Last week as we studied John 4:1 – 15, we outlined 4 different barriers to becoming a Christ encountering people. We learned that barriers like the barrier of place, or the barrier of person, or the barrier of resource, or the barrier of thirst can all be hindrances to becoming a people who encounter Christ.
Sometimes I can be deceived into believing that Jesus will not or cannot come to the place that I’m at to save me or that he would never want to spend his time on a person like me or that he doesn’t have the resources necessary to overcome my deep dark sin or my need. And sometimes I just simply thirst for things that will never satisfy my parched soul and I begin chasing patterns of drinking deeply from filthy facets in my attempt to quench my thirst while wondering why I’m getting sick and thirsty again.
The core of the problem here is what some people call a worship disorder. God calls us to worship him with our entire being. But every one of us faces barriers to becoming Christ-worshiping people. We get stuck in our sin and our false beliefs about God and we make ourselves the objects of our worship and we get stuck in a worship disorder. Look at John 4:16 – 26…
John 4:16 – 26…
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
You and I were created to honor God in all that we desire, think, say and do but the reality is that before we begin to follow Jesus we give all of our attention to seeking pleasure, finding comfort, hording power, achieving success and pursuing entertainment. The truth we need to hear is that those pursuits lead to death. But the good news in all of this is that Jesus sees us in our worship disorders and he loves us enough to meet us there so that we can begin to truly worship him in Spirit and in truth. Jesus demolished the barriers that prohibit our souls from becoming a Christ-worshiping people. So, what are some of the barriers that stop us from worshiping God?
#1: The Sin Barrier… (16 – 19)
The sin-barrier is an important place for us to begin this conversation because Jesus began there. I think Jesus began there because our sin is what separates us from the presence of God and you cannot worship God unless you are in his presence. It’s kind of like saying that you cannot give your full attention to someone else unless you are in their presence.
But what is this thing the Bible calls sin? A simple definition of sin is that sin is the desires, the thoughts and the behaviors of our lives that are disobedient to God’s commands. All throughout the Bible, God reveals his loving nature to us and then he gives us commands regarding what we should or should not desire, what we should or should not think and how we should or should not behave. And then when we fail to desire, think and do what God has commanded us to desire, think and do or when we desire, think and do what God has commanded us not to desire, think and do, we begin to live in sin. This is the problem of the whole human race. We’ve all sinned and we’ll all continue to struggle with sin.
Another way of describing sin is to say that sin is like an arrow that misses the bulls-eye or misses the mark. God has defined a bulls-eye or a mark for all of us to aim our lives at. When we fail to live in obedience to God’s aim, God’s commands, then we live in sin and we miss the mark like an arrow that misses the bulls-eye. And when we live in sin we are incapable of worshiping God because our sin separates us from the presence of God. Our sin separates us from the presence of God because God is perfect and nothing imperfect can come into the presence of He who is perfect without being consumed & burned up. Therefore, our sin separates us from the presence of God, which means our sin becomes the barrier for us becoming worshipers of God.
But what is worship? What does it mean to worship God? I think a simple definition of worship is that worship is the act of giving our entire being wholeheartedly to something or someone. In other words, worship is like investing. What you invest your time, your talent and your treasure in, is what you believe to be the most important. When a person invests their time, talent and treasure into building a good life for themselves, what are they worshiping? That person is worshiping the good life because they are giving all of their attention and energy to what they believe is the most important investment.
The Scriptures in their entirety reveal a God who is worthy of all of our time, our talent and our treasure. They reveal a God who is worthy of our worship. Worthy of our complete attention. We are called to give God our entire lives as acts of worship but because of our sin we often wind up in worship dysfunctions, giving ourselves to broken pursuits expecting to get fixed or to get a fix.
So, in our text, Jesus is wanting to get at the heart of worship in this woman at the well. So he begins by addressing the barrier of sin that prohibits her from becoming a worshiper of God. He doesn’t skirt around the barrier as we often do. He doesn’t ignore the barrier as we often do. He doesn’t downplay the barrier as we often do. He doesn’t excuse the barrier as we often do. Instead, Jesus confronts the barrier of sin and drags it into the light so that he can demolish the barrier and put it to death.
He tells the woman to go and grab her husband and come back and the woman replies by saying that she doesn’t have a husband. And Jesus basically says, “good job, you’re telling the truth, you’ve actually had five husbands and the man you’re in an inappropriate relationship with isn’t your husband”. This should be an eye opening confrontation for anyone who’s playing around in the dark shadows and grey space of inappropriate relationships. What’s the response of your soul right now as you contemplate this? This woman responds to all of this by acknowledging Jesus’ truthful confrontation of her sin.
When was the last time God confronted your sin and what was that like for you? For me it seems to happen more and more, the longer I follow Jesus and it can be scary, freeing, peaceful and joyful all at the same time. I’m no different than anyone else. I struggle with desires for prestige and power and acceptance and comfort. Those desires sometimes lead me to thoughts and behavior that are clearly disobedient to what the Lord has commanded and God often confronts me prophetically through the words of Scripture, the rebuke of other believers and the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
And when this happens I immediately feel afraid because I know I missed the mark. I failed. I willingly and knowingly at some point disregarded what God has commanded and I went my own way. I took the grey spaces or the implied commands of God and I fashioned them in a way that allowed me to do what ever I wanted to. Or in some cases I learn that I flat out ignored the black and white commands of God so that I could chase the promise of sin in my momentary pursuit of self-worship.
But almost immediately the fear that I feel dissipates because I remember that I am free to live obediently to what God has commanded because the penalty for my failure was paid by Jesus at the cross and he’s given me a new heart that desires to obey him and he’s given me a new spirit that is full of the power of the Spirit which then brings peace into my soul because I’m in a right relationship with my Heavenly Father. I’m no longer his enemy and I no longer want to live like his enemy. I’m a child of God and I can now live a life of obedience that is full of joy. This all happens because Jesus pursued me like he pursued the woman at the well and he saved me and he transformed me into a Christ-worshiping person.
The question for all of us is this: What sinful desires, thoughts and behaviors do I need to be confronted for right now? Am I walking in open and sinful disobedience to God in any way right now? Jesus has broken down the sin barrier so that we can become a Christ-worshiping people.
#2: The False Religion Barrier… (20 – 24)
The false religion barrier is a massive barricade that we often get stuck behind. It’s a barrier that has the look and the feel of religion but in reality it’s a fake imitation of the real thing because it’s missing the heart of true worship, which begins and lives at the foot of the cross of Christ. This barrier of false religion is constructed of twisted truth and lies that weave themselves into the fabric of people’s religious constructs and beliefs.
In our passage, after Jesus confronts the sin barrier in this woman and after she acknowledges his truthful assessment of her sin barrier, she redirects the conversation with a question about worship. Her question about worship reveals the real issue or the sin beneath the sin because at the heart of her question we are introduced to the heart of the lies that she’s believed that has constructed a barrier of false religion for her.
You see, Jesus and this woman are sitting at the well that her forefather Jacob had built. And that well sat at the foot of a mountain that we’ll call the mountain of obedience. And directly across from that mountain was another mountain that we’ll call the mountain of disobedience. And long before Jacob built that well, Moses gave God’s people explicit instructions on how to worship on these two mountains. Moses instructed God’s people to read the list of God’s blessings for obedience on the mountain of obedience. And he also gave them explicit instructions to read the list of God’s curses for disobedience on the mountain of disobedience (Deut. 28:2 – 19).
Now after reading the list of blessings on Obedience Mountain and reading the list of curses on Disobedience Mountain, Moses instructed God’s people to worship God by offering up a sacrifice of blood and receiving forgiveness. Now the question is: Which mountain do you think God commanded his people to offer the sacrifice of blood and worship on? Would they offer their sacrificial worship on the mountain of obedience by the well or on the mountain of disobedience across from the well? In Deuteronomy 27:4 – 5 Moses instructed God’s people to worship on the mountain of disobedience so that they could experience God’s salvation by grace rather than worshiping on the mountain of obedience where they would get caught up in salvation by works.
Can you see the false religion this woman had bought into yet? Did you catch the false doctrine? Did you catch which mountain the woman is referring to when she asks if they should worship here or in Jerusalem? She asks if they should continue to worship on the mountain of obedience. Something happened somewhere. At some point the Samaritans began to practice a false religion because they falsely believed that they should worship on the mountain of their own obedience. Which subsequently makes Jesus’ confrontation of this woman’s sin barrier that much more interesting. She’s been falsely worshiping a false god in a false religion on the false mountain of her list of false obedience while she lives in disobedience.
And all of this happened because the Samaritans didn’t know they had been deceived by false doctrine. A tiny shred of false doctrine can infect our worship to the extent that we no longer worship God. This is why Jesus says that the Samaritans were worshiping what they didn’t know and the Jews worshiped what they knew. But here’s the other kicker, the Jews believed that Jerusalem was the place to worship. This was their preference and they refused to let go of their preferences long enough to get into the world of the Samaritans and share the truth of the gospel with them.
Preferences can often infect our worship and inhibit us from reaching others with the gospel. This is why Jesus explains that the time and the place to worship is right now. Right now is the time and the place to worship God. And the kind of people God is seeking to worship him are people who worship in spirit and truth. God is not looking for people to worship him in physical falsehoods.
It can be so easy for me to get deceived into believing that my worship of God begins at the foot of the mountain of my accomplishments or my obedience instead of at the foot of the cross where my disobedience was heaped up into a mountain. It’s easy for me to get deceived into believing that my worship of God relies upon a certain style or location of worship instead of living in the here and now of a life of moment-by-moment worship.
Brothers and sisters, we are called to worship Christ on the mountain of our own disobedience as we look up at his cross where the sacrifice was made. Because of Christ’s work at the cross we can now enter into God’s presence and worship him in spirit and truth as the Spirit of truth enables us to.
The question for all of is this: What lies are you believing that have become barriers to you worshiping Jesus? What truth do you need to listen to so that you can be set free to worship Jesus? The cross of Christ has removed the barrier of false religion so that we can become a Christ-worshiping people.
#3: The Object Barrier… (25 – 26)
The object barrier is the object we spend our lives for. The object that we sacrifice everything for. The object that we believe will bring us happiness and comfort and joy and fulfillment and acceptance and peace and success. When that object is anything other than Christ we get caught behind the object barrier and we get stuck in a worship disorder that sells everything out for a false savior.
This woman was stuck behind the barrier of her own sin. She also believed falsely that she should worship at the mountain of obedience. And as Jesus tore down those barriers for her she remembered that she heard somewhere that the Savior is coming and that he will be full of truth. Maybe she was beginning to make the connection between what she had learned all these years and what she was experiencing in her encounter with Christ. But either way, Jesus’ response tears down this last worship barrier for her.
Jesus does this by explaining that he is the Savior God who has come to rescue sinners and receive their worship. When he says, “I who speak to you am he” he is literally saying “I who speak to you, I am.” This phrase “I am” is the very phrase God uses throughout the Bible to identify himself as the Savior God who deserves to be the object of our worship. So Christ is the object we are called to worship and any other object is a barrier to worshiping Christ.
Conclusion…
Sometimes I begin to think that I can save myself. Or I think that I can produce the fulfillment or acceptance or comfort or peace that my soul longs for if I just work harder. And so I begin to work harder at seeking approval from someone or hiding from a tough conversation with someone or I begin to spend my money unwisely or I walk around angry because someone didn’t listen to me. This is what it looks like for me to get stuck behind the object barrier as I make my longings for approval and comfort and control the objects of my affection.
Thankfully, Jesus stepped into the well of my heart 17 years ago and he began to confront these barriers and by his grace he has turned my heart slowly so that I’ve begun to live a life of worship and obedience as he sets me free from my worship disorders. He came and destroyed the barriers of sin and false religion and false object so that I can now be a Christ-worshiping person.
How about you? Which of these barriers is Jesus destroying for you right now so that you can become a Christ-worshiping person? What unrepentant sin is present in your life? What lies have you been listening to? What object is your heart consumed with? My prayer is that the Spirit of God would break through any of these barriers right now and help us to become a Christ-worshiping people.