True Worship

Lesson #71

As we work through these verses we come to John 4:22: “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (ESV), which I find rather difficult to clearly explain. The verse has three parts. First, “You worship what you do not know.” It is not where the Samaritans worship that is the problem, but they don’t know whom they worship. I don’t think the Jews did either because in John 8:19 the Pharisees began asking Jesus who or where his father was. Jesus answered, “You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me you would know my Father too” (NET). Jesus is suggesting that their understanding of who God is, is wrong and therefore their worship is not true but false worship.

Second, “we worship what we know.” I already suggested that the Jews were also guilty of false worship, but they are closer to the truth than the Samaritans. To understand this we need the third part of the verse, “for salvation is from the Jews.” The Jews understood that there was coming a savior into the world. They were identifying him as the Messiah, the Son of David, and the servant of the Lord. The Jews knew the coming Messiah was an important element in true worship, but they were not able to accept that Jesus was the one.

There are many religions in the world, but only one is true and it is the one that embraces Jesus as the Savior who came to die for sinners and then to rise again to become the Mediator between God and man. The uniqueness of Jesus that we have been learning about makes the Christian religion unique among all religions and unless a person comes to Jesus in belief and is born again, that person is unable to worship in truth. To see the uniqueness of Jesus in relationship to the Father and thus to true worship, look up John 8:19, 5:23 and 5:42 – 43. Anyone who does not know who Jesus really is and honor him for who he really is, and love him for who he really is does not know or honor or love God and is thus unable to truly worship Him. It is impossible to worship what you reject and thus if you deny who Jesus is then your understanding of who God is, is incorrect and thus the one you worship is not the true God. I believe that many in the western church are dangerously close, if not already there, to worshiping a false god.  

We are going to have to leave verse 23 for next time to allow more room to express some thoughts.

Prayer

Father, this lesson reveals a very important concept about true worship and is rather difficult to grasp. I pray that what is covered in the next lesson will bring greater clarity to the concept expressed here. As I see the shift in music from a focus on God to the worshipper and less emphasis on Jesus in our teaching, I am concerned that we may be headed down the path to false worship. Father, protect me by keeping me close to Jesus.