Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction:
Conversations happen at the strangest times.
Jesus was tired and thirsty and ended up having a life-changing conversation with a woman.
In doing so, He gave two of the most profound statements on worship that we find in all the Bible.
This led the woman to talk about religion and doctrinal differences.
Jesus is never interested in religion and used her statement as a way to redirect the conversation to the need of her heart.
She was confused.
I think all of us would have been if we had been in her place.
Her interest was piqued.
Jesus didn’t chide her for being confused.
He explained what he meant.
Jesus he wasn’t talking about the water of the well but living water, eternal life.
The woman still wasn’t on the same page as Jesus.
She was still looking at Jesus and looking at the well.
She is beginning to understand but not quite.
She is still thinking of physical water.
She is thinking that Jesus is offering her indoor plumbing!
Who wouldn’t want that!
Jesus then asks her something to shift the attention back to what the need of her heart for living water.
This was a culturally appropriate things to say.
Later in this passage we see the disciples surprised Jesus was talking to a woman.
A Hebrew man did not talk with women in the street—not even with his mother, sister, daughter or wife! (cf.
Lightfoot 1979, 286-287).
According to the most liberal view of Deuteronomy 24:1, a Hebrew husband could divorce his wife if she was found “familiarly talking with men” (Edersheim 1957, 157).
The woman responded.
Jesus touched a sore spot.
Perhaps the woman winced as she answered.
Jesus continued.
Wow.
Put yourself in her shoes.
You may think more highly of yourself than this woman, but none of us are better than her.
Jesus could say something similar to each of us to make us feel just like she did.
Imagine you’re talking to Jesus and he says, “Remember when you _______________” and brings up a shameful sinful act from your past.
We all have them.
It may not be five marriages but all of us are spiritually bankrupt with Jesus.
She acknowledge that what Jesus said was true by calling him a prophet.
Then she did what I think most of us would do in that situation, changed the subject.
She changed the subject to a discussion about worship.
That’s a safe topic isn’t it?
Not too personal.
It’s easy to talk about religious stuff that doesn’t deal with personal issues like morality or personal responsibility.
She brought up a major issue of theological disagreement between the Jews and the Samaritans, where to worship.
Jesus engaged with her on that topic but he didn’t say what she probably expected.
Jesus told her she was right to talk about worship.
He revealed to her and us
1.
The priority of worship.
She brought up worship, a topic he was eager to discuss.
He didn’t turn the conversation back to the issue of her personal morality.
Instead he gave her and us some fascinating insight into worship.
““Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father. .
.”
2. The form of worship.
The external ways people worship change.
At that time the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem and the Samaritans at Mt. Gerizim.
Jesus said that was going to change.
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”
The way to worship at that time was through the Jews and the Old Testament teaching.
That would change.
Some people wonder if we should bring back the offerings and feast from the Law.
Sorry, that went away.
The Greek at the beginning of verse 23 says “an hour is coming” rather than “a time is coming.”
That is a technical term in John that refers to Jesus passion, his death, burial, resurrection and exaltation.
John 16:32.
Jesus connect worship with himself and his work.
All worship moving forward would involve Jesus.
Jesus declared when the form of worship would change from what it had been for hundreds of years.
In a sense it changed the moment Jesus came to earth.
It would change externally after his passion!
He then declared
3. The essence of worship.
Jesus shifts the categories of worship.
Previously it was localized, on a mountain or Jerusalem and it had an outward form, the Temple and the external rituals followed by the Samaritans.
Now, the hour had come, when the category changes to spirit and truth.
It isn’t that place or form is wrong.
That would no longer be the way to define worship.
It was how they defined it before!
Remember the photo’s I showed you.
Some people define worship based on the external forms.
That isn’t how to define worship.
Worship would henceforth be defined by “spirit and truth.”
The true nature of worship eliminates any claims as to the right form of worship.
Worship isn’t about a place.
It isn’t about a religious system.
It isn’t about who is worshiping.
It’s about in spirit and truth.
The key to understanding that phrase is what Jesus says about God.
God is spirit.
He doesn’t say “a” spirit but is talking about what God is like.
It is an all encompassing statement.
People have bodies and are limited spatially.
God isn’t.
Spirit describes the life-giving essence of God such as Jesus said to Nicodemus.
The nature of spirit can only be partially understood.
We know spirit because God reveals Himself to us.
Worship in spirit and truth is when we in our spirits worship by the enabling of the Holy Spirits and consistent with and guided by the truth about God.
The Holy Spirit glories God and when He does that through us, it is worship.
True worship has to have both elements.
These aren’t two separate observations about God, that He is spirit and truthful.
Since God is spirit, worship has to be of a spiritual nature, that is it is God centered, not you centered or me-centered.
If we say, “I didn’t get much out of worship today” we are not talking about the worship Jesus describes.
Worship isn’t how I feel when I exalt God.
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