“Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father” ().

So then, whatever worship is, it isn’t confined to one specific place.

Michaels.

It is an impending, even imminent future, for it is the goal toward which the narrative itself is moving (see vv. 35–36).

It is a time in which the holy places now dividing Jew from Samaritan no longer matter.[3]

Secondly, our worship now surrounds the reality of Christ instead of the pictures of a future coming Messiah and Savior.

Jesus goes on to say, “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” ().

Jews offered sacrifices that were a picture of a future perfect sacrifice.

Christ is that perfect sacrifice.

Ever since Christ was sacrificed, the manner and form of worship changed.

Jesus told the woman “the hour is coming” because he had not yet been killed, but also admitted it “is now here” because the reality of all the past pictures and allusions was standing in front of her.

Christ was right there.

Michaels.

Worship “in Spirit and truth” does not necessarily mean non-liturgical or noninstitutional worship, nor does it favor “inward” individual worship over “outward” corporate worship.

Rather, it is worship appropriate to the nature and character of God, and if God’s nature is revealed only in “God the One and Only, the One who is right beside the Father” (1:18), then such worship is impossible until “the One and Only” has come.[4]

Third, our worship is enabled more fully by the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Worship has always been enabled by the Spirit.

No one has ever humbled themselves to the greatness of God and submitted to Him with their whole being without the work of the Spirit.

But, unlike the Old Testament saints, we have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told the disciples, in , that he needed to go so that the Spirit of truth could come.

“You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” ().

The Spirit already dwelled with them, but there was going to be a point in their future where he would dwell in them.

Our ability and manner of worship was transformed by the presence of the Spirit within us.

Kruse.

Most likely it means worship through the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus would give to those who believed in him, and in accordance with the truth of God as it has been made known through the person and teaching of Jesus.

The Father seeks people who will worship him in the Spirit and in accordance with the teaching of Jesus.

This is a reminder that worship is not restricted to what we do when we come together in church, but about the way we relate to God through the Spirit and in accordance with the teaching of Jesus, and that touches the whole of life.[5]

Fourth, our worship has been further enhanced by additional revelation.