He Is Still Seeking Worshipers

He Is Still Seeking Worshipers

“Come, see a Man, who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” John 4:29 NKJV

I believe this statement came from the heart of a new worshiper. This woman was an outcast as far as the Jews were concerned because she was of the wrong race. She also seems to have been an outcast as far as the women of Samaria were concerned, since she came to the well alone. This may have been because she had five husbands and now lived with a man who was not her husband.

However, the Lord wanted to meet her and planned His trip accordingly. This woman, who was born wrong and lived wrong, was the one the Lord told, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (Jn. 4:23). The first time any of us truly worshiped the Lord was when we trusted Him as our Savior. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6).

According to Jesus, the Jews were not true worshipers. They practiced their rituals, but rejected the Lord who was pictured in their ceremonies. They didn’t worship in Spirit. The Samaritans were not true worshipers. They worshiped in “this mountain” rather than Jerusalem; their worship wasn’t according to the truth. They also combined elements of paganism with Judaism (2 Ki. 17).

This woman admitted to the Lord that she was living with a man that was not her husband. When she went to tell others that she had found the Messiah, she told them that He had told her everything that she had ever done. While the Lord dealt in a compassionate way with her sin, He didn’t reject her because of it, nor did He reject her because of where she was born.

I suspect that this was the first time she had actually been treated with respect by a man. And this man was a Jew! Then she said, “Come, see a Man.” She seemed to understand that the man who had accepted her could accept and bless her friends as well. She was quite an evangelist. Her friends came, heard and believed, not because of what she said, but because of what Jesus said to them. They said, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (Jn. 4:42).

Worship is not just a time of praise or a ceremony where we “break bread.” Worship involves the words, actions and attitudes of all who have truly fallen in love with the Lord. It may be expressed by our posture. It may be expressed by our praise songs, ceremony or sacrifice. But it cannot be expressed without faithful obedience (Heb. 11:8). If we worship the Lord, we need to know what pleases Him. We can’t tell Him what pleases Him; we must let Him tell us.

The true worship of the Samaritan woman after meeting the Lord was obvious. As a result, her gospel preaching was effective. She didn’t need to be “taught” to worship. When she realized that the Lord was the Messiah she had been looking for, and that He could permanently satisfy her spiritual thirst, her worship was automatic. She certainly wasn’t ashamed of her new-found Savior and Friend when she invited others to “Come see a Man!”

The Father is still seeking true worshipers. He wants our worship to be real and from the heart, as this woman’s was. And He wants our words to accurately describe Him, as hers did. He is still seeking worshipers.

By Bruce Collins