351. Worship In Spirit And Truth (Biblical Worship)

We trace Jesus’ words in John 4 to show how true worship brings Bible-shaped truth and Spirit-stirred affection together. We walk through expository preaching, Scripture-soaked prayer, and gospel-rich songs as a simple path to set a banquet for the church.

• why John 4 reshapes worship around Jesus
• what spirit and truth mean for gathered worship
• praying Scripture as the pattern for intercession
• choosing songs clear with gospel truth
• setting a banquet that feeds hungry hearts
• stirring affections without losing theological clarity

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Transcript

Series Focus On Biblical Worship

John 4 And The Samaritan Woman

Spirit And Truth Defined

Scripture-Shaped Preaching, Prayer, And Song

Setting A Gospel Banquet

Affections Stirred By The Gospel

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to Moments of Worship. I'm your host, Pastor Keith McMahon, worship pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Yorktown, Virginia. Thank you for joining me today on February the 12th, Thursday. This podcast seeks to be an encouragement to you in the worship of Almighty God each weekday. We continue our series on biblical worship. Thank you so much for joining me in this series. We come to one of my favorite passages of the Bible. I think I say that on every episode about every scripture because I just love scripture so much. But we come to John chapter 4. John chapter 4, I did my Greek exegesis paper on this in college. I read a great book, Desiring God. John Piper has a wonderful chapter on worship, and he deals with John 4. This is the passage where you may remember Jesus encounters the woman at the well. He comes to this well at Sikar at high noon, the hottest part of the day, and he begins to interact with this Samaritan woman about water. He asks her for water, and she's she questions him back, and he says, Well, the water that I will give you will be living water and you won't be thirsty again, and she's puzzled by that. And then Jesus begins to talk to her about her sin. He raises the conversation, and I can imagine it gets her attention really quick. And then he talks to her about worship. And she says to him, she says, I can see that you're a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman, Jesus replied, Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and now has come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said, I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, I am He. Praise be to God for his holy word. This is the foremost passage that we see in the New Testament on biblical worship. Let's talk about what spirit and truth mean. Well, truth, we know truth is the authoritative word of God. All scripture is breathed out by God, as we read in 2 Timothy 3, 16. So the Scripture is foremost. That is the truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So when we gather to worship God, whether personally or as a family or on Sunday, when we gather with our church, our meetings and our time alone with God should be marked by truth centered on the Word of God. That is the revealed truth, the revealed Jesus Christ. So, friend, what this looks like for us is sermons that are expository, that it comes right from the Scripture, saturated by God's word, preaching in an expository way, verse by verse by verse. I'm thankful for our senior pastor, Pastor Doug, who preaches the word in season and out of season. Our prayers should be scripture. We should pray God's word, pray through the Psalms, other scriptures, pray God's word over people. Our singing, yes, you knew it was coming. Our singing should be saturated in Scripture. We should sing God's word. We should pick songs that are clear about the Scripture. Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is love and lives and pleads for me. Hebrews chapter 4. Or in Christ alone my hope is found. I could go on and on and on, but we need to sing songs that are full of truth, the gospel, and is clear for people to understand. I once had a mentor, Carl Stamm, who said to me, We want to set the banquet of God before the people that they can come and feast. I think about that and thinking about a Thanksgiving table, as the church gathers on a Sunday, we want to put before the people the revealed Christ. And how we do that is lifting up God's word. We should sing it, pray it, proclaim it, share scripture with one another before and after the service. We need to be centered on the truth of God. And as we do that, we come to the second part of what Jesus was talking about in spirit. Our affections are moved, right? When we think about how good God is, our hearts are stirred. We're we're rekindled to praise God as we think about that we were dead in our sins, but a holy God through his son Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. And when we think about that truth, it moves us to grateful hearts, to thankful hearts, to maybe raising our hands in praise or kneeling before him in humble submission and gratitude. John Piper says regarding spirit and in truth, he says, Truth without emotion is dead orthodoxy, and emotion without truth is emotional frenzy. So Jesus says, true worshipers worship in spirit and in truth. May we worship God the Father through Jesus the Son in spirit and in truth for the glory of God. Thank you for listening to this episode of Moments of Worship. Write me if you haven't written me in a while. Click the send me a text button. Maybe let me know when you listen to this podcast. I hear from so many wonderful friends and couples that listen to this in their morning devotional time together and people on their way to work. I would love to hear what time of the day you listen to this podcast. It is a privilege to care for you with the Word of God and bring an encouraging word to you. Well, until tomorrow and forever, may we worship Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening.