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Confronted with countless varieties of today’s
churches, fellowships, religious groups and different sects… each of
them proclaiming to represent the “truth”… it is not difficult to
reach the conclusion: None of them has a hunch about what truth
really is!
Additionally taking God’s word and reading it carefully will
reinforce this impression.
Jesus is speaking of one shepherd and one flock (John
10) - saying His sheep are able to discern His voice well - running
from every stranger - just following HIM alone.
This insight, of course, will bring forth a multitude of questions
not so easily answered:
What’s now with all these words of Jesus? Is the Bible just a
collection of religious tales someone fabricated in his own mind?
Aren’t “Christians” proving by their lived reality, that this isn’t
existing at all?
This is an absolutely legitimate question and every man thinking
clearly will come to this conclusion.
But is this the only possibility? Isn’t there the chance that these
churches and various sects got something wrong generally… and the
visible reality is nothing more than the product of this grave error?
Is there a chance that these groups are built on a foundation never
intended by God?
But this would mean that all of these fellowships actually have
nothing in common with the words Jesus spoke in John 10!
So the visible reality doesn’t prove the faultiness of God’s word,
but just the fact that these groups aren’t identical with the one
Jesus is speaking of!
They are not “the” flock of Jesus!
I know these are hard words… but they’re as logical as the first
conclusion that God’s word is just a product of man’s fantasy.
That being the case, we can conclude now: it was our Lord Jesus
himself who left us the key to real truth.
HE spoke words defining without doubt and misunderstanding what HE
is calling “His flock”.
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 in
spirit and truth.”
John 4: 21-24
(Just to give a better understanding: The words
“the father is seeking” have much greater emphasis than the word "seeking"
might at first convey.
The word seeking should also say wants, only accepts, is only
pleased with to give us the actual weight of Jesus' words.)
These few words are totally sufficient to give us the “true”
understanding about God’s understanding of “true” worship.
This scripture is one of the most important in God’s word. Here we
clearly see what new testament worship is all about!
To have a better understanding I will give a short overview on the
historical background.
After the Assyrians had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel
they deported all the Hebrew tribes living in this area.
Not everyone was deported - some escaped of course - but those
mingled with the surrounding people streamed into those empty areas.
However, the “true place of worship” had already become a source of
competition. The rulers of the northern kingdom restricted their
people to worship in Jerusalem because they feared the loss of their
own influence on them.
So they anointed their own priests and temple servants not coming
from the tribe of Levi…, and they erected a substitute temple.
Of course the “rightful owners” of the true temple never accepted
this. When it came to this mingling of unclean people and religious
traditions the “Samaritan religion” was born, despised and rejected
by the Jews.
Samaritans believed in the one true God, but it was a “self-made
mix” of various religious traditions.
This is just a very compressed version, but it helps us to
understand what this conversation of Jesus with the Samaritan woman
at the well is all about:
The true worship of God!
This woman knew all too well what “good Jews” thought of Samaritans…,
and she was quite surprised when Jesus asked her for water.
Jews usually avoided contact with Samaritans at all costs!
She was quite irritated when Jesus approached her but picked up
courage quickly when she asked for the living water Jesus offered to
her.
In the following conversation she recognized that this wasn’t a
“normal” Jew sitting there before her. She thought HE probably was a
man of God or a prophet… and now she couldn’t hold back any longer.
She had to ask HIM about the “true worship” of God.
Perhaps she was anticipating a long theological dissertation about
why the temple in Jerusalem and traditional Jewish worshippers were
the only true ones.
But however, Jesus answered her with the above quoted words, and
if everyone ever naming himself a “Christian” could have begun to
grasp the significance of these few sentences, the history of this
world would have looked totally different!
Jesus is saying here without doubt, that there is no “true” place of
worship, no “true” worship rites and no “true” religion!
HE is saying: True worship is found in every single man
worshipping God in Spirit and truth!
And He is saying this is the only way pleasing to God!
To say it clearly: Jesus says true worship has nothing to do with
being a member of a special people or religion. No, there aren’t
“true” rites or a special place for which you have to search.
True worship is found when the worshipper is drawing close to God in
spirit and truth!
This is radically different! This is blowing our whole religious
system apart!
No, it’s not about a "true" religion! It’s about a personal
relationship with God resting in absolute truth!
This is the will of God!
Let’s look on the two components spirit and truth a little closer:
The Spirit
The first component of true worship Jesus is mentioning here is the
spirit, and it is important that we have a clear understanding of
what Jesus meant with “spirit”.
Spirit isn’t our intellectual ability to think, but more the “organ”
God created as a separate component of our being when HE created man
as spirit, soul and body.
The spirit is the “tool” designed for serving just one purpose:
Contact with God!
Our feelings, sensations and our intellectual abilities are rooted
in our soul… and have nothing to do with the spirit.
Caused by the separation from God, man's spirit is "inactivated".
The only thing reminding us something is missing in us to be whole
is the distant vague sensation of supernatural realities.
Man has this sensation but is missing the appropriate tool to fill
this inner “vacuum”. He is sensing something but has no ability for
an adequate response. However this sensation is stirring inner
unrest and he starts to roam around to find answers using the only
tools he has: The tools of his soul (thinking and feeling).
The result of this? An immeasurable variety of religions, cults,
religious practices and rites, and yes, those are all “products” of
our soul! Products of our ability to think and comprehend - our
sensations and feelings.
Well, due to our very limited state these products have to be errors…
without any exception!
When the spirit isn't available - the only legitimate tool for man -
all human efforts have to fail!
But it is the spirit Jesus is mentioning here first to bring
well-pleasing worship to God… and yes, HE even states that the time
is now when true worshippers worship God in spirit and truth!
So true worship of God must be "enabled"!
But isn’t that saying that the inactivated spirit of man is
functioning again?!? How can this happen?
Well, we don’t need to go far to find the answer. We just have to
flip one chapter back to John 3:
We have to be born again!
God has to create us anew in the rebirth… HE has to equip us again
with an alive and functioning spirit!
So to be born again isn’t about to be a member of a particular
church or having passed through a certain ritual (baptism).
To be born again is proved by nothing else than by the existence of
something that wasn’t there before: a functioning, living spirit!
This is shown clearly without doubt when a man suddenly is able to
fill the “vacuum” successfully, when he is able to communicate with
God. It is talking with God and hearing!
But Jesus is mentioning a second component:
The Truth
Truth is very important with Jesus! There are many scriptures from
HIM talking about truth. But beware of misunderstanding this… HE
doesn’t speak about many truths… there is just one truth!
But no fear! HE doesn’t speak about the “one” true religion. And no,
He doesn’t speak about “Christianity” here!
Again, it’s not about the true religion - it’s about the truth of a
person: The person of God!
And this truth about God has an unavoidable consequence: The
confrontation with HIS truth reveals the truth about myself!
Truth isn’t a religion! Truth is just between you and the living God!
You just have to accept one truth before you: The truth about
yourself in the “true” light of your creator!
Yes, this isn’t comfortable… it’s painful! We’re not as good as we
think we are and this truth about us is a painful process.
We have to accept the truth of being lost and helpless without any
hope… never ever being able to reach God with our strength.
But there is another component coming with this truth! The absolute
truth of God includes the truth about HIS incredible love too. A
love ready to gift us vastly beyond any comprehension.
This is the will of God… God wants true worshippers to worship in
spirit and truth!
He doesn’t want rituals! He wants you to know HIM personally
communicating with HIM as a friend!
This communication isn’t a formal thing but it is a living exchange
driven by love and joy not by pressure, force or even fanaticism.
Do you understand that all religious activities are nothing else
than empty self-deception!
Do you understand that just one thing is counting with God: You
worshipping HIM in spirit and truth!
In the beginning I made very clear that the products of human
activity have contrary effects on God’s plans. Instead of being
living testimonies of God, we are deeply involved in blind
self-satisfaction of our soul in such a ridiculous way making many
doubting the truth of God’s word.
Our products (churches, fellowships, religious groups) are an
obstacle for God’s true kingdom!
It is time to face the truth! It is time to allow God’s truth to
tear down our self-built houses of cards.
The only thing that counts: Are you worshipping God the way… the
only way He is pleased with? Are you worshipping your God in spirit
and truth?
No, no… this is not about some future time in heaven… Jesus says the
time is: NOW!
It is time to start something new! Just allow the truth to convict
you! Take His word seriously and obey HIS word! Be concerned about a
true and personal fellowship with your God in worshipping HIM in
spirit and truth!
Imagine two of such worshippers meeting each other! Guess what will
be visible then?
Or even imagine some more of these true worshippers worshipping
together in spirit and truth!
God doesn’t want an “earthen” temple! He doesn’t want a religion or
theologies and philosophies. HE is longing and seeking for a temple
of individual men worshipping HIM in spirit and truth.
God doesn’t want mega-churches - no shows, no miracle-healers! And
HE doesn’t want “your” activity!
God wants you and me to know HIM… true life abundantly! He wants our
lives being a whole worship in spirit and truth!
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice:
“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
When your fathers tested Me;
They tried Me, though they saw My work.
For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’
So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
Psalms 95:6-11
Shall we provoke God’s wrath like Israel by
choosing our own way instead of HIS?
Yes, it’s you!
He wants worship and fellowship with you!
Oh, let’s start to seek HIS face in spirit and truth today!
Let’s become quiet before HIM meditating about these important words
in John 4. Let’s allow our deepest being to be touched by HIS
deepest longing!
It not about my views… it’s about HIS declared will!
Let’s meditate on the personal consequences for us when Jesus, the living
“Word of God” says: The Father is seeking…!
A M E N
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