The Heart of the Matter

Introduction:

Everyone here I’m sure is familiar with the phrase, “Let’s just get to the heart of the matter”. In John chapter 4, once again we see Jesus doing exactly that. In order for true life change and worship to take place, the issue of the sinful heart of men and women must be addressed. Our hearts, our affections, our worship must be changed. Jesus addresses this issue with the Samaritan woman by pricking her conscience. He doesn’t focus on external behaviors but on the deeper issue of worship - of the heart. Sinful behaviors are simply an overflow of the rebellion of the human heart - seeking living water, satisfaction in all the wrong places.

Yet Jesus speaks to this woman in a way that should be noted. He does not call her names or blast her with the truth. He simply points out her sin and then leaves the rest to her conscience. Matthew Henry notes, “Reproofs are ordinarily most profitable when they are least provoking.” I fear that sometimes we are too Pharisaical in our approach…going on and on about right and wrong without first addressing the deeper question and speaking with genuine love and concern for others. Yet in order for this woman to experience the water of life that Jesus offers she must first deal with the issue of her sinful heart. She must deal with the heart of the matter - worship.

This woman had experimented with five husbands and is now sleeping with a man who is not her husband. Yet her life is still void of purpose and is filled with religious confusion. This is revealed in the conversation concerning the place of worship.. Many have taken this passage to mean that the woman is seeking to change the conversation. I believe she senses her need, that is she is convicted about her sin, and is moved to offer a sacrifice. She knows that she needs cleansing, but where is she to go for the cleansing she needs? Perceiving that Jesus is a prophet, she wants to clarify how she can do something about her sin. What is it that God desires from her? The answer to this is worship. Jesus has stopped by this well in Samaritan territory and is calling a serial adulterer and morally reckless woman to worship him. This is good news. For we have all sinned and yet God is calling and seeking sinful people to worship him.

This is the heart of the matter. We worship what our heart adores and sets its affections upon. We live in a time when confusion about worship abounds, even within the Christian faith. In Jesus time on earth, Jews and Samaritans had great animosity between one another and the Jews were racially prejudiced toward the Samaritans. They argued over the proper place of worship and even had competing temples and versions of the first five books of the Old Testament. Likewise today, religious people argue over styles, places and denominations. The things that so many argue about will one day pass away. Jesus points this out in verse 21, “an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem. The temple on Mt. Gerizim would one day be gone and likewise the temple in Jerusalem would soon be destroyed. Jesus wasn’t interested here in winning an argument but pointing out this woman’s greatest need. He wanted them to focus in on the nature of worship.

The matter of worship is of utmost importance in life. Everyone worships, it is simply a matter of what or whom they worship. Those who do not worship God are lost. They have no hope or purpose, just like the Samaritan woman. Only God can seek and save a person and make them into a true worshipper of Himself. What is it that God requires? Verses 23-24 tell us plainly.

The matter of worship is of utmost importance in life. Everyone worships, it is simply a matter of what or whom they worship.

23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), .I. The Fuel of Worship

The place of worship is not what matters. Jesus points this out in verse 21. Since the Samaritans only referred to their own revised version of the Jewish Pentateuch, their understanding about God is flawed. Both Jews and Samaritans knew that God was to be worshipped. What was lacking was proper knowledge. Knowledge about who God is the fuel for worship.

The Priority of God’s Word

Contemporary ideas about worship that lead to confusion: in order to worship we must prioritize a worship band or certain music, awesome technology or visuals, perfect sound and light, comfortable padded seats and the right temperature of the room, perfect coffee temperature and flavor…These are not in and of themselves bad things, but can become bad things when the priority and centrality of the word of God is neglected. Worship cannot be void of knowledge. God has revealed himself to us in his word. Jesus makes clear that the Samaritans are worshipping what they do not know (v.22). The issue is a lack of truth. The word of God must be central in worship - not human intuition or emotion, but the word of God.

The Necessity of Truth in Worship

Where are we to go for the truth? Scripture reveals to us a God who is reaching down to humanity. A God who has acted purposefully in history and revealed certain truths about himself to us. Furthermore, the bible reveals that Jesus, the Messiah, the promised Savior has come and the gospel has been proclaimed. Life and light have come to the world. The Samaritans, due to their lack of knowledge, failed to recognize God’s redemptive activity thru the Jewish people. In order to be a true worshipper of God, one must worship what is true about God; and God has revealed these things to us in his word. , “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

What we think about God affects our worship and our lives.

The Problem of Idolatry

Calvin was right when he stated that the human heart is a constant idol factory. Idolatry involves assuming things about God that we do not know to be true and then in our own way we worship God according to our assumptions. Cain failed to worship God because he believed wrongly about God being deceived by his own vain imaginations. Therefore he brought a sacrifice that appealed to his own imagination about who God is.

Modern times have led to all kinds of incorrect views about God that are not built upon the truth of what God has revealed about himself in his word. Unfortunately a common view today is of God as “my best buddy” or “the big-man upstairs” as if God is someone who is a benevolent grandfather in the sky who will give me what I want and is my buddy. Awe and reverence have disappeared in many modern Christian minds.

In order to be a worshipper, the heart or spirit of man must be made new by the Holy Spirit of God. When Jesus said, “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirt and in truth”, he does not say “the Spirit” but the definite article is left off, thus meaning that he is speaking about the spirit of a man. The heart of a man. God is searching for people who will worship with the very core of their being. The noun “spirit” or pneuma is in the dative case which refers to a person or thing to which something is given or for whom something is done. This wouldn’t be the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of man to whom something is given, namely THE Holy Spirit.

, “Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Only a Changed Heart Can Worship God

In order for worship to take place, regeneration or new birth must take place. , “ The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children..”

“God does not regard our voices, he hears our hearts, and if our hearts do not sing, we have not sung at all.” - Spurgeon

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), .

The Holy Spirit of God This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The presence and power of the Holy Spirt in our lives is the energizing force behind our worship. True believers long to worship God. Only a true believer in true contact with God by the power of the Holy Spirit can worship God in truth. Spirit and Truth mentioned together refer to the total sphere of true worship and indeed conversion/salvation.

“If you worship with your spirit without truth, you’ll blow up. If you worship in truth without spirit, you’ll dry up. If you worship in spirit and truth, you’ll grow up.” - Adrian Rogers

Adrian Rogers, “Life’s Greatest Privilege,” in Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust, 2017), .

“God does not regard our voices, he hears our hearts, and if our hearts do not sing, we have not sung at all.” - Spurgeon

Externals Are Not the Determining Factor in Worship

Worship is not about externals but about internals. You can sing and not worship. You can give and not worship. You can pray and not worship. You can even be in the church and doing all three of these external acts and not be worshipping. Environment alone is not a Determining Factor in Worship. The environment that matters is the environment of the heart.

Environment Is Not the Determining Factor in Worship

Sometimes we fail to understand this. We think we have to set the mood or create an atmosphere of perfect circumstances in order for worship to take place. Remember ? Paul & Silas were worshipping God in the lowest parts of a prison chained in a very uncomfortable way.

“God does not regard our voices, he hears our hearts, and if our hearts do not sing, we have not sung at all.” - Spurgeon

I was listening to a pastor who trains Christian leaders in China share about his experiences there. He stated that he went to China to train some leaders from the Hunan province of China who traveled 13 hours on a train to get to the hotel where the training was held. The hotel room was about 700 sq. feet and the leaders came in small groups as to not draw attention to their presence. 22 of them met in this 700 sq. ft room to be taught the bible. They started at 8am and went until 5pm - sitting together on a hard wooden floor with no air conditioning. He asked them what would happen if they got caught studying the bible together. One of them said “well you would be deported within 24 hours and we would all go to prison for 3 years.” The pastor asked, “how many of you in here have been to prison?” 17 out of the 22 raised their hand. The trainer who came from America only had 15 bibles so he gave them all out - meaning 7 didn’t have one. They began to read 1 Peter chapter 1 and he noticed that one of the leaders who had given their bible to another person was reciting the passage from memory. He asked this one person how they had managed to memorize so much scripture..they stated “In Prison” - they had brought in scripture written on paper into prison and begin to memorize it as fast as they could before the paper would be eventually taken away. The pastor asked the group how he could pray for them and they said, “Please pray that we will become like the church in your country where you can gather freely to worship.”

They rode 13hrs on a train to get there..here people won’t drive one hour to go to church. They sat on a hard floor in small room with no air-conditioning for 9 hours a day for 3 days -here we cannot even sit on a padded pew in a vast sanctuary in air-conditioning for 1 hour or if we even make it to church at all..after all we are so tired and have had such difficult weeks working and pursuing our own dreams.

What makes the difference? A heart that is changed and made new. A heart that has a singular devotion and love that results in changed behaviors and habits. True salvation is not a repeated set of words in a prayer in order to avoid hell. It is not agreeing with some facts and then going about our life by running after the things of this world to satisfy us. The woman at the well was empty and sinful. Jesus did not ask her to repeat a prayer and then pronounce her saved. He revealed her greatest need. Salvation is admitting our sin and our emptiness and that we have rebelled against God.

Many people who profess to be Christians lack a desire to worship God. They have no desire to gather in corporate worship nor do they worship in private. The question that must be answered is this: “If there is no desire to worship God, do I know God?”

The church is not a community of spectators gathered to witness an event, but a community of worshippers gathered to celebrate God together.

What does worship in spirit and truth look like? Outward performances or external actions are not insignificant altogether. Time doesn’t permit a detailed examination of these aspects of worship.

You have the fuel of the truth, the objective truths of the word of God that tell us about who God is and what he has done. Don’t ask the question “how do I feel?” but rather , “what do I know” - the furnace is a heart changed and empowered by the fires of truth and the person and presence of the Holy Spirit - and where there is fire, there is smoke and heat. There is a natural result of these ingredients being present and put together. True worship involves all of life individually and gathered corporately as the church.

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), .

In order to try and summarize I feel it is helpful to remember

, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

The Head

Worship engages our mind. We think about God and who he is. How wonderful he is and holy he is. How loving and just he is. The truth about his redemptive work and the future hope we have. Facts inform us and guide us.

The Heart

If there is no emotion, no stirring of the heart, then we have a dead faith that is merely formalism and moralism. This was the faith of the Pharisees. This is why Jesus said of them in , “These people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me.

The Hands

True Worship alters your life. Reverent awe, affection and obedience. Prayer becomes a delight that involves thanksgiving, celebration, honest confession and intercession for others.

, “ Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Conclusion:

Verse 23, “Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him.” God wants to cleanse us and satisfy us.

The Christian worldview is not that man is seeking God for , “as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.”

, “You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.”

Rather, God is calling men, women, boys and girls to himself. He has spoken to us thru his word the truth about who we are and what we need. He has provided for our need thru Jesus Christ our Lord who died and suffered for our sins on the cross and rose from the grave to ensure eternal life for all who will trust and follow him. He has provided to meet the deepest longings of the human heart by changing the human heart, from a heart that seeks worship in all the wrong things and all the wrong people. Only Jesus can make you new. Will you trust him today?

The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), .Rather, God is calling men, women, boys and girls to himself. He has spoken to us thru his word the truth about who we are and what we need. He has provided for our need thru Jesus Christ our Lord who died and suffered for our sins on the cross and rose from the grave to ensure eternal life for all who will trust and follow him. He has provided to meet the deepest longings of the human heart by changing the human heart, from a heart that seeks worship in all the wrong things and all the wrong people. Only Jesus can make you new. Will you trust him today?

There is no one righteous, not even one.

11 There is no one who understands;

there is no one who seeks God.

12 All have turned away;

all alike have become worthless.

There is no one who does what is good,

not even one.,p

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), .

The Heart of the Matter

I. The Fuel of Worship

I. The Priority of the Truth

II. The Necessity of a Transformed Heart

III. The Proper Results - A Changed Life

III. The Powerful Result - A Changed Life