Jesus and the Woman at the Well Part 4: True Reformation and True Worship - John 4:19-26

2:31And he later commented: he said, if anyone could have earned heaven by the life of a monk, it was me. It was I. But at the same time, he was increasingly terrified by the wrath of God. It scared him. And one of the scriptures that haunted him the most was Romans 1:17. I'll read you Romans 1.16 and then read you 17 so you get a context. But Romans 1.16. That wonderful passage, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Here comes verse 17. But in it, the gospel, for in it, the gospel, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. Luther had a complete misunderstanding of this text.

3:32And Luther would ask himself over and over: who could live by faith except those who were already righteous? As Luther interpreted it, he said the text was very clear. One has to be righteous in order to live by faith. And this scared him. You have to be righteous in order to live by faith. And so Luther remarked, I hated the righteousness of God. I learned to hate it. Let me listen to some of his own words. Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God. I was angry with God and said, as if it is not enough that miserable sinners eternally lost through original sin.

4:31Are then crushed by the law of the Ten Commandments. Then God gives the gospel and adds pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath. He says, I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. So, what do you do with a guy like that? Well, you give him a doctorate and Bible and you tell him to go teach. Guy hadn't even read the New Testament. That tells you something about the situation. So he was ordered to take his doctorate in the Bible and become a professor at Wittenberg.

5:13And during the lectures on Psalms, this is be about 15, 13, 15, 14, and a study of the book of Romans, something wonderful happened to Luther. Coming back to this text on Romans 1:17, he says, There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God. And that gift is faith. And this is the meaning. He who through faith is righteous shall live. He who through faith is righteous shall live. That's the meaning. And here, I felt that I was altogether born again.

6:00And had entered paradise itself through the open gates. There, a totally other face of the entire scripture showed itself to me. Thereupon I ran through the scripture from memory. The righteousness of God was in, in fact, the work of God. That is what God does in us. It's the power of God with which He makes us wise. It's the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God. And this phrase, righteousness of God, became the sweetest word in Luther's vocabulary. And he said it like this: And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word righteousness of God. And in that place, speaking of Romans 1:17, was for me truly the gate of paradise.

7:00Well, a transformation on the inside took place in Martin Luther's life. And that transformation led to a reformation of Luther's entire life and his union with God. And of course, it was not long that that changed understanding impacted everything about him. To Luther, the church was no longer an institution defined by apostolic society. Instead, it was the community of those who had been given faith. That's what the church is. It's the community of those who have faith, the righteous. So it affected his ecclesiology. It also affected his teaching of salvation or his understanding. Salvation came not by the sacraments, but by faith.

7:52It affects his idea of humanity. He said that the idea of human beings had a spark of goodness, that is, a spark of goodness enough to seek God out, was not a foundation of theology, as was taught, but taught only by fools. Man is dead. That's what he's saying. Humility was no longer a virtue that earned the grace, but a necessary response to the gift of grace. Faith no longer consisted of assenting to the church's teachings, but of trusting the promises of God and the merits of Christ. That's what faith is. And of course, it wasn't long before this reformation in Luther's heart and mind played itself out in all of Europe and all the world. In fact, if you read your Bible in your own language today, you owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Reformers. If you participated in worshiping God through song today, you owe a great debt of gratitude to the reformers.

9:01And the lists can go on. The authority of Scripture, final court of appeals for all matters of theology, justification by faith alone. He gave back Jesus of Scripture, who had been drowned in the sea of the saints. Coming forth was the Jesus and married life among the pastorate. I remember when a young man came in here and he said, I have to leave my church down the road, a Catholic church down the road, because I'm having such marriage issues. And I know that that guy cannot tell me anything about my marriage.

9:46As you know, they forbid marriage in the priesthood. On and on. We could go on. That's Martin Luther himself. I want to talk about his work, Luther's 95 Theses. It's considered to be the formal beginning point of the Reformation, that nail being hammered into the door at Wittenberg, the nail. You could think of that as the 90th. That is the start, many would say, of the Reformation. Well, if that's the start of the Reformation, then point number one is the start of the start of the Reformation. Right? Let me read to you the first of his 95 theses. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, Repent, he willed that the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. And thus the whole 95 Theses are a call to repentance.

10:53The very tip of the Reformation is a call, was a call to repentance. It's familiar, right? The Reformation of society began with the Reformation of the Church. The Reformation of the Church began with the Reformation of an individual. And the Reformation of the individual began with the gospel. And the gospel begins with the conviction of sin and a call to leave your broken cisterns behind. As we saw last week, this woman, our Lord Himself showed us this in John chapter 4. Remember last time we left off in verse 15 and 19. This is where Jesus exposed the sin of the woman at the well. I'll just read it to you and pick it up, just for by way of review. In verse 15, the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty nor come all the way. Here to draw, give me this living water. And so Jesus begins to give her this living water. And he said, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman answered, said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have correctly said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you have now is not your husband. Thus you have said truly. In other words, yeah, you don't have a husband. You're in an immoral relationship right now. Your life is a picture of immorality and shame. There is sin.

12:37And he puts his finger on it, right? Of course, verse 19, the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. That's a confession. She doesn't fight it. She doesn't push back. She said, You're right. She doesn't say, well, let me tell you what really happened. My father wasn't any good. And none of that blaming stuff. You're right. You see, what's going on here is one does not drink water unless they're thirsty, right? You don't, if you're not thirsty, you don't drink water. You drink water when you're thirsty, physically speaking. The same is true about living water. One does not drink it in without thirsting for it. And so the first thing that Jesus does is he awakens her conscience to her need for what he has. Has to offer.

13:32You have a sinful conscience. He didn't have to say much. And the conscience which drove Adam out of the garden or drove him into the to hide from the presence of God, same conscience. It desires satisfaction if you're going to stand before a living God. You see, a crucified Messiah makes absolutely no sense without the conviction of sin. A crucified Messiah satisfies my guilty conscience before a holy God. That's the thirst. I need something to satisfy a deep need, and that is to be clean in the presence of a holy God who knows every little detail about my life.

14:32He knows it, and I know it. I need something to cover my shame before him. That's the transformation that must, that's what he offers. It's the reformation of soul. This is what living water is about. And I'm going to just pick up in verse 20. I don't intend to expound it today. I'm going to come back. There's too many truths in here. I want to go verse by verse, line by line, and mine these truths. But right now, I want you to, I want to read it just so you can get an understanding of the desired flow or the desired outcome of what this living water that Jesus gives. What is its goal? Well, you notice after she makes this confession in verse 19 that this whole conversation turns to worship. Verse 20, our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem you will worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people, the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

16:08The true reformation of a soul leads to true worship. True reformation leads to true worship. What is God after? What does he want? What is he looking for? Verse 23 tells us: the father is seeking true worship. Those who will worship him in spirit, not your spirit, but his spirit, his Holy Spirit, and in truth, not your truth, his revealed truth. He is seeking true worshipers. That's what he's doing. Why did God have, why did Jesus have to go through Samaria? Why was it of an eternal necessity that he had to go through Samaria? He was looking for something.

17:08He was looking for a true worshiper. It's interesting as you do a quick study on the eyes of the Lord, the things that he is looking after, the things that he pays attention to, and just quite revealing as you just do a cursory study and just read you a few texts, just through the scriptures. You kind of get a sense of this. But the eyes of the Lord. In Genesis 6:8, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. All the chaos that was about to come and destruction, the eyes of the Lord were looking around and found. Noah, in Deuteronomy 11:12, speaks about the land of Israel is a land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it. So he cares about the land.

18:02Deuteronomy, or 2 Chronicles 16, 9 says, For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. His eyes are looking for something, he's looking for true worshipers. That's what he does. Zechariah 4:10 speaks about the eyes of the Lord ranging to and fro throughout the earth. Psalm 34:15 says, The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. 1 Peter 3:12 reiterates that exact psalm. Proverbs 5:21 says, For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he watches all his paths.

18:49Of course, in John 4:23, God is seeking true worshipers. So, when you leave for the summer, students, as you start taking a break, remember, it's not the eyes of Texas that are upon you, it's the eyes of the Lord, right? And what is he looking? He is looking for true worshipers, but he knows that's not going to happen unless he inserts himself and creates in you a right spirit to do so and reforms, transforms your soul. But here's my point in all this: everything that I've said so far comes down to this: true reformation of a soul leads to true worship. True worship. Reformation leads to true worship. I want to take a step backward and just look at where we've been in John so far. And just I want you to see kind of this pattern that John is giving us so that you can see and understand that true reformation leads to true worship. And that's where he's going.

19:58God's Spirit is given to save us. God's Spirit is given to remain in us in order that he would constantly be reforming us so that we would constantly be increasing in our worship. That's what he said. He wants us constantly increasing in our worship. And this living water is the very Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ himself. And you need that in order to be growing in your worship. But you just, in chapter 2, if you just look at, go back a couple of pages, you see the power of Jesus.

20:39We went through this. There was three elements that I really preached from John chapter 2. There was the power of Jesus, the passion of Jesus, and the opposition to Jesus. First of all, we're introduced to the power of Jesus in verses 1 through 12, and that deals with his ability to transform something, right? And what did he transform? Water. Into wine. He took something common and he transformed it into something special. If you really get down to the basic idea behind the Reformation, it's really transformation, right? A transformed heart that then changes the ways, reforms the ways.

21:19Such a beautiful picture there. He took away the shame of the wedding party to be exposed, not having sufficient hospitality or paying attention to the hospitality details, and he bestowed honor upon them. Remember, verse 9, verse 10, what does he say? He says, when the head waiter tasted the water, which had become wine, and did not know where it came from, but the servants who had drawn the water, the head waiter, called the bridegroom and said to him, Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he brings the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. What an honor. What could have been a social disaster turned into a social bonanza for this family? But this is what he, ability to transform.

22:19That was the power of Jesus. Then we're introduced in verses 13 to 17 about the passion of Jesus. And what is that passion? True worship. As he goes into the temple, right? And he cleanses it, he cleanses it. I mean, he turns tables over, he makes a showing, and then in verse 17, his disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. So, right off the bat, John introduces us to one who has the ability to transform. That's his power. And he introduces us to the passion of this one, and his passion is true worship. And what's he going to baptize you with? His Holy Spirit, who has this same passion for true worship. Well, as you keep reading through John chapter 2, you come into the opposition. What is the opposition to John to Jesus's transforming power? Well, there are two things that I specifically wanted to call your attention to in verses 18 through 22. The first being religious protectionism, right? Religious protectionism.

23:34In fact, you heard a little bit about this in Jackson's testimony, didn't you? I didn't, no, wait, I reject this because I've got my own idea of what righteous standing is, and that's what I'm going to take, that's what I'm going to believe. I don't need a God to come and tell me that I don't measure up. Well, that's exactly what the Jews felt about this guy coming in and cleaning out their house, right? Right? And those who protect their own religious ways, they do not like Jesus' view of sins. They think they've got God figured out. And look, you can be an atheist and you can be a religious protectionist, okay?

24:18You think you've got God all figured out, or you have them all figured out? Bottom line is: though, the religious protectionist is unteachable. I've got it figured out. I don't need the God of Scripture. I do not need the God of the Bible to come inform my ways. Friends, don't let this ever be you. Let you be somebody, let you be a person that comes with a teachable spirit to the very revelation, the very words of God Himself, and let Him inform your understanding of Him. Be honest. And if it doesn't all fit in, don't worry about it. Just be honest with what the clear Scripture says.

25:01Or you'll fall under this category of the religious protectionist. And I will remind you that it was this religious protectionist in conjunction with the religious superficialist that put Christ on the cross, which is the second opposition. If you read through verses 23 through 25 in chapter 2, it's religious superficialism. Religious protectionism and religious superficialism. Are the two forces that will oppose Jesus' transforming power? These are drawn to Jesus for reasons other than his cross, other than sin, other than satisfaction to the guilty conscience, to the guiltiness that they have before a holy and just God.

25:53So there's all kinds of benefits, there's all kinds of reasons to follow Jesus on the surface level, right? I read an author just recently, and I can't even remember exactly who it was, but he made this comment. He said, What good does it do you in hell if people think you went to heaven? Think about it. What good does it do you here today if you go to hell and all of us think you went to heaven? That's religious superficialism.

26:33So in chapter two, you see this ability to transform. You see the power of Jesus. You see the passion of Jesus, that to transform. He's not just about transforming water into wine. He's into changing hearts that will love and worship God. That's his passion. That's why he had to go through Samaria in chapter four. In chapter three, chapter four, you meet two people, right? Chapter three, we meet Nicodemus, who will become a believer. You meet the woman in chapter four. You have the high and low of society, right? You have the religious, the very best of Jewish society, and you have this immoral woman from Samaria. Both of them didn't understand. Both of them needed living water. Both of them needed what Christ gave them. They needed a new, they needed spiritual understanding, and they needed to be born from above. That's what they both needed.

27:36You know, we, as I said, Jackson's baptism is a perfect illustration of what's going on. Baptism itself is a picture of this transformation. You heard it in his testimony. There was a degree of protectionism and a degree of superficialism, opposition to Christ's transforming power. The baptism waters themselves, they speak of judgment. The waters themselves, he who goes under water dies, comes under the judgment. And it's baptism is an outward illustration of an inward change. Sin is dealt with, judged, going under, you are judged with Christ. The payment, the law, has been totally fulfilled. Filled, coming out, you are resurrected by and in and with the very Holy Spirit of Christ Himself. That's the picture.

28:42You go down, identifying with Christ, coming under the full wrath of God, eternity, eternal wrath, dealing with it right there. And you come out cleansed, renewed, invigorated with a new life by, in, and with the very Holy Spirit of Christ Himself. All that is an illustration of what had already taken place in Jackson's heart. You could read the details of it in the testimony. You can hear about it. This is what's taking place in this woman's heart.

29:28Well, I'm not expounding scripture today. I'm just talking, okay? I invite you back next time. We want to pick this up, but I wanted you to see this morning that true reformation inevitably leads to true worship, so that you will be constantly reforming, constantly repenting, constantly like that very first of Martin Luther's theses. Let the whole characteristic of your being be One of repentance, growing, transforming, and constantly increasing in worship. True reformation always leads to true worship. You may be able to sign the best doctrinal statement in the world and fully think you assent to it. But if it's really, if you really believe, it will lead to true worship. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help our unbelief. Help us to receive these words that have come to us through your scripture today as words of truth.

30:46Father, those among us who struggle with believing, help them today just to choose to believe. Father, may we just believe, accept it, and start arranging our lives and praying prayers that assume, take your word to be truth. And so let it transform us. Give us your spirit, your clean Holy Spirit to constantly be putting off, putting on, be transforming ourselves, transforming and reforming our lives to the end that you may receive all the glory, all the praise, that we would be increasing in our word. Worship of your great name. Lord, you've only given us a short time to live, and this is how we want to spend our lives. And we know we can't do it unless you absolutely give us your spirit to do so.

31:47And so we ask that your abiding presence and our growing and his growing control in our lives. Father, we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.