Preaching at CCN Miami 4 5 2009

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CCN Miami               April 4, 2009

John 4         

You can only live to the level of revelation you have of Christ Jesus.

 

Revelation =knowing who He is, knowing what he offers, and knowing what is the most essential thing of His heart of what He is doing in the earth, in our world.

 

This is why Jesus said, “Be careful how you listen.  Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.” (Luke8:18)

 

·         Blessed is the one who increases in revelation knowledge!

·         In this thing you have approval from Jesus to be as greedy to get all the revelation you can.

·         Jesus said, “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed.  Instead, he puts it on a table, so that all who come in can see the light.

o   God is not trying to keep you in the dark!

·         He goes on to say, “Nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed and nothing is concealed that will not be made known or brought out into the open.”

o   God is more willing to reveal than we are to receive.

o   You and I have as much of God that we want (or don’t want).

·         The level of revelation directly relates to the degree of transformation and to the degree of our effectiveness as disciples doing the will of the One who sent us.

 

John 4:5-7

In our story this morning, Jesus is tired because of the journey. He stops at Jacob’s well just outside a town of Samaria.  The disciples go into town to buy food.  A Samaritan woman comes to draw water from the well.  Jesus says to her, “Give me to drink.”

 

4:9

She gives Jesus a hard time as if to say, “I guess a Jew would never speak to a Samaritan – unless of course he needs something!  And you ask me for a drink?”

 

Jesus is lighting his lamp and is beginning to put it out into the open for her to see. (Read 4:10).    In other words, Jesus said,

 

o   “If you had revelation knowledge as to who I am…”

o   “If you knew what I could give you…

o   “You would be doing the asking and what you would receive would transform your life forever!”

o   He promises her, “living or flowing water”

 

The woman’s perception is driven by life’s circumstances and not revelation so she misunderstands and says, 

o   (vs. 11) “Mister, the well is deep and you don’t have a bucket.”

By her response, one can see the resistance in her words,

o   (vs. 12) “You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, are you?  In other words, she said Jesus wasn’t as important as Jacob. Yet, revelation is progressive

Jesus’ words are spirit and life, he answers,

o   (vs. 13-14) “If you drink this water that Jacob gave you, you will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I shall give him will never become thirsty anymore, but the water will become a fountain of life flowing in him forever.’

o   This is the “gift of God” that Jesus spoke of .   Words spoken in the Spirit have life and produce and create things.  Revelation produces a gift in the heart.

o   Isaiah 44:3, “I will pour water on thirsty ground and rain on dry land.   I will pour my Spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants.

o   John 7:37-38 – “He said loudly, ‘Whoever is thirsty must come to me to drink.  As Scripture says, ‘Streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.’”  39Jesus said this about the Spirit, whom his believers would receive. The Spirit was not yet evident, as it would be after Jesus had been glorified.

o   Once someone tastes this drink, he will never seek any other means of quenching his thirst. One can again and again drink from the revelation because within him is an inexhaustible well that flows forever.

(vs. 15-18)

The Samaritan woman’s misunderstanding becomes crass.  She asks for the magic water that Jesus has so that she doesn’t have to come daily for ordinary water.  Jesus’ request for her to bring her husband leads to a revelation of her immoral life.  Prophetic insight which is uniquely present in Christ, the Revealer was in operation.  As we progress in knowing Christ and grow in deeper knowledge of Him, revelation of our heart as well as the condition of our lives is revealed.

o   John 1:47-48 -  47Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and remarked, “Here is a true Israelite who is sincere.” 48Nathanael asked Jesus, “How do you know anything about me?” Jesus answered him, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49Nathanael said to Jesus, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel!”

o   John 23-25 - 23Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed on his name, beholding his signs which he did.  24But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men,  25and because he needed not that anyone should bear witness concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man.

o   John 13:37-38 - 37Peter saith unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee even now? I will lay down my life for thee.  38Jesus answered, Wilt thou lay down thy life for me? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.

Jesus does not condemn her.  He doesn’t stop at this point to correct her lifestyle.  Even if the woman evades the issue, Jesus does not return to it.  His purpose was fulfilled in revealing his perfect knowledge of her life to increase her regard for who He is.

(vs. 19-21)

The woman’s recognition of Jesus as prophet leads her to raise the most burning religious issue between Samaritans and Jews –the place where God should be worshiped.

Jesus sides with neither Jerusalem or the Samaritans’ Mount Gerazim, for “the hour is coming” – that is, the new age of the kingdom of God, when worship will be tied to no place.  Speaking of the heavenly Jerusalem…

o   Revelation 21:22 -  22And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof.  23And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. 

(vs. 22-24)

Jesus said to her, “You worship what you do not know…” In other words, our worship is limited to the revelation and understanding we have.  He said, “the hour is coming and now is” that the Father is seeking genuine worshippers.  When you receive revelation as to who Christ is and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit flowing as a fountain in your innermost being, you become the kind of worshipper the Father seeks after – one who worships in the Spirit and by revelation! 

Since the kingdom of God is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit, true worshippers will worship the Father in the freedom, in the life, and in the power of the Spirit and in accordance with the revelation brought by the Redeemer.

24God is Spirit.

o   …does not describe his metaphysical being, but how He works in the world.

o   …parallel with “God is light” (I John 1:4) and “God is love” (I John 4:8)

o   …describes how God acts and works

o   The “Spirit” is God’s miraculous dealing with man which takes place in the revelation

o   Jesus said, “My words are spirit and life.” WHEN REVELATION IS SPOKEN, SOMETHING GREAT HAPPENS IN THE HEART THAT RECEIVES IT!

(vs.25-26)

The Samaritan woman says, “I don’t know much, but this I know: the Messiah, the Anointed One, is coming; when He comes, He will make everything known to us.”

On the woman’s affirmation of this hope in the Messiah, Jesus reveals Himself to her as  I AM

o   26Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

o   At the beginning of the conversation, He did not make himself known to her, but first she caught site of a thirsty man, then a Jew, then a Rabbi, afterwards a prophet, last of all the Messiah. She tried to get the better of the thirsty man, she showed dislike of the Jew, she heckled the Rabbi, she was swept off her feet by the prophet, and she adored the Christ.

(vs.27)

“At that moment…”

           

o   “And upon this came his disciples; and they marveled that he was speaking with a  woman; yet no man said, What do you want? or, What are you talking to her about?”

o   How amazing is that the disciples had walked with Jesus, began to minister with Him, baptized converts under His direction and yet, did not have the understanding that a disciple should have as to what Jesus was doing and why.

o   Jesus was always on mission.

 

(vs.27-29)

The woman left her jar – in haste- not because she was so overwhelmed by the revelation and gift she received, but because she fully intended to come back at once and bring others to hear the words of spirit and life of the Messiah.

o   How amazing is it that a woman has a 20 minute conversation with the Christ and it finally dawns upon her that she is face to face with the One who will make everything known, and in that short time responds to what is essential to the heart of Christ and what drives Him more than anything else.

(vs.30)

At the testimony of the woman, the people went out of the town and were coming to Him.

(vs.31-34)

31In the mean while the disciples prayed him, saying, Rabbi, eat.  32But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not.  33The disciples therefore said one to another, Hath any man brought him aught to eat?  34Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work.

o   The woman misunderstood what Jesus said about living water and the disciples misunderstood what Jesus said about food. 

o   Observe the difference:

o   She did not grasp what Jesus had to give her;

o   The disciples did not grasp what was most important –the one essential thing that Jesus himself lived by – the satisfaction of doing His Father’s will and carrying out to the finish the work given Him to do.

(vs.35-38)

35Isn’t it said, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest.

o   The harvest is the most essential thing to Christ.

o   “The harvest is now!”

o   The harvest cannot wait for a building of our own.

o   The harvest cannot wait for finances.

o   The harvest cannot wait for people to come to us.

§  Go out into the highways and byways and bring people in – black, white yellow, red, rich or poor, bring in the hurting, the outcasts, the executives,

§  Lift up your eyes and look on the people!  Look out over Miami, over this region and wherever your feet may tread and bring them into the kingdom.

38I sent you to reap that whereon ye have not labored: others have labored, and ye are entered into their labor.

o   The Samaritan woman “labored”

o    She planted the seed, a task of a disciple and now the disciples were to enter into her labor.

(Read vs.39-42)

o   Inward revelation is incomplete unless it is coupled with an outward display of compassion, grace and power to others so that confession is made arising from their experience of Him – “This man is in truth the Savior of the world.”

o   It is said that Jesus came to the well as a hunter…He threw a grain before one pigeon that He might win the whole flock.

May His word be fulfilled in our ears this day.

Amen.

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