Today we are in a great spiritual battle and perhaps you sense it in our culture. The enemy wants to deceive and destroy you by blinding you from who you should worship and why. Our enemy satan works diligently to blind people from knowing who Jesus is. 2 Cor. 4:4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. [1]
False Worship
When people worship false gods, it prevents them from having a relationship with the true God. When we don’t have a relationship with God, we don’t have eternal life, we don’t have spiritual discernment, and we are not able to fulfill God’s plan for our life. As Paul writes in 2 Cor. 4:4 we are blinded. We are walking around in the dark and that is exactly what the enemy wants.
Jesus came to change this. Luke 4:18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me (Jesus), for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free.” [2]
The good news is the message of Jesus Christ that tells us, “All who place their faith in Him will have eternal life. We are poor when we don’t know the Lord, but when we do, we are set free and our eyes are opened.
True Worship
When our eyes are opened, we begin to see that any idol or false god we worshiped for what it is. The worth of the idol pales in comparison to Jesus and is not worthy of our worship. We see that idols are only a charade to keep us away from the worship of the one true God. Jesus speaks to the woman at the well about what true worship really is.
John 4:19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”
Your Worship
In our story today, we find Jesus in a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well. She was there to get water and Jesus spoke to her of living water that provides eternal life. She recognized He was a prophet of the Jews and tried to argue where worship should take place.
Jesus says it is not about where but who is worshiped. The call is to worship God “in the Spirit and in truth.” The work of the Holy Spirit is to draw us to faith and to be a true worshiper we must be a person of faith.[3] Ephesians 2:8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. [4]
To worship in truth is the truth about who Jesus is. John 14:6Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.[5]
Therefore, worship in spirit and truth is genuine worship. How can worshiping in Spirit and truth be life changing for you?
To hear more about worshipping in Spirit and truth, listen here: https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/encountering-jesus-with-the-woman-at-the-well
[1,2,4,5] Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation . Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
[3] https://today.reframemedia.com/devotions/in-the-spirit-and-in-truth