You'll want to also check out the commentary on John by Leon Morris in the New International Commentary set. He has an extended discussion on the subject.

Good luck with your school work.

"Spirit and Truth in John 4.24" – Bobby Valentine

The dominant symbol in John 4:21-24 is temple worship. The Samaritan woman’s question asked in which temple and on which mountain should the children of Abraham worship. Her ancestors worshiped “on this mountain”—literally “in” (en)—while the Jews worship “in (en) Jerusalem.” Previously the Gospel had called attention to the true nature of temple in the new age. Jesus himself is the temple of God (John 2:19-22). A time is coming—and indeed is already present in the person of Jesus—when it does not matter where one worships in a geographical sense. The new temple in the person of Jesus transcends the old categories. The place of worship is no longer spatial or geographical. Rather, the worship of the Father is located “in (en) spirit and truth.” Believers worship in a new temple. The contrast between “in” the mountain/Jerusalem and “in spirit and truth” is a contrast between temples. It does not contrast the physical, external or ritual versus the spiritual, immaterial, or inward. Rather, it contrasts the type and fulfillment, the shadow and ultimate reality, the old and new temple.

Authentic encounter between God and his people happened in Israel. God dwelt there and there his people came before his face. But though it was genuine, it was a type and shadow of what was to come. Hebraic worship experienced the Shekinah glory of God (it was not false worship), but the kind of worship that breaks into the world in the new age is a worship that is “spirit and truth.” In other words, Jesus “reconceptualizes sacred space”—it is no longer about place but manner. More specifically, it is about a new place unrestricted by space (finite places) and time—“in spirit and truth.”

What does it mean to worship in this new place? Traditional interpretation, especially in the Reformed tradition, has generally understood “spirit and truth” to mean worshipping authentically in the inner person and according to the Bible. But this does not contrast with Israel’s authorized worship or practiced by Israel’s faithful (e.g., Moses or David). Old covenant believers, like Joshua, certainly worshiped God “in spirit” if one means they worshiped God rationally, sincerely and authentically in their inner person (Josh 24:14). And Old covenant believers, like Josiah, certainly worshiped God “in truth” if one means they worshiped God according to Scripture (2 Chr 35). “In spirit and truth” describes the heartfelt and obedient worship of old covenant saints. Their worship was “real” rather than “shadow” in that sense.

But Jesus is saying something different than worship should be heartfelt and obedient (though, of course, no worship should be superficial and disobedient—but that is not the topic here). Rather, worship in the new age transcends the type and shadow of the Mosaic Law and brings us into a new reality, a new temple. In effect, it is the same argument that Hebrews makes. Instead of entrance into the Holy of Holies of a building in Jerusalem, we enter the Holy of Holies through the curtain of Jesus’ body and draw near to God around his throne. We enter the heavenly temple of God by the blood of Jesus and worship at his throne (Heb 10:19-25; 12:22-24). We worship “in” a new temple.

Worshipping “in spirit and truth,” then, is to worship in the ultimate reality of God’s presence through his new temple. It is, in the words of Aune, the “proleptic experience of eschatological existence.” This involves two important concepts. First, the coming age is an eschatological age—it is the fullness of the kingdom of God, the full reality of God’s throne. Eschatological experience is the enjoyment of divine presence around the throne of God in the new heaven and new earth. Second, the eschatological age “now is”—it has, in some sense, already arrived. Even though the future is not yet fully here, we already experience that future through worshiping God “in spirit and truth.” Our gathered worship transcends time and space as we enter the Holy of Holies.

“God is spirit” is the theological ground for understanding “spirit and truth” worship. This is not primarily a metaphysical statement about the immaterial essence of God. The contrast is not between material and spiritual, but rather that God is not limited by time or space. “God is spirit” in the sense that he is the Living God; he is the personal God who is the spirit and source of life. He infuses life into his people—worship draws its energy and life from the divine life. To read “immateriality” here is to import Platonic ideas about the inferiority of materiality rather than the Hebraic idea of animated materiality. To focus on immateriality ultimately leads to the devaluation of externals as if God’s spirit has no connection with anything physical. “God is spirit” is the ground of the eschatological nature of worship itself. Since God himself transcends time and space, so does our worship “in spirit and truth.”

So, how do we understand “in spirit and truth”? There is no example in the Gospel of John where pneuma (spirit) refers to sincerity or inner human attitudes. In fact, except for three instances where the context clearly identifies pneuma as the person of Jesus (11:33; 13:21; 19:20), every occurrence refers to the Holy Spirit (1:32, 33; 3:5, 6, 8, 34; 6:63; 7:39; 14:17,26; 15:26; 16:13; 20:22). Pneuma (spirit) means “Holy Spirit” in John 4:23-24. Jesus’ point is not that we worship God “in” our human spirits with sincerity but that we worship God “in” the Holy Spirit who animates our praise. We worship in the Spirit, that is, the Spirit links us with the new reality, the new temple. The Spirit lifts us up into the heavenly Jerusalem; the eschatological Spirit, whom God gives to his church (cf. John 7:38-39), ushers us into the temple of God. The Spirit is the “gift of God” (4:10) who is the living water of which we drink (4:12) and wells up inside of us towards eternal life (4:12). The living water within us is the dynamic presence of the Spirit through whom we experience the new reality, new life and enter the new temple—the true reality of God.

The word “truth” occurs fifty-five times in the Gospel of John. Its pervasive meaning contrasts truth with the typology of the Mosaic Law. Thus, the law came by Moses, but truth by Jesus (John 1:17). Just as the snake was lifted up in the wilderness as a type, Jesus is lifted up as the true reality (John 3:14). Moses gave manna, but Jesus gives true bread (John 6:32). Moses gave water from the rock, but Jesus gives living water (John 7:37-38). God is truth (John 8:28); Jesus himself is truth (John 14:6). What Jesus reveals from God is truth (John 17:17). The context of John 4 is not truth (biblical ideas) versus falsehood (unscriptural ideas), but rather reality versus shadow. Jesus reveals the true reality of God; he exegetes or makes known the fullness of God in ways that were previously unknown (John 1:18). Jesus is the truth which God has revealed. “Hence true adoration in the Spirit is only possible in union with Christ,” Schnackenburg writes. “His glorified body is the holy temple of God (2:21); true worship is performed in him.”

To worship the Father in Spirit and Truth, then, is to praise the Father in his new temple in the power of the Spirit. We worship in Spirit as we experience the eschatological reality of God by the gift of his Spirit who indwells us. We worship in Truth as we experience the eschatological reality of God which Jesus revealed and embodied in his own person—the Son has brought the Truth into the world. We worship the Father in a Triune way—we worship the Father in the Spirit (eschatologically) and in the Son (the new temple)

References:
Charles H. Talbert, “Worship in the Fourth Gospel and in Its Milieu,” in Perspectives on John: Method and Interpretation, ed. Robert B. Slona and Mikeal C. Parsons (Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 1993) 349.
Guy N. Woods, A Commentary on the Gospel According to John (Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 1981) 83: “Here, the three simple, but vitally important, aspects of true worship are set out: (1) We must worship God; (2) we must worship God in spirit, i.e., rationally, and sincerely; (3) we must worship God in truth, as his word directs.”
David E. Aune, The Cultic Setting of Realized Eschatology in Early Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 1972) 12.
Defended by Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003) 1:615-616; Barclay M. Newman and Eugene A. Nida, A Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of John (New York: United Bible Societies, 1980) 651-653; Rudolf Schnackenburg, The Gospel According to St. John, trans. Kevin Smyth (New York: Herder and Herder, 1968) 1:437-438; Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (New York: Doubleday, 1966) 1:180-181, and Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992) 163-164.
Schnackenburg, John, 1:438.

I think Bobby's post is at http://stoned-campbelldisciple.blogspot.com/2007/…

It's a good one.

That's really interesting. I'd love to see the list of 300 rules!