WWJ(U)D, Pt2: Hollow Worship

July 15, 2018                         NOTES NOT EDITED
Pt 2, WWJ(U)D?:  Hollow Worship

John 4:19-30 [Grayed Areas Edited for Sunday Morning]

Sermon-in-a-Sentence: Hollow Worship is not fit to offer to Almighty God.

WWJ(U)D?  What Would Jesus UNdo?  Last week we learned that Jesus wants to “undo” any vestige of an attitude of apathy.  This week follows naturally from last week as we examine the issue of “Hollow Worship.”  Jesus wants to “undo” the practice of “hollow worship” in our lives.

I recall with great fondness Easter mornings as a kid.  There, placed evenly around the kitchen table were five “giant” Easter baskets.  The crown jewel of the Easter candies was always a large chocolate bunny.  I remember getting that solid monument of mouthwatering sweetness.  I don’t know if these Easter bunnies gave me diabetes or I loved them because I had diabetes—but, frankly, I just didn’t care!

Then, there was that occasional Easter I became the victim of a fraud.  I don’t know all the circumstances that brought about this fraud, whether it was family economics or a national shortage of solid milk chocolate bunnies, but it was a horrible crime.  I’m speaking of the “Hollow Chocolate Bunny!”  Looks exactly like the solid chocolate bunny, but it is empty inside.  They had the same taste, but the experience wasn’t the same.  Something was missing.

And, so we have a perfect example of worship in most churches today—it is hollow.  Something is missing.  It looks like worship.  It even tastes like worship.  But it is not worship.  It’s a fraud.

Let’s read a text that shows three reasons why most worship in most churches in America today is “Hollow Worship” that Jesus wants to “Undo.”  John 4:21-30.

Most worship is hollow for three reasons:  the Heart’s not in it; the Head’s not in it; and the Hands are not in it.  First, we see that the

1.  HEART is not in it. (19-21; 23-24)

Notice the reference to places of worship in verse19:  ¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, yet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

“This mountain” and “Jerusalem” represent to important religious places in Jewish life.  The woman was Samaritan, and not technically a Jew.  Samaritans descended from the Jews that remained in the land during the exile.  They only accepted the Pentateuch, or First Five Books of the O.T.  The center of their worship was Mt. Gerizim, the place where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac according to tradition.  It was a holy shrine for the Samaritans.  Jerusalem, is likewise, the holy “shrine” to the Jews.  The key element is that their worship was bound to tradition and location, not Yahweh.  Their hearts were in a place and practice, not a person.  Thus, Jesus said (vs 21; 23-24):

“Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  . . . . .²³ But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Underline the phrase, “an hour (time) is coming.”  Jesus was predicting a “volcanic explosion” in regard to how people would relate to God. Prior to this time, people were locked into a “religious mode of operation.”  It was all about “place and practice.”

This would all change in a cataclysmic way, completely demolishing any idea that worship was about “ritual.”  Worship is not a place or practice, but a person—a relationship.  Focusing on a mountain and a city instead of a Person meant their hearts were literally, “in the wrong place.”  There worship was hollow.  According to one writer, “They were people without chests.” (C.S. Lewis).

C.S. Lewis wrote this in his book, The Abolition of Man, “We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ (that is, the heart) and demand the function.

Lewis’ description of “men without chests” also fittingly describes religion without a relationship with Jesus Christ—worship lacking in “spirit and truth.”  What “coming hour” was Jesus referring to that would open the door to “spiritual” worship?  We find that in Acts 2:

¹When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.  ² Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind  came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.  ³ And tongues, like flames of fire that were divided, appeared to them and rested on each one of them. ⁴ Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit gave them ability for speech.

Pentecost (roughly 50 days after Easter), opened the door for “worship according to spirit and truth.”  It was a spiritual volcanic eruption of a magnitude that the world had never seen before.  Now, men and women had direct access to God through Jesus Christ—a relationship that made religion worthless.

Without the visceral connection to God as a person, worship becomes an empty exercise.  It may be entertaining, or boring.  It may be intellectual, or simplistic.  It may be modern, or traditional.  It may be highbrow, or middle class.  Worship may be a lot of things, but if it is not “from a heart touched by the Spirit” it is hollow.

Have you noticed the rise of fascination with zombies?  A zombie is adead corpse that imitate life. They are infected, living dead, and they feed off the living. Zombies act like they are alive, but they are not.

The last few years have seen an explosion of zombie-themed productions:  The Walking Dead (and spin-off Fear the Walking Dead), iZombie, Game of Thrones, World War Z, Dead Snow, Warm Bodies, Maggie, Cell, The Girl With All The Gifts, Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse, Cockneys vs Zombies, and of course, Pro-Wrestlers vs Zombies. In fact, there is even an official, zombie church. The Trans-Universal Zombie Church of the Blissful Ringing.  As of late 2014, the church had over 10,000 members, making it the fifth largest religion in Slovenia.

I believe there are many other “zombie churches” where people just go through the motions of religion but it has no life—the Heart just is not in it.  That creates a “Hollow Worship.”  Hollow worship also happens with the 

2.  HEAD is not in it (v22, 24-26)

²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews . . . . . . ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

It was common for people to worship an “unknown” god.  One scholar points out that, “This worship of the unknown is common to vulgar ignorance and to philosophic culture; to the Samaritan woman, and to the Athenian philosophers (Vincent).  Paul encountered this type of “worship of the unknown” (Acts 17:22-23)

²² Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. ²³ For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed:  TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.  Therefore, . . . you worship in ignorance.

When Paul acknowledged that the Athenian philosophers were “extremely religious” he used a deliberately ambiguous term that could mean something positive or something negative, depending on the context.  The Athenians would have taken it as positive, not doubt, but Paul’s response shows that their religious fervor was in fact not positive, but lacking.

The word used for “Unknown” God is agnōstō (ἀγνώστῳ).  This is the root word for our English word, agnostic.  An agnostic is someone who admits, “I don’t know if there is a god.”  Agnosticism is an admission of ignorance.  An ignorance many defend fiercely. 

I think many church members are functionally, agnostic.  They know very little about what they believe and almost nothing about why they believe it.  Much of the worship today is based upon ignorance of what the Bible teaches.  Much of the worship today is driven by principles of marketing or following patterns of entertainment in popular music and culture.  Modern worship is driven by pragmaticism not principle—what works rather than what is right.

Most of my education came at a time when church growth experts were offering books and articles on, “How to Reach Baby Boomers.” (Those born between 1954 to 1964).  Church growth strategies were geared to finding what Boomers wanted and giving it to them in order to attract them to church.  The result:  basically, the Boomer generation remains unchurched to this day.  Same thing with Generation X, then Y, also called “Millennials” (22-40 years old).  If history is an indication of what results can be expected through this targeted strategy, I think we will lose yet another generation.

When culture drives worship, worship becomes empty-headed and hollow.  Yes, it is OK to change music styles as times change.  Yes, it is Ok to remodel and make facilities more modern looking.  What is not OK, is to let culture drive worship instead of Scripture. In a frenzy to always be on the cutting edge, most churches have cut themselves off from the Scriptures guiding principles for worship.  Consider what Jeremiah encourages us to do (Jer. 6:16):

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths: Which is the way to what is good? Then take it and find rest for yourselves.

In our frenzied quest to be relevant in the present culture we have actually lost our reason for being the Church in the first place.  The Church is a counter-cultural movement by Her nature.  If the culture was right, it wouldn’t need the church.

The church’s worship had become hollow because for the most part, our Head is not in it.  We have an “anything-goes” approach to worship that is not taking us “anywhere.”  When we come to a crossroad—a point where we make a strategic choice—we must make that choice based upon a knowledge of Scripture, not an appeasement of culture.  Notice again what Jesus says to the woman (Jn. 4:22)

You Samaritans  worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.

What did the Jews have that the Samaritans did not have:  the Scriptures.  The Samaritans rejected all of the Old Testament but the first five books. The Samaritans were “outside the stream of God’s revelation” (Pllar NT Commentary).  The Samaritans did not have the “full counsel of God.”  Their doctrine was incomplete and inadequate.

Right doctrine will either drive worship or wrong worship will deform, delete, or displace right doctrine.  
 
Let me give one enlightening example of how worship can deform doctrine.  Many modern churches are “going dark.”  One writer described his first experience with “going dark.”  It was dark! No windows and the only bright lights shining were on the stage. People entered the dimly lit, mostly dark, rows of chairs and found their seat.  I wondered, as I always do when I enter a similar church, will they turn up the lights so I can see my Bible when the sermon starts. They didn’t.

Church worship was designed to be like a “concert.”  All the light focused on the stage.  This fits the culture of our day.  Does it fit the doctrine of the Bible.  Let me read a synopsis of John 1.  See if you can spot an identifying factor of what it means to be a Christian:

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,and the Word was God. . . . ⁴ Life was in Him, and that life was the LIGHT of men. ⁵ That LIGHT shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it. ⁶ There was a man named John who was sent from God. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify about the LIGHT, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He was not the LIGHT, but he came to testify about the LIGHT. ⁹ The true LIGHT, who gives LIGHT to everyone, was coming into the world.  (See also 1Jn. 1:5-7).

Are “dark churches” taking their cue from Biblical doctrine, or from culture?  Here is what the writer I mentioned above came away asking himself, “Lord, why are we singing about you being the Light in the darkness while standing here in almost complete darkness? This just doesn’t seem right. You are the Light of the world. You tell us to go into the dark world and let our Christian light shine, and yet, we’re worshiping in a church enveloped in darkness!”

Hollow Worship is perpetuated by an ignorance of Biblical doctrine.  Jesus said that true worship must be both “in spirit” AND “in truth.”   Hollow Worship is hollow because our Heart’s not in it, our Head is not in it and also, our

3.  Hands are not in it.  Look at verses 28-30

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the men, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?”  ³⁰ They left the town and made their way to Him.

The old adage says, “the proof of the pudding is in the tasting.”

By “Hands” I mean service to God through our speech and actions.  The “output” of our faith where the “rubber meets the road” as they say.  By “Hands” I mean, what we do and say because of what Jesus has done.

True worship always leads to evangelism and service.  I will say it again, “True worship always leads to evangelism and service.”  As surely as lighting a fuse leads to an explosion, meeting Jesus leads to evangelism and service.  Consider the shepherds at Christmas time:

Luke 2:17,  After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child,

Hollow Worship gives believers “lock jaw.”  Hollow Worshippers have nothing to say and no desire to say it to anybody in the first place.  James describes the attitude that leads to Hollow Worship:

²² But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵ But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but one who does good works—this person will be blessed in what he does.


James uses a mirror to express an important component of true worship—self-reflection.  When the hot light of God’s holiness shines upon us in worship, the appropriate response is to recognize our depravity and absolute dependence upon Him.  We see this take place when Isaiah entered into the worship of God.  After experiencing a “seraphim singing, foundation shaking, smoke filling worship experience in the presence of God, Isaiah responds to God’s call to Christian service by saying,  “Here am I; send me!” (Isa. 6:8)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty  throne,  and His robe  filled the temple. 2 Seraphim were standing above Him; each one had six wings:  with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  3 And one called to another:  Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; His glory fills the whole earth. 4 The foundations of the doorways shook  at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said: Woe is me  for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.

Worship is not only be a time of focusing on God—His worthiness—but also a time of reflecting on our “un” worthiness.  In every case of worship in the Bible, this intimate interaction of focusing on God and reflecting upon self, results in evangelism and service.  Look at v8:

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Who should I send? Who will go for Us? I said: Here I am. Send me.

Worship is meal.  All of us have been to a fast food restaurant.  After you place your order they always ask the same question:  “Is this for here or to go?”  I believe we need to answer that same question in regard to worship:  is it for here, or to go?  Hollow Worship consumes everything in church and takes nothing out into the world.  True worship is always, “to go.”  Think of the last words of our Lord,

“Go into all the world!”  We spend so much time and effort getting people to “come” to church when what worship should be focusing on is building up and motivating people to “go into the world.”  We are the “hands and feet of the gospel.”  Worship is hollow if our Hands are not in it.