ShortJohn4-1

Contents of Chapter 4

1	v.1	9	v.9	17	v.17	25	v.25	33	v.34	41	v.43	49	v.51
2	v.2	10	v.10	19	v.18	26	v.27	34	v.35	42	v.44	50	v.52
3	v.3	11	v.11	19	v.19	27	v.28	35	v.37	43	v.45	51	v.53
4	v.4	12	v.12	20	v.20	28	v.29	36	v.38	44	v.46	52	v.54
5	v.5	13	v.13	21	v.21	29	v.30	37	v.39	45	v.47
6	v.6	14	v.14	22	v.22	30	v.31	38	v.40	46	v.48
7	v.7	15	v.15	23	v.23	31	v.32	39	v.41	47	v.49
8	v.8	16	v.16	24	v.24	32	v.33	40	v.42	48	v.50

Contents of Ch.4

CHAPTER 4: Part 1: Leaving Jerusalem v.1-3

Short Meditations in John 4: 1. Rumours

Jn 4:1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John

I find every time I come across the word ‘Pharisee' in the Gospels, I think, ‘Oh no, here we go again!' As we commented when we were first considering Nicodemus in the previous chapter, they were one of the main groups opposing Jesus but it was because they were conservative believers that they struggled with the things Jesus said. But the truth is that they sought to be the guardians of the Law and whereas others were casual about it, they were not. So they had good intentions, even if they were a little misguided. Shall we balance that up a little and say, a lot misguided.

Their problem was that they focused so much on the Law that they failed to maintain contact with the Giver of the Law. If they had done that, they might have realised who Jesus was. Unfortunately they didn't and were, no doubt, one of the forces that brought about Jesus' death. As much as that was God's plan, it was sinful acts of men that brought it about, and they were well and truly involved.

In fact, they were clearly a force to be reckoned with as we'll see in the following verses because when they start getting contentious about Jesus baptising people in competition with John, as it seemed to them, Jesus simply moved off the scene to a quieter spot where he could carry on ministering without their interference. They are at the present clearly still in Judea (see v.3) and therefore within relatively easy distance from Jerusalem , the religious hub, which is why Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the ruling council had been able to come so easily to see Jesus. But the Pharisees hold powerful posts in society and when they start raising their eyebrows, it is sometimes better to just move on.

As we'll see in the next verse these rumours, this gossip, which had been spreading across the country wasn't strictly accurate but it was enough to make Jesus decide to move back north. That's what we'll be seeing in the coming verses.

But this raises questions of principle. Where there are power blocks arraigned against us, is it wise to confront them or is it wiser just to distance yourself from them and keep out of range? The answer has to be that God knows and when we suffer opposition, we always need to consult Him. What is the right course of action, Lord? Only He knows the right thing to do. There is never always the same thing to do. Sometimes we need to stand and confront the opposition and other times we needs to move out of the firing range. It needs the grace of God to do both.

Short Meditations in John 4: 2. Hands On Disciples

Jn 4:2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.

Having set the goal to meditate on each individual verse, when you arrive at a verse like this one you wonder whether that was a good idea. But then you think, why did John bother to add this little apparently somewhat insignificant verse? The answer has to be, because it was the truth and as he mused and reflected and remembered back to those wonderful days, he realises that he has already made comment about Jesus baptising but what he had said could be misunderstood: “ After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. (Jn 3:22) This was added to by the comments of John the Baptist's disciples coming to him and saying, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan --the one you testified about--well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” (Jn 3:26)

Whether or not Jesus baptized the initial disciples we are not told but now as people come to Jesus they are baptised but it is the disciples of Jesus who do the actual baptising. It is perhaps a legitimate thing to ponder why that might have been so.

Perhaps, first, it may be to avoid people claiming special place because Jesus had baptised them. The apostle Paul had found this same thing when he had to declare, “ I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name,” (1 Cor 1:14,15) to counteract the divisive spirit that had crept in, but then seeking to be completely accurate he added, “(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.)” (1 Cor 1:16)

But a second reason Jesus wasn't doing the actual baptizing was that he wanted his disciples to be completely involved and where possible to get hands on experience. In these early days it was a simple thing to be able to immerse believers in the waters. Any disciple could do that. Later on, when they were obviously ready, he sent the twelve out in pairs telling them, “As you go, preach this message: `The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” (Mt 10:7,8) Clearly that was even more a hands on experience of ushering in the kingdom of God .

Clearly Jesus expects his followers to be ‘doers': “ anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing,” (Jn 14:12) and “ Therefore go and make disciples ….. teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Mt 28:19,20) Jesus looks for opportunities to give all his disciples hands on experience. Is that you?

Short Meditations in John 4: 3. Out of the limelight

Jn 4:3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee .

There is something very human about this, or is it godly wisdom? This is Jesus who moves according to the circumstances in which he finds himself. There is this muttering among the Pharisees that could grow and become a real nuisance but Jesus has a timetable and the time for his crisis time and death in Jerusalem is still three years off.

The provocation to move comes through rumours or gossip passed along for we read, “When the Lord learned of this.” Somehow it came to his hearing. There is no sense of words of knowledge here; it is simply the word comes through others that the Pharisees are already paying Jesus a lot of attention.

But Jesus has a lot of things to do, things to teach, people to bless, disciples to train, and if the Pharisees are going to cause trouble, are going to be there in the background causing disharmony and upset, that will spoil all that happens. It will just be more simple if he moves further away from Jerusalem , to the north, the other side of Samaria in Galilee where the influence of the Pharisees will be less. And so, very simply, Jesus leaves the south and makes his way north again so that he can work out his ministry in relative peace. There will be plenty of times for confrontation with Judaism when he goes down to Jerusalem to the regular feasts, but now, Galilee is sufficiently far away from Jerusalem that he will have space and relative peace to train his disciples and teach and bless people.

We see within all this the interaction between God and men. Yes, God is sovereign and could make happen whatever He wanted, but He has given us free will and allows us free sway so we can take responsibility for our lives and live them how we will. So we find Jesus working in with the ways of men. He goes to the established feasts every year, he attends synagogue and generally lives within that culture. As a human being he is part of it, and yet as God he has an overall plan and purpose that he will fulfil.

Part of that will mean him interacting with people and walking a delicate tight rope walk whereby he gradually comes out more and more into the open and gradually more and more confronts the religious authority of Jerusalem until one day, in three years' time he will be sufficiently provocative that they will rise up, arrest, try and kill him. Yet it will all be within God's purpose: “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” (Acts 2:23) But for the moment that is in the distant future, so he moves to a quieter area where it will not happen.

CHAPTER 4: Part 2A: The Samaritan Woman – Contact & Questions v.4-15

Short Meditations in John 4: 4. Location, location, location

Jn 4:4 Now he had to go through Samaria .

Understanding geography and indeed history in scripture is helpful. Roughly speaking, the land we call Israel was, in Jesus' day divided into three main areas. In the south Judea, with Jerusalem , the capital of Israel being the all important centre in the land, a city with walls and gates and a massive temple inside. It was the administrative centre for Judaism. In the far north was Galilee, Jewish by all means but with accents of its own, distant from Jerusalem and therefore a land where dissidents could exist without too much interference from the rulers in Jerusalem .

And then, there in the centre of the land was this block simply known as Samaria . The residents of this central province historically were mixed race, only part Jewish, and who were therefore despised by the pure Jews. That is to be born in mind in what follows.

The city of Samaria had been built by king Omri, one of the kings of the divided ‘northern kingdom' following the split after Solomon's reign. A little under two centuries later, in 722BC, Samaria fell to the Assyrians which was, essentially, the end of the northern kingdom. The leading citizens were deported and others from other parts of the Assyrian empire were imported.

Worship of the Lord appears to have been continued in some measure by this people but when Jerusalem eventually fell and was then rebuilt, opposition came from the ruling classes in Samaria . The Jews returning to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah, sought to re-establish their racial purity and objected to the now mixed ancestry in Samaria . In the years that followed the fortunes of the Samaritans waxed and waned and by this time that we are now observing, there were distinct divisions in national feelings in the different areas and generally the Jews of Judea or Galilee looked down on these ‘mixed-breed' Jews of Samaria. We will see more of their history as we read on in this chapter and so suffice it to say for the moment, that making their way north to Galilee they had to pass through this central province that was seen as very much a lesser part of the land, whose peoples were considered by the Jews as very much racially inferior.

We need to bear this in mind to understand the significance of some of the things that will follow shortly. Without this understanding we will fail to catch the wonder of what takes place. This is just another of those places in scripture where we Westerners need to spend a little time checking out the background to understand history, geography and culture of those we are reading about. Without these things we will fail to understand the significance of what is going on.

Short Meditations in John 4: 5. History

Jn 4:5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

There is always a sense of mystery about divine providence. Do things just happen or is the divine planning that knew what would happen if Jesus was in a certain place at a certain time? For us, do things just happen by chance or how much does the divine hand intervene to bring things about? This side of heaven we will not know. All we are left to do is observe the circumstances and watch the way they pan out, and wonder.

The overall plan at the moment is to leave Judea and go north to Galilee and, as we've seen, that necessitates going through Samaria . Eventually they come near to Sychar, which was more of a small village, which was near Shechem. There is nothing special about it but it is just a place John remembers that they stopped near. But this area has history. Indeed in one way or another most parts of the land had history because the whole thing about the Jews was that their history went back some two thousand years, it being thought Abraham had lived about 2000BC. With two thousand years of history recorded in what we call the Old Testament (less that last four hundred years or so) Israel were possibly more conscious of their history than most nations.

Thus it is now that John identifies this present location as having been bought by Jacob (who became Israel ) and passed on to his son, Joseph. In Genesis we read, “ After Jacob came from Paddan Aram , he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city. For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent,” (Gen 33:18,19) and in later chapters there is reference to him passing on this land to Joseph, although possibly after dispute with the Amorites who he had forcibly had to eject from it after he bought is (Gen 48:21,22)

Now we might wonder why John should bother to even mention this, but what was behind it was the fact that, before Israel invaded and took over Canaan after the forty year wilderness wandering after the Exodus, Jacob had actually bought and owned a portion of that land and, although it is now in the possession of these mixed background Samaritans, it is like the nationalistic side of John is making the point that this piece of land goes right back to antiquity to their father Jacob and so whatever apparent possession rights exists today, it is still well and truly part of Israel, almost more than any other part of the land! Oh yes, this land has history!

Short Meditations in John 4: 6. Physical weariness

Jn 4:6 Ja cob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

I am aware that focusing on one verse at a time may appear a very slow way to work through Scripture and often requires a lot of repetition, but it does mean we ponder on every word and every sentence and consider its relevance without missing anything.

John has just mentioned that they stopped just outside Sychar which is near Shechem where Jacob had bought land and passed it on to Joseph and now he adds that it was also the place of Jacob's well. Now nowhere else in scripture is this well mentioned but in Genesis in Abraham's days wells often featured as the Patriarchs dugs these rare sources of water. Abraham has trouble with Abimelech over a well he had previously dug (Gen 21:25). Indeed Abraham's servants obviously dug a number of wells which Isaac had to reclaim: “ So all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.” (Gen 26:15) Isaac then had his servants dig more wells (Gen 26:19-24) but both Abraham's and Isaac's wells were in the south beyond Jerusalem while this one is in the middle of the country. Jacob had come through this part of the country on his return from Haran with all his flocks which is when he bought the plot of land.

The well is significant in this story as we shall see as it develops. It is midday (the sixth hour being twelve, counted on from their start of the day, 6am.) and they have been traveling a number of hours obviously and Jesus is tired, so he sits down in the vicinity of the well. It is quite possible that there were stones there for sitting while shepherds brought their flocks to be watered and so it is a natural place to rest. Now again, whether Jesus knew the woman we are about to meet was coming (a word of knowledge) or whether he was simply tired and wanted to rest, we are not told. We are told he was tired and so me must accept that at face value.

The fact is that Jesus, the Son of Man, experienced all that we experience as a human being and that includes getting tired when energy has been expended. Tiredness is a factor in Jesus' life although we rarely hear about it, simply because although he is the Son of God, he is also a human being. We only hear about it on this occasion because it is his tiredness that leads him to stop here and remain alone (as we'll soon see) so that he is available to speak to this woman who is about to arrive. In the providence of God, He does use the ordinary things of our lives to bring about the affairs of the kingdom, and that does include, as on this occasion, physical tiredness.

Short Meditations in John 4: 7. Encounter

Jn 4:7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"

It is easy to take for granted the things we read in Scripture. Take this verse for example. The woman comes and Jesus speaks to her. How easy would it have been for her to come and go and for Jesus simply to watch her and say nothing – but God has come to encounter us, He wants to communicate with us, to interact with us. Yes, she could have come and gone and left unchanged but Jesus broke into her life.

But first of all note again the providence of God. We might say it just so happened that Jesus turned up at this well needing to rest just at the time when this woman was coming out – pure accident! Or we might say that God who knows all things knew she would be coming at that time and so arranged for them to come at the time when Jesus could speak to her. Suppose she had been held up? It's all right, God knows.

Whatever it was, here we find this woman coming completely oblivious to the divine encounter she is about to have. When God has encounters with us on His agenda we seldom get any warning. When Moses turned up at the burning bush (Ex 3) he had no idea that his life was about to be dramatically changed by an encounter with God. When Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress (Jud 6) he had no inkling that an angel was about to turn up and change his life. I think that is how it is with us normally. We don't get any warning that God is about to take the initiative and encounter us so that our lives will be changed for ever, but the Bible is full of such happenings, for it is always God who takes the initiative and it is us who always goes away changed!

She is a Samaritan woman and as we'll see she struggles with talking to a Jew. We have already considered the barriers between the two peoples because of their history. How many ways are there to make contact with someone, I wonder. Perhaps Jesus could have simply started out, “I'd like to talk to you about your eternal soul,” but I suspect that would have fallen on hard ground and received a rebuff. In the conversation that follows, one thing does indeed follow another. There is a flow from one thing to the next and in the course of it Jesus reveals that he knows all about her and reveals to her who he is. The result is that she goes away changed.

But the starting point is important. He has to approach her in such a way she would not rebuff him. He presents himself to her as a person in need, as indeed he is – tired and thirsty. Women tend to be better than men at responding to needs and so Jesus simply makes a request of her to meet his obvious need in the middle of the day.

Contents of Ch.4

Short Meditations in John 4: 8. Practical Realities

Jn 4:8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

When I hear people criticise scripture and suggest it is made up, I can't help thinking, “You've never really read it thoughtfully otherwise you would note the small details that so often crop up that if you were writing a general account in this genre, you wouldn't bother to include. I feel that a little bit about this verse. The fact that the translators have put it in brackets suggests that it is an aside, a bonus piece of information – but it does explain why Jesus was on his own when this woman comes to the well.

Having said that, did it need a number of men to go and do the shopping? (perhaps the twelve haven't been formed yet and perhaps the women haven't started going along, this is early days after all, and so maybe it is only a half dozen or so.) Is the real reason that he is alone is that he knew what was about to happen and knew that it would be best to talk to the woman alone?

The fact that the disciples had gone off into the nearby town to buy provisions suggests that, despite all we have said about the discord between Jew and Samaritan there was still interaction between them and it was still possible to buy food from them; it was not a completely hostile situation although we shall see shortly how such feelings were still there.

It is very easy to get a super-spiritual understanding of the life of Jesus when reading the Gospels because the truth is that virtually nothing is said in them about the day to day living arrangements and what life was like. I would assume that we must put this down to the fact that a) the Gospels were written a number of years after the events, b) the writers took for granted everyday life, and c) they were focusing on the all-important issues of what Jesus said and did by way of his ministry and the way he was received or rejected.

Thus this is one of the very few references to domestic arrangements we find in the Gospels. Perhaps the nearest thing we can find to this are the arrangements that Jesus makes via the disciples for his entry to Jerusalem on that last fateful time (see Mt 21:1-3), although it is not strictly about daily life but more about other practical arrangements to do with the way he would arrive prophetically into Jerusalem.

Perhaps the affairs at the home of Mary and Martha (Lk 10:38-40) would come into the category of domestic arrangements, but beyond these things little or nothing else is covered. This should not make us feel these things didn't happen; we are dealing with a bunch of men (and later women) travelling together and so they do, and they experience similar things we would when travelling.

Short Meditations in John 4: 9. Racial Divisions

Jn 4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans)

Have you ever noticed how often our thinking involves us separating ourselves off from someone before us. We come across a great businessman or civic leader, full of knowledge and wisdom and we put them on a pedestal in our mind and exalt them and demean ourselves and there is this great gulf before us. Or the person before us, by their speech or demeanour, clearly reveals they are not of the same social standing as us, as we look down on them, and again there is a gulf between us. Living with sin in this Fallen World means that in the absence of love, we naturally see the divisions between us.

The divisions may be class or they may be education or they may be culture; so many things that separate us. Already we have considered briefly the history of the Samaritans and the Jews. As we said, the Jews looked down on the Samaritans as being of mixed ancestry and the Samaritans would have been aware of this distinction and the feelings of pride among the Jews that pushed the Samaritans away.

Now what is interesting is that this Samaritan woman is able to ‘read' Jesus. Presumably something about his dress or his speech reveals his background. This is interesting! It says the Son of God has become so integrated into the human race, and especially into the Jewish race, that others can ‘read' him and know his background, it is that clear.

Having ‘read' Jesus, this Samaritan woman immediately highlights the differences between the two of them. It maybe that her life, as we shall soon learn, has made her defensive and so she is quick to push away contact. She is a woman and he is a man. Is it right for them to be making contact? She is a Samaritan and he is a Jew. Surely this racial and cultural divide says you Jews look down on us Samaritans, so what are you doing making contact with me? I have water and you want water, but is that sufficient to bridge our divide? Well, needs often push people together.

The challenge must come to us as we read this verse, am I like her and do I immediately – in my defensiveness – see the differences between us and push you away unless I see that you are just like me? How much do we let the work of sin separate us from others, from big people and little people, from religious people and non-religious people, from coloured people and non-coloured people, from clever people and not clever people? All of these things have the potential of pushing us apart, but if I am a child of God I should learn to be comfortable in who I am and learn to enjoy you and your differences.

Contents of Ch.4

Short Meditations in John 4: 10. Who am I?

Jn 4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

This woman's world is about to spin on its axis! I don't know if you ever rehearse your testimony or ways to speak to people about the Lord, but it seems as if Jesus has a planned strategy to open up this woman. His starting point had been to indirectly express a need, to make himself vulnerable to this woman – I need your help – but he knew she, being a Samaritan, would be likely to respond negatively to him being a Jew. So now we come to the second stage of his strategy: he points to himself but does it using a description which in itself will raise questions in the woman.

We often talk about not asking closed question that require a simple yes or no answer, but instead use open questions with people, questions that require an explanation or expansion in the answer to open up conversation. Yes, he wants this woman to come back on what he says, he wants her to talk because the more she does the more he will have to respond to, and when he does he will be able to reveal to her just who he is.

At the end of the day, Jesus doesn't come to us to provide answers for us; he comes to reveal himself to us. The all-important thing is that we get to know him, we encounter him, we come to know him. All else follows. So much for the ‘mechanics' of this verse but what is he actually saying?

If she knew the gift of God? God has got something to give her freely and without cost? What can that be? The gift is living water? What can that be? We perhaps take so much for granted if we have been Christians some time and heard much teaching, but for this lady these must have been confusing words, or at least words that raise questions. Jesus wants us to question because in so doing we will reveal where we are with him.

We should never be afraid of questions, because God isn't – because He knows everything. When we question Him we will eventually come to that revelation, but be warned, it may not be by Him giving lots of answers. It will probably be more Him asking further questions of us, and when He does we will realise that we are dealing with an infinitely greater mind than ours.

If you knew who was asking for a drink? So who are you? That is a good starting question, but he may not give us a direct answer. There was something better for me to ask? What do you mean, what was that? More questions paving the way towards the truth.

Short Meditations in John 4: 11. Living Water?

Jn 4:11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

The Samaritan woman is drawn into the conversation but her level is purely material and she is not easily drawn in to spiritual issues. She doesn't, for instance, question what Jesus means by ‘living water'. Now it is possible that she understands it to mean spring water, water that bubbles up on it's own, that doesn't just collect rain water. However she understands it, the water Jesus offers is better than simply the well water before them.

Of course Jesus goes on to say a little later, “ the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (v.14) and later on in the Gospel we find him saying, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive,” (Jn 7:38,39) but for the moment no immediate explanation is given the woman.

So the woman doesn't query the talk of living water but she does query his ability to provide it. All she can see before her is the well and there appears no other nearby source of water so this ‘living water' has to come from the well, but how could Jesus provide her with water and not the other way round, because he has no means of drawing the water from the well. In all this she thinks in material terms and cannot see beyond that.

But isn't that like us so often? When we are confronted with a problem, don't we rationalize in material terms trying to work out how we can resolve our problem – in material terms? Then perhaps a word of prophecy comes, if we live in those sort of church circles, and we hear the word and immediately start thinking how it might be worked out, and all the while it is on our terms, material terms, because we live in a material world and forget we have spiritual needs that are the first that Jesus wants to meet.

Or perhaps we are confronted with a difficulty and we just think there is no way it can be dealt with and so we settle in a gloomy acceptance of the status quo; we cannot see how God could possibly change this! And in so doing we settle in unbelief. We read the Gospels and we see Jesus doing great things to transform situations but that was for then, not now, and so we settle in stagnation.

But the truth coming through this verses is that Jesus offers spiritual solutions first because he sees that is our first need, but then He is God and he can change the circumstances, material or otherwise and nothing is too hard for him. Declare that today!

Contents of Ch.4

Short Meditations in John 4: 12. Provider?

Jn 4:12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

This woman has a sense of history about her. The Samaritans may be ‘mixed-breed' people but, choosing to forget that aspect of their past, they still saw their history going right back to Jacob ( Israel ). Jacob had obviously dug this well and had been the provider of water for whoever else came here in history.

The woman's first objection to Jesus' ‘offer' was a practical one, that he had nothing with which to draw water from the well. This second objection goes far deeper, for it challenges Jesus very right or authority to draw such water. It has taken the subject from mundane practicalities to focusing on him as a person. Suddenly the riposte is, “What right or ability do you have to provide me with this water you speak about? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob?” Well, yes, he is and that is what this is all about as we said previously; it is always about revealing Jesus.

In saying this she is seeking to make a comparison between Jacob and Jesus. Jacob had been a patriarch who had gone ahead and in the process had provided this well. What is it about Jesus that says he can provide better water than the old patriarch, for that is what his words lead on to? We keep hedging the question of what this ‘living water' is, but at least we are moving towards the bigger issue which will ultimately become the means of getting that water – who Jesus is.

You may think this is mundane meanderings around this conversation but in fact it is crucial to the whole answer to life. We – human beings – sense there is more to life than just living out each humdrum day, one after another. There must be more than this, we sometimes find ourselves thinking. It goes right back to what Solomon wrote, “ I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Eccles 3:10,11) Thus we have this inner yearning for ‘something more'.

The Bible says it is ‘eternal life', life that goes on and on, life in a different dimension, like that takes on a much longer-term meaning. All world philosophies touch on this at some time. All world religions have this at their heart. The big question is how can we reach this thing we are yearning for? Is there someone who can make it available to us? The Jews saw it in their relationship that came through Abraham, or Jacob or Moses, but there is a better, deeper relationship and it can only come through Jesus Christ. That is the issue here.

Contents of Ch.4

Short Meditations in John 4: 13. Never Thirst Again?

Jn 4:13,14 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.

Intriguingly Jesus does not answer her question about himself. It seems he wants to focus on the subject of living water. This is typical of Jesus, he always wants to focus either on the Father or on us. Here he knows that the ‘living water' he offers her will bring blessing to her life, will transform her life and it will be good.

And so he clarifies what he means by ‘living water' by distinguishing it from the water from the well. If you drink the water from the well now, you will be thirsty again later in the day. Natural water has that limitation or rather our bodies are so limited that this water only satisfies for a short while. However, the other water, the water Jesus gives, the living water, completely satisfies so whoever desires this water and drinks this water will never thirst for it again; they will be utterly satisfied by it.

In the previous meditation we noted the verse from Ecclesiastes that suggests that God has put something in every single human being that reaches out for something more, that wants more out of life than simple material things. We can get more and more material ‘things' but still remain unsatisfied. We can climb higher and higher on society's social ladder but still never be completely satisfied. There is always something more to be reached for, for whatever we have never seems to completely satisfy. It is almost as if God has created a spirit within each of us that yearns for spiritual contact; material is not sufficient, just like ordinary water is not sufficient. We are never satisfied by material things and yet this inner yearning is still there; it must be a spiritual yearning.

So where will spiritual satisfaction come from? It has to come from The Spirit-Being, God, because that is how He has made us. We need that ongoing contact with Him, a spirit to Spirit contact for nothing less will satisfy. So what do we find in Scripture? We find that when we come to Him and hand our lives back to Him, He places His own Holy Spirit within us and so we have this constant spirit resource, a constant source of that which, we find, satisfies.

But we also find references to everlasting or eternal life. Now God is life and He alone is eternal or everlasting and so when He puts His own Holy Spirit within us, we find we become vessels containing that very eternal life – Him! He is the eternal life we speak of; it is not something separate or distinct from Him, it is He Himself. And when we find ourselves joined to Him we find He alone is the source of all lasting satisfaction and we yearn no more. We have found Him!

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Short Meditations in John 4: 14. A Spring of Life?

Jn 4:14 Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

One of the things about John's Gospel is that the same things crop up again and again. Here in this conversation Jesus is explaining about this ‘living water' and has just said that it satisfies the hearts yearnings but now he explains why it goes on satisfying: it is because this water is like a spring welling up within us which keeps on flowing. It is because it is an ongoing source that it satisfies continually and for ever.

This water is a source of life. Ordinary water is essential for human physical life; this living water is essential for spiritual life. This water brings eternal life. We have ‘jumped the gun' a little bit in previous studies because we have already spoken of this living water bringing life but this verse is actually the first mention of life by Jesus in this conversation. Yes, he is saying, this water brings a new dimension to life, life that is eternal.

Later in the Gospel Jesus declared, “ I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (Jn 10:10) That was why he had come, to bring life but that clearly means more than just ordinary, mundane day to day existence. When he speaks of life he means more than that physical existence, he means a fuller, more complete life, a life that includes God, a life that flows from God.

We have already noted previously how Jesus expanded on this picture of a divine water supply: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive,” (Jn 7:38,39) but this is what he is speaking about here in our present verse, an ongoing supply of this living water which is in fact the presence of God Himself in the form of His own Holy Spirit. In this later verse he speaks of streams whereas here now he speaks of the source of the stream, a spring. And where is this spring? Within us? And to whom does it come? To believers. And when does it come? When they are born again of the Spirit (Jn 3).

This is fundamental to the Christian faith. It is not just a new way of living, not living according to rules or rituals. It is not just being nice and trying to be good; no, it is fundamentally much, much more than that. It is all about being given a new life from God and it is new because it is a forgiven and cleansed life but, even more, it is a newly empowered live and the power is the Holy Spirit. But more than that, it is not just an initial work by the Spirit, it is an ongoing supply so that He is there within us for ever more.

Short Meditations in John 4: 15. Yes Please!

Jn 4:15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

I have often had to say this over the years of writing these meditations but when I get to heaven, if I get the chance there are going to be a number of instances where I ask, “Lord, what did you mean by that?” or “what did she mean by that?” That latter instance applies to this Samaritan woman.

We preachers love to be definite but actually in this case I think there could be three possibilities. The first one would be the “calling your bluff” response. “OK, you say you can give me water that will satisfy my thirst for ever; OK bring it on!” That response would, I believe, have a degree of scepticism behind it. The second one does not understand the spiritual significance of the words but something in the conversation makes her feel that whatever it is that Jesus is offering has got to be good and so if it's here for the taking, she'll have it! The third one finds a cry from within that recognises a need and senses Jesus is offering something more than just water and that she needs whatever it is he is offering.

Now the conversation that follows, about her husband, seems to be Jesus facing her up with her true need and if that is so, then I suggest that, at the very least, that last option is not the real one; she doesn't yet realise her need. One thing I note in the Gospels is that Jesus is there for the needy, there for those who acknowledge their spiritual poverty. To the self-centred and self-assured Pharisees he came with rebuke. To the sinners, he accepted and drew them. For that reason I don't believe the first option above is likely to be the real one; I'm not feeling she is being sceptical. No, from where I am reading it, it feels more like the second possibility; she may not yet recognise her need (or at least be willing to be up front with it) but she is willing to go along with Jesus and take whatever it is he is offering.

The only thing is, and we'll see this in the next meditation, when it comes to receiving eternal life, Jesus knows that the individual needs to face their need before they can come in repentance to God. Each one of us needs to realise that we receive in proportion to the awareness we have of our need for Jesus. If we feel self-sufficient and somewhat sceptical about things we read in the Bible, we will receive little. The encouraging thing about this is that even though we are not sure, Jesus is patient and he perseveres with us. If he sees that we are open, even if unsure, he will take us on and prompt and stir and challenge us until we come to the place of open, humble honesty that reveals we are open to all he has for us.

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CHAPTER 4: Part 2B: The Samaritan Woman – Confrontation v.16-26

Short Meditations in John 4: 16. A Challenge

Jn 4:16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

Because there is such close overlap verse from verse, we find ourselves repeating things, but repetition aids learning. We already, in the previous meditation, started considering the fact that each one of us has to face our need before we will come to God.

This woman has been hearing about living water and there has been some banter about it, but she hasn't yet faced up to her actual need of this living water. Yes, it sounds interesting and maybe it would be good, but that isn't enough. When we first start finding questions arising within us, we start hearing things about the Gospel and we get interested and think, yes, that could be for me, but we hadn't yet come to the place of really recognising that we really NEED this salvation, we hadn't yet faced up to our own desperate need of it.

Jesus knows this of this woman, as he knows everything about each of us. He knows the struggles she has had in life and he knows where she is in it all at the present moment. He just needs to get here to face that and also realise the he does know all about it. It is not only facing the need but realising that Jesus is Lord and we need to receive of him and surrender to him.

So we find Jesus making this very simple command or request of her – go and fetch your husband. Now she was obviously of the age that you would expect her to be married (as was so in that culture) but what would be the point of Jesus wanting to talk to her husband. She is the one in front of him, she is the one having dealings with him. Why ever would he want her to go back into Sychar and go and fetch her husband from whatever he was doing. No, it's not such an obvious thing to ask. If we didn't know what was coming, we might really be perplexed over why Jesus should make such a request. Familiarity, unfortunately, dulls us and we fail to think about these sort of things.

So here it is, a very simple, almost harmless request and yet it is going to be the thing that will open her up, that will get her confessing her past and present states and make her face herself, while at the same time helping her realise something vital about Jesus.

Jesus is often very gentle with us, more gentle than we are with one another, and so often he says things to us that come so quietly and gently that we hardly notice them, and yet as they settle in us they have the ability to explode the truth within us and we find ourselves thinking about issues in our lives we would not otherwise have thought about. He comes so gently so that we do not put up our defences and shy away from the truth. No, it just needs such a simple word sometimes to open up the truth!

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Short Meditations in John 4: 17. Honesty

Jn 4:17 "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband.

Perhaps one of the greatest things that we can learn in life is that God knows! God knows best. God knows everything, and God knows everything there is to know about us. When God asks us a question it is not because He wants go find out something but to make us face the answer. He already knows the answer and so this is His way of getting us to face up to it. Whether it is a question or Him getting us into a corner in a situation, or be asking us to do something, so often it is with the same intended outcome – that we face the truth.

Now of course sometimes we find the truth painful and we'd rather not face it, or we do what this Samaritan woman now does, and present only part of the truth. One of the classic instances in the Old Testament was Samuel coming to Saul after Saul had been told to wipe out the Amalekites (1 Sam 15:3). When Samuel arrived Saul declared, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord's instructions.” (1 Sam 15:13) But that was only a half truth because they had brought back cattle as spoils of victory which Saul claimed they brought to sacrifice (v.15) and he had spared the king, Agag (v.20) and that protesting, “But I did obey the Lord.” (v.20a) Partial obedience is disobedience!

Another such instance of trying to hide things from the Lord was that of Gehazi, Elisha's servant who took gifts from the healed Naaman after Elisha said they would not take anything. Gehazi followed Naaman and took gifts from him. When he returned Elisha asked him where he had been and he replied, “Your servant didn't go anywhere.” (2 Kings 5:25) Not true and Elisha has had that revelation! You can't hide things from God.

And, as we've said, we sometimes try to hide things by only telling part of the truth and hoping that will satisfy. And so when Jesus asks the woman to send for her husband she replies very simply, “I have no husband.” Now that in itself would not be very remarkable because there were women who didn't get married and of course there were widows, and so that answer doesn't necessarily carry any stigma with it, but it isn't the whole truth and she doesn't seem to want to explain why she has no husband, which in understandable in what follows.

Now one thing that is interesting in all of this, is that she doesn't turn round and say something like, “Don't be silly, he's too busy.” In other words she doesn't lie. She doesn't try to concoct some story to explain why he can't come. Even more she doesn't turn hostile in defence and say something like, “Who do you think you are ordering me around!” No, something in her wants to tell the truth, but not yet all of it.

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Short Meditations in John 4: 18. Facing the Truth

Jn 4:18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

The truth, for this woman, is not comfortable but Jesus presents her with it nevertheless. As we have said, unless we confront our past and our state and see our need, we will never surrender to him. The truth for this woman – and the Pharisees among us might see it quite differently – is a past of recurring failure.

Now why did I refer to a Pharisaical attitude in respect of how we might think about her? Well it is possible that of course the cause for the fact that she had had five husbands was down to her. It is possible that she had been adulterous but if she had constantly been adulterous, at one point someone would have been screaming for her to be stoned. It is unlikely that she would have survived five husbands if the cause for the breakdown had been her unfaithfulness. It is possible that Sychar was not as rigorous about upholding the Law of Moses as Jerusalem might have been and so, yes, it may be that she got caught up with one adulterous relationship after another, and then ended up marrying the new partner.

Under the Law of Moses divorce could take place at the behest of the man and he only had to find something ‘unclean' about her. Whether or not they conformed to Moses Law and regardless of whose fault each marital breakup had been, this woman had been through rejection five times. The fact that the man she was now with was not her husband either sheds light on her possible past immoral approach to relationships, or it may simply be an indicator of how beaten down she has become through these constant failures.

We have not considered the possibility of each husband having died – which would constitute a life of grief – because it is fairly unlikely that five men had passed away. No, her situation is open to speculation, but even if she has brought these breakdowns on herself through her own unfaithfulness – and that is not certain – she is a woman who has known insecurity and must question whether such a thing as love really exists. Whatever the causes for these breakdowns, she is more worthy of pity than condemnation.

In the modern society in which we live, where changing partnerships are not uncommon, there are many women (and men) who feel utterly rejected time and again, and who wonder if such a thing as stable love can ever exist. The folly is theirs because of their rejection of God and of His ways for relationships – one man with one woman for life – but that doesn't take away the sadness over their state. Jesus didn't condemn this woman or similar modern ones.

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Short Meditations in John 4: 19. Understanding

Jn 4:19 " Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet.

God's intention was that Israel should reveal Him to the rest of the world. Today it is that the Church would reveal Him to the rest of the world. That revelation should be by expressing the character of God – His love and His goodness – and by flowing in His revelation and His power so that the world realises why we are like we are. We see a glimmer of this same working here now with Jesus. Jesus has just spoken what we would now call a word of knowledge. He has spoken about her life, about things that he, a passing Jew, should not have been able to know – but he did! It is quite clear! There can be little doubt about this: she is in the presence of a prophet.

Oh that the world today would have the same experience with the church. Jesus taught, “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:16) Good deeds here should not be limited purely to actions but also to words of blessing that come from the throne room of heaven. Just as in this case above, they will reveal the Father to the listeners.

In a variety of ways today, God wants the world to realise who we are and so who He is. Jesus prayed, “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn 17:21) Jesus wanted the world to see that we are one with the godhead and thus believe. A few verses on he prayed, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn 17:23) Our unity in the Spirit again should make the world sit up and wonder.

In all of these ways the desire of the Lord to be revealed in the world is shown. Jesus unashamedly did and said things so that those with open hearts would see, hear, and understands and turn to God.

Of course it does need faith to see and to believe. The reality was that there were many who witnessed all that Jesus said and did and yet whose hearts were not turned towards God and who therefore did not respond positively to the wonder of the things happening before their eyes. The Pharisees were one group, for example, who generally did not respond positively to Jesus. It tended to be religious people who reacted badly to him, while the ‘sinners' were often the ones most open to him.

Thus we should not miss in passing here, the fact that this woman is open to Jesus and may well fit the group we just referred to as the ‘sinners' of society. She, like they, knew what she was like, knew the struggles she had with life, and found hope in Jesus somehow, and was thus open to him more than many others.

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Short Meditations in John 4: 20. Worship

Jn 4:20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem ."

This conversation, contrary to what preachers would often like to make it, is not easy and clear cut. The fact that Jesus was alone with this woman suggests that he must have told the inner group at least about what had happened for John to be able to record it. Was there more to it and John just picked out the highlights? We don't know but what we are shown is a feeling that this conversation comes and goes somewhat.

It started by focusing on living water, which eventually she asked for but possibly without understanding. Jesus then turned it onto her past lifestyle, revealing he knows all about it, to which she responds that he must be a prophet. That sounded positive but then we now find she pushes a division between herself and Jesus. It may be that she felt this talk about her past was getting too close to home.

It almost seems that having had her life revealed she may feel a bit exposed and so, in a sense, lashes back at Jesus with a negative comment about their apparent super-spirituality. Observe the strength of it, “You Jews”. That is divisive language, the language of separation. It begins to have the feeling of her saying, “What right have you got to come here telling me about my life?” I say that because she starts with, “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain.” It is probably that “this mountain” was Mount Gerizim . There had been debate between Jews and Samaritans about this place.

We have seen previously that Abraham and Jacob both had links with this place, and nearby Mount Gerizim had been the place where Israel, when they entered the land originally, had been commanded to declare the blessings of God over the land (Deut 11:29) and then curses from nearby Mount Ebal. They had also been instructed to set up an altar on Mount Ebal with the stones taken from the Jordon and establish a monument and an altar there on Mount Ebal (Deut 27:4-6) The Samaritans made Mount Gerizim the focus for the worship and not Mount Ebal, even building a temple there about 400BC which the Jews destroyed about 128BC. Little wonder there was hostility between them. Thus this woman now focuses on that hostility pushing a wedge between her and Jesus. It is almost like she is subtly saying, “Back off Jew!”

The question we should perhaps challenge ourselves with is, do we act defensively when God faces us with the truth about ourselves? He does it to bring us through into a better place but the old sin nature doesn't like the challenge. Be aware of this.

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Short Meditations in John 4: 21. New Worship

Jn 4:21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem .

So you want to talk about worship, do you? I'll ignore that it's just a device to avoid the issue and I'll use this as a further opportunity to convey truth. The place of worship will not be the issue. Yes, it has been in the past and it has been a visual expression of the division between Jew and Samaritan (just one of a number!), but I haven't come to be a determinant of where people should worship because something bigger is coming – the possibility of meeting with and encountering God and being able to worship Him anywhere.

THAT is why Jesus was there, to declare the truth of why he had come – to take away divisions established by sinful men and replace those divisions with a unity that was born of the Spirit. The apostle Paul understood this when he spoke about the Gentiles as follows: “ now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” (Eph 2:13-18)

This was the work of the Cross to provide one way for both Jew and Gentile (and Samaritan) to be saved and become one new body of believers. When that happens there is no room for arguments about where the right place to worship is, for God will be worshipped all round the world and, as Jesus will go on to explain, it will be because worship will be Spirit inspired and not man orientated.

Although the subject or focus here is on worship, we can apply the general principles much more widely. The old sin nature loves division because division says, ‘I am right and you are wrong' and it seeks to bolster a fragile being and make them something. But Christ comes to do away with divisions. Yes, we may see some things differently when it comes to practice but that should not be used as a wedge to bring division between us. I may not like how certain parts of the Church are administered but that should not drive a wedge between me and other individual believers. Whenever we find this defensive spirit arising within us, we need to remind ourselves who we are and reject the works of the enemy that would separate us.

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Short Meditations in John 4: 22. New Worship (2)

Jn 4:22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

If you argue and try and make excuses with Jesus, you need to watch out for he well get you to face the truth about what you say. This whole matter about Jew and Samaritan worship may be a ploy to duck the issues of her life that Jesus has brought before this Samaritan woman, but Jesus will not let half truths or even untruths pass by.

Indeed Jesus will use it to press home the greater need of this Samaritan woman, and now it is because she is a Samaritan rather than because of her personal needs. She belongs to a people who have fallen out of relationship with the Living God. They have echoes of it from their past and it is those echoes that she has referred to twice now – first when she referred to Jacob and then when she referred to their worship on Mount Gerizim . It is like she still takes pride in being a Samaritan. Yes, life may have gone drastically wrong for her at a personal and relational level, but she is still part of this people who have their own cultural characteristics built on historical instances.

So many people have a similar measure of false security in being part of a particular cultural group and we all have to realise that such things are baseless. ‘Americans' take great pride in their origins and their size and their accomplishments and their outlook on life. National pride is sometimes almost impossible to distinguish from religious culture. Many European countries take pride in their long histories and their cultural achievements. In Britain some of us still remember that we had an Empire and now a Commonwealth. What all of these instances of national pride do is forget the downsides of all of those things. When we look at our national histories we all have much shame there as well. Yet we forget these things and hold pride and security in being part of ‘our country'. These things, as we've just noted, provide false security; they cannot affect our eternal destiny, only a relationship with God through Christ can achieve that.

So at first sight Jesus' words here to this woman may seem almost picky but there is a reality behind them that says, ‘Don't rely on your national heritage for it is flawed anyway. But it won't be the thing that puts you right with God.' The Lord had revealed Himself through Israel and it was through Israel that salvation was coming to the world, in the form of the one standing before her. That is yet to come in the conversation but it will come. Jesus is the answer and he has chosen to come through Israel . So, to conclude, our security is not in our family or our culture or our nation; it is in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Accept no substitutes!

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Short Meditations in John 4: 23. New Worship (3)

Jn 4:23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

There are two forms of worship. The first is the sort that human beings love to create. It is based upon ritual and formality. It is the sort you see on state occasions on TV. It is little more than mere actions, a programme put together by human beings. It is also the sort that is seen in many churches every Sunday morning. It is not to say there is no value in it but it needs to be seen for what it is. If it comes out of a prayer book or even from the order service established by the minister, it is still this particular form of worship. Now there may be some of us beginning to feel uncomfortable with what you are reading but we should be honest about it, even if the alternative makes us feel even more uncomfortable and fearful.

This Samaritan woman has used different places of worship in Jerusalem and Samaria as a means of pointing out differences between her and Jesus, as a means of diverting the conversation away from her, and Jesus is happy to use the new direction to draw out some spiritual truths.

She has focused on places: “ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Certain denominations today focus more on buildings than the reality of the church, for that is what the distinction is all about. In a day when the Temple in Jerusalem still stood, the apostle Paul taught, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” (1 Cor 3:16) For the Christians the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD70 was not a big issue because that was no longer the focal point of their worship. The church is no longer buildings but people in whom is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Indeed everything about the Christian life is possible because of the work of Christ on the Cross and the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. There are still some who talk about the Holy Spirit almost in hushed tones, but He is the very presence of God with us and our whole lives should be motivated and energised and guided by Him.

Jesus declared that the time had come when believers, true worshippers (as against ritual followers) would worship in spirit and truth, i.e. who are responding to the Holy Spirit and are being utterly real and not making a pretence of worship. God deals in truth and reality and real worship is that which springs out of the heart and under the flow of the Holy Spirit. Anything else is pretence and mere ritual and does not please the Father.

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Short Meditations in John 4: 24. New Worship (4)

Jn 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

If sometimes these meditations appear repetitive it is because one verse flows into the next and a point needs to be made again and again because we may not take it in the first time!

In the previous meditation we started to note the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. We implied that for some the Holy Spirit is mysterious or the prerogative of special people but nothing could be further from the truth.

Without the Holy Spirit we could not be born again (Jn 3) and enter into a living relationship with the Lord. Why do we need the Holy Spirit for this? Because God is spirit and we communicate with Him and He with us at the spirit level. Without the Holy Spirit we would have no power to release us from the sin-ridden old life, a life where habits and attitudes locked us in, but now He energises us and enables us to rise above that lifestyle into something far more wonderful, an empowered life of goodness and possibility.

Without the Holy Spirit we could not do the works of Jesus (Jn 14:12, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4:11,12) and continue his ministry, the ministry he called us to (Mt 28:20). It is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, indwelling us, who enables us to be the people God has designed us to be. That is the wonder of the Christian life.

But Jesus is still rounding off the conversation about worship. As we said previously, the woman used the different places the Jews and Samaritans worshipped in, as a means of deflecting the conversation from her and driving a wedge between her and Jesus, but he uses the wedge as a means of teaching truth. The truth is that places are not the important issue. The truth is that styles of worship are not the important issue, except when it is a case of distinguishing between man-inspired worship and spirit-led worship.

Looking back to the Old Testament we can see that the Law prescribed ways of worship in the Temple but observing the history of Israel we see that so often it just became meaningless ritual which they carried out almost as a sop to God, while their hearts and their lives were far from Him. Oh yes, you could perform the ritual but your heart could be far from God, and you cannot worship God if your spirit is dead or turned from Him. It is only when your spirit is enlivened by His Holy Spirit can there be a heart release which brings a Spirit release in the form of real worship of God. Uttering words is not worship. Singing songs is not worship (they may be part of it) but it is heart and Spirit release that is true and real worship.

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