March 6, 2016
Scripture:
Scripture:
Turn to John 17. The Lord is praying to His Father. Earlier we were reading about Solomon and the glories that he had; but when the Lord was on the earth, He said that a greater than Solomon had come. Read vv. 4 & 5. The cross was a time between the Lord’s two glories. He put glory aside to come to the cross only to be raised to the right hand of God afterwards. Between those two glories is where we remember the One who died for us so that we can celebrate His eternal glory with Him.
Hymn 139 - What can wash away my sins?
Last time we started the story of the woman at the well. Jesus was traveling from Judea to Galilee, and had to pass through Samaria. He stopped at Jacob’s well around noon. That is when the woman showed up to get water. Now, Jesus was a Jew, and she was a Samaritan; He was a man, and she was a woman. From the very beginning when Jesus first asked her for a drink, she was wondering why He was talking to her. She went completely off topic. But Jesus told her He was willing to give her living water. By this time she was very confused. She thought they were talking about the physical things of life, but Jesus had brought it into the spiritual things. He told her He could give her a well springing up.
An artesian well is a type of springing well. Let’s say there is a valley; and underneath the mountains and this valley is lots of water. If you were to dig a well in the middle of the valley all the water would come springing out because of the water pressure.
We are made of body, soul, and spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus he had to be born again by water and spirit. The Spirit of God enters our spirit. With the woman at the well the water, the water of the spirit went through her and sprung back to heaven, in worship. It is like the Artesian well. What God gives us is what goes up to Him.
John 4:15-18
Jesus told her He could give her everlasting water and she would never thirst again. She may have thought that she would never have to come to this well again, but she was slightly off-track.
Then, Jesus told her to go and call her husband. It was the custom at the time that a man usually didn’t talk to a woman in public unless her husband was with her. But Jesus was zeroing in on something else: this woman had had five husbands. You can tell she feels guilty about it by the way she comes alone to the well in the middle of the day. But now she’s met a man who knew everything about her.
Again she changed the topic, and brought up worship. The Jews and Samaritans had different beliefs about worship and where it should be done. It doesn’t matter where we worship now, because we worship a person. God is looking for worshippers. It a wonderful thing when those He has saved worship Him.
The woman did get saved, and then she went out to tell others in the village. Many believed on Jesus. He ended up staying for two days. This is really a marvellous story.
Philippians 2:5-13
We’ve seen in the past weeks that unity should be a part of normal Christian experience (which is what Philippians shows us). We have examples of division in the Bible (the tribe of Manasseh, the Kingdom of Israel) and can see the many divisions in the Church today. Despite this, God exhorts us to unity, just as He Himself is united.
To make this unity possible, we need the mind of Christ. His mind was a mind of humility; our minds naturally exalt ourselves. That was part of the first temptation: Satan told Adam and Eve, “If you eat this fruit, you’ll be as gods!” Jesus was God, and was still God while down here; but didn’t try to promote Himself as men do. Man tries to exalt himself and is humbled, Christ humbled Himself and is now exalted.
Jesus made everything, and yet He submitted to being made like man. When He came down to earth He “emptied Himself” (Darby Translation) of glories that were rightly His as the Son of God. He laid certain things aside in order to be clothed in humanity. He was ever in His Father’s bosom, though, and enjoyed that even here on Earth.
Jesus could have arrived in the world as a full-grown man, but instead He went through all the natural human processes of arrival. He was born of a woman—from which came sin—and under the law—from which came condemnation—and yet was totally holy. He became a baby and grew up in a poor family. He was born a servant; to minister to others, not be ministered to.
How low did our Lord go? He went so low as to wash His disciple’s feet. He yielded himself in total obedience to His Father, even going down into death and winning our salvation—His greatest work on our behalf. He just kept going lower and lower! He serves us now as our High Priest, and intercedes on our behalf. He will even serve us in glory! We need him. When we hear all this, may our hearts be full of Him, and may we praise, worship, and serve Him ourselves.
Now Jesus has been exalted, and has glories that He didn’t have before His humiliation. He is our Redeemer, and the One who is victorious over Satan. He didn’t exalt Himself, though; God the Father has exalted His name. That name should be precious to us; it is in that name that we gather and that we pray. It is THE name above all others.
Every knee will bow to Jesus’ name, whether in this life or later. If you wait, you will bow, but will still bear the consequences of your disobedience. Even fallen angels (those under the earth) will bow to the name of Jesus, and all will confess it, too. What an exaltation! It shows God’s delight in Christ’s work. No one has ever glorified God like Christ did on the cross. There He even glorified God in the problem of sin!
Hymn 219 - His be “the Victor’s name”
Prayer