Worship
Course: The Higher Calling to Worship
Lesson
3
Lesson Title:
The Father is seeking worshippers
Lesson Goal:
…that the student
will understand the call to worship and seek to be a worshipper.
Text: John 4:23-24 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.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth.
Theme: The lowest in society can reach the heights of worship.
Introduction: God’s eternal plan and purpose of God calls the lost to salvation and the redeemed to worship:
·
The Son of man came to seek and save that which was lost', Luke
· The Father is seeking for worshippers, John 4:23.
There is no higher calling than the call to worship.
Introductory
Story: John 4:4-42
·
The need of salvation: Firstly Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman
concerning the need of salvation (
·
The need of salvation leads to the theme of worship: The Samaritan woman is the first to speak about worship (
·
The woman becomes a witness to who Jesus is: She became a witness to bring people to Jesus (
Main Points:
1. The greatest worshippers are aware they have been lifted from the lowest depths of sin, Psalm 113:7-8.
Question:
Who was the woman
that Jesus spoke to about worship?
· She was an outcast by race and gender (a Samaritan woman).
· Her personal life was a mess (she had been married five times).
· She was immoral (she lived in sin with a man she was not married to).
Yet Jesus told her about the very heart of God that is seeking worshippers.
· The Lord is no respecter of persons.
· We are not limited in worship by who we are.
Question: Why did Jesus tell the Samaritan woman that the Father is seeking worshippers? The disciples needed to hear this message but they had gone away to buy food (4:8) and did not hear the conversation that He had with the woman.
Jesus did tell the disciples about the conversation with the woman otherwise John could not have written it in his gospel. The reason Jesus revealed this spiritual truth in His private conversation with the Samaritan woman was so that the disciples would know that the Samaritan woman is the kind of person that the Father seeks to worship Him.
2.
The
Holy Spirit draws people to Jesus through the manifestations of the Spirit (1
Corinthians 12:3).
Question: How did the Samaritan woman come to see who Jesus
is?
By the gifts
of the Spirit.
It was
through a word of knowledge that the Samaritan woman was drawn to Jesus (
Although
Jesus was truly God, He performed no miracle by His inherent power as the Son
of God. Jesus laid aside this power when
He became man.
We know this
because the ministry of Jesus began when he was baptised by John and the Holy Spirit
came upon Him (Matthew
Question:
Why was it necessary for Jesus to minister in the
power of the Holy Spirit alone?
It was
necessary because if He had not ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit
alone then He could not have told His disciples ‘greater works
shall you do’ (John 14:12).
Because Jesus
ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit the body of Christ can minister in
the same way.
It was a word
of knowledge that enabled the Samaritan woman to be drawn to Christ. In the same way the body of Christ must move
in the gifts of the Holy Spirit today in order to break through barriers that
would prevent people from coming to Christ (1 Corinthians
12:4-11).
3.
The Lord lifts the lowliest in
society to the heights of worship. Jesus
had to draw the Samaritan woman Himself.
This is the first step in becoming a
worshipper.
·
The
Samaritan woman was excited about meeting Jesus. Her excitement is
seen as she went into the city leaving her waterpot at the well and then
calling to the people (John
·
The
depths that we have been lifted from should reflect the height of our
worship. The
First Epistle of Peter says it this way, that we who belong to the Lord were
outcasts, like the Samaritan woman, but now we have been called to worship: 'But you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you
should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into
his marvellous light: Which in time past
were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy,
but now have obtained mercy.' (1 Peter
2:9-10). Those looked
upon as the lowest in society can reach the greatest heights in worship.
·
The
depth of our relationship with the Lord will be determined by how much we
desire to know Christ. The highest
calling of the Psalmist David was to worship.
This was a higher calling than his call to be King (Psalms 27:4).
Charles
Spurgeon said ‘If God calls you to be a preacher, do not stoop to be a King’,
but the greatest call is not the call to be a preacher it is the call to worship.
Summary:
The call to worship is the highest calling of God.
1. The Father is still seeking worshippers. The worshipper never loses the excitement of knowing Jesus, and the prayer of his or her heart will always be 'that I might know Him'.
2. The Lord was drawing the woman to Himself, and it was the Holy Spirit who opened her heart through a word of knowledge.
3. The Lord is no respecter of persons. The Samaritan woman is an example of the lowest in society being called to the highest calling to worship.
What should the students do?
1)
Knowing
the depths that we have been lifted from should make us reach for the heights
of worship. A worshipper will seek to
glorify the Lord at all times.
2)
Recognise
that it is the Lord who is drawing us to worship and develop a love
relationship with Him.
3)
Understand
that God is no respecter of persons and there are no social barriers in being a
worshipper.
4)
Keep
our hearts pure so that we have one desire – to know the Lord as a worshipper.
Textbook - The Higher Calling to Worship