Spirit and Truth

(My first guitar, 1983 Gibson spirit)

John 4:23  New International Version 
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks


I have to admit before taking a worship class from the local "mega-church" (which was awesome BTW) I had always passed over this verse as something I already had a firm grasp on and needn't consider any further.  I thought Jesus simply meant that we should worship with a spirit of truth when we worship God.  In other words we should be sincere and forthright in our intentions.  Which of course is good but that's not at all what He is saying.  He says God is looking for people who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  Does that mean he wants us to worship Him in our spirits?  In our truth?  I don't think so.  Simply put, our spirits and our truths (on their own merit) aren't worth squat.

So whose Spirit?  Whose Truth?  Or is it more like Who is Spirit?



 John 15:26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.


Luke 11:13
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Who is Truth?  
    
John 14:6

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

So wait - How do we worship in the Holy Spirit and In Jesus?  Let's take one at a time.  First the Holy Spirit.  Let's look at just two examples from scripture of people operating in the Spirit.

Mark 12:36
³⁶ David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared:

   “‘The Lord said to my Lord:
   “Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
   under your feet.'”

Luke 10:21
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do."

  The first example Mark 12:36 is Jesus asking the people He was teaching to consider how the Christ could be called the son of David when David himself called Him Lord.  He was cautioning against listening to some of the scribes assertion that the Christ would be less then God, perhaps another prophet, merely a human descendant of David.  David knew Jesus was God years before He took human form and declared it in one of his worship songs.  That's cool.  But what else is cool about the verse is that it reveals something of the nature of the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives.  How could David have such insight into the mystery of the Trinity without the benefit of the New Testament scriptures and 1000 years before Pentecost?  Among other things, the Holy Spirit is our teacher.  He reveals things to us that only God could know.  And since we were created to worship, without the Holy Spirit teaching us who it is we worship and how to worship Him we end up worshiping things like rock stars, actors, rocks, mountains, animals and sadly, even ourselves.

Luke 10:21 shows Jesus being filled with joy and knowledge from the Holy Spirit and He responds by praising God the Father and declaring His goodness and wisdom.  Heck, if it's good enough for Jesus it's good enough for me.  

  So how do we worship In Truth - in Jesus?  As Christians Jesus is our savior, our truth, our way - to the Father.  No one comes to Him except by Jesus.  Our righteousness is like filthy rags and we can't even hope to approach God the Father without Jesus' righteousness covering us.  We all have sinned and come short of being worthy enough to commune with God.  What's way cool is that in Jesus, we can not only approach God we can call Him our friend.  We can spend as long as we want in His company.  In fact, we will spend forever in His presence.  How beautiful is that?
  
  In a previous post I asserted that the tech team is an integral part of the worship team and the sound board (among other things) is a powerful instrument of praise.  If that's true and if we need Jesus and the Holy Spirit to truly worship the way the father wants us to - can we have someone on the worship team who is not saved?  My opinion is absolutely not but that's something I would like to explore and hopefully get other opinions on in a post to be named later.