Jesus identified three types of worshipers, three types of pray-ers, when He said, "You worship what you do not know." How many of us worship a Lord we don’t know, Who seems a distant and impersonal deity?

"We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews." Jesus was saying others worship a God they do know, but their knowledge is intellectual and their worship is legalistic--like Jews who knew so much about the coming Messiah, yet missed Him completely.

The third pray-er is one who worships in spirit and in truth. Jesus said the time was coming--Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit would come to live within believers, enabling us to worship in Spirit. He said the time had come because He was with them. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, offering Himself for their sins, and for ours. Because of Him, and through Him, the awesome privilege of worshiping in spirit and in truth is ours. He thought it so important, it was His first teaching on prayer.