This message was given to me. I have change some of the context.
Place: Who:
Subject/Title: “ Key Verses: John 4:16-26
➢ John 4:10-26 ( NKJV ) 10Jesus answered and said to her,“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The
woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our
fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the
Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
➢ Mission statements are everywhere. Schools have them, hospitals have them, restaurants
have them, and even the license bureau has one. It might not be wide of the mark to suggest
that the chief mission of the Christian is to worship God. We see this stressed throughout the
Bible:
A. In the garden we saw the test of worship.
B. Moses received 10 famous words from God which functioned as commandments of
worship.
C. The Israelites were to set up the tabernacle in the middle of their encampment, no
doubt showing the centrality of worship.
D. The temple was filled with smells and smoke indicating the sacrifices of worship.
E. The psalms and other works functioned as books of worship.
F. The post-exilic prophets had to try to re-institute proper worship.
G. When Christ came He showed us how important worship was by attending it regularly.
H. The early church found reason to change the day of worship.
I. The epistles functioned partly as a liturgy of worship.
J. And, Revelation ends with the rejoinder, “Worship God!”
➢ In the encounter that Jesus had with the woman at the well we see more “worship talk”
per square inch than anywhere else in the Bible.
I. Notice Who Is Talking About Worship.
➢ It is not a theologian, not a Bible College professor, not a preacher, not an elder, not a Bible school teacher.
➢ It is a morally wounded woman. That doesn’t sound right. But maybe that is the point. The only people who will worship will be the people who sense their need to worship. At least this woman does that.
➢ This morally wounded woman is undone as she talks about worship. She is the one who brings up the topic. But she is stopped in her tracks when Jesus says, “Go call your husband.” Worship will never be popular, because we have to face God, and when we do
that we have to face ourselves in light of God. That will undo the best of us.
II. Notice What Worship Is Not.
➢ While we may want to know what worship is Jesus only defines it by the power of negation. Maybe He is more interested in us doing worship than merely defining it. In fact, one way to kill some things is to say, “Webster says that worship is ”
➢ Worship is not:
A. Geography … it can be done anywhere.
B. Race … the woman was a Samaritan.
C. Anything and everything … Jesus said, “You worship what you do not know.” There is such a thing as wrong worship.
D. Terminology … the main word here means to “bow down,” but we dare not get lost in mere lexical studies.
E. Enthusiasm … ”inspirit” means something different than “clap your hands.”
III.Notice How Worship Is Done.
➢ In spirit, i.e. In sincerity of heart and attitude. While true worshipers worship God in Spirit (Philippians 3), here it is referring to a state of the heart.
➢ In truth, i.e. In genuineness. Of course we want to worship God according to the Bible, but Jesus is talking about a state of the heart.
IV. Notice What Worship Leads to.
➢ John 20:30-31 ( NKJV ) 30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
➢ It leads to a further disclosure of God. The point of John 4 is not to give us a manual of personal evangelism. As the woman talks about worship with Jesus, He is revealed. This fits the Gospel’s purpose (20:30-31). First she sees Him to be just a man, then a prophet, then the Messiah, and finally the Savior of the world.
➢ It leads to world evangelism. Worship should always drive us into the fields of harvest.
If we know Him, then we must seek to make Him known.
➢ Conclusion
➢ Someone once said, “A Christian should be hallelujah from head to toe.” As our perception of Christ grows the only appropriate response is worship.
Michael Bishop
Ackerman MS
Twitter: @Bromichaelb Facebook: Michael Bishop Ministries
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