Day 13 ~ Jesus claims his cross on calvary.
The Purpose Driven Life ~ Revisited.
Worship That Pleases God
When you come to worship, who are you?
On this Day 13 of Rick Warren’s book “Purpose Driven Life” in his second paragraph Rick opens with “A Samaritan woman once tried to debate Jesus on the best time, place, and style for worship. Jesus replied that these external issues are irrelevant. Where you worship is not as important as why you worship and how much of yourself you offer to God when you worship.” In the beginning of the chapter Rick examines the story about Jesus’s conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well. John 4:7-26
“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
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.)
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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
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.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”” John 4:7-26 (BSB)
This has always been one of my favourite passages in the Bible as it demonstrates such a wide-ranging number of issues surrounding the gospel of Jesus Christ. The passage Rick refers to is from John 4.
Day 13 highlighted one of the things we often overlook.You are right now in the holiest place you can possibly worship. Up until the crucifixion God had ordained that worship was to be fulfilled in his designated temples. The old Testament continually and systematically declares that the main temple, which at first was in the Tabernacle and then later formed fixed buildings where worship was carried out. There was always an area which is called the holiest of holy with the trinkets and arc of the covenant were kept. Hebrews 9:2-4.
Only the designated priests anointed by divine direction from God could enter this area. When the priest entered this very holy of holy places to light incense and do various cleaning up they attached a rope to his leg so that if God struck him down they could drag him out without anybody else going in. It was where God was. There are many instances in the old Testament of happenings that happened in this holy of holy places.
Here are some Bible verses that refer to this holy of holy places ; Exodus 26:31, Exodus 26:33, Exodus 40:3 1 Kings 6:16, Hebrews 9:3.
Now in this passage, John 4, Jesus hints of a change that relinquishes the exclusivity of Jewish temple worship into the new covenant released by his crucifixion. When Jesus dies on the cross at Calvary the temple curtain which separated the normal temple area from the holy of holies split from the top down. We overlook the significance of this as the Bible simply mentions “At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. ” Matthew 27:51a. This curtain was made from seven layers of cloth and it weighed tons not kilograms.
Jesus Said to the Samaritan woman “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” And then “this time has now arrived when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship him. God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24 (Para)
This is a clear indication of the changes which were going to come about in the new covenant after the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. God ended temporal rule. Having to travel to Jerusalem to make our offerings was coming to an end. The Gentiles and the rest of humanity were being invited into the covenant of Abraham.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;”
And most amazingly your body, your mind, and where you stand right now is the holiest of holy places that you could ever be to worship your God.
Then the conversation ends with the Samaritan woman with an emphatic Calvarian earthquake that will shake the world for centuries to come “I Am !”
Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.” John 4:26
Jesus claims His full inheritance of Messiahship as predicted and shadowed in the old Testament.
Martha Snell Nicholson wrote the poem “BECAUSE” reflecting on Jesus;
BECAUSE
Because He is God He can touch the throne,
Because He is man He can understand;
Because He is God He can succour me,
Because He is Man He can hold my hand.
Because He took the form of flesh,
He knoweth my frame that I am weak;
Because He is God He can give to me,
Abundantly more than I ask or think.
(Poetry by Martha Snell Nicholson)*
Enjoy Day 13 and define your place where God will strip you naked and cleanse you!
We can hide nothing from Him.
More reading material ; http://purposedriven.com/day13/
Andy Stanley has produced an inspirational series about the Brand New covenant which Jesus came to introduce. It reflects on how the Law of Christ brought a new way of worship to include the gentiles. This really is worh a watch and reflection; http://brandnewseries.org/letting-go
