Download Foundations: Words on which to Build our Lives Worship John 4:5

Foundations: Words on which to Build our Lives
Worship
John 4:5-26 10-2-16
Introduction: An EAR WORM: Do you ever get a song stuck in your head that you just can’t
get out? Children’s VBS or Sunday School songs or advertising jingles? The simpler the
better. “1 800 Cars4kids [3x] donate your car today.” The music gets stuck in our ears, and
like an ear worm, and won’t get out, even if we want it to. In a good way, God wants His
Word, the doctrines of the Bible, to get stuck in our head so we won’t forget them.
Ex 20:3 The FIRST COMMANDMENT is all about God being stuck in our minds; about God
being first, before anyone or anything else because there is only one thing that should be
stuck up here (point to head) and in here (point to heart). God wants to be the center of
lives; but there are so many things that compete for our attention, our focus, our love and
devotion. So how can God be first? Let’s look at the story in John Chapter 4 of Jesus’
interaction with the Samaritan Woman at the Well.
“So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his
son, Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus wearied as He was from His journey, was
sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw
water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (for His disciples had gone away into the city
to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink
from me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jn 4:5-9)
JESUS NEEDED A REST. He’d been preaching & walking non-stop for days. Remember our
Lord is FULLY HUMAN and that means that He was subject to fatigue and His body called for
rest. Last summer (a year ago) we hired Hoy Landscaping to come and pull out all the
overgrown shrubs and bushes. In the front, the Bobcat did most of the heavy work. But
because of a narrow gate going to the back yard, all those gigantic overgrown honeysuckle
bushes had to be torn out by hand, with shovels and axes. In mid-morning, the men were in
the front yard, in the shade, eating a sandwich, hydrating themselves, resting. They knew
they need rest to continue their work in the heat of the day.
So He goes to this well and while He is there along comes a woman. Listen to this exchange
in John 4:7, 9: A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a
drink” . . . [She] said to Him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman
of Samaria?”
This is a shocking story to Jews listening to Jesus because there is no love lost between the
Jews and the Samaritans. A long history of animosity between them. The Samaritans were
considered to be half-breeds by the Jews. In 722 BC the Assyrians conquered Northern
Israel and many of the Israelites were carried away in exile to Assyria. In exile they began to
establish a parallel culture. They adopted some of the Assyria customs, they inter-married;
they mixed DNA and culture and religion too. And so the Jews began to practice a religion
that might be called Judaism-lite: They had some of the law and others things that were at
the heart and center of Judaism but they had mixed lots of other things as well, and so the
Jews came to despise the Samaritans and vice-versa.
Let me relate this to something real today. Someone conducted a study of Millennials and
they developed an understanding of their core beliefs and they called it, “MORALISTIC
THERAPEUTIC DEISM.” MORALISTIC – because it has a certain sense of morals.
THERAPEUTIC means it’s based on how they feel about what their religion does for them;
DEISM has to do with a God who exists but is detached from their lives. So what this study
reveals is that there is developing among Millennials a “Christianity Lite.” This is true also
of many of my generation. If you are invested in traditional Christian beliefs, you’d
probably find some things in this study quite shocking.
That brings us back to this interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman because
the reality is for this woman this is SHOCKING! The difference in Jewish and Samaritan
theology had created this huge divide. Jews hated these dogs and vice-versa. Jesus’ Parable
of the Good Samaritan was shocking because in their Jewish minds there was no such thing
as a “Good Samaritan.” That is why she is so shocked when Jesus asks her for a drink.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give
me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and he would have given you living water” . . .
Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. The water I give him will become
in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Jn 4:10, 13-14)
Jesus goes from asking for a drink of water to offering living water. This woman goes from
being shocked to sitting at Jesus feet and just listening to Him teach; soaking it up.
WHAT shocks you? WHO shocks you? Many people have a very different set of beliefs
than we do. The world view of someone from Saudi Arabia, Peru, South America, or from
Appalachia is different than our own, but when we sit down and listen to them, we find that
we have so much to learn from them and we begin to think of things we have never thought
of before and it begins to change our hearts about how we see others. And things that at
first might shock us, move us to curiosity so that we want more time and interaction with
them. This is exactly what happened with the Samaritan woman. Who is this guy? What
does he even talk to me? Suddenly she wants to engage Jesus. She’s curious. She gets over
the shock and wants to know what in the world this man is talking about.
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on
this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place to worship.” Jesus said to her,
“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when when neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship
what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is,
when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is
seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth.”Jn 4:19-24
Jesus is bringing clarity to things in this woman’s life; brings into proper relationship things
that have been disconnected and hazy. As we listen to Jesus’ comments we can learn.
a.
WHO YOU WORSHIP MATTERS. John 4:22 “You Samaritans worship what you do
not know; we worship what we do know.” When we go back to the study on Millennials
Jesus helps us understand that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism won’t work because there’s no
understanding of knowledge or understanding of a god to worship. In fact, there is no
worship without knowledge of God. Knowledge of God is critical to worship and that is why
your pastors beseech you to come to Bible Study and be filled with knowledge.
KNOWLEDGE FOSTERS DEVOTIO: When was the last time you heard of a person who had a
god who is basically unknown and nebulous and yet that person was fully devoted to that
god? It just doesn’t happen. Without Biblical knowledge, we form god in our own image.
The REALITY IS THAT YOU MUST KNOW THE GOD YOU WORSHIP IN ORDER TO BE
DEVOTED TO HIM.
KNOWLEDGE FOSTERS INTIMACY. You might remember how in the Wizard of Oz, the
Wizard of Oz evoked FEAR. His voice thundered out from behind a curtain and He evoked
fear and tremendous terror at His power. But when the curtain was pulled back, then
suddenly there was the possibility of relationship.
If we only know the awesome power of God it certainly creates fear and terror but when we
know the love and compassion of our God for us it allows for relationship. It allows for a
sense of intimacy and that intimacy produces a worship that is sincere and PERSONAL.
WHO YOU WORSHIP MATTERS. What do you want your worship to be?
b.
WHERE YOU WORSHIP DOES NOT MATTER.
John 4:21 “There is a time coming when you will worship the Father neither worship on
this mountain or in Jerusalem.” There is something more important than where you
worship and what you use to worship.
Look at Psalm 24:1-3 The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it; the world and all that
exists; who may ascend the hill of the Lord; he who has clean hands? Who may stand in
His holy place?”
This is “worship talk.” Where is the hill of the Lord and who may go up on it? Verse 1 says
the hill of the Lord is everywhere, everything that exists is God’s. There are lots of very
different setting where worship takes place – people worship in grand buildings like this, in
storefront churches, in homes, on ships, and sometimes outside. The place where we
worship doesn’t matter because the temple of God is the body of Christ where He bestows
the forgiveness of sins through Word and Sacrament. The church is more than a building;
there’s more to worship than a building.
c.
HOW WE WORSHIP IS A GIFT. (John 4:24) God is Spirit and His worshippers must
worship in SPIRIT and in TRUTH. It is a gift that God reveals Himself to us in His Word as
One God, Father, Son, and Spirit. We begin our worship in the name of the Triune God in
what we know of as the INVOCATION. We gather in the name of the Triune God.
d.
We also learn that from this encounter between Jesus and this woman that there
are TWO ASPECTS OR DIMENSIONS OF WORSHIP. We often think of worship as gathering
together to bring Him our praises and thanksgiving; we might even think of our good works
as worship – things we do to bring Him honor and glory - and in a sense they are. We call
this aspect of worship the SACRIFICIAL aspect of worship that even continues outside the
worship service.
The first dimension of worship that precedes our giving God honor and praise and
thanksgiving and that is our receiving of the blessings God wants to bestow on us through
Word and Sacraments: most of all the forgiveness of sins earned by Jesus and delivered to
us through the absolution, the preaching of the word, and the Lord’s Supper. The first
aspect of Worship is to receive what God wants to give us. And that is the SACRAMENTAL
aspect.
“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s
testimony. They urged Jesus to stay and because of His Words, many became believers”
(Jn 4:39-40).
How did this whole thing start? A drink of water. Who are you going to invite to worship?