November 5, 2007

John 3-4
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1. There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10. Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
22. After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.
23. And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.
24. For John was not yet cast into prison.
25. Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.
26. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.
27. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
28. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.
29. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
30. He must increase, but I must decrease.
31. He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.
32. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony.
33. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
34. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
35. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

1. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
2. (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
3. He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
4. And he must needs go through Samaria.
5. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12. Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18. For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
27. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
28. The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29. Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
30. Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
31. In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.
32. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
33. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat?
34. Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
35. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
36. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
37. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
38. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
40. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
41. And many more believed because of his own word;
42. And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
43. Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.
44. For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.
45. Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast.
46. So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.
47. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.
48. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
49. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.
50. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.
51. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.
52. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
53. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.
54. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.

Thought for the day:
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The story of the woman at the well is gives us some important information concerning the witnessing technique of Jesus Christ. Of course, the Lord used many different means to bring people to Himself. Sometimes He preached in formal settings. Sometimes He was approached by people who had questions. What makes this scenario particularly valuable is that it is a similar situation to the ones that we face everyday. Therefore, we can take the methods gleaned from this passage of Scripture and apply them to our own soul-winning efforts.

John 4:4 says that the Lord “must needs go through Samaria”. There are differences of opinion as to what this verse means. Some people think that He had to go through Samaria because He had a divine appointment to meet this woman. It is true that Jews traveling back and forth from north to south often went around the land of the Samaritans rather than go through their area. Thus, some people say, Jesus went through Samaria just so He could see this woman. However, not everyone went around Samaria, and since the most direct route to Galilee went right through that land, it is quite possible that Jesus was simply taking the path that would normally be taken. I believe that this is the case, and it is important because this means that Christ’s encounter with the woman took place in the course of His everyday life. People today seem to think that their attempts to witness can only take place in extraordinary circumstances. Yet in John 4, the contact was made while both Jesus and the woman were going about their normal lives.

The first thing we notice about this event was that the Lord chose to make contact with the woman. They were in the same place at the same time, and He took advantage of that opportunity to open a conversation with her. It is good to observe that He was not afraid to cross racial and cultural boundaries in order to talk to her. Even she noticed this, because she questioned why He, as a Jew, would speak to her, a Samaritan. Notice that He did not start the conversation by asking, “If you died today, do you know that you would go to Heaven?” There is nothing wrong with that question, but the Lord opens by carrying on a normal conversation about mundane things. He engages her by asking for a drink, which would not be an unusual request.

The Lord, however, does not linger long on the temporal. In response to her question about why He would speak to her, He turns the topic toward spiritual things. It is important to remember that we will never lead a soul to Christ unless we are willing to move out of the realm of the physical into the realm of the spiritual. He begins to speak to her about “living water”, which is eternal life. He aroused her interest, and got her to ask Him questions that would ultimately bring her to realization of her need. Finally, she asked the Lord to give her the water.

Many of us would have led this woman in the “sinner’s prayer” right then. This is not what Christ did, for He knew that she did not understand her sin problem. He points out her need by asking her to get her husband. When she responds that she doesn’t have one, and He exposes her immoral lifestyle, He is pointing out that she is indeed a sinner, and needs a Savior. As is typical, as soon as she was confronted with her sin, she changed the topic to a question about where to worship, Jerusalem or Samaria. Jesus does not allow her to get off course, however, and brings her back by stating that no one can worship God unless they worship Him in truth.

Finally, the woman realizes her need, and states that she believes that the Messiah will someday come, and that He will be the solution to her spiritual needs. Christ concludes by pointing out to her that He Himself is the Messiah, and thus He is the solution to her sin problem. She believes on Him, and immediately runs to tell her friends that she has found the Christ, and that they need to find Him too.

We don’t need to wait for Sunday at church to share the Gospel with people. As we go through life we meet many folks without the Lord. Engage them in normal conversation, and seek an opening to turn the topic to salvation. Show them that they are sinners, and tell them that Jesus is the only solution to that problem. Not all will respond, but we must give as many folk as we can the opportunity to receive Christ as their known personal Savior.

Pastor Mark J Montgomery