Traditions bring a sense of comfort, familiarity and belonging. They are a link which provides us with a sense of worth, identity and assurance that we are part of something larger than ourselves. We hand them down from generation to generation and sometimes they become sacred.
We see in the life of Jesus that He would often challenge the religious traditions of His day. There is a story of an encounter Jesus had with a Samaritan woman where He begins to shift a long held tradition and in the process, shape our understanding of how we approach God in worship.
Next Steps:
I will take 30 minutes this next week to answer these questions:
Full Sermon Script:
This year was a changing of Christmas traditions in my home …
Blended family
I’m a pastor … Christmas Eve is a workday for me
My traditions and Jamie’s traditions adjusting, changing, becoming new
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A similar change of tradition, of the way of worship, took place at a point in time …
We have a slightly skewed understanding of worship today
We commonly say and think worship is what starts and ends our service
It’s what I listen to on my commute, so I don’t completely lose it on the fwy
But the word and the idea mean so much more …
The word “worship” means “worth-ship”
ascribing value, worth, or importance to something or someone.
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In the OT, three things were always associated with worship
… a place, a posture and a presentation
PLACE – where you go to worship, and often, where God had done something
Often see altars built as places of worship where God had done something in the past
When the Israelites traveled through the desert, it was a tent
Temple was built as the place God wanted to be worshiped
POSTURE – when you worshiped, there were things you did with your body, activities and motions
when you worshiped, there were things you did
your body… activities and motions
bowing down, hands raised
PRESENTATION – you brought something to offer God
You did not come to God with empty hands
Sacrificial system of offerings
So glad I did not live in this time …
With this, we could ask each if we had worshiped, and we would say yes, and that’s how God defined how He wanted to be worshiped.
But worship required some work … some effort …
BUT … that changes in the NT with Jesus …
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We see the change begin with the birth of Jesus …
In Matthew 2 we’re told of the Magi who came from the East to worship “…the one who has been born king of the Jews…”
They’re following a star
Told that this King is to be born in Bethlehem
They continue following the star until it stops over the place the child (King) was
We’re told in Matthew 2:11
“On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”Matthew 2:11
Did you notice the pattern?
Place (Bethlehem)
Posture (bowed down)
Presentation (gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh)
This was the beginning of a change to the way worship of God would look like
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In John 4 Jesus has an encounter with a woman where He defines a new understanding of worship for her … and for us.
The story …
John 4:3-5
he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar…
Have you ever gone out of your way to avoid something? Or someone?
WAZE has options
avoid toll roads … dirt roads …
in some places to avoid “high risk”, high crime areas
Samaria was the direct route, the Jews would go around to avoid Samaritans.
For Jesus to be here was unusual.
Relations between Jews and Samaritans were strained to say the least.
Samaritans were half-Jewish and half-Gentile.
Ethnic feuding … like the hatred today between the Turks and the Kurds in northern Syria
Josephus (1st century Jewish historian) reports a number of unpleasant events:
Samaritans scatted human bones in the Jerusalem synagogue
Jews in turn burn down Samaritan villages
“had to pass through”
One translation says, “He needed to go…”
Jesus is here on a divine mission
“a town … called Sychar’
situated between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, the Mounts of Blessing and Cursing
How many have felt or are feeling that tension in life??
Disciples go to find food …
John 4:6-9
Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Jesus starts a conversation with her …
How do you respond to unexpected conversations?
How I respond to unexpected conversations …
Mid-day, no problem
Morning workout … I’m not so good
Samaritan woman is at the well around noon …
water was drawn in the morning and evening
she was on the sidelines of society for some reason
Their conversation about water …
Jesus … Give me a drink
Woman … Are you talking to me? Do you know who you’re talking to?
It’s more an expression of astonishment that a Jew should ask a favor of a Samaritan than a refusal
John 4:10
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
Jesus is talking in the third person a bit
Seinfeld episode
Jesus … If you knew the gift of God
If you only knew Who you were talking to
The great gift of God is not water, but Christ Himself
If you did, you would have asked me for a drink, and I would have given you “living water”
Jesus is offering something different …
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John 4:11-13
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again…
There are always those who feel,
“If I could just _________” (you fill in the blank) “…then I would be happy and satisfied.
What’s in your blank?
If I could just achieve, if I could just attain..
If I could just have
The summer home
The Harley to ride on the weekends
A phat bank account
The better job / role / position
That perfect person in my life
The corner office
I wouldn’t thirst anymore! I’d be satisfied!!
Jesus said, “Not so! You drink of this water and you will thirst again.”
True satisfaction is found when we find the true source of satisfaction.
So often our thirst drives us to things that don’t ultimately satisfy
We put our time, energy, resources, focus to gain / achieve
We’re left wanting more
—–
John 4:14-15
but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Give me this water
The mysterious words of this Jewish stranger she cannot yet understand, but she is deeply stirred
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Some of you have been attending services, listening to the messages, and not all the dots have been connected yet, but Jesus has caught your attention and you’re feeling what He’s offering you want … you need …
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John 4:16-18
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
She asks for this “living water” but Jesus directs the conversation to her and her life
5 husbands … with a sixth man … we don’t know exactly what’s going on
What’s beautiful about the life of Jesus is that He’s drawn to the imperfect person, the outcast
So opposite of the “religious”
Christ will always meet you where you’re at
God will find you where you’re at, no matter what the scenario
She’s immediately uncomfortable
maybe the expectation was, “here we go again” and condemnation is up next
Jesus doesn’t condemn … He never does that
So instead of answering, she diverts … let’s talk about religion!!
And this is where Jesus changes the dynamic of worship …
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John 4:19-24
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
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.”
Here is what Jesus is saying …
God is no longer looking for a certain type of worship; He’s looking for a certain type of worshipper!
No longer looking for a PLACE, POSTURE or PRESENTATION
God is looking for a PERSON
A person who worships in spirit and truth…
spirit … there is an engagement of your spirit, your heart, your will, your soul rather than drawing a circle around an event
there is an emotional component to it
truth … with our minds, with understanding of how God’s wants to be worshipped, what the Bible says about worship
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We’ve made our understanding of worship to be about style and music
Controversies throughout church history
Kayne – Jesus is King services
January 2019, began Sunday Service with the choir group The Samples and other collaborators performing a combination of hymns and secular pop songs rewritten with Christian themes.
Released Jesus Is King … a worship recording?
See, we made a decision based on subjective preferences and “prejudices”
Worship has become commercial within the church
It’s become a genre of music
The modern church has made worship a playlist rather than a presentation of self
Awards for the “Worship Song of the Year” … “Worship Album of the Year”
But worship is so much more than style and music …
Louie Giglio:
Worship is our response to God for who He is, and what He has done; expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.
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Side note: true worshippers infers there’s false worshippers
We don’t get “worship credit” for showing up on Sunday
Anything that takes priority over God in our lives is false worship
Self-defined worship
The worship of other gods
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So what does that mean for us?
How does this change of worship impact us?
Look at what Paul says in the book of Romans 12:1-2 …
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The sacrifice is no longer animals … it’s us
The people of the NT understood …
that they came prepared and ready to worship
what you took to sacrifice you didn’t bring home with you
what you sacrificed belonged to God now
I love how this verse reads in The Message translation…
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.
The OT was a sacrificial system …
Jesus changes worship to a SACRIFICE OF SELF
In the OT it was putting something on the altar and leaving it there …
In the NT it’s about placing ourselves on the altar and staying there.
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Back to the woman at the well …
The woman’s encounter with Jesus left her changed…
went back to town and her shame was gone
she’s telling everyone about Jesus and they go see Him
her worship, her worth-ship (value), was now on Jesus
That’s a life of worship … it radiates Jesus
The Westminster Shorter Catechism (a summary of Christian doctrine written over 350 years ago) says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
As you head into a New Year, take 30 minutes this week to ask yourself these questions …
What or who am I giving more value in my life than Jesus?
What am I allowing to keep me from offering all I am to Jesus?
If worshiping God in spirit and truth is my priority, what would need to change in my life?
Honestly answering these questions will change and potentially revolutionize your relationship with God.
Let’s pray …
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SERMON SUMMARY
Traditions bring a sense of comfort, familiarity and belonging. They are a link which provides us with a sense of worth, identity and assurance that we are part of something larger than ourselves. We hand them down from generation to generation and sometimes they become sacred.
We see in the life of Jesus that He would often challenge the religious traditions of His day. There is a story of an encounter Jesus had with a Samaritan woman where He begins to shift a long held tradition and in the process, shape our understanding of how we approach God in worship.
