If there is such a thing as "true worship" and if any other type of worship is insufficient, then the question is, "How is true worship expressed?" How do we know that our worship is "true." How do we know that our expressions of worship are right? Jesus went on to say, "true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth." These are the only two qualifiers. Once we recognize who we worship, we must attend to how we worship. Not everything being done in the name of worship today, qualifies. Singing is a legitimate way to worship, but not everyone singing is worshipping. Some people sing to hear themselves sing. They are more concerned about themselves than they are with the One to whom we sing. Praising God is a legitimate way to worship God, but not everyone making a lot of noise is worshipping God. Sometimes the noise is simply a means to manipulate the emotions of the people. Or, even worse, an attempt to manipulate God. We shout real loud and long and we tell God, "You have to visit us, because you said you would inhabit the praises of your people!" In this case the praise is a vain attempt force God into attending a meeting where He is not the center of attention, we are. Jesus tells us that two things make worship real: spirit and truth. There is nothing in these two qualifiers which say which type, or style, of saint's music is appropriate. There is nothing in these two words which say what type of building is appropriate. There is nothing here addressing denominational differences. There are simply two words, "spirit and truth." It is important that we understand what Jesus means. It as vital to the life of the church that we experience true worship, as it is to the life of the geese that they fly south in the winter and north in the summer. Without true worship we cease to be the true church and our forms and our works mean nothing. We must worship God in spirit and in truth. So what does that mean? "spirit and truth?"
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A TRUE WORSHIP IS IN SPIRIT
To begin with, Jesus is saying that true worship is spiritual. He goes on to say that God is a Spirit and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Worship is a spiritual act which requires the response of man to the upward call of God. By saying that it is spiritual He is saying that the spirit of man is to commune with the God, who is a Spirit. True worship is the flesh of man in the background while the spirit of man moves to the foreground and on that spiritual plane man experiences and honors God. True worship has to move beyond the sound of the music, the tempo of the music, the temperature of the building, the personality on the stage or time on the clock. In true worship we enter a spiritual dimension and there, and only there, we truly worship God. Some folks recoil at this thought. For them it is too other worldly, too supernatural, too mystical. But Jesus said, there is no other way to worship, than in spirit and in truth.
B. TRUE WORSHIP IS IN TRUTH
There are two worlds in which we live. There is temporal material world. It is a world which is passing, it is decaying turning to dust. Then there is the spiritual world. It is in the spiritual realm where true worship occurs, but there are two realities of the spiritual world. There is the kingdom of God and there is the kingdom of darkness. Jesus said our worship must be spiritual, but it must also be truth. Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh to the Father but by me" (Jn. 14:6). For our worship to be true, we must come by the cross. We can only come boldly to the throne of grace when we come by Jesus. True worship is build upon the foundation of truth which Jesus came to build the church upon. True worship is not built upon what flesh and blood hath revealed, but what the Father in His Son was revealing to the world. It is the truth that we cannot save ourselves. It is the truth that we need a Savior. It is the truth that Jesus is the way. It is the truth that will set us free. It is the truth of the Gospel which will liberate our spirits from the kingdom of darkness so that we will have the liberty to worship God. Spiritual worship without truth leads to emotionalism or even to occultism. Truth without spirit leads to ritualism, formalism and legalism. But when we worship in spirit and in truth, our worship is always fresh and it is always real. When we worship in spirit and truth, our worship is in the right place, with the right God at the right time, for the right reason.
