Liturgical forms of worship in Christianity were largely derived from the prescribed forms laid out in the Old Testament. Worship under law was suited to an earthly people who had been outwardly redeemed and sanctified. It was very ceremonial and was facilitated by the priests. As Christians, we have been brought into a vastly different relationship with God. The cross of Christ profoundly changes everything. We are no longer under law. Historically, however, when the light of the Gospel was supplanted by a doctrine of works, congregations became mixed companies and, as such, worship was soon adapted to appeal to the natural man. The church was perceived as taking Israel’s place, and in so doing she yielded up all the privileges associated with her true position. She regressed and became a child under tutors and governors, a servant in bondage to the elements of the world (Gal. 4:1-3).
Perhaps one may ask: since we do not find a definition for worship in the Bible, such as the one given in the introduction, why be so narrow? I think it’s true to say that we don’t find definitions for many words; nevertheless, context and usage give us a great deal of insight into their Scriptural meaning. In this case, we are not left without guidance as to the true character of Christian worship. We will turn to a rather remarkable encounter which sheds much light on our subject.
In the fourth chapter of John, we read of one whom we know simply as the woman at the well. The well of Sychar was quiet at the sixth hour. There we find two outcasts—though rejected for very different reasons. Jesus is outside of Jerusalem, the center of Jewish worship, and is instead to be found among the Samaritans. The woman, we learn, had had five husbands and she was now living with a man who was not her husband. She was a deeply troubled person with a need which could not be filled by natural means. To divert the attention away from herself, her needs, and her troubled conscience, she raises a controversy—one of many that divided the Samaritans and the Jews. The Samaritans were descendants of foreigners who had been exiled to the land of Israel when the Ten Tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:24-34). They brought with them their own idols and deities, but they also learned of Israel’s God through a priest of Jeroboam’s corrupt religion (1 Kings 12:31). Recognizing that the Lord was no ordinary man, the woman at the well says: “Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and Ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship” (John 4:19). She thus, unwittingly perhaps, introduces the subject of worship. The Lord, in His reply raises four points:
Worship would no longer be centered in Jerusalem, nor, for that matter, at any geographical location (v. 21).
Samaritan worship was based on falsehoods; the Jews, on the other hand, knew what they worshipped (v. 22).
The time was at hand when true worshippers would worship the Father (v. 23).
Worship would be in spirit and in truth; God is a Spirit; and they who worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth (v. 23-24).
Worship is not Centered Upon a Physical Location
The Samaritans saw Mount Gerizim as the center of their worship. The Jews, on the other hand, claimed Jerusalem—indeed, the Temple Mount is none other than Mount Moriah where Abraham offered up Isaac (Gen. 22:2; 2 Chron. 3:1). Israel was expressly forbidden to worship in places of their choosing. In those days, altars were established at sites deemed sacred—mountains, hilltops, or a grove of trees. This was common practice for pagans across all lands and cultures. “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree” (Deut. 12:2). Jehovah’s commandment was very clear: “Ye shall not do so unto Jehovah your God; but unto the place which Jehovah your God will choose out of all your tribes to set His name there, His habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come” (Deut. 12:4-5 JND).
When the children of Israel entered the land, the tabernacle was first pitched in Shiloh in the land of Ephraim (Josh. 18:1). God, however, had His eye upon Mount Moriah. There He had said: “God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:8). This was the mount of Jehovah (Gen. 22:14). It is the mountain of which the children of Israel sing after crossing the Red Sea: “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Jehovah, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in” (Exod. 15:17). In Psalm 78 we read of the tabernacle’s removal from Shiloh to Jerusalem: “He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men ... He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which He loved” (vv. 60, 67-68).
The Samaritan claim for Mount Gerizim was based on falsehoods. Their version of Israel’s religion was counterfeit. We hear it in the words of the woman: “Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well” (John 4:12). She takes her place as a descendant of Jacob, even though she was alien to the commonwealth of Israel. Jerusalem was the center of Israel’s worship; it was the place where Jehovah had set His name—Jerusalem is not forgotten. God will restore her as the center of worship for Israel, and all the nations of the earth will go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of Hosts (Zech. 14:17; Micah 4:1-2). In the meanwhile, however, both Israel and Jerusalem have been set aside (Hos. 1:9; Matt. 23:37). We do not go up to Jerusalem to worship, nor, for that matter, to any special geographical location. “Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father” (John 4:21).
Christianity stands in distinct contrast to Judaism. Indeed, one who serves the tabernacle has no right to eat at the altar which is now ours: “We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle” (Heb. 13:10). We are called upon to leave the camp—representative of Judaism—and to go unto Jesus outside the gate. Christ is now the center of worship; we gather unto His name, and if we are found so gathered, then truly Christ will be in our midst. This is not a gathering of man’s doing; it is the Holy Spirit which does the gathering. In Matthew, chapter 18, the church is distinguished from a group of individual believers. “Take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” (Matt. 18:16). Two or three come together in this verse, but they do not form the church—it is something distinct and unique. “If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church” (v. 17). What distinguishes them from the church? It is Christ in the midst: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20).
The principles established by God in the Old Testament remain true today—we do not choose our place of worship. Although not a geographical site, the concept of one place remains. Many Christians struggle with this abstraction, but whether we use the expression one place or not, nothing in the Word of God supports the idea of a divided gathering center. We are to be found in the place where God gathers, by the Holy Spirit, His saints unto Christ’s name. I don’t think the difficulty is the abstraction itself, but the exclusive nature of it. Man clings to his independence and will not let go. The opposite of independence is dependence, and that is what God looks for. Adam and Eve abandoned their dependence on God, who had met their every need, and made an independent choice—this is self-will, the very root of sin. It would be an odd thing if a king were to come to a city only to find people gathered in disparate locations. One might say “this site is more convenient”; another “the people are nicer here”, and so forth. Of course, it's all nonsense. Everyone would be drawn to the king himself, and they would be found gathered where he was. On the other hand, suppose we knew that, in our city at eleven on a Lord’s Day morning, the Lord Jesus was going to be visibly present in a certain place, what would we do? Every true-hearted saint of God would be found where He was.iii I don’t doubt that some will raise an alarm: So, you think the Lord is in the midst where you are on a Lord’s Day morning? My answer—not because I am there; but I trust to be found where He is, and if I’ve missed His mind, and am found at a gathering formed by men, then I would pray that I have the sensitivity and the faith for the Lord to reveal even this to me. Nevertheless, what I do doesn’t change the truth.
Worship in Truth
The second point the Lord makes to the Samaritan woman is: “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). As noted earlier, the Samaritan form of worship was based on falsehoods. They laid claim to an inheritance that wasn’t theirs; they worshipped in a mountain that had not been appointed of God; and they had their own version of the Pentateuch—they did not have a revelation from God. The Samaritans were imitators of Israel’s religion. To the Jews, on the other hand, were committed the oracles of God (Rom. 3:2). God had spoken to them. “The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it” (Deut. 30:14). Salvation was of the Jews. “To [the Israelite] pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises” (Rom. 9:4). The revelation received by Israel was limited. Jesus did not say they knew who they worshipped, just what. God had been revealed to them as Jehovah, the Eternal One (Exod. 3:13-15). Nevertheless, they were at a distance from God and He remained hidden in thick darkness.
In Christianity we have a full and complete revelation. God sent His only begotten Son into this world, and He has made Him known. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:17-18). The Samaritans neither knew who nor what they worshipped. The Jews worshiped according to the truth they had received. For the Christian, however, we have the fullest possible revelation, and our worship is to be rooted in the truth and blessings into which we have been brought through Christ.
Worshipping the Father
The Son has made known the Father. We no longer approach God as Jehovah. Certainly, He remains the Eternal One—that is essential to His being. We, however, have been brought into a much closer and more intimate relationship with God. Throughout the Lord’s life on earth, He made known to His disciples the Father. “All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). Yet, the relationship remained a distant one—He was their heavenly Father (Matt. 6:14, 26, 32). It isn’t until the Lord’s death and resurrection that the disciples are brought into the personal nature of that relationship: “Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God” (John 20:17). Furthermore, it remained for the indwelling of the Spirit of God to give them the conscious sense of that relationship: “God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6; see also Rom. 8:14-16). Another has written: By incarnation He came to our side, that in His perfect and spotless Manhood He might take up our case. Having taken it up, and by His death and resurrection wrought deliverance for us, He lifts us to His side in identification with Him in risen life. Thus it is that the relationship lies not in incarnation but in resurrection.iv This relationship was not known, and could not have been known, at any other time in the history of man. The Christian now comes to God as their Father—but it can only be as true worshippers; an outward position will never do. Moreover, “The Father seeketh such to worship Him” (John 4:23). The significance of this cannot be overstated.
This does not preclude the worship of the Son. In John’s Gospel we read: “All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him” (John 5:23). At His appearing the angels will worship Him: “When He bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, He saith, and let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb. 1:6). Every knee will ultimately bow to Jesus. “God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). Nothing seems clearer than this. It is our place to give the Lord Jesus that adoration due to Him. Worship addressed to the Son should flow as naturally from our lips as worship to the Father. Indeed, the essence of worship is expressed in this Old Testament verse: “Ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen” (Gen. 45:13). There is no subject more excellent to the Father than that of the Son. The worship of the Father and the Son are intimately connected; to honor the Son gives glory to the Father.
Sadly, the reality is that many never apprehend their true relationship with the Father. All that is known of God is that He is satisfied as to their sins because of the blood. The Son is worshipped, but almost exclusively in the context of what He has done for the worshipper. The Father remains distant, and He is only acknowledged indirectly through the Son. There is no true understanding of the Lord’s words to His disciples: “For the Father Himself loveth you” (John 16:27). God wants us to be in the conscious realization of our relationship with Himself as the Father. It is both normal and perfectly natural for the youngest babe in Christ to know the Father. I write to you, little children [babes], because ye have known the Father (1 John 2:13). The Thessalonian saints were babes in Christ. They had heard the gospel message only weeks earlier, yet the Apostle brings in God the Father in his opening salutation. Paul wanted them to be in the good of that relationship, knowing both the care of the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. When there isn’t the present consciousness of our relationship with the Father through the Son, there isn’t liberty, and worship invariably becomes stilted and self-centered.
Worship in Spirit
We now come to the fourth and final point made by our Lord: “God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). We have seen the significance of worship in truth—we are to worship according to the light of the revelation that we have received. The Jews worshipped according to the revelation they had of Jehovah God in the law. The Samaritans, on the other hand, had no revelation from God; they were impostors and imitators. We have been brought into the nearest of all relationships through the Son; we now have the blessed privilege of addressing God as Father. We are, in Christ, in the Son’s very place. “That we might receive sonship” (Gal. 4:5 JND). We are, as the hymn writer has said:
So nigh, so very nigh to God,
I cannot nearer be;
For in the person of His Son,
I am as near as He.
But what of worship in spirit? Under the law there was a worldly sanctuary with a tabernacle, its furniture, the candlestick, shewbread, and so forth. A curtain divided the tabernacle into the holy place and the most holy, wherein sat the ark of the covenant and the golden censer (Exod. 26; Heb. 9:1-5). The priests wore “a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle” (Exod. 28:4). There was glory and beauty associated with it all (Exod. 28:40), and it was suited, in the wisdom of God, to an earthly people set outwardly apart to God. These details continue to speak to us, not as a model to follow, but as a figure of the true sanctuary, a heavenly one. “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb. 9:24). The veil in the temple was rent in two upon the death of Christ; this quite literally opened the way into the most holy place. Nevertheless, the rending of the physical veil in the temple was merely a metaphor for a far more significant event. Jesus now appears in the heavenly sanctuary, in the presence of God, for us. We are to draw near to Him within the veil (Heb. 10:19-22). Ours is no longer a worldly sanctuary, but a heavenly one. Our worship is no longer based on material things, it is now spiritual. Israel’s worship was more connected with the soul; in Christianity, it is with the spirit.
God is a spirit and those who worship Him now must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We cannot, as it were, undo the revelation which we have received, and the place into which we have been brought, and return to a worship involving tangible, physical elements, that can be tasted and touched. “If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as if alive in the world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, (things which are all for destruction in the using of them:) according to the injunctions and teachings of men, (which have indeed an appearance of wisdom in voluntary worship, and humility, and harsh treatment of the body, not in a certain honour,) to the satisfaction of the flesh” (Col. 2:20-22 JnD). It is a most serious thing to bring elements characteristic of Jewish worship into Christianity—they were a shadow of things to come (Col. 2:17). Indeed, “If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor” (Gal. 2:18). We have the reality now. We are no longer children who need tangible objects to appreciate the reality that is ours to enjoy spiritually, through the Holy Spirit. All those forms—the temple, the sanctuary, the furniture, the physical altar, the robes, the incense, the gold, the silver, the music, the feast days—all these are now done away with, and our worship is to be in spirit.
Some modern commentators turn this verse (John 4:24) on its head and describe worship in spirit as worship according to the authenticity of the human spirit. It is indeed a small ‘s’ spirit, but it speaks of the character of worship (just as truth does) and not what we are naturally. God is a spirit and so we must worship Him in spirit. The spirit is that God-conscious part of man’s tripartite being—spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess. 5:23). All worship of man’s contrivance is very much rooted in the natural world: “Neither is [God] worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25). The Athenians were told that such ignorance could no longer be tolerated; God has made Himself known (Acts 17:23). Man reverted to nature worship when he no longer thought it good to retain God in his knowledge: “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator ... even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Rom. 1:25, 28).