How To Establish Religious Authority #2

A. Last week discussed the natural, inborn tendency of man to worship God. And we discovered that it was a part of our created nature. It is the way God made us. Eccl. 3:11?12, reveals the fact that, “God has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” That means that our inborn inclination is to worship God. But, we have a problem. We cannot fathom, we cannot understand the mind of God. We don’t know how to worship unless God reveals His mind to us and tells us how He wants to be worshiped.
1. In Jno. 4:4-26, Jesus is in the country of Samaria where He has a conversation with a woman at the well outside the city of Sychar. (History of the Samaritans and their religion.) Their conversation turns to the subject of religion. She says, “We Samaritans worship this way and you Jews worship another way. Which way is right?” Jesus’ answer is forthright . Vs. 22-23, “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we Jews worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” God had revealed Himself to the Jews and gave them instructions how to worship Him. No such contact or relationship had been made with the Samaritans.
a. What is Jesus saying? You Samaritans do not have the full revelation of God, therefore you
worship God in ignorance. That’s what it means to “worship what you do not know.” The Jews
were the only people to whom God had revealed His laws and decrees that would being salvation.
PS. 147:19-20. Jesus told the woman, “the Jews are right and the Samaritans are wrong.” Worship by the Samaritans is rejected by God and the worship of the Jews is accepted by God. What made the difference? Knowing what God wanted. God told the Jews what He wanted.
(1) The Samaritans were half-breed Jews. Because of their sin of departing from God’s Word they were rejected by God and went into Assyrian captivity. The majority of the Jews (10 tribes called Israel) went into captivity and never returned. Today we refer to them as the lost tribes of Israel. But, they are not lost. If you know where something is----it’s not lost. We know where the 10 northern tribes of Israel are. God sent them into captivity and assimilated them into the nations and they became like the Gentiles among whom they lived. They refused to live according to God’s Word and God condemned them the same way He will reject and condemn all who refuse to live according to His Word today.
(1) That’s exactly what is happening in the world today. Jesus established His church. Gave
us this Word that tells us how to get into that church and how to live our lives in that
church. How to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. And men, in that church, like the 10
tribes of northern Israel have rejected the written Word of God to establish their desires
for worshiping God.
(1) Like, Jeroboam who divided and split the nation of Israel, Men today have ignored God’s Word and have torn, wounded, divided the body of Christ with their man-made traditions. Led people off into man-made worship and rejected what God has commanded.
(2) When Jesus was on earth the Jews had already begun a departure from what God had spoken to them. They started replacing God’s commands with man-made ideas, humans desires for worshiping God. Jesus spoke about it in Matt 15:3-9. Mark 7:8, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”
(2) Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “You Samaritans don’t know what you’re doing when you try to worship God.” The Jews have the Word of God that tells them how to worship. But, the problem was that the Jews were not following God’s Word.
(1) The Jews were starting to pervert God’s Word and make it teach what God had not intended it to teach by adding to it. That’s why Jesus told the woman in Vs. 23-24, “But a time is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

(2) The purpose of the Law of Moses and the Jewish religion was to bring Jesus the Messiah to the world. When that purpose had been accomplished the Law and Judaism was no longer needed. That’s what Paul explains by asking this question in Gal. 3:19. “What, then, was the purpose of the law?” He answers that question in the latter part of Vs. 19-29. The purpose of Christianity is to give all people, not just the Jews, access to God through a covenant relationship. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that the time for that to happen was about to be accomplished by the Messiah and that He was the Messiah.
(2) Jesus tells the Samaritan woman the same thing Paul tells the people at Athens in Acts 17:22-23, "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To an unknown God. Now let me tell you about the real God. The one you call unknown.”
(1) Jesus tells this woman, “You cannot worship God any way you want to. That’s why God is sending the Messiah. He is the One who will show you how to worship God in Spirit and in Truth.” “And what He will teach you will not be just for the Jews. It will be for all prople.” She said, “When the Messiah comes He will teach us all things.” Jesus answered, “I am He.” She jumped up, ran to town to tell everybody who she had found.
(1) God said you must worship Him in “Spirit and in Truth.” Where do you learn the truth that tells us how to offer Spiritual worship that is acceptable to God? God will not accept just any kind of worship.
(2) How do I learn how to worship God in an acceptable way? We are told how in Jno. 16:12-13. "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” The Holy Spirit was sent to guide that apostles into all truth. Everything they taught and wrote down in the New Testament gives us the pattern for coming to God and how to worship Him in Spirit and In Truth.
(2) Paul gave this command in Phip. 3:17-18, “Join with others (other Christians) in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” 2 Tim. 1:13. “ What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.” 1 Cor. 4:16?17. “I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord,
who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.”
(1) What one doctrine did Paul teach? Eph. 4:4?6. “There is one body (church) and one Spirit? just as you were called to one hope when you were called? one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God .” The one God has given us one pattern, one doctrine by which we may worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Believe it, Obey it and you will be saved.
(2) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 02/16/03 am