Satisfaction, Unity, and Worship
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Introduction
Introduction
I want us to jump back and look at this verse again quickly where Jesus asks his soon to be disciples a question.
Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
He asks them what do you want? What are you seeking as the Greek translates it. Then Jesus offers them another invitation in verse 39.
John
“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
The Gospel of John as a whole is inviting us to this simple invitation. Come and encounter Jesus. It isn’t about filling our minds with the content or theology of John but the person that this Gospel is centered around. Jesus Christ.
So I want to ask you a simple question today and I want you to be 100 % real with yourself. Dig down deep and be transparent with you. What are you seeking? What do you desire? Where are you going? What do you want?
Hunger Is Stirring
Hunger Is Stirring
This is the theme of the story that we find ourselves in today.
A man named Nicodemus comes to Jesus because there was something that stirred in Nicodemus’ heart as he experienced a part of Jesus. He experienced for the first time in His life I believe a spiritual hunger.
You see an encounter with Jesus for a moment awakened something inside of Nicodemus. His spirit longed for that which was its creator. There was a longing and a drawing in his heart even if he could not quite pin point it.
Truthfully there is something that is inside each one of us that needs to be satisfied. Maybe we have not quite come to realize it yet. Nicodemus didn’t fully realize it yet, but subconsciously inside him was awakened a hunger, a thirst that needed to be satisfied.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
So what does Nicodemus do? He says I gotta know. I gotta know who this Jesus fellow actually is. In my eyes what Nicodemus does is he takes a step of Faith. Look how he answers in .
He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Nicodemus was a high ranking Jewish member of the Jewish ruling council. By John describing Nicodemus this way John is telling us he came from an aristocratic , wealthy family, and was one of the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin (the ruling council of the Jews). Also many of His peers were against Jesus which would have made it all the more difficult for Him. This is most likely the big reason that He comes at night.
Born Again
Born Again
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
Jesus radically proposes this idea that you cannot even see the kingdom of God unless you are born again v3.
Nicodemus was baffled and we can see his response. Nicodemus was constantly thinking of things on the earthly plane. His whole life revolved around things that He could see and experience which He would attribute to God. He had composed this idea of God that was only a small portion of who God really was, but Jesus is saying there is soo much more. There is so much deeper you could go. What do I believe the scripture is trying to tell us here?
I think we are Nicodemus like in our attitude towards God often times. We compose thoughts and ideas of God based on what we have experienced, but the Holy Spirit is saying there is so much more of me to experience.
Jesus here was alluding to
As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.
Why do you think you have to have it all figured out? Why do you think you have to have it all together?
Jesus was trying to tell Nicodemus that things were about to shake up. Eternal life was coming through Him and belief in Him and regeneration through the Holy Spirit. This is the promise that we have today.
For he says,
“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
You might be thinking why? Why would He do it? Why would He want to save us or offer us any help or hope?
Jesus isn’t just calling us into this new birth because He feels nice or merciful or sorry for us.
John, in what is probably the most well known verse in all of the world, gives us the exact reason that Jesus is calling us into this new birth.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
This is the longing of the Father’s heart. This is what God wants so badly for you.
Now you might be faced with a question. How are we born again into this new life that Jesus is promising? By believing in the one in whom God sent. Belief in Johns gospel isn’t used as a noun it is used as a verb. It isn’t just something in the head but it is something that leads to a lifestyle.
The story sort of dies down and we don’t really know much of what Nicodemus thought after that. The story then switches over to John the baptist exalting the Christ and then we get to chapter 4.
Jesus breaks cultural boundaries.
Jesus breaks cultural boundaries.
After all of this we arrive at John chapter 4. I love this story so much because you can feel the true compassion and love that Christ pours out.
Go over the Samaritan Woman and Jesus story
Here is the crazy thing Jews did not associate with Samaritans because Samaritans were considered unclean by the Jewish people, but Jesus is pretty good at breaking cultural boundaries and decides to break all cultural boundaries in this specific moment. In fact he doesn’t just break ethnic boundaries but he breaks religious and sexual boundaries.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
There are 2 interesting things about this woman. 1 she came by herself and 2 she came in the heat of the day. Her whole desire here was to be alone to be away from people probably because of her shame and guilt.
Throughout this dialogue Jesus is drawing the stakes higher and higher. He isn’t just referring to a fountain of youth or the well that woman is drawing from, but Jesus is referring to a heavenly water. The Greek meaning is like a geyser that is leaping up. Those who drink of this water that Jesus offers will never thirst again and they will be satisfied.
We look at this story and we think wait what? She’s such a sinner God. How can she be offered the same salvation as a devout, righteous person.
In fact Jesus went from reaching out to a Jewish leader, to a despised woman from the wrong side of the tracks. An immoral Samaritan woman. This woman would never have been considered by Jesus’ disciples to be an ideal candidate for conversion or salvation.
The message here is simple. Every single person regardless of race, regardless of gender, regardless of social status is an object for the mission of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is no select few and when you come and receive there is complete satisfaction. No more thirst and no more hunger as we can see if a few chapters. It is as if that thing you were searching for all along has been found.
The woman at the well couldn’t find satisfaction in her husbands. She had been trhough it all and was still not fulfilled, still not satisfied. Jesus was coming into this woman’s life with
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Truthfully today Jesus wants to illuminate your life with His light. He wants to shine in every part of you and through you to a world that is so desperate as it waits in the darkness.
True Satisfaction Leads to True Worship
True Satisfaction Leads to True Worship
The woman goes on to discuss worship with Jesus.
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
John 4:
This takes us right back to when Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus that to be born again you must be born of the water and of the spirit. Only those who are born of the Spirit are satisfied and only those who believe in the name of Jesus are filled with the Spirit.
Only when the satisfaction that comes from the Holy Spirit enters our lives can we worship in Spirit and in truth.
(Explain Sunday night worship at New Song)
True worship is heaven-enabled and heaven-centered because only The Holy Spirit can enable us to do so.