Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

I.

The Fuel of Worship

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

The Fuel of Worship

I.

The Priority of the Truth

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.

II.

The Necessity of a Transformed Heart

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..”