- [H.B. Charles] Grace and peace
be multiplied to each of you this morning, in the knowledge
of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord. Would you bow with
me again briefly? Father, in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we ask again and afresh, that you would open
our eyes that we may behold wonderful things about
the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would help us
to lay aside all malice, deceit, envy, hypocrisy, and slander,
so that, as newborn infants we may crave the pure spiritual
milk of your word, and grow thereby, having tasted
of your goodness. Grant me physical strength and
spiritual energy to speak your word with faithfulness, clarity,
authority, passion, wisdom, humility and freedom. May Christ alone be exalted as
the word is explained, we pray. Amen. My assignment is Jesus'
conversation with the woman at the well recorded in John 4. Hear the word of God
beginning at John 4:1. "Now, when Jesus learned that
the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing
more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not
baptize but only his disciples. He left Judea and
departed again for Galilee. He had to pass through Samaria. He came to the town of Samaria
called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given
to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, wearied as he went
from his journey was sitting beside the well, it was
about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria
came to draw water. Jesus said to her,
'Give me a drink.' For his disciples had gone away
into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him,
'How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me,
a woman of Samaria?' ...(Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, 'If you knew
the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you give me a
drink, you would have asked him and he would have
given you living water.' The woman said to him, 'Sir,
you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where do you get
that living water? Are you greater than
our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank
from it himself as did his sons and his livestock.' Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who
drinks of this water will be thirsty again. Whoever drinks of the water that
I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him
will become in him a spring of water welling up
into eternal life.' The woman said to him, 'Sir,
give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to
come here to draw water.' Jesus said to her, 'Go, call
your husband, and come here.' The woman answered,
'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are
right in saying, "I have no husband"; but you have had
five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband.
What you have said is true.' The woman said to him, 'Sir,
I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this
mountain but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where
people are to worship.' Jesus said to her, 'Woman,
believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not
know; we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. The hour is coming,
and is now here. The true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such
people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.' The woman said to him,
'I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he comes, he
will tell us all things.' Jesus said to her, 'I
who speak to you, am he.' Just then his
disciples came back. They marveled that he was
talking with a woman but no one said, 'What do you seek?' or,
'Why are you talking with her?' The woman left her water jar and
went away into town and said to the people, 'Come. see a man
who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?' They went out of the town
and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were
urging him saying, 'Rabbi, eat.' He said to them, 'I have food to
eat that you do not know about.' So, the disciples said to one
another, 'Has anyone brought him something to eat?' Jesus said to them, 'My food is
to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say "There are yet
four months, then comes the harvest"? Look, I tell you, lift up your
eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is
receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so
that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true,
"One sows and another reaps." I sent you to reap that for
which you did not labor. Others have labored and you
have entered into their labor.' Many Samaritans from that town
believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He
told me all that I ever did.' So, when the Samaritans came to
him, they asked him to stay with them and he
stayed there two days. Many more believed
because of his word. They said to the woman,
'It is no longer because of what you said that we believe,
we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this indeed is
the Savior of the world.' Amen. This conversation between Jesus
and the woman at the well stands out for three reasons. First, it is the longest
recorded conversation Jesus has with anyone, including
his disciples. The sheer length of the
discussion between Jesus and this woman at the well
highlights and spotlights its significance in the story of
Jesus, as told by John. Secondly, this story is
significant because of the placement of this story. It is recorded immediately after
Jesus' late-night conversation with Nicodemus. And in a real sense we feel as
we read through John 3 and John 4 the tension between these two
persons with whom Jesus speaks. In John 3 the discussion is with
a man, the man is named in the story, Nicodemus. He is a religious man. He is a moral man. He is an influential man. Note the contrast in John 4. Jesus now has a conversation
with a woman, the woman is unnamed. The highlight of her
story is her immoral past. The tension between these two
stories reminds us as we begin this study of the woman at the
well, that Jesus came to reach the up and out and
the down and out. There is no one. John 3 teaches us there is no
one beyond the need of grace. John 4 teaches us that there is
no one beyond the reach of grace. In this story, John, that is,
presents to us the good news about Jesus Christ. This is the third major
significance of the story, not just its length,
not just its position in the text, but the message of
this story and the message of this story is that Jesus is the
Son of God who has come to save sinners. John 20:30 and 31 we find the
purpose of John's Gospel. Now, Jesus did many other signs
in the presence of his disciples which are not
written in this book. These are written so that you
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that
by believing you may have life in his name. John 4 ends with one of these
signs, verse 46 through the end of the chapter, that declares
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, one of these
identifying miracles. Our text is no such sign and yet
it still fulfills the purpose of John's Gospel. Here we meet a woman who
believes that Jesus is the Christ and who
receives eternal life. John begins the chapter by
setting the scene. Now, when Jesus, verse 1,
learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and
baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus
himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and
departed again for Galilee. These opening verses of John 4
draw us back to the latter portion of John 3. Specifically note John 3:25 and
26, now, a discussion of roles between some of John's disciples
and a Jew over purification. They came to John and said to
him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you
bore witness, look, he is baptizing and all
are going to him." John will declare to his
disciples that he is not the bridegroom. He is just a friend
of the bridegroom. Specifically, he says in verse
30 of Jesus, "He must increase, but I must decrease." Jesus is indeed increasing as he
is baptizing many, though, "he himself did not baptize,
but his disciples did." The tension of the text is that
the Pharisees, note this, this seems to avoid political,
religious controversy at this point with the Pharisees. Jesus departs, heads to Galilee. Note verse 4, "And he had
to pass through Samaria." This passing statement
has great significance. He had to pass through Samaria. It was a custom for Jews
not to take this direct route through Samaria to Galilee
because of the ongoing tensions between Jews and Samaritans in
the aftermath of the defeat of the northern
country of Israel. As a result of that captivity,
the land of Israel was repopulated and Samaritans,
considered half-breeds, populated the land and this
ongoing tension continued even until the day of Jesus. As a result, many of the Jews
would take an alternate route through the River Jordan to get
to Galilee so that they would not have to pass
through Samaria. Jesus takes the direct route,
not just for geographic reason, but Jesus is on a mission. There is a woman he
is to meet in Samaria. "So he came to a town of Samaria
called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given
to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; So Jesus, wearied as he was
from his journey was sitting beside the well and it
was about the sixth hour." Before we get to the
conversation itself, consider this reference to the
humanity of Jesus. The point of John's Gospel is
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But here, as he sets up the
story, John gives us a glimpse of the humanity of Jesus. As a result of his journey,
Jesus was weary as he sat at this well. It is a reminder of what we are
told in Hebrews 4:15, We do not have a high priest who
cannot sympathize with us in our weakness, but one who has
been tempted in every respect, as we are, yet without sin. Jesus, God in flesh,
sits at this well, tired from his journey, and thirsty as
a result of the heat of the day. Verses 7 through 26 then records
the story of Jesus' conversation with this woman at the well. The conversation falls into two
major sections. Consider that Jesus gives living
water, verses 7 through 15 and then Jesus calls for true
worship, verses 16 through 26. The conversation begins with the
discussion about water. "It's about the sixth hour" says,
the end of verse 6, noon, it is the heat of the day. Jesus is tired after his
journey. And as he rests there this,
verse 7, "woman from Samaria came to draw water." It was typically a woman's task
to draw water but that usually came at an earlier
hour together. Here she comes at the sixth
hour, and she comes alone. She is not expecting to meet
anyone at this well, but there Jesus
is waiting for her. What we're seeing here friends,
is this Jesus the Son of God who has come to save sinners,
and John shows us in this story that Jesus is willing to cross
any barrier necessary, to reach the lost. Jesus speaks to the woman first
and says to her, verse 7, "Give me a drink." The disciples had gone away into
the city to buy food and it's just Jesus and this woman and he
asks her for a drink of water. We don't have to guess at the
magnitude of this seemingly simple request, it is found in
the response of the woman. Verse 9, the "woman said to him,
'How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me,
a woman of Samaria?'" This request for water is
scandalous on several terms. This is a Jew addressing
a Gentile. This is a man
addressing a woman. This is a Jewish man asking a
Samaritan woman for a drink of water. I repeat, Jesus is willing to
cross any barrier necessary to reach the lost. Are we? John tells us that the Jews
typically have no dealings with Samaritans, as if her
response is not enough to show us how scandalous this request
is, but note that Jesus shifts in the rest of this paragraph
from asking for water from the woman to offering
water to the woman. Verse 10, "Jesus answered her,
'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to
you, "give me a drink," you would have asked him and he
would have given you living water.'" Here we see what happens often
in John, where seemingly simple things take on, do greater,
higher, deeper significance. This starts out as a simple
conversation about water. But Jesus has shifted
this conversation to something deeper. He calls it, in verse 10,
living water. This is more than water that
Jacob's well can provide. We will see that this
water Jesus offers, is salvation water, it
is eternal life. Notice how he describes it in
verse 10, this living water is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward that
you earn by works, it is a gift you receive by God's grace. Romans 6:23 declares that "the
wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord." Salvation is not about what we
do for God, it is God's gift of amazing grace to us. He says, "Living water can be
your gift." But notice the stipulations,
two stipulations he gives her in verse two, they are in the
words "knew" and "asked." To receive this living water,
you must know what the gift of God is, that is, you
must know Jesus Christ. John 17:3 says, "And this is
eternal life, that they may know you the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. You must know the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you must ask. Hallelujah. Salvation is free
for the asking. Romans 10:13 declares for
whoever "calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." This living water
Jesus says, is a gift. You must know this gift he says,
and you must ask for this water. This asking is significant
because, many do not recognize the true nature of their thirst
and go looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places. Jeremiah 2:12 and 13,
"'Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked,
be utterly desolate,' declares the Lord, 'for my
people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for
themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.'" Great invitation of the Lord is
in Isaiah 55, whoever thirsts can come to the waters and
drink, buy bread and wine without money and without price. Jesus says that the gift of God
of living water is free for the asking if you will know him. The woman does not understand
the magnitude of what Jesus is saying, she is still thinking
of water from this well, not the gift of God,
and she says, verse 11, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water
with and the well is deep. Where do you get that living
water? Are you greater than
our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank
from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Verses 13 through 15,
Jesus responds to the woman by declaring the source of this
living water and the nature of this living water. Verse 13, the source of living
water, Jesus says, "Everyone who drinks of this water
will be thirsty again." This is the sense of what we
find in Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus
is talking about heavenly, spiritual things. Her mind is on earthly,
worldly things. She is still thinking about
Jacob's well, Jesus is referring to water that is greater,
deeper, higher than this well. And he notes it because whoever
he says, "drinks of this water will be thirsty again." This is the reality of
all that the world offers. It does not last. "What does it profit a man,"
Jesus says, "to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Or, "What in the world can a man
give in exchange for his soul?" Whoever drinks of that which
the world offers will be thirsty again. "But whoever drinks of the water
that I will give him will never be thirsty again." This is the good news of the
sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ, the total
sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Only Jesus satisfies. Only Jesus satisfies the human
need, particularly the deep needs of the soul. Whoever comes to him,
whoever knows him, whoever asks of him will never
be thirstyagain. "The water that I give him will
become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Jesus alone offers living water
that is internal and eternal. He offers us the gift of God.
He offers us himself. He offers us his
wonderful Holy Spirit. John 7:37 through 39,
"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up
and cried out 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to
me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the
Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water." This he said about the Spirit, whom those who
believed in him were to receive, for a yet the spirited not
been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." Jesus declares the source of
this water himself, then he declares the nature of this
water, it is satisfying water, that is eternal life. The woman says in verse 15,
"Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to
come here to draw water." She responds to what
Jesus says in verse 10. She asks, but she still doesn't
fully understand what she's asking for. Jesus makes that plain,
in the next section, the next paragraph where,
after offering living water Jesus calls for true worship. The woman says,
"Give me this water." Verse 15, verse 16, Jesus says
to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." In the previous paragraph as
Jesus offers living water, he now bids this woman to call
her husband reminding us that the good news of salvation,
if it is to be enjoyed, must be preceded by us
embracing the bad news of sin. For us to recognize what a great
Savior Jesus is, we must recognize what great
sinners we are. Jesus confronts her right where she
lives, "Go, call your husband, and come here." This may be read, rather simply. Jesus offering water to this
woman bids her to call her husband so that he may partake,
but of course there is a deeper reality here. She knows what's the reality,
so she answers, "I have no husband." Jesus says, "You are right in
saying, 'I have no husband' for you have had five husbands
and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.'"
Here Jesus exposes, confronts, lays his finger on the heart
of the problem in this woman's life. She has been trying to find
satisfaction in broken cisterns. She has had five husbands. She has gone through five
marriages either by death or by divorce. And now, the one she is with is
not her husband. Jesus confronts her with the reality of her
broken life, her sinful past, her sinful reality. She says to him, verse 19, "Sir,
I perceive that you are a prophet." This is more than a deflection. This is what the woman will say
later, to fellow Samaritans. This is a man who can tell her
everything she ever did. The weary Jesus is the
omniscient God who knows everything about
this woman's life. When she says, "you are a
prophet," this is more than a deflection as a Samaritan. This woman, along with the
Samaritans, only held to the first five books, the
Old Testament, the Pentateuch, and when she is referring to
prophet here, she's not talking about Isaiah or Jeremiah. She is talking about a new
prophet like Moses. Deuteronomy 18:18, "I will raise
up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his
mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him." She is waiting for a new
prophet, a greater Moses, she is waiting, the
one who is to come. I guess she perceives in
this Jesus, that prophet. I guess she shifts the
conversation to the place of worship now, verse 20,
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say
that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Can't get around the fact that
she is, sure enough smooth, shifting this conversation
from husbands to worship sites. Right? She wants to know where's the
place where people are to worship. Jesus continues to meet this
woman right where she is. And he is the hound of heaven
that will not let her escape. "Woman, believe me, the hour is
coming where neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will
you worship the Father." Jesus says that, the hour is
coming where the place of worship will be obsolete. "You worship what you do not
know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." He says to this woman concerning
worship, that ultimately true worship, is not
about where you are. And then he says to this woman,
it's not about what you think. Verse 23, "the hour is coming,
and is now here… the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such
people to worship Him." Here, what Jesus declares,
Jesus demonstrates in this very conversation with the woman
at the well, she was not seeking God, but
God was seeking her. And praise his name that
he is still seeking sinners. No one seeks after God,
Paul tells us in Romans 3, but God is seeking
true worshipers. Notice the tension of
what Jesus says here. "the hour is coming" Not only is it coming,
it "is now here." In John 2, Jesus says to his
mother, "My hour has not yet come." Referring to his crucifixion and
his resurrection, yet the hour is here. The incarnation of the Lord
Jesus Christ, in the word, made flesh, in the one
to whom this woman speaks. "the hour is coming,
and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth." The father is seeking people
like this to worship Him. Verse 24, "God is spirit." God is spirit. This is one of the great
declarations in the Scripture about the nature of our God. 1 John 1:5 declares
"that God is light." 1 John 4:8 and verse 16
declares that "God is love." Hebrews 12:29 declares
that "God is a consuming fire." Here Jesus declares
"God is spirit." He cannot be confined to your
places, to your customs, to your rituals, God is spirit
and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. True worship is beyond ritual
and ceremony and custom. It is in spirit. God is spirit and He demands
that those who would truly worship Him, worship
Him in spirit and in truth. In spirit and in truth declares
that real worship is rooted in a deep, personal experience
with God that goes beyond going through the motions of ritual. In truth, on the basis
of His divine revelation of Himself in His word that is
the truth and in His Son who is the way, the truth,
and the life. Jesus is saying to this woman,
that worship must be on God's terms, not ours. Wise Romans 11:36 tells us,
For all things are from Him and through Him and to Him. To Him alone belongs the glory. Notice how this woman's eyes are
being opened as she talks to Jesus. She says, verse 25, "I know that
Messiah is coming, (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he
will tell us all things." Again, she smoothly shifts
the conversation, punting, saying "The Messiah is coming
and he'll make sense of all of this for us." Jesus declares to her, verse 26,
"I who speak to you am he." This is one of the unique clear
declarations Jesus gives in the gospels that he is the
long-awaited Messiah king, the Christ of God. He says that "I am he," The one
you are looking for, you are looking at. The one you are talking about,
you are talking to. "I am he." Jesus is the Great I am. John 6:35 he declares,
"I am the bread of life." John 8: 12, he declares,
"I am the light of the world." John 10:9 he declares,
"I am the door." Verse 11, "I am the
good shepherd." John 11:25, "I am the
resurrection and the life." John 14:6, "I am the way…the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me." John 15:1, "I am the true vine." Jesus is the Son of God who
has come to save sinners. If those seven references, with
the metaphors attached don't make the point well enough,
remember his conversation in John 8:48 through 59,
as he is debating with the unbelieving Jews. Remember they take offense? They can't understand how this
young man can talk like this. So, they said to him, John 8:57,
"How are you talking like you know Abraham? He's been dead for centuries and
you're not yet 50 years old." Remember what Jesus
says in John 8:58? "Truly, truly, I say to you,
before Abraham was, I am." Jesus is the great I am. He is the blending of
deity and humanity. He is the meeting place
of time and eternity. He is the intersection
between heaven and earth. And when we, like this woman,
were in our sin and could not reach up to God, God
reached down to us. He met us where we were. He broke whatever barrier was
necessary to claim us, by his amazing grace. Oh, brothers and sisters,
as we consider the story of this immoral woman who meets Jesus,
may we be reminded of the greatness of God's
grace toward us. Jesus has met us where we are. He has sought us out. He has provided living water
that satisfies the needs of the soul. The rest of the story,
verses 7 through 26, record the conversation with
the woman at the well. The rest of the passage verses
27 through 42 is the aftermath of the story. As Jesus declares himself,
to this woman, to be the Messiah. Verse 27 says, the disciples
come back and they are shocked that Jesus is talking
with this woman. But they did not dare ask,
"What do you seek?" or, "why are you
talking to her?" While the clueless disciples
show up, the woman departs. So eager is she. So overjoyed is she. So overwhelmed is she. Now, she left her water jar
there, went away into town and said to the people, "Come,
see a man who told me all that I ever did.
Can this be the Christ?" Feel the tension between the
clueless disciples and the witnessing woman. Her faith is not explicitly...
No declaration of faith is explicitly recorded but in the
spirit of a true disciple, she goes into town
to witness about Jesus. To the same people who knew her
story, the same people who knew her mistakes, who knew her past. She went to be a witness. How could she go and witness to
them after what she had done? Oh, friends, this is the
heart of the good news. It was not about
what she had done. It was about what
Jesus had done. She comes to say to them,
"Not look at me, but look at Jesus." How desperately does the world
need us to make much of Jesus? It's not our job to
advertise our church. It's our job to
magnify the Christ. Come, see a man. Come, see a man. You got to excuse me,
I first heard this story as a young child in a black
Baptist Church, and the preacher…This was where
he was trying to get to. He says, when he got here,
"Hear my daddy say, 'Let me use my sanctified imagination.'" She
went to the baker in town and said, "Come, see a
man who is the bread of life." "Come, see a man who told me all
that I ever did, can this be the Christ?" and they all went out of town.
And were coming to him. Friends, I'll have to
summarize the rest of this story but what I want you to see,
what I want you to take note of, is that John does not end the
conversation with the woman at the well, with the
conversation with the woman at the well. The conversation proceeds into
an explanation to his disciples about what he's up to. What we see here is the urgency
of the heart of Jesus to reach the lost, and how he bids those
who would be his disciples to join him on mission
to reach the lost. The good news of who he is. "Meanwhile, the disciples were
urging him saying, 'Rabbi, eat.' He said to them,
'I have food to eat that you don't know anything about.' The
disciples said to one another, 'Has anyone brought him
something to eat?'" Jesus says to his clueless disciples,
"My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to
accomplish His work. Do you not say that 'There are yet four
months, then comes the harvest'? "Look, I tell you, lift up your
eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest." Hear Jesus speaking
to us today friends. "Lift up your eyes, and see that
the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is
receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that
sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here, the saying holds true,
'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which
you did not labor." One, "Others have labored,
and you have entered into their labor." Note verse 39. The woman has
stepped off the stage. She has faded into the
background and she goes into Samaria and declares,
"Come, see a man." Now, verse 39 says "Many
Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the
woman's testimony, 'He told me all that I ever did.'" Brothers and sisters,
what a joy it is for us to be here together this week,
to study the conversations of Jesus in the gospels. To worship together,
to fellowship together. But may this story remind us of
the mission to which we have been called. May we be reminded that those of
us who are recipients of God's sovereign grace must declare
this good news with others. Many believed in him because
of this woman's testimony. "He told me all
that I ever did." "Now, the Samaritans asked Jesus
to stay with them for two days. Now she is with him. Many believed
because of his word. Verse 42, "They said to the
woman" who now appears in the final verse of this narrative,
the Samaritans said to the woman, "It is no longer
because of what you said that we believe. We have heard for ourselves and
we know that this indeed is the Savior of the world." Indeed friend, maybe you have
been invited to this conference this week by someone who
knows and loves and trusts Jesus Christ, but you
don't know him for yourself. Here is a reminder that you
cannot get to heaven on someone else's testimony. You must believe for yourself. Or, as Jesus said to Nicodemus,
"You must be born again." You must trust the good news
that Jesus is the Savior of the world. Jew, Greek, Samaritan,
he's the Savior of the world. Rich or poor, black or white,
he is the Savior of the world. When Adam and Eve sinned in the
garden, God covered them with coats of skin, yes? Later, at the Passover,
as death hit the homes of the Egyptians and slaughtered the
firstborn, those who had blood on the doorpost were
covered from death. On the Day of Atonement,
the high priest would make an offering for the nation of
Israel, covering them in atoning blood. You missed it. I think I went through
that too fast. God starts out with one lamb per
person, then one lamb in the Passover per household. Then on the day of the
Atonement, one lamb for the whole nation. But when John saw Jesus coming,
he declared "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the whole world." Jesus is the Savior
of the world. Let us pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for its truth,
its wisdom and its authority. Thank you for the gift of your
Son who is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thank you for your amazing grace
that offers eternal life to all who believe in him. Thank you for the incarnation of
Christ and ultimately his crucifixion and resurrection,
by which you have reached us who were far away, and drawn
us to yourself by your sovereign grace. Thank you that you have called
us to join the mission of Christ, to be his agents in
the world, to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit and teaching them to observe all that Christ
has commanded us. We praise you Father,
that the one who has all authority in heaven and on
earth is with us to the end of the age. We praise you for it. In Jesus'
name, Amen.
