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[0:00] John chapter 4. Pastor Aaron has asked me to read the first 15 verses.! John chapter 4. The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John.

[0:15] ! Although, in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

[0:26] Now, he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

[0:43] It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

[0:54] The Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

[1:07] And Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is to ask you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Sir, the woman said, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

[1:23] Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?

[1:34] Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.

[1:46] Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. And the 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.

[2:01] Well, let's hear the preaching of God's word. Well, thank you for having me back again so soon. This is twice in three weeks, which is probably as frequently as I've been here since we left way back in 2010.

[2:17] It is a joy to be with you again, to see your faces and to have the opportunity to look into God's word together tonight. Maybe you remember, if you were here a few Sundays ago, that we considered the importance of what happens in the Father's house and how the Father's Son is our hope.

[2:40] It was a tale of two temples, the Father's house and the Father's Son. And if that doesn't make any sense to you, you can go back and listen to that message. But that's what we focused on, the importance of what happens in the Father's house.

[2:52] And I want us to think more about that tonight, about the worship that should happen in the Father's house. And we're here in John's gospel again. Last time it was John 2. Today, John chapter 4, though I'm not preaching from the verses I asked Pastor Jason to read.

[3:06] I'm preaching from the verses after that that I want to read in a moment. But it's a long passage and I don't want to try to read the whole thing at once. So he gave you the background of what's happening with this woman at the well.

[3:18] And then we'll get into further their conversation as we go here, Lord willing. This first portion, though, that Pastor Jason has just read is Jesus in the midst of what really is a striking conversation.

[3:35] And I don't have time tonight to tell you all of the reasons why it was so unusual for a Jewish man to be talking to a Samaritan woman in the middle of Samaria.

[3:46] There's background. There's history between Jews and Samaritans that make this a very unusual encounter. Jews and Samaritans didn't like each other at all.

[3:59] You see that in verse 9. Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. They don't associate. They don't. Now, Jesus' disciples are off in town buying food.

[4:11] And so there were some things that they were able to do. But there were some taboos there. You would be uncomfortable if you were a Jew traveling through Samaria. And that would be, in some ways, your own fault.

[4:23] And part of the beauty of the Savior here is his willingness to step across those cultural boundaries and taboos and say, I'm going to show love to a woman that no other Jew will show love to.

[4:34] And so here he is at this well. This Jew and this Samaritan. They worshipped in different places. The Jews in Jerusalem.

[4:45] The Samaritans on Mount Gerizim. If you're looking at a map of Palestine, you've got Judea in the south and Galilee in the north. And sort of nestled in between is Samaria. And there's a whole Old Testament history as to why the Samaritans are not appreciated by the Jews.

[5:00] But their worship was syncretistic. They mixed the worship of the true God with the worship of false gods of other nations. And so they had false worship.

[5:11] They worshipped on Mount Gerizim instead of in Jerusalem. And the Jews did not like them. I'm tempted to get into that history. But we just don't have time. You can find it in the message on John 4 versus what Jason read earlier at our church's website.

[5:31] If you want to know what that background is, if you're really just really interested, you can find it there. Suffice it to say, they were not friends. And the Samaritans had this false syncretistic worship.

[5:46] And they worshipped there in Samaria on Mount Gerizim. But that's not the focus of the part of the conversation that we just heard. Instead, Jesus is talking to her about living water.

[5:56] He uses her earthly thirst. She's at the well for a reason. She needs water. And he uses that earthly thirst to point to a greater need that only God could satisfy.

[6:07] The need for salvation from sin. And so he points to God as the fountain of living water. And by his spirit, he gives life to all who partake of him. And what a provision.

[6:19] If you're here tonight as a believer, you have received that living water. And what a provision God has made for us. We are in great need of salvation. Thirsty for it.

[6:29] And God himself quenches our thirst with living water with himself. But it's clear that the woman is not quite seeing that. Yeah, look at verse 15 again. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty.

[6:43] Or have to come here to draw water. She's still thinking about quenching her thirst. And if there's a way I can avoid this probably daily trip to the well about a half a mile from the town of Sychar to where Jacob's well is.

[6:55] If I can avoid that, great. Give me some water so I don't have to be thirsty and come to this well anymore. She's still thinking about physical, earthly water. She's not getting the spiritual side of what Jesus is saying just yet.

[7:07] So how is Jesus going to help her see her need? She needs true living water. She needs eternal life. She needs salvation. How is Jesus going to help her see her need?

[7:19] That's what comes next. And the conversation is going to take some, what seemed like to us, some unexpected turns. But eventually get us to the main point for today, which is the true worship of the true God who saves sinners and turns them into worshipers.

[7:36] God takes sinners and he turns them into worshipers of himself. And that's what we want to think about tonight from John chapter 4. So follow along with me. I'm going to read the next part of the story. And we're not even going to get to all of it tonight.

[7:48] There's another whole part after it. We're just going to get through part of it. So I want to read from verse 16 down through verse 26 of John chapter 4. This is the word of God.

[7:59] 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 have had five husbands.

[8:12] 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 worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

[8:24] Jesus said to her, A 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.

[8:39] But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

[8:49] God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming.

[9:00] 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. So I want us to think tonight about the identity of worshippers.

[9:16] Who is it that worships? The object of worship, to whom is our worship directed. The manner of our worship, how should we worship.

[9:28] And then I want to finish with the savior of worshippers. How is it that we become worshippers? So first of all, the identity of worshippers.

[9:38] Who worships? Well, before they're worshippers, they're sinners. And that's what Jesus seems to be aiming to expose with his simple but insightful statement to her.

[9:54] Earlier, in verse 7, Jesus makes a request of the woman. He says, give me a drink of water. And that's a brilliant request that he makes. He's bridging a gulf that exists between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman.

[10:08] And he puts them on common ground because they both need water. And so they have some common ground and it leads into a spiritual conversation. There's volumes that we can learn there for evangelism and how to go about it.

[10:21] The way Jesus makes that request and bridges that gap in verse 7. The second request he makes of her is here in verse 16. And this one, just as wise as the first, this one exposes her sin and shows how badly she needs that living water that they've just been talking about.

[10:42] You need more than something to quench your thirst. You need to be saved from your sin. And so he's going to point to her sin. He says, go get your husband and come here.

[10:54] Now how did Jesus know to put his finger on her particular sin? Well, earlier John tells us at the end of chapter 2 that Jesus needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man.

[11:06] He knew what was in this woman's heart. He knew what's in Nicodemus' heart. He knows what's in this woman's heart. And boy did his comment hit the mark.

[11:17] One of the commentators points out, up to this point at the well, she's been fairly chatty. Her responses have been wordy, just if you count the number of words that she says.

[11:29] And here, when he says, go get your husband and come here, three words. Her response is three words in Greek or probably Hebrew too. English, it takes a few more words.

[11:40] I have no husband. Wall goes up in some ways. She wants to shut the conversation down. She doesn't want to talk about her husband. I have no husband.

[11:53] And Jesus acknowledges that that's true insofar as it goes. But she's probably calculating in a way to hide her deeper truth, which Jesus then reveals anyway.

[12:06] She's had five husbands and has a live-in boyfriend right now. He says in verse 18. Now, we don't know why five husbands. It's possible some of them have died. It's possible that she has been divorced.

[12:18] I think that's certainly possible. It doesn't seem far-fetched given her current living situation that meets she may have been divorced for infidelity. Regardless, she doesn't, at this point, try to deny it or hide it.

[12:32] It's clear it doesn't mean it has personal knowledge of her and her sin. And that's one thing that's true about worshipers. They are first sinners. But another thing is that they are sinners known by God.

[12:46] So she realizes, at this point, this is no ordinary man. Verse 19. Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. And she's right. He knows more than just a random guy you meet at the well in the middle of the day.

[13:05] Something's going on here. Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. She doesn't know yet what we know. That he's the word made flesh. As he's going to affirm in a moment that he is the Messiah sent from God.

[13:18] That he's not just a prophet, but that he is the prophet. Israel was waiting for the prophet like Moses to come. And the Samaritans would have had an anticipation of that as well.

[13:31] Samaritans had some Israelites in their history. And they embraced the Pentateuch, but not the other books after that. They would have been anticipating the prophet as well. It doesn't seem she's quite on to that yet.

[13:41] But she knows something is up. And friends, I just want us to notice tonight, before we move on, that as Jesus knew this woman, he knows you and he knows me.

[13:53] There are no secrets between you and God, though you might wish that there were. Jesus knows all of the skeletons in your closet. He knows all of the baggage that you bring.

[14:08] And I actually hope that's an encouragement to you tonight. He knows all of that about you. He knows everything about you. And still, he took you from a sinner and he turned you into a worshiper. And that should fuel your worship all the more.

[14:23] There's not one thing. You know yourself. You know how much you've been forgiven of by God's grace. You know what he knows about you. And it's ugly. And if you were looking at yourself and saying, I'm looking for some worshipers to worship me in spirit and truth, you know that you would pass right over yourself.

[14:43] Because you know your sin. And I hope you're encouraged today that Jesus, that God knows you. Everything about you. Especially your sin. And he made you a worshiper anyway.

[14:57] That's remarkable. It should lead us to praise him. That we are known. Being known by God should equal being punished by God. Known by God.

[15:08] Punished by God. Because what he knows about us is that we're sinners. Deserving punishment. But instead, we're known by God. And somehow, we're here tonight as worshipers of that God. Instead of having been punished by him.

[15:25] Now that's getting ahead. The very last thing. The savior of worshipers. But that's how we get from being sinners to worshipers. It's through this Jesus who is the living water.

[15:36] That he's offering to this woman at the well. And so, brothers and sisters, let's not pretend to be better than we are. He didn't save us because we were good people. But because of his love.

[15:47] And so, when we see other sinners who have not yet been saved. I hope that we don't see someone who is beneath us. Or someone who is hopeless. Even a really bad sinner. I mean, be honest.

[15:58] Would you have pegged a five times married woman with a live-in boyfriend as a likely candidate to become a worshiper of the living God? Probably not. We have certain things that we think about.

[16:12] Certain kinds of sinners. Nope. Not that one. Jesus doesn't think like we do. Praise God. He comes to any sinner from any country.

[16:26] Even Samaria. And offers himself. As the living water. So let's not pretend to be better than we are. That we think other sinners are beneath us.

[16:40] If we're honest, we remember what God knows about us. And it's every bit as bad as what he knows about them. God sees the world differently than us.

[16:51] We all start here acknowledging God and his great mercy towards us. He knows us. He knows our sin. And he turns us from sinners into worshipers. So let's remember how great our forgiveness is.

[17:01] And be eager to point other sinners to the same Savior who found us. That's what this woman is going to do. She's found by Jesus at the well. And pretty soon, we didn't read this, but she's going back to town saying, Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.

[17:17] She's testifying about the one that's what we should be doing. God has taken you and turned you from a sinner into a worshiper. Then you should be telling other people, Let me tell you about this God who knew everything about me and saved me anyway.

[17:33] And just note too that if you're professing faith and worshiping God here tonight, and you're harboring some sin over here that you're unwilling to deal with, don't think that you can fool God.

[17:47] You might be able to fool your spouse. You might be able to pull one quick one on your parents and they don't know. Your brothers and sisters in Christ here tonight might not know, but God knows.

[18:00] He knows. Don't try. Bring the sin to the light. Confess it and forsake it. That your worship might not be hindered. And if you're not a believer tonight, you've not put your faith in Christ.

[18:12] And you come here and you sing the songs with everybody else, but you're not worshiping from the heart because you haven't been saved. Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God. You don't know our God.

[18:23] You don't worship Him. I just want you to see tonight that for you too, God knows. Every single last thing about you, He knows. You can't hide it from Him.

[18:35] There's no escaping it. He knows everything there is to know about you. And it will be better by far for you. For you as well to bring your sin to the light.

[18:46] To confess. And instead of worshiping yourself and your sinful desires, come and worship our good Father. God is in the business of turning sinners into worshipers. Ask Him to do that for you.

[18:57] And He will. This is why we preach what the Bible says about sin. It would be in some ways much easier to omit the things that might offend people.

[19:10] Telling them that they're sinners. And pointing out particular sins as we see them pointed out in Scripture. It would be easy to leave that thing off. To not talk about that.

[19:21] But friends, that's not love. It's not loving to do that. We need to see our sin if we're to see the need for the Savior. You need to feel thirst before you're going to run to the living water. And so we have to point out people's sins.

[19:32] Scripture does. And so to be faithful to this Word, we have to do that. That's why we preach about sin. And call it what it is. And don't pretend like it's no big deal.

[19:42] Or just sweep it under the rug like it doesn't matter. It does matter. And until you see that your sin is against a holy God and deserves to be punished, you're not going to see your need for the living water.

[19:55] If you don't think you're sick, you don't see your need for the doctor. If you don't think there's a problem, somebody holds the solution out to you. You're like, that's neat, but I don't have the problem.

[20:06] So I don't need the solution to it. And so Jesus understands that. This woman is not getting that she needs the water. So he puts his finger on her sin.

[20:19] He's going to show her her need. It's important to remember when you're doing evangelism as well, to not just run to the solution without showing them that they need the solution.

[20:31] Jesus is a master evangelist. He's just remarkably at work. And there's all sorts of lessons we can learn about that here. But we're going to press on. Because she now turns the conversation towards worship.

[20:42] She acknowledges that Jesus is a prophet who knows her sin. Maybe she's trying to change the subject, but it seems like Jesus putting his finger on her sin is maybe stirring something deeper.

[20:55] And so notice what she says then. Verse 19, Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Verse 20, Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

[21:07] Why is she talking about that? I'm not entirely sure why she takes the conversation this direction, but maybe she's thinking about her sin now. This Jew knows me.

[21:19] And Jews worship in Jerusalem. Maybe he's right. Maybe we're... You say we're supposed to worship in Jerusalem. We say we're supposed to worship here. What gives?

[21:31] What can this wise prophet teach me? Sir, I see you're the prophet. Help me understand what's going on. We worship here. You worship... You've shown me you know something. So help me understand more.

[21:42] So let's think secondly about the object of worship. That's the identity of worshippers. And we crammed all sorts of stuff in there. But the identity of worshippers is that they are sinners known by God.

[21:54] Now, who do they worship? I'm going to come back to the where that she raises in a moment. But for now, notice that Jesus specifies to her several times that the object of worship is God the Father.

[22:06] Look at verse 21. Women, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. Verse 23. The hour is coming and is now here when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

[22:21] For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him. So four times Jesus identifies the object of worship as God the Father.

[22:33] We're not worshipping some vague notion. Especially relevant for the woman at the well. We're not worshipping God, the true God, plus some other gods from other nations and idols all mixed in with it.

[22:50] Nope. None of that. The object of worship is the one true and living God. The one whom Jesus calls Father and who we are privileged to call the same. Our Father.

[23:02] And he has something to say to this woman about their worship. The Samaritans, verse 22, he says, You worship, and that you is plural. You all. You Samaritans.

[23:13] Worship what you do not know. They have this syncretistic false worship. They're worshipping, at least in some ways, in intentional blindness, what they do not know. We, the Jews from whom is salvation, and I want to talk more about that part, but we worship what we know.

[23:33] Now that's not to say that all Jewish worship was good and right and pure. Remember, just a couple weeks ago when I was here, we saw that Jesus just had to cleanse the temple because their worship had gone awry.

[23:44] And they weren't doing what they ought to be doing. And you will find again and again, God has all sorts of bad things to say about the Jews' worship throughout the Old Testament. But they did have the law and the prophets.

[23:55] They had revelation from God regarding their worship. And so in that sense, they knew who and how they were to worship. We worship what we know. God the Father, in the way that He is ordained.

[24:10] You worship what you do not know. The Samaritans who cut themselves off at the Pentateuch and didn't accept the rest of the Old Testament Scriptures, added in false gods, they didn't know.

[24:21] And so, let's see then what Jesus has to teach us about the manner of worship of the Father. So, that's just real briefly, the object of worship is the Father. We worship what we know. You worship what you don't know.

[24:32] What about the how? The manner of worship in the third place. How do we worship? Well, first off, the location isn't going to be important any longer. With the arrival of Christ in the hour when He accomplishes the work that He came to do, the place of worship is no longer a specified geographical location like Gerizim, where the Samaritans worshipped, or Jerusalem, where the Jews worshipped.

[24:53] And you know what? That's good news, because you know where we aren't right now? Yeah. We're not on Mount Zion. We're not in Jerusalem. And God is receiving our worship through Christ tonight.

[25:08] It doesn't matter if it's Mount Gerizim, or Mount Zion, or Mount Bremen. The place doesn't matter anymore.

[25:19] These words would have been shocking. Not only to the woman, but to any good Jew who knew their Old Testament as well.

[25:30] What? What? We've got to take our sacrifices up to Jerusalem. What are you doing? And the Samaritans are like, we have decided the place of worship is here. The where matters.

[25:41] They both believe, Deuteronomy 12, 5 and 6, but you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put His name and make His habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock.

[26:01] The where matters. You shall seek the place. And the Jews and the Samaritans had determined that location differently. Jews, rightly so, under God's direction in Jerusalem.

[26:14] But now Jesus is saying the location won't matter. Why? We covered this ground a couple of weeks ago, but little review is not going to hurt us. When Jesus cleansed the temple, do you remember what He said?

[26:25] He said, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up. He calls Himself the temple. And John says earlier in chapter 1 that the Word became flesh and dwelt, tabernacled among us.

[26:38] And Matthew tells us that the birth of Jesus who had saved His people from their sins was the fulfillment of the Emmanuel prophecy. God with us. And you know what happened? I know I've already said this, but I'll say it again.

[26:50] You know what happened in the tabernacle? And then later the temple in the Old Testament? God met with His people. And when Emmanuel comes, He is our God with us.

[27:01] And Jesus says, I am the temple. And later in the new heavens and the new earth, Revelation tells us that Jesus is the temple. And Jesus, I'll say later in His ministry, where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in their midst.

[27:18] Jesus is inaugurating a new period in the history of redemption. Salvation is going to go beyond Israel. All the nations and worship is no longer going to be limited to a Jew-centric place like Jerusalem.

[27:32] But it happens in spirit and truth wherever Jesus is. He is the tabernacle. He dwells in His people by His Spirit and among them when they gather in His name.

[27:45] And so again, it's not so much the building, the location that's important for where we meet, it's the presence of Christ with us. Wherever He meets with us, we can worship in spirit and in truth.

[28:00] We sometimes talk about the Old Testament law and this is just sort of a side note, but some laws in the Old Testament we still follow and others we don't.

[28:11] And we talk about how the moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments, the reflection of God's character, the ones that we still hold to and the civil law for Israel as a theocracy and the ceremonial law that governed their worship, we don't follow anymore.

[28:25] And I just want you to see here that we take our cues from that from Jesus and from the New Testament. We don't just pick and choose what we like. Well, we like these laws and not these ones, but Jesus says, look, the where doesn't matter anymore.

[28:37] He's pointing us to the ending of the ceremonial law governing Israel worship. Hebrews is going to give you a whole bunch more pointers in that direction. I just want to note there that we're not just making stuff up when we say, these ones are still abiding and these ones are not.

[28:52] We're taking our cues from the Bible, from the New Testament, from Jesus Himself. So if worship is no longer restricted to a particular place, what is important about worship in this era of redemptive history?

[29:10] Well, Jesus says it's worship in spirit and in truth. Let's think about the spirit part of that. He's de-emphasizing the physical location and I think that spirit then here refers simply in some ways to the heart, to the spiritual.

[29:24] I don't think it's a reference to the Holy Spirit is what I'm saying. We must have the Holy Spirit to worship rightly in spirit and truth but I don't think he's talking about this Holy Spirit here.

[29:35] I think he's saying it's not about the physical, it's about the spiritual. God is spirit, verse 24. That's His nature and so He must be worshipped in spirit. So, what's in your heart when you worship?

[29:48] And when I say heart, I'm talking about your mind and your affections, your emotions, and your will. Are you worshipping in spirit today? Is your spirit right with God who is spirit?

[30:00] Is your heart rightly prepared and ready to worship? Listen, you could come here and you could sing perfect harmony and you could say amen at the right times and you could know where every book in the Bible is and so when somebody says turn to John, you go, boom, I'm there.

[30:18] Like you could win every sword drill. You could listen to the word red and preach, you could put money in the offering box and never even get close to worship. If your heart is not in the right place, if your spirit isn't truly engaged in worship.

[30:44] Now, make no mistake, it was the heart that was the crucial thing in old covenant worship too. If you had the outward form, brought all the right sacrifices but not the right heart, God didn't want your outward form.

[30:55] And he says that again and again and again. One example, Psalm 51, 16 and 17, For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with the burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.

[31:10] Oh God, you will not despise. It's just that now we're dropping some of the outward forms prescribed by the old covenant. Hebrews shows us, Jesus is the perfect sacrifice.

[31:20] He fulfills all those sacrifices that pointed to him. So we don't need bloody sacrifices anymore. And it's not limited to Jerusalem anymore because Jesus is the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the temple too. But it's not as though we can do whatever we want as long as we have a right heart.

[31:38] Remember Jesus' great concern for what happens in his father's house. We saw him cleanse the temple because what was going on there was not right. It's not as though we can just say, well, I've got a good heart. I did, like I tried, like I wanted to worship well.

[31:52] I just did it the wrong. No, we must worship in spirit and in truth. And I don't think he means there just truly. Some say that that word truth there just means sincerely in that case.

[32:06] I don't think so. I think it means, I think that truth has content. Elsewhere in John's gospel, truth has content. And you can see that again and again. I could give you multiple examples. Let me just give you one from John 17 where Jesus says, your word is truth.

[32:27] At a minimum, it means our worship must be according to what is truth, not just sincere. We are to worship what we know, verse 22. We are to worship in truth.

[32:39] And where do we find truth? Your word is truth. Right here, revealed in God's word. And so we worship from our hearts, our mind, affection, and our will according to truth, which is to worship in the way that God says in his word.

[32:54] That's how we worship. It's not whatever we want now that the old covenant regulations are no longer in effect. For example, Jesus leaves us two very visible physical reminders, Lord's Supper and Baptism.

[33:06] We're told to read the word and preach the word and to sing and to pray and all of these are part of what God has revealed to us in his word that we are to do when we worship. And so as we seek to order our worship according to what he reveals, not how we feel or what we think is a good idea.

[33:24] And we center our worship around that word. That's why you hear so much of this. You hear it in the songs that you sing here. You hear it read before the preaching. You hear it preached. The word, the word, the word, the word.

[33:37] because we want to worship in spirit and in truth. Not just going through the motions but genuinely from the heart. Or as he already said, we worship what we know according to God's revelation.

[33:53] So let me ask you tonight. Are you worshiping in spirit and in truth? The knowledge of what God has revealed about our worship and the one that we worship?

[34:07] Are you worshiping the way God calls you to in his word? Genuinely from the heart and according to his word. We must. Remember, God knows everything about us.

[34:21] You can't hide it. If you're not, God knows. And so we must worship according to his truth, the way he directs in his word.

[34:32] The directions are no longer about which mountain to worship on but God still directs worship as before. We call that the regulative principle. He regulates the way we worship. We don't worship according to our opinions or ideas but his.

[34:46] And you see, it's not optional there in verse 24. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. You see how important it is to have both spirit and truth so we're not just going through the motions and so we're not doing whatever we want.

[35:03] We must worship in spirit and in truth. I hope that doesn't just feel like cold analysis to you. Brothers and sisters, God the Son has revealed God the Father to us through the work of the Holy Spirit giving us new life and opening our eyes.

[35:19] God knows us and he saved us anyway. And he's given us living water and the only fitting response. I love the songs that we sang.

[35:30] I love the way the order of service led right into this. Shouting our praise. This should result in genuine knee-buckling worship of the God who has been so good to us.

[35:43] Jesus has made the way for us to worship in his name and with him in our midst and it's our solemn duty and our delightful joy to do that.

[35:57] To declare to God his worth his splendor his majesty his glory and to offer ourselves in his service. Do you do that when you come?

[36:12] I wonder if we wouldn't worship better in a way that's more honoring to God more in line with his truth and from a right spirit if we would give a little time to preparing when we come just just think on on who God is and what he's done for you and you could just think you come to Saturday night and you just think back over the week before and you think man I know what happens in the Father's house matters and I'm going to the Father's house tomorrow and I want to worship rightly in spirit and truth and my heart is cold and one of the ways you can start to warm your house is to just start thinking about how God has provided for you during that week I was exhausted earlier and you know what he gave me strength here I am at the end of the week I made it he got me through that I was sick and he made me well he raised me up he gave me strength to power through it and to get what I needed to done and it can just be almost little things

[37:12] I had this huge conflict and God resolved it and I had this situation with my kids where I didn't have a clue of what to do and God gave me wisdom and help in that moment I wasn't sure how to pay the next bill and God provided and and then there was this sweet gift that he just dropped out of nowhere that so encouraged my heart God sent me that and you can just think just over the previous week of what God has done and then and then you think about what we've seen here God knows me he's done all of these things for me anyway and then maybe your heart's just a little bit more prepared to come the next morning and say Lord you're worthy you are great you are good you have provided just my presence here and then you can go further back than the week before you can go all the way back to when he saved you and when he did something remarkable here or there you can think about what he's doing in other people's lives and rejoice that he's doing good things for them or in the church and be amazed at who he is

[38:13] I think verse 23 is interesting and he says the father is seeking such people to worship him has he found you he's seeking worshipers to worship him in spirit and truth has he found you are you one of the ones that he's found are you just sort of going along kind of going through the motions not really caring wondering why are we even here I hope the combination of these two passages in John seeing the importance of what happens in the father's house and then the importance of worship in spirit and truth I hope it will stir you to be more excited to come on a Lord's day and to worship and to do it in a way that brings all glory and honor and praise to him but that all leads us to a final question briefly tonight how in the world do sinners known by God go from being sinners to worshipers and so the last point is the savior of sinners did you notice what Jesus said in verse 22 when he's talking about worshiping what we know he says salvation is from the Jews and I think that simply means that God used the nation of Israel in a particular way and through them brought

[39:28] Jesus the savior into the world and then from there salvation spread to the ends of the earth as anticipated and prophesied and into the world born into a Jewish family from the tribe of Judah came this one named Jesus named Jesus because he would save his people from their sins that's I think that's all it means when it says salvation is from the Jews that's the people that God used to bring the savior into the world and you notice that he affirms in verses 25 and 26 that he is the Messiah the Messiah is the anointed the one the one that was anticipated in the Old Testament that would come and be as the Samaritans are going to confess just jump ahead with me to verse 45 or excuse me verse 42 so the woman goes back to town she tells him they come out they say stay and Jesus this is amazing Jesus stays for two days in Samaria Jews don't have dealings with Samaria he says I don't care I'm going to stay for two days and people believe look at verse 42 they said to the woman it's no longer because of what you said that we believe for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world not just the savior of Jews but the savior of Samaritans too and the savior of the world and that's why

[40:43] Jesus came everybody knows John 3 16 right you know what John 3 17 says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him that's why God sent him Jesus says to his disciples and I'm preaching another sermon now but he says to them I came to do what the father sent me to do and he sent him to be the savior of the world and the Samaritans learned that that day because Jesus was willing to talk to a woman at a well and take a sinner and turn her into a worshiper and Jesus says to her verse 25 and 26 I who speak to you am he he actually says I am which is significant language in John I don't know it carries all that weight in this verse but he says I am the one who speaks to you said the she's like man I'm confused the Messiah is going to explain all of this when he comes he's here I'm your savior she goes back and she says let me tell you about a man who told me everything I've ever done she testifies because she's found the living water she's found the savior she's been turned from a sinner into a worshiper he's the savior of lost sinners the savior of the world you drink from his fountain and you'll never thirst again so not only does Jesus point to her sin he's the one who can save her from that sin and that's true for you too if you're feeling the guilt tonight of having your sin exposed you're not left to yourself we don't just show you your sin we point you to the savior it's this Jesus at the well it's the Messiah that was foretold it's the prophet like Moses who would come it is the Christ 1st Thessalonians 5 9 and 10 for God is not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our

[42:36] Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we're awake or asleep we might live with him do you know this savior he knows you he knows everything about you I pray you'll come to him in repentance and faith and bow your knee and worship him one day you're going to worship him one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and will worship God and if you wait until that day when you're forced to bend the knee it will be too late you'll bow the knee and you'll depart into hell far better to worship God now and again he's in the business of taking sinners like you and me and turning them into worshipers pray that he would do that for you and he will and he will I pray you'll go from being a sinner known by God to a worshiper saved by Christ knowing and worshiping

[43:38]  God brothers and sisters saved people people who have gone from sinners known by God to sinners saved by grace they worship that's what they do that's why you're here tonight and so may God give us grace to give him the worship of which he is so worthy let's pray together father we thank you for Jesus our savior we thank you for the forgiveness of sins that we have only in him we thank you that you take sinners and turn them into worshipers and we pray that you would help us to be a people who are glad to worship in spirit and in truth and we pray that you would take some tonight for the first time and turn them into sinners or turn them into worshipers help them to see their sin and their need of the savior we ask it for Jesus sake and in his name amen