WORSHIPPING GOD IN THE SPIRIT AND TRUTH
Jesus told a woman: “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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23).
JESUS SPOKE TO A GENTILE WOMAN ABOUT WORSHIPPING GOD IN THE SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.
In passing through Samaria, Jesus met a woman who came to draw water at a well of Jacob. When he asked her for a drink of water, she told him “Jews do not associate with Samaritans.” Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Knowing she thirsted for love and companionship, Jesus switched the conversation to talking about her past life of troubles with men. He told her in details about her past life of disappointment and insecurity with six men. She responded, “I can see that you are a prophet.” Believing he was a prophet, she said,“our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus replied, “ A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” (John 4:4-26 ).
THE JESUS CHRIST SPEAKS TO ALL PEOPLE ABOUT WORSHIPPING GOD IN THE SPIRIT AND TRUTH.
Jesus said: Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’ He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:38-39). And he said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
In his speaking to a Jewish Rabbi named Nicodemus, who worshipped in Jerusalem, and believed that Jesus was from God because of the miraculous works Jesus did; Jesus said: “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit…‘You must be born again’ (John 3:5-7).
Being born again of the Spirit involves repenting and believing in Jesus as the Scripture has said: “For (A)God so loved (B)the world,[a] (C)that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not (D)perish but have eternal life. 17 For (E)God did not send his Son into the world (F)to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 (G)Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not (H)believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:16-18 ESV).
OUR LORD AND SAVIOR SPEAKS TO BELIEVERS ABOUT THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Speaking more about the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said: “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father–the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father–he will testify about me” ( John 15:26). “He will convict the world concerning sin” (John 16:8); “for (A)all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23; John 3:16).
The Holy Spirit will help believers keep the Lord’s commands, “for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19). And he produces fruit of the Spirit in the lives of believers. “The fruit(A) of the Spirit is love,(B) joy, peace,(C) forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
The Spirit empowers believers to: “Go into all the world and (B)proclaim the gospel to (C)the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). For the Lord has told believers: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;(A) and you will be my witnesses(B) in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,(C) and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Jesus says the Scriptures in summary essential tells people, you worship God in Spirit and truth, when you: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37); and “Love one another. As I have loved you” (John 13:34).
