Interrogating Jesus

If Jesus was right in front of you right now, would you have any questions for Him?

What would they be?

Maybe you’ve thought about when you die, all the questions you get to ask Him?

How many pounds of food did I eat?

Why does evil exist?

Why are Rubik’s cubes so hard?

We’re in the Book of John, and we are in the middle of Jesus having a discussion with the religious leaders of the day and a crowd of onlookers.

In this passage, people ask Jesus a variety of questions. There are 13 questions in this passage, and about 8 of them are to Jesus or directly about Jesus. People want to know who this Guy really is.

I think that there is one overarching question that these people are asking, and I think we need to as it too.

Is Jesus the Savior that He says He is?

There are some other questions that the people ask in order to get there, and so we will do the same.

Who is He?

The people ask a bunch of different questions about who He is.

Where is He from pops up throughout this section.

The reason they want to know where Jesus is from is because that was a marker for them

When they see that He’s from Galilee, they recoil; they’re confused.

No one good comes from Galilee!

What’s the worst place in Lewis County?

It would be like if someone told you that there is a real superhero, but that he or she is from that place.

You wouldn’t believe it! Nothing good comes from Galilee!

But, you see, everyone in this story is confused as to who Jesus is.

The crowds say that He’s from Galilee, but He’s from the city of David, where God promised the Messiah would be.

The people say that no one will know where the Messiah is from, but the Bible tells us that He’ll be born in Bethlehem.

The Pharisees say that no prophet is born in Galilee, but Jonah and Nahum are from Galilee.

Everyone is confused! They’re so set that they know who Jesus is that they can’t see the truth.

And we’re the same way.

We like to ask questions of who this Jesus guy really is, but we don’t like to look at His answer.

Maybe you’re not a Christian, and so you’ve asked this question to your friends or parents, but you already know your answer

“He’s not real, He’s a myth”

“He’s real, but He was just a good teacher who died a long time ago”

“He was a psycho who thought He was God.”

Or, maybe you are a Christian, and you have your list of things that you know Jesus is.

“Jesus is the guy who died so that I could go to heaven”

“Jesus is a white, bearded man who walked around in a robe and was sad all the time and makes you feel bad for the bad things you’ve done.”

But what we do, and what the crowds did, is they didn’t wait for His answer!

Jesus tells us that He’s God, and that we’re separated from Him.

Vs. 33-34.

He tells us that we need to come to Him if we want to be satisfied.

Vs. 37-38

So I know that Jesus is God! I know that I’m far from Him, even though I so desperately need Him in order to feel satisfied, but I also know that He invites me in so that I can be with Him!

So now the question is, what’s He going to do?

What’s He Going To Do?

If He is all of the things that we just said, there’s got to be a reason that He became human! It wouldn’t make sense for Him to be both God and human for no reason!

The crowds didn’t know what Jesus was going to do, and maybe you don’t either!

What in the world is Jesus going to do in your life?

Maybe you think that He can’t do anything, He’s just a fake that doesn’t affect your life.

Maybe you think that His job is just to make you happy, that all of your problems are supposed to be fixed and you can just be happy because of Jesus.

Or, maybe you think Jesus just makes you a better person.

But, this is where we turn to Jesus’ words in 37 and 38

What does Jesus promise?

One thing that you should know with this passage is that it’s happening during a specific ceremony called the water ceremony.

The priests would go to a pool of water and fill a pitcher with it, and then they would carry it up through the city while the people around would sing Psalms together.

It was supposed to be a prayer that God would send water, but it was also a symbol that God needed to rejuvenate them and make them more and more close to God.

Then, Jesus gets up and says that you can receive living water through Him!

This means He’s saying that this ceremony that we all love is a symbol of the love of God that Jesus promises!

Jesus gives you “living water,” meaning that He satisfies you!

You can’t find fulfillment or satisfaction in anything outside of Jesus, you can’t just have enough friends or relationships or money to be content, but when you let Jesus in, that changes everything for you!

Then, He promises the Spirit.

What He’s talking about here is the Holy Spirit, which is God living inside of you, making you more and more like the creature you were meant to be and giving you new life.

So, what does Jesus actually do in your life?

He satisfies you completely, He rejuvenates you like the water ceremony promised, and He sends the Holy Spirit to live inside of you to change you to be the way you were meant to be!

So, we are now back to our first question, Is Jesus the Savior that He says He is?

Is Jesus the Savior that He says He is?

The answer is yes! He is the one that we so desperately need, He’s the water that brings new life, He’s the Messiah that the Jews were looking for and He’s the answer that you’ve been looking for! Just ask Him, and really listen, what He’s going to do in your life, and you’ll find a greater future than you ever imagined.

Questions:

If you could ask Jesus one question, what would it be?

What are the questions that you have/had in order to believe Jesus?

Read vs. 33-34. What do you think Jesus means from this?

What can you tell your friends or family that have questions about Jesus?