What is True Worship?

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“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” -- John 4:10 (NASB)

It’s high noon, and you’re hot, dusty, tired and thirsty.

You’ve traveled from Judea, headed for Galilee. Instead of taking the long way around and avoiding Samaria, you follow a shortcut right through, even though you’re Jewish. Jews and Samaritans despise each other because they’re at odds about where best to worship the one true God.

The village of Sychar appears ahead, with a well outside. It's known as Jacob’s Well, on land he gave to his son Joseph. You sit next to the well and send your disciples on into town to buy lunch. They have no idea why you’re doing this, but you do.

Your name is Jesus.

Jesus knew He was there to preach the news of “living water” to the Samaritans.

A woman from the village approached carrying her jug, and Jesus asked her for a drink of water. Shocked, she asked why a Jewish man would request a Samaritan woman give Him a cup of water.

Jesus told her if you took water from Jacob's well, you'd get thirsty again. If you drank of the "living water" He offered, she would never thirst forever.

Intrigued, she noted Jesus had no jug, so where did He get this fancy living water? She didn’t want to have to draw water from the well daily. After her honesty was revealed by Jesus’ test of her proper marital status, she realized He was a prophet.

She fired off the big question: why did Samaritans worship God on their mountain, but the Jews said God could only be worshiped in Jerusalem?

What Jesus told her blew her mind. “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. . . But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”

She answers that she believed, “Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ,” and when He did, He would declare all things, including the right answer as to where to worship.

Jesus then makes the first recorded direct statement of His Messiahship to that Samaritan woman: “I who speak to you am He.”

It’s important to realize our entire lives should be worship, not just a particular time, day of the week, place, or manner when Christians gather to praise God.

As the Apostle Paul later wrote:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:2, NASB)

Questions for Reflection:

Read John 4:1-43, the story of the Woman at the Well. It’s not only astonishing that Jesus’s first declaration He is the Messiah is made to a woman, but of all people, a Samaritan.

1. When the disciples return, what did they think about Jesus talking to a woman?

2. What exchange of words do they have with Jesus over food?

3. What were Jesus’ purposes in going to Sychar?