The Bell
The Bell represents the calling people to worship, the sounding of God’s word and a reminder that God should have first priority in our lives.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
John 4:24

Jesus talked with a Samaritan woman at a well about her life, about God, about the Messiah, and about worship. He told her, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

When Jesus sat down with the Samaritan woman, he asked her for a drink. She responded, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9). Jesus’ response is pivotal for understanding the rest of the conversation. He said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Jesus wanted the woman to know two things — the gift of God and Jesus’ identity. The rest of the conversation revolves around these two things.

Jesus said the gift of God was “living water.” The living water is the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus would give to those who believed in him, once he was glorified.

Jesus told the woman, “God is spirit” and true worshipers would worship “in spirit.” So this discussion, including the part about the “living water” is all about the Spirit being given and worshiping God in the same Spirit.

John said the purpose of his gospel was, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). The book of John is all about Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, the Son of God, the “the Savior of the world” (John 4:41). This is the great “truth” of John’s gospel, Jesus is the Son of God.

The Spirit in whom we worship is the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus has given to those who believe in him. And the truth in which we worship is the identity of Jesus as the Son of God. Those are the two issues around which the entire conversation – and the gospel of John – revolve.

On the Day of Pentecost, like living water, the Spirit was poured out on Jesus’ apostles and on those who were baptized in his name (see Acts 2). Soon after, the truth of Jesus was spread throughout Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the remotest parts of the world. With this truth, came the Spirit of God. Now the Father has a multitude of worshipers – both Jew and Gentile – who do not worship in Jerusalem or Samaria, but worship in full acceptance of the truth and in the Spirit of God, who lives within us.

Jack Martin