Sermon Nuggets Monday March 10
Theme- Harvest
Verses John 4:20-26 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seek.
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." (NIV)
Spirit and Truth
Last week we centered out attention on how Jesus encountered the woman at the well with the need of her heart. She was looking for love in the wrong places. She had many husbands and lovers but was “thirsty” for something that would satisfy.
The discussion of how to do worship now was narrowed to the ultimate question. What are you going to do with Jesus Christ?
Responding to God involves spirit and truth. Much could be said about that. But one thing Jesus is making clear is that a time is coming when the places of worship aren’t what matters.
I believe Jesus was pointing to the work he was about to do on the cross. Because Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for sin, there was no longer any need for the temple sacrifices of bulls and goats. Because Jesus is the ultimate priest, the great intercessor between God and man, there was no longer any need for the ministry of temple priests. At the death of Christ, the veil of the temple, Matthew 27:51, which had always separated God’s people from God’s glorious presence, was torn in half from top to bottom. The temple or the mountain no longer has significance.
To embrace Jesus by faith is to have God in you by the work of the Holy Spirit. God is still very much present among His people, only now His presence is mediated directly to each believer by the Holy Spirit. That is essential to real worship, but the word "spirit" here does not have the definite article in the original language, so I think it refers to our own inner life, emotions, will, our heart that is yielded to the Spirit of God.
One who worships the Lord fully loves the Lord God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength.
But sincerity alone is does not make for acceptable worship. Jesus also said that those who worship Him must worship Him in truth. Time and time again, throughout the Old Covenant record, men drew near to God to worship Him, and God was not pleased with their worship, because rather than following the commandments of God, rather than regarding Him as holy, rather than worshiping Him in truth, they had devised in their own hearts how they preferred to worship Him.
The truth of God is revealed for us in the Bible. We cannot just spout off what we think and what revelations come to our minds as if they are from God. It must be Scriptural. It must be in keeping with obedience. It must be centered on the apostles teaching. It must move us from our desires to Him as He is revealed in His word.
When the woman said The Messiah will explain everything to us, Jesus forced her to make a response when he revealed Himself. "I who speak to you am he."
There it is. God was revealed in the person of Jesus and she had to decide what to do with Him. Truth was revealed, now will she worship and give herself to Him in her spirit?
Some are full of spirit but wander from the truth. Others adhere to the truth, but are missing spirit. True worship involves both. Its focus is on HIM, not us.
Pastor Dale
