It is hard to find a passage in the Word with this kind of instruction. However, if we do know the Old and New Testaments and have some amount of revelation from the Lord, we will realize that this is something that is revealed in the Scriptures. The worship mentioned in John 4, when the Samaritan woman spoke with the Lord, is not the individual worship but the corporate worship. It is the worship in the meeting. In ancient times, all the males of the people of God had to meet three times a year-at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks (that is, at Pentecost), and at the Feast of Tabernacles (Deut. 16:16). The way they met was to bring the surplus of the good land and to offer this surplus as a worship to God. This surplus was a kind of symbol, a representation, of their life. They all lived on the good land and labored on the good land, from the beginning to the end of the year. They tilled the ground, sowed the seed, and watered the plants. Then they had a harvest to reap, and they lived on what they reaped from their labor on the good land. Then from that harvest which they reaped, they put aside a part for their worship together.
The good land typifies Christ. We have been saved by God and brought into Christ. We have been put into Christ as our good land. Therefore, we have to labor on Him day by day to have something to reap, and we live on what we reap of Christ. Then we can come together with what we live on. This is the proper experience of Christ.
Whenever all of Israel came together, they came with a certain amount of the surplus of their produce to offer to the Lord. They offered some as the burnt offering, some as the meal offering, some as the peace offering, some as the sin offering, and some as the trespass offering. Some they offered in the eyes of God as the wave offering and the heave offering. All that they brought to the Lord as an offering, they brought from the produce of the good land. A part of what they offered was burnt to be food to God, as a sweet smelling savor for His enjoyment. The rest, however, they enjoyed with one another. If at that time we could have been in that meeting, we would have seen an exhibition of all the rich produce, the surplus, of the good land. God enjoyed those offerings, and all the worshippers also enjoyed those offerings with God, in the presence of God, and with one another. This was their way of meeting.
In John 4, the Samaritan woman raised up the question of worship (v. 20). The Lord Jesus told her, “An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father” (v. 21). An hour is coming means the dispensation had changed. Now it is the hour for God’s people to worship, not by going to Jerusalem and not with the offerings as types, but to worship in spirit and truthfulness (v. 24). Our worship today is not with the offerings but with the reality, who is Christ. Today we have to labor on Christ. We must reap many riches of Christ for us to live on and to have a surplus to bring to the meeting for worship to God.
The way for the people of God to meet together is to bring the surplus of Christ to the meeting to offer to God by exercising our spirit. Day by day we labor on our good land, which is Christ. Then we have some real experiences of Christ to reap. We live on all that we reap of Christ, and we have a surplus of what we have reaped to bring to the meeting. Then in the meeting we offer what we have experienced of Christ to God for His satisfaction and for our enjoyment in the presence of God with one another. This is the way for us to meet.
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