Restoration

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were two men that God used greatly to help in the creation of the United States. Their friendship was forged in the furnace of revolution and that friendship would last some 50 years.

Adams and Jefferson were in total agreement as to the wording and ideas that filled the Declaration of Independence. They moved from writing that great document, to working side by side in France to ensure solid diplomatic ties. Each then took a prominent role in the administration of President George Washington, but their friendship was tested as they moved in differing directions politically.

They disagreed as to the path the new nation should follow. Adams and Jefferson’s political differences tore their friendship apart. It took 20 years for the two of them to put aside their pride and reach out to one another in reconciliation.

Once they did, their friendship lasted until their deaths twenty years later. In an amazing moment of God's dynamic timing, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day. They died only hours apart on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1829.

For 20 years, these two great men refused to put their personal feelings aside in order to rebuild a friendship that changed the world. To be honest, the fact that they did restore their relationship is a tribute to their greatness, but they did it in their own time, for their own purpose, and in their own strength, which is why it took them so long.

In the last chapter of the Gospel of John, our Lord showed what humility, forgiveness and true love in friendship really looks like. It took Jesus less than 40 days to restore His relationship with Peter. Jesus never holds a grudge. He is the very definition of restoration.

Pledge
Have you ever pledged to someone that no matter what happened you would love them, lay down everything for them, but when the rubber hit the road you failed to fulfill your promise?
I have done this more times than I can say, with my husband, kids, friends and especially my God. At the emotional height of a promise of loyalty and devotion, it is easy to say, of course, I will always be there for you, but in reality, it is often hard for us to lay aside ourselves for anyone else.

When we have failed at the greatest level we think possible, it is only the person that we have failed who can fully restore us. We can try to move ahead, we can choose not to think about what we did or did not do, but in the end it is always there hanging over our heads. We confess it, think we have put it behind us just to have it pop up when we least expect it.

Peter found himself in this exact position one spring morning. He failed Jesus in ways he never thought possible, and had no way to fix what he had done. He decided to get into his boat, and go fishing. He knew fishing, he was good at it, and it helped him take his mind off his failure. He threw the nets into the sea and waited, with no results.

In the early morning hours, just as he was about to give up, a man yelled out to him from the beach. The man instructed him to throw his net over the right side of the boat. Peter must have thought, why not, we have not caught anything tonight anyway. He followed the instruction the stranger gave him. Peter and the other disciples with him threw their nets on the other side of the boat, and right away, they caught 153 fish.

As soon as the fish filled the nets, John, the disciple Jesus loved, knew it was Jesus standing on the beach. Immediately upon hearing John say, "It is the Lord," Peter was in the water swimming toward Jesus for all he was worth. He wanted to be close to his friend. He missed Him and longed for that deep relationship so much so that he could not wait for the boat to get him back to the shore. He had to jump out of the boat and swim to the beach (see John 21:1-13).

Hurting
How many of you have ever had a close friendship that was hurt because of something you did? How many of you have mourned the loss of intimacy with someone you never intended to hurt, never thought you would be apart from? Is there someone that you miss because of something that happened between you? Is there a relationship in your life that you need to reconcile? If you know what I am talking about, you know how much Peter was hurting.

I have experience exactly what Peter was feeling many times in my life. I am not sure what that says about me other than that I am human. We as humans mess up. We hurt the people we love. One of the most recent examples of the need for reconciliation in my own life came several months ago.

I was speaking for the first time at a women’s retreat. One of my closest friends and ministry partners sat at the back of conference room running my Power Point slides. She and I had been disconnected the whole weekend. We worked together, but there was defiantly something going on between us. The night before I sat sobbing through worship and communion and she was not there to put her arm around me, not there to squeeze my hand, not even there to pray for me. She had always been there.

I knew something was going on between us, but could not put my finger on it. I thought she was moving on, finding others to love and walk with and no longer wanted our same level of friendship. Not until after I spoke to her did I discover she was thinking the same things about me.

The need to restore the relationship became very clear in the middle of my last session. I was speaking about the need to reconcile wounded relationships. I shared with the group a story of woman who had come back into my life after a time of deep division. I explained how that reconciliation had allowed me to understand the pain Peter must have experienced when he denied Jesus. As those words were coming out of my mouth, I looked up and saw her. My friend was fixing my lapel mic, getting batteries for it so I did not have to use the hand held. As she walked quickly out of the room, the Lord said, "When are you going to reconcile this one?"

Try putting yourself into my shoes for a minute. Imagine telling other women about their need to restore relationships with those who have hurt them or with those they have hurt, while the Lord is convicting you of the exact same thing. Not easy to say the least, I felt like a hypocrite. I thought to stop her in the middle of my talk and say, I am sorry and I love you, but it did not seem like the time or the place. I probably should have done it though, because my heart was soft at that point.

Following the session, we all packed up our cars, and headed home. It was a cold car ride back. At one point, I reached out to touch her knee in order to thank her for all the hard work she had put into the retreat and the women who attended, and as I did so, she recoiled from my hand. That was when I really got it. My lack of concern for her devastated her heart. I could see it in her body language, her curt conversation, the pain in her eyes. She was deeply wounded.
The other people in the car were talkative and we pretended well enough, but you know how that is, right. There is this huge elephant in the car with you, but you cannot talk about it. All you really want to do is work through things, but the distance is so great you do not even know where to start.

I dropped her off at her house, gave her a polite hug and said goodbye. Her distance and hurt put a wet blanket on my excitement over successfully speaking at my first women's retreat. I drove home mad, not humbled. When I walked in the house, my husband was waiting for me to tell him all my wonderful news, but all I could do was rant about how my friend had played down what I felt the Lord had done that weekend.

After I had cooled down, I realized that my pride was hurt. I asked the Lord's forgiveness, and sat down to write an email. I have no idea what I said; all I know is that that email started a conversation between us that was long over do.

It has been about six months, but I think we are starting to heal, starting to understand each other, starting to see that we do love each other.

Funny, I think that whole retreat was less about what I shared with all those wonderful women, and was actually about God restoring my friendship. The message of restoration may have hit many hearts, but it was intended for mine most of all.

Peter pledged never to leave Jesus, to go with Him even to death. He failed to keep his promise. He was all talk and no action. Peter had to be broken. He experienced pruning so God could remake him into the image of His Son. Peter suffered failure and separation from his best friend. His time of testing helped him identify with the suffering Jesus endured.

Unconditional
I realized as I studied His life that Jesus lost a great deal even before He went to the cross. His closest friends abandoned Him at the point of His deepest need. He was tried, beaten, spit upon, slapped, made fun of, and finally nailed to a cross, without the comfort of the men He lived with for three years. Jesus’ disciples did not simply abandon Him, they denied Him and they disowned Him. Finally, His Father, whom He had never been apart from, had to turn His back on His own Son. The sin of humanity would separate Them for the first time, because a holy God cannot look upon sin.

Remember, Jesus knew in advance that they would not be there for Him. He understood that they would reject Him and still He comforted them. He spoke words to them to help them get past what they would do to Him. Jesus understood their humanity and He loved them even in their failure.

Peter’s experience clearly reveals the unconditional love only Jesus offers. We can fail and He will not discard us. Jesus is our dearest friend, and He loves us even when we reject, ignore, disappoint and disown Him.

We are to love like that.

Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

Restored
John 21:8 relates that Peter arrived on the beach to meet Jesus just a little before the boat with the other disciples reached shore. Jesus prepared breakfast for them all, and after eating, He went for a walk with Peter and John. As they walked along the sand covered beach Jesus asked Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?"

I am sure Peter was hit with all the shame he had endured since the night he turned his back on Jesus. He probably looked down at his feet and said, "Yes, Lord, You know that I love you.”
Instead of rebuking Peter, or berating him, Jesus commissioned him, "Feed My sheep" (John 21:15).

Again, Jesus asks Peter, "Simon son of John, do truly love Me?"

Peter responded in the same way he had the first time, "Yes, Lord you know that I love you."
Jesus then commanded, "Take care of My sheep” (16).

A third time Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love Me?"

Peter must have answered with pain in His voice, because Jesus doubted his love. He said, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love you."

Then Jesus gave him His final commission, “Feed My sheep” (17).

That morning Jesus brought healing to Peter through forgiveness. He entrusted him with His greatest possession. Jesus gave Peter His sheep.

Peter should not have been hurt by Jesus' three questions. When He asked Peter three times if he loved Him, Jesus was not condemning him. He was giving Peter a way to reaffirm his love the same number of times he had denied it. In each moment of affirmation, Jesus rebuilt Peter. With each yes, Jesus placed His trust in Peter. He fully restored Peter in his own eyes as well as in the eyes of the other disciples.

The pruning process Peter endured fit perfectly with the healing Jesus provided on the beach. Through first being broken, Peter was then rebuilt into the image of Christ. In the three questions came forgiveness, healing and restoration.

Once Peter became more like Jesus, he was able to love others as Jesus loved. The complete fulfillment of Peter’s restoration took place when God chose him to share the gospel with the world on the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2, Peter preached his first sermon, not in his own strength and wisdom, but through the power of the Holy Spirit. On that day, Jews from all over the Roman Empire heard him present the gospel in their own languages. The church was born that day. Peter faithfully carried out his mission to feed Jesus’ sheep.

Follow
As Peter and Jesus walked down the beach talking, they were not alone. John, the same one who wrote the gospel we have been studying for the past few weeks, walked with them.
We have not talked a great deal about John, but he was one of the inner circle of three that Jesus shared even more of himself with. In the garden, He took Peter, James (John's brother) and John with Him to pray. We have a detailed description of his last hours on earth because John was right there with Him.

So, as they are all walking together, Jesus tells Peter, "I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." After telling Peter to take care of the sheep for the third time, Jesus then told Him that his life was no longer his own.

In classic Peter fashion, he looked over his shoulder and pointed to John. In the paraphrased version he might have said, “hold up Lord, what about him. Is he going to have to suffer anything, or did you just save that for me?”

Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow Me" (John 21:22).

That is exactly what Peter did. He followed Jesus to the cross. Peter finally kept the pledge he made to Jesus so many years before, “I will lay down my life for you” (John 13:37). He could not fulfill his word the night he gave it, but once he was humbled, rebuilt into the image of Jesus he chose martyrdom over denying Jesus’ name again. Peter chose to be crucified, but refused to be put to death in the same way His Lord died. He was crucified upside down.

First Peter 5:6 says, "Humble yourself, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may life you up in due time." Peter was humbled under the mighty hand of God, and in due time Jesus asked him, “Peter, do you love me?” Peter did not just answer Him with words, but with actions.

Jesus is the only one who can take our total failure, and restore our lives to newness again. Jesus’ forgiveness is free. He is waiting for you, just as He waited for Peter on the beach one morning. He wants to show you the same humility, forgiveness and true love in his friendship that He showed Peter. Jesus came to restore humanity to Himself. He wants to restore you as well.

Is there someone you need to reach out to, someone you need to restore to wholeness? It might take 20 years as it did Jefferson and Adams, it might be in 40 days as it was for Peter, or it might be in an instant. Jesus is the only one who can bring about that kind of restoration, because He is more than enough.

Study Guide

Read John 21:15-17. What do you gain from a closer look at these verses? Why did Jesus ask Peter three times if he loved Him?

If Jesus walked up next to you today, made breakfast for you and asked you, “Do you love me?” What would your response be?


What commission did Jesus place on Peter? Why was this significant?


What has Jesus entrusted to you? Have you been faithful to care for those He has placed into your life?


Is there a relationship that you need to restore? Is there someone you need to forgive you? Is there someone you need to forgive?


What character trait do you need to display in order to reach out to someone who has rejected you?

What steps can you take to move toward that reconciliation?



Pray and ask the Lord to speak to your heart as He spoke to mine that morning when I was teaching. Ask Him to reveal to you anyone in your life that you need to rebuild a relationship with. Humble yourself under His hand so that He can bring about newness in your life.

Live in the Vine

I am the true vine and My Father is the Gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that doesn’t produce fruit, while every branch that does produce fruit, He prunes or in other words cleanses, so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Make your home in Me and I will live in you. No branch will produce fruit by its self; it has to stay connected to the Vine. I Am the Vine; you are the branches. If you make your life Me and I live in you, you will produce so much fruit; but if you are not living in Me, you can’t do anything. If anyone does not make their home in Me, they will be like a branch that withers and is thrown away. Those branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and are burned. If you make Me your life and My words live in you, ask whatever you want and it will be given to you. When you show that you are My disciples by producing fruit, you bring glory to My Father. (paraphrase John 15:1-10)

The best illustration of what Jesus was explaining in this passage is actually found in the lives of two of His disciples. In the first three verses of John 15, two paths are laid out, those who do not belong to the vine and therefore do not produce fruit and those who are in Christ and live their lives according to the words that Jesus spoke.

Judas walked with Jesus for as long as the rest of the disciples, for about three years. He slept, ate, drank and walked daily with God. He held a position of great trust among the disciples, because he was the one Jesus had chosen to entrust their finances to, Judas acted as their treasure. He, however, was not faithful to that trust. He showed his heart one day when he became upset because Mary, the sister of Lazarus, poured expensive perfume all over Jesus’ feet. He said that the perfume was wasted, and instead of it being used on Jesus, they should have sold it in order to have money to feed the poor. John points out that Judas could have cared less about the poor. He wanted the money to be put in the treasury so he could pilfer it.

In verse three of John 15, Jesus said that the disciples were clean because of the word He had spoken to them. Funny thing is, when Jesus taught this chapter, Judas was already gone. He had been cut off because he had chosen not to make Jesus His life. Judas made a decision within himself not to accept all that Jesus was teaching. He chose to live for himself, reject the vine, produce no fruit, and be cut off to be thrown away forever.

Peter on the other hand, well he was producing fruit. He not only followed Jesus, but he began to live in relationship with Jesus. That relationship changed who Peter was and began when Peter first met the Lord. His name was changed as was his life from that point forward. Was Peter perfect? By no stretch of the imagination, but the difference between him and Judas was that he wanted Christ.

Remember after the crowd found out that Jesus wasn’t going to provide them physical bread, and started to tell them that He was the Bread of Life, how they all left Him. Jesus turned to His disciples at that point and asked them if they were going to leave Him as well. Peter gave the best answer any of us could have given. He said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” How that must have warmed Jesus’ heart. Even as others left Him, the ones He had chosen were starting to understand. They were beginning to live in Him, as they realized that His words were the source of life.

That said, Peter had some things in his life that needed to be cut back, that needed to be pruned in order for him to produce as much fruit as he was capable of producing. Peter was a proud man. A couple times he was brash enough to openly question Jesus. Several times Jesus had to put Peter back in his place.

Not ten hours before he would deny knowing Jesus three times, Peter declared to the Lord that he would lay down his very life for Him. Of course we know that Peter was unable to keep that promise. When faced with the power of the Roman army, the anger of the Jews and his own humanity, he turned his back on the Holy One of God, on his Master, on his Friend. He found out that night that apart from Jesus he could do nothing. (Jh. 15:5).

You see Jesus had tried to prepare him. He had tried to get Peter to remain closer to Him that Peter thought he needed to be.. Jesus took his disciples to pray with Him after the Lord’s Supper. He knew how he was going to suffer, and knew that He needed to be so connected to the Father that NOTHING could deter Him from the cross. He asked the three disciples who were closest to Him to come with Him a little bit deeper into the garden and sit and pray with Him. This is how we know the heart wrenching prayers Jesus offered that night, but we too know that Peter, James and John were unable to stay awake and pray with the Lord as He had asked them to do.

Jesus didn’t tell them to pray for His sake, no he told them to pray so they would not fall into temptation. He said to Peter, “Simon, could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” By telling them to pray, Jesus was showing them how to remain in the vine, how to draw strength against sin, doubt, fear and temptation, but just like us they did not understand how much they needed to dwell in the very heart of God in order to with stand the wiles of the devil.

Because in the end that is exactly what happened to Peter. He fell to the enemy. In Luke 22: 31 Jesus warned Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith many not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” He knew that they would not be able to withstand the events of that night, and Jesus didn’t say that He would fight Satan for Peter, nor that He would stop Satan from coming to sift Peter. Instead He said, I have prayed for you. How powerful are those words? Simon, I have prayed for you. I think too often we take for granted the strength prayer can provide to us.

Prayer, the door to intimate fellowship with God, is one of the key ways He has provided for us to live in true relationship with Him, is one of the ways we remain in the Vine.
Jesus clearly explained to Peter that Satan was going to sift him or in other words test Him. God allowed Satan to do this in order to show Peter his own weakness, his own need for a Savior, his pride. You see sifting and pruning have the same results. The bad is removed and the good is left behind, thereby cleansing the plant or the wheat, causing it to become purified. To tell you the truth, I had no idea this passage, Luke 21:33 existed before a time of sifting or pruning took place in my own life.

Shon and I had been married for 13 years at the time. We had our ups and downs, but nothing big. God sent us somewhere cold, hard and lonely for 10 months, and in those ten months we had more thrown at us than we had had in our first 13 years of marriage. I was pretty proud that we were a healthy couple, that he was doing well in his career and that we were faithful to the church. By the time we were done with that period of sifting, we had both been seriously tempted to have affairs, our finances were in some major difficulties and the faithfulness to the church was replaced with a deeper, more real relationship with God. I confess, that was the most difficult period in my life, yet one of the most spiritually fruitful.

Too often we see Jesus and prayer as a genie in a bottle to rub so we can get three wishes and have an abundant life, free of pain and filled with prosperity. Well name it and claim it might work for some, but in my life it is the trial that actually produces the fruit. Why do we think that we should have it easy when Christ had to suffer the way He did? It is in His suffering we know Him most deeply, and apart from Him, apart from His suffering we can do nothing.

Just as this is true in our own lives, it was true for Peter. He did not just fail to keep His promise to Jesus, by not laying down His life for Jesus, he went above and beyond that to actually saying he didn’t even know who Jesus was. And when he heard that crow after his third denial, he looked into the eyes of Jesus, and was finally broken. The pride was stripped away. In its place came humility. It was then that Peter found He could not love the Lord in his own strength. It was through pain that He became even more dependent on the Vine.

So in order to remain fully in the Vine, God gave us His Word (Jesus), as Peter said, “You have the words of life”. Prayer then draws us even deeper into a relationship with the Vine, pruning gets rid of our desire to live on our own apart from the vine, and causes us to know that we are nothing without Him. The last way to remain in the vine is obedience and the fruit of that obedience is friendship with God.

Just as My Father has loved Me, I have loved you. Live in that love. I live in My Father’s love because I have done what He asked of Me, and that is how you can live in My love, by obeying what I have said to you. I say all of this to you so that you might be completely filled with joy. This is what I ask; Love each other just like I have loved you.

The greatest expression of love anyone can offer is to lay down his life for his friends. And as you love each other as I have asked you to do, you show that you are My friends. I no longer have to call you servants, because a servant doesn’t know the business affairs of his master. I now call you friends because everything I have learned from My Father I have made know to you.
You didn’t choose to follow Me, but I chose you. I selected you to produce fruit – fruit that will last, and as you produce fruit, the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. This is the one thing I have asked of you; Love each other. (John 15: 9-17)

Philips, Craig and Dean have a song called, Friend of God. We sing it often at church, and yes, as we sing it we are thankful that God calls us His friend. But honestly, I think we have heard that we are His friend so often that we miss the utter amazement of being called a friend of God. I think within the church at least, we take the friendship of God for granted.

There were only two men in the entire Old Testament, which spans a greater length of time than the 2000 years that have passed since the birth of Christ, and in all that time only two men had the honor, no the blessing to be called friends of God. Those men were Abraham and Moses.
Yes, David was a man after God’s own heart, Joshua was obedient as he lead Israel, and Elijah was used to bring about some of the most amazing miracles in all history, but the title friend was not given to them.

That honor was reserved for two men that God spoke to as a man speaks to another man.…He, God Himself shared His heart with Abraham and Moses. If you think about it, there are no other people in the time before Christ whom God talked to in quite the same way He talked to them. For the sake of time, we are just going to look at the relationship God had with Abraham this evening.

The Lord promised Abraham that a nation would come from him, but as the years passed and no child was born to him and Sara, he began to wonder if he had not heard the Lord correctly. One night the Lord came to talk to him. “Do not be afraid Abraham, I am your shield, your very great reward.” Then the Lord took Abraham outside and said to him, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.” Then He said to Abraham, “So shall you offspring be.” And Abraham believed the Lord and in doing so was made righteous. Abraham chose that night to remain in the Vine, to live in the Lord and rest all his hopes, all of his future, his life in God’s hands.

Abraham showed that he was a friend of God, not just through his belief, but also through his actions. The son that God promised him finally came after 25 years of waiting. That son, the one Abraham must have adored and cherished, the Lord asked him to sacrifice. God asked Abraham to lay down his life, and Abraham obeyed. He didn’t argue, wrestle or hold back his beloved Son. He placed wood on Isaac’s back and walked him up to Mount Mariah. He prepared the wood on the altar, all the time knowing that his son was the sacrifice he would give. Isaac asked where the sacrificial lamb was and Abraham said the Lord would provide. Abraham believed that God would keep his promise through Isaac even if He had to raise Isaac from the dead. Isaac soon understood that he was the sacrificial lamb, and willingly gave himself to his father. Abraham raised his knife, and just as he was about to plunge it into His sons heart, the Lord said “Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” “There is no greater love than this, that a man is willing to lay down his life for his friends….Abraham was God’s friend…he laid down his life for Him.

STRANGER THAN FICTION
Harold Crick was a IRS Agent, who had no life. He counted the number of steps he took to get to the bus stop, how many times he moved his brush back and forth in his mouth each time he brushed his teeth, until the day he heard a voice in his head narrating his life, and then the narrator say that he was about to die….He took every step to find the narrator….tell rest of story.

What Harold realized was what Abraham lived out, The author’s will is far better than our own. If we remain in His love, we will produce fruit, and know what it means to be a friend of God.
The greatest example of one who remained perfectly in the Vine was the Vine Himself. Jesus, “Who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Jesus understood that the Author’s plan was the best one…no greater love has anyone than this, that he lays down His life for His friends, you are my friends if you do what I command…Remain in Me.

Study Guide

1. Ruminate on John 15. What does abiding/remain in the Vine mean. How do we abide in Him and how to we allow Him to abide in us?

2. Do you see the parallels of the lives of Judas and Peter? What can you learn from each one of their decisions?

3. Do you know that God calls you friend? What does that mean to you? Do you call God your friend, or do you see Him as a distant force that can’t really be known. Have you seen a new side of your relationship with God through this study?



4. Is God pruning a certain area of your life? Does he need to get rid of an area of pride or arrogance in your attitude toward Him or others. If you have been humbled, what have you learned, how painful was it, and what have you learned?


5. Will you decide to follow the will of the Author of all history, or will you have to be broken so you will listen to His call on your heart and your life.


6. Rewrite John 15:1-10 in your own words, through that you will find that you can and will be able to ABIDE IN THE VINE.

Father, Thank you for Jesus, our forever friend. Teach us through Your loving-kindness to remain in His love, to abide in the Vine. In Jesus Glorious Name Amen.

Lesson 5

As I was writing these lessons, I would sit around at night, searching for the right words to say, talking to myself, writing page after page only to delete most of what I had written and then five minutes later ask myself why I had done that. Let me tell you that, that is one big negative of the computer when it comes to the art of writing.

Once upon a time an author would wad up a page covered in handwritten script or play hoops with typed pages from an old manual typewriter, always able to retrieve the thoughts that at one moment seemed ridiculous when sanity returned. But when you select all and hit delete, well there is no retrieval, just the desire to pound your head against the keyboard. And it was at the head pounding stage that I began to realize I was in some deep trouble.

I stopped solemnly praying and just started talking to God. Father, what do you want me to say, I don’t know how to say that, what do you mean here, I have no idea how to convey this…you are going to have to talk through me because I’ve got nothing. Father we are in some serious trouble…we’ve got a week to go, and all this stuff I have written is really bad, what are we going to do….

One night as I was talking to Him, this guy popped into my head from Braveheart. He’s the one who ends up protecting William Wallice, but everyone thinks he’s nuts, because no one else prays like he does, like God was actually their Father, nobody but him. I realized as I was thinking of that movie, that that is how I should have been praying as I was writing.

But Mel Gibbson wasn’t the one who taught mankind about the Father. No, the one who did that was the only one who really knew Him up to that point, and He is the one who introduced the Father to the world. “I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus taught us to pray to the Father. He is the one who led us into a love relationship with the Father and He is more than enough to meet our every need, even when we doubt that He is.

Father, as we seek to know Jesus as our everything, teach us through Your Word and this lesson what it means that Jesus is the Way, what it means that Jesus is the Truth, what it means that Jesus is the Life. In His name we pray, amen.

John 14:8-12; John 11:38-43

In John 14, we find Jesus in the upper room sharing the heart of His message as well as His own heart with the men He lived with for three years. He shared things with them He could never have shared with the crowds, and He teaches them how to love one another in the process.
In John 13, they were all together in the upper room. I picture it as a large enough room to handle thirteen men comfortably. They are all sitting around a large table.

No not like the image we have in our heads of DaVinci’s last supper, more the Roman style, called the triclinium.

In the tradition of the day, three men were usually on one large couch, with the highest ranking reclining at the top. Then the next ranking person angled in front of him with his head about at the chest of the first person. It was said that that person lay in the bosom of the first. So John and Peter were on the couch with Jesus, then the other disciples filled up the rest of the couches around the table making a rectangle.

I say all of this so you can get a mental picture of the level of intimacy, these men shared, and why they did some of the things they did. From this picture, it is really clear why they needed to have their feet washed. They were all sitting around with their feet in each other’s face trying to eat, so it was necessary to make sure those feet were clean.

In addition, on this night, Jesus did not just want everyone to have clean feet; He wanted to teach them that they needed to serve one another. He wanted them to know that none of them were any better than anyone else, and in so doing He was teaching them how to love each other.

Just as they finish up breaking bread together, Jesus told them some things that rocked their world. You see, they, just like the crowd who wanted to eat, thought that Jesus was a political leader. The disciples had been with Him a long time, but they still did not understand the reason He had come to earth. So, Jesus started to tell them some stuff that is extremely hard for them to grasp. He pointed things out to them about themselves that they just did not want to believe.

Read John 13:2, “I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray Me.” Now check out the disciples response. They all start looking at each other. The fishermen were probably looking at Matthew the tax collector thinking, “I knew it, you can’t trust those people. He never worked hard a day in his life, and he wasn’t one of us from the beginning.”

Whatever they were thinking, I am sure they all started to doubt each other.

The disciples starting to feel threatened from within when Jesus hits them with this:
My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for Me, and just as I said to the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

So, not only is Jesus going to be betrayed by one of them, now He is telling them that He is leaving them and they can’t even go with Him.

You need to know that they all thought that they would die for Him. Thomas said at one point when He knew the leaders in Judea were planning on killing Jesus that he would go back to Judea with Jesus and be killed with Him. Now Peter says the same thing, “Why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for You?” None of them think that they will run in fear, none of them doubt that they will fight for Him, none of them ever dreamed they would abandon Him, but their unbelief on this night sets the stage for exactly that to happen.

Philip said, “Just show us the Father and that will be enough.”

Really, Philip, will that finally be enough for you? I mean I can understand, you want to meet the Father face to face, I get that, but you don’t seem to get that when I say I AM, that is exactly what I mean. You have been sitting with the Father for three years now, you get to talk to God face to face…you are talking to the great I AM right now, but I understand…you thought the Father would be a little more impressive. Well Philip, I don’t think that if the Father came down right here next to you that you would believe any more than you already do.

Just a few weeks before Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Lazarus, a very close friend of Jesus, died. He was in the tomb four days before Jesus arrived in Bethany, and He had told His disciples even before they left to see Lazarus that the sickness that had over taken him wasn’t one that would end in death, but that it was for God’s glory.

When they reached Bethany everyone was wailing, and crying. Martha and Mary were mad at Jesus for not getting there sooner, and when Jesus told Martha to have the stone rolled away from the tomb that held Lazarus’ body, she freaked out. She was not to0 overwhelmed with grief to remind Jesus that a dead body smelled pretty bad by the fourth day.

Jesus cried for the hurt Mary and Martha felt, but He did not cry for Lazarus. He told those mourning that day that if they believed they would see the glory of God. Then Jesus prayed, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I know that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe You sent Me.” Jesus didn’t pray publically because HE needed to, He prayed in front of all of those gathered there that day so that they would understand that He and the Father were one. At that point, Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead.

If that event wasn’t enough to prove to Philip and all the other disciples that Jesus was one with the Father, then nothing Jesus did on earth ever would. Belief is a choice; it isn’t based on signs, logic or anything other than a decision to trust.

How many of you are cynics and proud of it?

The cynics among us are not the most easy to teach. We tend to be the ones with our arms crossed, face serious as we listen intently to every word to make sure that no false teaching is taking place. We uncross our arms only to look through scripture to find the portion of the word that is being read. We take notes so we can read them later on, and test the truth of what the pastor or teacher or speaker said.

Now, I am thankful for the ones who hold those of us who teach accountable for the words we speak, especially since we say we are teaching the word of God. The only problem is that we skeptics tend to not know when to stop analyzing and start trusting.

From what Philip said to Jesus, I am pretty sure that Philip is one of us. He is a good guy, but not easily persuaded, and sometimes the cynic’s heart can keep them from a deep and fulfilling relationship because they are always looking for the worst in people…they are always looking for something better, and they end up missing the good that is standing right in front of them, because it didn’t meet their standard. Philip was looking for his idea of God and missed three years of knowing God instead of just thinking about Him.

It is because Jesus knows that they don’t yet understand who He is or what He has come for that He shares all He does with them from chapter 13-17. He does not want to leave them unprepared or afraid so He tells them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in Me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare it for you, and if I go and prepare it, then I will come back and take you with me so that you are where I am. You know the way.”

Thomas, also a cynic, chimes in with Philip and says, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Have you ever tried to explain to someone something you know, but they have never experienced so there is a disconnect between the two of you? This happens a lot when I am trying to explain something to my kids. I know what I am talking about, and assume that they can grasp what I am saying simply because they know me, but they instead look at me with a blank stare.

This is usually the moment I start get upset with them, because usually the blank stare comes along with a request for them to do something. But they end up not being able to do what I want because they don’t have the life experience to know what I mean. That is where the disciples are at. They hear what Jesus is saying, but they don’t have the depth of knowledge or faith to understand.

This fact plays out most clearly over the next twenty four to forty-eight hours of Jesus’ life. It is not until after Jesus ascends into heaven, after His resurrection, that they start to grasp what He came to do, and not until the Holy Spirit filled them did they have the life experience (the Spirit of God within them) to fully understand that Jesus had come to die all along. That is why He told them in John 16, that the Holy Spirit would come when He left and that the Spirit would comfort them and lead them into all truth.

Jesus was trying to prepare them for the devastation of the cross, but more than that, because He knew they would fail Him, He was preparing them to come back to Him after the cross.
Don’t be afraid, even though you are going to know terror like you have never known it before. I have to leave you for a little while, but I will be back. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
He was telling them: you do know the way…I am the way…trust me, because I am not just a way of life, but I am the truth of all life, I am life.

And in our day, the idea of one way, one truth that leads to eternal life is something that we no longer accept. We like the crowd that followed Jesus and like the disciples have a hard time grasping that Jesus could be the answer to all of our questions, to the source of all of our beliefs and the ending place of all of our lives.

Many in the Christian community are moving away from teaching that Jesus is the answer, the source and the ending of life. They believe that that teaching is too hard for those in our culture seeking God. Instead there is a movement that says that John 14:6 should not be read to say that Jesus is the only way to God, but instead if you live the way of Jesus then you will find God. Now that might sound like the same thing, but it is not.

What they mean is that if you live as a peasant with nothing, helping the poor, then you will find God, even if it is through another “faith tradition”.

By this interpretation of John 14;6, Gandhi and Buddha, by the things they did are with the Father, even though they did not go through Jesus. But if it is enough to live with no earthly possessions, meet the needs of the sick and needy, then Jesus never needed to go to the cross, he could have simply continued to live as He was, showing His disciples to live that same way.

We should be doing all that Jesus did, but it should not be to get to the Father, it should instead be a by-product of knowing the Way to the Father.

Funny, it was Martha who understood this; she seemed to get it even before the disciples. She was crying, wailing, mourning her brother’s death, as Jesus sauntered in four days late. She walked up to Him and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give You whatever you ask.”

Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

“I know he will rise again one day,” Martha responded.

But Jesus didn’t leave it at that. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live even though he dies; whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Martha, do you believe this?”

And Martha, the one we in the church dog all the time for not being as spiritual as her sister Mary, the same Martha who was too busy to sit at the feet of Jesus and be still, this Martha has more understanding, more faith than the twelve who walked with Him daily for three years. Martha said, “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who was to come into the world.”

Martha, a cynic if I ever saw one, at the moment of her deepest need believed that Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead, even before He did it…it was enough for her to simply hear Him say that He would do it, even if it wasn’t enough yet for Philip to see Lazarus raised from the dead.

Martha chose to believe that Jesus was who He said He was, she knew that He was the only way to the Father, that He was and is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Lesson 4

Bread of Life

Read John 6

Now, I can't imagine what it must have been like for Jesus to teach that many people. I mean I led a small women's Bible study for four years, with an average of 8-12 women in attendance. Most of the women were young moms with kids ranging from infant to ten. We had childcare provided, but most women weren't real comfortable with putting their babies into childcare until they were a bit older, and there are times when little ones of 2 or 3 just want their moms.

You see, at the time I led the class, our church had no building, so we were meeting in homes, the facilities weren't perfect to say the least. So, there were times I was trying to teach on the Second Coming of Christ, drawing all kinds of time lines on the board, while a little one was crying, well I guess I should say screaming in the next room, or a baby was sitting on the floor having a wonderful time playing and talking his or her own language, and every woman in the room was looking at the baby instead of answering the questions I was asking.

There was one week when we had most of the women in class, so the living room was full, our hostess had just gotten a new puppy she was trying to train, we had a couple of little ones on the floor with their moms and the room for the kids was packed.

I was going over the seven seals that the Lamb of Revelation opens (I sound impressive don't I…well let me tell you as I was writing this I had a hard time remembering what any of the stuff I was teaching back then meant…so really I was just regurgitating information I got from Kay Arthur, so don't be too impressed) anyway, I was trying to explain a significant part of the overall picture of Revelation, when the puppy decided to walk under my easel and twist his leash around one of its legs.

It was not the most sturdy of easels either…it was one of those that has really skinny black legs, and barely enough room to support a small dry erase board. So, just as the dog is about to run toward it's toy, I grab the easel, lean it toward me, freeing the lease from the leg just in time to prevent the board from being thrown into the lap of the lady sitting a couple of feet away from me.

At around the same time, one of the babies started crying, and the kids came out of their play room to go outside and loudly called to their moms (my three calling to me as well) as they marched out in single file lines. I turned toward the board, kept talking and writing, assuming that someone might still be paying attention, all the while lifting up the easel on one side or another the keep the dog leash free for the rest of the class.

I remember thinking after that day that that must have been what the early church was like. Paul was preaching one night and as he was talking a boy feel asleep sitting on a window seal, and feel out of the open window.

He actually died, and Paul brought him back to life. Can you imagine, Paul's teaching them that the law cannot save them, that the law is a guide that points them to Jesus, and then all of a sudden there is a mother's scream, a dull thud and then more shouts from below? Paul startled from his messages gets up, goes out and lays hands on the boy, they bring him back in, and then they break for pie, praising the Lord all the while.

Well, when I thought of Jesus trying to minister to over 5,000 men, not including their families, I remembered my own time of teaching in a less than sterile environment. I thought of the difficulties of speaking to that many people, and the fact that there was no microphone, no sound system, no band to warm the people up, no chairs for them to be comfortable, no spot light on Jesus so they could easily see him, no donuts in the lobby and no order of service so everyone knew when they could go home to eat. It was Jesus living in the real with people, and having a heart to love them.

Can you see any television preacher standing on a hill trying to talk over the crying babies, playing kids, yelling moms and hungry dads? I think our entertainment methods of today would leave us totally uncertain on how to relate with people at the same level Jesus related to them. He knew them, because He did not simple preach to them, He lived with them, He was one of them, and He knew that their souls were hungry. Jesus is the bread of life.

Father, thank You for Jesus. He loved, and continues to love people, not for show or for His own purpose, but simply because of real love. Create in us that kind of love for You and for others. Build in us a desire to love You with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Jesus had compassion on the masses of people He was teaching. He realized they were hungry and met their physical need for food. The next morning the same people He fed the day before came to find Him.

Jesus tells them, “You are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”

Do we come to Jesus to follow Him so that He can meet our needs, or because we love Him? I had never considered that there was a difference until I started to study this section of John.
At one point Jesus tells a crowd of 5,000 that they are only following Him because they want their stomachs filled again. He said they weren't even following because of all the signs He had preformed, but instead for the free bread they thought they could get from Him.

I was struck when He said, "You are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill." The day before He provided dinner for all of them from two fish and five loaves of bread….they thought they had a free lunch ticket if they kept following. Jesus had a different plan in mind. He basically told them, I'm not here to feed you physical appetite, but instead your hungry souls.

So take a minute and think about the question. Why do you want a relationship with Jesus? If you already have one, think about how you see the Lord. If you don't have a relationship with Him, what are you looking for?

When I first considered the question, I was shocked at my answer. I thought back to the beginning of my walk with Christ. In the beginning I followed out of a deep need to be loved. I came to Him for the same reason the Samaritan woman did, to be safe and valued.

But once I was in Christ, well I think it started to be more about me and how it made me feel. I felt special, and in and of its self there is nothing wrong with that, but when that feeling becomes the focus, then there is a problem. Jesus said to me, you are looking for me because I make you feel good, don't work to feel special because there will be trials that will knock you down, instead keep your eyes on things that are eternal and lasting.

He knows that we will get hungry and need to eat; he knows that we need to feel safe and loved and He will meet those needs for us. What He asks of us is to keep our eyes on Him and to make His will more important than our own needs.

After Jesus tells them to stop working for food that spoils, they ask Him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

Jesus points them in a direction they just don't understand. And I am not sure we get most of the time either. He says, "the WORK of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent." That is a hard one for us. We tend to say ya, but….I want to do this or that for you Lord. Here I am Lord send me. Is this it God? Didn't you make me for something bigger than this? In the end, it is not what we do for Him that brings Jesus pleasure. He wants us to believe in Him, He wants us to know Him.

The crowd heard what He said, but they wanted more from Jesus if they were going to believe in Him. They said, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe in you. What will You do?"

They wanted a sign, they wanted Jesus to prove Himself to them…now mind you, they started to follow Him because of the miraculous signs He was performing (Jh 6:2). He fed all of them from the meager lunch a little boy had of 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread the day before, but that wasn't quite enough for them, and sadly it isn't usually enough for us either.

I can't really count the number of times the Lord has shown Himself to me in a tangible and real way and I end up saying, "Was that really You Lord? How can I know it was You working in my life? Can You show me something else." I end up missing Him, not because He isn't working, but because I choose to close my eyes to what He is doing.

In First Corinthians, Paul says that Jews look for miraculous signs and Greeks for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks. The cross is a stumbling block to the Jew because they thought the Messiah or the Christ would come as a conquering King and defeat Rome.

Instead He came as a humble peasant to die for the sins of the world and was killed by the ones He was suppose to set free and the ones He was suppose to defeat. The cross is foolishness to the Greek because why would anyone follow someone who was so easily defeated, and whose message was sacrifice. Jesus came to the uneducated and the weak, why would a great leader do that?

So if Paul were writing to us today, what would He say?

Jews demand miraculous signs, Greeks look for wisdom, and Americans what do we look for? (MONEY, MONEY, MONEY).

I would say we would call Christ crucified foolishness because

He held no property

He had no wealth

He wasn't famous

He died teaching that we should die to self. What proof do we as American's want in order that we may believe Jesus is who He says He is?

We want success.

So they are looking for a political leader, who will not just set them free from Rome, but who will also provide them with an endless supply of bread.

For many years, I wasn't very different from the crowd. I thought that government could bring about the kingdom of God on earth, so I worked in the political realm to help and try to bring that about. I work for an organization much like Center for Arizona Policy here. My organization brought issues important to the stability of families and others to the forefront of the political debate.

There was and continues to be great value in this type of work. God placed us in a democratic system, where each one of us is held responsible for the direction our laws head.
The problem that arose for me was that I placed so much value on making sure that Government was headed in the right direction that I forgot that Jesus didn't come to make sure that any certain party held political sway, but instead that people were reached with the gospel.
Thankfully God reminded me of this through the example of the man I worked for at the time. I found that he stood for what he believed while at the same time loving his "enemies" along the way. I on the other hand, was a young twenty something, just graduated from college with a fire inside and assumed they were our enemies. I was shown by this man's example that it is possible to stand up for things and still care for those who don't agree with you.

It was just before I started working for this Family Council that I found myself in a poli-sci class with a woman who worked in the political realm on the other side of the isle.

We had a civil relationship and talked on and off about different subjects. She told me that she had worked for a certain cause for a time and when she had to confront a problem in her own organization she was shunned and rejected.

She then told me that man on the other side had shown her kindness and concern during that time. After working at Family Council for a few months, I realized she had been talking about my boss. He lived out Christ to this woman and to everyone else around Him. He cared about good laws, but his greatest calling was to love others. He knew Jesus had not come to establish His kingdom on earth, but instead to feed their hungry souls.

I learned that my focus should never be on a cause, or on what I think Jesus came for. His ways are not my ways, and all I need to do is believe in Him.

So, the crowd asked Jesus for a sign. It wasn't just any old sign. They wanted a sign like the ones God did through Moses when He led the Israelites out of Egypt. The crowd was beginning to compare Jesus with the greatest of prophets; they were beginning to compare Him to Moses. So they said to Him, "What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written; 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

Jesus had given them bread to eat out of pretty much nothing, so would He now use signs to convince the Romans to leave just like Moses had had used against Pharaoh?

Jesus' response to their request for a sign is to tell them, "The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

But just like the woman at the well, they were taking His words literally. They say, "Sir, from now on give us this bread."

"I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." You have seen me, and still you do not believe. I have come down from heaven not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all He has given me…..My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day."
Jesus tells them you want a sign, I am the sign. He says, here it is, I am the Bread of Life, and all you have to do to have it is to come to me, and believe then you will never be hungry or thirsty again, but you have chosen not to believe so you will be hungry and thirsty forever.

The next few verses are the ones that really reveal that the crowd was not following Him because they wanted to know God, but instead because of who they thought Jesus was. Once He did not fit into what they wanted, when He said something that was too hard for them to accept, they were gone.

Those who refused to believe started to (read Jh. 6:38) grumble among themselves, Who does this guy think he is?

“How can He give us His flesh to eat?”

And when they heard all of His teaching, many of his disciples (not the 12) said, "This is hard teaching, who can accept it... From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Him."Jh 6:60;66

The crowd fell away because they came to Jesus not to follow Him because they wanted a relationship with Him, based on denying themselves, but instead because they wanted Him to meet their preconceived notions of what the Messiah would do and be for them. When the teaching got too hard, they left.

In the end, Jesus said the hard things, because He was not concerned about impressing people. He told them they would need to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood in order to meet the hunger in their lives. What He meant was they needed to share in His suffering.

Let's go back to the question I asked earlier. Why do you follow Jesus? Is it to meet your need, or your own ideas of who Jesus is, or do you follow Him because you love Him? "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." (Jh 6:27) He is the only one who can meet the hunger in our hearts, because Jesus is more than enough.

Study Guide

1. You are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Why do you want a relationship with Jesus?

2. What must we do to do the works God requires?



3. What signs do we now demand of God? What signs do we demand of government?

4. Our nation is in an economic crisis, our own church family as well as the families within our church are hurting, in such times do we look to Jesus for strength, wisdom and guidance, or are we looking to a false savior?

5. Some people place their trust in money, power, possessions, relationships, where do you place your trust?

6. The teaching of Jesus is not easy. He said that we needed to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Are you willing to give up your own needs, your own ideas of how God should meet your needs, and follow after Jesus?

7. Too often, we make knowing the will of God into a mystery. We want to hear a special word from the Lord, or have a “new” revelation. What we end up missing when we are searching for the new is the One who is the will of God. All we have to do to know that will is to BELIEVE in the One that He sent, Jesus.

Lesson 3

Thirsty Soul

Each one of us has a thirst that we are trying to satisfy with something. Often times we attempt to meet that need with food, alcohol, the internet, relationships, and work, but none of these things ever quenches it. The woman at the well tried to meet the thirst in her heart with men, and then one man came along and radically changed her world. She found out that only He could satisfy her parched soul. She discovered that Jesus is the Living Water.

As she walked to the well, her heart hurt. She had to get water at noon, so that the other women in the village would not be there. However, she did not want to have to go when all the other women were gone. She was lonely. She was thirsty for friendship, for someone to reach out to her and accept her. How long had it been since she felt accepted? Had she ever really known what acceptance felt like? Would she ever know what it meant to be loved?

When she got closer to the well, she saw someone sitting on its edge. She breathed a sigh of relief. Well, at least it was a man. They were not as catty or as cold as women were, and she knew how to please them. She slowed down her step, hoping he would go away when he saw her coming, but He did not. She noticed that He was not from Samaria. He was a Jew. Why was He here in Sychar, a city in Samaria?

These might have been the thoughts of the Samaritan woman as she walked toward Jesus one afternoon. After meeting Him, she would finally know what it meant to be accepted and to be loved.

Around

John 4 begins by explaining that Jesus was drawing large numbers of followers, people baptized by His disciples, not just curious onlookers. The Pharisees were starting to get nervous. At first, they thought John the Baptist was going to be the one to challenge their authority, but it was becoming clearer to them that Jesus was actually the rising star.

The Jewish leaders decided to send someone over to try to stir up things between John the Baptist and Jesus. John’s disciples were agitated and they came to John along with a “certain” Jew. They asked John, “What’s up with this guy Jesus. Aren't you bothered that He is baptizing more people than you are?” (See John 3:22-36)

I picture John the Baptist as a hippie type, surfer dude. He might have responded to the leader like this, "No worries dudes. I am down with Jesus. He is righteous. I’m not here to get dudes to follow me. Jesus is going to become epic and I'm canned. That's gnarly. I came to make the way glassy for Him and then I'm out." In other words, “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30).

John’s reply was simple and clearly revealed his deep faith. The Pharisees effort to cause conflict between John and Jesus failed. That said, when Jesus learned about the attention He was drawing among the religious leaders, He decided to go up to Galilee for a while. He left Judea and headed north, toward Samaria.

Most Jews traveled around Samaria. They believed that by going through the Samaritan region they would become unclean. Jews saw Samaritans as half-breeds, not worthy of God's love. The Samaritans had once been part of Israel, but after the Assyrian invasion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C., they were forced to intermarry with Assyrians, thereby losing their position as Jews.

The gospel writer says that Jesus had to go through Samaria to get to Galilee. Now He did not have to go physically around Samaria. Religious Jews went east, across the Jordan, then north until they passed the Samaritan region, and finally went back west, across the Jordan, to enter Galilee. Jesus chose to go right through Samaria to get to His destination. Jesus did not live by the same standards as the religious. He did not have the same prejudices that the Jewish leaders of the day held. He was concerned about people, and about carrying out the Father’s will. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believed in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John. 3:16).

Jesus did not go around Samaria. He knew that the shortest way between two points is a straight line. He also knew that if He went around, He would miss something He needed to do. He would miss the Father’s will.

Thirsty

Jesus arrived in Sychar, a city in Samaria, around lunchtime. He was thirsty and hungry after His six-hour journey. He took a seat by the town well. His throat was parched and covered in dust. He determined to ask a woman carrying a jug for a drink of water. Read the interaction that took place:

When a Samaritan Woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give Me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) (John 4:7-9)

Jesus was not concerned with whom she was, what He was concerned about was the state of her heart. He told her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying this to you, ‘Give Me a drink’ you would ask Him and He would give you living water" (Jh 4:13-14).

The woman did not know what to do with Jesus. I can picture her standing there looking at Him wondering if He was all there.

Imagine some guy coming up to you at the gas station, wearing an Armani suit and driving a BMW, asking you to fill up his gas can. You might look at what He is wearing and driving and think to yourself, “Why is He asking me to fill up His gas can?”

He realizes what you are thinking and offers you gas for life. You look at Him like He is crazy and He proceeds to promise you that if you listen to Him he can make sure you are filled up for good, and all the time you are wondering how a guy who cannot pay for his own gas, can promise to give you fuel for the rest of your life.

That might have been what the woman at the well was thinking. What kind of water can this man have, if He does not even have a bucket to draw water out of the well right in front of Him.
She said, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” (John 4:11).

She knew that there was something different about Jesus. He had something she wanted, but she could not put her finger on it.

Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water I give him will never get thirsty. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

Jesus finally had her full attention. She was thirsty, thirstier than she even knew. The woman finally realized what she was thirsting for all those years. She said, "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water” (John 4:15).

Go

Look closely at Jesus’ response. He does not give her three easy steps to salvation. Instead, He told her to admit to her own state of need. He instructed her to do something that would reveal the state of her heart, and her willingness to receive the gift He was offering her. Jesus said, “Go call your husband and come back” (16).

The Samaritan woman could have answered Jesus in several ways. She could have reacted in anger, telling Jesus to mind His own business. She could have lied about the men in her life. She could have even taken the cynical route and asked which one, but she chose to be honest with Jesus. She replied, "I have no husband” (17).

Jesus was impressed by her openness, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband” (18).

This was the reason that the woman was coming to the well by herself, in the middle of the day. She was a woman of loose morals, one any "God fearing" woman would shun.

Jesus saw her differently. He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt. 9:13). Thankfully, that is still true today. The following is the story of a modern day woman at the well:

I can say that I accepted Christ in 1982 at the tender age of 19, but I only believed in Him with my mind. I began attending church and a Bible study with my sister and some friends, but I had to move away from the area shortly after being saved. That's when my trouble began.

I settled into my different life in a new city and at the age of 20, I met and married a man who essentially did not believe in God. I fell into the same way of thinking. I was very lonely in my marriage, trying to get a college education and make lots of money. I had an emptiness inside that nothing would fill; not my husband, money, or my career. My husband and I were both proud, selfish, and demanding people, and eventually our marriage ended after seven years.

I fell into a very demoralized way of living during the year following my divorce. I began to go out and party with friends, I neglected my responsibilities at home as well as taking care of my dog. My language was foul. I slept with several men thinking that would ease the pain and emptiness I felt inside. It didn't. Working too much didn’t help either. Looking back, my life felt like it was as filthy as a toilet.

Following that year, I was working as an MRI/Nuclear medicine technologist, and I met my current husband. We married in 1993, and moved to Seattle, WA in February 1997, so that my husband could take a job promotion. We had two small children. Jesus literally began this time to pound on the door of my heart.

In Seattle, I began working weekends as an MRI technologist in one of the local hospitals. I was often very stressed and tired at those times because of the workload, but I truly enjoyed my job, my coworkers, the doctors, and patients. It was there that Jesus paid me a visit.

I remember the day clearly. On Saturday, December 7, 1998, I was scanning a patient for back pain, and as I looked at her, I could tell she was ill in other ways. The whites of her eyes were yellow and her color wasn't good at all. I felt she had hepatitis at the very least. I began to scan her for her back pain. At a point during her exam, the scan protocol called for an injection of a contrast agent into a vein in her arm. I came into the scan room to give her the injection. I was in a great hurry as I injected her. Just as I pulled the needle out of her arm, I stuck myself with her contaminated needle in my left palm, just below the left index finger.

I had been a technologist for 15 years and I had never stuck myself with any one's needle before but that is exactly what had just happened! I was so scared and bewildered and, not wanting to add to this patient's considerable level of pain, I did not tell her what had just happened. I finished her exam and she went home without knowing what had occurred.

I tried to carry on the rest of the day, thinking that I was a healthy person and that nothing could happen to me because of the needle stick. I went into the bathroom about two hours later, and as I looked into the mirror, I heard my heart's voice saying to me, "You are going to die and leave your kids without a mother." My future somehow flashed before my eyes and I knew that what this voice was saying was true. Right there, beside a toilet, I fell to my knees and begged God, "God, if You can make this situation alright, if You can heal this woman, then I won't be sick either! Please heal her and me! I know who You are and I know You can do this. I believe in You! I'll be Yours!"

I got up from beside the toilet and immediately called my unit manager and the patient, telling them what had happened. A flurry of activity ensued. I went to the ER for therapy, the patient came back, and had her blood drawn for lab work. Things were crazy in the ER but so many miracles happened that evening that it would take too much time to recount them all. One thing's for sure, I saw God mightily working right away for my good.

The next day, which was Sunday, I returned to my regular work shift, not knowing what the patient's lab results would show. I went to the computer terminal to check her blood results. Well, God worked two miracles, because first the patient did not have one thing wrong with her blood! In fact, her blood work was better than mine was! Secondly, God cured her, and through her being cured, I was never infected with anything. She was completely free of any problems yet I saw her with my own eyes and knew she was sick!

Well, I really heard Jesus calling me because I had just turned my life over to him the prior day in a radiology bathroom next to a toilet. I had faced my own future and found it lacked eternity! It lacked Jesus Christ!

Now, looking back over that time, I cannot thank Jesus enough for all He has done for me, even when I didn't care at all about Him. He showed me my horrible spiritual condition that day, being filthy like that toilet was. But He flushed away that toilet full of all my sin and now, I am free to live as Jesus' friend and disciple. I am deeply grateful to Him for all He has done and is doing in this world. Most of all, I am so very thankful for His presence in my life. I am no longer alone and Jesus gives me the ability to live powerfully for Him. He is with me always!

As for me, I am redeemed of the Lord and I will say so!

"For God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Jesus took the woman at the well to the same place he took the woman in this story. He showed them, their “horrible spiritual condition,” revealing their thirst for Him.

The Lord exposed the Samaritan woman’s need. He did this by going to the place she had gone to for years to try to satisfy her thirst. He went to her comforter to get to her heart. He asked her about the men in her life, because He wanted her to understand that nothing she had tried before could make her whole, make her stop thirsting. In this way, Jesus gave her a chance to be real, and through her honesty, the knowledge that she was not righteous, He was able to show her who He was.

Jesus went to the center of her problem. He went to the idol in her life; that thing she thought would save her and never could. She ran to men to try and slake her thirst, but they failed her every time. They just made her thirstier.

How many of us in this room still endeavor at times to refresh our parched soul with people, things, and/or activities? We might even have a relationship with Christ, but still fall back into old patterns or new ones that are just as devastating. Too often, we desire to meet our own needs. Sadly, when we do this, it is like drinking a cup of coffee when we are dehydrated. Our attempt only dries us out more.

I am not immune from this type of spiritual dehydration. Within two years of surrendering my life to Christ, an eating disorder ensnared me. This disorder manifested itself in relationship to the insecurity I was feeling in my marriage. My insecurity was not related to my husband, but to my past. My father left my mother just two years prior to my own marriage. I projected the fear of loss and abandonment onto my own relationship, and felt sure that if I kept my body trim that my husband would not leave me.

The interesting thing about eating disorders is that they might start with a desire for a healthy body, but they quickly move into obsession. Any disorder is more about emotional issues and control than anything else. By controlling my food intake and body image, I believed I could control my husband and my fears of abandonment.

All I really achieved was bondage to those fears. Instead of resting in Christ, I chose to try to manipulate things I thought were under my control to make me feel safe and secure. It was not until I realized I could never make myself truly safe, and allowed Jesus to have control over my life and well being that I finally had the security I was trying to achieve. He was the only one who could satisfy that thirst in my life.

ANYTHING can become our idol. Walking can change from a healthy everyday activity into a compulsive behavior, eating can move from a physical need to a self-comforting tool, Bible study can start out as a time of deep connection with the Lord and move into a guilt ridden activity. God created us for worship. If Christ is not at the center of our worship, then we will worship something or someone else.

The woman at the well chose men, what have you chosen? Is it your husband, your kids, your career? What would Jesus ask you to go and get if you asked Him today to give you living water? What do you need to confess to Him even now, because He is always sitting at the well waiting for you to drink of the water only He can offer?

Sidetrack

Pay attention to how the Samaritan woman dealt with Jesus’ focus on her comforter.
"Sir, the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." (John 4:19-24)

She was uncomfortable. Things were getting a little too personal. Just as Jesus was getting to the deep issues of this woman’s life, she tried to change the subject. She tried to divert attention from her use of men to something that was not as close to home.

She tried to sidetrack Jesus from the main issue in order to inquire about a “spiritual” matter. Since she had this man, that was no doubt a prophet standing in front of her, she thought she should ask Him something important.

We are no different in our desire to shift the focus from those sins that are comfortable to us to peripheral issues. I do this. It is easier to have a theological discussion than to confess our sins. It is more comfortable to study the Bible than to allow the Holy Spirit to use it to convict our heart. It appears more “godly” to quote passages of Scripture than to deal with the things that have taken control of our lives.

Jesus did not get sidetracked. He came to satisfy her thirst, not have a debate with her. He told her that the Jews worship God and that salvation is for them, but there would be a time when believers would worship God not in a central location but in spirit and truth. God is spirit and He wants to be worshiped in the spirit. Jesus invited the woman at the well to worship Him in this way.

Jesus invites us to worship Him in exactly that same way today. He wants us to stop trying to sidetrack things, and surrender our wills to His. When we do this, we discover a life overflowing with true worship: “Present yourselves as a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of service” (Rom. 12:1).

Messiah

Jesus surprised the Samaritan woman. She quickly began to realize that He would satisfy her thirst. When she came to that point, the Lord did something very special for her. He did for her what He did for the woman in the hospital bathroom; He revealed His true nature, His secret identity. When the woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us,” Jesus declared, “‘I who speak to you am He’” (John 4:25-26).

Can you imagine what those words did to her heart? Even as I share this with you, my heart is racing. I am the one you have been waiting for, I am the Christ, the chosen One of God.

I am the Messiah

At that moment, the woman received the Living Water. She did not need to debate any longer. Jesus did not have to prove Himself to her. She believed. The evidence for this is found in verse 28: “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’”

Drink

Once she grabbed hold of Jesus, she introduced Him to everyone. She did not care if someone was unkind, she was not worried about who might reject her, and she was not concerned about what people would say. The Samaritan woman received the acceptance she had thirsted for all of her life, and she was going to share the water of life with everyone she met. “Many of the Samaritans from the town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did’” (39).

After drinking the living water, she was never the same. “Her many sins have been forgiven for she loved much; but he who has been forgiven little loves little,” Jesus said this of another woman, but it applies to the woman at the well. (See Luke 7:48, 50).

If you have ever come across someone freed from the bonds of sin, someone who has been greatly forgiven, you know this woman. You understand what Jesus meant when He said that they loved much.

I had the honor of meeting such a woman several years ago. This woman loved Jesus more than anyone I had ever known. She never stopped talking about Jesus. She never stopped talking about what He did for her.

The story of her salvation freely flowed from her lips. Her sin and her past did not come out as freely. They were things she knew Jesus had already dealt with, and they no longer needed to be remembered, let alone talked about.

When I first met her, she reminded me of a schoolgirl in love for the first time, who wanted everyone to meet the one person the sun and moon circled around. She was never ashamed to say the name of Jesus. She introduced everyone to her best friend.

If anyone rejected Him or His love, she was devastated. She did not hurt for Him, or for herself. She hurt for them, because she knew that their souls were parched and if they just drank the water that liberally surged from Jesus’ heart, they would never be thirsty again. Jesus so saturated her that she could not help pouring out His love on everyone she encountered. Even when rejected, ridiculed or rebuked, she never faltered in her devotion to her Savior. Set free from so much, this woman loved Jesus in ways only she could understand and for reasons only she fully knew.

The woman at the well was just like this woman. She arrived at the point in her life where she realized that Jesus was the only one who saw into her heart, knew all there ever was to know about her, accepted her for who she really was, and still loved her. He loved her the way she longed to be loved.

The Samaritan woman discovered that Jesus was the only one who could satisfy her thirsty soul. He is the only one who can satisfy yours. Jesus is more than enough.

Study Guide

1. Read John 4, and play close attention to the attitude the woman at the well displays toward Jesus, as well as the attitude Jesus shows to the woman. What did you discover?

2. If Jesus had lived by the prejudices of His day, He would never have walked into Sychar. He would never have offered living water to the Samaritan woman. It is easy to look down on the religious Jews of Jesus’ day, but is there a certain group of people that are looked at as less than in your community, in your church? Is there some place you would go around rather than go through because you would have to interact with certain people? Why is this? What attitudes do you need to address, do you need to change?

3. Read John 4. Underline ever reference to water, living water, and water of life. Who is the living water? What does He offer?

4. Have you met Jesus at the well? If you have, write down your “well” encounter. How does your experience compare with that of the woman at the well?

5. Why do we try to sidetrack the issues that are most important to our walk with Jesus? What ways do you divert attention from your own sin? Is there a sin that you need to deal with? Are you being honest about it like the woman, or are you arguing with the Lord trying to pretend it is not an issue that needs to be addressed?

6. Read Matthew 16:13-28. Who is Jesus? What truth did Peter declare, that Jesus then revealed freely to the woman at the well?

7. What reaction did the woman have to Jesus’ proclamation; “I am He”?

8. Study Luke 7:36-50. What did the Pharisee say about Jesus? Why did He doubt Jesus?

9. How did the woman in this passage show her love for Jesus? What saved her?

10. Are you like the women who wept broken tears over Jesus’ feet, or are you like the Pharisee that doubted the Lord and rejected those who were less religious?

11. Why do those who have been forgiven much love much? Do you know anyone like this? What have you been forgiven?

12. Do you love much? If you were forgiven a great deal, but that was years ago, do you still have the same level of love that you had when you first believed? Read Revelation 2:2-7. Have you left your first love?

13. Have you been trying to slake your thirsty soul by drinking spiritual “coffee”, only parching it further, while your soul is screaming for water? What are some of your comforters.

14. The Messiah is waiting at the well even now for you. Will you drink the Living Water He freely offers? Will you share that water with everyone else around you?