Manasseh, the grandson of the high priest Joiada, became a son-in-law to Sanballat, the Persian ruler of Samaria. In other words, this grandson of the high priest, in violation of God’s law, married a Samaritan. Because of this, Nehemiah chased him out.
Manasseh went to his father-in-law, Sanballat, who made him high priest of the temple which he built on Mount Gerizim. Because the Samaritans would have nothing to do with the Jews, as the Jews would have nothing to do with the Samaritans, they built their own temple on Mount Gerizim and worshipped God there on that mountain.
We know that the Samaritans believed the five books of Moses—the Pentateuch—to be their Bible. They did not accept the prophets. But they twisted what was written in those books.
When God commanded Moses that, after the children of Israel entered the promised land, they should put up stones on Mount Ebal, plaster them, and write the law upon them, the Samaritan Bible changed the name of Mount Ebal to Mount Gerizim. They said the law was written on Mount Gerizim; therefore, this must be the place of worship.
Also, after the children of Israel entered the promised land, six tribes were to stand on Mount Gerizim and bless the people, while six tribes would stand on Mount Ebal and pronounce the curse. So they said Mount Gerizim was the mountain of blessing. Based on these things, they built a temple on Mount Gerizim and said, “This is the place of worship.”
From that time, the Samaritans, instead of going to Jerusalem to worship, worshipped at Mount Gerizim. Of course, we know that the temple was destroyed two hundred years later by Hyrcanus, but the Samaritans continued worshipping on Mount Gerizim.
So the Samaritan woman said, “I know I should worship, but where should I worship?” It had become such a confusing thing. The Samaritans said they should worship on Mount Gerizim, and they had a long tradition and some kind of scriptural foundation—though, of course, that was only their interpretation.
The Jews said that worship must be in the temple. Why did the Jews say that they must worship in the temple? Because in Deuteronomy 12:5-6, God commanded Moses that, after the children of Israel entered the promised land, they should destroy all the idols in that land.
They were to destroy all the high places, statues, groves, and every green tree, because the seven tribes of Canaan worshipped many idols on the mountains, in the hills, and under the green trees. Therefore, God commanded that they should destroy all these places.
God would choose one place out of the whole land to put His name there. The children of Israel were to go there to offer sacrifices, and nowhere else. They were not to do what they did in the wilderness—that is, offer sacrifice wherever they travelled.
After they entered the promised land, they had to go to Jerusalem. Later, God chose Jerusalem. In Deuteronomy, the place had not yet been named; therefore, the Samaritans could say that it was Mount Gerizim. But when you come to the later history, it is very clear: it is Jerusalem.
God chose Jerusalem as the place of worship, and the children of Israel had to go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and worship God three times a year. Every male of the children of Israel had to travel to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice and worship. This was the law.
Why did God command them in such a way? Why did He not allow them to worship wherever they wanted? Why did God limit their place of worship to one place?
Under the law, the people did not have an inward relationship with God. If God had allowed them to worship wherever they wanted, they would have worshipped whomever they wanted. They would have fallen into idolatry and abominations.
This is what we find in the history of Israel: they began to worship different gods in many places, committed abomination before God, and finally had to go into captivity.
Under the old covenant, the Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gerizim according to their tradition, while the Jews worshipped in Jerusalem, in the temple, according to the word of God.
The Samaritan woman was confused because both groups worshipped one God, yet the Jews said worship must be in Jerusalem, while the Samaritans said it must be on Mount Gerizim. Dear brothers and sisters, is not worship a very confusing problem even for us Christians today?
We are as confused as the Samaritan woman in this matter of worship. God’s people throughout the world are worshipping the one God, and yet there are so many forms of worship and so many claims of worship here or there. They have us confused. We do not know how to worship God.
Remember: in Old Testament times, worship was limited to a place. The Samaritans went to Mount Gerizim; the Jews went to the temple in Jerusalem.
Because worship was limited in place, it had to be limited in time. Why? Because you cannot stay on Mount Gerizim or in the temple all your life. Therefore, the children of Israel went to Jerusalem to worship God only three times a year.
Anything limited to place must also be limited in time. And any worship limited in time and place cannot be perfect. It is imperfect.
Furthermore, in Old Testament times, knowledge of God was also restricted. They knew God as Creator; they may have known Him as Deliverer; but they did not know God as Father.
Their concept of God was that God is transcendent. He is far, far above all; therefore, they had to worship afar off, with fear and trembling, with awe and reverence. There was no intimacy, no closeness, no father-and-children relationship. It was not revealed in Old Testament times.
Therefore, under the Old Testament, worship was limited in time, place, knowledge—limited in every way. It was external, legal, and remote.
But our Lord Jesus, as He conversed with the Samaritan woman, said:
The hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth.
First of all, dear brothers and sisters, as we come to this matter of worship, we need to see a change of dispensation. The Lord said, “The hour is coming.” What hour did He refer to? He referred to the hour of the change of dispensation.
Before the coming of Christ, it was the dispensation of law. Under the dispensation of law, there was a way to worship. But now the Lord Jesus says, “The hour is coming.” Christ has come, and with the coming of Christ, the dispensation has changed. It is no longer that of law; it has become the dispensation of grace.
The Lord said, “The hour is coming, and now is.” When our Lord was talking to the Samaritan woman, the hour had come. Because the time had changed, the dispensation had changed; therefore, the very nature of worship and the way of worship had also changed.
Under the law, a Jew had to worship in Jerusalem, in the temple. If he tried to worship somewhere else, it was an abomination in the sight of God. He would be rejected by God.
Likewise, under Samaritan tradition, a Samaritan had to worship on Mount Gerizim. If he did not worship there, he was not considered a Samaritan. But, dear brothers and sisters, the time has changed.
Our Lord Jesus has come into this world. With His coming, it is neither Jew nor Samaritan; it is all mankind. It is neither Mount Gerizim nor Jerusalem and its temple. The very character of worship has undergone a tremendous change. It is no longer the old thing; it is altogether new.
Under the new covenant, worship is based upon a new relationship: the relationship of Father and children.
When our Lord Jesus came into this world, He brought a new knowledge: the knowledge of God as our Father. Before He came, God was God to mankind; He was their Creator.
But after our Lord came into this world, He revealed the Father to us. Throughout His life, this is what He was doing: revealing the Father to us.
He said that no one had ever seen God, but the One who is in the bosom of the Father has declared Him. “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Throughout His life, He revealed the Father to us. God is our Father.
He not only revealed the Father to us, but through His death and resurrection He made God our Father. After His resurrection, He told the woman:
I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.
It is through the work of His redemption that He has not only made known to us God as our Father, but He has made God our Father. Today God is truly our Father, and we are truly His children.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is a life relationship that people never knew under the old covenant. It is something completely new.
That is why, when He taught us to pray, He said:
Our Father who art in heaven.
He said that your Father sees in secret, and He shall reward you. Today, under the new covenant, in Christ, our relationship with God is more than that He is God. Of course, He is still God to us, our Maker and Creator; but He is also our Father. An intimate relationship has been established.
Under the old covenant, people worshipped God as God. Under the new covenant, we worship God as our Father. It is entirely different.
To worship God as the transcendent God, one had to worship afar off. You dared not draw too close; it had to be remote and distant. But, dear brothers and sisters, when we worship the Father, we draw near to Him. We worship Him in love, not in fear. It is a new relationship: a Father-and-children relationship.
Under the old covenant, worship was limited in place. If you wanted to worship God, you had to go to the appointed place of worship, which was Jerusalem—and not only Jerusalem, but the temple in Jerusalem.
If you were a Samaritan, you went to Mount Gerizim to be a good Samaritan. But, brothers and sisters, under the new covenant it is no longer so. It is neither the mountain nor the temple.
Why? Because worship has become a spiritual thing. We worship in spirit and truth. If it is in spirit and reality, then the restrictions and limitations of time and space are no longer there.
There is no limitation of place and no restriction of time. It must be worship in spirit and truth.
Brothers and sisters, in Christianity today, how do we worship? Do we understand the nature of worship in Christ?
How often we find that in Christianity people worship God according to the Old Testament way. Why? People think God is a God who is billions and billions of miles away. He is transcendent; they do not know Him as immanent. Therefore, if you want to worship Him, you must have a place.
There is a place called a place of worship. If you want to worship God, go to that place of worship. And if there is a place of worship, there is a time of worship. When? Sunday, of course. What time on Sunday? There is an hour called the hour of worship.
We have a worship service, and that is the time when people come and worship. In other words, apart from that worship service, you can do anything you like.
How do we worship? We worship with rituals and ceremonies. We need a building built in a special way. We need a special atmosphere created with darkness, dimness, light, candles, music, and all these things, trying to draw out from people a kind of worship.
We use all kinds of postures to express worship. We have to have a program to stir our worship. Brothers and sisters, are we worshipping God in the Old Testament way, or are we worshipping God in the New Testament way?
The hour has come, and now is. The Father is seeking true worshippers—those who will worship Him in spirit and truth.
The word true does not mean merely “truly.” It means complete, or perhaps the nearest translation is “ideal.” The Father is seeking ideal worshippers. Who are these ideal worshippers? Those who worship the Father in spirit and truth.
Brothers and sisters, how sad it is that God’s people are supposed to worship God, and yet the way we worship God has gone back to Old Testament times. If we are doing that, do you think we are ideal worshippers? Do you think this is the worship that our Father is seeking?
Do you think our Father would be pleased to see His children worshipping far, far away as strangers, with fear and trembling? Do you think the Father will accept such worship? Do you think God is worshipped today?
If you go back to the word of God, brothers and sisters, how much is God our Father really worshipped by His people?
The Father is seeking true worshippers, those who worship in spirit and truth.
Augustine says that God is spirit. If God were a body, then it would be right to worship God on a mountain or in a temple, because the mountain is a corporeal thing and so is the temple.
But God is not a body. God is spirit. Because God is spirit, those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit.
When the Bible says that God is spirit, it does not refer to the personality of God; it refers to the essence of God. God in essence is spirit. Therefore, those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit.
This was impossible under the old covenant. It was impossible in the old days, impossible for people before Christ. Why? We were all dead in sins and transgressions.
When Paul wrote to the Ephesians that we were dead in sins and transgressions, he was speaking to people who were physically alive. You cannot talk to a dead man; he cannot hear. What did Paul mean?
Because we had sinned, our spirit was dead to God. Even in the Garden of Eden, God told Adam:
In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Adam and Eve lived physically for hundreds of years, but they were dead on the very day they ate the forbidden fruit. They were dead in sin and transgression. What was dead in them? Their spirit.
God created man with a spirit. In man’s spirit there is an instinct called communion, called worship. God created man as a worshipper and gave him the ability to worship.
Because God is spirit and man was created with a spirit, man could commune with God and worship God through that spirit. But the moment man sinned, the spirit was dead to God. In other words, the contact was cut off.
Yes, somehow fallen man still has a sense of worship. Even though our spirit was dead to God, the spirit as an organ was still there. It had lost contact with God and could not worship God, but the instinct of worship remained.
So instead of worshipping God, men began to worship the devil and idols of all kinds. They could not worship God.
Because they could not worship God, they tried to worship God with their bodies and with their souls. But their spirit was dead, so they could not contact God. They could only worship God afar off; they were never able to worship God in closeness.
That was Old Testament worship. But, dear brothers and sisters, thank God: our Lord Jesus has come, and He has finished the work of redemption on Calvary’s cross. Through the finished work of Christ, our spirit is made alive again to God.
This is new birth:
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The first thing that happens when we believe in the Lord Jesus is that our dead spirit—the spirit dead in sins and transgressions—is quickened by the Holy Spirit because our sins are forgiven. Immediately our spirit is in touch with God the Spirit and worships again.
Brothers and sisters, today we are able to worship God as our Father because our spirit has been renewed and awakened.
First of all, under the new covenant we worship our Father in spirit. It is possible now. We do not worship God in the flesh anymore; we worship God in the spirit.
In the old days, people worshipped God in the flesh. What do you mean by the flesh? The flesh means the body and soul without the spirit.
People worshipped God with their bodies. Therefore, they needed all these rituals to help them worship God. People had to prostrate themselves and use different postures. They tried to create a kind of sense, imagination, or concept in order to worship God. They used all these aids to build up and create a kind of worship in the flesh.
But not in the spirit. That is what our Lord Jesus said:
This people honoureth Me with their lips;
But their heart is far from Me.
But in vain do they worship Me.
Brothers and sisters, worship today is no longer worship in the flesh; it is worship in the spirit. Our spirit has been renewed and awakened to God. Our spirit is now in contact with God, and out of our spirit we worship God, who is Spirit.
It is beyond the physical, beyond the psychological, beyond emotion, intelligence, and will. In Colossians, Paul speaks of will-worship. People can worship God by will-worship: they determine to worship God and determine how God should be worshipped. But will-worship is not true worship.
This does not mean that, if we worship in the spirit, our soul and body are not involved. Of course, our soul and body are involved. Our spirit needs to come out through our soul and body, but it must originate from the spirit.
Of course, we must use our lips. Otherwise, how can we offer to God the sacrifice of praise? We must praise God with our mouths and lips. Some say, “I worship God in the spirit; therefore, I will not open my mouth.” Brothers and sisters, you are wrong.
It is true that worship must come from the spirit, but it must be uttered through your lips. That is a sacrifice of praise unto God.
Do not say that, because we worship God in spirit, emotion is not involved. Not at all. The question is whether it originates from soulish emotion or from the spirit. If it comes from the spirit, it ought to touch your emotion and be expressed through your emotions.
The same is true with the mind and thought. If you are merely trying to create noble thoughts, lofty thoughts, imaginations, or mental images of Christ and His cross in order to worship God, something is wrong. But if, in your spirit, there is contact with God and worship begins there, then it may come out in your thoughts. That is right.
The same is true with the will. If it originates with your will, it is wrong. But if it originates from the spirit, and your will wills the will of God and cooperates, that is right.
Sometimes you come to worship God, but you will not open your mouth. You do not cooperate. You have to will the will of God. You have to be willing to worship God, but the worship must come forth from the spirit.
Perhaps some people do not quite understand the word spirit. All right, use the word that you do understand: heart.
The Lord Jesus said that the Pharisees worshipped God with their lips, but their hearts were not involved. Therefore, the Lord said that they worshipped God in vain.
When we worship God, our heart must be in it. Whether we sing or praise, our heart must be there. If our heart is not involved, it is lip service; it is not worship in spirit.
That is why, before we come together, we need to prepare our hearts. Be sure that your heart is right with God, in tune with Him, and touched by His love. It must not be a hardened heart through the deceitfulness of sin, but a heart of flesh—a tender heart toward God.
What is worship in spirit? It is in contrast to worshipping in letter. In Old Testament times, the Jews in Judaism worshipped in letter. It was written: “This is the way to do things.” They kept the letter.
Today, brothers and sisters, we are to worship God in spirit. It is no longer a matter of formality. When we worship God in letter, it is formality. Everything is programmed, but it is dead.
We worship God in spirit, not in letter. We may explain later the relationship between letter and spirit, but we must worship God in spirit.
In Philippians 3:3, we read:
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
There are two translations of this verse. One is, “We worship God in spirit”—that is, we use our spirit to worship God and exercise our spirit to worship God. We do not merely use our body or mind; we exercise our spirit.
Another translation is that we worship God by the Spirit of God. Why? Because in the New Testament it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the human spirit and the Holy Spirit. They are so closely joined that sometimes you cannot distinguish them.
In John 4, spirit is often printed with a lowercase letter. That is the interpretation of the translator. When the Bible was written, it was written in letters that did not make such distinctions; whether a word is capitalised depends upon interpretation.
Some interpreters feel that John 4 refers to the human spirit, and that is true. In Philippians 3, some translators feel that it should be “the Spirit of God,” while others feel it should be “human spirit.” Both are right.
To worship God in spirit means that we worship God by the Spirit of God. Brothers and sisters, there is a tremendous difference here.
If we say that we worship God in spirit and forget the Holy Spirit, we will get into great difficulty and confusion. First, we do not know our own spirit. Do you know your spirit?
The sons of Zebedee did not know their spirit. When the Lord was travelling through Samaritan villages toward Jerusalem, the Samaritans would not receive Him. The two sons of Zebedee came to the Lord and said, “Lord, they do not receive You. Do You want us to ask God to send fire from heaven to burn them up?”
The Lord Jesus said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.” If we say we worship in spirit and mean merely our human spirit—thinking that whenever our spirit wants to do something, we do it—we are in danger. We do not know our spirit.
From our spirit can come that which is of God, but there can also come forth that which is of ourselves. We do not know our own state.
Second, we do not know how to control our spirit. Some people say that we should be controlled by the spirit. Remember: we should be controlled by the Holy Spirit, not by our own spirit.
Proverbs 16:32 says:
He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city.
It is not easy to rule over your spirit. The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. Therefore, brothers and sisters, remember: we worship in spirit, yes, but it is in cooperation with, or by, the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God touches our spirit, and that is where worship begins. It does not really originate with our spirit; it originates with the Spirit of God. Because the Spirit of God dwells in our spirit, He makes His mind known to our spirit and makes His impression upon our spirit.
As our spirit receives the impression from God the Spirit, we are ruled by the Spirit of God. This is the way we worship.
In New Testament times, we worship in spirit. Perhaps we will go into this later in more detail, but I simply want to lay down these principles. We worship God in spirit because it is an inward matter, not an external matter; it is not a form, but a spiritual thing.
But the Bible says that God is seeking worshippers who worship Him in spirit and truth.
When we quote this verse, we often say, “Worship God in spirit and in truth.” But the second in is not there. It does not say that we worship God “in spirit and in truth.” It says that we worship God “in spirit and truth.”
This is one complex phrase, not two coordinated phrases. We may distinguish spirit and truth, but we cannot divide or separate them. If we separate them, we are in trouble. It has to be spirit and truth.
We often think of spirit as subjective and truth as objective. In one sense that is true. What is worship?
Someone says worship is based on two things: one is a feeling, and the other is a concept. Worship is an inward feeling, and that is the spirit. But worship is also a concept: there is an object toward which your feeling is directed.
In worship, there is a feeling within you, and there is an object before you. That feeling is in spirit; that concept is in truth. In other words, when we worship, we must know whom we are worshipping.
The Samaritans worshipped what they did not know. It was false worship. We must know what we worship, and that is why we must worship in truth.
Truth is the word of God. You remember John 17:17:
Sanctify them in the truth: Thy word is truth.
Therefore, when we worship God, we must worship according to truth, according to the word of God. The Samaritans worshipped according to tradition, according to the teaching of men and their fathers. It was false. They were not worshipping in truth.
The Jews worshipped according to the law, which is truth, and yet they did not worship according to spirit. But we who are redeemed of the Lord have the spirit as well as the truth.
Today, if we want to worship our Father, we must worship according to truth—that is, according to the word. We are not free to worship in whatever way we want, or according to our own ideas. We have to worship God according to His word.
But our Lord Jesus said in John 14:6:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
Truth is not merely the written word, though the written word is the basis of our worship. How do we know Him whom we worship? It is through the word. If there is no word, we do not know whom we are worshipping. All our knowledge of God is through the word.
But truth is something more: truth is a Person. The written word, through revelation, becomes the living Word to us. It is Christ. Christ is the truth.
If it is only the word and there is no revelation, it is merely letter, and the letter kills. But the written word, with revelation from above, becomes living word. It is Christ.
Therefore, as we worship the Father, we worship the Father in the reality of Christ. Or, to put it another way, as we worship the Father, we give back to the Father that revelation of Christ which He has given to us.
This is the spiritual sacrifice of which the Bible speaks. We are not worshipping Him with ourselves or with our works. If we do, we are like Cain, offering the produce of the field.
We worship God with the Christ who has been made real to us through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. That is worship.
Under the new covenant, through the finished work of Christ, our worship today is entirely different from the worship of the past.
We worship God not only as transcendent, but also as immanent; not only as our Creator, but also as our Father. God is looking for His sons to worship Him. We come to worship Him as sons. This is our basis of worship.
As we worship, we worship in spirit and truth—not only in spirit, but in spirit and truth; not only in truth, but in spirit and truth.
Oftentimes, when we worship, we may have many feelings, but very little substance. By substance, I do not mean a mental concept. I mean revealed knowledge, experience, and knowledge of God.
Because we do not have much life with Christ, even though we may have much feeling, it can be very empty. God is not worshipped as He should be.
On the other hand, we may have great knowledge of God but no feeling toward Him. If that is the case, it is dead; it is not living. Our Father is not worshipped.
Oh, how we need to see that, as we come to worship, it is in spirit and truth. There is the outgoing of our heart in loving adoration, and there is also the substance that we bring to the Father: the knowledge of Christ that He has revealed to us in our lives through the week.
If that is the case, the Father is worshipped.
The Lord said, “The hour is coming, and now is.” Those who worship God shall worship Him in spirit and truth. The time has changed. Therefore, we shall not worship in the old ways—in Jerusalem or on Mount Gerizim. We should worship in spirit and truth.
The Lord said that the Father is seeking true worshippers. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. The nature of worship has changed. Not only has the time changed; the nature of worship has changed.
Therefore, any worship that is not in spirit and truth is not true worship. May we be worshippers.
After the Samaritan woman heard from the Lord about worship, what did she do? She left her waterpot. She came with a waterpot for water, but now she left the waterpot.
She went into the city and said:
Come, see a man, who told me all things that ever I did: can this be the Christ?
Through her witness, many in the city came to the Lord. Do you know? That Samaritan woman had become a worshipper.
Why? Because worship is no longer a matter of place or time. Worship is life. Worship is service. Worship is testimony.
The Lord changed that Samaritan woman from a sinner into a worshipper. Dear brothers and sisters, if the Lord can do it with this Samaritan woman, surely He can do it with all of us.
Our heavenly Father, Thou art seeking true worshippers. By Thy grace, it is within our reach to be such worshippers.
So, Lord, it is our prayer this morning that we want to give Thee the worship that Thou desirest. We want to be true worshippers.
O Lord, teach us how to worship in spirit and truth. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.