A Woman, A Well, and the Way of Salvation (John 4:1-29)

A Woman, A Well, and the Way of Salvation

(John 4:1-29)

This passage is well known to many who have read the Gospels; Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus has a divine appointment with this woman who was an outcast even to her own people, the Samaritans. Jesus uses thirst and the well of Jacob as an example and opportunity to lovingly reveal Himself as her Savior from sin. Today the sermon is called: A Woman, A Well, and the Way of Salvation.

I. Divine Appointment (v. 1-7a - Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water).

Jesus was always about His Father's business. And this time was no different. Jesus did everything according to the will of His Father; every miracle or healing, every word He spoke, and every place that Jesus went was for the glory of the Father and by the leading of the Spirit. We see by verses 3 & 4, that Jesus left Judea to go to Galilee and it says “ He needed to go through Samaria”. Jesus and His disciples left Judea traveling through Samaria to eventually get to Galilee. But Jesus made a stop at Jacob's well in Samaria, He had this divine appointment to meet a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, the Heavenly Father set the time and date and place, and Jesus was there. Jesus sat down by the well being tired from walking in the heat. We know that Jesus is God but this also reminds us that God the Son added humanity to Himself and Christ's human body was tired and thirsty. Here is an example from Jesus that we need to also emulate. Jesus is at the well to meet this Samaritan woman. Jesus was there at the place God the Father wanted Him to be, He was there at the time God wanted Him to be there, and Jesus was there willingly, His only desire to do the Father's will. Now, do we do the same? To be honest, we usually go where we desire to go, when we want to, and do things according to our will and desire. But we need to be like our Lord, to be in God's place, at God's time, with a desire to do God's will. Jesus said in Matt. 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”; let's start by first seeking to do the will of the Kingdom of God instead of seeking the kingdom of self. We can do that by viewing our lives as opportunities to glorify God. Look for divine appointments to tell someone about Jesus, that what this appointment was about, Jesus graciously and lovingly revealing Himself as Lord and Savior. Now let's look at this divine appointment this woman had with Jesus.

II. Divine Encounter (v. 7-26 - A woman of 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. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says 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 with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? "Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such 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" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He.").

We now see this is who Christ was waiting for, He is watching the approach of the Samaritan woman to this well. And Jesus asks her for a drink. The woman is startled at Him talking to her because cultural standards of the time was that men did not address women in public, because it was beneath a man to acknowledge women in public. Secondly, her reply of “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” showed a embarrassing fact that Jews despised Samaritans. Jews did not even walk through Samaria, except Jesus. A “good” Jew would not set foot into Samaria, in fact, to get to Galilee from Judea, a Jew would cross the Jordan from Judea into Galilee, up the eastern side of the Jordan until the they got to Galilee, very much out of the way instead of the shortest route straight through Samaria.

There was bad blood from the time of the divided Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians and the people of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, that was left were taken into captivity never to return (lost 10 tribes). Judah years later, was defeated by Babylon and those not killed were taken into captivity to Babylon. After 70 years, Judah (tribes of Judah and Benjamin) returned under Nehemiah to Jerusalem. Under Nehemiah and Ezra, the city walls and temple were rebuilt but of course not to the full glory as once before. Any remaining Jews that were in Israel (Ephraim) intermarried with what pagan peoples settled in that land. After Judah rebuilt in Jerusalem a temple to worship God, the half-breed Samaritans wanted to worship in the temple but were forbidden by the full-blooded Jews. So the half-breed Samaritans set a false temple in Samaria on Mt. Gerezim. So there was bad blood, wars fought, and the Jews destroying the Samaritan temple completely. Bad blood between the two and the Jews despised them and vice versa. To the Jew, Samaritans were unredeemable, worse than a Gentile. And Jesus asks her for a drink, Jesus didn't have any thing to draw from the well and He did not have a cup to drink from. Jesus was asking to drink from her own pitcher or pot, unthinkable to any Jew because that broke down that cultural and social barrier formed out of hate, to drink from or use a utensil of a gentile and especially a Samaritan was considered to defile a Jew (traditional view, not biblical). She recognized Jesus as a Jew, His facial features, noticed His clothing, maybe the blue hem that a rabbi wore. But not only was she a Samaritan but also she was an outcast from her community. She came at a place to draw water that was over a ½ mile away from town. Towns built around a water source and those particular hills had an abundant amount of springs, Dr John MacArthur comments that, “What in the world is she doing a half a mile away from the village? Well, she had to come a long ways. Why? No water? Plenty of water. Water coming out of the springs in the Judean hillsides all over the place. Why did she go a half mile away? Because she was an outcast. Very likely because of the background that she had, the other women didn't want her around”. We see in verse 18 that she was most likely a prostitute for she had had 5 husbands and now just living with a man, in those days and even among the Samaritans, it was taboo behavior and it made her an outcast. In spite of all this, as He crushes these barriers to present His salvation to her, Christ begins to reveal Himself to her. Jesus answers her by saying, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water”. Jesus is offering her salvation, the gift of God is salvation in the Son of God. In chapter 3, we saw that Jesus offers salvation to Nicodemus (a guy that supposed to have it right and supposedly very moral) and now He offers His grace and mercy to this Samaritan outcast (the polar opposite of Nicodemus). It seems that the love of Jesus Christ is not based on our merit or capability of being lovable or our capability of loving God back, salvation is based on the love of God towards us through Christ (1 John 4:19 - “We love Him because He first loved us”). We are saved and cleansed from sin because He chose to love us just like he chose to love this woman, Jesus' love is truly unconditional. We see Jesus is using a natural or physical example to convey a spiritual truth. But we also see she misunderstands Him. Jesus is speaking to her need, a need for a Savior, and she really not understanding her need and Jesus' answer to her spiritual need to be saved. She tells Jesus that you don't have anything to draw up the water with, so how do you plan to get water, is there some easier way to get water from this deep well. Do you know someway to get the water from Jacob's well that even he didn't know? Jesus then clarifies it even more for her by telling her that He has water that can satisfy her parched, dead, dry, spiritually lifeless soul; like real water satisfies her physical thirst, His living life-giving water can give life to her spirit and she will never thirst again. He told her, drink of this well of Jacob and you'll thirst again but if you drink of His salvation, His life giving water, a gushing and living water that will be inside of you, springing up into eternal life. She barely understanding that He is speaking in spiritual terms, she kind of gets it and says, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw”, let me drink from your well! She understands more than she lets on. But Jesus not only tells her she has a spiritual need of salvation but also shows her why she needs salvation, He reveals her sinfulness, “Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly”. We can tell people how they need Jesus, we can tell them how much that Jesus loves them and gave His life on the cross for them but they will never understand unless we tell them how lost in their sins they are. We can just like this woman she wants to drink but Jesus shows her that sin is keeping her from the living water. She desires the gift of salvation, she sees her sins keeping her from eternal life, and now she desires to make it right with God, so she makes this statement and asks this question, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship”; what is she talking about? She tells Jesus, “I know your from God because you, a total stranger, told me of the living water and told me everything wrong in my life, I just want to know where I got to go worship and what I have to perform ritually and religiously to earn this living water, this salvation”. Jesus breaks it down by telling her, that the real temple worship was in Jerusalem but this doesn't matter because “the time will come and now is, when true worshipers of God will worship Him in Spirit and in truth”. So we see the way to come to God, the truth and the Spirit, the truth is Jesus. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, no way into the presence of God or in relationship unless we know the Truth, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the truth of God, the truth of life, the truth of salvation, the truth of forgiveness, the truth of reconciliation, the truth of redemption. The whole of spiritual truth is revealed in the one person of Jesus Christ. The Spirit brings to life the truth about Jesus, the Spirit convicts us, the Spirit of God produces repentance, and the faith to receive the person of salvation, Jesus Christ. Jesus brought her full face with who she needed to know personally to receive salvation and it will never be found in performing or joining a religion but only found in personally knowing Him as Lord and Savior. She goes on to say, and I think this is where she finally puts it all together and Jesus simply confirms it, “I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He"”. Jesus said in this statement, “I'm Him, your Messiah, your salvation, your God”. What does she do, v.28 tells us she immediately turns around leaves her water pot and goes back to the city.

III. Divinely Proclaimed (v. 28-30, 39-42 - The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Then they went out of the city and came to Him.; And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.").

This woman did what the disciples failed to do. She went into Sychar and told everyone she could about Jesus, that He was the Messiah and Savior of the world. The disciples let their prejudice rob them of the blessing of leading them to Christ. By this no good outcast of a woman, salvation came to the Samaritans. And they received Him better than Jews did. And when they met Jesus, they believed who He said He was because they heard Him for themselves and believed His truth of salvation that He was the Savior of the world. We see the change in this woman; we can see the gradual realization of her growing in the knowledge of who Jesus was.

In verse 6, just meeting Jesus she called Him, “Jew”; then in verse 11, “sir” as her respect grows while talking to her; in verse 19 she then calls Him “prophet”; and in verse 25 she is finally figuring out He is Messiah, lastly she goes back and finally realizing in her heart that Jesus is the Christ and begins to proclaim it in her town (v.29). After she has her divine encounter and is saved, she shares Jesus with everyone in town and they receive Him as Lord also (v. 42 - “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world”). Jesus and the disciples stayed two days more with the Samaritans revealing who He was. Proclaiming the Kingdom of God and showing the disciples that He came to “seek and to save that which was lost”. We need to recognize our need for Jesus, we must proclaim to others their need for Jesus, and never let race, class, or social differences keep us from showing the love of God through Christ.

The Crucifixion Of Christ (Matt. 27:26b-37)

The Crucifixion Of Christ

(Matt. 27:26b-37)

When reading the passages of scripture on the crucifixion, I kept seeing the suffering of Jesus in my mind as I had saw it in the movie ‘The Passion’. Thinking of the scourging, the beating, and how He was nailed on that cross and saying to myself why it had to be that way. There had been others crucified and scourged and who had suffered, but the difference that day was who was being crucified. Today, let’s look at the crucifixion closer and try to see it better and come away from it with a fresher understanding and a more thankful heart.

I. Before the Crucifixion

A. The Garden (Matt. 26:36-46) - We see here in passage in Mt. 26 that Jesus has come to the Garden of Gethsemane (means ‘Olive Press’) with the disciples. He has come to pray and enters further in the garden with Peter, James, and John. This passage mentions in verse 37 that Jesus is ‘sorrowful and very heavy’, this means that he is grieved and distressed and even verbalizes that fact to these three. He is feeling the immense stress and when He prays, He asks the Father, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” and later prays in v. 42, “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done”. Jesus is not fearing death, the cup is not the cup of death but it represents the wrath of God against sin. In that moment, the sin of the world was being ‘poured’ on Jesus. He was going to bear our sins on that cross and die for our sins in our place; He took the punishment and penalty for our sin for us. 2 Co. 5:21 says that, ‘For he hath made him to be sin for us’, Jesus took our place and took the wrath of God for us. The taking on of the overwhelming weight of the sin of the world was a great stress on our Lord because we see that in Luke 22:34 it tells us that, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground”, now this is actually a known medical condition called hematidrosis. It is caused by great psychological stress which causes a release of chemicals that breaks down the capillaries in sweat glands which results in a small amount of bleeding in the glands and when sweat is released it is tinged with blood. We see our sinless Lamb taking our sins on Himself and the great weight causes our Lord great stress. He was the only One who could do it.

B. The betrayal and arrest (vv.47-68) we all know the Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and they came and arrested Jesus and took to the High Priest Caiaphas. The disciples had fled away into the night and Jesus was before the Sanhedrin council and they charged Him with blasphemy for they rejected Jesus as the Messiah. They also pronounced a death sentence, beat, and mocked Him.

C. Before Pilate, the crowd, and the scourging (Mt. 27:11-31)- in chapter 27:11, we see Jesus has now been brought to Pilate. He is questioned by Pilate and Pilate says in the passage from John that he could find no fault in Him. When the crowd was given a choice to release a prisoner by Pilate, he gave them a choice between Jesus and a criminal named Barabbas. The crowd there cried out they wanted Barabbas and when Pilate asked what they wanted to do with Jesus and the crowd cried out ‘crucify him!’. This was probably a lot of the same crowd that had cried out only days before ‘Hosanna’ and ‘Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord’ when Christ rode in on that donkey when He entered Jerusalem. When Pilate expressed that he felt Jesus was innocent it says in v. 23 that the crowd cried out even more, “Let Him be crucified”. Pilate washes his hands before them and says that he is innocent of this man’s blood and the crowd answers and says, “His blood be on us, and on our children”; the fact of the matter is that we are all guilty of the death of Jesus Christ and none of us are innocent of His shed blood, it is because of our sins that He came, suffered, and died on that cross. Barabbas is released and Jesus is then scourged and delivered over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. Scourging was a practice used by the Romans that involved a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls and sharp pieces of bone woven into them. It was usually consisted of 39 lashes but depending upon the mood of the soldier chosen to give the lashes it most likely was more. Needless to say the flogging would be from the shoulders down the back and buttocks to the back of the legs. It would rip and tear skin and muscle down to even exposure of the spine and bowel. It was a horrible thing to be scourged and many would die just from being scourged and the loss of blood. Then the soldiers mocked him, spit on him, and drove a crown of thorns upon His head.

II. Crucifixion (vv.32-44)

We now come to the place of the crucifixion; as horrible as the scourging was crucifixion was even more horrible. When one was crucified, they had to carry the cross beam part of the cross called the patibulum to the place where the execution was to be carried out. When they would arrive the vertical part of the cross would already be placed in the ground. They would take the condemned and nail him to part he carried. The 5-7 inch spikes and nailed him to through the wrists. Note that the wrist was considered part of the hand in the language of the day. If it was through the palms, the skin would have torn and would have fallen off the cross; the spike thru the wrists lock the hands in place and was a solid place to secure the condemned. Part of the torture involved in nailing thru the wrists is that the nail would go through the place where the median nerve runs to the hand. It would crush the nerve and cause intense pain; it like the feeling of hitting your funny bone but this pain is constant and it would be like taking a pair of pliers and squeezing and crushing that nerve. The pain would be unbearable and Jesus was feeling that pain. The pain was literally beyond words to describe; in fact they invented a new word for it and that word: excruciating. Excruciating means ‘out of the cross’. They had to make a new word for that intense anguish and suffering felt on the cross. The cross beam was raised and attached to the vertical beam and then a spike was driven thru the feet also hitting a nerve with a similar intense pain as the others. Upon being raised on the cross the arms would be stretched at least 6 inches and the shoulders would become dislocated. Once hanging in that vertical position, crucifixion was a slow painful death caused by asphyxiation. Because of the position of crucifixion, Christ had to push Himself up by His feet to exhale and relax back down to inhale. Eventually a person would die do to being to exhausted to push themselves up to keep breathing. This is the great physical pain and agony endured by Christ out of His love for lost and sinful mankind. And we see in the Garden and at the cross the great psychological and physical suffering Jesus faced for our sins.

III. His Death (vv.45-53)

It talks in v.45 that there was a great darkness over all the land. This was not an eclipse, because they knew what an eclipse was and there is no record of any eclipse at this time period. This was a supernatural occurrence performed by God the Father. But what was the reason? At His death there is darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. The Jews begin to measure their day from 6 A.M., the sixth hour is noon. From noon to three it was dark. Mark 15:25 says, “He was crucified at the third hour”, that’s 9 A.M. So the first three hours He was hanging there visible, naked before the watching people in the light. Those three hours passed. Soldiers had nailed Him there. They had placed the sign over His head. He is suspended there in the horrific indignity as the passers-by, the soldiers, the curious, the religious leaders watched and mocked and insulted Him. During that three hours He only broke the silence three times. Once He said to the soldiers, of the soldiers to the Father, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. The second time He spoke to a penitent thief at His side and said, “Verily, this day you will be with Me in paradise”. Once more He broke the three-hour silence looking down at Mary and John, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son” pointing to John. And to John, “Behold your mother” thus giving her into the care of John. In the light He said three things. All three of them were demonstrations of mercy, mercy toward the soldiers, mercy toward the thief, mercy toward Mary. Each was a revelation of the light of His grace, the shining beauty of His compassion. Darkness in the Scripture is a symbol of judgment; God’s salvation is always seen as light. God’s judgment is always seen as darkness and God was saying by the darkness that the cross was a place of judgment. This is not an indication of a judgment to come in the future, this is a judgment in itself right then and there. And God only judges one thing, what is it? Sin. God turned out the lights because this was a judgment on sin. And yet, the One receiving the judgment was sinless, a Lamb without blemish and without spot, holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, Hebrews 7:26 says. “In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”. Second Corinthians 5, “Him who knew no sin.” What is happening there then is a judgment on sin being borne by an innocent sacrifice. Isaiah 53 verse 4, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well being fell on Him and by His scourging we are healed. The Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him”. It further says, “The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief, rendering Him a guilt offering He will bear their iniquities and justify many”. Paul put it this way. Romans 4:25, “He was delivered for our offenses”; First Corinthians 15:3, “He died for our sins”; First Peter 2:24, “Who in His own self bore our sins in His body on the tree”; First Peter 3:18, “He died the just for the unjust”; First John 4:10, “God sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins”; Galatians 3:13, He became a “curse for us”; and in Matthew 20:28 it says, “He came to give His life a ransom for many”. Mt. 25:46, “And about the ninth hour, three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’” As the darkness came to an end, as the darkness reached three o’clock from noon, the life of Jesus is almost at an end. The fury of God is almost spent. Judgment is almost over. But Jesus can contain the pain no longer and it’s not the pain of nails and it’s not the pain of a crown, and it’s not the pain of wounds of scourges rubbing against a ragged wooden beam, it is the pain of separation from the Father. And with great strength, He cries out where the real agony comes from, and it doesn’t come from the physical pain, the real agony comes from His soul, the realization, the reality, the agony that He is separated from His Father. I don’t think Jesus in the garden was agonizing over the physical pain that He was about to suffer, He was agonizing over the reality of the sin-bearing and feeling the wrath of God because He knew exactly why He came...He came to be a ransom for many which means He had to come and die in their place, and He knew He would feel the fury of God’s wrath. This is a reverse miracle. This is a supernatural separation, impossible and yet it happened. And while Jesus was not separated from the Father by nature, He was separated from the Father by fellowship. As a sinful child does not cease to be the essence of his father, but by his sin loses the intimate fellowship with his father, so Christ did not cease to be God but lost the intimacy of fellowship with His Father which He had eternally known. He had never been anything but loved by His Father. In fact, it was His Father’s perfect love for Him that caused the Father to put the whole redemptive plan in motion and to redeem lost humanity. It was the Father’s perfect love for the Son that made it all happen. And now, having been loved by His Father perfectly for all eternity, He is treated as if His Father hates Him and His Father turns His back on Him. Why does He do that? “Because He is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity“, Hab. 1:12, 13. 2 Co. 5:21 says it in a nutshell, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him“. He took upon Himself the penalty for my sins and your sins and suffered and died in our place. What great love and mercy that He has shown to us the undeserving. As we read that He cried out, like it says in John 19:30, “it is finished“, He said that not because He was dying but because the work of salvation was finished and complete. Heb 10:10, “…we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. The salvation of our souls that we receive through faith in Christ is an eternal salvation because Jesus gives us a complete work of salvation that was accomplished by the suffering and death on the cross for those who are the sons and daughters of God, once for all. There is nothing else to do, no good works, no religious effort on our part because it is only through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus on the cross.

Because of the suffering and death on the cross by our sinless Lord Jesus, we are now partakers of His salvation. It is only through Jesus we have salvation, the forgiveness of all our sins. Let us, this week especially remember and give God thanks for the awesome work of redemption by King Jesus.

Truth of the Proof that Jesus is God (John 20:24-31)

Truth of the Proof that Jesus is God

(John 20:24-31 -Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.)

We know that Jesus is God but what proofs can we turn to when we are asked why we believe that. Today, we are going to look at the evidence why we know that Jesus is God. The Bible tells us that “on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed” (Deut. 19:15). So today, we are looking at three witness that tell us that Jesus is God; through the Scriptures, the confession of Christ Himself, and thirdly, the witness of Christ's disciples. Today's sermon is the truth of the proof of Christ's Deity.

I. Proof 1: Proclaimed by Scripture (John 1:1,14).

The message of this biblical fact that Jesus is God is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith. To deny that He was God would be a travesty to truth. The great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis wrote that to think that Christ was anything but God would make Jesus either a liar or a lunatic; He cannot be a just a good man or just a great spiritual teacher and claim to be God. There is no middle ground, "He is either Lord, a liar, or a lunatic". The heart of the Christian faith is built upon this foundational truth, Jesus is God. Salvation is not possible if Jesus is not God. The suffering and death on the cross would be a tragedy if Jesus was not God, and the resurrection would be a fanciful fantasy if Jesus was not God.

From the scriptures we will get our witnesses about the truth of Christ's deity. In John 1:1, 14 we read this truth from the Apostle John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”. From our previous study of the titles of Christ, we learned that He was called the Word. We see it here in John chapter 1 that the Word was God and we find out that the word was Jesus in v. 14 because it says that, “the Word became flesh”, we know that Jesus is God the Son come in flesh (incarnated) and the Gospel of John is solely about our Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures boldly proclaim the Deity of Jesus. We see not only in scripture that the Apostle John proclaims the Deity of Christ but also the Apostle Paul wrote as scripture in Titus 2:13 this, “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”. Do you see what Christ is called, God and Savior. Also, we see from what Thomas himself proclaimed in John 20:28 after he touches the nail scarred hands and the scar of the wound in Christ's side, he says, “My Lord and my God!”. But look at what Jesus tells Thomas, “Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. Thomas said to the disciples who had seen Christ resurrected that he would not believe unless he touched the wounds of Christ for himself. Thomas refused to believe the eyewitnesses, we cannot be like Thomas, we must believe the witness of the Holy Scriptures. John 20:31 tells us that scripture was “written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” and Romans 10:17 says that, “ faith (saving faith) comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. The truth of the Gospel is the “power of God unto salvation”, because it proclaims the powerful truth that Jesus, our Lord God, has saved us by His death and resurrection. The witness of scripture tells us that Jesus is God.

II. Proof 2: Revealed by Jesus Himself (John 8:58).

Not only is there the witness of scripture that Jesus is God but we also have the direct revelation from Jesus Himself. Jesus not only told us but He also reveled it by how He lived and what He did before He ascended. Let's first look at what Jesus told us in the Gospels about Himself that proved He was God. Did you know there is a group called the Christadelphians, who believe that Jesus is not God and says that Jesus never claimed to be God. I always wondered why they had church and chose to follow Christ as they believed. But regardless of their belief, Jesus did tell us that He was God in many ways. Maybe the best verbal revelation is found in latter part of John 8. Jesus was having another confrontation with the Pharisees, and as always they were trying to find fault in Him. They slurred Him by saying that He was illegitimate child in v. 41 and in v. 48 they accused of being demon possessed and a Samaritan (mixed blood, ½ Jew & ½ Gentile, illegitimacy). Jesus clearly and correctly tells them that they are of their father the devil and not of God as they claimed. They kept asking Him who are you really claiming to be but all Jesus would say that He came to honor His Father and not to seek His own glory. The Pharisees keep boasting that they are the children of Abraham and that's when Jesus tells them in verse 56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad”, then the Pharisees to Jesus, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”. Then comes the bombshell that Jesus drops on them to let them know exactly who He is in vs. 58, “Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM”. Do you get the picture, do you get who Jesus is saying that He is? Let me give you a clue from Ex. 3:13-14, Moses is speaking to God and Moses asks God this, “Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you'”. Jesus revealed to the Pharisees in the passage in John 8 that He is God. In fact you can see they get exactly who He says He is in John 8:59, because they “took up stones to throw at Him”; they were going to stone Him for blasphemy for saying that He was God. There are many more times that Jesus makes statements that only God can make, like in John 14:9, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” or John 10:30, “I and My Father are one”. There are many more statements that Christ made of His Deity but not only did Christ claim Deity but He proved that He was God by His life and His miracles. If we look at Jesus' life in the Gospels, we see that He lived a holy, blameless, and sinless life on earth. In John 8:46, Jesus asks, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?”. There were none that could do so, the Pharisees could not trap Him in word or deed because there was no fault in Christ because He is God. He is holy, pure, and undefiled because He is God. Comparing Him to the greatest men in the Bible or the greatest men in humanity and none can measure up. If we could ask Moses was he without sin in his life, he would answer that he could not for he murdered a man. If we could ask King David, a man after God's own heart if he was sinless in life and he would shamefully confess that he was an adulterer and in that adulterous affair had her husband killed. Or ask King Solomon and he would say read his account of sin in the book of Ecclesiastes. Look at George Washington or Abraham Lincoln and they would confess they were like any other mortal, human being, a sinner. If you would ask the men wrote the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John they would tell you they were never sinless but they would point you to the One who is the grand theme and subject of the Scriptures, Jesus Christ, and they would proclaim His sinlessness. Not only in how He lived but also see it in the signs, wonders, and miracles that made the blind to see, the crippled to walk, the deaf and dumb to hear and speak, deliver the possessed from demons, and raise the dead to life. But the greatest miracle of all to save a wretched sinner from the doom of sin. This all speaks of Jesus as God, proof positive that Jesus is God.

III. Proof 3: Lives Changed (2 Cor. 5:17 - if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new).

Look at the lives changed by Jesus, because when you do that, there is no doubt that Jesus is God. I have heard many different testimonies of men and women of all ages and backgrounds tell how Jesus saved them and changed their wretched lives. You know, I have never heard an atheist tell how atheism saved them from drugs or alcohol. Anyway, look at the lives of the disciples. Look at their background of the Twelve, they were fishermen, tax collectors, zealots (terrorists); simple men and sinners that forsook all they had to follow Christ and proclaim His name to the world. Of the 12 Disciples, only one was not martyred and that was the Apostle John. Jesus through these twelve men, changed the world. Not because their was anything special about these men, only that Jesus saved and changed them. Peter denied Christ three times the night Christ was taken to be falsely charged and yet after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, Peter on the day of Pentecost preached Christ to thousands and 3,000 were saved. A man named Stephen, the first martyr proclaimed Christ to his killers and as he was being stoned He saw His God and Savior Jesus at the right hand of the Father and as he forgave his killers and in full hope and assurance said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. How did this happen to common men to be so bold and so abandoned to the hope that was within them, that hope being Jesus Christ. Jesus saved them all and changed them. Men like the Apostle Paul, Charles Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, Billy Graham, Adrian Rodgers. People like you here in this church changed by the power of God the Son, Jesus Christ. The lives of many Christians and many martyrs of Christ proclaim the proof positive, the truth that Jesus is God.

You know, your life can be a proof and a witness to the truth that Jesus is God. Are you willing to submit to our Savior's Lordship like these faithful witnesses and let your life boldly prove that Jesus is God?

These proofs of the truth that Jesus is God show us that our faith, hope, and dedication to Jesus has real meaning. We are not worshiping, serving, and loving a mere man, our Jesus is God. Because He is God, we serve a risen, living Savior that destroyed the power of sin and death. Thank you Jesus that you are God!