Mission Possible: True Worshippers
Scripture References: John 4:16-26
Other References: Believers’ Bible Commentary
1. Introduction
a. How many of you have ever dreamed of or fantasized about being a secret agent, like James Bond, complete with all the cool toys?
b. In my youth, there was a TV program entitled Mission Impossible. Each week the lead character of the program, Jim Phelps, as portrayed by Peter Graves, and his team of secret government agents, found themselves being tasked, if they chose to accept it, with seemingly impossible tasks.
c. The team was always used for covert missions against dictators, evil organizations, and crime lords.
d. Today, like Jim Phelps and his team, we are offered a mission. Likewise, we have the choice of accepting or rejecting it. Unlike Phelps and his team, our mission is possible, for it is a mission of True Worship.
e. In fact, our chief mission, as Christians, is to worship God. It is stressed throughout the Bible. Here are a few examples:
(1) In the garden we saw the test of worship.
(2) Moses received 10 famous laws from God that functioned as commandments of worship.
(3) The temple was filled with smells and smoke indicating the sacrifices of worship.
(4) The psalms and other works functioned as books of worship.
(5) When Christ came He showed us how important worship was by attending it regularly.
f. Christ, himself, spells out how we should worship. The definition of a “true worshipper” may surprise you.
g. Read John 4:16-26
2. Before We Can Worship, the Past Must Become Present — Verses 16-18
a. In this conversation, it is not a theologian, or a preacher, or a Bible school teacher, or even Christ who raises the subject of worship. It is a morally wounded woman, a woman living in great sin. She brings up the subject of worship.
b. An abrupt change in the conversation occurs.
(1) They had just been talking about water, a well, and living water.
(2) She had just asked for the living water and Jesus told here to go and call her husband. Why?
(3) Before she could be saved and truly worship God, she had to acknowledge herself a sinner.
(4) She had to come to Christ in true repentance, confessing her guilt and shame.
(5) Jesus knew all about the sinful life she had lived, and He was going to lead her to see it for herself.
(6) We must be brought face to face with the fact that we are dead in trespasses and sins, we need a Savior, we cannot save ourselves, that Jesus is the Savior we need, and, He will save us if we repent of our sin and trust in Him
c. At first the woman tries to withhold the truth without telling a lie. She said, “I have no husband.”
(1) Perhaps in a strictly legal sense, her statement was true.
(2) But was trying to hide the fact that she was living in sin with a man who was not her husband.
(3) Jesus, as God, knew all about this. And so He said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband.”
(4) Although she might be able to fool everyone else, she was not able to fool Him. He knew all about her.
d. The most important point of this scripture is that the woman was a sinner, and until she was willing to acknowledge it, Jesus could not bless her with living water.
3. The Physiology of Worship — Verses 20-26
a. Having become convicted of her sins, the woman tries to change the subject by asking a question about the proper place of worship.
b. Jesus did not avoid her comment, but used it to reveal further spiritual truth.
(1) He told her that the time was coming when neither the mountain nor Jerusalem would be the place of worship.
(2) In the OT, God established Jerusalem as the city where worship should be offered to Him. The temple was His dwelling place, and devout Jews went there with their sacrifices and offerings.
c. When Jesus said, “You worship what you do not know,” He condemned how the Samaritans worshipped.
(1) This contradicts religious teachers today who say that all religions are good and that they all lead to heaven at last.
(2) Jesus further told her that Samaritan worship was not only not authorized by God, but also that it was not approved by Him.
(3) It had been invented by man and carried on without being approved or authorized by God.
(a) Jews charged that the Samaritans were not only racially impure, but that they also mixed pagan worship with Judaism.
(b) Samaritan corporate worship was practiced on Mt. Gerazim.
(c) Jacob's Well, where Jesus and the woman are sitting, was at the base of that mountain.
(d) They could see the summit and the ruins of the temple where Samaritans had established worship centuries before.
(e) Samaritans still worshiped there even though their temple had been destroyed 180 years earlier.
(4) This was not the case with Jewish worship.
(a) God had set apart the Jewish people as His chosen earthly people.
(b) He had given them complete instructions on how He was to be worshipped.
(c) Jewish community life was focused at the temple on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, as directed by God.
d. So what is true worship?
(1) Let me start by telling you some things it is not.
(a) Geography — can be performed anywhere.
(b) Race — not unique to a specific ethnicity. The woman was Samaritan and it was being offered.
(c) Enthusiasm — clapping your hands, or dancing, or swaying or swooning, just because it is being done in church does not automatically qualify as worship.
(d) Jesus told the woman that, with His coming, God no longer had a certain place on earth for worship. Now those who believe on the Lord Jesus can worship God at any time and in any place.
(2) True worship means that a believer enters the presence of God by faith and there praises and worships Him.
(a) Your body may be at home, in a prison, in the field, or even at work; but your spirit can approach God in the heavenly sanctuary by faith.
(b) Jesus told the woman that from then on worshipping the Father would be done in spirit and truth.
(1) The Jews had reduced worship to outward forms and ceremonies.
(2) They believed religiously adhering to the letter of the law and going through certain rituals was worshiping the Father.
(3) But they did not worship in the spirit—it was outward, not inward.
(4) Their bodies might be bowed down on the ground but their hearts were not right before God.
(5) Perhaps they were oppressing the poor, or using deceitful business methods, or putting other things in their lives before God.
(c) The Samaritans’ worship, on the other hand, was false. It had no scriptural authority. They had started their own religion and were carrying out ordinances of their own invention.
(d) When Jesus said worship must be in spirit and truth, He was reprimanding both the Jews and Samaritans.
(e) He was also telling them that since He had arrived it was possible for them to draw near to God, through Him, in true and sincere worship.
(f) There must be no deception or hypocrisy in us. There must be no pretense of being religious when inwardly our life is corrupt.
(g) We must not think that going through a series of rituals pleases God. Even if He instituted those rituals, He still insists that we approach Him with a remorseful and repentant heart.
(3) As the Samaritan woman listened to Jesus, she thought of the coming Messiah. The Holy Spirit stirred within her a desire that the Messiah should come.
(a) She expressed confidence that when He did come, He would teach all things. In doing so, she demonstrated an understanding of one of the primary purposes of His coming.
(b) The phrase “Messiah ... who is called Christ” is an explanation of the fact that these two words mean the same. Messiah is the Hebrew word for God's Anointed One; Christ is the Greek equivalent.
(4) Jesus answered her literally, “I who speak to you am.”
(a) “He” is not a part of the original text, although the sentence is clearer with the word included.
(b) The actual words of Jesus are important. In using the words “I am” He used one of the names that God applied to Himself in the OT. He said, “I AM is speaking to you,” or, in other words, “Jehovah is the one who is speaking to you.”
(c) He was announcing to her the startling truth that the One who was speaking to her was the Messiah for whom she had been looking and that He was also God Himself. The Jehovah of the OT is the Jesus of the NT.
4. Summary
a. Let me close by again stating that our mission is indeed possible. We can be true worshippers.
b. We only have to worship in spirit in truth. That means handing over to Him anything that might come between us and Him or that might keep us from seeing and hearing Him when He is right there.
c. Worship that is accepted by God is a privilege unique to the Christian. It is not a right.
(1) We are permitted to offer acceptable worship only by the grace of God.
(2) It is disheartening when children of God deliberately reject this privilege and willfully absent themselves from the public assembly God has ordained for His glory and our good.
(3) Consider briefly, one last time, the significance of worship:
(a) It is obedience to a divine command.
(b) It is a means of nourishing the spirit.
(c) It assists in achieving spiritual growth.
(d) It encourages others in their spiritual development.
(e) It shows the world where our priorities are.
(f) It is one means of expressing our love for God.
(g) It is a way of showing my thankfulness to God for all He has done for me.
(h) It is a period of communion with God with the world shut out entirely.
d. Your mission, should you choose to accept it; and it is your CHOICE, is to become a true worshipper.
5. Invitation
