Sermon Tone Analysis

Who is Jesus?: Encountering Jesus

Key Passage(s): John 4 Audience/Occasion: Connect Church (9/4/22) Purpose: I am preaching this message to invite people to encounter Jesus, believe in Jesus, and invite others to experience the same.

Big Idea: When it comes to Jesus, we want to see, but he wants us to believe.

Creative Element(s): Props: Connect Card, Communion Resources: Thoughts for next time:

Just over 30 min.

A lot of text at times—felt hard to keep people engaged (some yawns towards the end)

People thought I handled a of text well though

INTRODUCTION

Hey Connect, my name is Chris, and I’m one of the pastors on our team.

I’m so glad you’re with us today!

(Raise hand) Who wants to see God show up in their life?…

I sure do!…

It’s been an expensive year for our family as:

Abigail was born in March.

I sprained my shoulder during softball batting practice and ended up needing a shoulder procedure not covered by insurrance.

Not to mention other expenses that have blindsided us this year.

We’d love to see God provide financially… As some of you know, a year and a half ago, my father-in-law got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called myasthenia gravis (MG).

This summer his health has really taken a turn for the worse—the MG has significantly limited his ability to see, talk, and eat—it is a cruel disease to watch and even worse to experience… Our family would LOVE to see God show up and heal him!…

I want to see God show up in my life in some very real, very physical ways right now…

How about you?… (Raise hand) Do you want to see God show up in your life?…

Maybe you too need God to provide or God to heal… Or maybe you need God to show up in some other way…

We all have times in life, where we need to see God show up in a very tangible, a very physical ways.

If you want God to show up in your life, if you NEED God to show up in your life, my prayer is that you’ll encounter Jesus today.

Because as we’ll see from two accounts today, an encounter with Jesus changes everything!…

If you have a Bible with you, please turn with me to John 4 to follow along.

Or you can follow along as well as take notes in our free church app.

We’re slowly making our way through the Gospel of John as we answer this very important, yet controversial question, “Who is Jesus?”

We know what our parents, friends, and professors think about Jesus.

But the eternal implication of OUR OWN answer to this question is too significant for us to settle on what others think…

It really is the difference between heaven and hell!… Which is why we HAVE TO answer this question ourselves, and to do so wisely, we are looking to Scripture—specifically John’s eyewitness account of Jesus’ life & ministry as well as his death & resurrection.

We’ve already learned a lot about who Jesus is and how a relationship with him impacts our life.

If you missed any of the messages, I encourage you to catch up either on the app.

If you’ve ever thought, “Jesus may be for them, but he’s not for me,” listen up because both of the people Jesus encountered in our passage today would have likely thought the same thing—that is until they encountered Jesus for themselves…

And my prayer is that you will encounter Jesus today like they encountered Jesus back then.

In fact, why don’t we pray that we encounter Jesus now as we prepare to read his Word together…

PRAY

Jesus had been teaching and ministering in Judea, where ministry was picking up steam as more and more people believed in him and began following him.

The Pharisees (the religious leaders of the day) were starting to take notice, so Jesus decided to head back up north to Galilee where he grew up.

:) When Jews typically made such a trek, they would skirt Samaria even though it took longer because they thought the Samaritans would give them cooties…

No, but the Jews did hate Samaritans and wouldn’t be caught dead with them!…

With Jesus though, you got to get used to different…

While Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria geographically, he had to go through Samaria spiritually.

John recorded how it all went down in John 4:4-26—it’s a bit of a longer passage, but here’s the first scene of an unlikely person’s encounter with Jesus…

BODY

John 4:4-26

4 Now he [Jesus] had to go through Samaria.

5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 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.)

She was baffled by how culturally taboo this was—a Jewish man talking with her Samaritan woman!… 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.

Where can you get this living water?

12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.

18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.

What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.

20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, [:) I don’t recommend talking to women like this today as it will definitely be interpreted differently…] “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming.

When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” Mic drop!…

But Jesus didn’t start with the mic drop, he started with (right) his physical need to reveal (left) her much deeper spiritual need.

It’s mid-day, and Jesus had been traveling, so sure he may have been thirsty—but he knew she was definitely thirsty… She’s concerned with the outward appearance—he (a Jewish man) was asking her (a Samaritan woman) for a drink.

But outward appearances are a non-issue for Jesus, so he got to the heart of the matter—this interaction is not really about the drink she can offer him, but about the living water he wants to offer her…

(Move right) But she doesn’t get it—she’s stuck in the physical…

She’s skeptical Jesus can actually help her—he’s offering her ‘living water’ but doesn’t even have a bucket to draw water… But Jesus wouldn’t drop it, so she played along, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water” (v.

15b).

Very practically, it’s noon in the middle east—it’s HOT!… Which is why the other women had gone to draw water in the cool of the morning, but not her…

She was there in the heat of the day not only because she had a physical thirst to be quenched but because she had a much deeper thirst that was yet to be quenched… And Jesus went there… V. 16, “He told her, ‘Go, call you husband and come back.’”

Jesus knew she didn’t have A husband—she had had FIVE husbands, and the guy she was with now wasn’t even her husband!…

Jesus saw her in her situation:

He knew she was haunted by her past… He knew she was the talk of the town, so she’d come alone in the heat of the day to avoid the judgmental looks and whispering of the other women… Jesus knew she longed to be KNOWN and ACCEPTED, but all she felt was shame and rejection…

(Move right) Feeling exposed, she changed the topic to the age old debate between Jews and Samaritans about the proper location to worship God.

For the Jews it was the temple in Jerusalem, for the Samaritans it was the temple they built on Mount Gerizim.

Again she’s concerned with the physical!…

(Move left) Jesus wasn’t interested in this meaningless debate about physical location when all that truly matters is the spiritual condition of one’s heart in worship.

V. 24, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

(Center) When woman made one last ditch effort to skirt the issue, and it’s then that Jesus seized the opportunity to open her eyes to the reality of who he is…

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming.

When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” (Mic drop)

With the woman at the well, Jesus used a (right) physical need as the door to (left) spiritual awakening—and he can do the same for you!…

She longed to be loved—fully known and fully accepted—but six relationships later, all she was was rejected and full of shame… It was not until she met Jesus, who fully knew her and FULLY ACCEPTED her in the midst of her mess, that she found what she was searching for—living water that quenches an eternal thirst… You may be running from relational hurt yourself…

Or maybe it’s a financial mishap that’s hanging over your head… Or maybe it’s a hobby that became a habit and is now an addiction… I don’t know what you’re running from, but let me tell you who you should run to!…

Jesus sees you.

Jesus knows you.

And Jesus accepts you!

Jesus accepts you just as you are, and he loves you too much to let you stay that way!…

Could your need for God to show up in your life right now be the open door for an encounter with Jesus?…

Just as Jesus revealed he is the long awaited Messiah to the Samaritan woman, his disciples returned from town with lunch, and she ran to town as fast as she could to tell others of her encounter with Jesus.

Scene 2 unfolded this way—vv.