The Will of God
Notes
Transcript
Map
I want to cover one observation I had last week before we dive back into John. We look at this map again, and we often speak of the narrow road and the broad path. Jesus took a direct route while many would avoid Samaria. R.C. Sproul would call this a moral majority. The majority of people thought they should avoid Samaria for a lot of different reasons, so that is what people did and they thought it was the right thing to do
Jesus took the direct route because there were people there that needed the Gospel. I think this is a great visual for this teaching. The majority said to avoid this but Jesus went anyway. Following Jesus is about following the Word of the Lord and that means it takes on a different path than the rest.
If you have your Bibles we will begin in John 4:27
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
This week we begin again with the woman at the well. The disciples had gone into town to get some food, and while they were gone is when Jesus was speaking with the woman. They are surprised to find Jesus speaking with this woman. Again remember Jesus wasn’t supposed to be talking to this woman. Jesus concerns Himself with lost sheep. He does not concern Himself with wordly wisdom but Godly wisdom. The truth of God is always higher than the truth of man, and we will see how powerful the Words of the Lord are in this message today.
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 Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
We broke down the conversation last week but this woman is so amazed by Jesus that her thoughts have changed from thirst and the need for water to the need to share the good news. She goes into the town and tells the people everything that has happened. Remember this woman was an outcast but look how she frames her question. Could this be the Messiah? or a more literal translation is “ This couldn’t be the Messiah , could it?” This woman is very smart, the word choices invoke curiosity, just as Jesus had done with her. She isn’t telling anyone, she is making them think and then bringing them to Jesus.
Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
They are misunderstanding Jesus because they haven’t yet learned that the Word of God, that doing the Will of God is the real sustaining force in this world. Jesus was tired when they left Him at the well but now He isn’t any longer because Jesus is doing the Will of God in this moment.
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
It is the Will of the Lord that sustains Jesus and that sustains us. It is His Word that is everlasting and provides all things that are needed in this life.
Look what the prophet Jeremiah said Jer 15:16
When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty.
Jesus also tell us this in Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
which all comes back to our call to Worship from Deuteronomy. The sustaining and healing force in this world is the Lord. Then Jesus tells the disciples to open their eyes and look around. There was a spiritual hunger in the land and we will see that in the next verse.
There is a spiritual hunger now as well and will be until Jesus comes back. We need to look around and see that people need Jesus, the church has to start looking outward and see that people need the full truth of the Lord.
Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
The disciples had a great and rewarding privilege to leading people to faith in Jesus. It is in my opinion the highest honor that a person can have is to participate in the leading of someone to faith. The Lord wants to work with us and through us. There will be people that sow and those that reap, both are a great reward for following the Lord.
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
So many people came to Jesus because of this woman’s testimony, they came to find out about Jesus. This is what Jesus means in Matthew 5:14-16
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Your faith should be a light to others. This woman didn’t hide her sin, in fact because of her sin and what Jesus told her, she was able to go give a testimony and bring people to the Lord. There is a public nature to having faith. It is a relationship between you and God but it is also something that we should not hide. We follow the King of Kings and it is His word that sustains the world.
They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
They tell her, now that we have heard Jesus they know He is the savior of the world. The woman brings them to Jesus and Jesus shows them the truth. This is the same thing that happened back in Chapter 1 when Andrew brings Peter and Philip brings Nathanael. Our testimonies are important but Jesus is the one that can truly transform someone. Do not doubt that God will use your story, or your gifts or your abilities. Do not hide the light but instead bring people the Savior of the world.
After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
Now Jesus goes to Galilee and in the book of Matthew and Mark this is where Jesus says A prophet is not without honor except in his town and in his own home. However even though they will eventually reject him, they do welcome Him at first because they were impressed with the cleansing of the temple and the healing miracles. But if you remember after Jesus does that at the Passover, He warned people about having a shallow faith. This is what He meant because now they welcome Him but soon they would reject Him.
Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
Now we get to the unnamed royal official. He could have been a gentile or jew , a minor official in King Herod’s court but because he was a royal official this was a man of money and position. Now we have to understand one quick thing, it is 20 to 25 miles from Capernaum to Cana. So this official not only travels but then goes straight to Jesus to beg Him to come heal his son. Royal officials do not beg. This man had exhausted all means to help his son , but his earthly power was no match for Godly power. This man realized that and realized who Jesus was.
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed.
Jesus gives him a sharp but necessary reply. A faith built only upon signs is not a complete and full faith. He says you people as he is speaking to everyone that people are hesitate to believe unless there are signs and wonders. Miracles, things of the supernatural order. One thing to keep in mind is that there are signs and wonders all around us that point us to God’s grace. Jesus gives a sharp reply here because we need to be reminded of that fact. Miracles happen all the time but the signs and wonders, the proof of God is with us every moment of every day. When we fail to see that, we then begin to lose faith and a bitter root begins to take hold of our lives.
This official though, must have realized this because he does not argue and he does not have any reply at all but takes Jesus at His word and leaves.
While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
His servants rush to meet him half way because the boy had been healed. let’s finish the chapter
Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Jesus’s words healed the boy. The Logos healed the boy. The word of God sustains us, just like it sustained Jesus during the temptation and at the well. The Word of God heals and transformations just like it does for this official and his entire household.
His word has the power to save,
Let us pray
