True Worshipers

Well, I hope the worship service to this point has reassured you that Jesus is reigning and ruling from heaven.

He is King.

He also did a great work when he came to earth.

We've been looking at that work in particular in John's Gospel, the fourth chapter of the last few weeks.

We've been looking at a series on the Holy Spirit.

And this morning we are going to go back to that text in John, be reading verses 16 through 26.

Hear God's word.

Jesus still speaking with the woman in Samaria.

Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here.

The woman answered him, I have no husband.

Jesus said to her, You're right in saying, I have no husband, for you've had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.

What you have said is true.

The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

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 is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

The woman said to him, I know the Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ.

When he comes, he will tell us all things.

Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He.

This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, and inerrant word this morning.

Let's pray for the Spirit's work.

Father, we thank you that you are Spirit.

We thank you that you are a triune God, the very Father who gave us your Son, that we might have eternal life.

And Jesus, we thank you that as you ascended, you sent your Spirit to dwell in your people on earth.

And so even now we pray, Spirit of God, illumine or darken minds.

Or touch the parts of us that are dead.

Or that we might come to life in new ways this morning by the work of your spirit.

We pray in the name of Christ.

Amen.

We've met this woman in Samaria the last few weeks.

A woman who found living water.

And as Jesus promised her, that if she would only look to him and believe in him, that she too would receive living water, the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is the one that makes things come alive.

The Spirit is the one who points us to Jesus Christ so that we see who He is, that we believe everything that is said in the scriptures about Him.

That we worship Him.

Jesus said to her, If you only knew the gift of God and who it is that's offering you this living water.

And then you recall he told the woman, Go call your husband.

Jesus was starting to put his finger, a little bit of probing on her heart.

And when she said, Well, I don't have a husband, he said, I know you don't.

I know all about the five husbands that you had.

I know all about the man that you're living with now who's not your husband.

And she was just astonished.

She was maybe just really struggling with some shame, like, oh wow, he does know everything about me.

And yet he wasn't shaming her.

He was inviting her to living water.

But before she could receive the living water, she had to see where she had been digging for water her whole life.

She had to understand why she had that shovel in her hand, looking for water.

She was looking for an identity.

She was looking for meaning.

In her case, she probably used men.

Men used her.

She was trying to find a purpose, identity.

You see, before we could receive the living water, we need to understand where we've been digging cisterns in our life.

And as we said, it's not just through women or men.

Some of us have done it with careers.

Some of us have done it with our kids, our achievements in life, our education.

There's all kinds of ways of living out of cisterns.

That's what this chapter is about that we looked at a couple weeks ago.

She said, Come see a man who told me, she said to her townspeople, come see a man who told me all that I ever did.

Again, it's not that he told her everything that she did.

He told her why she did the things that she did.

That's when we begin to receive the living water.

The living water started to well up within her.

It leaped up within her.

Gushing living water.

By the way, that's what worship is about.

That's what we're talking about this morning.

Gospel worship is the living water welling up within us.

And that's what we're talking about this morning.

This new living water gushed out of her into her town.

Many people in her village came to a saving knowledge of Christ because of her testimony.

The new living water.

As Pastor Josh preached last week, the living water not only brings us to Christ, but the living water sends us to invite others to come to Christ.

The best evangelism is not a technique.

It's not guilt-driven.

It's not duty-driven, which seems to consume the church today.

There's so very little evangelism being done in churches today.

I fear that so much of the ones that is being done, it's like, well, I'm supposed to do it.

And I just feel guilty.

And like, where's the living water?

The best evangelism, as we heard last week, is just asking the Holy Spirit to create that living water thirst in us so that we come back to Christ and we are renewed.

And as we heard last week, it's one beggar telling another beggar where we found bread.

Yes, there's a place for equipping.

Yes, there's a place for training in evangelism, but that's not the heart of evangelism.

Evangelism happens when we drink as we drink of Jesus' living water.

The living water is the gift, it's the pouring out of the Spirit into our lives.

The Holy Spirit, the one who regenerates us, who renews us, who convicts us of our sin, who convinces us that God loves us, who convinces us that we can be forgiven, who convinces us that when Christ died on the cross for his people, that he took our sin, he took our punishment, he took our guilt, he took our shame.

That's what that woman learned that day.

The Holy Spirit is the one who enlightens us, empowers us, not only for salvation, but for evangelism.

And what we're looking at this morning is for worship.

Look at verses 23 and 24.

That's where we're going to focus this morning.

Jesus says some profound things.

After Jesus starts to probe her heart, you know, she's feeling exposed and she wants to change the subject.

All of a sudden, she's interested in worship.

Jesus is getting close.

Jesus is getting close, and all of a sudden, you know, by the way, I've got some questions about worship.

Okay.

And Jesus tells her look, it's not where you worship, it's how you worship.

But the hour is coming.

It's now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

The first point from the text this morning is the priority of worship.

That word worship is used ten times in these six verses.

This is a passage about worship.

What can we learn about it?

First of all, theologians point out there were three must in John's gospel, where John uses that word must.

Now, when the word of God speaks about something that must be done, we ought to listen up.

The first time he uses it in John chapter 3, verse 7, you must be born again.

John 3:7

You'll never see God, you'll never see heaven if you are not born again.

If you don't experience the second birth, the birth from above, the work of the Holy Spirit, giving you a new heart, giving you faith and repentance.

You must be born again.

Secondly, the Son of Man, that's Jesus, must be lifted up on the cross.

Chapter 3, verse 14.

He must be lifted up on the cross.

If he was not lifted up on the cross, we would not be here this morning.

The third must, his people must worship God in spirit and in truth.

In our text this morning.

The priority of worship, the only time in the Word of God that we read God the Father seeking something.

Alright?

Sit up, pay attention, right?

The only time that the Father is seeking something, what's he seeking?

True worshipers.

Worship is the central activity of God's people, both today, today, and forever.

Throughout eternity.

It's not evangelism.

And it's really not fellowship or Christian education.

The one thing that is going to consume us throughout all eternity, the central calling of Christians is worship.

So we ought to take this very seriously.

How lightly we can take our worship.

Right?

I mean, sometimes we can just take our worship so casually.

You've done that.

I've done that.

When Jesus was asked a question by the lawyer, Rabbi, what's the greatest commandment?

He said, the greatest commandment is this: love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your strength, with all of your mind.

Love God with everything.

Anything less is a serious sin.

Ought that not to be true of worship when God's people come together and worship Him.

As Jonathan Edwards said, worship is tasting the honey.

The honey is sweet.

Worship is not simply describing the properties of honey.

How many times have we worshiped when that's really been the end result?

It just feels dry.

It feels like a lecture.

Our emotions aren't stirred, our mind isn't renewed.

We don't leave transformed, maybe in any way.

Well, guess what?

You didn't worship.

I didn't worship if that's what happens.

We gather.

Just because you gather doesn't mean you worship.

Just because you sing doesn't mean you're worshiping.

I mean, we can sing the words with we can sing the words mindlessly, can't we?

We can pray our prayers mechanically.

Our minds can just go a million miles away during the sermon and drift.

Do you see you need the Holy Spirit to worship?

Do you see that we oftentimes need to repent of how little we do worship?

And ask God, show me, give me, give me the honey.

Look, when somebody gives you a delicious dessert, I mean, like your favorite dessert.

Do you have to put on a smile?

Do you have to fake it?

Man, that's good.

Man, that's good.

The taste buds are exploding, coming alive.

You see, that's what Edwards was getting at when he was describing worship.

It's tasting the honey.

It's not putting the honey over on the jar on a jar on the other side of the dining room.

It's tasting it.

You can't do that without the Holy Spirit touching your heart.

So, how does this happen?

Secondly, let's look at the nature of worship.

The Samaritan woman wanted to know where to worship, but Jesus says again, it's not where, it's how.

Do you know the English derivation of the word worship?

And I know it goes back centuries before that, but the English derivation of the word worship is worship.

In worship, we give him what he is worth.

A.W.

Tozer was right when he said worship rises or falls with our concept of God.

Worship is about treasuring God.

Worship is about delighting in God.

It's been a long time since I've used this illustration, so I'm going to pull it out because a lot of you haven't heard this.

This is this is this is good, I think.

You know, big baseball fan growing up in Pittsburgh, and I collected lots of baseball cards.

I mean thousands of baseball cards.

And back when I was growing up, the New York Mets were really a lousy baseball team.

Sorry for any of you Mets fans.

Surely there aren't any Mets fans here.

And every time it seemed like I was always getting New York Mets cards in my pack with my bubblegum.

And you just wanted to get rid of them as fast as you could.

You know, you tried to find some kid that didn't know better, you know, and pawn them off on him.

And I got stuck with so many New York Mets, but I got stuck with Nolan Ryan rookie cards.

Oh, some of you know.

I got stuck with Nolan Ryan rookie cards.

And they were worth a lot of money.

And for decades they sat, they they sat in my a cigar box in my parents' attic in Pittsburgh until we moved to Washington and we wanted to buy a house.

And I needed to put as much money down on my down payment as possible.

And by then I realized these things are worth something.

And by the way, I realized that a few years earlier, and I took them out of the cigar box and put them in plastic coverings.

I started, what did I, what was I doing?

I was treasuring them.

I was ascribing the worth of them.

I was seeing the worth for what it was worth.

I started treating them differently.

So one day, years later, Sharon and I get in a car in Alexandria, Virginia, and we drive to Silver Spring, Maryland to a high-end baseball collector card shop.

And I traded a lot of those Nolan Ryan rookie cards in, and I got a lot of money.

And that helped with my down payment.

You see how that relates to worship?

The more you grow in your estimation and your view of God, the more you really understand, begin to understand it's never too late.

I have seen people in their 70s, in their 80s, and their 90s who went to church their whole life, I have seen them come alive.

I have been in their living rooms.

I have seen some of them come to Christ.

I have seen some of them who have been Christ for years come alive and be revived and be renewed.

It's never too late.

It really isn't.

If you're not treasuring God, if you're not seeing his worth, if his worth is not growing in your estimation, you're not paying attention.

And the Spirit's not doing much work in your life.

And it really doesn't matter if you're reading your Bible every day.

It really doesn't matter if you're going to church all the time.

You're missing it.

Only the Holy Spirit can open your eyes and renew your heart so that you start tasting the honey as you worship Him.

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 28 says, Let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe.

Hebrews 12:28

For our God is a consuming fire.

Awe and intimacy.

When the architect building our new church asked me to describe our worship, those are the two words I used.

Awe and intimacy.

That's what our worship is designed for.

Not one or the other.

And I've been in worship services where it seems like it's all about the awe.

And sometimes it feels like a funeral.

Where's the life?

Where's the joy?

Where's the celebration?

And I've been in worship services where it seems like it's all about the intimacy, and there's no sense of awe.

I mean, sometimes I've left worship services thinking, you know, it just felt too casual.

It felt like, I don't know.

Is God really holy, holy, holy?

We didn't even confess our sins and we didn't give God glory, maybe.

And it's both.

It's awe and intimacy.

Wait till you see our new sanctuary.

I think it's gonna be really awesome.

In a different way.

And it's designed for intimacy.

As it should be.

Worship that does not lead to awe and reverence is not good worship.

Worship that does not lead to intimacy with Christ is not good worship.

There's nothing more important that Trevor and I do every week than plan the worship service and lead the worship service.

There's nothing that we do that's more important.

In worship, it's been said, I love this expression.

Good worship.

We pour out what God alone pours in.

Isn't that good?

It should be a pouring.

But only the Holy Spirit can do it.

If you're conjuring it up, it's missing.

We need the Holy Spirit to put his finger on our hearts.

And sometimes what we're pouring out is confession, as we should.

Sometimes what we're pouring out, God forgive me.

Forgive me.

You know what this week was like.

You know what I said.

You know.

What I did.

God forgive me.

And that's what we should do.

And then there's other elements and times in the worship service where we just pour out joy and praise and gratitude because it's just we're tasting the honey and we realize, wait a minute, I'm forgiven.

I'm delighted in.

I have a home in heaven.

I have freedom.

We pour out what God pours in.

True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Let's break that down.

Worship in spirit.

Commentators differ over what that means.

Is he referring to the Holy Spirit or is he referring to in spirit, not in a mechanical wooden way?

Authentic way?

I'm not going to choose.

I think there's plenty in Scripture to demonstrate and prove both.

Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, verse 5, he says, We who worship by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God.

Philippians 3:5

There's so many places in Scripture that are abundantly clear that we cannot worship without the Holy Spirit.

And when we worship in the Holy Spirit, we're not doing it mechanically.

We're not doing it just in a routine way.

We're doing it with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul.

The same Holy Spirit who gives us the gift of the new birth is the same one who makes dry bones live, according to Ezekiel.

And I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.

Only the Holy Spirit can renew us, enliven us in our worship.

There's so much the scriptures have to say about this.

I'm going to just break it down into two areas.

The Word of God describes the work of the Holy Spirit, first of all, as light.

He illumines our darkened minds.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 18, one of the great prayers of all.

Ephesians 1:18

Paul says to the Ephesians, his prayer is that the Father may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.

That happens in every real authentic worship service.

The eyes of your hearts are coming alive.

You're seeing the spiritual eye chart better in good worship.

We have two sets of eyes, right?

I mean, we have these.

But Paul says, the eyes of your heart.

The person of Christ and the work of Christ are just coming into focus in a new, in a different way, a sharper focus.

I'm becoming more aware of the holiness of God.

I'm becoming more aware of the majesty of God.

But I'm also becoming more aware of my, because of that, I'm becoming more aware of my sinful heart, but I'm also becoming more aware of the grace of the work of Christ.

I see how much more He did for me.

That's the way it works.

The Holy Spirit alone makes the truth come alive.

So that we do taste the honey.

We repent, we believe.

If you want to spend some time meditating this afternoon or this week, let me give you a couple passages.

Romans chapter 5, verse 5.

Romans 5:5

God's love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

I firmly believe this at this point in my life and my ministry.

I firmly believe this.

That way too many of us are struggling, believing, accepting God's love.

Because we really don't know much about the Holy Spirit.

And we're just continuing to try to think it through.

We're trying to think it through.

We're trying to connect all the dots.

And we think, okay, one day when I finally connect all the dots and I finally understand everything the Bible has to say about this, I'll get it.

That's not the way it works.

I mean, of course, under study the Word of God.

Of course, study the scriptures.

But you see what he says.

The love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

You're never going to figure it all out.

But you can ask the Spirit.

And you can say, Come, Spirit of God, and flood the Father's love into my heart.

Galatians chapter 4, verse 6.

Galatians 4:6

God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out.

What, Sonship graduates?

Abba, Father.

How do you come to really grasp that?

How do you come to really live out of that?

The Holy Spirit.

God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.

Only the Spirit can open up your mind and your heart so that you actually cry out, Abba.

That He's no longer this distant God, but He's your Father.

J.I.

Packer said the heart of Christianity is adoption.

Understanding that you have been adopted into the Father's family.

You have been welcomed.

You eat, you fellowship with the Father.

And he's never going to kick you out.

Jonathan Edwards put it like this when we're talking about the work of the Spirit in our lives.

He says when in worship, there's light in the mind and there's heat in the heart.

And there's never to be more heat in the heart than justified by the light in the mind.

Did you get that?

Deep doctrine should lead to deep delight.

He's right.

The Holy Spirit is described as light.

That's why we have this prayer for illumination before every sermon in this church.

It's not just a lecture.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is here and he wants to work.

But we have to open, we have to yield to him.

Do you pray that?

Do you pray that?

Do you pray that at home during the week?

Holy Spirit, would you please open my mind?

Open my heart?

Would you open me up so that I would stop just stiff arming you?

Trying to keep control.

J.I.

Packer said that the Holy Spirit's work is to turn on the floodlights on the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit is the shy member of the Trinity.

He's never seeking attention.

It's like he's standing behind us with this floodlight, shining it on Jesus.

Do you see?

Do you see how beautiful he is?

Do you see how humble he is?

Do you see how welcoming he is?

Go to him.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit is described in worship as fire.

Fire not only lights up, it burns up whatever doesn't belong in our lives.

Fire burns the things that need to be burned.

He convicts us of the things in our life that are getting in the way of the Holy Spirit being poured out in us.

He shows us, he convicts us, he probes.

Jesus is still doing that today by the work of his spirit, just like he did with the Samaritan woman when he brought up the subject of his wives, her husbands.

He's still doing that.

Have you seen that in your life?

The Holy Spirit is the one who still comes to all of us if we're Christians.

He still comes, he says, Tom, go call your work.

Go get your marriage.

Go get your children.

Tom, I need I want to show you.

I want to show you where your heart is getting wrapped around things that aren't going to give you life.

That's what the Holy Spirit does.

And it burns.

As I yield to the Spirit, He burns that stuff.

He convicts us of the things that need to be burned up.

The things that are preventing our worship from being what worship is supposed to be.

When the Holy Spirit sets a person's life on fire, it spreads.

Have you ever noticed that?

When somebody is on fire with the love of God, they love the word of God and they love to pray.

And the next thing you know, other people around them seem to be catching the Spirit's fire.

Have you noticed that?

That's the way it works.

I see it in this church.

It just happens because that's the nature of fire to spread.

Fire is contagious, it doesn't stay contained.

The Holy Spirit, this Holy Spirit is just looking for sparks.

He's looking for little flames that turn into bigger flames, and that fire spreads.

Jesus also said that we need to worship in truth.

Jesus Himself was the one who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

I am the truth.

The word of God is our standard for truth.

It's the only trustworthy source.

Every sermon must be Christ-centered.

Jesus said, Well, what did the Greeks say to Jesus' disciples in John chapter 12?

John 12 · chapter mention

Sir, we would see Jesus.

The truth will set you free.

When we worship in truth, we worship truthfully, honestly, with all of our hearts.

Jesus said of the Pharisees, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

A couple hundred years ago, a theologian said this.

Read whatever chapter of the Word of God that you will, and be ever so delighted with what you read, yet it will leave you as poor, as empty, as unchanged as it found you, unless it has turned you wholly and solely to the Spirit of God.

No Christian grows without being in the Word of God, empowered by the Spirit of God.

Which just leads us to our last point.

The result of all this is transformation.

It's transformation.

Paul says in Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, by the mercies of God I beseech you, I urge you, in view of God's mercies, that you be renewed in your minds, you be transformed.

Romans 12:1

It's this metamorphosis.

The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 18, that by the work of the Spirit, we are being transformed from glory to glory.

2 Corinthians 3:18

As we're tasting the honey and we're tasting more honey, the result of good worship is transformation.

In good worship, it's not only about information.

If the information is not leading to transformation, we're not worshiping.

Good worship is not sitting in the pew, you know, like now.

And thinking, oh, I okay, I heard some interesting things.

I I think I heard an interesting concept.

I think I'll think about it a little bit more this week.

Is that convicting?

That's not good worship.

You worship on the spot.

When the Holy Spirit is working in you, the Holy Spirit is convincing you even now that the love of God is real, that the peace of God is available, that the mercy of God is invited, inviting you to come now.

God expects his people to do spiritual transactions in worship.

The Puritans believe that.

They used to talk about that a lot in their sermons.

Spiritual transactions.

My anxiety seems to be subsiding because I see, wait a minute.

He's got my life, he's got control of my world.

The old preacher Howell Harris in the 18th century was not known for being a very powerful preacher until he worshipped well one day on June the 18th, in 1735.

I suddenly felt my heart melting within me like wax before the fire with love to God my Savior.

I felt not only love and peace, but also a longing to be dissolved and to be with Christ.

And there was a cry in the inmost part of my soul with which I was totally unacquainted before.

It was this Abba, Father, Abba, Father.

I could not help calling God my Father.

I knew now for the first time that I was his child and that he loved me and that my soul was being filled, and I was crying out.

It is enough.

It is enough.

I am satisfied.

Give me strength, and I will follow you through fire and water.

There was in me the love of God shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit, like never before.

And so we pray.

Father, we thirst.

We thirst.

And we come asking that we would taste of your living water by the work of your spirit this morning, that we would do spiritual transactions this day with you.

Only you know what you're asking of us now.

Only you can give us what we most need now.

Spirit of God, humble us, open us, change us.

Holy Spirit, burn the chaff.

Burn the things that are getting in the way of what you would do in us and through us.

Oh, living water.

Jesus, quench our thirst this morning.

We pray in your name.

Amen.