John 4: introducing Jesus THE GOSPEL
The crack in the habit meets with running water. It reveals the crack even more!
The white lie:
“Go call your husband,” He told her,
"and come back here.”
"I don’t have a husband,” she answered.
"You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said.
“For you’ve had five husbands,
and the man you now have is not your husband.
What you have said is true.”
John 4:16-18
Jesus is all about the truth in entirety. The whole truth, not just the part of truth that sits well with your image, but especially the part that doesn't.
The crack in the back.
The hole at the bottom.
The bad habit that's hidden.
Jesus goes straight for the most vulnerable part of you, your brokenness. The part about you that you try to hide from everyone including God.
One of the most awkward moments in life is when you're caught in your lie. All the evidence is laid out and it's clear that you just lied. Flat out lied, whether that was a white lie that was pretending to be something it was not or just a lie about something that was not the truth at all. (Like did you do this, no --when really you did)
Whatever kind of lie it was, when it comes up in the room by another person, it's hella awkward. Like why did you do that? (Facial expressions of a kid caught in a lie) haha.
If you ask kids why they lied they're usually silent. Or they'll follow it up with ANOTHER LIE!! but sometimes a kid will just confess that they did it, and it felt good to hit Esther across the face and take her bag. It felt so good!!! Cuz they think Esther is a brat and they liked the bag she had.
Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeedom!!! The monster is unleashed. Not created, unleashed...meaning it was always there on the inside, hidden from everyone for fear of judgmental eyes, but once the beast just steps out, there's no more hiding.
Hello world! The lie is owned, the monster is them.
No more hiding.
Now for the kids that remain silent or follow up with another lie or even confess in a way as to try and convince the person that it was "an accident" or a slip up from your usual well-behaving nature....the lie is more like a separate entity. Like the kid who tattle tales on you. Rats you out. You hate that kid. That's how this lie is treated. It's unowned. It's beside you not inside you. And they figure out ways to keep this "kid" or this "monster" better hidden for future protection from being found out. They go into deeper hiding.
Slavery. They work all their lives covering and defending the locked part of their heart where the monster lives. Just so no one will see the real truth about what's inside.
Jesus came to seek and save the lost, because a person who is hiding has yet to be found. Jesus finds His own in the hidden places. We meet God at Rock bottom, because that's the place where He shows us who is Savior.
---
When you or I lie or live a lie so that others think some thing about us that we want them to or so that others will not think of us the way we don't want them to the question from Jesus is simply:
Why did you feel like you had to try and trick me or others into believing something about you that is not true?
Because then no one would love me.
No one would like me.
I'd be seen as a monster.
My disgusting habits will be exposed and reveal that I'm disgusting.
It's awkward because it reveals that we were hiding something bad about us. Why else would you lie? We don't try and hide our good side. We try and hide our cracked side.
And the monster starts peeping.
Jesus converses with monsters because that's who He came to save.
THE GOSPEL:
Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He exposes this woman's lifestyle of guilt causing shame. Guilt is feeling bad for something you did, shame is feeling bad for someone you are (a monster who does bad things repeatedly because that's what monster are--bad).
This woman lives in her shame because she is addicted to attention from men, but who can blame her, all the women hate her because she's "loose" and a woman of five husbands even in this day and age doesn't have a great reputation among their peers. It looks....bad. So she lives in the definition that others give her based on her choices. How can she not? She made the choice, and so she's paying the consequences. We are so quick to judge, and yet so merciful when it comes to our own bad choices.
Bad choices.
What do we do with them?
Only 2 ways to handle them:
1. Don't own it.
Try to ignore them and act like you were only doing what you could do at that time, so it's not your fault. Or add more lies as an aversion. You were forced by circumstances, you were over emotional, you were scared, you were bored and couldn't stand it....whatever your reasons are...that's one way we look at bad choices of ours. To hide it as if it wasn't ours. To not own it.
2. Own it.
You are that disgusting monster. People will eventually figure it out because lies breed lies. Never once was truth able to be born from a lie (an apple tree will never once produce oranges.) you can wishful think your way into some twisted and confusing logic that maybe if I paint these apples orange people won't notice or eventually they may even turn into actual oranges, but the truth is very thorough, they will not ever be oranges until you own that the tree is an apple one.
The diversion tactic:
“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, yet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
How many of us have used this tactic before?? You get caught in a lie and you make up some diversion to get the focus off of your lie and onto something else? The diversion just makes it even more awkward because now you've got the evidence smeared over your face and you're trying to have small talk.
Jesus told her, “Believe Me, woman,
an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.
But an hour is coming,
and is now here,
when the true worshipers
will worship the Father
in spirit and truth.
Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ ). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”
"I am He,” Jesus told her,
“the One speaking to you.”
John 4:19-26
Freedom gets rid of your facade:
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah? ”
They left the town and made their way to Him.”
John 4:29-30
She speaks up. She's brave now. People are attracted to bravery. It's beautiful because it's bold and fearless. Here's this woman who was shunned and shamed by her community now urging everyone to take her word! A liar turned true!
“The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought Him something to eat? ” “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,” Jesus told them.”
John 4:33-34
I ate the the sweet will of God in meeting this woman and setting her free from a life of hiding!
The will of God begins with Jesus, and it's a pay it forward kind of chain reaction:
“Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready for harvest. The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,
--the woman gathered the town!--
so the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”
--or you have now entered into their labor--
John 4:35-38
(Examples: Behind the scenes of planning an event for the youth ministry or any ministry)
You have learned love from someone who has loved you, likewise you are also sowers in the lives of those you love who will reap that and benefit from your labor, and in this way both sower and reaper rejoice together. For all of us received the love of God first, and give to others what we didn't work for. Did you die on the cross for your freedom from your sins that heaped guilt and shame inside of you? No, Jesus did! But you benefitted from His death, and so you give to others what someone else gave you.
“Now many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of what the woman said when she testified, “He told me everything I ever did.”
John 4:39
Who brought people to Christ? The monster!
The monster was exposed and the voice of the true her was more compelling than all the veils she hid behind trying to be someone she was not --and never getting that kind of response from the people around her. They all knew. She was only enslaving herself. But once the monster was out and she realized that Jesus loved her as she was and came to save her from a life of shame and guilt the people listened to her.
“And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.””
John 4:42
Salvation came to an entire town, but it started with one ashamed and guilty woman. The most effective person for the kingdom of God is a true one. All it takes is one person who is true to make a difference, and to be true means that there are no secrets. Everything is exposed and you are who you are down to the worst part. Jesus uses broken people because there is no one who is not broken until they meet the Savior of the world!
The second miracle was exposing our level of faith:
“Jesus told him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,
you will not believe.”
"Sir,” the official said to Him,
“come down before my boy dies! ”
"Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said
to him and departed.”
John 4:48-50
--I don't know but maybe this man didn't believe what Jesus said about his son living, Maybe the man believed that he needed to see a sign or wonder in order to believe. Or if he did believe that his son would live it was
not a belief of trust,
but a belief of hope.
“The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” Then he himself believed, along with his whole household.”
John 4:53
This was a belief of trust. The belief that saved his soul and the souls of his entire household.
“This, therefore, was the second sign Jesus performed after He came from Judea to Galilee.”
John 4:54
You want a sign, there you go. But that isn't faith, that's hope. Hope leading to trust, which is faith leading to love. Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.
How many of us think that if we see a sign or miracle it will be easier to believe? I do. If I experience a miracle I believe in Jesus more. And Jesus still performs miracles today. One of which is me and my testimony, but that's for another time.
Unless we SEE...we will have a hard time believing with trust.
Faith is believing in what is not seen with hope and trust.
Perhaps Jesus is showing us that believing there is hope can lead to believing we can trust.
The area where hope is lost is an area where faith is hindered and trust is unattainable.
Is there an area of your life where you have lost hope?
"I'll never change here."
"I'll never redeem myself in this area."
"I'll never be healed in this area."
"I'll never get back what I lost back then."
"This situation will never change."
"That situation will never change."
Etc...
Jesus has arrived and He is saying:
Ahem.
"I am He,” Jesus told her,
“the One speaking to you.”
John 4:26
My food is to do the will of Him who SENT ME.
This doesn't mean Jesus will do what you want Him to, because we might think that He did that for the royal centurion, but looking closer at the passage it leads to him and his household believing in Jesus for eternal life.
That kid might not have died now, but eventually the kid will die. That sign will be done and gone forever.
But the greater gift is that which Jesus gave to them, through the use of a temporary sign, which is eternal life.
Don't focus so much on the sign or wonder and miss out on the real gift which is eternal life.
I'm the Savior of the World. The One you have been waiting and hoping for to make right all those wrongs.
What was lost is now found.
What was enslaved is now free.
What was broken is now mended and whole.
What was dead is now alive.
That's just who He is.
His death for your life.
Come out of hiding,
and put your hope in the Savior of the world.
Jmegrey
No comments:
Post a Comment