Week Two: John 4:23, 24
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Relating to the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan women in John 4, I quote from a book entitled, “John, The Gospel That Had To Be Written” by the late, Fred E. Kinzie.
“After Jesus revealed His supernatural knowledge of the woman’s sinful life, He explained, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). She responded, “I know that Messias cometh, which is call Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he” (John 4:25, 26).
For the first time, Jesus openly reavled His identity as the Messiah. In the process, He also stated the vital truth that God is a Spirit.
This statement tells us that God is in a realm that no one understands or comprehends. He is beyond, remote, invisible, immortal, incomprehensible, eternal, the only wise God (See 1 Timothy 1:7). In Jesus Christ, however, God has made Himself visible and knowable.
I continue to quote Kinzie,
"This incident discloses that Jesus Christ actualy came in the flesh and acknowledged Himself to be the Messiah. We must see and understand Him as the Son of God, the Son of man, the Messiah, a genuine flesh-and-blood, perfect man. . . .
The Samaritans, after hearing the woman’s testimony that she had found the Christ, went out and heard him themselves. They wholeheartedly agreed with her remarking, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the word” (John 4:42)."
In this incident Jesus revealed a little more of Himself to His apostles.
1. He crossed the borders of prejudice and discrimination and revealed His identity to the Samaritans.
2. Where one worships is not nearly as important as who one worships.
3. God is a spirit and therefore is omnipresent. One can worship or pray from wherever they are. God is a spirit and therefore does not identify with a certain ethnicity, nation or language. The father seeks such to worship him as will worship in spirit and in truth.
4. From God’s viewpoint the attitude of the worshipper is what He is most concerned about.