WORSHIP IN SPIRIT & IN TRUTH?

So … friends, as promised, here are my notes from the Word preached by Brian Doerksen on ‘The Woman At The Well’ (John 4:4 onwards … Note that I’ve left out his personal testimonies since the article would get too long!):

(And He had to pass through Samaria) – Something in His spirit told Him that HE HAD TO pass through the land of the despised Samaritans. Jews would have nothing to do with their Samaritan neighbours if they could avoid it!

(So Jesus, being wearied from His journey) – Hmmmm…so Jesus gets ‘weary’? Hmmmm … Remember? Jesus was ‘all man’ too!

(There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”) – So Jesus gets thirsty too! … hmmmmm.

(Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” Jesus 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.”) – Here ‘living water’ also means ‘running water’ (not stagnant!)

(She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” ) – What does she need? She needs the life that only comes through faith in Christ. So what is Jesus doing? He’s showing her the only way to real joy and true satisfaction. She needs living water. She can’t quench her thirst. It’s one of the reasons she’s had five husbands. The unquenchable desire for “better”, for “more” can’t be satisfied in the flesh — it can’t be satisfied without the Holy Spirit and the spring of eternal life he brings.

(The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”) – Here again, the woman is out of her depth in understanding Jesus’ words! She needs what he offers and it’s not water, it’s forgiveness of sin and the work of the Holy Spirit to overcome the sinful desires of the flesh. In Mark 5:32 Jesus says, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. She needs to understand that she’s a sinner of need of repentance which leads to life. So Jesus suggests she call her husband. Why? Because Jesus wants her to deal honestly with her sin. 

(He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet) – This is ‘word of knowledge’! Many ‘Men of God’ get it and it helps as a major tool to surprise and confound the listener enough to make him/her receptive to the ‘instruction’ that follows!

(“Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in 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 an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”) – This is something that needs to be dwelt upon intensely. If our worship is the results of our self-efforts, then the feelings are not going to be God breathed by His Spirit of grace. When we “come unto Christ” as sinners, acknowledging our own self-life’s spiritual bankruptcy and helplessness, and asking Christ to make us only conscious of Him, then and only then will we discover the divine feelings of rest and peace gently basking in His joy. Jesus tells her that the real question of worship will not be about where but how. True worship can only happen from within. These are the people that God the Father is seeking — people who will worship him from the bottom of their hearts. True worship only takes place when it is honest and heartfelt. True worship isn’t about going through the motions to merely hold to some standard of worship laid down by men. What we call worship is only worship when it happens from the bottom of our hearts.

(The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”)- Jesus has just taken her from her place of unquenchable human thirst to the answer to that thirst, he’s just revealed to her that he is the Messiah. He is the only way to the true life giving water of the Spirit.