Left On Read, Part 3

LEFT ON READ

In Spirit and In Truth

January 16, 2021 | By Tyler Carroll

SETLIST

MESSAGE NOTES

John 4:15
“Sir,’ the woman said, ‘give me this water!’ Then I won’t be thirsty anymore, and I won’t have to come here to draw water from the well.’”

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John 4:19
“Well, sir,” replied the woman, “I can see you’re a prophet . . .”

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John 4:20
“Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

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Where must I go if I want to find the presence of God?

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John 4:21-24
“Believe me, woman,” replied Jesus, “the time is coming when you won’t worship the father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You worship what you don’t know. We worship what we do know; salvation, you see, is indeed from the Jews. But the time is coming—indeed, it’s here already!—when true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. Yes: that’s the kind of worshippers the father is looking for. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

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John Walton
“The tasks given to Adam are of a priestly nature – caring for sacred space. In ancient thinking, caring for sacred space was a way of upholding creation…If the priestly vocabulary of Genesis 2 indicates the same kind of thinking, the point of caring for sacred space should be seen as much more than landscaping. Maintaining order made one a participant with God in the ongoing task of sustaining the equilibrium God established in the cosmos.”

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Exodus 40:1-2
Then the LORD said to Moses, “On the first day of the first month you are to set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting…

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Exodus 40:9-17
Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it along with all its furnishings, and it shall be holy. Anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it shall be most holy. Anoint the basin and its stand and consecrate them. Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. And you are to clothe Aaron with the holy garments, anoint him, and consecrate him, so that he may serve Me as a priest. Bring his sons forward and clothe them with tunics. Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so that they may also serve Me as priests. Their anointing will qualify them for a permanent priesthood throughout their generations.” Moses did everything just as the LORD had commanded him. So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month of the second year…

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Exodus 40:33-35
And Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and the altar, and he hung the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard. So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was unable to enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

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1 Kings 8:10-11
“And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.”

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John 4:23
But the time is coming—indeed, it’s here already!—when true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and in truth…

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John 4:25
“I know that Messiah is coming,” said the woman, “the one they call ‘the anointed.’ When he comes, he’ll tell us everything.”

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John 4:26
“I’m the one–the one speaking to you right now,” said Jesus.

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John 1:14
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. We gazed upon his glory, glory like that of the Father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

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Andy Stanley
“The temple was the presence of God on earth…To compare oneself to the temple or to suggest anything was greater than the temple reflected extraordinary arrogance, ignorance, or insanity. For someone to claim to be greater than the temple was blasphemy worthy of death. A threat to the temple was a threat to the nation. The Jewish populace would die before allowing this sacred real estate to be desecrated or threatened.”

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Acts 2:1-4
“When the day of Pentecost had finally arrived, they were all together in the same place. Suddenly there came from heaven a noise like the sound of a strong, blowing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then tongues, seemingly made of fire, appeared to them, moving apart and coming to rest on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages, as the spirit gave them the words to say.”

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NT Wright
“The Temple was an advance sign of what God intended to do with and for the whole creation. When God filled the house with his presence, that was a sign and a foretaste of his ultimate intention, which was to flood the whole world with his glory, presence, and love…”

“[God’s] personal, powerful presence has come to inhabit His people, turning them individually into walking temples and corporately into a single body designed for praise, holiness, and sacrifice. This is the long-awaited new temple, inhabited personally by the long-awaited God of Israel.”

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1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

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1 Corinthians 6:19
Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, the spirit God gave you, so that you don’t belong to yourselves?

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1 Peter 2:4-5
“As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

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Ephesians 2:19-22
Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

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Michael Green
“The New Testament writers were awestruck to realize that the presence of God, equated with his Spirit was, since Pentecost, permanently dwelling in their midst. They, poor uneducated individuals of different nations and backgrounds, constituted the temple of God as they met for worship. They were the place where his Spirit was to be encountered. To be sure, that is true of the individual also. But the corporate aspect is primary. The Church, gathered for worship and then dispersed in mission and service, is the people God had chosen for his own possession, to manifest something of his glory as the Spirit makes his presence known among them, and through them to others.”

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Worship and Witness

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Responding to the Holy Spirit
1. We respond to the Spirit when we engage in personal acts of worship.
2. We respond to the Spirit when we participate in the worshipping life of a local church community.
3. We respond to the Spirit when we recognize and celebrate the presence of God in our midst.
4. We respond to the Spirit when we embrace opportunities to share the gospel with others.