John 4:19-26
The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth."
The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things.
Jesus said to her, "I WHO SPEAK TO YOU AM HE."

Message:
Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. He is tired and thirsty. He stops by a well in an area known as Samaria, to get a drink. A woman approaches the well, and Jesus asks her for a drink. She is perplexed! A Jew, a rabbi, a man...asking a woman of Samaria, people who had for centuries been mutual enemies. Strange!
Then He proceeds in His conversation with her to talk about living water, something to her that suggested this Stranger knew where there was a stream or river somewhere near...something no one else knew existed...not even her ancient ancestor, Jacob.
Then Jesus said something that really got her attention. "but whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will never thirst."
Her response..."Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."
Now her heart is open and she is ready to proceed with whatever this Stranger had to offer. But Jesus says, "Go, call your husband, and come here." That was like an arrow shot directly into her soul!
Her response, "I have no husband." And Jesus said, "You have well said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." It is as if Jesus had said, "If you really want this LIVING WATER (He was speaking of the Holy Spirit that comes to live within a believing heart), you must deal with the sin that is in your life."
He is saying...YOU MUST REPENT AND TURN FROM YOUR SIN IF YOU ARE GOING TO ENJOY THE BENEFITS OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
Remember! REPENT was the very first word of His message and the message of John the Baptist. It is at the heart of the Gospel!

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REPENT! It is a radical conversion, a transformation of nature, a definitive turning from evil, a resolute turning to God in total obedience. It affects the whole man, first and basically the center of his personal life, then logically his conduct at all times and in all situations, his thoughts, words and acts. It calls for total surrender, total commitment to the will of God. The whole proclamation of Jesus is a proclamation of unconditional turning to God, of unconditional turning from all that is against God.
IT WAS THE MESSAGE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST:
"In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND." (Matt. 3:1-2)
IT WAS THE MESSAGE OF JESUS:
"From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND." (Matt. 4:17)
IT WAS THE MESSAGE OF PETER ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST:
"Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
Then Peter said to them, "REPENT, AND LET EVERY ONE OF YOU BE BAPTIZED IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS: AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT." (Acts 2:37-38)
When Paul preached his great sermon in Athens, these were some of his words:
"Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to REPENT, because he has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31)
THE LORD'S GREAT COMMISSION DEMANDS THAT WE PREACH REPENTANCE. Luke 24:46-47
"Then He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that REPENTANCE AND REMISSION OF SINS should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
SALVATION IS FOR THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO FORSAKE EVERYTHING, AND FOR THE WOMAN BY THE WELL IN SAMARIA, IT WAS HER LIFE-STYLE OF ADULTERY.
REPENTANCE! REPENTANCE! REPENTANCE!
It is not incidental to the gospel...it is an extremely important aspect of it. If we are not willing to repent and turn from our sins, we are not ready to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and benefit from His salvation secured for us at Calvary!

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"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:11-12)
REPENT! A word not too frequently heard from the pulpit today. Why? Because there is another message that is very popular. It goes like this:
(1) Repentance is a change of mind about Christ. In the context of the gospel invitation, REPENTANCE is just a synonym for faith. No turning from sin is required for salvation. You can believe in Jesus as your Savior, but you do not need to make Him the Lord of your life! That may, or may not, follow at some other time in your life of faith.
(2) Submission to Christ's supreme authority (His Lordship over your life) as Lord is not germane to the saving transaction. Neither dedication nor willingness to be dedicated to Christ are issues of salvation. The news that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead is the complete gospel. Nothing else must be believed for salvation.
(3) Repentance is not essential to the gospel message. In no sense is repentance related to saving faith.
(4) To believe unto salvation is to believe the facts about the gospel. "Trusting Jesus" means believing the "saving facts" about Him, and to believe those facts is to appropriate the gift of eternal life. Those who add any suggestion of commitment have departed from the New Testament idea of salvation.
WE CAN ONLY CONCLUDE FROM THE ABOVE STATEMENT THAT EVEN JESUS CHRIST WAS WRONG ABOUT THIS MATTER OF REPENTANCE AND COMMITMENT!
Listen to the words of Jesus:
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matt. 16:24-25)
"Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in the Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I NEVER KNEW YOU: DEPART FROM ME, YE THAT WORK INIQUITY. (Matt. 7:21-23)
"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46)
"So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:33)

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JESUS CHRIST WAS NOT WRONG...THE SCRIPTURES ARE TRUE...and those who preach the teachings which I have just mentioned on the previous page, are false prophets! LET GOD BE TRUE AND EVERY MAN A LIAR! Jesus requires that we leave our life of sin and genuinely seek to follow in the paths of righteousness if we are going to be His disciple.
And...
this is the point in the text when Jesus confronts the little lady of Samaria about her sin of adultery.
In verse 19 of our text, she admits that Jesus is a prophet. What Jesus has just said has forced on the woman the realization that He is no ordinary being. She gives expression to this conviction by calling Him a "prophet." The word here does not denote one who FORETELLS FUTURE EVENTS, but one who knew her heart and life, and who must therefore have come from God. She did not yet suppose Him to be the Messiah. In the acknowledgment that Jesus is a prophet, she is really admitting her guilt! The light of divine truth had been turned to her heart and soul and she is responding to this Divine Stranger! I believe it is like that blessed moment which happened in our lives when the scales of unbelief began to fall away as the Holy Spirit revealed the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ through the Gospel. We saw ourselves as we really were...sinners...needing forgiveness and cleansing.
It is possible that the woman in our story was already groping towards the recognition that Jesus was the Christ. The Samaritans acknowledged no prophet after Moses other than the one spoken of in Deuteronomy 18:18 which says: "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I have commanded Him." For the Samaritan, this was a prophecy concerning the coming Messiah!
At this point in the story, there are many ways which we can understand this little lady's next comment. Some commentators make much of the fact that she is trying to divert the conversation away from the issue of her sin and bring up a matter that had been a controversy among the Jews and Samaritans for centuries.
Their exposition goes something like this: (Barnes) "The conversation about her manner of life was a very unpleasant topic to her--as it is always unpleasant to sinners to talk about their lives and the necessity of religion--and she was glad to turn the conversation to something else.
(A. W. Pink) "There is little doubt that this woman raised the subject of worship at this stage for the purpose of diverting a theme of conversation which was far from agreeable or creditable to her.

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"Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet," she had said, and so, glad of an opportunity to shift the discourse from a subject so painful, she introduces the great point of controversy between the Jews and the Samaritans that she might hear His opinion respecting it."
(Morris) "The woman may have been genuinely interested in the topic she now raises. She is clearly impressed by Jesus. She may have been genuinely interested in what a prophet may have to say about this ancient controversy between the Jews and the Samaritans on the subject of worship."
There are other suggestions that expositors have suggested, but please let me express, maybe, a different idea! Could it not be that in her conversation with Jesus, her heart and mind are being deeply affected by His words and His gracious, patient dealings with her. I am sure that this conversation had much more content in it than what is recorded here...it could have lasted for many minutes or maybe, and hour or so! In our text, we can observe the changes that take place in attitude and her acceptance of the subject about which Jesus is speaking. From surprise, to inquiry, to request, to acknowledgment that He is a man sent from God...this little lady is being greatly impressed and deeply affected in the presence of Jesus, the Son of God! And surely there is stirring in her heart a desire to truly worship...but she doesn't know where or how.
Isn't that so even with as! When Jesus Christ, through the work of His Holy Spirit, commenced his work of grace within our hearts...there came that desire to read His Word and be present as often as possible during the worship in the sanctuary. Our hearts could not get enough...Oh! the wonder and thrill of that thirst that is now being satisfied if the presence of God! Oh! what joy there is in His presence.
I am suggesting that her desire to talk about this issue of WORSHIP comes from something deep within her. Yes, there had been a controversy for centuries about where to worship, and so her inquiry was in order. We have learned in previous lessons that in the year of 450 B.C. a renegade Jew named Mannasah, had gone into Samaria and married the daughter of Sanballat, the governor of Samaria. Near the village of Sychar, a temple was built on Mt. Gerizim which was located near the village. Sanballat made Mannasah the high priest of that temple. The old Samaritan Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, has the word Gerizim instead of Ebal in Deut. 26:4. On this account, as well as because the patriarchs are mentioned as having worshipped in Shechem, they supposed that that was the proper place on which to erect a temple and worship God.
But as far as the Jews were concerned, God had commanded the Temple to be built in Jerusalem. "But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for

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His dwelling place; and there you shall go." (Deut. 12:5)
As it was contemplated in the law of Moses that there should be but one place to offer sacrifices and to hold the great feasts, so it followed that the Samaritans were in error in supposing that their temple was the place. Accordingly, our Savior decided in favor of the Jews, yet in such a manner as to show the woman that the question was of much less consequence than they supposed it to be.
The Samaritans were very interesting people when it came to the matter of their religion. You see, the Samaritans adjusted history to suit themselves. They taught that it was on Mount Gerizim that Abraham had been willing to sacrifice Isaac; they taught that it was there that Melchizedek had appeared to Abraham; they declared that it was on Mount Gerizim that Moses had first entered an altar and sacrifice to God when the people entered the promised land, although in fact it was on Mount Ebal that was done (Deut. 27:4).
They tampered with the text of scripture and with history to glorify Mount Gerizim. The woman had been brought up to regard Mount Gerizim has the most sacred spot in the world and to despise Jerusalem.
What was on her mind was this. She was saying to herself: "I am a sinner before God; I must offer to God and offering for my sin; I must take that offering to the house of God to put myself right with Him; where am I going to take it? To her, as to all her contemporaries, the only cure for sin was sacrifice. Her great problem was, where was that sacrifice to be made? By this time she is not arguing about the respective merits of the Temple on Mount Gerizim and the Temple on Mount Zion. All she wants to know is: Where can I find God? Jesus’ answer was that the day of the old man-made rivalries was coming to an end; and the time was on the way when men would find God everywhere! Jesus said to her, BELIEVE ME. He said this in order to emphasize the startling character of the declaration which He is about to make.
The expression THE HOUR IS COMING is found also in John 4:34; 5:25; 28, 16:2, 25, 32. When the Lord continues, WHEN NEITHER IN THIS MOUNTAIN NOR IN JERUSALEM WILL YOU WORSHIP THE FATHER, He predicts that God's people from every tribe and nation will serve Him. It had been Zephaniah's vision that men shall worship God "each in his place" (Zephaniah 2:11). It was the Malachi's dream that in every place incense would be offered as a pure offering to the name of God (Malachi 1:11)
The clause may be paraphrased us: "the hour is coming when neither EXCLUSIVELY in this mountain nor EXCLUSIVELY in Jerusalem will you worship the One and Only Father (through Jesus Christ) of the Church Universal."

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Jesus continues the conversation with these words: "Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews." This statement probably refers to the comparative ignorance and corruption of the Samaritan worship. We have learned that the religion of the Samaritans was a combination of the worship of gods of those who were sent centuries before to inhabit their land...plus, some teaching from the Books of Moses by a priest sent from Babylon.
Though they received in five books of Moses, yet they rejected the prophets, and of course all that the prophets had said respecting the true God. In these comments of Jesus, we see "truth" mingled with "grace." Christ not only dealt in faithfulness. He was, and is, the "faithful and true witness." The Lord, in a very brief word, settled the disputed point--the Samaritans were wrong, the Jews were right; the former were ignorant, the latter well instructed.
In reality, the Samaritan religion was a false worship. Dr. Barkley has some excellent comments on this matter:
(1) A FALSE RELIGION IS A SELECTIVE RELIGION. It chooses what it wishes to know about God and omits the rest. The Samaritans took as much of scripture as they wished and paid no attention to the rest! One of the most dangerous things in the world is a one-sided religion. It is very easy for a man to accept and hold such parts of God's truth as suit him and to disregard the remainder. We would do well to remember that, although no man will ever grasp the whole orb of truth, it is total truth that we should aim at, not the snatching at fragments which happen to suit ourselves and our own position.
(2) A FALSE RELIGION IS AN IGNORANT WORSHIP. Worship ought to be the approach to God of the whole man. A man has a mind and he has a duty to exercise it. Religion may begin with an emotional response; but the time comes when that emotional response has to be thought out. To fail to think things out is in itself a sin. In the last analysis, religion is never safe until a man can tell, not only what he believes, but why he believes it! Religion is hope, but it is hope with reason behind it (1 Peter 3:15).
(3) A FALSE WORSHIP IS A SUPERSTITIOUS WORSHIP. It is a worship given, not out of a sense of need nor out of any real desire, but basically because a man feels that it might be dangerous not to give it. There are many people whose religion is founded on a kind of vague fear of what might happen if they leave God out of the reckoning. But real religion is founded not on fear but on the love of God and gratitude for what God has done."
Back to our text...Jesus said that "salvation was of the Jews." Here is the way Paul states the same truth:
Romans 9:1-5
"I tell the truth in Christ, I am not a lying, my conscience also bear-

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ing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises, of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternal blessed God. Amen."
Paul did not for a moment deny the place of the Jews in the economy of God. He enumerates their privileges:
(1) In a special sense they were children of God, specially chosen, specially adopted into the family of God. Of the Jews, the scriptures said: "You are the sons of the Lord your God." "Israel is my firstborn son." "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt called my son."
(2) Israel had the glory. The SHEKINAH or KABOTH occurs again and again in Israel's history. It was the divine splendor of light which descended when God was visiting His people.
(3) Israel had the covenants. Again and again, God had approached the people of Israel and entered into a special relationship with them.
(4) Israel had the law. They had the worship of the Temple and the promises. They had the fathers...and from them there came the Anointed One of God! And it was through Jesus Christ that salvation and redemption was completed with His death on the cross!
"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
To "WORSHIP IN SPIRIT" means that men no longer need the externals of rights and ceremonies...for true worship really has its beginnings in the heart and mind of the worshiper. So to worship spiritually is the opposite of mere externals which pertained to the flesh; instead, it is to give to God the homage of an enlightened mind and an affectionate heart. True worship is when the spirit, the immortal and invisible part of man, speaks to and meets with God, Himself immortal and invisible. Worship is the dramatic celebration of God in His supreme worth in such a manner that his "worthiness" becomes the norm and inspiration of human living. The chief aim of worship is God Himself. True worship will entail a response that is thoughtful, costly, and worthy, appropriate to the high occasion and in line with the serious intent of a person's coming into the presence of the All-Holy who is the All-Gracious God.

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ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE SUBJECT OF WORSHIP

True worship is that exercise of the human spirit that confronts us with the mystery and marvel of God in whose presence the most appropriate and salutary response is adoring love.
In our text that we have been studying in John 4, Jesus said: "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him."
THE HOUR IS COMING, YEA, HAS ALREADY ARRIVED! In the mind of our Lord the perfected state of the future is foreshadowed in the present. The present is the future in embryo. Thus, the kingdom of heaven is both future and present. This holds also with respect to everlasting life. It is true that the worship of the Father in spirit and truth will not reach perfection until the great day of the consummation of all things; but even now the religion of the old dispensation, which attached so much importance to stipulated seasons, places, and outward observances, is beginning to vanish. Very soon the veil in the temple will be rent in two from top to bottom, and with it the last remnant of the validity of ceremonial worship will cease to exist.
True worshipers worship "in spirit and truth." It is not likely that "spirit" refers to the Holy Spirit (though the Spirit does help our worship, Romans 8:26). It is the human spirit that Jesus means. A man must worship, not simply outwardly by being in the right place and taking up the right attitude, but in his spirit.
Christian worship is the most momentous, the most urgent, the most glorious action that can take place in human life!
In Philippians 3:3 the apostle Paul speaks of worship as one of the three great marks that revealed the presence of the new nature within the Christian. He writes: "For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Jesus Christ, and who put no confidence in the flesh." Most Christians would quickly acknowledge the last of these points. It is a question of holding the true gospel. Many would also think highly of the second point, for joy is important. It is a mark of the Spirit, according to the fifth chapter of Galatians. I strongly suspect, however, that not many think of the worship of God as a mark of the presence of the new nature within. Yet in this verse it is included along with the other essentials. Another way of making this point is to note that there are three great "musts" in the gospel of John. The first "must" occurs in 3:7, where Jesus says, "you MUST be born again." The second "must" is in verse 14 of the same chapter. There Jesus says. "The Son of Man must be lifted up."
The verse we are studying give us the third "must," for they tell us that all who worship God "must worship in spirit and truth." These three great doctrines--the necessity for the new birth, the necessity of Christ's death, and the necessity of true worship-- below together.
Perhaps it is not even irrelevant to point out that this is the major passage in which John deals with the nature and necessity of worship, for of the thirteen uses of the word "worship" or "worshiper" in John's Gospel, ten of them occur in this section, and it is only here that worship is actually discussed and defined.
WHAT IS WORSHIP? Part of the answer is to be seen in the fact that if you and I had been living in England during the days of the early reformation of the English language, between the period of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare, we would not have used the word "worship" at all. We would have said "worth-ship," and we would have meant that in worshiping God we were assigning to God his true-worth...or it would be the same thing as "praising God."

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If someone should ask the two most important questions that follow from that definition, however--namely, "What is God's true worth?" and "How do we become aware of it?"--we are immediately brought to the heart of Christ's words to the Samaritan woman. For Jesus said that those who acknowledge God's true worth must do so "in spirit and truth" because truth has to do with what His nature is, and they must do so in "in spirit" because they can only apprehend it spiritually.
I can make this ever clearer by placing it in context of the three parts of man's nature. Man is a trinity...body, soul, and spirit. Jesus is saying that nothing is true worship of God except what takes place in man's spirit.
Many people worship with the body. This means that they consider themselves to have worshiped if they have been in the right place doing the right things at the right time. In Christ's day the woman thought this meant being either in Jerusalem, at the temple there, or on Mount Gerizim at the Samaritans' temple. In our day this would refer to people who think they have worshiped God simply because they have occupied a seat in a church on Sunday morning, or sung a hymn, or lit a candle, or crossed themselves, or knelt in the aisle. Jesus says this is not worship! These customs may be vehicles for worship. In some cases they may also hinder it. But they are not worship in themselves
In addition, however, we must not confuse worship with feeling, for worship does not originate with the soul any more than it originates with the body. The soul is the seat of our emotions. It may be the case, and often is, that the emotions are stirred in real worship. At times tears filled the eyes or joy floods the heart. But, unfortunately, it is possible for these things to happen and still no worship to be there! It is possible to be moved by a song or by oratory and yet not come to a genuine awareness of God as a fuller praise of his ways and nature.
TRUE WORSHIP OCCURS ONLY WHEN THAT PART OF MAN, HIS SPIRIT, WHICH IS AKIN TO THE DIVINE NATURE (for God is Spirit), actually meets with God and finds itself praising Him for His love, wisdom, beauty, truth, holiness, compassion, mercy, grace, power and all his other attributes!
We need to notice that the true worship of God is a worship not only in spirit but in truth. What does that mean? What does it mean to worship God "in truth?"
First, it means that we must approach God TRUTHFULLY, that is, honestly or wholeheartedly. That is what Jesus was referring to in a negative way when he said of the people of His day, "These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me...they worship me in vain" (Matt. 15:8-9). We must not pretend to worship. We must worship truthfully, knowing that our hearts are an open book to God.
Second, we must worship on the basis of the BIBLICAL REVELATION. This is also implied in the verses I have just quoted above. For the verse that begins "They worship me in vain" immediately goes on to condemn those who have substituted "rules taught by man" for the doctrines of Scripture. "Your word is truth," says the Scripture (John 17:17). So if we are to worship "In truth" as God commands us to do, our worship must be in accord with the principles and admonitions of the Bible...it must be Bible-centered!
Finally, to approach God "in truth" also means that we must approach God Christocentrically. This means "in Christ," for this is God's way of approach to Him. Jesus Himself signified this when He said to His disciples, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6)

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