I Who Speak to You Am He

IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

I Who Speak to You Am He

Date: Jan. 13, 2024

Passage

John 4:16-30 (ESV)

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 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.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

27 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?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

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Daily Bread

Key Verse: 4:26

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Jesus knew this woman’s thirst did not just involve going to the well every day for water. She thirsted for something even more—human love— and so she had married several times in her life, only now to be with a man who was not her husband. Jesus exposed her shame to help her to receive what she truly needed.

The woman began to discuss worship. Jesus helped her see that a time was coming when the place of worship would not be as important, like how we now worship. The time has come where we can worship God in the Spirit and in truth. God is spirit, and he seeks those who will be devoted to worship and will seek Him with all their hearts through His Spirit. The woman’s true thirst was for an object and form of proper worship.

Through this encounter, the woman now realized that she had met the Messiah. She left her water jar and went to her town to exclaim, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did” (29). Her shame was gone. She was filled with hope and eternal life. Jesus used an unlikely woman to share the good news. When we meet the Messiah, our lives change, and we can leave our empty jars behind. We can then tell the world what the Messiah has done for us.

Prayer: Prayer: Jesus, thank you so much for setting me free and for filling my life when I was once so empty. I repent for every idol in my heart. May I leave the water jars of this world behind in order to worship you.

One Word: One Word: Go and tell others what Jesus the Messiah has done for us.

Countless Saved from God’s Wrath by the Blood of the Lamb

Revelation 7:1-17

Key Verse: 7:9-10

A Great Multitude from Every Nation

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Today's Question

Are all sins equally evil?

See answer and references