The False Worship of Jeroboam and the Samaritans - a podcast by Craig Scott

  How Should We Worship God?A great way to answer this is to quote Jesus Himself "worship God in spirit and in truth". Lots of information is packed into that short phrase. Let's investigate more closely and see what we find.One day Jesus was traveling through a region in Judea known as Samaria. The region of Samaria roughly aligned with the region once occupied by the 10 northern tribes after they split away from the rest of Israel. The people who lived in this region of Samaria had a curious collection of beliefs and practices that were similar to what the Jews practiced but definitely not the same. While the disciples were off running errands Jesus sat down to rest at a public well and started up a conversation with a Samaritan woman who was there. Their conversation was mostly about the truth of who He was and what He had to offer spiritually. However, their conversation touched briefly on the subject of proper worship.Read the whole chapter to get the context and then zoom in on these verses John 4:19-24. The woman's question in verse 19 begs an answer "which way of worship is correct"? The summation of Jesus' response is found in verse 23-24 "the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth".The woman thought of Samaritans as the true worshipers of God. But Jesus corrected her saying "no, your people don't know what they are talking about. The truth of salvation and correct manner of worship [at least up until that point] was with the Jews".Some folks interpret Jesus' comments about “worshiping in spirit” as meaning... after the coming of the sacrificial lamb of God and the new high priest all matters of worship becomes a spiritual matters of the heart rather than a matter of obedience and action. But, Jesus forecast actually said, true worshipers will worship 1) in spirit 2) in truth.If there is a way to worship that is in truth... then there is also a way to worship that is false.Here is a link to the handout referred to in the message regarding the kings of northern Israel - https://www.ucg.org/system/storage/serve/1206121/sins_of_jerobam.pdf Keep Reading »

Further episodes of UCG Raleigh

Further podcasts by Craig Scott

Website of Craig Scott