Turning Religious Reluctance-12

TURNING RELIGIOUS RELUCTANCE-XII—John 4:1-42

Turning the Religious Lost

Attention:

Crossing The Road:

There's a man trying to cross the street.

As he steps off the curb a car comes screaming around the corner & heads straight for him. The man walks faster, trying to hurry across the street, but the car changes lanes & is still coming at him.

So the guy turns around to go back, but the car changes lanes again & is still coming at him.

By now, the car is so close & the man so scared that he just freezes & stops in the middle of the road.

The car gets real close, then swerves at the last possible moment & screeches to a halt right next to him.

The driver rolls down the window.

The driver is a squirrel.

The squirrel says to the man, “See, it's not as easy as it looks, is it?”

Think Twice Before Continuing down your current path!

The Church exists to turn the world away from it’s errant way!

Everybody lives by a ‘religion’—a set of spiritual & secular values that they hold to. These may be right or wrong.

Everybody has a belief system to which they subscribe—right or wrong.

Even atheists live by their atheism! Thus they are a religious people too.

All of these may be ‘reluctant’ to turn, But by the power of God, they are turnable nonetheless!

*We are all called as God’s witnesses to turn those who are headed for disaster...“Go therefore & make disciples of ALL the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit, teaching THEM to observe all things that I have commanded you; & lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”!(Matthew 28:19-20)...

Jesus divulged/bore witness of/ His Messianic identity to a reluctant/hesitant but religious woman.

God’s people bear witness of Messiah’s/Jesus’ identity to reluctant religious people.

How/When will God’s people turn the reluctancy of the religious?

OR--What will turn that religious reluctancy around?

Some insights toward turning religious reluctance to God.

Previously as we looked in these verses we found that,

Turning religious reluctance to God requires...

1. SERVICE Insight(:1-3)

2. CONSEQUENTIAL Insight(:4-6)

3. COMPASSIONED Insight(:7-8)

4. BLIND/UNHINDERED Insight(:9)

5. POSSESSIVE Insight(:10)

6. TRUTHFUL Insight(:11-14)

7. LIFESTYLE Insight(:15-18)

8. PLACE Insight(:19-20)

9. DECISIVE Insight(:21-24)

10. IDENTITY Insight(:25-26)

11. INTERRUPTIVE Insight(:27)

12. Turning religious reluctance to God also requires ?the INTERRUPTIVE Insight of...?a.--SUSTENANCE(:31-34)

Explanation:(:31-34)Shallow/Errant/Limiting/True Nourishment

:31—“In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

:32—“But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

:33—“Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

:34—“Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, & to finish His work.””

:31—“In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

“In the meantime”—describes the “time” Jesus had available since the woman had left the well & their conversation, & had returned to the city of Sychar to invite the men of that city to evaluate Jesus as the Messiah/Christ.

Evidently Jesus was known to be so engrossed in His work/mission that He would potentially miss meals.

Therefore His disciples & others of their entourage(most probably the women(Mk. 15:40-41; Lk. 8:2-3)) would supply His physical needs. Others were needed in order to free Jesus from any burdens/concerns other than His preaching, teaching, & healing ministries.

Mark 15:40-41—“There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less & of Joses, & Salome, who also followed Him & ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, & many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.”

Lk. 8:1-3—“Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city & village, preaching & bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, & certain women who had been healed of evil spirits & infirmities--Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, & Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, & Susanna, & many others who provided for Him from their substance.”

Jesus’ disciples having taken that duty upon themselves, returned from the city with “food” in hand(:8, 27) & entreated(“urged”) their “rabbi”/honored teacher to “eat.”

“Meantime/Meanwhile”—metaxu—Verb—1) Between—1a) Meanwhile, in the mean time; 2) After, afterwards. Strong—Betwixt(of place or person); (of time)as adjective--Intervening, or by implication--Adjoining. Used 9X.?From—meta—1) With, after, behind. Strong—properly--Denoting accompaniment; “Amid”(local or causal); occupying an intermediate position between apo[Off, away from] or ek, ex[from, out] & eiv[to, into] or prov[toward, near to]; less intimate than en[in] & less close than sun[with, together]).—& a form of—sun—1) With. Strong—a primary preposition denoting union; With or together(but much closer than meta or para), i.e. By association, companionship, process, resemblance, possession, instrumentality, addition, etc.