Peanut Butter and Jelly Worship
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Some things are just meant to be together, right? Peanut butter and jelly, chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk, steak and potatoes, Brandon and Kelly. When you don’t have one, the other just isn’t as good. Or just doesn’t function properly (as is the case when I am gone and Brandon is all alone with the children). Now I know this isn’t a hard and fast rule. Some people have cookies with coffee, and eat peanut butter with honey and I will admit these are also delicious. But in general we know, some things and just meant to be together. We see this played out in nature. When sodium and chlorine are by themselves they are deadly dangerous. Sodium is reactive to water, so if you try to put a piece on your tongue, you’ll have a serious case of burned taste buds, and lips, and cheeks, and most likely esophagus as well. And of course trying to ingest chlorine is, one, very difficult since its a gas, but more importantly, is potentially fatal. But these two things together result in a substance that is not only ingestible, but also a primary seasoning in food and has many other useful applications. Of course you know I’m talking about sodium chloride, salt. There are some things that are just meant to be together. In our text for today we are going to talk about two such things, things that go hand in hand, as in one needs the other, as in you must have both, in relation to worship. I’m talking about the passage in John chapter 4, when Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman at the well and tells her God is seeking worshippers to worship Him in spirit, and in truth. Now I wish I had time to go through the whole conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman but since my sermon ended up around 50 minutes, I decided to forgo. I know you’re all very disappointed but, as we know, church, followed by lunch, are another two things that are just meant to be together.
So just some quick background, Jesus is traveling from Judea in the South to Galilee in the North and has to go through Samaria, right in the middle. He stops at a well near a well known landmark in Samaria, Mt Gerizim. He meets the Samaritan woman there and they have a laid back conversation about living water, her sinful lifestyle, and worship. So pretty much a typical Jesus conversation, right? We are going to pick it up in verse 21. The woman is basically trying to distract Jesus after he mentioned her sinful lifestyle, by changing the subject and asking about worship. Samaritans worship at Mt. Gerizim and Jews from Judea worship in Jerusalem. Which is the correct spot? And Jesus responds in John 4:21:
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus says true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. It’s these two words I want to talk about today, spirit and truth. You and I come to church most every week and sing worship songs, and pray, and listen to the sermon, and reflect, and throughout the week we have opportunities to interact with non believers, to serve those in need, to read our bibles and “devotionalize” and just go through the day to day. In all these things, are we true worshipers of the Father? What does it mean to worship the Father in spirit? And what does it mean to worship the Father in truth? We’re going to tackle each of these separately and it’s a lot, so hold on tight. Let’s start with Spirit.
Spirit
Spirit
The text says in verse 24:
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
God is Spirit. I think this is pretty straight foward. In Psalm 139 David says
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
David goes on about going to the heavens, descending to the depths, in the sky and in the sea and in the darkness. Even there God is present.
David knows that God is Spirit and because He is spirit He is everywhere. There is no place we can go to escape his presence. He is spirit, and is therefore not limited the same way man is. He is spirit, everywhere present, and so it does not matter if we go toJerusalem as the Jews of Judea do, or worship on Mount Gerizim as the Samaritans do. He is right there, and there, and here. What’s more, through the giving of the Holy Spirit, the spirit is now in you, and you, and you, and me. And because the Spirit is in me, I am in the Spirit and able to worship in spirit. Romans 8: 9 says:
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Basically Paul is saying if the Spirit of God dwells in you, then you are in the Spirit. This language Paul uses here is similar to language he uses throughout his other letters, referring to being in Christ, or in the Lord. This word “in,” has more meaning than we realize.
There are several ways to translate the greek word, “in.” Among. With. By. When Paul uses the phrases “In Christ” or “In the Lord” we understand the meaning is often “in fellowship with” and to be “In Christ” means to be a believer in Christ, to have fellowship with Christ. In the same way when Jesus says we must worship in Spirit I believe this means we must have fellowship with the Spirit, that we dwell with the Spirit because the Spirit dwells within us. We can only worship God in Spirit if we have ourselves recieved the Spirit of God. But I think its also a little more complicated than that. I am a Christian. I have been baptized and have recieved the Holy Spirit. I know this is true, I have no doubt. And yet there are times when I live not really filled with the holy spirit. It dwells in me but it doesn’t dwell in me fully. There are times when I struggle with sin and shame, or I’m busy and have my mind focused not on the things of God. And here’s what I think: to the extent that the Holy Spirit dwells in me, to that extent will I dwell in the Spirit, and am then able to worship God in Spirit.
So we have to start with the basic question: Have I recieved the Holy Spirit? As in do I believe that Jesus is my Lord and savior, that he died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins and rose on the third day, and I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit? I think most of us would answer that question with a Yes. But then we have to go further. Do I dwell in the Holy Spirit, every day, every second of every day. Is He dwelling in me, not in a diluted, watered down way, but rich and full? Do I have fellowship with the Spirit, listening for every word and whisper He offers, and knowing every thought and desire and cry of mine is heard in turn? So that when I go through my every day, the mundane and the extraordinary, it is with the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in me. We cannot worship God in Spirit if we don’t have the Spirit in us, But even if we have recieved the Holy Spirit, we can still be limited in the depth of our worship because we are not filled with the Holy Spirit. So then, if you are not experiencing the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to the full, ask yourself, what’s other things am I allowing to fill me up? Do I read more news stories, more football stats, more fiction novels (raise your hand, Kelly) than I do my bible? Do I spend more time conversing over coffee with friends than I do in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Please don’t mistake me, I’m not judging anyone for doing these things, I am the number one culprit of some of these things and others. I’m also not saying we shouldn’t do any of these, there is a time and place for it, for sure. I really just want to get us thinking about what fills us up. What do we use to try to fill and refresh and renew, instead of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit? Phew, one down!
Now lets talk truth.
Truth
Truth
Jesus says those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.
The question is, what truth or truths do I need to know in order to worship in truth? This is such a general term. Is it referring to all the truth of all the things? I think our heads would explode if we tried to grasp that. If we look back at the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman I think we can glean what some of this truth may be. Jesus offered this woman living water, and she’s like, “ok give it to me so I don’t have to come to the well everyday.” Kind of a snarky response from this woman, which has been the case up to this point in the conversation. So Jesus decides to go with the surprise attack approach and completely catch her off guard. He confronts her about the sin she is living in, going back to verse 16:
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
You see, Jesus wants this woman to be one of the true worshipers. I know this because He wants every person, each one of us, to be a true worshiper. He offers her living water. He later debunks this notion of where the right place to worship is. And he makes her confront a sinful truth about herself. I think there are truths we must know to combat the lies that will keep us from being a true worshiper of the Father. For the Samaritan Woman she needed to confront the sin she was living in. She needed the raw truth revealed to her in a powerful way. It was monumental for her to hear this truth, so much so that as she goes on to be a witness for Christ she says to the townpeople:
29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
Jesus didn’t tell her all she ever did, but he told her the truth of her situation, the truth she need to hear in order to be set free. And compared to all the other events of her life, that really is the crux, isn’t it? That’s all she ever did that really mattered, because it was the thing keeping her from being a true worshiper. As we consider what truth we need to hear, I want to break it down into three truths. There is truth about who God is, truth about who we are, and truth about who we are in Christ.
Before I get into these things let me preface this by saying we will spend our whole lives refining our notion of truth. And we will never fully understand what is true until we come face to face with our Father in Heaven. So when I say truth I mean the truth as we know it that God has revealed to us at this time.
Who God Is
Who God Is
There are an infinite amount of things we can say about God’s character. Can you throw some out to me:
All-knowing, All-powerful, everywhere present
Holy, just, without sin, so much so that our sinfulness cannot even be in His presence
Loving, always pursuing, merciful, full of grace
We could go on and on, right? God is God. This is so important when we come to worship God. If we do not acknowledge the truth of who God is, how can we come to him with the appropriate attitude. For example if I do not think it is true the God is all powerful and creator of the heavens and the earth, will I come to him with the reverence and awe that I should?
Who I am
Who I am
In the same way, there are truths about ourselves we need to bring to the light, or ask God to bring to the light, in order to worship him in truth. Here are some basic truths: we are creations of our heavenly father, created in His image. We are loved. We are the bride of Christ. Let’s not also forget that we are sinners, and no matter how hard we try, in our own strength we will never be rid of our sinful natures. We will never earn our right to stand before God and worship Him. We need to acknowledge these truths about ourselves, both halves, that we are loved, that we are a precious creation of our Father, and that we are also sinful and have junk and brokenness that we can’t fix on our own.
Who I Am In Christ
Who I Am In Christ
This brings us to the third truth. Who we are in Christ. That because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are brought back into relationship with our heavenly father. We can stand before God and worship Him, not because of our righteousness (remember the truth of who we are), but because we are covered in Jesus’ robes of righteousness. It is only through the blood of Christ that our relationship to our heavenly father, once broken because of the sin in our lives, is now made whole.
These truths, who God is, who we are, and who we now are in Christ, must be known before we can worship God in truth. So here’s the hard part: what lies do you believe: about God, about yourself, about your identity in Christ.
Here’s a lie about who God is: God is so loving (true) and forgiving (true) that he doesn’t care about my sin. He accepts me just as I am and just wants me to love others. What’s wrong here? God does care about sin! It’s a big deal. His very character makes it impossible for Him and sin to mix in the same room. Yes He is loving and forgiving! He is also 100% holy and requires holiness from his followers.
Here’s another lie: You struggle with this sin. It doesn’t matter what it is , how “big” or “small” it might be seen as: addiction, lust, gluttony. Your only do it on occasion and haven’t done it in a long time so you should be good now. As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else then it’s ok. This is a lie. God requires repentance of His believers, that we turn away from sin and run to Him. This doesn’t mean we never sin again, it means when we do sin, we acknowledge it, confess it to Him, receive his forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and move on. When we try to hide it, or think it has lessened as time goes on, we are living a lie. We cannot truly worship God in truth when we live this lie.
Here’s one more lie: I struggle with this sin. I know God is holy and just and I am unworthy. I am so full of shame and defeat and self-loathing that when I sing songs about God’s love I don’t really believe it for me. I see that God loves others, that He has made them whole and they can worship God freely, but I don’t think He loves me the same amount. I’ve got too much sin and junk and ugliness. What a big lie. Maybe the biggest, ugliest, sneakiest lie of all, right? Because we believe all the right things about God, we believe in Jesus Christ, that he died for the sins of the world. And we acknowledge the truth that we are sinful people. We live in the gravity of our situation, that we are so woefully unworthy to stand before our Father. But then the sneaky little lie, that I am too bad, you don’t know what I’ve done, I’m worse than you, He couldn’t possibly have died for me. I confess I lived in this place at one time and it is still a comfortable place to slip into when I’m vulnerable and the enemy is doing his work. It’s safe here in this lie, because it require no faith. It requires no vulnerability. Listen! It takes courage to defeat this lie. It takes bravery to step out of the lie and into His freedom. We have to be vulnerable and willing to take the risk. It’s risky to put your love and trust and faith on the line. But more than anything, it takes the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you. If you are living this lie, don’t let it control you anymore. Don’t let it keep you from fully living.
I encourage you to take some time this week in reflection and prayer. What are the lies you believe about God, about yourself, about your relationship (or lack thereof) with Him.
As you take this time, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, to reveal truths, convict where needed, comfort where needed. It’s no coincidence spirit and truth are placed together here. They are as meant to be together as peanut butter and jelly. We need the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in order to see the truth from the lies. The more we are filled by the Holy Spirit instead of the things of this world, the more we will submit ourselves to the Spirit and the work He does to bring the lies out in the open. The Holy Spirit is in fact referred to as the Spirit of Truth. When Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to His disciples He says:
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
And in John 16:13 we are told:
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Don’t rely on your own abilities but pray that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, will lead you into all the truth. And you will dwell in the Holy Spirit more and more and the Holy Spirit will dwell in you and reveal to you the truths you need to hear so that you can be a true worshiper of the Father. This is what it means to worship God in Spirit and Truth. Let’s pray that together now.