“True Worship”!! Pt.1

TEXT:  ST. JOHN:4:24: God is Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.

John’s name means, “whom Jehovah loves”.  Along with Peter and James he was one of the three in Christ’s inner circle.  Jesus surnamed him and James “Boaner’ges” (the sons of thunder), or (sons of commotion) because of their prophetic zeal and resolution (intention; aim; aspiration; purpose; plan) to witness for Christ.  

Sons in Hebrew, is ben (bane), meaning, builder of the family name.  Sons (male & female) are still builders (designers; planners; establishers) of God’s family name.

 The Gospel of John shows Jesus as the Son of God!  John wrote this Gospel for the purpose of proving that Jesus was and is “the Christ”, the promised Messiah for the Jews and the Son of God for the Gentiles!  The other three gospels show Christ in action; John shows Him in meditation and communion.

In this Gospel:  no genealogy is recorded; neither Jesus’ legal lineage through Joseph (as given by Matthew), nor His personal descent through Mary (as given by Luke).  There’s no account of His birth – because He was “in the beginning”!  There’s nothing about His boyhood; nothing about His temptation.  Jesus rather is presented as Christ the Lord, not the One tempted in all points like as we are.  There’s no transfiguration; no parables; no account of the ascension; no great commission.  Yet only here is He called “the Word”, the Creator, the only begotten of the Father, the Lamb of God, the revelation of the great “I AM” (Exodus 3:14).

In St. John chapter one [Jesus’ Deity – He’s the Word made flesh]:  chapter two [His first miracle, the water made wine]:  chapter three [Jesus teaching Nicodemus about the new birth]:  in this 4^th chapter [Jesus goes to Galilee].  

 John 4:1-15 [Jesus leaves Judea going to Galilee, but stops off in Sychar, takes a rest on Jacobs well where He encounters a Samaritan woman].

We know the story:  This Samaritan woman comes to Jacobs well to draw natural water to drink and Jesus offers her living water that would be within her a well of water springing up into eternal life and she says, “Give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw” (vs 13-15).

Then in verses 16-18, Jesus tells her of her past by making mention of her husbands which I’m sure rocked her world, and at that point, then she says to Him:

·        Vs 19-20: “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.  Our fathers worshipped in this mountain (she was stating in reference to the Jews), and you say  that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship”. 

This Mountain the Samaritan woman was speaking of was Mt. Gerizim, in Samaria. 

Around 1000 BC, King David ruled Israel (the Jewish people).  His son Solomon built the first holy Temple in Jerusalem, which became the central place of worship for Jews.

About 332 BC Sanballat, governor of Samaria under the Persians, and who opposed Israel under Nehemiah (4:7---13:28), went over to the side of Alexander the Great who gave him permission to build a temple on Mt. Gerizim like the one in Jerusalem.  

The Samaritans were expecting the Messiah to make Mt. Gerizim in Samaria, not Jerusalem [referred to as Zion the mountain and city of the living God (Hebrews 12:22)], His seat of Government.

Now because Jesus’ words proved Him to be a prophet, the Samaritan woman seized upon the opportunity for Jesus to answer her question about where “worship” should take place!

And Jesus affirmed that “true worship” would not be confined to either site (in Samaria or Jerusalem) because He, the Messiah had come. 

Jesus was about to tell her “Who is to be worshipped”!

And He said to her:  Vs 21: “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.  Vs 22: You worship, you know not what:  we know what we worship:  for salvation is of the Jews.  Vs 23: But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:  for the Father seeks such to worship him.  Vs 24: God is a Spirit:  and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

GOD IS: Creator: (Genesis 1:1): In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth:  I AM: (Exodus 3:14): And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: GOD: (Psalm 90:2): Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God:   Supreme Being: (Isaiah 45:5) I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God besides me:  LORD: (Malachi 3:6): I am the LORD, and I change not:  Omnipotent [all powerful]: (Jeremiah 32:17) Ah Lord GOD! Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:  vs 27: Behold, I am the LORD the God of all flesh:  is there anything too hard for me?  Omnipresent [ever present] (Psalm 139:7-8): Whither shall I go from thy spirit?  Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:  if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there: Omniscience [all-knowing] (1^st John 3:20): For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things:  WORTHY: (Revelation 4:11) Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory  and honor and power:  for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

In relation to “TRUE WORSHIP”!

True in Webster is defined as in accordance with fact or reality; genuine; accurate or exact; loyal or faithful; honest.

In Greek, truth is from the root word alethes’, meaning as not concealing; actual; true to fact. Synonyms for truth are: accurate; correct; faithful; verifiable; without variation.

• James 1:17: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

WHAT IS WORSHIP? Worship is from the Greek root proskune’o, meaning to fawn or crouch to; (fig) prostrate oneself in homage; do reverence to; adore; to do “obeisance” to.  

In Hebrew it’s shachah’, meaning to depress, to prostrate especially in homage to royalty or God; bow down; obeisance; reverence; fall down; stoop; crouch especially bowing down in homage before a superior.

Worship is an act of reverence which is a feeling of deep respect, love, and awe for God! 

The purpose of “worship” is to establish or give expression (utterance; declaration; proclamation) to a relationship between God and man.

When someone worship, he or she present (offers; gives; delivers; bestows) his or her love to God, and identifies himself or herself with Spirit! 

·        1^st Corinthians 6:17: He that is joined (united) unto the Lord is one spirit!

Spirit is the root word pneu’ma, meaning breath, a spirit ie (human) the rational (sound; whole; complete] soul; vital principle; mental disposition.

How do we worship God in Spirit?

The first part of the definition of Spirit is a current of air, in relation to “breath”.  We already know that God is more than just the very “air” we breathe that’s called oxygen.  This “breath” is not just the breeze you feel when you’re outside or the wind you hear blowing.  But it’s the same “breath” that the LORD God breathed into Adam’s nostrils (aph) [the face; countenance; forehead; mind] in Genesis 2:7 that caused him to become a “living soul”!   This breath was  neshamah’, meaning a puff, wind, angry or vital (absolutely necessary; essential; full of energy; lively] breath; divine inspiration (inhaling; or being inspired mentally or emotionally; any stimulus to creative thought or action by an inspired idea); intellect (the ability to reason or understand).

This is the same “breath” that was breathed on the dry bones in Ezekiel 37!  The same “breath” that Jesus breathed on the disciples in John 20 when He said to them, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost”!  The same “breath” that was breathed on those in the upper room at Pentecost (Acts 2) and thousands were saved!  

The same “breath” that we are breathing in (or inhaling) today as we receive His Word and give out His Word to others!

John 4:24: God is SPIRIT, and they that worship him, must worship him in Spirit and in truth.

So to “truly worship” God in spirit we need a renewed mind, a spiritual mind!

·         Romans 8:6: For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

·         Romans 12:2: Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.

This word “mind” in Romans 12:2 is the Greek root word nous, meaning the intellect (the ability to reason and understand) in relation to (human or divine; in thought, feeling, or will); understanding.

When we’re “spiritual minded” whichever area we’re operating in, whether in thought, feeling, or act, with or without the aid of symbols and rites, “pure worship” is expressed through adoration (deep love and respect) and veneration without making petitions and self-renunciations and sacrificial giving to God.  Worship is the occupation of the soul with God Himself and does not include prayer for needs and thanksgiving for blessings.

Both words proskune’o and shachah’, are rendered as “worship”, but in Old English was spelled “worth-ship”, denoting the worthiness of the one receiving the special honor or devotion.  Both terms may be seen of the 24 elders falling down before the One who sits on the throne:

·        Revelation 4:10: The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, vs 11: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power:  for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Pleasure is the root word thel’ema, meaning, determination; volition; inclination; will; decree; purpose.  Stipulating that God in the beginning determined (purposed) that man was to be in His own image after His likeness manifesting Him (God) in the earth in a flesh body as a many membered body of people, composed of both male and female, called CHRIST!

·        Ephesians 5:30: We are members (limbs; parts) of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 

·        1^st John 4:17: As he is, so are we, in this world.

Worshipping in Spirit shows that man is substantiating, confirming, and maintaining the right mental attitude toward God!!  Our attitude toward God helps determine our altitude in God.

There is no way man can substantiate, confirm or maintain the right mental attitude toward God except with a “spiritual mind”. 

·        1^st Corinthians 2:16: But we have the mind (nous) [thoughts; understanding] of Christ! Philippian 2:5: Let this mind (phrone’o) [exercise; disposition; interest in spiritual things] be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.  1^st Peter 1:13: Gird up the loins of your mind (dian’oia) [deep thought] which comes through study and rightly dividing the word of truth (2^nd Timothy 2:15).

How do we worship god in truth?

Truth is from the root word ale’theia, meaning, verity [real; genuine; authentic; proven; valid)], that which signifies the reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested; veritable essence of a matter.  Then it goes to another word alethes’, meaning true (as not concealing).  

·        John 14:6: Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life!

Worshiping the Father in “truth” is: “Speaking not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Ghost teaches:  comparing spiritual things with spiritual (1^st Corinthians 2:13).

Worshiping the Father in truth is:  coming to “KNOW” who He really is and that He is not out beyond the blue.  [TRUTH IS] - 1^st John 4:4: Greater is he that is IN YOU, than he that is in the world!

·        Matthew 1:23: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

·        St. John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God:  vs 14: And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us!

·        John 10:30: Jesus said, “I and my Father are one”!

·        John 14:9: Jesus said unto him (Philip):  “Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me, Philip”?  “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how say thou then, show us the Father”?

Worshiping the Father in truth is:   Knowing that we too are one with the Father through Christ Jesus:

·        John 17:19: And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified (hagia’zo) [to make holy; purify or consecrate; (mentally) to venerate (regard with great respect)] through the truth.  Vs 21: That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:  that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.  Vs 22: And the glory which thou gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. Vs 23: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and has loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Worshiping the Father in truth is:  Knowing that He was Jesus in flesh form that “IS COME” to deliver us and has delivered us from the works of the devil when He was nailed to the cross and rose on the third day!

·        Romans 8:2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death!

·        2^nd Corinthians 5:21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

·        Colossians 1:13-14: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:  in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

·        Hebrews 9:12: Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us.  Vs 22b: Without shedding of blood is no remission.

John 4:23 (Jesus said):  “The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:  for the Father seek (zete’o) [seek for; desires; endeavors; enquires (for); requires] such to worship him”.

In the Old Testament, worship can be divided into two main periods, patriarchal and theocratic.

Prior to the Mosaic institutions there are few indications of formal and public worship among the patriarchs.  The times of the Patriarchs reveal the individual, personal, and occasional acts of worship that would characterize a seminomadic people living apart from organized society:

Genesis 4:3-4, 26; 8:20-22, does picture the beginnings of ritualistic religion in the institution of sacrifices and the building of altars.

·        Genesis 22:1-5 (Abraham at Moriah when he goes to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar).

·        Genesis 28:18-22: (Jacob at Bethel) [His dream of the ladder that reaches to heaven; God tells him how He’s going to bless him; and Jacob’s vow to God].

During the theocratic period the corporate and ritualistic concept of worship became prominent.  A very highly organized and comprehensive system of worship was revealed to Moses by God at Sinai, which included:

·        Special kinds of offerings and sacrifices for the whole nation: (a) daily (Num.28:3-8):  (b) each Sabbath (Num.28:9-10; Lev.24:8):  (c) At the new moon (Num.28:12-15):  (d) The Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Num.28:16-25; Exo.12:1) on the 14^th day of the first month, which is the prototype of Christ and was succeeded by the Lord’s Supper (Mt.26:17-29).

·        Particular sacrifices to be offered by an individual for himself and his family, such as:  the Passover meal and the Passover itself (Exo.12; Lev.23:5):  a burnt offering of a male of the flock without blemish, for himself and his family (Lev.23:5).

·        Special sacrifices for the priest themselves at the consecration of Aaron and his sons (Lev.8:2, 14-15); at the anointing of the priest (Exo.29:15; Lev.6:19-23).

But in the New Testament, with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, all the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings became a thing of the past.  There is now no more sacrifice for sins, for the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world:

St. John 1:29-34 [John’s witness to Jesus]:   Vs 29: The next day John sees Jesus coming unto him and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”!

·        Hebrews 10:26: For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world:  but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Now the believer has an advocate before God in Christ to plead for him/her when he/she repents of his/her sin:

·        1^st John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

·        1^st John 2:1: My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not.  And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And he (man) now needs no earthly priest.  Therefore the form of worship soon began to change. 

Public worship however, in the first days of Christianity was still associated with the temple.  That is fine, for the word says, not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together (Hebrews 10:25). 

Yes it’s true, worship can take place within the four walls of the church building and that’s fine, but “true worship” begins within us individually in Christ Jesus!!

We’ve just dealt with the Who is worshiped (God):  What worship is:  and how we are to worship, in spirit and in truth!

There will be a continuation of “True Worship” with part 2 talking about “where” true worship takes place.

Pastor Gracie Perry