Worship In Spirit and Truth

 Roman 8:26
 
Likewise the Spirit also help our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself make intercession for us with groaning

... JESUS is our advocate before the
Throne of GOD. Because of HIS
perfect sacrifice, HIS obedience,
HIS righteousness we have standing
by HIS grace and in HIS grace alone.
HE pleads for us, and HE is just;
HE will make things right!!

God is looking
and longing to find;
A ready and willing
heart that says:
"Not my will, Lord;
But Thine!

John 4:23-24, But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 

 

 Jesus was speaking to a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in Samaria. As background, you will remember that the Samaritans didn't go to Jerusalem to worship God in the Temple there. They attempted to offer worship to God in another temple on a mountain in Samaria. Many years before, during the time of the divided Kingdom, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had established its own temple on a mountain in Samaria while only the southern Kingdom of Judah remained faithful to worship at the temple in Jerusalem.

 During the time of Christ only a remnant of the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom, people of mixed blood, still lived in the area. They were called Samaritans and they were still going to the temple in Samaria to worship God. The woman speaking with Jesus at the well had raised the old question with Jesus, should temple worship be done in Samaria as she had been taught, or in Jerusalem as the Jews taught. Remember, she was referring to worship in a temple, a building built by people in a specific location on the map. Jesus answered her with the words quoted above from John 4:23-24.

 In essence, Jesus said that the hour is near when true worshipers will not need to go to a specific temple building to find God to worship Him. In the future, worship will be done in spirit and truth. And to explain what He meant by the use of the word "spirit" He added, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."


It appears that Jesus was making a contrast to the thoughts of the Samaritan woman which were about going to the right place on the map of earth to worship God. Jesus, in His answer to the woman was looking to the time, shortly to come to pass, when the temple at Jerusalem would have served its purpose and would no longer be important in worship of God. No longer would people have to worry about which is the true geographical place of worship, whether it is in Jerusalem or in Samaria, for Jesus was saying that your worship from now on is to be centered in something spiritual rather than material.


For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father Ephesians 2:18 .

That is, both Jews and Gentiles "we both factions": being made one, and reconciled unto God, and having the Gospel of peace preached to both, they have through Christ freedom of access and boldness in it.

One Spirit unto the Father
they may come to God as the Father of spirits, and of mercies, who has made their souls or spirits, and bestowed his mercies on them in great abundance; and as the Father of Christ, and as their God and Father in Christ: and the rather they should consider him in this relation to them, in order to command in them a reverence and fear of him; to secure a freedom and liberty in their approach to him; and to encourage an holy boldness, and a fiducial confidence in him; and to teach them submission to his will: and their access to him is "through" Christ, who has made peace for them, and atonement for their sins; who has satisfied law and justice, and brought in an everlasting righteousness for them; so that there is nothing lies in their way to hinder them; and besides, he takes them as it were by the hand, and leads them into the presence of his Father, and presents their petitions for them, on whose account they have both audience and acceptance with God: and this access is also "by one Spirit"; the "Holy Spirit",

 who is necessary in access to God, as a spirit of adoption, to enable and encourage souls to go to God as a father; and as a spirit of supplication, to teach both how to pray, and for what, as they should; and as a free spirit to give them liberty to speak their minds freely, and pour out their souls to God; and as a spirit of faith to engage them to pray in faith, and with holy boldness, confidence, and importunity; and he is said to be "one", both with respect to the persons to and by whom access is had, the Father and Christ, for he is the one and the same Spirit of the Father and of the Son; and with respect to the persons who have this access, Jews and Gentiles, who as they make up one body, are actuated and directed by, and drink into one and the same Spirit: hence this access to God is of a spiritual kind; it is a drawing nigh to God with the heart, and a worshipping him in spirit; and is by faith, and may be with freedom, and should be, with reverence, and ought to be frequent; and is a peculiar privilege that belongs to the children of God; and who have great honor bestowed upon them, to have access to God at any time, as their Father, through Christ the Mediator, and under the influence, and by the direction and assistance of the Holy Spirit: this is a considerable proof of a trinity of persons in the Godhead, of their deity and distinct personality. Be blessed and have a wonderful day in Christ. Much love!