Word of Salvation – Vol. 21 No.06 – November 1974
O Come Let Us Adore Him
Christmas Sermon by Rev. P. J. Berghouse on John 4:24
Scripture Reading: John 4:1-26
Psalter Hymnal (New) 195, 272:2,3 (summ/Law), 272:4 (Law),
92:2,6 (Off.), 209:1,3,6 (sermon), 325:2 (Dox.)
Beloved of the Lord,
One of the favourite songs at Christmas is:
“O come, all ye faithful. . .
O come ye to Bethlehem!.
O come, let us adore Him… CHRIST THE LORD.”
Yes, that Babe in Bethlehem, is CHRIST THE LORD!
We do not ‘adore Him’ because He is such a lovely baby.
We do not ‘adore Him, because. . . here lies the solution to all OUR PROBLEMS!!!
We do not ‘adore Him, just because ever so many OTHER people do it,
or because it has been done in the past!
All this would be sheer Idolatry…
for…”there is only ONE GOD, and Him alone shall you worship.”
There is only ONE GOD, the Creator of heaven and earth
and BESIDES Him – nothing,
and absolutely NOTHING may be worshipped
for then we would give greater glory to the creature than to the CREATOR
and THAT may never be!
SO, we are faced with the question:
“what are YOU worshipping at Christmas?”
OR, we can ask:
“HOW are you WORSHIPPING at Christmas?”
Is it so, that our presents are really the most important?
Or, are the holidays, perhaps?
Is it the traditional TREE that makes us feel ‘good’?
Or, are we being ‘conditioned’ by the atmosphere?
AND, we must penetrate deeper into our lives;
we must go beyond the season of Christmas, and ask:
“DOES our January-to-December Life,
CLASH in any way with our coming to Bethlehem,
to worship CHRIST THE LORD?
Today we take courage, as the Lord Himself strengthens our faith.
For it is CHRIST THE LORD who talks with the woman at the well.
As God’s ANOINTED, He shows to her,
and through her to all of us,
God’s WAY with men; as well as Man’s way to GOD.
Our text speaks of:
The Need to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
God’s Word shows:
I. The Cause of this Need.
II. The Answer to this Need.
I. The Cause of the Need to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
The picture of this Samaritan lady is fascinating!!
In vs.18 we read that she has had FIVE husbands
and is now….. living-with-another-man!
The expression: “Till death doth us part” obviously had lost its meaning in her life.’
She preferred it to read: “Till the first quarrel drives us apart!”
In fact, it looks like she has given up on marriage altogether.
The seventh Commandment had somehow dropped out of existence, as far as she was concerned.
Like so many people today, she had lost sight of the connection which exists between marriage and ‘faithfulness’. And when sex becomes the ‘right-to-pleasure’ for the INDIVIDUAL, marriage becomes a matter of convenience
– for as long as it lasts
– Husband and wife – Father and Mother
– are spoken of as ‘a man’ and a ‘woman’.
They are regarded as independent individuals rather than people living in a God-given-relationship.
And SO, “what GOD has joined together”, MAN tears apart, in blatant REBELLION!
Yes, the Samaritan lady has HAD five husbands!….. and YET……..!
She DOES use ‘religious terms’
– she talks about: a prophet,
– about: worship,
– about: the Messiah,
– she even says that she is looking forward to CHRIST,
for “He will declare all things unto us.” (vs.25)
She IS capable of taking part in a ‘religious conversation’
— she asks Jesus, WHERE He thinks people should worship.
After all, “her forefathers worshipped in this mountain,
and the Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place.”
Her question is a typical one for the UN-converted person.
Her question is: WHERE – at what PLACE.
For her, the external things are ALL important!
Ah, yes, a FORM of godliness she knows…!
But, so far, she has not as yet tasted the POWER thereof.
As we look at our present-day Christmas celebrations…
– when we see, almost the whole world ‘downing tools’,
– when we hear, almost everyone talk about ‘Peace and Goodwill’,
THEN, let us stop and think to see HOW important the EXTERNAL things are.
Just how much ‘POWER of the Gospel’ is there this Christmas for you,
in that Manger of Bethlehem?
One cannot but wonder, how many people today come NO FURTHER than to ask the question of the Samaritan lady: “WHERE do we worship?”
Notice further, that where her QUESTION betrayed her EXTERNALISM
the ANSWER which she expected, showed
the tremendous importance, which TRADITION played in her life:
“Our fathers worshipped here……..,
and the Jews say ‘in Jerusalem…..!”
The root of her tradition goes back some 500 plus, years to the rebuilding of the Temple, after the Babylonian Captivity.
The Samaritans, who were then living in Palestine, wanted to help the returning Jews with the rebuilding. They were not allowed however, and so they established their OWN place of worship, on the very hill where Jesus was talking with the Samaritan lady. Ever since that time, there has been a controversy between the Samaritans and the Jews, as to WHERE the real place for worship was.
Again, as we look at our present-day Christmas celebrations we find that, for many people, it is no more than something TRADITIONAL. Jesus, the Child in a manger, is regarded as a ‘legend’ and the centre of much folklore!
To our shame we must admit that the external,
AND the traditional,
are imposing their overwhelming influence on the thinking,
yes even on the worshipping of many.
It is no wonder then, that our LIVES are also influenced;
You see, we may be quite faithful in our marriage,
but, surely, THAT is not the ONLY aspect of life
where blatant REBELLION against GOD comes out in the open!
What GOD has joined together,
MAN may NOT tear apart!
This is true for…… husband and wife,
for…… sex and marriage,
but also for….. words and their meaning!
― just imagine: saying one thing,
while you mean something totally different.
In another field God has joined: property and ownership!
― just imagine: taking something for yourself,
when GOD has already given it to someone else!
Do we need to mention one of the great mysteries of this world?
Human life? ― When GOD joins body, and soul, so that a new human life begins.
What right has MAN, to tear THESE two apart again?
When we consider questions like these,
we discover that modern man is not all that different to that lady of Samaria.
She IS a picture of ‘man in rebellion against God’.
Her understanding of life ― her Externalism and Traditionalism,
as well as her way of life,
ALL are typical of what happens
when man worships the creature rather than the Creator…..!
The lady of Samaria may have been ‘religious’,
But Jesus exposes her worship as ‘not in Truth’.
In verse 22 we read that Jesus said to her:
“You (Samaritans) know not what you worship!”
Is THIS not the greatest lack in the world today?
Oh, people worship alright….. they worship…..
at the altar of ‘love’, or of money…
they worship…
at the altar of ‘nature’, or of ‘science’….
they worship….
‘passions’ or even….. people!
they worship….. the BABE of Bethlehem……
but NOT CHRIST THE LORD………!
BECAUSE attaching more value to the things that are EXTERNAL,
and perhaps TRADITIONAL,
they refuse to recognise that God is SPIRIT,
and that they that worship HIM, must do so ‘in Spirit and in Truth’.
If OUR life to-day shows in any way, that somewhere, somehow, we are like this lady, tearing apart the things that GOD has put together, THEN the Lord calls us to repentance through THIS passage, in which He not only shows OUR NEED, but also…..
II. HIS Answer to the Need.
First of all, Jesus deals with the WAY the Samaritan lady looks at life with her ‘EXTERNALISM’ and her ‘Traditionalism’.
In verse 21 we read that “the hour comes, when NEITHER in this mountain, NOR in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father.”
Such a statement must have been quite a shock to her system…
THAT what she had always taken for granted….
THAT what for generations, yes for over 500 years,
had been accepted as an established fact
in the religious life of the Samaritans…….
will THAT come to an end???
Well ― how would you react????
Say, for instance, that as from today, ALL church doors would be closed?
If we could NO LONGER come together for worship, as our custom is??
Time and again we are told that it is a bad practice to interrupt the regularity of a midweek Bible study meeting. If you skip one week, it is very difficult to get the people together again with the same regularity as before!
Well, if that is true of a mid-week meeting….. IS the situation any better with regard to the Sunday Services? DOES the pattern of backsliding not show, that once you have broken the habit of going to Church twice, it becomes easier and easier to let it slip more-often?
Now, just imagine, that Jesus would say to you: “The time comes that you shall no longer worship in THIS place.’ ….WHAT would happen to YOUR Churchgoing…. to your WORSHIP? It HAS happened in other countries!
Much of our answer to that question will depend on our outlook on life. It will depend on how much importance we attach to the external things. It will depend on the very BASIS of our ‘religious’ life…….!
Are we what we are…. ONLY because our forefathers were the same?
Would it be TOO painful to ask,
whether the BIRTH of CHRIST THE LORD
would be just as joyfully remembered
WITHOUT the tree and all the other trappings of Christmas???
“The time will come…”, says Jesus, that the outward things are taken away.
Yes, even traditions will be tested! AND WHAT THEN???
Will that mean: no more WORSHIP at all???
In giving His answer to the human need, Jesus penetrates through the external trappings to the HEART of the matter, for, there IS more to life, than what ‘meets the eye’;
there IS more to worship, than the place and the traditions of man.
Worship is a matter of FAITH!
“God is a Spirit!……
.and they that worship HIM must do so: IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH!”
You see, THAT is the heart of the matter:
The external things, as well as the traditions, ARE very important,
but…… FAR more important
is that we are NOT worshipping the creature
NOR anything created
we are to worship the CREATOR!!
Jesus puts it this way: “God is SPIRIT.”
― that is to say: God is totally DIFFERENT to anything you see!
Perhaps it may be helpful here to remember that, this WORLD,
― this CREATION, — belongs to God.
HE has made it it is His Own!
but……. God does NOT ‘belong’ to this creation.
Even our children can understand this;
when they think of their toys: Children may HAVE toys –
But that does not make them into toys, does it.
When you have a trainset, you can play all day with it,
you can even say: “choo-choo” from time to time;
But that does NOT make you into a train!
you are only playing it.
SO, God created all things
– He upholds all things,
– He governs all things,
but that does NOT make Him a creature!
He does NOT have a body!
He is…… SPIRIT!
We cannot SEE a spirit; but that does not make him less real.
We cannot SEE that the Babe in Bethlehem is GOD-in-human-flesh;
But that does not make it less TRUE!
What then does it mean, when Jesus says that those who
worship ‘the Father’ must do so ‘IN SPIRIT”?
It means that:
– to people who are bogged down in external and traditional things,
– to people who are frustrated
because they can no longer see beyond the hard facts of life,
– to people who are faced with the ruinous results
of ‘tearing apart what God had joined together,
– to ALL these people, and indeed for many more,
it means that Jesus comes with the REDEEMING message
that there is the UNSEEN side to life: the spiritual side.
That is the side of God, the Father!
That is the side of the UN-changing CREATOR,
who constantly CARES for His creation,
AND for His Creatures,
and who, in infinite compassion
SEEKS them to worship Him “IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH”.
What does it mean, when Jesus says that those who worship ‘the Father’ must do so ‘IN TRUTH”?
WHAT is Truth?
For many people today, ‘truth’ has lost its absolute meaning!
They say that everything ‘depends on the circumstances’…!
What is right for one, may be wrong for someone else.
Well, in a way, Jesus agrees!
Nothing is ‘true’ just by itself, because NO created thing exists by itself. No matter what you do to it – as long as it exists – it will always remain a created thing’.
The trouble starts therefore, when people want to talk about the ‘truth’ of something, WITHOUT taking GOD into consideration. And the result is again that these people become – frustrated, and bogged down, – faced with ruin. But for these people also there is a Message of HOPE, for TRUTH does exist!
GOD is Truth!
And every created thing, exists in-relationship-to-HIM!
And every created being, exists in-relationship-to-HIM,
whether this is recognised, or NOT!
The: — to worship the Father ‘IN TRUTH’ — means that we worship and serve GOD by keeping HIM ‘in the picture’ no matter what we say, do, or think!
THE big question of course is:
“How can WE — who are mere ‘earthlings’
— who by our very NATURE,
are always thinking and talking in terms of
things that we see, hear, touch, etc. —
how can WE, worship the Father in Spirit and Truth?”
Is that not something that is ‘reserved for later’
— when we are set free from all our earthly limitations, in heaven??
But, turn again to what Jesus says:
“The hour comes, AND NOW IS, when true worshippers SHALL worship….!”
“NOW”, — that was the time when Jesus was on earth, talking with this lady of Samaria. — That lady who was so hopelessly stuck with her problems! You see, the BIG difference has been brought about by the fact that CHRIST THE LORD has been born!
Without Him, we would all be, still in the same position as that woman at the well:
— Not knowing WHAT to worship,
— Not knowing WHERE to worship,
— Living lives of loneliness,
— Drifting from one ‘thing’ to the next,
— Always searching never satisfied,
— Being ‘religious’ without TRUE worship!
But, NOW, Jesus of Bethlehem is THE CHRIST:
God’s Anointed
— HE shows us what true worship is!!
— HE takes away the ruinous results of our Rebellion!! …and even more…
— HE fills our lives with HIS Spirit
― and with HIS Truth,
so that God the Father, does NOT seek in vain for such who worship HIM, in Spirit and in Truth.
THIS is the ‘Wonder’ the ‘Most marvellous work’ which GOD has wrought on Christmas day.
“Come WORSHIP while your soul rejoices!”
Amen!