John 4:20-26; Psalm 84:1-4

A Biblical Vision requires a faithful Biblical means to realize that Vision. This is what we have learned. Last week I introduced a faithful means of realizing the Vision: Biblical Preaching. Today, we come to the matter of worship. How shall we worship God? This is the great question of man in the religious world. It remains a question, also, in the Church. Well, how shall we worship? This morning, we read about a woman who put this question to Jesus, and we hear His answer in the fourth chapter of John:

"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."

A family was on a European vacation. They were to go to a great cathedral on a given day. The parents told their son that they were going to "the house of God " and that he should be very quiet. They went in and found a seat near the rear of the cathedral. Most of the people there seemed to be like them — tourists.

The mother whispered to their son, "See the chancel with the decorative sacramental screen. It is absolutely beautiful." Then, in another moment, the father said to the mother, "Did you see those magnificent stain glass windows? Tiffany, I believe." She nodded her head. They went on like this for some time. Then the clergy entered, and the choir and the organ piped out a tremendous note, and the service began. It was about then that the little boy appeared quite confused. "Mom, Dad, I see the preacher, I see the choir, I hear the organ . . . but exactly where is God? "

Good question. It is possible to focus on worship and never really come to truly worship God. Perhaps, like the little boy, you have been in churches where there are prayers and singing and nice buildings and lots of music, but you missed the presence of God in your life. You couldn't explain it, but you just knew. Something was missing, and you left thinking to yourself, "Where is God in the worship service?"

Today we come to a passage about worship. The context for Jesus' teaching on worship is a Samaritan woman who has met the Lord at the well. In that meeting, Jesus shows her her sin. So, like any squirming sinner under the conviction of God, she changes the subject. And she begins to talk about the "worship wars of her day. Today, people argue about traditional versus contemporary worship style, or liturgy versus spontaneous form, about instruments or no instruments, and so forth. I have read and studied and listened to many people talk to me about worship. But, I must say that much of it sounds like this woman at the well. Much of it misses the point of the worship Jesus was talking about.