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• The PERSON: Nic was “religious”, but realized Jesus knew something he didn’t know.

• The SITUATION: Most of the Pharisees, like Nicodemus were very anti-Jesus, thinking he was a troublemaker. Nicodemus knew that He couldn’t do the things that He did if God wasn’t with Him. So he asked for a meeting at night, most likely to keep from having to explain things to his peers. Nicodemus greets & affirms the Lord, then Jesus takes him right where he is and lets him know what’s missing in his life. He needs to be “born again spiritually”. Not just mature through knowledge, but surrendered, submitted and reborn from the inside out. That took some explaining. And from that teachable moment came one of the most precious verses in the Bible, John 3:16.

• The PHRASE: But the phrase that turned the corner in this conversation with Jesus & a religious leader who was beginning to believe that He really was the Messiah, was “You must be born again.” That idea was the set up for 3:16. And this conversation was a holy moment for Nicodemus, who later accompanied Joseph of Arimathea in requesting the body of Jesus after the crucifixion. He moved from being a tentative follower to an unashamed leader. And that transformation began with the encounter in those 21 verses.

• The PERSON: She was “faithful”, but ostracized by Jews, Gentiles & nearly every woman in town! The crazy thing is, she remains nameless and goes by the “Samaritan woman” or the “woman at the well.”

• The SITUATION: She & Jesus have a moment on a hot day when nobody was around the well drawing water. Most likely because she’d rather deal with the heat of the sun at noon than the heat in the early morning from the ladies in the town. She’d been married 5 times and wasn’t married to the guy she was living with at the time. Guessing she wasn’t invited out for latte’s after Ladies’ Bible Studies much. But she and Jesus had an incredible discussion about God, how we worship Him, who does it right and who does it wrong, and the grand finale was who Jesus really was. Later, she did an amazing job of reaching a ton of people in her town. So Jesus decided not only to spend a long time in conversation with her, but He spent a few days after that in her community because of her testimony & the openness she brought to the hearts of other people. It’s amazing when you read the whole story to see how she was pretty reserved and off to herself until she experienced that time with Jesus. From that moment on she couldn’t keep quiet, telling her friends who she had avoided, about how He really was the Messiah. Initially it was because He told her everything about her private life, which blew her away. But as the days went on His preaching convinced many many more people in the town where she lived!

• The PHRASE in the conversation: For a long time I thought the phrase in this encounter was, “those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Well that’s a very quoted phrase, but I think the greater phrase is Jesus identifying Himself as the Messiah to her when she says, “When the Messiah gets here, He’ll straighten this all out”, and then Jesus tells her, “I am He.” He left no room for doubt in her mind, And hopefully as we walk daily with Him, we will experience more and more conviction in our life about who He is!

• The PERSONS: They were “hopeful”, but didn’t understand why Jesus spared so many others from pain but not them.

• The SITUATION: These 2 sisters had a brother named Lazarus, who was a very dear friend of Jesus. It’s one of the few homes mentioned in the Bible that Jesus would hang out with the family there. So when he got sick, they thought sure Jesus will come heal him and spare him from dying, but He didn’t. By the time Jesus got to their home, the funeral had been over for four days. Jesus has this incredible encounter with both Mary and Martha individually. Martha’s was first. They both say the same thing, acknowledging that “If Jesus would’ve been there their brother would not have died”. This is the story, when Jesus saw Mary’s emotion, His heart was deeply moved to tears. The empathy in our Savior’s life could not be repressed any longer. And what happens next was Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. This took things to a whole other level with amazement by the crowd! Healings are great and lunch provided on the grounds in a miraculous way will bring people back next weekend. But a person who had been verifiably dead and grieved over several days previously and then is brought back fully to life…well, that’ll bring your “stock up” in popularity…but also it raised the resistance to Him. But what a comforting moment for those two sisters who believed in Him all the way!

• The PHRASE: in my opinion the phrase has to allow for 2 statements and a personal question. It’s when Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this, Martha?” There is a moment when we face that question. I did with my sister Kathy and my Dad when our Mom passed away suddenly. On the drive in the car from the funeral home to the cemetery we had a reckoning moment of whether we believed that same question Jesus asked Martha. We tearfully did then and we joyfully do today! We lost Mom to Heaven 44 years ago. Dad turned 97 yesterday. We never know how long or short our lives will be. That’s why our answer to this question is the ballgame. Our hope is in Jesus alone for this life AND the next!

• the PERSON: She’d been “sinful”, but got a glimpse of the grace Jesus offers all of us “sinful-types”.

• The SITUATION: The Pharisees we’re trying to trap Jesus into condemning a woman, which would’ve turned people away from following Him, or condoning her, which would’ve blatantly gone against the Law. The drama is incredible as the religious leaders raise the stones in their hands fit an execution, while Jesus simply writes in the duet with a stick. He helps them see themselves as less than “perfect” and they appear to “drop the charges”. The encounter with the woman is one of most redeeming moments in the Bible. Jesus asks the woman where her accusers were and she says there are none. In that moment, her “narrow escape”, becomes an experience in grace that would stay with her forever.

• The DEFINING PHRASE: To the woman, the final phrase from Jesus was, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” She wasn’t scolded by Jesus, nor was she told it’s no big deal, try to straighten up. She was protected…she was redirected…she was loved.

• the PERSONS: The religious leaders (Pharisees) were “prideful”, and had met their match when trying to trap Jesus. His “mic drop” moment forced them to a “stone drop” moment of their own!

• The SITUATION: Same passage we just looked at. Most people title this story, “The Woman Caught in Adultery”. By the way, doesn’t it take 2 people for that offense to happen? I think we could appropriately title this story, “The Pharisees, who got Caught in Ungodly Prejudicial Behavior”. Make no mistake, these guys were using this woman’s real or staged situation to do damage to Jesus, and if she got hurt along the way, then who cares, in their eyes? Jesus cares. Everybody in that crowd knew that day just how much He cares. He cared enough about her, about the truth, about AND even the Pharisees themselves, to shut the party down! And that’s what He did!

• The PHRASE: The words of Jesus “indirectly directed” to these arrogant self-righteous men were in the classic form of the rhetorical challenge, “Then let he who is without sin cast the first stone!” Yep. No one can DRAW a crowd like Jesus can . And no one can THIN ONE OUT like He can either!

• Jesus doesn’t just DEFINE the moment with us, He REFINES us in the moment with Him

• Maybe you’re like Nicodemus and are being religious, yet missing something deeper only He can give?
• Maybe you’re being faithful like the woman at the well, yet you’re feeling all alone when you don’t have to?
• Or you’re trying to be hopeful, yet you’re struggling with not understanding why God “allowed” something very hurtful to happen to you?
• Or you’ve got some “sinful patterns”, and you need to hear, “neither do I condemn you…go and sin no more!”
• Or maybe you’ve slipped into a “prideful posture” towards those far away from God, and you need to “drop your weapons”?