John 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 20: Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21: Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22: Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23: But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24: God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Introduction

John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

The Father is a seeking Father. He is seeking true worshipers. A real worshiper is a result of the seeking Father. If the Father is seeking true worshipers, there are at least two obvious implications before us.

First, the Father is seeking true worshipers clearly implies that there are false worshipers. If there are true worshipers, then there are false worshipers. There are those who worship and truly do give glory to the one true God. But there are also those who just going through the motion. There are those whose worship is not real. They just go through the empty motions of attending church and worship services. There is no power; there is no life; there is no reality. It's just dead ritualism. 

Matthew 15:7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8: This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9: But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Secondly, the Father is seeking true worshipers not only implies that there are false worshipers but also implies that God is not indifferent to the kind of worship that we bring to Him. He is not disinterested about our worship. He seeks and demands worship from His people. He truly cares that we be true worshipers and that we bring Him real worship.

Therefore, we ought to be concerned as to whether the worship we give Him is real and  acceptable. So, the big question this morning is, do you have any reasons to believe that the worship you bring to Him, Sunday after Sunday is acceptable to Him? Do you have assurance based on the Scriptures that God accepted the worship you brought to Him in past Sunday mornings? Do you know if your worship has been accepted by the Father whom you profess to worship? I don't know about you, to answer I think, or I hope is not acceptable answer. I want to know that I have given the Father the worship that He is seeking from me. 

Here in our text the woman at the well brought up the subject of worship. Why she brought the subject of worship, only Jesus Christ and the woman at the well know. 

John 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 20: Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

The Samaritan woman's concern is where is the proper place of worship? But our Lord responded by declaring to her that real important issue in worship is not the location but the object and the manner of worship. The where can be anywhere. What is most important according to Jesus is not the where but the who and the how and that is our focus as we look at these verses together. 

This morning I want us to look at the who of worship and in the coming Sundays the how of worship.

I — The Who of Worship

Whom do we worship? Our Lord gives us the answer when He says in ...

John 4:24 God is a Spirit ...

That's the who of worship. God! God is the object of true worship. 

Matthew 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

We are to worship God and God alone. God must be the focus of our attention when we come to worship. Worship does not focus upon the listening to music, and not even upon the hearing of sermons, but it focuses upon God Himself. If the center of our attention is on music or even what comes over the pulpit, you and I are not worshipers of God.

God alone is the object of true worship. God has the right to be the only object of our worship because He alone is worthy. And that worthiness is clearly seen as we reflect on His character and His works. Our worship is right only when we worship God as He is described in the Bible. But who is this God? I'm afraid that there be many in our day who fits the description of the words of our Lord Jesus here in our text when He said to the woman at the well in ...

John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship ...

If we are to be real worshipers, we must know what or who we worship. We must know God. We cannot worship the God we do not know. Just because the person says he worships does not mean that he does. The question remains, who is this God that you worship? Is He the true and living God? Our Lord Jesus Christ declares Him for us in our text.

John 4:24 God is a Spirit ...

Our Lord begins by declaring to the woman at the well who God is and what He is like. God is spirit, with these few words our Lord is asserting the transcendence of God and the greatness of God. This is to say that God is completely unlike us. He is high and lifted up dwelling in light unapproachable.  It is important to have a God-given understanding of the greatness and transcendence of God, because the higher our views of God, the higher will be our worship of God. The greater our knowledge of God the greater will be our worship of God. And that is exactly what Jesus is saying, God is spirit.

This morning, if we are to be true worshipers of God, we must understand that God is totally and absolutely unlike us. God is spirit. Something that cannot be said of anyone of us here today. It is true that we are made in His image and we bear a likeness to God, but still God is infinitely beyond and above us. 

Now God is a spirit means certain things. 

1. God is Immaterial

When I say God is immaterial, I don't mean to say that God is unimportant or insignificant or irrelevant. When I say God is immaterial, I mean that He is non-material. The fact that God is spirit means that God does not have a human body. He is without physical body. He does not possess body parts like we human beings do. God the Son came to earth in human form.

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Jesus has a human body, but God the Father did not. Jesus is unique as Emmanuel, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23). 

This is also not saying that God is the Holy Spirit. No, what this is saying is that the essential nature of God is spirit as opposed to physical. God is spirit refers to His essential nature, that God is a spirit being. This is the emphasis that Jesus is making. 

But what about those passages that say that God has body parts? Scripture does refer to God at times as though He has a body. For example, in Isaiah 59:1, it mentions His hand and His ear, in 2 Chronicles 16:9, His eyes, and in Matthew 4:4, His mouth. These are figures of speech known as anthropomorphic figure of speech. The use of this figurative language, does not imply that God has an actual body. They are symbolic representations used to make God's actions more understandable to our finite minds. God is so awesome and so beyond our comprehension that He had to use kindergarten language to communicate to us.

2. God is Invisible

God is spirit, therefore, He is invisible. You and I cannot see God. That's why we have not seen God because we cannot see God. There is nothing to see. You can look as long as you want around this world and look for God and you will never physically see Him. If we are to know true and living God, it will not be by sight but it will be by faith.

God is spirit, therefore, He is invisible. 

Colossians 1:14 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

1 Timothy 1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Timothy 6:13 I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; 14: That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: 15: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; 16:  Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

There is nothing of the divine nature to see with physical eyes. And if anyone ever tells you that they have seen God physically, run away from them. He is either lying or hallucinating. For our Lord Himself says in ...

John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Exodus 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Mortal men have seen visible manifestations which God used to reveal Himself to them and to communicate with them. God led Israel all the way to the Promised Land by means of a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, but He was never seen by the nation of Israel. They have never seen Him fully in His spiritual being. There is no way they could. Spirits are invisible.

3. God is Immanent

You and I are physical beings therefore, we can only be in one place at one time. We cannot be in church and at home at the same time. When we are at home, we are not in church. And if we are in church, we are not at home. Because we have physical beings we limited by space and location. We can only be in one place at one time.

This is what differentiate God from human beings. God is not affected by space. He is not confined in one location. If God possessed a body, then God would be restricted to one location at any given point of time and could not be elsewhere. But since God is a spirit, God could be everywhere present. There are no limitations to the presence of God. 

God is immanent. Immanence is closely related to God's omnipresence. The immanence of God means 'to be within' or 'near' in relation to God's creation. The God we believe and confess is an immanent God, that is, He is nearby.

Because God is spirit, He is with us at all times and is aware of our ways. David wrote ... 

Psalm 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8: If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 9: If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10: Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

Because God is spirit, we can be aware of and thankful for His constant presence with us in every situation. If we are to worship God we must understand something of the immanence of this God. God in here with us this morning.

Closing Thoughts

To the lost among us:

Do you know whom you worship? You cannot worship the God you do not know. There is no true knowledge of God except through His Son Jesus Christ.

John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

There is no true worship until a person is born of the Holy Spirit. 

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Except you are born in the Spirit, except there is gracious and powerful work of God, revealing the Father through Jesus Christ unto you by His Spirit, you will never be a true worshiper.

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

May it cause you to fall down on your knees, crying out, Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me, save me and make me a true worshiper!

To the saved among us:

Brothers and sisters what are we going to do with these truths? If the first prerequisite of a true worship is true knowledge of God and a spiritual sight of God, then how should we prepare ourselves for worship? It's not enough just to prepare our Sunday dress. There must be a preparation of ourselves, our minds, our hearts by focusing our minds upon what we know of God, about His being, His character and His works. 

How have you prepared yourself to worship God this morning? I pray that moving forward that we would come prepared, turning our minds consciously and deliberately to think upon who God is and what He has done.

Psalm 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2: Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 4: Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5: Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

AMEN!