Worship the Father
Notes
Transcript
When Jesus was speaking with the woman at the well, He was trying to be very careful with the terminology He was using. He was wanting to get across to her that where you worship shouldn’t have been her focus.
It should have been whom you worship and how you worship.
It should have been whom you worship and how you worship.
Jesus used two nouns when He was speaking of “whom” you worship.
Father
Father
Spirit
Spirit
Both of these nouns are essential in legitimate worship.
Throughout this study, we have taken a look at who God is and His attributes. Jesus summed all of this up for the woman at the well this way.
The true worshiper must perceive God as Father and as Spirit
The true worshiper must perceive God as Father and as Spirit
We know that God is a being who can’t be touched.
Worship offered to God must be spiritual in nature
Worship offered to God must be spiritual in nature
We can have and understand all of these attributes of God, but if we don’t have the characteristic which Jesus assigned to Him the most.
Father
Father
The Gospels show Jesus talking to God around seventy times and every time He did, He called Him Father.
The only time He didn’t was when He was on the cross bearing our sin and taking our judgement.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Worship the Father
Worship the Father
Three times in John 4 Jesus speaks for worshipping the Father.
It is right for us to think of God as our Father. Jesus refers to this several times when He is speaking with the disciples. However, in John 4, He refers to God as “the Father.” In this instance He is referring to God’s place within the Trinity.
How is God Jesus’ Father
How is God Jesus’ Father
We do need to remember that just because Jesus is referred to as God’s Son doesn’t mean that Jesus was created at a different point and time than God. He isn’t any lesser God because He is referred to as Son. He is eternal the same as God. He is God.
When Jesus referred to God as His Father, He was showing that He and God had the same nature. The Jewish people interpreted correctly what Jesus was meaning.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
How did they understand this?
This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
This is exactly what Jesus meant.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
The Jewish people felt Jesus was blaspheming God when He was putting himself equal to God.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
This is Jesus prayer the night He would be arrested. Once again, He is equating Himself equal to God.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Once again, this verse shows the God and Jesus have been and always will be equal.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
This shows the unique relationship that Jesus and God have with each other. We really don’t have anything which we can humanly compare this too.
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Jesus is trying to show the disciples the relationship that He and the Father have.
The God and Father of Our Lord Jesus
The God and Father of Our Lord Jesus
In Ephesians 1, Paul writes begins his letter with a huge section of praise. It starts in verse 3 with:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
You can look throw all of Paul’s letters and see how careful He is to identify God with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter does the same thing.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
John
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.
There is Only One God
There is Only One God
If we don’t see Jesus as equal with our God, we are offering unacceptable worship.
There are those who believe Muslims, Jews, and Christians all worship the same God, only in different ways.
There are those who believe Muslims, Jews, and Christians all worship the same God, only in different ways.
This isn’t true. The one true God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone who doesn’t believe that Jesus is God’s Son is offering unacceptable worship to the Father.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the only way to the Father.
Trinitarian Worship
Trinitarian Worship
Trinitarian doctrine is essential to true worship.
Trinitarian doctrine is essential to true worship.
that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
This verse leads us to this. Honor is a word that implies worship. We are not only to worship the Father, but the Son as well.
This has important implications on the way we worship. The way we worship God is through the Son. Our Father can only be worshiped in the way we perceive His Son.
Where does the Holy Spirit fall into this?
Where does the Holy Spirit fall into this?
Scripture doesn’t tell us directly to worship Him, but worship can’t be separated from Him. It’s the Holy Spirit who gives us confidence to come to our God.
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Scripture may not directly spell out we are to worship the Holy Spirit, but with the role He plays in worship, there is no for us to have acceptable worship without worshipping the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says in scripture that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. He is showing us the Holy Spirit’s role and His standing within the Trinity.
Within the Trinity, each member has a unique ministry.
The Holy Spirit calls us to the Son, and the Son calls us to the Father.
The Holy Spirit calls us to the Son, and the Son calls us to the Father.
Our involves all of the members of the Trinity, and all are worthy to be worshiped.
The Foundation of True Worship
The Foundation of True Worship
Through John 4, when Jesus uses the term Father, He is identifying the object of our true worship and where it should be directed. Through this worship, we come to the Father only through the Son and only in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Once again, this whole section can be summed up in scripture.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.