Thoughts from John 4

God is the seeking God. God is at work now. God is doing something today. God is looking for people at this moment. God is looking for true worshipers. God seeks people who will worship him in spirit and truth.

Among the more outstanding relationships in Scripture is that between Jesus and John the Baptist exemplified partially in Jn. 4. When controversy had arisen on account of Jesus’ greater popularity, John answered his disciples, “He must increase and I must decrease.” 3:30. Yet, when Jesus knew that the Pharisees picked up on the dissension, it is Jesus who leaves (4:1-3) in order to allow John freedom to continue his work for God’s kingdom. John defers to Jesus, Jesus defers to John, and the result glorifies God. How different from the worldly, carnal approach: Whoever’s left standing at the close of the day is in the right and is victor; might makes right.

Jesus and John both found their affirmation and vindication in the ancient prophets: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” Zch. 4:6. These are among those to whom it is ascribed, “of whom the world was not worthy.” Heb. 11:38. So, Jesus retires from Judea.

In his travel away from Judea for Galilee, Jesus retires at a well in Samaria. His disciples go into the nearby town to secure provisions. A woman from the town comes to draw water whereupon Jesus engages her in a life-changing conversation about God. At first they talk about drinking water, about the distress between Jews and Samaritans, about the surprise of a man addressing a woman, about the well’s history, about artesian water fountains, and about distinguishing between marriage and mere living together. Soon enough, however, Jesus turns the discussion to what he loves the most: the realities of God.

As she comes to realize that Jesus must be a prophet and no ordinary man, she asks about worship: The Samaritans worship God on this mountain, Mt. Gerizim; Jews worship God over there in Jerusalem, at the temple. Here in effect is her question, “Who is right?”

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
Jn. 4:21-24.

Jesus’ answer comes at two levels. At the first level he states assuredly that the Jews are right, “Salvation comes from the Jews.” Samaritans worship, but they do not know what they worship; the Jews worship what they know.

Having resolved that matter, he returns to his greater interest: Who is God, what type of God is he? That is, What is God’s nature, and what does this imply for genuine worship? He had already indicated that true worshippers need to worship in spirit and in truth. He comes back to this notion and explains the reason for this: God is spirit.

This detail gives us the context for the woman’s question. The woman asks about the structure of worship: Is it to take place here or there? Is worship to be performed in the manner of the Samaritans or in the manner of the Jews?

We note that the structure of the Hebrew system of worship had been explicitly given to them through Moses. Much of the OT discusses the means, the details, the actions that are to be taken in proper worship. For sacrifices, kill this goat, but not that goat, in this place and not that place. Take certain of a bull’s entrails and do this specific thing with them, take other parts of the beast and do those other things with them. Eat this, don’t eat that. Burn this, don’t burn that. The tent of meeting must have this color and not that color, in this layer and not that layer, in this position and not that position, out of this material and not that material, with this design and not that design. The priest must wear this and not that. The fire must be this fire and not that fire. The feast day must take place here and not there, on this day and not that day, with these persons and not those persons. The incense must have these spices and not those spices. The ark of the covenant must be carried in this manner and not in that manner. And so on.

Indeed, when the apostle Paul writes the Romans in regard to Hebrew advantage, he underscores the Jewish worship system as unparalleled:

They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed for ever. Amen. Rom. 9:4-5.

He says theirs is “the worship.” He speaks to the structure addressed, however, ever so briefly and inadequately already. Paul affirms Jesus’ revelation that salvation is from the Jews.

So, her fundamental question remains our unenlightened question, too. What does the Deity want of the structures of worship? This and similar ones consume us because we humans want to appease the Deity. We seek to make sure the structures of worship keep the Deity satisfied so that we will be blessed, or at a minimum, so that we will not condemned in unleashing the Deity’s wrath by our inattentiveness or unconcern about those structures.

In this fear of wrong structure, just so, we hear people say, “What do you mean that there is no organ? I don’t feel like it’s worship unless the organ plays.” Or, “The worship was lacking because we could not clap in the songs.” Or, “What kind of church is this without the minister’s proper religious clothing?” These questions concern structures. These are the Samaritan woman’s questions.

Jesus’ answer leaves her with, “God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 4:23.

Though God designed and ordained the structure of the Jewish worship, and as stunning and overwhelming that worship is, it remains a copy, a shadow of the reality of heaven itself. That system of worship holds only a form of what is genuine, it patterns the genuine article to be sure, but it is not itself the reality, it itself is not the thing itself. It is a marvelous model, but remains only a model, a structure, a shadow. Thus, the apostle Paul will write:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Col. 2:16-17.

It is the same discussion as the Hebrew writer poses when discussing the Mosaic system as a shadow of the reality, but not the reality itself:

They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." Heb. 8:5.

And again:

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near. Heb. 10:1.

Her questions concern shadows ... and so do ours. When people say, “How can your church organization be strictly congregational? It should have more structure than that, there should be state or national levels as well,” this concerns the structures of shadows, but not the reality. When people say, “In order to organize properly and allow for useful progress, the local congregation must have one person, the pastor or minister or preacher or evangelist, at the top of that organization,” they speak of shadows, not of the reality. When people say, “The church building should be beautiful and attractive,” they speak of shadows, not of the reality.

As he speaks with the woman, Jesus says that God actively engages something. What is it? God seeks. God engages in an activity of seeking, and particularly of seeking true worshipers. God seeks men and women whose interest it is to worship him truly, to worship him genuinely. So how does one become a true worshiper? Jesus answers, The true worshiper is the one who worships in spirit and in truth. That's whom God seeks.

Beloved of God, God has all the worshipers he needs whose interest is in the shadows: whose interest is in this mountain, or in that city, or in that organizational structure, or in this type of music. Those whom God seeks worship in spirit and truth. Do not be misled into thinking that shadows have substance. They do not.

So what does this mean to “worship in spirit and truth”? We have a keen interest in this since this defines “true” worshipers. It is not so much that “spirit and truth” can be separated out altogether; they cannot. These are facets of the same nature. Nonetheless, we shall here speak of them separately for a few moments.

Jesus provides an answer to the meaning of true worship: God is spirit, consequently, true worshipers must worship in spirit. Spiritual worship takes your heart before the throne of God in obedience to his sovereign design. Spiritual worship takes place in the core yielding of your will in deference to the will of God in every aspect of your life. Spiritual worship is the acknowledgement that you are not God, and that God alone is God. It is the fulfillment, not merely the memorization, of the first commandment:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Mk. 12:29-30.

Spiritual worship takes place in the center of your very being as you bow before God’s majesty and call upon God as the

blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. 1 Tim. 6:15-16.

(In other settings I have discussed the propriety of acappella singing, prayers, preaching, communion, giving, of biblical church organization, and similar things of a lesser nature, and to repeat these now fails to serve the doctrine Jesus sets forth here. So I shall not reiterate these now.)

Thus, spiritual worship must not be confused with completing certain prescribed, "authorized" items of worship. Spiritual worship must not be confused with appeasement of a wrathful God. Spiritual worship is what happens inside your heart, inside your mind, when you sing, when you pray, when you learn, when you give, when commune. But these vehicles by which worship may be expressed are not the worship itself. Spiritual worship is you before God in awed reverence and praise.

What is worship in truth? Jesus provides the answer to this question likewise. The truth is that Jesus is the Christ of God.

She said, “When Messiah comes, he will show us everything.”

He said, “Here I am.”

To take this foundational reality and to equate it with instrument-accompanied singing on the one hand or with acappella singing on the other, is to engage the shadows, but not the reality.

To worship in truth is to come into the presence of God through the Son whom he sent as the embodiment of the Word. It is to worship empowered by the Son of man lifted up. It is to worship believing in the Son as the Christ of God. It is to worship believing that Jesus found his nourishment consumed by the will of the Father.

To worship in truth leads one to follow Jesus in the presence of God, and from the presence of God commissioned, to follow Jesus back into a world of needy people.

In practice, if not principle, it comes to the same place as Rom. 12:1-2, namely, that spiritual worship is the presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices before God. Substitution of some structure in the place of one’s very spirit is not true worship. To replace one’s spirit, that is, one’s inner self, with a place of worship (this building and not that building) is, rather, to engage in shadows.

So, what exactly is worship in spirit and truth? Is it entirely an internal thing that deals with one’s heart and belief? It is that, Yes! And more: Worship in spirit and in truth finally translates the intimate, personal abiding in the presence of God into an engaged invitation to that same relationship for others. It translates into a reality of visiting the orphans and the widows in their affliction; it translates into keeping oneself unstained from the world. Jas. 1:27. It translates into fellowship with the work of God himself in this too real world.

Just so, as she began drinking at the eternal fountain, the woman at the well said to her people, “Come, see a man who told me all I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” And they believed because of her testimony. 4:39. But then they came to believe because they saw for themselves that he is the Savior of the world.

Thus, in retiring, Jesus works and God is glorified. God seeks her, makes her his own, and she becomes a worshiper in spirit and truth. God seeks them, and they become his own.