Sermon Note: Worship – Center Our Mind’s Attention and Heart’s Affection on the Lord John 4:19-24 (2024)

April 21, 2024 Mitchell Jolly Uncategorized Leave a comment

Worship: We Center Our Mind’s Attention and Heart’s Affection on the Lord

The Lord gave Israel land as a tactical outpost to bless all nations with a saving knowledge of the Lord.

In that land, the Lord chose a mountain city for the “come and see” revelation of his justifying righteousness in the temple that would sit on that mountain.

In time, Israel came to see the temple as an end in itself rather than a place of worship and a “come and see” invitation to salvation.

This would become a problem for them as, over time, they began to value the temple more than the Lord who made the temple a revelation of his glory.

“The Jews had become far too dependent on a physical place, the temple, for their worship. When Jesus arrived…, he proclaimed that he himself was the temple of God; in resurrection, he would provide the spiritual dwelling where God the Spirit and people…could have communion (see Mt 12:6; Jn 2:19–22). In other words, worship would no longer be in a place but in a person—through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit true worshipers could come directly to God (see Jn 14:6; Heb 10:19–20).” – Walter A. Elwell and Philip Wesley Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Tyndale Reference Library (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 1312.

This Lord Jesus reveals this massive shift in understanding worship in John 4 to the woman at the well.

When the woman at the well experiences Jesus as THE prophet, she shifts the discussion to worship and the debate between Samaritans and Jews about the physical location of worship.

Interestingly, the Samaritan woman’s response to Jesus knowing about her life is worship.

I believe that’s because, whether she realizes it or not, her created instincts to worship the Lord are being quickened to life from the previous state of death because the One she was created to worship is resurrecting her to saving life.

She’s not fully awakened yet. She’s fixated on the physical location of worship. Jesus is about to change that, and he will instruct her about the nature of true worship.

Let’s read it! John 4:19-24

Jesus gives us five principles of worship, and the last principle leads us to the next part of our working definition of worship, and that is also where we will spend the majority of our time.

Let’s review the definition and jump into Jesus’ teaching on worship.

Worship is communion with God in which believers by grace center their mind’s attention and heart’s affection on the Lord humbly glorifying God in response to the revelation of his glory and majesty.

NOTE: Our points on the mind’s attention and heart’s affection are woven into the fabric of the exposition of Jesus’ teaching about worship. This part of the definition comes from a larger teaching of the Bible on worship. If we were to write a complete working definition of worship, we’d just recopy the whole Bible, so we have to isolate parts of the whole to help us understand and grow. Don’t be confused as to why “mind’s attention and heart’s affection” is not the backbone of the sermon. They are only part of the whole text of what Jesus teaches, but nonetheless important.

What does Jesus teach us about worship?

1. God is seeking worshipers. V. 23
2. Only true worship is acceptable to God. V. 23, 24
   1. The Lord doesn’t just accept it because we bring it.
   2. Worship needs to be approached with care and preparation.
3. True worship is not defined by time and location. V. 20, 21; 24
   1. Worship is not limited to worship service times and physical buildings.
   2. This can’t be the only time we worship this week.
4. We are living in the age of true worship. V. 23
   1. Jesus’ coming and the advent of his kingdom bring in the age of true worship which is the seeking work of the Lord, bound by his terms of acceptability, and not defined by time and location.
      1. We are in overtime, and each day is closer to the consummation of the age, and each moment matters.
5. The standard of true worship is “spirit and truth”. V. 23-24
   1. Spirit and truth defy time and location.
      1. Spirit and truth move us toward the restoration of all things when Edenic order and communion with God will be restored and the whole of creation will be brought fully under Jesus’ reign.
      2. Spirit and truth move us from time and space to inner realities that work themselves out into physical expressions of exaltation.
      3. I believe I can say this confidently because that pattern of inside/out is how Ezekiel says the Lord saves people in the new covenant.
         1. He takes out a hard heart and puts in a soft heart. He gives us his Spirit. He causes us to walk in his way.
         2. Inside change that works itself out.
         3. Spirit and truth work from the inner realities of people to the outside expression.
      4. Jesus wants us to worship like that.
         1. True worship begins with those inside, immaterial truths and then manifests itself in lives lived as living sacrifices.
            1. It begins in “spirit” as the Lord tells us.
               1. What is that?
   2. Worship in spirit involves the ATTENTION OF THE MIND.
      1. Romans 12:1-2
         1. Romans 12:1-2 (ESV) 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
            1. Being a living sacrifice, our spiritual worship is intimately connected to being transformed through our mind being renewed.
               1. Lives lived as a living sacrifice, our worship in spirit, keeps us from being conformed to the world.
               2. That’s because our mind is being renewed.
               3. Our minds are being renewed because we are worshiping as a living sacrifice.
                  1. The renewed mind sits in the middle of our worship in spirit.
                     1. A mind that is set on the world system will not worship the Lord as a living sacrifice.
      2. Listen to Mark 12:28-30 being preached from Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
         1. Mark 12:28-30 (ESV) 28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
            1. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (ESV) 4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
         2. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy from the LXX. The LXX translates “heart” as “mind”. It understands the heart as including the mind.
            1. Mark records Jesus using both the Hebrew text and the LXX because he adds “mind” while keeping “heart” in his answer to the question he was asked.
               1. Why would Jesus do that when most New Testament authors quote from the LXX?
            2. Jesus wants those listening, including the many Gentiles who will read his answer, to not miss the the importance of the mind in loving God and not forgetting the heart.
            3. Jesus’ care for all who will hear his words is astounding. He doesn’t want the truth to get lost in translation or cultural understanding.
               1. For the Hebrews, they understood the mind to be part of the function of the “heart”.
               2. For the Hellenistic Gentiles, the mind was distinguished from the heart.
                  1. Who is more correct in their breakdown of the image of God in man is not the point.
                  2. Jesus wants his hearers to understand.
               3. What I want you to see is what the Lord wants us to see: the mind is important when it comes to worship.
               4. It’s so important he communicated it the unique way Mark captured it.
      3. How is the mind’s attention worship?
         1. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 tells us we have the mind of Christ.
            1. When we come to faith in Jesus, he begins our sanctification, and part of that work is renewing our minds.
            2. I like Curt Thompson’s definition of the mind as “an embodied relational process, emerging from within our brains and between brains, that regulates the flow of energy and information. – Curt Thompson, MD., “The Anatomy of the Soul.” p. 29
               1. When Jesus saves us by the preaching of his work on the cross (1 Corinthians 2:1-5), by the Holy Spirit, he begins growing our ability to know him and all he’s given us to know by growing us into the ability to think like the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:6ff).
               2. That’s the work of sanctification on the human mind.
               3. If we then have the mind of Christ, then our mind’s attention matters regarding the worship of Jesus Christ.
                  1. Romans 12:1-2 connects the mind’s work and our worship, so growing in our mind’s function has to be part of our worship.
            3. Our mind’s sanctification looks like receiving imparted mature wisdom others have passed on to us in our discipling relationships through the work of the Holy Spirit in and among us. 2 Cor. 2:6-7; 10-12
               1. This results in our growth into regained glory. 2 Cor. 2:6-7
               2. This is Proverbs 25:2 wisdom discovered by Spirit-filled and Bible-saturated Christians who then pass it on to others they are discipling in the faith.
            4. Our mind’s sanctification looks like us imparting this spiritual wisdom to those who are walking in the Spirit with us. 2 Cor. 2:13
               1. Our mind growing into functioning like Jesus’ mind is the practice of loving the Lord with all our mind, and thus worshiping the Lord with the attention of our minds set on the Lord Jesus in all his glory.
   3. Worship in spirit involves the action of the will.
      1. Romans 12:1-2
         1. Paul appeals to the Romans to “present” themselves as living sacrifices.
            1. If it is necessary to be appealed to that we might worship, then the implication is that we must decide to respond to the appeal and actually worship.
            2. So, worship in spirit is a choice to engage with the Lord in all the ways he invites us worship.
   4. Worship in spirit involves the AFFECTION OF THE HEART.
      1. Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Mark 12:28-30
         1. Jesus, preaching from his word in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, answers the question posed to him about which commandment was the most important.
            1. Jesus answers that the Lord is the only Creator who stands alone as Master and Ruler of all, and therefore we are to love him with all of our being, and that includes the spiritual reality of directing the full measure of our hearts to the Lord.
         2. The heart was believed to be the seat of emotion.
            1. Our affections are our positive emotions.
            2. Positive emotions produce physical expressions.
         3. Proverbs 4:23 (ESV) 23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
            1. Life springs from the heart, and therefore, we are to guard it, and the ultimate reason we are to guard it is because its affections are for our enjoyment in directing those affection’s expressions to the Lord.
               1. That’s another way of saying his glory is put on display through our joy in him.
            2. The heart’s affection’s climax is not reached until it is expressed toward someone or something.
               1. You know this innately.
                  1. Illustration: When Eddie Perez singled to left field and Sid Bream scored to win the 1992 NLCS, none of us watching stoically sat there and mumbled, well, that’s a nice ending.
                     1. No. We jumped. We yelled. We threw liquid refreshment into the air. We laughed. We cried.
                        1. Our hearts were full, and we expressed those positive emotions toward the Atlanta Braves and Eddie Perez while enjoying our hate of Barry Bonds and his weak arm that couldn’t throw slow Sid Bream out as he scored from second base out on a weak single.
                        2. Our affections climaxed in the exultation of all that joy.
            3. Worship in spirit looks like our affections reaching their climax in being expressed to, for, and on the Lord Jesus.
   5. Worship in truth involves the truth about God and the truth about us.
      1. The truth about mankind is there is no one righteous. We are all under the curse of sin until we turn to Jesus by faith.
         1. The truth about those who come to Jesus by faith is that our minds and hearts can be deceived, and we can even mismanage our minds and hearts.
      2. The truth about God is that Jesus is Him, and we can only be reconciled to him by faith in him and his finished work on the cross. There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved. Jesus alone!
         1. Now, if we don’t follow Jesus or in our faith, we are deceived, we will center our minds and affections on the wrong people or things.
         2. That is idolatry.
            1. The enemy, the Serpent, has majored in diverting the attention and affection of people and nations away from the Lord and keeping them in the bondage of sin.
            2. What we are seeking to do in the Great Commission is not just rescue people from hell.
            3. We want the nations to be glad and sing for joy in the praise of Jesus Christ.
               1. Psalm 67.
                  1. The end of making the Lord known among all nations is their joy and gladness fully expressed with their mind’s attention and heart’s affection offered to the Lord Jesus.
      3. For people and nations to worship truly, minds and hearts must be shaped by truth.
         1. John 17:17 (ESV) 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
            1. The Scriptures are our foundation of truth and the framework by which we interpret everything else.

Application

1. Applying the Spirit’s fruit of self-control to the exercise of our minds and hearts is real work.
   1. Don’t expect this to be easy.
   2. This is the work of sanctification in the lives of people truly transformed by the gospel.
   3. Learning worship will be a challenge for Israel in the desert and the promised land.
      1. We have the Holy Spirit and still want to make it about us.
      2. Learning worship will be discipleship work.
2. We cannot go through the motions of a worship service without engaging the mind and heart and believe we have truly worshiped.
   1. So, what should we do?
      1. Prepare.
         1. Whatever worship setting, from personal to a RL group to the corporate gathering of TRC, prepare.
         2. Worship is an exercise of the will that requires us to be ready.
         3. No athlete competes without preparing.
         4. No follower of Jesus Christ should worship without preparing for worship.
            1. “Sunday worship is a Saturday night decision.” – Dean Inserra
         5. What does this preparation look like:
            1. Quiet your mind.
               1. I’m convinced the enemy targets worship preparation, particularly the corporate gathering.
               2. I’m convinced this is why getting ready for worship is so hard.
            2. Make an effort to be early and settled when you commune with the Lord.
            3. Examine yourself.
               1. Scan your thoughts and your body, and make an effort to be settled into a place of quiet focus on the Lord.
            4. Become aware of the rhythm of the time, and make the effort to pay attention to what you are paying attention to.
               1. This is being attuned.
            5. Listen.
               1. Fight against the conditioned desire to shift focus.
            6. Respond to the rhythm and the Holy Spirit’s voice from the Word and from his work in your soul.