Worship the Father in Spirit and Truth
A study of John 4:20-26
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, 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." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he.""
John 4:20-26 ESV
Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:
-Fathers (v.20): "πατέρες"; "πατήρ", "patēr"; masculine noun - a more remote ancestor, the founder of a race or tribe, progenitor of a people, forefather; i. e. ancestor's, forefathers.
-Worshiped: "προσεκύνησαν"; "προσκυνέω", "proskyneō"; verb - of homage rendered to God and the ascended Christ, to heavenly beings, and to demons: absolutely (our: 'to worship').
-Woman: "gynē", "γυνή"; feminine noun - a woman of any age; as a form of address, may be used either in admiration (Matt. 15:28) or indignation (Luke 22:57), or in kindness or favor (John 4:21; Luke 13:12), or in respect (John 2:4).
-Believe: "πίστευέ"; "πιστεύω" "pisteuō"; verb - intransitive, to think to be true; to be persuaded of; to credit, place confidence in; to believe one's words.
-Father (v.21, 23): "πατρί"; "πατήρ", "patēr"; masculine noun - God is called the Father of all rational and intelligent beings, whether spiritual or men, because he is their creator, preserver, guardian and protector.
-Salvation: "σωτηρία", "sōtēria"; feminine noun - deliverance, preservation, safety; in the technical, Biblical sense, the Messianic salvation.
-Jews: "Ἰουδαίων"; "Ἰουδαῖος", "Ioudaios"; adjective - the Jews, the Jewish race.
-The Hour: "ὥρα", "ōra"; feminine noun - any definite time, point of time, moment.
-Is Coming: "ἔρχεται"; "ἔρχομαι", "erchomai"; verb - to come, to appear; in a future sense, will come.
-Now: "νῦν", "nyn"; adverb - at this time, the present, now.
-True: "ἀληθινοὶ"; "ἀληθινός", "alēthinos"; adjective - in every respect corresponding to the idea signified by the name, real and true, genuine; as opposed to what is imperfect, defective, frail, uncertain.
-Worshipers: "προσκυνηταὶ"; "προσκυνητής", "proskynētēs"; masculine noun - a worshiper.
-Spirit (v.23): "πνεύματι"; "πνεῦμα", "pneuma"; neuter noun - the spirit, i. e. the vital principle by which the body is animated; the rational part of man, the power of perceiving and grasping divine and eternal things, and upon which the Spirit of God exerts its influence; (πνεῦμα, says Luther, "is the highest and noblest part of man, which qualifies him to lay hold of incomprehensible, invisible, eternal things; in short, it is the house where Faith and God's word are at home".)
-Truth: "ἀληθείᾳ"; "ἀλήθεια", "alētheia"; feminine noun - what is true in any matter under consideration; in truth, truly.
-Such People: "τοιούτους"; "τοιοῦτος", "toioutos"; adjective - such as this, of this kind or sort.
-Is Seeking: "ζητεῖ"; "ζητέω", "zēteō"; verb - to seek, i.e. require, demand. To seek after, strive after.
-(God is) Spirit (v.24): "πνεῦμα", "pneuma"; neuter noun - a spirit, i. e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting;
-Messiah: "Μεσσίας", "Messias"; masculine noun - Messiah = 'anointed'; a name of Christ.
-Christ: "Χριστός", "Christos"; Christ = 'anointed'; This is a title rather than a proper name. Christ was [and is] the Messiah, the Son of God.
Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):
After determining Jesus is at the very least a prophet, the Samaritan woman asks Jesus about where God should be worshiped. Jesus tells her soon, the Father will not be worshiped on "this mountain" or in Jerusalem. As a Samaritan she worshiped what she did not know, because salvation comes from the Jews. But the time was fast approaching when true worshipers of God, whether Jewish or not, would worship the Father in spirit and truth, instead of in a specific physical location. He also says God is spirit, and those who truly want to worship God must worship Him in spirit and truth. In response to this revelation the woman tells Jesus she knows the Father promised to send the Messiah who would tell them "all things." Jesus answered her, "I who speak to you am he."
Implication (what does this mean to us):
At this point in the conversation between Jesus and the woman of Samaria, He has told her about the living water that only he can give, and also confronted her sin. The living water Jesus speaks to her about is the power of God to quench the deepest thirst of our souls. When she asked for some of this living water, Jesus graciously confronted her on her sin, because sin is what we all use to try and quench our unquenchable spiritual thirst. She could not be given access to this living water unless she was willing to honestly acknowledge her sin, and begin the process of choosing Jesus instead. This is what we all must do in coming to Jesus. We are all this woman from Samaria. We have all tried to quench our deep need for spiritual satisfaction with different things that can never satisfy us. We were created to worship God, and it is only in worshiping Him and Him alone that we can receive the ultimate, eternal satisfaction our souls were made to find only in Him.
After Jesus tells her details about her life that He could not have known by natural means, she says to Him, "Sir I perceive you are a prophet..." She is right of course. Jesus is a Prophet, but He is also so much more. She wanted to know more so instead of storming away in offense after Jesus confronted her on her sin, she probed deeper and asked a question about worship. It is also possible she asked this question to change the subject because she was uncomfortable talking about her sin with this stranger. In a rather abrupt change of topic she says, "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is where people ought to worship." This question offered the possibility of an argument, because Jews and Samaritans had been arguing about where and how to properly worship God for a long time. At this time the proper place of worship was in Jerusalem, but Jesus will not let Himself get drawn into an argument. He takes no sides here because He is concerned with saving this woman, not winning an argument. Jesus wants to give her living water to satisfy the deep emptiness she has been trying to fill with multiple failed relationships, including the immoral one she was currently in.
This question gets to the heart of the animosity between Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritans were the descendants of Jews who had disobeyed God and intermarried with non-Jewish, pagan peoples from the surrounding area. Just as their bloodlines mixed, so did their religions. The Samaritans mixed the worship of Yahweh with other pagan practices. In their attempt to worship God on their terms, they clung to the belief that Moses had built an altar on nearby Mount Gerizim, and this was the proper place to worship God. They could do this because they accepted only the first five books of the Old Testament as canon. If they were to accept the rest of the OT canon, they would have had no doctrinal legs to stand on. In the unfolding revelation of God in the OT He makes it clear that worship and sacrifice under the old covenant were to be done at the temple in Jerusalem. They ignored what was a clear revelation from God so they could keep doing things their way. Because they claimed theirs was the true religion of Yahweh, the Jews hated them, and the Samaritans in turn, hated the Jews.
Rather than giving her what we would understand to be the right answer because of the commands of God in the Old Testament, Jesus tells her something better is coming. Soon the worship of God the Father will not be confined to Jerusalem, Mt. Gerizim or any other physical location. But before He expands on this point He tells her, "You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." The Samaritans worshiped Yahweh too, but again, they only accepted the Pentateuch (The first five books of the Old Testament) as canon. For this reason they worshiped what they did not know. Also, because they had disobeyed God as a people group and married into other nations around them, they were no longer purely ethnic Jews, the chosen people of God. So Jesus is sort of lumping them in with the rest of us Gentiles (non-Jewish people) here. For this reason also, they worshiped who they did not know.
Jesus is not making a racist statement here. To understand what He is saying we need to briefly recall the "Tower of Babel" event in Genesis 11. After the flood, God reestablished a covenant with mankind wherein He commanded humanity to spread out, multiply and subdue the earth as His divine imagers or representatives on earth. As the years went by, the people multiplied but they did not obey God. They gathered together at Babel and started to build a tower, which would have likely resembled an ancient "ziggurat" structure, with the purpose of making their own name great (as opposed to Yahweh). And also for the express purpose of not spreading out over the face of the earth as the Lord commanded (Gen. 11:4). Up to this point the people of earth all belonged to God as His people, but after this rejection God gave the people what they wanted. He released them to do things their own way, but He created the many and diverse ethnicities and languages of the world in this moment too so they could not band together as one in their sinful rebellion. This was a loving restraint put on mankind by God.
This is when Yahweh 'disinherited' the people of earth, meaning He released His direct interest in them, giving them what they wanted. He specifically divided the people into groups corresponding to the number of the "sons of God" (Deut. 32:8), which are the created, spiritual beings God set up as powers in the spiritual realm, but who like us have free will and also chose to rebel against Him. But Yahweh would still have His portion.
In Genesis 12, right after the account of the Babel incident we read about God calling Abram to leave and separate from his own people in Mesopotamia, and promising to make him into a great nation who would be Yahweh's portion (Gen. 12:1-2, Deut. 32:9). So at this stage in the Biblical story we have been told about the rebellion of created, free-will beings in the spiritual realm (Gen. 6:2, Jude 1:6), and the continued rebellion of created, free-will beings (humans), in the physical realm. God's plan to have image bearers governing His creation, under His ultimate authority, in both the spiritual and physical realms seems like it has been completely thwarted.
But God calls an old man and his barren wife out of Mesopotamia to start again. And from the very first promise made to Abraham we see that God's loving intention is to somehow reclaim all of the disinherited nations through this new nation He has promised to raise up as He promised Abraham that through him, "...all families of the earth shall be blessed"(Gen. 12:3). The battle line between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world had been drawn.
We have only begun to unfold the rich meaning of all this, but I will stop here and provide some helpful links for anyone who wants to learn more about this: (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/review/the-unseen-realm-recovering-the-supernatural-worldview-of-the-bible/
https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/divine-council/
and moreunseenrealm.com are good places to start).
From this rudimentary understanding of what Jesus means by "salvation comes from the Jews," we learn Jesus was not being racist. He was stating a fact. Israel is Yahweh's portion through whom He promised to bless all nations of the earth and reclaim them to Himself as part of His family and kingdom. He did not reject us, we rejected Him, but He has a plan to reclaim us. Israel failed as a nation to obey the Lord and fulfill this purpose on its own, so God came to earth Himself, as a fully God, fully Man, and fully Jewish, to bring salvation not only to the Jews, but to the whole world (John 3:16). Therefore, salvation is from the Jews, and for everyone.
After clarifying this point Jesus expands on what He said previously by saying the hour is both "coming" and is "now here" when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. By "now here" Jesus was referencing the small but growing group of people who were believing and following Him, and by "is coming" He referred to the coming, continued expansion of God's Kingdom as more and more people would come to worship Him, particularly after His death and resurrection (Acts 2), and also specifically to the future spread of the gospel in Samaria (Acts 8: 1-26).
Wonderfully, we also come to find out God is "seeking" such people to worship Him. We cannot ascend to God, but God has descended to us. We are not required to come to Him cowering in fear. He has come to us and all that is required is for us to confess our sin and receive His love and forgiveness.
Jesus also tells us God is Spirit, and therefore those who truly worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. True worship of God is not accomplished in a specific location, or by certain rituals, but rather, in spirit and truth.
To worship God in spirit means not being bothered about outward, physical settings or rituals, but instead focusing on the spiritual reality. God is Spirit and He came from the unseen spiritual realm into the physical realm where we live to seek us out and open our eyes to see there is more to life than what we can detect with our five senses. We are not our bodies. We are souls that live in physical bodies. When we die we will pass on to the unseen spiritual realm. Those of us who have trusted in Jesus as our Lord and Savior will be in His glorious presence as we await the day our bodies will be resurrected in glorious perfection, and God will remake the earth free of sin and decay. So, our future as Christians is spiritual and material. But all those who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, will pass on to the part of the spiritual realm where all those who have rejected Jesus will suffer as they await the day of resurrection where they will be given bodies that can endure eternal punishment in hell without wasting away or decaying (John 5:28-29, Rev. 20:11-15).
Worshiping God in truth means submitting to the whole counsel of God's Word. We must never select which parts we do not want to follow. This is what the Samaritans had done, and many people do the same today. Many people are so quick to toss out portions of Scripture that do not agree with their cultural perspective. But true worship of God requires total submission to Him and His infallible, inerrant Word, no matter the cultural contradictions or consequences. Worshiping in truth is what guards against feigned spirituality. To truly worship God means to worship Him in both spirit AND truth. You cannot have one without the other if you truly want to worship God.
Lastly, in hearing all this the woman of Samaria essentially asked Jesus if He was the Messiah by telling Him, "I know that Messiah is coming...". And Jesus tells her plainly, "I who speak to you am he." Here we see an example of God "seeking such people" to worship Him. Jesus Christ came to save both the lowly societal rejects, and the highly positioned people in society ( think of Nicodemus). Social class, wealth, or ethnicity play no role at all. Even though this woman was a sinner, Jesus revealed Himself to her as the Messiah. Jesus did not come to reject or condemn her. He came "seeking such people". He also will not reject or despise us, no matter what we have done or where we are from. Jesus has condescended from the throne of heaven seeking such people. Jesus came from the unseen spiritual realm to our seen, physical realm, for the express purpose of seeking and enabling people from all walks of life to worship Him in spirit and truth.
Application (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):
From this passage we learn true worship of God is not dependent on location, ethnicity, or social class. God wants and is seeking out people who will worship Him in spirit and truth. The very fact that "salvation is from the Jews" helps support the fact that God is seeking people out. After the people of earth repeatedly rejected God, He gave them what they wanted by scattering them and "disinheriting" them. But He also set a plan into motion to reclaim all peoples of the earth via the new nation He started through Abraham and Sarah.
Through the Jewish nation, God has brought salvation to all of mankind. Jesus Christ, God Himself, came to earth as fully God, fully man, and fully Jewish. He did so because He is "seeking such people" to worship Him. We have rebelled and sinned against God, but He still loves us, and He has come to us to save us. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. He has paid the penalty for our sin past, present and future. All that is required of us is to receive His free gift of love and grace by confessing our sin, asking Him to forgive us, and placing our faith in Him as our one and only Lord and Savior.
Self Reflection:
Do I worship God in spirit and truth?
Is there any part of God's Word that I have been unwilling to submit to because it challenges my cultural understanding and worldview?
What does the fact that God has come personally to earth to seek me out tell me about His humility, grace and love?
#Spirit #Truth #jesus #Jewish #love