Scripture Reading: John 4:3-34, 39-42
In the foregoing chapter we began to consider the two traditional signs in John 4: Jacob’s well and Mount Gerizim. We focused our attention on the sign of Jacob’s well and saw that this well signifies that nothing traditional can satisfy the thirst in human life. Our thirst can be quenched only by the living person of Christ, the gift of God. In this chapter we will consider the second sign, the sign of Mount Gerizim.
Mount Gerizim is also a traditional sign. Through a history involving three major steps this mountain became something traditional. First, as we have already mentioned, the land where Mount Gerizim was located was a treasure belonging to Jacob (Gen. 33:19). Jacob then gave this land as a particular inheritance to his beloved son Joseph (Josh. 24:32).
Second, when the children of Israel were about to enter the good land, they were charged by God through Moses to declare God’s blessing to those who keep the law. This declaration was to be made on Mount Gerizim. Deuteronomy 11:29 speaks concerning this: “When Jehovah your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, you shall put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim and the curse upon Mount Ebal.” According to Deuteronomy 27:12, six tribes were to stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people. This indicates that Mount Gerizim was the most important mountain in the territory given to Joseph by Jacob. Although Mount Gerizim did not equal Mount Sinai in importance, it is nevertheless a fact that the blessing related to keeping the law was declared on Mount Gerizim. That declaration concerning the keeping of the law made Mount Gerizim unique in importance.
Third, during the time of the kings, the Assyrians captured this territory, located in the northern kingdom of Israel, and brought people from Babylon and other heathen places to that region and caused them to settle there (2 Kings 17:6, 24). As a result, pagan worship was brought in and was mixed with the worship of the true God. According to Josephus, a famous Jewish historian, Alexander the Great gave permission, approximately three hundred thirty years before Christ, to a man named Manasseh, a brother of the high priest, to build a temple on Mount Gerizim. This means that a Jew built a temple for the worship of God on the top of Mount Gerizim. That served to strengthen the concept held by the Samaritans that Mount Gerizim was the proper place for the worship of God.
This is the background for what the Samaritan woman said to the Lord Jesus, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, yet you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship” (John 4:20). The Jews had ground from the Scriptures to insist that the right place for the worship of God was Jerusalem. The Samaritans, however, did not have the ground to claim that Mount Gerizim was the proper place. When a temple was built on Mount Gerizim by Manasseh, the mixture in worship was not only strengthened but also completed. More than two centuries later, in 126 B.C., that temple for this mixed worship was destroyed by another Jew named John Hyrcanus. This is a sketch of the history related to Mount Gerizim.
In chapter 4 of John we have a mountain and a well at the foot of the mountain. The well is for human living, and the mountain is for the worship of God. The Lord Jesus first pointed out to the Samaritan woman that Jacob’s well cannot satisfy man’s thirst in his human life. Second, the Lord Jesus indicated that the mountain on which the Samaritans worship cannot provide the kind of worship that is satisfying to God. Today we also have the matters of the thirst in human living and the worship of God. We need to be satisfied in life, and we must have the kind of worship that can satisfy God.
Among today’s Christians, many have not found satisfaction for their thirst, and their worship does not satisfy God. The reason their worship does not satisfy God is that it is a mixture. We have seen that on Mount Gerizim a form of worship was established under pagan authorities that mixed the things of paganism with various genuine matters of the Jewish religion. In principle, the same thing has happened in the so-called historic church. Under the authority of pagan rulers the things of paganism have been mixed with the things of the Christian faith and worship. For example, the Council of Nicaea was conducted under the authority of a pagan ruler, Constantine the Great. Both Christmas and Easter involve the mixture of pagan things with the genuine worship of God.
This kind of mixture is illustrated by the leaven in Matthew 13:33: “Another parable He spoke to them: The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.” This woman signifies the Catholic Church, which took many pagan practices and evil matters and mixed them with the teachings concerning Christ to leaven the whole content of Christianity. Hence, Catholicism is altogether a mixture. This mixture has not been thoroughly purged out of the Protestant denominations. For example, Christmas was invented by Catholicism; however, it was inherited by Protestantism. The same is true of Easter. This is an illustration of the fact that the worship in which many Christians are involved is filled with mixture.
The crucial point for us to see is that the Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman that genuine worship, the worship that God the Father is seeking, is not on a certain mountain but in the human spirit: “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father...God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (John 4:21, 24). In the Old Testament, Mount Zion, the place of God’s habitation and the place of His name, was a type of the human spirit. According to the New Testament, God’s habitation is not on any mountain, nor is it even in the heavens. Rather, God’s habitation is in man’s spirit (Eph. 2:22). Actually, man’s spirit is God’s habitation and also the place of God’s name. If we go elsewhere to worship God, this indicates that we have given up God’s name. There is only one place where we can be preserved in God’s name, and that place is our spirit. When we come to our spirit, we keep God’s name and are preserved in His name. What name should we take for ourselves in our worship of the Father in spirit? We should not take any name. The genuine worship of the Father, the worship He desires, is the worship of Him in our spirit, as typified by the worship on Mount Zion.
The genuine worship of God the Father is in the spirit, and it is also in truthfulness. The children of Israel were required to worship God on Mount Zion and with the offerings. We have seen that Mount Zion typifies our spirit. The offerings typify Christ as reality. Christ is the fulfillment and reality of all the offerings with which God’s people worship God. He is the genuine sin offering, trespass offering, burnt offering, meal offering, and peace offering. This is the reason we speak of the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings in the writings of John. In the Gospel of John we can see the real tabernacle and also the real offerings. The tabernacle is the enlargement of Christ, and the offerings are Christ Himself as reality. Today we worship God in our spirit with Christ as the reality of all the offerings. When the Lord Jesus instructed the Samaritan woman to worship God the Spirit in spirit and truthfulness, He meant that she should contact God the Spirit in her spirit instead of in a specific place, and through Christ, instead of with the offerings. Now that Christ the reality has come, all the types and shadows are over.
For more than forty years I have been fighting the battle concerning the genuine worship of God. This battle has not yet been won, for in our meetings we can still see certain traditional things. We do not have that much reality of Christ as our offerings. Whenever you come to a church meeting, you should come with Christ as your sin offering and also as your burnt offering or meal offering. Actually, we all should come to the meetings with Christ as all the offerings. However, many still come to the meetings in a traditional way simply to sit quietly.
All the saints have a regenerated spirit. Why would so many not use their spirit to utter something of Christ in the meetings? I have observed that only certain ones, a minority, do most of the sharing and testifying. Sometimes you can anticipate ahead of time who is likely to speak in the meetings. Some saints attend the meetings again and again but never utter a word concerning Christ. They attend the meetings to enjoy the singing and listen to a message. Do you know what this is? This is a traditional way of worshipping God, the way practiced by the majority of believers.
The way of worship practiced by many Christian groups is composed of traditional elements. There may be a program, or order of worship, that includes hymns, a solo, a prayer offered by the minister, the reading of the Bible, the taking of an offering, a sermon, and the benediction. Although we do not follow such an order in our worship, we still may be too much under the influence of tradition. Therefore, we need to exercise ourselves to have the kind of worship that will satisfy the Father. The worship that God the Father desires is in spirit and with Christ as the reality of the offerings.
In His conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4, the Lord pointed out three important matters. First, He indicated to her that she needed the living Son of God as a fountain of water springing up within her. First He said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (v. 10). Eventually, He told her, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life” (v. 14).
Second, the Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman concerning the need of the human spirit to worship the divine Spirit: “An hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (vv. 23-24). This word was given to instruct her regarding the need of exercising her spirit to contact God the Spirit.
Here the Lord was not telling the Samaritan woman to worship God in the Holy Spirit. Actually, the Holy Spirit is the object of our worship, not the means by which we worship. We should worship the divine Spirit by means of our regenerated human spirit. The Lord said, “God is Spirit.” If we would worship this Spirit, we must worship Him in our spirit. Only spirit can worship the Spirit. The worshipping spirit is our human spirit, and the worshipped Spirit is the divine Spirit. Hence, the human spirit worships the divine Spirit.
This divine Spirit is the Triune God — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. The entire Godhead is Spirit. In John 4:24 God does not denote part of the Godhead but denotes the full Godhead. However, due to the influence of systematic theology, some Christians try to separate the Father, Son, and Spirit. It is commonly taught that we should never pray to the Holy Spirit or worship the Holy Spirit. According to traditional teaching, we should worship God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. But the word of the Lord Jesus in verse 24 indicates that the entire Godhead is Spirit. In the Trinity not only is the Spirit, Spirit, but the Father and the Son are also Spirit. The Triune God is Spirit, and we worship Him as the divine Spirit by our human spirit.
In chapter 4 of John the Lord Jesus strongly emphasized the human spirit. However, worshipping the divine Spirit by the human spirit is very much neglected by today’s Christians. Instead of worshipping in spirit, many worship in programs, schedules, and rituals. We also may fail to worship in spirit when we come to the meetings. Do you attend the meetings of the church in your spirit? You may fail to come to the meeting in spirit. Instead, you may attend the meeting in your schedule, program, and way.
Whenever we come to a meeting of the church, we should come not in a ritual or form — we should come in our spirit. I can testify that I would not have peace within if I did not pray to stir up my spirit before coming to a meeting. All the saints need to have the practice of stirring up their spirit before they come to a meeting. Whenever we are about to come to a church meeting, we should stir up our spirit so that our spirit may be “lifed” in a full way.
In His conversation with the Samaritan woman the Lord pointed her to the two spirits — the divine Spirit and the human spirit. The divine Spirit is worshipped by the human spirit. Today we need to give careful attention to these two spirits.
The third matter the Lord pointed out to the Samaritan woman was the worship of the Father in truthfulness, or reality. Christ is not only the living Son of God as God’s gift to us; He is also the reality of all the offerings. I encourage you to put into practice all that you have heard concerning Christ as the offerings. It would be helpful to read Experiencing Christ as the Offerings for the Church Meetings. We should not take the messages on Christ as the offerings as mere teachings. We need to put those messages into practice and pray, “Lord, I want to take You as my sin offering and trespass offering so that I may partake of You as my burnt offering, meal offering, and peace offering. Lord, day by day throughout my life I want to enjoy You and participate in You as all my offerings.”
In our experience we need to have the living Son of God as the divine gift given to us, we need the worship of the divine Spirit by our human spirit, and we need Christ as the reality of the offerings. If we have these matters in our daily experience, we will have a life that is fully satisfied by Christ, and in our church life we will have a worship that will satisfy God to the uttermost. In our human life we need Christ as the living water, and in our church life we need Christ as the reality of the offerings. If we have Christ as the living water and the reality, we will not have any traditional Jacob’s well or Mount Gerizim with its mixture in worship. Instead of tradition, rituals, or forms, we will have a life in which we are satisfied and a worship that satisfies the Father.
