Sermon Tone Analysis

“The [Samaritan] woman said to [Jesus], „Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

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.‟”1

Few church services are designed for worship.

I do not make that statement merely to generate controversy or seeking to be argumentative.

However, the emphasis in modern church services seems obviously focused on addressing the feelings of those present during the services of the churches rather than leading worshippers to meet the Risen Saviour.

Consequently, few Christians know what it is to worship.

Our feelings cannot lead us in worship; they will be stirred when we have met God, but they will not lead us to God.

Years ago, A. W. Tozer provided a powerful definition of worship; it is not a dry, dusty compilation of words, but rather it is a definition growing out of the experience of meeting God.

Each Christian should assuredly identify with Tozer‟s words.

Tozer identified the components of worship as consisting of boundless confidence, admiration, fascination and adoration.2

These are not elements that we can generate from within our lives; rather they spring spontaneously from the heart of the individual who meets the Living God.

The true worshipper cannot help but be changed by meeting the Living Christ.

Briefly, think of those elements of worship.

Meeting the True and Living God, we have boundless confidence because we know Him who called all things into being and who gives us life itself.

We know His power because He saved us, forgiving us our sin and adopting us into His family.

We cannot worship a God we do not respect, and respect is based upon confidence—that we know the One worshipped, certain in His character and actions.

That is the God we know and serve—a God who is holy, righteous, just and unchanging.

When I speak of admiration as an element of worship, I mean that we appreciate the excellencies of God.

We know His character, the aspects of His Being, and we are overwhelmed with awe.

One hymn writer speaks of His “uncreated loveliness” and of our “astonished reverence.”3

Such admiration is almost unknown among modern evangelical worshippers.

How could it be otherwise when we worship a God that rarely astonishes anybody?

He manages to stay pretty much withint our constitutions, never breaks our by-laws, and overall He is generally a pretty well behaved God—very denominational and very much like us.

We call Him to rescue us when we are in trouble and otherwise avoid interfering in our lives.

Fascination is yet another vital element in worship.

When we come into the presence of the Living God, we are, in Tozer‟s words, “filled with moral excitement.”4

We are charmed and entranced, excited by the majesty of God.

It is not the size of our congregation, the power of our denomination or how influential we have become that excites our attention, rather we marvel at the might and power of our God.

We are enthralled by His grace and goodness, humbled by His mercy and awed by His kindness toward us.

We will have a proper perspective on who we are and on who God is; we will not be overly excited by our brilliance or our power, but we will be enthralled by the splendour of God‟s presence.

Worship demands adoration—loving God with all the power that lies within us.

Adoration speaks of loving God with fear and wonder and longing for His presence—longing that is so intense that it is at once painful and delightful.

Such yearning for God will lead us to seek Him, at times waiting in breathless silence, and at other times crying out with intense longing.

We will discover the painful cry of the Psalmist:

“You have said, „Seek my face.‟

My heart says to you,

„Your face, LORD, do I seek.‟

Hide not your face from me.

Turn not your servant away in anger,

O you who have been my help.

Cast me not off; forsake me not,

O God of my salvation!”

[PSALM 27:8, 9]

I suggest that worship will exhibit all these elements, and that they will be expressed spontaneously and without effort, when we are in the presence of the Risen Master.

This is the reason I say that few church services are designed for worship.

If worship occurs in the modern setting, it is more likely that it is accidental than deliberate.

We design our efforts at worship around what is convenient for us rather than coming to the House of God prepared to wait on Him.

We are more concerned about meeting our friends at the restaurant than we are about being in the presence of God.

We are quite prepared to forsake the assembling of ourselves together if a friend or family member should happen into town, convinced that these temporal relationships are of greater importance than is our eternal relationship to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

We are more focused on our recreation than we are in finding rest in the presence of the Great Shepherd who leads us beside still waters so that our souls can be restored.

I am very bold to say that I want more than anything that our meeting place to be sweet with divine presence.

I long for the people of God to say upon concluding our times of worship, “How awesome is this place!

This is none other than the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven” [see GENESIS 28:17].

Such will not happen until we have divested ourselves of the silly, futile notion that we must generate the right atmosphere, or perform a precisely choreographed liturgy that will induce God to attend our services according to our busy schedules.

If we meet God, it will be a surprise, though we will have prepared ourselves to discover His presence.

We eagerly come into this house, anticipating that we will meet Him and filled with expectation that we will witness His grace and mercy as we set aside other cares of the day to seek the face of the True and Living God.

Though we can prepare to meet the Risen Saviour, it is nevertheless true that when He reveals Himself it will be on His terms and at the time of His choosing.

This truth is borne out in the account of a woman who met the Living Saviour on one occasion.

She was not looking for Him, nor anticipating His presence.

Yet, He surprised her when He revealed Himself.

Perhaps we can learn something of worship as we review the events occurring one day when a sinful woman who was not looking for the Son of God met Him and was awed by His revelation.

EFFORTS TO WORSHIP OFTEN GROW OUT OF IGNORANCE — “The [Samaritan] woman said to [Jesus], „Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

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.‟”

The Samaritans “worshipped.”

They had, and still have to this day, a liturgy based loosely on the mandates of the Torah.

They based their religious practise on specific liturgies such as honouring the ancient Hebrew script, the high priesthood, animal sacrifices, eating of lambs at the Passover and worship on Mount Gerizim as the place of worship the God has chosen.

This latter tenet is the point the woman emphasised to the Master.

Let‟s go back in our minds to the events that led up to Jesus‟ encounter with this woman.

Jesus had left Judea to travel to Galilee.

The reason for His leaving was to avoid the potential of any perceived conflict between Himself and John the Baptiser.

The Pharisees were seeking any opportunity to generate conflict in the public mind, and Jesus sought to avoid such conflict.

Galilee lay directly north of Judea, with Samaria situated between the two regions.

To travel to Galilee, it was necessary for Jesus either to turn eastward and detour through Perea, or travel directly through Samaria.

Complicating the issue was the fact that Jews generally despised the Samaritans as mongrel worshippers.

The Samaritans claimed to be the spiritual descendants of Moses, and the Jews were equally convinced that the Samaritans distorted the teachings of Moses.

Thus, there was enduring religiously motivated conflict between the two peoples, as becomes evident from the exchange between Jesus and this woman.

A little further explanation will assist in understanding the hostility that existed between these two religious groups.

The northern kingdom of Israel was conquered and exiled in 722 B.C. because the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Assyrians [see 2 KINGS 17:23, 24].

Remnants of the defeated Israelite kingdom mixed with Persians and other conquered peoples.

The paganism that had been adopted by Jeroboam as an expedient against the possibility that the people would again turn to Judah was now mixed with many other religions [2 KINGS 17:25-41].

However, with the passage of time, the monotheism of Judaism assumed prominence, but with significant changes.

The Samaritans rejected the writings of the Prophets and the Wisdom Literature because they did not want to permit the emphasis on Judea and David‟s lineage centred on Jerusalem.

Their worship centred on Mount Gerizim, rejecting utterly any approval of Jerusalem as the city chosen by the LORD.

In other words, their own social situation predisposed them against obedience to the remainder of Scripture.

After the Babylonian exile of Judah, Zerubbabel urged the rebuilding of the Temple, but Samaritan help was pointedly rejected.

You may recall how the Samaritans, among others, asked for opportunity to help rebuilding the Temple, only to be rebuffed when the Jews said, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us” [EZRA 4:2, 3].

Obviously, this angered the Samaritans.

When Alexander the Great and the generals that followed him controlled Palestine (beginning about 330 B.C.), they chose Samaria to serve as an important base for Grecian rule.

In part, this choice was prompted because they found sympathetic anti-Jewish allies there.

When the Jews at last had opportunity during the Maccabean revolt, they attacked Samaria (128 B.C.), destroyed Schechem and burned the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.

This history ensured smouldering hostility between these two peoples.