John, Pt. 19 | John 4:16-24
Pastor Jeff Rice
Covenant Reformed Baptist Church
Transcript
Each and every time I approach the pulpit, I don't think I can echo Charles Spurgeon enough
When I say I believe in the Holy Spirit To fill me
Because without him I am a noisy gong up here and I still might sound like one to you guys
Our text of scripture if you have a copy of the scriptures, it's going to be in the gospel of John We're gonna be looking if you have a pulp if you're using a
P Bible to be page 1075 the gospel of John chapter 4 verses 15 through 24 will be what we will consider today the gospel of John chapter 4 15 through 24 let me pray
Glorious God Lord Please in Jesus name Use me this day
Let not anything in my life this past week Be a distraction to me yet.
My sin is ever more before me Use me in the preaching of your word
To your people who gather here today not to hear from me, but to hear from you
I pray this in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Christ our theme for this
Lord's Day is worship It's worship And my proposition is this the same way
Jesus describes worship Defines worship to the
Samaritan woman should be the same way that you and I define worship in our lives Whenever people ask us about what is worship?
the Oxford Dictionary Definition of worship is this the filling or expression of reverence and Adoration for deity.
Let me read that again the filling or expression of reverence and adoration for deity
That's what it says of worship is Some would view worship as the time of music and singing to the
Lord So what Pastor Cal was doing up here with the guitar leading us in the psalm and the psalm and in songs and hymns
They said that's what worship is So this right here that we're doing and what we did before that was not worship only what he was doing
That's worship, but what we're doing now This isn't worship the most common word used for worship literally means to either bend over or bow down It describes a gesture or of respect or submission to a human being or to God or to idols
You don't have to turn there but in Genesis Real quick Genesis chapter 18
This is when the the three angels one of them being Yahweh comes to Abraham verse 1
Then Yahweh appeared to him by the oak of Mamre While he speaking of Abraham was sitting at the at the tent door and The heat of the day and he lifted up his eyes and he looked and behold three men were standing nearby
He saw he ran From the tent door to meet them and he bowed himself to the earth
This is saying that he went to meet them and he bowed meaning that he worshipped them he bowed down in worship
We see this often in the book of Acts right where where people see Paul and Silas performing miracles and they they bow down they start to to worship them and They ripped their clothes claiming that they're not
God or or when angels would fall Human beings would fall down in the presence of angels and angels would say that they are not
God do not worship me and I've made this statement before as Paul Washer has that if If an angel was to walk in this room out of ignorance, we would bow down and worship this angel that in our
Scriptures when you would bow down to something that would mean that you was worshipping it
Many people have different views of what worship is And what
I want to do today at least For part of our focus is to look at what
Jesus says worship is But in order to do that, we have an outline don't we we got to follow the outline and Then our outline today.
Jesus is going to bring the Samaritan woman to the foothills of worship by revealing to her knowledge
Of who he is Who God is And who the
Holy Spirit is He's gonna bring her to the foothills of worship
And as we read John as we continue to walk through John's we're going to climb that hill
We'll have three points. We'll sit. We'll look at pagan worship true worship and true worshippers point number one pagan worship point number two
True worship and point number three true worshippers
Before we go through before we go through that outline, let's again review the the context so we have
Jesus and John were baptizing in the same body of water and as Baptist picking on my
Presbyterian friends I talked about the body of water and they're being dumped right and I'd wink at my Presby's.
So I'm gonna wink now Right. They were back there. Both groups were baptizing in the same body of water, right?
And then a commotion a debate started taking place Why is it that that more
Jewish people are going to to Jesus and not to John right?
And Jesus gives this illustration of him at a wedding But he is the best man and that Jesus is the bridegroom and that the bride don't cling to the best man
But the bride clings to the bridegroom and it's given this picture that these Jews that were going to Jesus is a picture of the bride but because of this commotion these
Jews they go back and they tell the Pharisees and that's where verse 1 picks up of chapter 4 and In this little section of chapter 4 verses 1 through 6, we'll see that Jesus had to go through Samaria There's other ways around You don't have to necessarily go through Samaria to get to where he's going
But he had to go through Samaria and that's a point that I made two weeks ago verse 1
Therefore when Jesus knew that the Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more
Disciples than John although Jesus himself was not baptized in but his disciples were
He left Judah and he went and he went away into Galilee verse 4 and he had to pass through Samaria which
I believe it's talking about this divine appointment that this woman had to experience So he came to the city of Samaria called
Shechar near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph and Jacob's well was there so Jesus Being wearied from his journey was sitting thus by the well
It was about the sixth hour Religious Jews, we're about to see in this next portion that religious
Jews did not Speak to Samaritans.
Well to women in public, but but So we have this woman that's travel
I mean Jesus is traveling and he and it says that this the this is the sixth hour.
So this would have been noon This would have been in the heat of the day
And what we're about to see is a woman who is traveling in the heat of the day to receive water
But also we're going to see a religious man speak to a Samaritan woman
And I pointed out that religious Jews did not speak to women period Much less
Samaritan women. They didn't speak to their wives in public nor would they speak to their
Female daughters in public Did you imagine that man?
Not speaking to your wife in public Your daughter asking you a question and you can't answer her because you're a religious
Jew Jesus breaks all the rules right here
It's not just it's not his wife. It's not children and we see that Jesus did he welcomed children.
He spoke to a Samaritan woman, so it breaks all the rules here.
So as I think we need to understand that whenever we hear her remark to Jesus her response to Jesus verse 7 a
Samaritan woman came remember this is the heat of the day. It's it's hot women Normally would would go in the cool of the day to get water
And I pointed out two weeks ago that that's what that was a job for women to do men would work hard in the fields or whatever they did and women the women's job was to draw water a
Samaritan woman came in the Came to draw water Jesus said to her
Give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food
Therefore the Samaritan woman said to him listen, how do you being a Jew? She recognizes?
He's a Jew ask me being a Samaritan woman for Jews have no dealing with Samaritans now if you would have been able to be here for Sunday school
Tony walked through the story of the Good Samaritan And he pointed out how to the
Jews their neighbors were Jews If you if you want in their neighbor,
I mean if you want in the Jews and you were not Consider their neighbor the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.
They consider them to be unclean Right, that's why most Jews when they would travel they would go around Samaria crossing the
Jordan River twice Because they would consider that if they would go into Samaria that they would be defiled
Jesus Scripture says he had to go through Samaria And she says to him a
Jew who was speaking to her a woman which ordinarily is not done
How is it you're asking me a Samaritan woman for water so I don't see her saying like, you know, just like How are you asking me like like being proud or trying to blow
Jesus off I think she's she's humbled here I think she's really sincere asking.
How is it that you are asking me? I'm a woman much not even just saying I'm a Samaritan woman.
You are a Jew. You should consider me unclean How is it you're asking me from for water?
Jesus responds by evangelizing the woman look at verse 10 Jesus answered and said to her if you knew listen if you knew the gift of God and I walked through what the gift of God was we saw in the scriptures that the gift of God is faith
For you are saved by grace through faith, and that is not of yourself It is the gift of God Faith is the gift of God And we saw that the
Holy Spirit was the gift of God and that eternal life was the gift of God so he's saying if you know the gift of God faith
Holy Spirit in eternal life and Who it is that says to you give me a drink?
You would have asked him and he would have given you living water And they were standing at this well this well of Jacob and and water running water at this time was considered living water
And we looked at the the diddicay and what it said about baptism in living one running water
But Jesus wasn't talking about a well of water
He was speaking about the Holy Spirit, and we walked through Old Testament passages to show that and also in a
New Testament Passage which won't go through today We might revisit next week But he began to to witness to her the gift of God if you know who
I was he is the fountain by which you receive this living water If you knew who
I was And if you knew the gift of God faith Holy Spirit eternal life
You would ask me for this water and the verses 11 through 15
There's a back -and -forth conversation in the woman and we see that the woman does not understand what living water is
So beginning in verse 11, and she said to him sir you have nothing to draw With and the well is deep so at this time that it's
It said that the well was probably about a hundred feet deep Where then do you get that living water remember he's coming to her he's thirsty he's asking her for water
Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle and Jesus said to her everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again
But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst ever But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life
He begins to witness He Begins to explain to her and the way
Jesus does about the gift of God about faith about the Holy Spirit and about Eternal life and in verse 16 through 18
Jesus reveals to her that he is a prophet And in verse 19 she understands that he is a prophet
Again, I'm trying to real quickly go over what we went over two weeks ago And he said to her go call your husband and come back here and the woman said to him.
I have no husband Jesus said to her you have correctly said
I Have no husband For you have had five husbands and the one that you have now is not
Your husband this you have said truly the woman said to him sir.
I see That you are a prophet Again, as we went over this two weeks ago
I pointed out that her having five husbands and the man that she is with not being her husband
Could be the reason why she was Drawing water by herself in the heat of the day
Right. She could have been ashamed of her lifestyle or she could have been getting persecuted by her own peers
For having so many husbands and living with someone that wasn't her husband
I also want to point out that Jesus does not recognize the man that she is living with to be her husband a a
Marriage covenant is made between a man and a woman that are committed to one another
Right, and she's living in fornication She's living with someone who she's not committed to and who is not committed to her
Jesus Not knowing this woman having this knowledge reveals to her that she is the prof so he is a prophet
She knows that he's a prophet. She sees that he's able to tell me things that no one should know about me
That that doesn't know me personally, but what this also shows is the divine appointment
Scripture clearly tells us that Jesus does not come for people who think they're righteous Who think they keep the law?
He comes for the broken right, he comes for Prostitutes for adulterers for fornicators for ex -game bangers, right for game bangers
He comes for people like me Not for people who think they got it all together
If you have it all together, you don't need Jesus. I Mean you do comes for the broken point number one pagan worship
We get this from verse 20 Through 22 So this is
Jesus the woman still speaking After she says we I see you are a prophet our fathers worship on this mountain
Which is Mount Gerzer. I think I said that right and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship
Jesus said to her woman. I love that woman Believe me an
Hour is coming when neither on this in 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. I'm gonna Real quickly,
I'm gonna read that again. I'm gonna point out some things She mentions that their people their fathers worship on the mountain where where they're at in Samaria And she says in you people speaking of the
Jews you people Say that in Jerusalem you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place that men ought to worship
And then you in verse 22 Jesus says you worship
Let's talk about the Samaritans what you do not know Speaking of the
Father We Jews Worship what we know for salvation is from the
Jews All worship if it is not Directed to the one true.
God is pagan worship All worship if it's not
Directed to the one true. God it is pagan worship in Romans chapter 1 pastor
Cal thank you for last week for giving me a break. He preached for He brought us the word and he was looking at Romans chapter 1
I'm gonna read verses 18 through 25 Paul writing he says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and Unrighteousness Now I'm gonna stop right there for just a second to just to point out that Righteousness means
Law -keeping Right. So when you see the word righteousness
You can actually replace that with law -keeping That's what it means unrighteousness means law -breaking
Means that you're not keeping the law. You're breaking the law right, he says
For the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness against all
Lawbreakers unrighteous men who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness people who break the law and suppress the truth in their breaking the law because the because that which is known about God is
Evident to is evident within them For God has made it evident to them for since the creation of the world his invisible
Attributes both his eternal power and his divine nature have clearly been seen being understood
Through what has been made so that they are without excuse speaking of creation.
They know there's a God because there's a creator For even though they knew God speaking of his created him creating.
They know they know him as a creative creative force They did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thoughts and In their foolish hearts and their foolish hearts were darkened professing to be wise they become fools
They exchange the glory of of the incorruptible God for an for images.
Remember all worship That's not directly towards God. It's pagan and we see that they exchange the glory
Of the incorruptible God for an image and the likeness of corruptible man and birds and four -footed animals and crawling creatures
Therefore God gave them over to the lust of their hearts to impurity so that their their bodies would be dishonored among them for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the
Creature rather than the Creator who was blessed forever false gods listen false gods
Are no gods at all. I Don't care what you can make with your hands
I don't care if what you can dream up in your head God is not a genie in the bottle. You don't rub it the bottle and he pops out and give you three wishes
That's not God all False gods are not gods at all.
They are Unknowable, you cannot know them. There's no relationship to be had with them
The knowledge of them is made up and they are nothing more than fairy tales and myths
Everyone knows there's a God because of creation and because they don't know him personally they craft with their minds and With their hands gods that suit their knees they craft with their minds and with their hands gods that look just like them
Bible tells us Yahweh says You thought I was just like you
And you're wrong He's nothing like us He had to condescend for us to have information
And one of the biggest gods in our day that we deal with is Darwinian evolution who claims to not believe in God's at all
It's the world's largest fairy tale for adults and yet people bend over they bow down and they sing
Songs of worship to God's they cannot see they speak more about God than most
Christians To our shame you see the
Samaritan woman. She had the pinnitude Samaritans had the Pentateuch. That's the
Torah the five books of Moses. They had the Word of God yet they
But they know God his existence. They have his word, but they did not know him personally
Because they were not Jews true
Jews We'll get to that in just a second in the time of the old covenant
God dealt only with his covenant people in the covenant land
God was a Husband to Israel and to worship
God you had to you had to do so as a people Speaking of the
Jews under the law under the Torah in the land the land of Canaan They the
Samaritans had the law They were part G and part
Gentile so that means their genes were mixed Polluting them and they were no longer in that particular land
So what we have here is when it comes to the Samaritans When you walk through the
Old Testament particularly the Kings and Nehemiah and stuff like yeah You'll you read about what's going on and also in Isaiah a little bit
So you have So in First Kings you have
Solomon Solomon sins he he has you know he's taken too many wives
He's he he's he stopped watch He stopped worshiping the God of his father
David and he begins to worship the gods of his wives that he has taken And God tells him that he's going to remove the kingdom from him, but not from him, but from his son
So his son when ray of bone when Solomon dies ray of bone becomes king and God removes the kingdoms
He leaves to ray of bone to To to tribes which is known as the southern tribes
Judah the southern tribes Judah so ray of bone represents in this part the southern tribes of Judah and Jeroboam who was a servant of Solomon got the ten northern tribes
And and they would have been known as Israel And we looked at two weeks ago that that this the tribe known as Israel the ten northern tribes began to worship other
Gods they built statues to them they begin to have mullet worship where they were given there's
They were putting their kids in the fire Sacrificing them to these false gods
And God does away with him he says you know what I'm done, I'm done and an ancient foe of Israel called the
Assyrians comes and they take them and then And this is where we get the the nation of Samaria Samaria is where the
Assyrians placed these Northern tribes it was a part of a land that they had
Taken at that time And so a
Samaritan was Assyrian and Assyrian took in many other nations right it was a polluted nation and The Jews came in and they began to anger intermarry and mingle and so a
Samaritan is someone who has who is half Jew and half
Gentile and this is why they They the Jews wanted nothing to do with Samaritans because they were the ten part of the ten northern tribes
And they couldn't stand each other And they had taken on unclean blood
Because of that they were known of as sinners and not Jews anyone that was a not a Jew was known as a sinner
We saw that really Play out in the book of Galatians You you are either in their eyes
Under the law and that meant you were a G or you were a sinner those are the only two types of people in their book a
Jewish person under the law or you were a sinner therefore because The Samaritan woman
Even though she had the Pentateuch Her genes were mixed It was pagan worship
Her worship was pagan. She was worshipping what she did not know. They worshipped what they did not know
They had the Pentateuch they could read about God But they worshipped what they did not know personally
Jesus was telling her we speaking of the Jews worship what we know a
Covenant people speaking of the offspring of Abraham Under the law of Moses that was added to the covenant we see this in Galatians It's it's
Moses being added to Abraham in the covenant land, which is
Canaan under the covenant God Yahweh And he makes the statement for salvation is from the
Jews Here, I believe what he's doing is is he's pointing to himself Him being the offspring of Abraham him being the one that God promised
That the curse again Excuse me the curse against the serpent That one was going to come and he was bruiser head while only bruising his heel.
This was the offspring of Abraham Him being the offspring of Abraham being born of a virgin born under the law speaking of Moses and the land of Canaan and By what he accomplishes he fulfills the
Abrahamic covenants Him keeping the Mosaic law in Canaan Right.
So by what he accomplishes through his death burial resurrection. He fulfills the Abrahamic covenant
He fulfills the Abrahamic covenant because he lived the life that Adam that Abraham That Isaac that Jacob that Joseph that Judah that David could not live
They were unrighteous people They broke God's law
So in their physical nature their natural nature, they're unrighteous
Yet God calls them righteous because they believed That's something important to to look out for here
But in their own in their human condition They were unrighteous.
They broke the law Jesus comes Keeps the law Perfectly and by doing so he fulfills the
Abrahamic covenant Keeping the law of Moses in Canaan it had to be kept in Canaan.
The law of Moses had to be kept in Canaan That's what the
Old Testament teaches us It's what the Mosaic law teaches us and as we transition therefore because that is true
He fulfills the old covenant a lot of people don't like this, but he puts it into it
Puts it into it speaking of the flesh the Abraham's offspring according to the flesh does that God Listen reform people does
God Operate with Abraham's offspring according to the flesh as a separate people apart from the church
No That means the Abrahamic Covenant is done away with Do we are we still to circumcise our children?
under that law No, that means the Abrahamic Covenant is done away with according to the flesh
It's done away with according to the flesh and That law the
Mosaic law was added to that covenant the sign of the Mosaic law was Sabbath keeping reform people
Do we have to to not work on Saturdays? That means that it's done away with It's done away with he puts an end to it speaking of the fleshly side of this covenant
He puts an end to it the Abrahamic Covenant according to the flesh and the Mosaic law according to the flesh being done
Fulfilled in that land is no more and we're gonna see that in point number two true worship true worship is found in verse 23, but an hour is coming and now is
When true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth For such people the
Father seeks to be worshipers Now right here where it says an hour is coming in now is so if you look at that it says but an hour is coming
That's a not yet But now is that's an already
So this is eschatological language speaking of the already and not yet Related to the context.
This is speaking about the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem Look at verse 21
Jesus said to her woman believe me an hour is coming When neither on this mountain speaking of them where they're at Mount Gerzer Nor in Jerusalem will you worship the
Father? Verse 23 But an hour is coming and Now he is when true worship worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth For such people the Father seeks to be worshipers.
It's an hour is coming We're now there on this mountain right here that we're standing on Or in the mountain in Jerusalem.
Will you worship the Father? He is telling her that true worship Worship that the
Father desires can be have Can begin now because the law has been kept
Jesus is keeping the law. He is fulfilling the prophecies No longer.
Do you have to be on certain mountain points? No longer. Do you have to be in temples? No longer. Do you have to to to to prescribe worship as an act of flesh?
To please God do you have to keep the law to please God? Because no one can keep it.
No one can perform what the Old Testament has prescribed for us to do Only one
Jesus Christ. He's the only one It is done away with Neither on this mountain
Gerzer or that mountain in Jerusalem Something new is about to happen.
Something new is taking place and it happens now And it's not on that mountaintop or this mountaintop it's now and I would add that the only thing that it's on is a rock
It's not a mountain. It's a rock Peter's confession of Jesus Christ was that Jesus is the
Christ the Son of the Living God Jesus said to his profession that on this rock not a mountain on this rock.
I will build my church That rock being Peter's confession of Jesus being the
Christ the Son of the Living God That true worship begins there not by keeping the law not by trying to perform something by Believing that Jesus is the
Christ And let me prove that verse 21 look again verse 21
Jesus said to her woman believe me remember woman is not him disrespecting her.
This was actually a sign of respect Believe me an hour is coming When other on this mountain or in that mountain, will you worship the father key word here is father?
Will you worship the father? And in verse 23 the father is mentioned twice, but let's read 22 to go with it
You worship what you do not know speaking of the father we The G's worship what we know for salvation is from the
G, but an hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the father and Spirit and truth for such people the father seeks to be his worshipers
Jesus here seems to be given a Trinitarian format for worship The woman mentions to Jesus about worship
Jesus designates worship to the father He points to the father he says this is where your worship should be pointing to and we're about to see what's anchored to So we have the
Son of God telling the woman how to worship the father and the first way to do so is in the spirit
Question what is the spirit? The answer is the
Holy Spirit more specifically in chapter 4. It's living water Living water is a
Representation of the Holy Spirit that Jesus and in his evangelistic effort was trying to give her
But it's more than just spirit. It's also truth in other words
You have to know who it is who you're worshiping Right because all worship if it's not directed to the father to God, it's pegging
And he is saying it's truth and You have to know who it is
You are worshiping. I also want to point out that truth here is a person
You look at John Turn with me if you will John chapter 14 Look at verse 6
Jesus speaking to Thomas says to him I Am the way and the truth and the life
No one comes to the father But through me
The only way you can worship the father is through Jesus Christ Jesus is the only way to the father this speaking about his exclusivity
There is no other way To the father Jesus is the truth.
He says that I am the way the truth and the life right Jesus is the truth He is the truth concerning the father
He has come to explain him John 1 18 You cannot know the father outside of the explanation of what
Jesus gives you that what we believe matters
And who we believe in matters Jesus says that he is the life are being able to live after death is
In Christ, right? He tells Martha. He says, uh, he says even though you For those who believe in me, even though they die
Yet shall they live right? It's appointed on a man to die once the soul that sins or shall die
The wages of sin is death every one of us have sin and falls fallen short of the glory of God meaning we're all going to Die, but Jesus says if you believe in him, even though you die yet shall you live?
Life is in Christ The only way that we're able to live is in Christ And we also says we walk through the
Gospel of John that eternal life right now is in Christ Eternal life is in Christ Paul says of Jesus in Acts chapter 17 verse 28.
He said for in him speaking of Christ three things we live and We move and We exist some translations will say and have our being
So three things in Christ we live right now We move we were able to move around right our lives are being lived in Christ we live our life are being lived and we exist
John 14 again, if you look at verse 7 still speaking to Thomas if you have come to know me
You will know my father also From now on you know him and you have seen him
We've touched on that in the past We'll touch on that when we get to it. I'm not going to touch on that now
It's a big rabbit hole. It makes it clear. The only way to know him is through Jesus Christ Jesus has come to reveal him and as we transition look at one more passage
Chapter 17 if you know me verse 3 is my favorite verse. Let's read from verse 1
John chapter 17 verse 1 Jesus spoke these things
And he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said father The hour has come glorify your son that the
Son may glorify you even as You give gave him authority over all flesh
That all whom you had given him he may give eternal life and this is
Eternal life that They may know you the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom you have since you can't worship what you don't know and If you do it's pagan you can't know false gods.
You can't know something you create with your mind You can't know something you've carved with your hands Worship is personal
Eternal life is knowing
God. It's knowing Jesus. It's knowing the Father through the Son In order to in order for your worship to not be pagan your worship
Must be to the Father It must be in the truth of the
Son and you must be filled with the Holy Spirit Or it's pagan.
It's pagan You have some
Christians claiming to worship God and yet they do not believe they have not the
Spirit Their worship is pagan. They don't know him point number three true worshipers
It's taken from Again, some of these verses are overlapping.
So verse 33 to 34 Jesus says but an hour is coming and Now is when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth for such people the Father seeks to work to worship
For God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Now, this will go real fast
So we see that the Father Particularly in two ways is worship.
The Father is worshiped in two ways in the spirit and in truth For such people the
Father seeks to be his worshipers So the question is is how do we put legs on this?
Like we already walked through what it Through what a true worshiper is it's someone who's filled with the
Holy Spirit who believes in Jesus Christ But how do we put legs on this for our context? How do we apply what
Jesus is saying to our time when it comes to worship? are we you and I true worships of the one true
God or are we pagans as This church
Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, we have a particular style of worship
That you either enjoy or you don't right We're not high peaking around a bush, right?
We're not high what we do. You either enjoy what we do here or you don't There are things that we do here that most churches in this area don't do
As well as there's things that we don't do that most churches do The one thing that we don't do is we don't organize our church service around our community, right?
We're not trying to blend in with our community And the one thing that we try to do is to organize our church service around Scripture and tradition
Right scripture and Tradition and I'll explain that let's go with scripture first acts 242 acts 242 this is a
Described Particular way of worship and they continually devoted them
Yeah, hold on 242 okay, and they were continually devoting themselves listen to the
Apostles teaching and To fellowship and to the breaking of bread and prayers so they continue to fellow the folk
They're continued Where's that again? Devoting themselves to a man
Open in a book and explaining it to them to fellowship with one another to break bread to partake in the
Lord's Supper and to have meals together and praying with one another Colossians Chapter 3 and we're gonna bring this into our context though Colossians chapter 3 verse 16 says let the
Word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with song and hymn and spiritual song
Singing with gratefulness in your heart to God Now in our context right we don't we don't actually
Quite understand there's a lot of debate saying that you know people saying that psalm hymn and spiritual songs are all just the
Psalms Which we're not a psalmist church our context We see this as as a saying
Psalms we read songs we sing songs We sing traditional hymns, and we sing other songs that we believe that are spiritual that that we enjoy
We align ourselves with tradition in the church history by reading creeds by having call -and -response catechisms and having corporate prayers with one another and This listen to me.
This is true worship if If and only if You have the
Holy Spirit by faith alone in Jesus Christ Without that I don't care what you do
That's what we do here is true worship If and only if we have the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ the church down the road has true worship
The church service looks totally different. They have true worship To the father if they have the
Holy Spirit by faith alone in Jesus Christ The style of worship doesn't necessarily make true worship true worship is those who worship in spirit and truth
It's not a particular style necessarily But it's what's within you
Although we believe that we experience God through our style of worship, right? Oh, we wouldn't do that do it the way that we do we experience
God through the Word of God We experience God through fellowship. We experience God through the
Lord's Supper. We experience God through prayers and we experience God through Singing with gratefulness in our hearts to God So if you sit near me, you have to say that that's how we do it because it's not a beautiful voice
Projecting from these this pipe, right? it's joyful noise all day long
That's why I think people don't even sit near my daughter. I wanted to sit with a peace family today. I get it
I get it, but it's grateful. It's that joyful noise. It's it's that gratefulness to God That gratefulness in our heart
And the problem with reformed people is as I like to tell them I say look don't be so reformed
That you don't say you experience God experiencing. God is not a Pentecostal thing
It's not Pentecostal. It's Christianity Please tell me you're experiencing
God. This service is structured around Experiencing God if you're not experiencing
God through the Word of God through fellowship through the break through bread and wine through prayers and through Singing with gratefulness, maybe listen just maybe
You need to ask yourself. Do you have the Spirit of God and do you believe the truth?
Jesus came to give the gift of God, which is the hope faith Holy Spirit in eternal life by Becoming a man living a perfect life dying a sinner's death and coming forth from the grave ever -living to make intercession
He tells her that if he knew the gift of God Faith Holy Spirit in eternal life, then you would have asked him for living water, basically
The Holy Spirit. So the question is is do you believe that do you believe that what Jesus did?
Do you believe that Jesus that there there are focus toward worship us having the
Spirit look into Christ? That's true worship to God Because to reiterate
Pagan worship is worship What is worshiping something that you don't know and the only way to have relationship with God is through Jesus Christ True worship is
Trinitarian. We worship the Father in the Spirit according to the truth
According to what Christ Jesus has done for us true worshippers believe in the
Son Jesus Christ in our field with the Spirit Worship to God is not done by performing acts and duties in the flesh
Was talking about the fleshy stuff of the Old Covenant earlier. That's what Jesus came to put an end to Oh covenant all this stuff that's done in the flesh
That was prescribed it had to be done to a tee Jesus puts an end to it the
Jews Tony was talking about earlier certain priests of us a certain priest could not even touch
They couldn't touch Anything unclean they couldn't touch a dead body.
There was they had to do things. It was a ritual that had to be done Jesus puts an end to it
It's over There's no more Abrahamic sign, so there's no more
Abrahamic Covenant according to the flesh. There's no more Sabbath keeping Mosaic sign so that Mosaic Covenant is over with Because Jesus Christ lived the life that we could not live and took our punishment for being law breakers
He came to put an end to Abraham Not the promise the fleshly covenant came to put an end to Moses not the promise the fleshy covenant
And he came to put an end to Canaan Not the land is now the world because the meek shall inherit the earth
Jesus is the fountain by which We receive living water. I gave a quote last week, and I'm gonna end with this.
I gave a quote last week I know this is going long, and I'm sorry About the two continental two weeks ago about there's two kinds of people those that are hydrated and those that are not
Give another one for it. It says every relationship consists of two people a person whose whole life is
Is dedicated to being hydrated and number two you please?
Drink a glass of water Okay, that's what the woman says, please drink a glass of water, please drink a glass of water.
That's what evangelism is There's Christians, and there's non -christians and the
Christians are going around Telling people that they're dehydrated and they need to drink a glass of water and the spout is
Jesus Christ Drink from the spout I'm available to anyone who wants to talk pastor
Cal and as always our deacon Josh, let's pray Father Lord, we love you.
We thank you. We ask your blessings to continue to be with us to remain on us
Lord again, I ask that you enlarge our territory in this our borders in this And this is in this neighborhood or that we can be a witness to those
That walk in darkness and right now God asks that you bless the the supper that we're about to partake in Or to pray that you will use it
For for our growing and holiness Lord the Ephesians is clear that we are being conformed to the image of your son and we believe by partaking in This it is a means of grace by which you are conforming us to the image of your son
Please bless it be with those that are here Lord prepare their hearts to receive this meal in Jesus name.