Knowing Jesus for Real

Knowing Jesus for Real

Some things are obvious and yet they bear repeating.  "To know Jesus, and to have Him as our closest and dearest friend, is the most important experience of our lives."  That is not startling or new, but it is an important reminder.  Knowing Jesus for real.

Part of knowing someone for real, means knowing who people really are.  That includes knowing their personality.  Ever thought about Jesus having a personality?  One of the problem with texting and e-mail, is that people see our words, but they miss the tone of voice, the facial expressions, the body language - without which much of what is communicated is lost.  And as all of us know, without those things, much can get misinterpreted.  Simply reading the gospels without a sense of the Person behind he words can lend to the same misperceptions. 

So, does Jesus have a sense of humor?  Can He be playful, witty, amazing?  Sometimes His words were reassuring to some while at the same time offensive to others.  How much of that has to do with how He said what He did?  How much do we lose?  How much gets distorted because of our own misperceptions of God's personality that is shaped by our family, cultural, or other sometimes generally "dysfunctional" relationships?  Have we allowed Jesus to be healthier than we are?  Than those around us?  Than the community we live in?  What might we pick up on if we noticed the tone of voice . . , the tender eyes . . . the suppressed smile with the twinkle in His eye . . . the non-condemning, welcoming stance which He assumed with those who were often excluded . . . and the sense of incredulity when speaking with religious leaders who missed the things that really mattered in their attempts to guard their own sense of holiness at the expense of others?

Through a familiar story of Jesus interacting with a woman from a place that most avoided, Pastor Lou explores these questions this morning.  He invites us to see Jesus as a real person Who gets tired, needs rest, engages people in conversation in genuine and authentic ways, and much, much more!  If you would like to continue to explore this by listening to this again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library here, or view the live stream version here. 

Notice the picture of Jesus that emerges.

Questions for Reflection:

• How does the meaning of the story change for us when we take the time to actually see Jesus as a real person, interacting on more than simply an "informational" level here?

• What kind of picture of God emerges for us here that surprises us, delights us, challenges us?

• As we reflect on the response of these "outsiders" to a God Who knew all about them, and yet was not put off by them, but entered into genuine dialogue and interaction with them in a way that let them know that they were not "outsiders" to Him, what does that stir up in us?  What should it?

John 4

(NIV)

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”