John 4:22…we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
What Jesus does not say is that both are worshipping the same God in the right way. He does not say that all worship is acceptable. He does does not admit that he is no position to judge their worship. He does not say that all roads lead to God. Jesus is saying that one way of worship is wrong and one way of worship is right.
The line that divides true worship and false worship here is the knowledge of God. Jewish worship is right because it is worship in truth and not worship in ignorance.
The problem with the Jews was not ignorance it was their corruption of worship.
It is possible to have a right understanding and revelation of God and fail to worship God properly. The Jews had made worship about self-serving, elevation of tradition, and self-righteousness. But the Jews knew who God was but they still failed to offer true worship.
So, the Samaritans had Spirit and no truth and the Jews had the truth but no Spirit and worship is in both Spirit and truth.
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:
One of the things that we take very seriously at Lakeview is what is taught and preached. There must be truth. There must be the gospel. We will not compromise that. We will not water down truth to gain a crowd. We value truth. We value sound doctrine.
But, that in itself does not constitute true worship. Just because we can cross all our T’s and dot all our theological i’s, does not mean we are truly worshipping. Even though we are sound in doctrine and we guard against error we can still fail to offer God true worship.
You definitely cannot worship God in ignorance. There is no question about that. But we might not worship God even if we have knowledge of God.
So, here is the deal. Your mind can be far from God and your heart can be far from God. If either of those are true, we can’t worship. Worship is with our minds and our hearts. Not one or the other but both. True worshippers worship God in spirit and in truth.
Now here is the key. Your heart can’t educate your mind about God but your mind can warm your heart for God. What your mind understands about God can make your heart passionate about that God.
As Alistar Begg said to the contemporary preacher, “do not ask me how I feel, ask we what I know.” If we gain knowledge of him, then we may feel him in a loving, adoring, and worshipping way.
The promise of Scripture is that if we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. How do we draw near to him? By knowledge of him through Scripture. How does he draw near to us, in our worship of him.
Lakeview Baptist Church 