{"id":30660,"date":"2024-04-12T22:00:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T05:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-4_1-14-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-03-26T22:10:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T05:10:38","slug":"john-4_15-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-4_15-30\/","title":{"rendered":"What does it mean to \u201cworship in spirit and in truth\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 4:15-30 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 4:15-30.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 4:15-18 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”<\/p>\n

Verses 15-18: The Samaritan woman\u2019s curiosity for the living water Jesus offers turns into a real desire for it. She asks Jesus for this living water, but Jesus responds by saying \u201cGo, call your husband and come back.\u201d Why does Jesus do that? It\u2019s because Jesus knew that this woman had been in a handful of failed marriages, and now she was living with someone she was not married to. Subtly Jesus was telling the woman that in order to experience the living water that Jesus makes available, she needed to repent of sin.<\/p>\n

What does it mean to repent?\u00a0\u00a0To repent means to agree with God that you have sinned, to feel sincerely sorry for your sin, and to turn away from sin and toward Jesus for forgiveness and help.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is repentance necessary to receive Jesus\u2019 living water?<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s because the first step to being reconciled to God and receiving His forgiveness and grace is realizing that we actually need His forgiveness and grace.\u00a0 When we repent, we\u2019re giving God room to forgive us, to fill us and to do a new work in us.\u00a0 That is why we need to repent if we want to experience Jesus\u2019 living water.<\/p>\n

John 4:19-24 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Yet 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 seeks.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”<\/p>\n

On verses 19 to 24: Now that Jesus a perfect stranger \u2014 indeed, THE perfect stranger \u2014 has revealed that he knows this woman\u2019s specific and secret struggle with sin, this woman realizes that he is a prophet. Then notice what she does. Instead of repenting of sin, she immediately changes the direction of the conversation to a \u201csafer\u201d topic by talking about how Jews and Samaritans can\u2019t agree on where to worship (v20). Sometimes when someone is faced with the call to repent, or gets anywhere near anything God-related, they will, as a defensive mechanism, bring up topics of controversy, debate and intellectual objections to faith, so as to avoid having to think about personally needing to make any God-related change in their lives.<\/p>\n

That is what the woman does here.\u00a0 She brings up the \u201cworship wars\u201d between the Jews and the Samaritans so as to avoid talking about her own need to repent.\u00a0 But Jesus deals with her diversion so well. He answers her objection by saying that the physical location where we worship is not as important as the condition of our hearts when we worship.\u00a0 Whereas the Samaritan and Jewish fathers focused on the location of worship (whether on the mountain or in Jerusalem), the Father focuses on the condition of our hearts in worship.\u00a0 As Jesus says, the time has now come where the Father seeks people who will worship Him \u201cin Spirit and in truth\u201d (v21, 23-24), for that is the kind of worshiper the Father seeks (v23).\u00a0 As part of this, Jesus also says that what she and her Samaritan people needed was something that God had given the Jews, namely, the key to salvation (v22).<\/p>\n

What does it mean to worship God \u201cin spirit and in truth\u201d?\u00a0<\/strong>
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To worship \u201cin spirit\u201d means that more than just showing up at church, you\u2019re using your spirit to worship God.\u00a0 Just as God is Spirit, we have been created as spiritual beings, having been given a spirit with which to worship God and to relate to God.\u00a0 Worship is a spirit to Spirit activity where our spirit interacts with God\u2019s Spirit.\u00a0 So to \u201cworship in spirit\u201d carries with it the idea that we are worshiping with a sensitivity to what God\u2019s Spirit is doing and relying on God\u2019s Spirit to lead us in worshiping the Father.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To worship \u201cin truth\u201d means to worship God with an understanding of who He really is. In particular, since Jesus later calls Himself \u201cthe way, the\u00a0truth<\/em>, and the life\u201d (John 14:6), to \u201cworship in truth\u201d can also mean to base our worship of God on Jesus, believing in Jesus, appreciating what Jesus has done for us, and trusting that it is through Jesus that we can connect with God.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Notice that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all appear in Jesus\u2019 statement that the Father seeks worshipers who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth, since \u201cSpirit\u201d can refer to the Holy Spirit and \u201ctruth\u201d can be a reference to Jesus.\u00a0 When we worship God in spirit and in truth, all three Persons of the Trinity are involved in that activity.<\/p>\n

John 4:25-30 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They came out of the town and made their way toward him.<\/p>\n

On verses 25-30:\u00a0 The woman responds to Jesus\u2019 teaching on worship by saying, \u201cWell, I guess we\u2019ll only know for sure when the Messiah comes\u201d (v25).\u00a0 Jesus responds by saying, \u201cYou\u2019re looking at Him\u201d (v26).\u00a0 The disciples return, puzzled as to why Jesus is talking with a woman, and the woman goes back to the town and invites the people to come check out this Jesus that she just met and whom she thinks may be the Messiah (the Christ) they have all been waiting for.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 This woman had literally just met Jesus, but within minutes of meeting Jesus, she started to \u201clive out loud\u201d and lead others to Jesus.\u00a0 It goes to show that you don\u2019t need to be well versed in the Bible and you don\u2019t need to have known Jesus for a long time before you start leading others to Him.\u00a0 All you need to do is share with others what good thing you think you\u2019ve experienced from Jesus and invite people to come check Him out for themselves.<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus, thank You for showing me through Your Word today that repentance is a crucial step to receiving Your living water.\u00a0 Since the Father is seeking worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth, I pray I would be one of those worshipers, who recognizes who You are and who I am in light of You.\u00a0 Thank You that now and today, despite everything I don\u2019t know, You can use me to lead others to You.\u00a0 Please fill me with Your Spirit today, that I would worship You in spirit and in truth.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 4:15-30.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 4:15-18 (NIV)
\n15\u00a0\u00a0The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
\n16\u00a0\u00a0He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
\n17\u00a0\u00a0“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.
\n18\u00a0\u00a0The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”<\/p>\n

Verses 15-18: The Samaritan woman\u2019s curiosity for the living water Jesus offers turns into a real desire for it. She asks Jesus for this living water, but Jesus responds by saying \u201cGo, call your husband and come back.\u201d Why does Jesus do that? It\u2019s because Jesus knew that this woman had been in a handful of failed marriages, and now she was living with someone she was not married to. Subtly Jesus was telling the woman that in order to experience the living water that Jesus makes available, she needed to repent of sin. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30663,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30660\/revisions\/30663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}