Bible Studies
Neither In This Mountain, Nor Jerusalem (Jn. 4:23)
Series: Additional StudiesIntroduction:
1. As one travels about the country there are many places to worship. People often ask me, “Where should we worship? At this place or that?” 2. The Samaritan woman experienced the same dilemma. She said to Jesus, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”a. The Samaritan’s worshiped at Mt. Gerizim.
b. The Jews at the temple in Jerusalem.
3. Jesus said to the woman, “An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” What He is saying is that there is a time coming when even worship at the temple in Jerusalem will be obsolete. 4. The prophets had predicted this. Jeremiah had said, “The ark of the covenant would not come to mind or be remembered.” Zechariah had said, “The nations (not just Israel) would join themselves to the Lord.” 5. When would such things be? And how do they fit into the plan of God? What effect do they have on our worship today? What effect do they have on our mission as the people of God?Discussion:
I. Jeremiah predicated a time when the Ark of the Covenant would not come to mind, be remembered or even missed (3:16-18).A. The reason why the significance of the ark in the temple will have waned is that a greater temple with a greater glory than a mere physical one will expand to encompass Jerusalem and the entire world. In the Messianic kingdom God’s presence would no longer be restricted to the Holy of Holies.
B. Jeremiah says it will take place “when you are multiplied and increased in the land.”
1. The statement harks back to Gen. 1:28 in God’s statement to Adam, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over it.”
2. In a previous study we defined this as involving man extending the glory of God from Eden into the whole earth.
C. Jeremiah says “at that time Jerusalem will be called ‘the throne of the Lord,’ and all nations will be gathered to it.”
1. This statement calls to mind other Messianic passages that refer to the nations streaming to the house of the Lord (cf. Isa. 2).
2. The phrase “the throne of the Lord” reminds us of the coming of the divine kingdom with its Messianic king spoken of by Daniel (2:44ff). Cf. 2 Sam. 7:13; Acts 2:30; Psa. 89:3-4).
D. Jesus told the Samaritan woman that an hour was coming when worship in Jerusalem would give way to worship in spirit and truth. He said the hour is coming and now is (Jn. 4:21-24). The Samaritan woman herself recognized that when the Messiah came He would be revealing new things (Jn. 4:25). Jesus said, “I who speak to you am He.”
E. Isa. 65:17-18 affirms the same truth as Jer. 3. God says, “Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for gladness.”
F. Indeed at this time “God’s will will be done.” His throne established and the nations will submit to His law.
II. Zechariah pictures a Jerusalem without walls and nations joining themselves to the Lord (1:16; 2:1-11).A. In Zechariah God says he will return to Jerusalem. “My house (His temple) will be built in it and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem” (1:16).
1. The idea seems to be that because nations will be streaming into it it may not be big enough to hold everyone. So the measuring line.
2. But no need to worry. An angel speaks to the man with the measuring line. “Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle within it. For I will be a wall of fire around her and I will be glory in her midst,” declares the Lord (2:1-5).
B. In that day many nations will join themselves to the Lord and become “My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you” (Zech. 2:6-11).
III. Daniel saw a kingdom that crushed all the kingdoms of the world and became a great mountain that filled the whole earth (2:35, 44-45).A. His imagery is not of the temple or the house of God, but it is suggestive of the same thing and Jeremiah had tied the images of temple and kingdom together in Jer. 3 when he said “Jerusalem will be called the throne of the Lord” (3:17).
B. King Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed a dream. God interpreted the dream through Daniel.
1. Dan. 2:36ff gives the interpretation.
2. Each of the kingdoms had expanded their territories.
3. But when God’s kingdom was established it was like a great stone that struck all the kingdoms and became a great mountain and filled the whole earth (2:35). It was a kingdom that would never be destroyed (2:44).
4. Daniel said of the dream, “the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future” (2:45).
C. The prophecy ties in with the prophetic message of 2 Sam. 7:13 and Psa. 89:3-4 and with the preaching of Peter in Acts 2:30.
1. 2 Sam. 7:13 promised that God would seat one of David’s descendants would upon his throne in an everlasting kingdom.
2. Psa. 89:3-4 reiterates this promise. Cf. Psa. 132:10ff.
3. Acts 2:30 identifies the promise as fulfilled in Jesus. Peter’s sermon identifies Jesus’ resurrection as the event signaling His coronation and the pouring forth of the Spirit as the event identifying His initial action as King. From Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and then to the remotest part of the earth the kingdom spread (Acts 1:8).
D. That Gen. 1:28 is in the background of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision is evident from Dan. 2:38 where Daniel identifies that king Nebuchadnezzar had been given the kingdom, that he ruled over the birds and the beasts of the field. The kingdom of bronze was said to have “ruled over all the earth” (2:39).
Conclusion:
1. These prophecies connect with one another and with Gen. 1:28 and propel us into the Messianic days referred to in Jn. 4. 2. Acts 2 proclaims the King coronated and beginning His reign. 3. The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom expands God’s rule into the remotest part of the earth. We are both recipients of this Kingdom and instruments through which the expansion takes place as we seek and save the lost. 4. We do not worship in Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant to us has become obsolete and unremarkable. Our memorial is the Lord’s Supper. We are the kingdom of God, the temple of God. He dwells among us and we are His people. 5. Our mission is that every heart be influenced to come under His rule, to experience the hope and the blessings of citizenship in the kingdom of God and thus to worship in spirit and truth.
