Asking the Right Question

Intro:

John 3:16

When I first went to a tax professional in Missouri, I asked him about record keeping. He explained, the IRS wants to know five questions, who, what, when, where, and why?

I have since discovered that those questions are not limited to the IRS. People like to know the answers to those questions.

As followers of Christ, He is never intimidated by our questions. But sometimes, I have wondered, do we get the questions out of order. I wonder that because that is what happened when Jesus came to earth.

For centuries, God’s people were supposed to await their promised Messiah. Now Jesus arrived, the one for whom they’ve waited, and they had a lot of questions.

One of those with questions was the Pharisee, Nicodemus.

John 3:1-4

He heard about Jesus, and wanted to know, how have you done these miraculous signs, who are you?

Jesus gave a thorough explanation, you have to be born again, you have to follow the Spirit. You have to look to the Son of God.

Still there were questions. And Nicodemus was not alone.

Jesus even asked His followers;

Matthew 16:13 NKJV

13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

People tried to guess WHO He was.

When Jesus cleansed the Temple the Pharisees asked:

John 2:18 NKJV

18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?”

The disciples wanted to know WHEN the Kingdom of God would come:

Acts 1:6 NKJV

6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Many were concerned about WHERE Jesus lived his childhood:

John 1:46 NKJV

46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

No doubt Nicodemus shared those came questions. Who are you, are you really the Messiah.

If you are, what will you do for us?

When will you overthrow the Romans?

Where will you establish your Kingdom?

But I notice one absent questions— Why!

So I can’t help but ask, why didn’t they ask the why?

I think it is because they thought they knew God’s plans and the why wasn’t important.

Therefore, Jesus spent over three years teaching, demonstrating, and showing WHY He came.

If they did not understand the WHY, the who, what, when, and where would not make sense.

Jesus summarized the WHY with a passage memorized by so many: John 3:16.

Before they could understand His plans, they needed to realize WHY He was there.

I think this principle aligns with leadership. There are so many times we wonder, who will help, what will we do, when we will do this, where we will do this.

But the question we need to ask FIRST is WHY?

Do as we go through our Deacon’s Meeting tonight, I want to ask God to help give us the WHY behind the rest of our questions. If we do not know WHY we want or need to do something, we can veer off the vision and miss God.

It seems Nicodemus never did quite comprehend the why. He admired who Jesus was, what He did, where He went, and when everything happened, Nicodemus was there.

But he needed to place His faith in the why.

So let’s keep this in our minds and hearts as we pray and move forward this evening.