In Heb 12:22-23a we are told: ‘But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.’ This is a tremendous picture of worship, but we are liable to interpret it as belonging more or less to the future because it is ‘heavenly’. This week we will study another meeting on another mountain to see how ‘heavenly’ worship extends into today.

Read John 4:4-18.

• Why was it unusual for Jesus to be talking to this woman? What kind of ‘barriers’ spring up that prevent you from sharing the gospel?
• What is the ‘living water’ Jesus speaks of?
• What does the woman find most attractive about the living water? Why? Are these the same things that attract you to Jesus?
• Why does Jesus ask about the woman’s husband, when he obviously already knows the answer?

At this point the Samaritan woman changes the topic (or does she?).

Read John 4:19-26.

The topic she chooses is one that had been well-argued by Jews and Samaritans for as long as there had been Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritans were enemies of the Jews. They claimed to worship Yahweh, but chose to do so in their own way, rather than in the way God had commanded; they set up their own temple in opposition to the temple at Jerusalem. This was a source of great bitterness between Samaritans and Jews: the Jews had destroyed the Samaritan temple, whilst the Samaritans in return had attempted to desecrate the Jerusalem temple. So there are two conflicting temples, each claimed as the location of God’s presence. Each of these temples was built on a mountain: the Jewish temple on the imaginatively named Temple Mount, and the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim (where this story takes place). Mountains in Scripture consistently represent places where people meet with God, and where God reveals himself (compare Heb 12:18, 22). The conflict between the Jews and Samaritans came down to this: where is God found, and to whom has he revealed himself?

It is not a surprise, then, that this woman should choose this issue as the litmus-test for establishing the identity of this ‘prophet’. She wants to know where she should go to find and worship the true God.

• What are some of the places that people expect to find God today?
• What is Jesus’ response? What does it mean to ‘worship in spirit and truth’?
• Is it truly necessary for both spirit AND truth in worship? What would a church look like that worshiped only in spirit? Only in truth?

There are three main occurrences of the word ‘must’ in John, and together they outline the gospel. First, Jesus instructs Nicodemus: ‘You must be born again’ (3:7). This is the first step, the source from which a life of faith and worship springs. If you are not a Christian, this is where you must start, for flesh can only give birth to flesh and not to spirit; if you want to worship God in spirit, as he requires, you must first be born again. Jesus knew that this could not happen unless he was obedient to his Father, submitting himself to his Father’s will even though it meant death. This is the meaning of the second ‘must': ‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert the Son of Man must be lifted up’ (3:14). Walking through the desert, the people sinned against God, and his wrath was turned against them; only those who looked to the bronze snake that the LORD told Moses to make and lift up on a pole were saved. The message is clear: we must be born again, but cannot because we are sinful and God’s wrath is against us… yet God has provided a way by ‘lifting up’ Jesus, so that anyone who looks to him can be saved. There is only one proper response to this, the third ‘must': ‘God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth’ (4:24).

Don’t miss the importance of this. Worship is not an additional extra to the Christian life; it is not something the Christian chooses to do, or not, according to their preferences, plans or passions. It’s not just that God accepts worship in spirit and truth, God seeks it! (4:23) Worshipping God is the responsibility of all believers. ‘God is spirit, and his worshippers’ – all of us! – ‘must worship him in spirit and in truth’ (4:24).

• What is the woman’s response to what Jesus has told her? What is your response?
• What have you learned about worship from this text? How does this compare with your own experience of worship? What needs to change?