The Messiah

John 4:39-42/John 8:12-30

In the days that we are living in, I have heard and had within myself many questions about the future existence of this church age. We do know that there is an event coming, “The Great Tribulation” and when things goes crazy in our world, we tend to think that something is about to happen.

What is given in Scripture is all we have, it is enough, mind you, but what we have is what we have! People have made many different theories about this, some from what we have in Scripture and there are some that just make up something and call it revelation. (If it can’t be verified by God’s Word, then don’t listen to it.) Anyway, there are so many theories, I was listening to a discussion about this the other day and this is how many different theories about the end of the age that they come up with:

Pre-trib Rapture

Mid-trib Rapture

Post-trib rapture

Pre-millennial

Post-millennial

A-millennial

I listened to the different arguments for each side and I was more confused than I was before!

I am going to use a opening phrase that Jesus used in His teachings: Verily, verily; which means truly, truly.....emphasis on truth, this is the truth.........Truly, truly I say to you that whatever you believe or don’t believe about the end of the age, doesn’t matter in the least if you do not believe in Jesus the Christ the Son of the Living God! What have you done with Jesus?

All of that stuff is coming, but there is Only One that is going to make the difference for us when that time comes, it is what do we believe about Jesus!

Today, I am going to try to prove this from Jesus’ Own Words and the report of the apostle John!

John 4:39-42.........Most of you know about Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well.....if not I will sum it up for you.

She was a Samaritan woman.....the Samaritans people were because the Assyrians came and took over this northern part of Israel and took the Jews captive and sent some away and left some there.

The Jews eventually intermarried with the idol worshipping people of Assyria and had children.

The Jews were extremely racist people in that day because there bloodline was pure and out of that bloodline was the chosen of God.

So, they hated the Samaritans because they believed that these people were not redeemable!

Therefore, they had no dealings with them.

The Samaritans eventually come back to try to get close to God, they made their own temple, they believed in the first 5 books of the OT. The Pentateuch.

Jesus and His disciples was making their journey through Samaria and they came to a well. Jesus was wearied and sent His disciples for food and at a well He met a woman from a city called Sychar of Samaria.

He ask for a drink and it led to a conversation about Living Water, which if you drink you will never thirst again.

She said she wanted this water and after that Jesus exposed her as an adulteress woman. He exposed her sin!

From that she perceived that He was a prophet and began to tell Jesus about worship.

Jesus tells her in John 4:23-24 “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

She then declares that they know something of a Messiah that is to come, which is called Christ, from Deuteronomy 18:15 “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;”

Jesus then declares to her and to us that He is that Messiah the Christ! Matter of fact this is exactly what He says in John 4:26 “Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.”

The He is added there, but How Jesus really said it was: “I that speak unto thee Am ”

She would of known if she knew about the prophecy of within the Pentateuch, she would of known about God’s declaration to Moses: Exodus 3:14 “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

Now, she leaves her waterpot and runs into the city and tells them what has happened and asks “could this be the Christ?”

The people go to out to the well to see what could be the prophesied Christ!

Now to our text verses 39-42.........These people believed that whoever the woman encountered could possibly believe, she told them of Jesus and what He told her about her life, He read her life history to her, but now the are going to see and hear for themselves!

That is the way evangelism should work!

When they get there and meet Jesus, they ask Him to stay with them and He did for 2 days.

Verse 41, John the apostle tells us that many believed at this point because of Jesus’ Own Words!

Verse 42 they tell the woman that they no longer believe because of her testimony but from what they heard from the Christ Himself!

What was their belief? That Jesus was the Savior of the world! I went a million miles around to come that point! Once they encountered Jesus Christ, He more than likely exposed their sin and told them of why He came!

You know, this was Jesus first real revelation of Who He is and what He came for (other than the disciples), and He revealed it to those half-breed Samaritans! Amazing!

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

These people were looking for a Savior and they found Him! What are we looking for? I dare say, that we have our eyes focused on so many things that are going and our emotions are hinged upon what we see. I wonder what we believe about Jesus? Do we believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world? If we truly did, would what is happening really matter or would the declaration of Jesus the Son of the Living God as the Christ the Savior of the world matter? I believe it is the latter!

This is the foundation that believers live on!

We are told that Jesus is going to remove this and that and take care of all our enemies, yes He will, but what really matters is what He has done for me!

He lived the perfect life that I could not live! He did it for me!

He gave Himself as the perfect sacrifice, He took the wrath of God! For me!

Now, He ever lives to make intercession on our behalf to the Father!

He is everything for me! That is the truest I Am meaning! He is Everything for me!

That is why I love Colossians 3:3-4 so much: “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory.”

Nothing else dictates anything, if we believe this way!

John 8:12-30.......I am going to read all of this just to get to the point of our belief! Why do we need to believe in Jesus Christ as our everything?

Because you will die in your sin! The first reference to dying in your sin is singular, the others are plural! Sin, singular, just means in their rejection of the One Who God sent to die for their sins!

You could use what we read last week in Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation..........”

This is what everything is all about, this is what our belief boils down to! We are sinful humans, by choice! We have left the care of the Almighty and gone to our own way! Rejected the most glorious life that could never be imagined, for lives that we thought we could make on our own!

We are dead because of this rejection! Christ came to give us life!

Notice in the declaration that they will die in their sin/sins, what Jesus tells them, “if you do not believe that ‘I AM’ (the “He” is added) you will die in your sins!”

Let’s make a remark about dying in your sin/sins, if you reject the life and death of Jesus Christ as your Only standing before God, then you will eventually die on this earth, bearing the full responsibility for your sins before God! Jesus will be your judge, because He lived it perfectly and He is the Only Way to the Father!

If God does not see Jesus in us when appear before Him, then we will die a “second death”

Revelation 21:8 “But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.”

The fearful and unbelieving...........

With this knowledge nothing else matters, but what we believe about Jesus!!

Jesus tells these so-called religious folks that they are from beneath and He is from above!

We are all from beneath and we need redeeming, John 3:18 tells us that we are condemned already, we have been judged, the only hope for us is to believe in the Grace and Mercy that has been given in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ!

That is why He came, that is why it was prophesied that He will come!

We must believe that He is everything to us! I know that many folks have spoken about the “I Am” verses, and I will do the same:

John 6:35 “Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

John 8:12 “Again therefore Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

John 10:9 “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture.”

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep.”

John 11:25 “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live;”

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”

In all the madness around us, we hear a lot of things! Predictions, solutions!!!! During all this trouble we hear church folks talking about end of the world this and end of the world that! My hope rests in Jesus Christ, He has already finished for me, what was needed, my only responsibility is to overcome the doubts and fears and just believe that Jesus is Who said He Is and renounce myself and believe in the Christ the Son of the living God!

What I believe about the rapture of the church, the millennial reign of Christ, the tribulation, all the different doctrines that man has made, is not going to matter when I stand before God, all that my life hinges on (all of my life) is what I believed about Jesus!

It doesn’t matter about your denomination, how you were baptized, whether or not you have spoken in tongues or not, what style of Christian music you listen to, whether or not you believe you can fall from grace or not, whether Revelation is figurative or literal, whether or not Jesus died on Wed., Thur., or Fri., on and on and on and on...........

All that matters is and will be what you believe about Jesus!

Jesus takes care of your living down here (if you have properly denied yourself) because you are following Him!

Jesus takes care of your future forever life with the Father!

Matthew 16:24 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

He is the Great I Am and we must believe that He is!

In Deuteronomy 30:19-20 Moses set before the children of Israel a choice based on the promise of God:

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

The same choice is before us and the same devil attempting to pull us away from this promise!

Life or death, blessing or cursing?

Our life is Jesus Christ, in Him we live, in us we die!