Worshiping In Truth

Worshiping In Truth

Reading through the Book of John recently, one of the verses that stuck with me was John 4 verse 24, where Jesus said: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

It made me wonder, “What truth?” “How do we worship in truth?”

Jesus also speaks about truth in John 8 verse 31, when we read: Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.”

This phrase “truly my disciples” tells us that there are disciples who are not truly disciples!

Some translations use the word “truly”, but the NIV uses the word “really” — “really my disciples.”

In other words, there are real and fake disciples. There is a form of discipleship that is just outward, for show; and a form of discipleship that goes down deep on the inside.

So the world isn’t just divided into two groups: disciples of Jesus and non-disciples. It’s actually divided into three groups: non-disciples, unreal disciples, and real disciples — in other words, people who know they are not following Jesus, people that say they follow Him but only have a superficial connection with Him, and people who truly know and follow Him.

Why did Jesus bring up this distinction? It might make some people squirm … it encourages us to ask ourselves the question: which one am I?

If Jesus is seeking people who worship Him in truth, is my life and my worship and my serving pleasing and truthful to Him?

Let’s read John 8 verse 31 again … Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.”

Jesus brings this point up here in verse 31 because just before it, verse 30 says, “As He was saying these things, many believed in Him.”

There had been a great response to what He was teaching.

Whenever there’s a large response to anything it’s safe to guess that some people are actually just being carried along by the crowd. If your friends are going, it’s easy for you to go, even if you wouldn’t go on your own.

I think that’s one of the danger areas where we can not worship in truth – when we are simply caught up in the size of somebody’s church, or the music, the emotions, the dancing, whatever, and we get “hyped up”, but there’s no actual connection to our hearts.

So Jesus doesn’t assume that all this “belief” – all the outward stuff, is real.

What He does is give a test that we can use to see if we are real. And in giving us this test, Jesus helps us be real – those who “really” follow and worship Him.

So, let me ask you: Are you truly a follower of Jesus?

When you ask that question, people generally give a wide variety of answers... Often people think that being a Christian is the same as believing that there is a God, or going to church, or participating in communion, giving to good causes, praying when they are in need, living a good life, or being religious.

But none of these things actually answer the question, and they are not proof that someone is following Jesus.

Like Dion often says, you can live in a garage, but it won’t make you turn into a car.

Doing certain “religious” activities like coming to church and putting money in the offering is not equivalent to following Jesus. Although these activities are usually things Christians do, not everyone who does them is a Christian. The only way to know if someone is truly following Jesus, is to use biblical guidelines.

So what does characterise a genuine follower of Jesus? If we are going to worship in Spirit and truth, we need to evaluate whether we are really following Jesus. I’m going to look at 8 characteristics of true believers:

1. In John 3 verse 3, Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”.

This is the first qualification to become a true follower of Jesus. We must confess and repent of our sins, receive God’s forgiveness by faith, surrender our lives to Christ as our Saviour and Lord, and start walking in His ways. Being a Christian is not just becoming a better person or improving ourselves; it’s an entirely new life born of the Spirit.

Let’s read 2 Corinthinans 5 verse 17 …

2. In John 8 verse 12, Jesus says: “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life”.

Once we have trusted Christ for our salvation, we must then continue to live by faith as we follow Him. Following requires obedience, and when this is the desire of our hearts, the Holy Spirit enlightens us to see how foolish it is to continue to go our own way.

If we don’t believe and obey Him, we’ll live self-centered lives and won’t do what He says or walk in His ways. But as genuine followers of Christ, we’ll trust Him with our difficulties, our pain, our temptations, and our needs, and we’ll also trust Him to lead us in the right ways, and to correct us where we need it.

3. In Luke 6 verse 12, we read: “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God”.

If we follow Jesus, we will be a person of prayer, just like He was. In fact, for a true disciple, prayer will be a major part of our lives, not just an occasional plea for help when we’re in need, or something we do at bedtime. For prayer to become a priority, we must make it a daily habit to have a quiet time alone with God, but then we must also develop the habit of communicating with Him all through the day.

4. Along with prayer, a disciple of Christ must become a listener. Matthew 17 verse 5 says: “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!’”

Too often we pray about everything we want to accomplish that day, or everything we need, or everything we‘re unhappy about. And of course it’s good to pray about those things. But it’s even more essential to spend time with the Father, asking Him to guide and enable us to be obedient to Him, and listening to how He guides and leads us. We must take time to listen to Him as we read His Word and pray.

5. In Mark 12 verse 30 Jesus instructs us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and will all your strength”.

We can’t follow Christ with a divided heart—half in the world and half with God. The love we need to have for Christ involves our entire being.

If we love Him with our whole heart and our whole mind, we can’t willingly allow impure thoughts, images, and words into our minds, and claim to love Him at the same time.

Wholehearted love for Christ affects what we think and what we watch, what we do, and where we go.

6. In John 8:31, Jesus says: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” So if you want to know and follow Jesus, you can know Him through His Word.

The word is singular, “my word,” not “my words.” This means that Jesus is thinking of the sum total of all that He has taught. Jesus wants us to think about and listen to all that He says about Himself and His Father’s Kingdom, not just pick and choose the comfy bits.

Jesus is the sum of His word, because all of His words in one way or another draw our attention to Him.

Of course, we don’t only experience Jesus’ presence in reading the Bible – we can experience Him in music, in poetry, sitting by the ocean or in silence. But we must measure these experiences against the revelation of God in Scripture, because our hearts and our emotions can deceive us.

Let’s read what 2 John 1 verse 9 says about this …

So what does the Word say about who Jesus is?

We read words like: “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11). “I am in the Father” (John 10:38). “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14: 6).

When you take all His words together, they have one great focus — Jesus Himself. They all point to Him.

This is why in John 15 verse 4, Jesus says: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.”

As true disciples, we need to remain in Christ, and remain in the Word. I love how John Piper describes this … he says: “Here’s a picture of what I think it means. The word of Jesus, with Himself as the center and focus of it, has a kind of force field, like a magnetic field around it. And when you are “in His word,” you are in that force field. You are under the force coming from His word. So, for example:

§ Part of this force field is the truth of the word. So when you are “in” the word, you live in the truth.

§ Another part of the force field is the supreme value of the word, and when you are “in” the word you are captured by the preciousness of the word, and the Saviour.

§ Another part of the force field of the word is the power and grace of the word, so that when you are “in” the word, you made peaceful and hopeful by the word. You trust in the word, because it can do what it promises.

You cannot be a true disciple without staying in the Word.

7. In Matthew 28 verse 19, Jesus commands His followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations”.

If we are going to truly follow Him, we will share the truth of God’s Word with others, regardless of whether they like us or not.

In a world of hatred, bitterness, intolerance, and death, Christ’s followers are literally risking their lives to bring the gospel to people in some parts of the world. Each of us can and must surely say something about Jesus to someone we know who is not following Jesus!!

8. In John 12 verse 26, Jesus says: “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him”.

Jesus came to us as a servant, and as His followers, that’s what we should do as well.

All of us have the capacity to serve the Lord in some way by serving others. Service comes in many different forms: helping, caring, encouraging, comforting, giving, teaching, or sharing God’s Word.

A true disciple cannot be selfish with the Gospel, and he cannot be selfish with himself and his time and his talents.

That’s quite a checklist … being a Christian is so much more than just being a good person, or even knowing that there is a God, isn’t it?

We read in Matthew 4 verses 18 to 20, that as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, He called Simon Peter and Andrew to leave their work as fishermen and follow Him. Their response demonstrates what following Jesus involves: in verse 20, it says “Immediately they left their nets and followed Him”.

This was a whole life commitment, not merely religious activity.

The last thing I want to talk about today is why all of this matters … What difference does it make if I’m a really good person, but you’re a disciple of Christ?

Well, I’m glad you asked … because it’s literally the difference between life and death … that’s why this matters!!

Let’s read John 8 verses 21 – 25 … Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”

But He continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am He, you will indeed die in your sins.”

“Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied.

Jesus is talking here about eternity … not the death of this body, but what happens to after this body dies …

And He says that the only way to eternal life is through the forgiveness of our sins. If you are a true believer, you will not die in your sins, but you will have eternal life with God the Father.

Why won’t we die? What happens to our sins?

They are forgiven, taken away, wiped clean!!

Back in John 1:29 Jesus is called “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

How does He do that? He tells us in John 10:15, “I lay down my life for the sheep.”

So Jesus takes our place, and receives God’s punishment of death which we deserved, which means that the wrath of God is totally removed from us. And instead of getting wrath from God, we get life and adoption from God because of the death of Jesus.

Listen to this amazing word about God’s wrath in John 3:36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

But if you have believed — truly believed in Jesus as Lord and Saviour — God’s wrath does not remain on you. Never again will you taste it. Ever!

John wrote about this in John 20:31, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

He meant that the Gospel was written not just to awaken faith in non-disciples, but also to wake up people who think they are disciples but aren’t, and to help those who are real disciples confirm their reality and be stronger in their faith.

If you truly follow Christ, your sins are truly forgiven! The wrath of God never again rests on you. You have life in abundance here, and in eternity. You are one of Jesus’ sheep, and no one can pluck you out of His hand (John 10:29). You are no longer a slave but a son or daughter of God (1 John 3:1). You are the heir of all of the promises that come to the children of the creator of the universe.

That’s what it means to be a true disciple.

Let’s take a few minutes to respond to this word:

· Can you truthfully say that you are following Jesus? Why or why not?

· Which of these characteristics of a Christ follower are the most difficult for you to put into practice? Would you be willing to ask God to work them into your life so you can follow Jesus more fully?

Let’s pray:

· If you are a believer in Jesus, may the Lord use this word to confirm and strengthen and gladden your heart in the word of Jesus.

· If you are an unbeliever, may the Lord use this word to give life to your spiritually dead soul and give you faith and joy through Jesus who died so that you might have eternal life through faith.

· And if you are a phony believer, I pray that the Lord will use this word to show you what a true Christian is, and wake you up and give you a true spiritual taste for the truth and beauty and value and grace and power of Jesus in His word.

· Lord, make us those who worship You in Spirit and truth, we pray. Humble our hearts, set us free from empty religious practices, and make us fully alive in You. When we know the truth of who You are, that truth sets us free to truly know and worship you.

· Thank You, Jesus, for being the way to the Father for us!

· Amen.