But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers.
9 sermons cite this verse
… 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. Sadly, humans who make it a regular practice to lie to themselves think Jesus must be doing the same when He says, God wants your soul, not your stuff. Now, don't get all upset when I say we lie to ourselves. We do. For example, if you ask someone, what is more important, your family or your job, those individuals will almost without hesitation reply, family. But the truth is, most people seem to work harder at their jobs, seem to care more about their jobs, and derive greater pride from their jobs than they do their families. You tell me, which is more important? Ask a person what is a higher priority, reading the Bible or watching TV. Although most religious people will say reading the Bible is more important, that's probably not where they put their time. …
… 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 …
… 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 mother. Once again, three years later, he addresses his mother in the same way. I have a sneaking …
… he says, Jesus is speaking, but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him and then it says God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth you say PT I get that okay So worship is a spiritual thing. I get that. He's seeking, and it must be worship. Okay. Okay. So let's go more practical. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. This is one of the most revelatory passages about worship, in my estimation, that I've ever seen. So watch this. So Paul says, believer, he's talking to believers. He says, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above. Stop right there. As a believer, we are now seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Right? Now, watch this. That means that we exist in two places because you're also seated here at the potter's house. …
… 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? They went out of the town and came to him. Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. …
… 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. what do these two temples tell us in this story? They tell us that no place is too far. …
… 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. It's about the heart. It's about what you know to be true about God, and the heart passion you have to celebrate that truth, that's worship. …
… 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. …
… 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 that all of our religion centers around Jesus. Now, obviously, we are called to honor, to exalt, and to worship Christ. But remember that Christ came in the first place to reconcile us to the Father. And there's a certain sense in which the supreme focus of our worship on Sunday morning is to the Father. Again, of course it's to the entire triune God, but we need to have the majesty of the Father in all of His greatness in our minds as we worship. …