You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
9 sermons cite this verse
… 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. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Father, help us now as we look to the Bible. May the Spirit of God control my lips and our minds and our hearts as we think about what an immense privilege it is that we, the children of man, should be able to bring our lives into your presence and declare your glory. We want to know how to do this and how to do it well. And we seek your help in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, my reason for turning to each of these passages, I hope, will become understandable and hopefully prove useful. We begin in John chapter 4, almost inevitably. It's familiar material to all of us in a conversation with a woman at the well. We have what we might refer to here, or what we might regard as Jesus' basic biblical instruction on worship. Indeed, I can't think of another place where we have such a categorical statement made by the Lord Jesus himself. He addresses the lady, woman, and I've been thinking about it coming down here to Texas …
… will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Father, help us now as we look to the Bible. May the Spirit of God control my lips and our minds and our hearts as we think about what an immense privilege it is that we, the children of man, should be able to bring our lives into your presence and declare your glory. We want to know how to do this and how to do it well, and we seek your help in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, my reason for turning to each of these passages, I hope, will become understandable and hopefully prove useful. We begin in John chapter 4, almost inevitably. It's familiar material to all of us in a conversation with a woman at the well, we have what we might refer to here, or what we might regard as Jesus' basic biblical instruction on worship. Indeed, I can't think of another place where we have such a categorical statement made by the Lord Jesus himself. He addresses the lady, woman, and I've been thinking about it coming down here to Texas because the commentators always wonder, why does he say that? John chapter 2, he says it to his …
People are saved, Jews and Gentile alike, by grace through faith. We're saved because of what Jesus did for us. In John chapter four, verse 22, salvation, the Bible says, is from the Jews. So you can see this Jewish thing we have going on. But we part ways with Judaism when it comes to the person of Jesus Christ. That's the defining line in the sand. We believe that Jesus was and is the Messiah. The Jews don't believe that. What I would challenge you to do is to engage in conversation with Jewish people. Pray for them. resource them strategically. Well, what do you mean by resourcing them? Well, I'm talking about, I don't know. You don't know every single answer that someone might have. Give them a book. If they're a sincere seeker, give them, I tell you the great book that's been written recently by Lee Strobel called The Case for Christ. Give them that and it will literally rock their world. So we, we, we can't separate ourselves from the Jews. We're Judeo Christians. In fact, if you want to get historical for a second, not hysterical in the first century, there was an argument whether you could be a Christian and, and, and, uh, not even be a Jew. …
… neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand. We worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Indeed, the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. The woman said to him, I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ. When he comes, he will tell us everything. Jesus said to her, I am he, the one speaking with you. At that moment, his disciples returned and were amazed that he was talking to a woman. But still no one had said, what are you looking for? Or why are you talking with her? The woman left her water jar and went into town and said to the people, come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ? …
… it's about who you worship. you Samaritans worship what you do not know we worship what we do know for salvation it's from the Jews yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers so there's there are real worshippers and there's fake worshippers the true worshippers will worship the father they're gonna know who they worship and here's how in the spirit so it's gonna be an internal situation going on and in truth. In other words, their life, their words, their attitude, their actions, all of it is going to match up by the power of the Spirit, and that's going to be their worship. They're the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. In other words, in 2026, God is looking for worshipers. Not because He needs more worship. when you've got 10,000 times 10,000 angels and we did the math a few weeks ago it's 100 million you don't need you to add to the worship God is seeking worshipers because you need God to be the center of your affection and he knows that's the very best gift that he can give to you He is seeking worshipers to seek him in spirit and truth because he is spirit and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth. …
… 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. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. So for hundreds and hundreds of years, God's people worshipped in one big temple, a building, 150 feet tall and a million and a half square feet. Massive building. It's a big, massive dot on Google Maps. It's big, but it's one dot. Not anymore, Jesus says. She offers up these two temples? And Jesus says, neither. Up until now, up until me, Jesus says, you had come to a place, a temple, to offer right worship to God. Now you can worship him anywhere. You can worship him at 1524 Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota, a country that won't even exist for a couple thousand years. …
… Worship is not going to be tied to a place. And then He goes on to say this, verse 22, 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 worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. God doesn't dwell in a temple made with hands. He's not in a building. He's not connected only to a certain service or ceremony or ritual or sacrament. God is spirit. He is everywhere at all times, omnipresent, and worship is to be done from the heart and in the mind by bringing together the human spirit to the truth of divine revelation. So John 4 gives us this very strong statement, the Father seeks true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and truth. It's not about a location. …
… And so we're told that He came to this city called Sychar, near that piece of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. When Jacob gave his patriarchal blessing to all of the sons, it is mentioned at the end of the book of Genesis that this parcel of real estate was given to Joseph. And this was a very important piece of land because it contained this ancient site, this well that had been dug by Jacob so many years before. Now keep in mind that when Jesus meets this woman now by Jacob's well, almost 2,000 years have transpired from the time that that well was dug by Jacob, and now this woman is there at that same well still drinking from it 2,000 years later. If that's not exciting, if you've ever been over there to Israel, maybe you've gone to that same site as I have that is right at the base of Mount Gerizim, and that same well is still there today, and the water still flows freely in it. So that well has been meeting the needs of people for 4,000 years. And so after the first 2,000 of those 4,000 years, it was considered something of a sacred site by people who trace their roots back to the Old Testament patriarchs. …
… It is your worship is a worship that is done in ignorance. But we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. Now, that's important that Jesus does not say, hey, it doesn't matter whether we come the Samaritan way or the Jewish way. He answers that question. He said, it's the Jewish way that is the correct way. That is the way that God has ordained. And we must always remember that salvation is of the Jews, that we are the wild olive branches that have been grafted on to the original root, and we have an everlasting indebtedness to the Jewish nation because it is through the Jews that our redemption has come now to us. What's really important, I think, here is when Jesus says, what the Father wants is worship that is in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. A couple of things about this portion of the text I want to comment on. First of all, as Christians in the 21st century, there is a tendency among us to have a woe woeful ignorance of the Old Testament. It's one of the reasons, by the way, we're having an adult Sunday school class every Sunday morning, having an overview of the Old Testament so that our people can become familiar with Old Testament redemptive history. And one of the most important problems that follows with an ignorance of the Old Testament is a profound ignorance of the character of God the Father. It's a Unitarianism of the second person of the Trinity …