Pastor's Corner: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

  Decisions, Discipleship, and Mission John 4:27-42 Introduction: Last week we saw the initial encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar. She came looking for water from Jacob’s well, and instead found much more: she encountered Jacob’s God, she found living water, the source of life itself, Jesus. As we continue in the chapter, the disciples return, and this unnamed Samaritan woman, having heard from Jesus himself that he is the Messiah, is seemingly so excited that she can’t even take the time to fill her bucket, she leaves it behind and goes back to town and tells others the good news. We all need to drink water, it is essential for life. I read somewhere that by the time you start feeling thirsty, you are already dehydrated. But as humans, created in God’s image, we have an even deeper thirst, a longing that can only be satisfied through a life-changing relationship with the living God. I am not saying that unsaved people are seeking God. The Bible ...

 A Divine Appointment John 4:1-26 Introduction: On Monday of this week one of my devotional readings included Psalm 63 which begins, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 42 opens with similar imagery, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…”  “Thirsting for water” is used by Jesus as an illustration of spiritual thirst in this scene in John 4.         The story of the encounter of Jesus with a woman from Samaria stands as a contrast with the encounter between Jesus and a religious leader in John three. In the dark of night Nicodemus, a highly respected teacher of Israel, a member of the ruling council, came to Jesus investigating who this worker of miracles was. Jesus initiated a discussion with him about spiritual birth and all indications are that Nick...

 Jesus is Lord: Trust and Obey!  John  3:31-36; cf. Psalm 2 Introduction: In a famous poem, the Road not Taken, Robert Frost concludes, I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. I think Frost was speaking more generally about the momentous decisions a person might make that change the course of their life. There is no more weighty decision any human will make, than their response to the Gospel, “What will you do with Jesus?” John is likely writing his Gospel some time after the other Gospels were written and circulating. Under the inspiration of the Spirit he is supplementing those accounts with his own eyewitness perspective, and specifically presenting his case that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of God, and calling the reader to believe, and find life in His name. If you think back in this chapter, after Jesus’ dialog with Nicode...