John 4:23
The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
The word “seeker” has come to play a large role in Christianity today. Increasing numbers of churches identify themselves as “seeker-friendly” or “seeker-sensitive.” Their conviction is that people are seeking after God, but the church has erected barriers of tradition and culture that keep them away. Their remedy is to remove these barriers by presenting a contemporary image to these seekers and offer them a style of worship that appeals to their tastes. They take great joy in being a church that does not look like a church and in some cases does not act like a church.
Although we want to remove all false barriers to worship, there are problems with this mindset. Mainly, the idea is against the Bible’s teaching. Romans 3:11 says, “No one seeks for God.” Now it is true, that people may be seeking the benefits of a relationship with God, peace, harmony, joy, and freedom from fear, but they are not seeking God himself. One could even claim men are interested in salvation from Hell. But no man is seeking to be saved from sin that places them in Hell. They don’t want God, they want the benefits of being God‘s child, yet outside the family.
The main problem with “seeker-friendly” worship, is people come to church not looking for God but rather the coolness, or the other outward adoring characteristics that the seeker churches chose to paint themselves and when then arrive God is not there to be found because the leaders of the church have also removed all words from God that may offend the seekers.
If people really are not seeking after God as the Bible clearly says, then what hope is there that people will be saved? The answer is that while sinners do not seek God, God is seeking sinners. Jesus explained, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk. 19:10). Jesus is still in the world today seeking sinners, through the powerful working of his Holy Spirit.
Also, God the Father is seeking. Jesus said, “The Father is seeking people to worship him” (Jn. 4:23). This is why there is a great hope for people today, and why the church must not abandon biblical ministry and change the church into something that looks like the world. God is seeking worshippers through Jesus Christ. God is drawing people and, in consequence, those people are looking for God when they come to church.
Therefore, our goal is not to present an appealing worldliness or even to package God in secular garb, but to present God biblically in His saving glory so that those whom God is seeking will find Him in His church.
Worship in Spirit
How should we worship God? That was the question the Samaritan woman asked Jesus. Her question had mainly to do with the right place for worship. Should it be on Mount Gerezim, where the Samaritans worshiped, or on Mount Zion in Jerusalem? Jesus answered that “the important question is not where people worship God but how they worship him.” Jesus’ next statement to the woman is one of the most important on worship in the New Testament: “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John. 4:23-24).
It is clear that Jesus does not refer to the Holy Spirit, since he uses no definite article, but rather to the human spirit. Our worship of God must not be merely external but spiritual and inward; true worship is a matter of the heart and not of mere actions. Author James Boice explains, “[Jesus] is teaching that in the age he was inaugurating by his death and resurrection the place of worship would not matter, for a man or woman would not worship merely by being in the right place and doing certain right things. He would worship in his spirit, which could be anywhere.”
Boice elaborates:
Many people worship with the body… In our day this would refer to people who think they have worshiped God simply because they have occupied a seat in a church on Sunday morning, sung a hymn, or lit a candle, or crossed themselves, or knelt in the aisle. Jesus says this is not worship. These customs may be vehicles for worship… But they are not worship in themselves.
Rightly understanding worship “in spirit” will help us sort through some of the heated debates regarding worship today. Some people think a contemporary worship style is more spiritual, because it is more likely to include bodily involvement or emotional displays. By “spiritual” they mean “spirited.” But we may be physically and emotionally excited without engaging our spirit toward God. On the other side, people think that preserving time-worn practices and church traditions is more spiritual. But one may engage in the most reverent acts yet not offer himself spiritually to God. What, then, is spiritual worship?
Boice answers:
“True worship occurs only when that part of man, his spirit, which is akin to the divine nature (for God is spirit), actually meets with God and finds itself praising him for his love, wisdom, beauty, truth, holiness, compassion, mercy, grace, power and all his other attributes.” James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John.
Worship in spirit must be sincere and God-directed. Perhaps our greatest problem today is that we come to church worshiping ourselves wanting mainly to get something out of it for ourselves instead of worshiping God. Worship in spirit must be sincerely offered in praise and thanksgiving to God.
AW Pink says,
“Worship is a redeemed heart occupied with God, expressing itself in adoration and thanksgiving.” Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John
Worship in Truth
What does it mean, then, to worship in truth? The first thing it must require is a right conception of God. This is clear to see in the first of God’s Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). This requires us to know who God is: to know what is and is not true about him. If we have false thoughts about God, we cannot worship him in truth. Some people think of God as distant and unloving, they cannot worship him in truth. Others think of God as their chummy friend or a “cosmic prayer genie” who awaits their summons. They, too, cannot worship God in truth.
One of the great problems in worship today is a lack of awareness of God’s holiness. Hebrews 12:28-29 says, “Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”
Kent Hughes says, “A wrong conception of God is the root of idolatry.” Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 1999)
Worship in truth requires a right conception of who we worship, but also of how we are to worship him. It requires right methods that are taught by God’s Word. One cannot worship God just anyway he wishes. Cain, failed to bring a blood sacrifice for his sins and thus was turned away. Nadab and Abihu brought “unauthorized fire” into the Lord’s house and they “died before the LORD” (Num. 3:4). “Yahweh” was inscribed on the golden calf and offered to “the LORD” (Ex. 32:5). They sought to worship the true God in a false way, according to their own designs, and God was angered with great fury.
The question, therefore, for churches and pastors today is whether we will worship popularity or whether we will worship God. We will either explain our worship practices in the same way Aaron tried to explain, ..“You know how people are,” or we will tell why we worship by saying, “We know how God is and what he desires.” Worship in truth requires a right conception of God and a biblical approach to worship.
One must wonder in light of clear scripture teaching on worship why the seeker movement uses the tactics that it does. Maybe its time we get back to letting God build our church and not rely on our clever ideas. God is indeed seeking worshippers, through Jesus Christ, who come in spirit and truth. And when we do rely on him to build the church he will be our chief delight. He says, “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people… I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (Heb. 8:10, 12).