Not in This or That Mount, but in Spirit and Truth

let's pray father in heaven that little priests sermon sermon is an overflow of how much I love Bethlehem and how glad I am to be here and how much it satisfies my soul to support this church in every way I can and I'm just inviting the family not visitors that's not what they're called to do the family to follow me and now we turn to your word this is why we're here at this point in the service used to hear you speak my voice is of little account if it's at all out of sync with yours bring me now into sync with your Holy Word and minister life to your people and make those who are not yet yours yours I pray this in Jesus name Amen so here we are at John chapter 4 we're gonna cover Lord willing some verses 20 to 26 and oh how much there is in these few verses about the glory of our Savior and our Father in heaven so by way of summary verses 1 to 15 of this story of the woman at the well the way of summary verses 1 to 15 talked about Jesus as the living water you knew who was who is speaking to you you would ask him and he would give you living water and that water would become in you man a well of water welling up springing up to eternal life and she didn't get it at all and then last time last week we looked at verses 16 to 19 where he said go get your husband she said I don't have one he said you're right you don't have one you had you've had five and you're living with your boyfriend and she says you're a prophet and he is indeed a prophet and he was laying bare her heart which is what prophetic speech does it penetrates through calluses of the heart and tastebuds for Jesus on the tongue that have grown over so and you put your soul's tongue to Jesus you don't taste anything prophetic speeches designed a slice that thing off of there and make it livid live bleeding ly sensitive to the Savior so he did that for her and she still didn't get so here we are now with her diversion we're gonna meet Jesus not as leading water not as prophet but as Savior I'll try to show you that as we go along to get away from his prophetic word she brings up the issue of worship verse 20 our fathers worshiped in this mountain but you you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship now Jesus is willing to leave behind the adultery issue at this point he he just lets it go it never shows up again and he goes with her on this seeming rabbit trail it's not a rabbit trail he goes with her to the topic of worship but he doesn't go with her to the issue she raises because she is still on the surface he's working to get into her with living water and with prophetic speech and she's just resisting and she stays on the surface and what is she I mean worship is a great thing to talk about I mean worship is all about the heart connecting with God with affection and wandering on repentance and love and praise it's all about what's going on here and she says we say this mountain you say that mountain which Mountain which is so absolutely superficial that's where she still is and we're probably some of you are you deal in religion and not relationship so Jesus says in verse 21 woman believe me because probably more there than just trust me I'm gonna tell you something true that's probably the main thing it is but believe me trust me believe me the hour is coming when neither in this mountain this Samaritan place of worship nor in Jerusalem that Jewish place of worship will you worship the father so he begins with a negation you're asking me which mountain Mount Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim and I'm telling you neither so he's not going to enter this debate she that is not the answer she expected that is a stunning answer for a Jew to give isn't it I mean a Jewish person what is Jerusalem it's the City of David it's a city the king it's the place of the temple that's where you go Queen of Sheba goes there people streamed to Jerusalem and Jesus says the hour is coming that won't be true anymore geography is vanishing as an issue in worship it's not the answer she expected she expected a good argument he's gonna mount arguments for Jerusalem and she's gonna counter argument with Guerra semen and they'll forget about adultery instead he says ma'am we are on the brink of something so new so different the hour is coming and we're gonna hear him say in just a moment and now yes didn't say it yet the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship instead of where ma'am the issue is whom and how whom should you worship and how should you worship so the first pointer to this whom question is the term the father a very I'm surprised look at the end of verse 21 the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father how did that sound to her the father she hadn't said anything about the father why didn't he say neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship God or the Lord that would have connected with her I wonder when he said the father what did she think what do you mean the father I'll give you three reasons why I think he said the father number one to link with her reference to the father's verse 20 our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you remember she had said earlier in verse 12 are you greater than our Father Jacob this lady is into the father's into tradition into roots she's drawing attention to our fathers and the father and and so she focused on the externals of tradition as well as place and Jesus shifts the focus he doesn't say well the real Jewish fathers get it right in Jerusalem he said you know what you should really be concerned about is not knowing the fathers but the father you want to think about fathers I'm gonna tell you about the father that's number one number two he points her to the fact in mentioning the father that God has children if you don't have children you're not a father fathers are defined by conceiving children if God had no children he'd not be a father so soon as you call god father you think children and the question is raised who are they am i one or not and so he he's confronting her with a question indirectly you're not going to worship the father in either mountain and so she's being distracted away from place she's being kept away from the father's to the father and now she's being confronted with the question will I worship at all if I'm not a child and who are they we know exactly who they are because he told us in chapter 1 verse 12 write to as many as received him Jesus to them gave he the authority to become the what children of God there's no question in this gospel who the children of God are they are believers in Jesus if you connect with the son you are a child of the father so he is drawing her attention to the fact that the one that you worship that we worship or you hope you worship has children are you one of them third reason why I think he uses the father at the end of verse 21 the father in the ears of those who are familiar with this gospel and remember John is writing this for us not just for her okay she doesn't have this gospel we have this gospel we're reading at multiple levels rereading it the way she would hear it and the way we should hear it these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ that wasn't spoken to her I'm spoken to us so we know the gospel and so when we hear the father what are we here we hear the son they're grouped they're paired over and over and over listen 3:35 the father loves the son 5:19 whatever the father does the son does likewise 5:22 the father judges no one but has given all judgment to the son John 5:23 whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him 5:26 as the father has life in himself so he has granted the son to have life in himself 14:13 the father is glorified in the son the one to be worshiped here is the father and this woman is dealing right now with the son we know that whether she was going to pick up on that or not remains to be seen his presence there was what matters with regard to worship not what mountain you're on do you remember chapter 2 verse 19 which goes like this destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up that's what Jesus said destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up and this listener said are you going to raise up this Jewish Jerusalem Temple it took 46 years to build and we know because John tells us he was talking about his body really destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up and there will be an everlasting immortal temple not a Milton and you want to go somewhere to worship you go here Jesus not me Jesus that's what he's saying the son is here destroy this temple in three days I'll raise it up his text is about shifting the focus from mountains to Jesus from mountains to the Father and the son and how they work together to make worship possible when the worshiping place in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD [Music] what happened no surprise to Jesus did we have to have a new Mountain new city like a mecca or a Jerusalem or a new building like this one no we had a new person destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise this temple and this will be the temple that will never ever perish and never be replaced forever Jesus is the place you meet God anywhere on the planet today this is what he's getting at not a mountain ma'am neither Jerusalem nor Mount Gerizim not where but whom that's what matters father the son the living water the prophet the Savior the Messiah and now verse 22 comes to the same thing another way you Samaritans worship what you do not know we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews that's blunt and painful the problem with you Samaritans is not just that you got the mountain wrong you don't even know whom you're worshipping pretty blunt and they worship on the mountain they're worshiping on the mountain he's just not really you don't know what you worship why he says verse 22 second half of the verse because salvation is from the Jews what does that mean how's that logic work you don't know what you're worshiping you Samaritans because salvation is from the Jews huh makes sense since salvation is coming through the Jews you don't know what you're worshiping how's that work does it mean that all Jews know whom they worshipped your Pharisee and you believe the whole Bible not just the Pentateuch first five books like the Samaritans got the prophetic witness you got the writings so all Jews know who they worship is that what he means that's absolutely not what he means and would we know crystal clear that that's not what he means because of what he says in chapter 8 verse 19 he's speaking to really serious Jews namely Pharisees and he says in chapter 8 verse 19 you you Pharisees know neither me nor my father if you knew me you would know my father also they're just like the Samaritans they don't know God Pharisees I got the whole Bible memorized they don't know God they worship day after day in the temple and they don't know God you worship what you do not know and he calls that worship in chapter 15 of Matthew vain or empty it's a zero it's a zero it is not true worship so what does he mean when he says you don't know God because you don't know whom you worship Samaritans Pharisees for salvation is from the Jews what does that mean how does that support they're being ignorant of whom they worship I think what he means is the Jews teach that a savior is coming in the line of the Jewish kings who will so work so live so suffer so die so rise so rain so atone that true worship will be possible and five-time married living with boyfriend women will be able to know and worship the father because a savior has come through the Jews because because salvation a savior is coming through the Jews sins are going to be atone for no matter how bad and sinners who deserve to be thrown into hell will be forgiven and will worship as children the father and if you're part of that you know whom you worship and if you're not you don't it's too far ahead that you would have noticed but in the last verse of this story like you wonder where were the story climax what will be the last thing in this story the last verse of this story is verse 42 and it ends with the people in the town having heard the witness of the woman and the witness of Jesus coming out and saying we know that this is indeed the savior of the world that's why I'm calling this third part of the text Savior living water prophet Savior Messiah that's the outline I'm seeing in this text when he says salvation is from the Jews he means I'm from the Jews and I'm here as the Saviour behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world John the Baptist said when he saw him and these villagers when they heard and they saw they said this is the savior of the world possibly through him we could know whom we worship and indeed they could that's why he came he came we can know whom we worship you don't know whom you worship because salvation is of the Jews and you are not embracing a savior yet when you embrace a savior when you embrace the Messiah when you embrace the servant of the Lord when you embrace the FULFILLER of all the promises and when it dies for sins and rises again and justifies sinners and forgives all transgressions when you embrace him then you can worship and know whom you worship now pause here with me and apply this to our day good night this is relevant I'm getting on a plane tomorrow and squeezing in a lunch just before the funeral at 3 o'clock in California with a bunch of missions leaders who are really exercised about this Islam Buddhism Hinduism Judaism and all other religions that don't embrace him what do you say about them I say they don't worship God they don't worship in the in their mosques they don't worship Him in their shrines they don't worship Him in their synagogues it is vain empty nothing this is really relevant we live in a day when the supremacy of Jesus is being questioned on all hands the unique I am the way the truth the life nobody anywhere in any religion comes to the Father but by me Jesus people are abandoning that truth right and left in the evangelical so-called church listen to these words this is John 819 you might want to jot these texts down so that you can consider them in a peaceful moment and give you about five passages here that relate to this issue John 819 if you knew me you would know my father also so they don't know the father because they don't know him this would have sent them ballistic to say that they don't know the father whom they claim to worship Saturday after Saturday with open skulls of inspired and it will send your neighbors plastic as well today John 5:23 whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him and that means honor the son not as some human prophet but for who he is king of kings lord of lords risen from the dead dying for sinners lord of the universe if you don't honor him that way you don't honor God whatever name you give him third John 5:40 - I know Jesus talking I know that you do not have the love of God within you I have come in my father's name and you do not receive me so there it is again if you don't receive me you don't love God so now we've seen three verbs you don't know him you don't honor him you don't love him if you don't know love and honor God you don't worship God don't care what ritual you do or how often you do it it is something else whoever doesn't know who I really am and honor me and love me doesn't know honor and love God and therefore whatever they do in their mountains or temples or shrines or moths or synagogues they do not worship God Luke 10 16 this is the fourth text the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me if you reject God you're not worshipping God next Matthew 10 40 whoever receives me receives him who sent me if you don't receive God you're not worshiping God and if you don't receive Jesus you don't receive God last one verse 6 john 5 46 which is especially relevant for the Samaritans and for the Jewish people whom we love if you believed Moses you would believe me so if you don't believe me you don't believe Moses though he be read in your synagogue every sabbath no I can see it on your faces in a pluralistic multicultural relativistic shrinking world like ours this will be harder and harder and harder to believe because they're not just in Africa and Asia they're right next door Buddhists Hindus Muslims and Jewish people you know them at work they're your friends for goodness sakes and you want them to be and when they ask you so you're saying if I don't embrace your Jesus you think I'm going to go to hell what are you gonna say right there well it's kind of complex and their disagreements in the church and and there are a lot of scholars and a lot of opinions and weasel weasel weasel we got out of that last week right we're done with that we are done with that we are real with tears rolling down our faces I don't want to believe that about you I want you with me I'm just a beggar I have nothing I'm nothing Jesus came into the world to save everybody he wants Samaritans and Muslims and Jews and Hindus and Buddhists and every race and ethnicity and socio-economic he wants so he's reaching out I'm talking to you right now I want you in heaven with me go there no argument go there plead so that they see look which mountain it's not about mountains it's about Christ God's Son came on a rescue mission to every religion which is why Paul and Jesus and Peter all laid their lives down to reach the nation's the religions all missions is going today to places that don't want you to come you guys are well if they don't wants to come we shouldn't go baloney there wasn't a city on the planet that wanted Paul to come which is why he spent half his life in jail beaten with stripes five times with rods three times ship wreck over and over he went into synagogue after synagogue where they drove him out you don't go where you wanted you go where you're needed you you die if you have to in order to show who he is okay that's the application to today of this Samaritan issue you don't know who you worship because salvation is from the Jews and you got to embrace this Savior or you don't know God verse 23 now here comes Jesus makes explicit the hour has gone just globally historically epical II that's a word huge verse 23 but the hour is coming and now is here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father is seeking such people to worship Him that's good that's good news and he's using you to seek them we're the Seekers Jesus was the seeker he came to Planet seeking worshipers come come out of every lead religion come out of Christianity all kinds of Christianity's that aren't Christianity come out of Christianity and know me I'm offering myself to you I'm here so he's seeking Jesus is the seeking of the father Jesus is the incarnation of the seeking of the father is who he is and he's still doing it today he's on a mission we through you to seek people from every religion in every ethnicity the hour is now here because the Savior is here the saviors here the son is here Jesus is the way the father is seeking he sent his son to do his work for him and that's why it is not megalomania for the father to seek to be worshipped because he sent a savior to be saved that is from hell from sin from death from everything that ruins life forever is to be brought into worship so you don't choose between am I saved to be happy or am I saved to worship because God is so honored when we're happy in him but that's another sermon and you've heard it many times when it says verse 23 true worship happens in spirit and in truth what does that mean see if I can be very brief as we move towards the conclusion here what does it mean that true worship okay through to worship enabled by the salvation that comes through the Jews true worship of the Father is in spirit and in truth what does that mean because we want to do that right Bethlem to do that privately and corporately I want that to be said of us in heaven they worship in spirit and truth well I'll give you the summary and then just unpack it for two or three minutes it means on the spirit side that you must be born again by the Spirit of God so that you have a living spirit with which to worship chapter 3 verse 6 remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the Spirit is spirit every wonder what that phrase means that which is born of the Spirit is spirit what's that mean it means right now if you're not born again you don't have a living spirit you are dead spiritually dead insensitive the the tastebuds for Jesus on the tongue of your soul are dead you lick Jesus is boring unattractive nothing compelling about him at all so you can't worship spiritually your spirit cannot engage your spirit cannot embrace can't delight can't be satisfied can't stand in awe or praise your dad what needs to happen that which is born of the Spirit is spirit when you're born again there's life you have now a living spirit within and that means that his spirit God his spirit and your spirit can have communion you can know him taste him delight in him his character in his ways the fighter verse in the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches I will delight in your statutes I will not forget your law why he's alive his roots are sucked by the stream down into life the well has been planted in his soul that's springing up to life day after day this is life this is Christianity so that's what it means to worship in spirit your spirit is made alive by being born again by the Spirit so that your spirit can embrace God the spirit and know him love him delight in him be satisfied in him enjoy him rest in him be with him forever and not always looking in from the outside seeing what his religious people doing like a six-year-old watching sex what about in truth in truth true worshipers worship Him in spirit and in truth well I think the most central meaning is in Jesus the truth I am the way to the Father I am the truth I am the life nobody comes to the Father in salvation or in worship except through me the truth now put those two together and you'll see how perfectly they fit we must be born again so that our spirits are alive and what does the spirit do according to John 16 14 he magnifies the son he magnifies Jesus he draws attention to Christ so that Jesus Christ becomes the mountain you don't go to Jerusalem you don't go to Mount Gerizim you don't go to Mecca you go to Jesus the mountain the waterfall the Savior the Lord you go to Jesus and in that truth you are which means that all true worship is Jesus centered you try to do an end run around Jesus you don't know God don't love God don't honor God we go through Jesus or we don't go to God at all God won't have anybody except through Jesus he means for Jesus to be magnified in this world in spirit the spirits quickening of our spirit to unite with his spirit in delight and in truth in a true picture a Bible described picture of Jesus as the focal point of our magnifying God never moving away from the center who is Christ crucified now one last observation this woman is listening to all this how much she's understanding it's hard to tell she's coming right up to the edge of the mystery verse 25 she says I know that Messiah is coming I'd love to hear her tone of voice here I'd love to think it's softening not dodging anymore I don't know for sure at this point I know that Messiah is coming he who is called the Christ that's what the word Christos means in Greek it's mushiya in Hebrew mushiya Hebrew Messiah Christos translator translation of Messiah when he comes he will tell us all things and Jesus says to her verse 26 I who speak to you a.m. he that's glorious it can't be plainer the long hope for King son of David servant of the Lord on whose shoulders the government will rest on whose back was laid our iniquities dismantled any bother well takes your breath away so here you are listening thank you for listening you've heard the old lunatic liar Lord argument for the deity of truth of Christ goodness if it applies anywhere it's here you say you are the Messiah you look like a messiah your ordinary except prophetic speech so either you're lying or you're crazy or you've just spoken the truth and there's where you are right now you're gonna walk out of here in just a minute and and implicitly you're going to be saying he's misleading me he's a maniac or he's Messiah another way to say that's going to be your stance what will I do will I say just can't be can't be or a big question mark in your heart you go home tonight get down on your knees and say okay come to terms of this gotta be done with got to be done with sitting on the fence of my life and I want to know are you real did you lonner that prayer I have heard dozens of testimonies of people who got real with God and said I'm willing if you're real you'll make it plain right there it is I who speak to you and he the hour has come the hour has come salvation has come the savior has come so I am The Living water and I want to become in you a well of water springing up to eternal life I am a prophet I'm gonna lay you bare I know your heart like nobody else knows it and believe me knowing everything about you I want you and I'm a savior a savior that because I died for sins and rise again can enable fivefold serial marriages living with a boyfriend to be forgiven saved and worship the father in spirit and truth I saw them after right now in this room let's pray so father in heaven I like what more can I say except to say come by your Holy Spirit and give life where there's deadness cut off calluses of carnality from the taste buds of the soul and make your truth your person your son your character your ways your promises your purposes your plans sweeter than honey and drippings from the honeycomb more precious than gold even much fine gold do that for Christ's sake there's not a person in this room or in this pulpit who deserves this we're not asking on the basis of what we deserve but because Christ died for us in his name we pray amen [Music] you

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 15,894

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Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Worship, Spirit, Truth, Life, Regeneration, New Life, Temple, Praise, Son, Living Water, Joy, Happiness, Messiah, Gospel of John

Id: Y3taXEMITGQ

Length: 46min 50sec (2810 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 27 2018