Understanding the Will of God (John 4:21-24)

     His enemies were saying that Jesus was baptizing more people than John the Baptist. They were trying to stir up trouble by creating jealousy between the followers of Jesus and the followers of John the Baptist. Jesus did not want this division among the people, so He decided to go to Galilee and minister there. This was an interruption to His Judean ministry, but Jesus used this interruption to extend His ministry elsewhere.

     Jesus turned His ministry toward Galilee. The direct route to Galilee from Judea was through Samaria. But proper Jews did not go through Samaria. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews of Jesus’ day. They would take the long route around Samaria rather than go through it. But not Jesus.

     Verse 4 says Jesus had to go through Samaria. He did not have to go through Samaria, but He had to go through Samaria to meet the woman at Jacob’s well that He knew He could help. Jesus is always willing to meet with us if we are willing to meet with Him and receive His help.

     When Jesus and His disciples reached Jacob’s well, Jesus was weary from the journey and stopped at the well to rest. By the way, you can go to that very spot today since we know the exact spot of Jacob’s well. While He rested, Jesus sent the disciples into a nearby town to get some take out food.

    While they were gone, a woman came to the well to draw some water. This was a divine appointment the woman unknowingly had with Jesus.

     Jesus interrupted her daily routine by asking for a drink of water from the well since He had nothing with which to draw water.

     The woman was surprised by His request because Jews did not normally speak to Samaritans, or have anything to do with them.

     She responded to this interruption with questions. Why does He, a Jew, talk with her? Later she asked Jesus about the living water He offered her.

     Very often there are interruptions in our lives. An illness or a death strikes the family. A job is lost. A marriage fails. A dream does not come true. How do we react to life’s disappointments? Often with questions, such as, “Why?”

     Sometimes we meet the interruptions in life with resentment. We settle down in a mood of anger or self-pity. We keep telling ourselves how awful it is. Such responses damage who we are and damage our health.

     The late J. Wallace Hamilton said interruptions are a part of the scenery of life. We are to expect them. Too many people think that life should hold no problems. They are not prepared for them when they come. We should accept the fact that life is full of interruptions, and not always pleasant ones.

     We are not to resent the interruptions, but employ them. His enemies interrupted Jesus’ ministry. The woman interrupted Jesus’ rest. He employed the interruption.

     We can be irritated by interruptions, or we can be stimulated by them. Some years ago, a Knoxville newspaper carried two stories. One was about a young man who was jilted by his girlfriend. He jumped to his death off a bridge. The other story was about a young Air Force corporal who, when his girlfriend jilted him, wrote a song. He sold the song for thousands of dollars and it became a popular hit.

     He turned his sorrow into song. He made the interruption pay. This is what Jesus constantly did. When someone in a crowd would interrupt Him, He used that interruption to teach some great truth, such as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

     Jesus saw every interruption as a divine opportunity. Every ugly thing He transformed into something beautiful.

     Look what He did with His cross of crucifixion. That was the ultimate interruption meant to destroy Him. He turned it into something that continues to save and bless and lift people today.

     We see the same thing with the early Christians. Put them in jail and they start a revival in the jail, and even convert the jailer. Persecute them so severely that they are forced to flee from Jerusalem, and they spread the message of Christ wherever they went. Put the Apostle Paul in jail for the crime of being a Christian and he wrote some of the letters we have in the Bible. Every interruption became an instrument to be used. Every interruption was an opportunity.

     From this we may gather that God’s will for us is to employ the interruptions in life. Use them; don’t resent them. Trust God to do something with them. The woman at the well also experienced an interruption when she met Jesus. What a blessing that turned out to be. Look for the eventual blessings in life’s interruptions.

     There is something else to learn from this interruption at the well. Jesus employed it to teach us about how to worship. Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.”

     God’s will for us is that we worship Him in spirit and in truth. What does it mean to worship God in spirit and in truth?

     The Jews worshipped God in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Samaritans worshipped God on Mt. Gerizim. The Samaritans did not accept all of the books of the Old Testament. They only accepted the first five books. These books are known as the Pentateuch. They are the five books written by Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Therefore, the Samaritans did not have the truth of God contained in the books they rejected.

     The worship of the Samaritans was marked by enthusiasm. They worshipped in spirit, which means with enthusiasm, but they did not worship in truth because they rejected much of the revealed truth of God found in the books of the Old Testament they rejected.

     The Jewish people, on the other hand, accepted the truth of God as found in all the books of the Old Testament. They had the truth, but they did not worship with enthusiasm. They had the truth, but they lacked the spirit, they lacked the enthusiasm. They had the truth, but their hearts were not in their worship. When they prayed, or fasted, or gave to the poor, their hearts were not in it. They were not sincere.

     Jesus told the Pharisees and the scribes in Mark 7:6, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.’”

     It is God’s will that we worship Him in spirit and in truth. The word spirit does not refer to the Holy Spirit, but to the human spirit, to the inner person. Worship is to come from inside of us. It is to be genuine and enthusiastic.

    True worship does not depend on being in a special building with organ music and the wearing of right clothes and the saying of certain liturgies. Worship takes place on the inside, in the spirit, with genuine enthusiasm for the things of God.

     If we worship insincerely, then we have not worshipped. Stephen Charnock wrote in his classic work, The Existence and Attributes of God, “Without the heart it is no worship; it is a stage play; an acting a part without being that person.” If we do not worship with sincerity and in the knowledge of who God is, with our thoughts centered on God, we are play-acting. We are not really worshipping.

     The Samaritans worshipped God with enthusiasm, with sincerity, but they were ignorant of much of the truth of God and Jesus rebuked and rejected their worship. Worship without the proper  knowledge of God is not worship. Our worship is poor when our knowledge of God is poor.

     How does Jesus feel about people who worship in other religions? They may be sincere, but Jesus rebukes and rejects it because they have rejected God’s truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” Any religion that rejects Jesus as He is revealed to us in the Bible is not worshipping in truth and is rejected by God. Sincerity and enthusiasm without truth is not worship.