Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

Jesus saw the moment: they had stepped into a “divine appointment.” The people there were ready to hear the gospel. This woman was ready, the city of Sychar was ready, but He was exhausted and in a hurry. He had only stopped to rest and get something to eat. What would He do? Would He explain the condition they were in and politely postpone, promising to come back at a more convenient time? After all He still hadn’t eaten anything, and He and His disciples had been walking for hours, possibly through the night.

It’s so easy to stand there praying, saying all the right things, with my mind still asleep or focused on something else. I can be halfway through the Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:9-13) and suddenly realize I haven’t a clue what I just said, and am saying things with no particular awareness that God is listening to me. I’m just reciting words that I’ve memorized. They’re good words, if you actually stop to think about them, but until I wake up inside, until I become conscious of the One to whom I was supposedly talking, it’s just a morning ritual that I do so I can check it off my list. 

After a very dramatic confrontation with the temple leaders in Jerusalem (Jn 2:13-25) Jesus left the city and moved His ministry out to the towns and villages scattered throughout the Judean countryside. There He preached and undoubtedly healed and delivered people from spiritual oppression. His disciples also baptized the people. Judging from clues John gives us Jesus apparently remained in Judea for about eight months. But at some point, a warning arrived that the Pharisees, who already shared with the temple leadership a hatred for Jesus (Jn 5:18, 7:1, 25, 30, 47-48; 8:3), had discovered where He was and what was happening. John says they knew that Jesus was “making and baptizing more disciples than John (the Baptist)” (v1) which meant Jesus was now in great danger. Normally the Pharisees despised the temple leaders in Jerusalem (for good reason), but they were also practical enough to partner with them when they needed their political power to punish some offender. So when this report reached Jesus, He took it as a warning that He would soon be arrested. But it was far too early in His ministry to allow that to happen. His disciples needed much more teaching and training, and there were many who had not yet been saved, healed or delivered. So He immediately left Judea and headed back to Galilee by the shortest possible route, straight through Samaria. 

Many of the truths Jesus taught can be found in the Old Testament. He explained and applied them brilliantly, but when He taught those truths He wasn’t revealing anything new, just showing us what Moses and the prophets really meant. But there were a few select truths which He taught that were absolutely fresh revelations. They were, in fact, truths that He brought with Him from heaven. Of course there are glimpses of these truths all through the Old Testament so that if a reader truly understood what they were reading they would discover many prophecies that point directly to Jesus. That’s why after Jesus came to earth and did all that He did we can look back, and without stretching or forcing anything, see one passage after another that was trying to tell us about Jesus. Yet until He came they remained hidden from the human mind, shrouded in mystery (1Pe 1:10-12). And these few select truths that Jesus brought with Him from heaven had to do with Jesus Himself: who He is and why He came. These were the central truths that He spoke clearly and often, and they were the statements that got Him in trouble. Jesus wasn’t like other rabbis who were teaching people how to obey the Law of Moses. Nor did He try to introduce a new set of religious laws. He asked people to believe what He said about Himself, and those words form the foundation stones of true Christianity. They are truths we must believe. 

I think it’s easier to handle failure than it is to deliberately walk away from success. When we fail, we have no choice but to face reality sooner or later and admit that we’ve fallen short. But when we succeed at something we tend to grow proud, and as much as we may complain about all that such success demands of us, we cling to it desperately. It gives us meaning. It validates our existence. It becomes more than what we do; it defines who we are. So to even contemplate letting go becomes a very personal threat. We view it as an attack and those who dare to suggest it to us, as enemies. But the seasons of our lives must change, and the fact is there’s no stopping that change even if we try. So we must hold all things loosely. Not grip them. In other words, see the blessings and success in our lives as gifts on loan from God, not permanent possessions that we’ll keep forever.

When God sent His Son into the world it was like placing a bright lamp in a dark room. Things that had been hidden were suddenly revealed. Wherever He went His presence and His message exposed the deepest attitudes in each person’s heart. Whether or not they fully understood who Jesus was, their human spirit intuitively recognized Him and reacted immediately. Some hated Him and some loved Him. Some pulled away and some drew near. And when God who knows everything about us watched this take place, here is what He concluded: People didn’t reject Jesus because they were unaware of who He was but because they didn’t want Him to examine their lives and tell them to change. It really didn’t matter if a person was religious or non-religious; the issue that caused people to react differently was submission: would they or would they not allow God to control their lives? Those who would not basically didn’t want to submit to a moral God. Those who made a practice of doing bad things actually hated the thought of having those behaviors exposed and corrected. They would rather flee from situations or people that made them feel guilty.

What if I told you that you could be guided by God just like Jesus was guided by God? What if I told you that the same power which was at work through Jesus was available to work through you today? Would you believe me? Would you want a relationship with God like that? Now, let me ask those same questions again, but this time let me ask them another way: What if Jesus told you that you could be guided by God like He was? What if He told you that the same power which was at work through Him was available to you? Now would you believe? Would His words awaken in you a hunger for a relationship with God like that? Because today as we listen to this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus we’ll hear Jesus offer these amazing gifts to all of us. We’ll hear Him invite everyone who believes in Him to enter His kingdom and experience those realities now. He says they’re available now. And who among us doesn’t need such guidance, and who doesn’t long to have God’s power work in and through us just like it was at work in and through Jesus? The truth Jesus taught that night should become much more than a fact we retain in our minds; it’s a promise we need to spend the rest of our lives learning to put into practice. This truth must be lived. 

Most people fall into one of two categories: They’re either trying to save themselves, or they’ve realized that they can’t and that they need a Savior. People are either pursuing God’s justice or clinging to His mercy. They either expect to be rewarded or forgiven. And those two attitudes are so deeply different—they lie in such opposite directions—a person can’t pursue both at the same time. No one can try to earn God’s approval while they are receiving His mercy as a gift. It’s just not possible. The heart must look one way or the other. And, I admit, there is a third option, which is some form of hopeless indifference. That person stops trying altogether and simply looks for ways to cope until death arrives. This is the saddest option of all. Some end up there because they’ve stopped believing eternal life exists. Others believe it exists but are convinced they’ve done something that prevents them from ever receiving it. The root problem in this third option is spiritual deception. The person is believing a lie which needs to be broken by prayer. 

While He was in Jerusalem during the Feast of the Passover and the week of Unleavened Bread which followed it, Jesus must have begun His ministry of healing the sick and delivering those oppressed by demons because John says, “many believed in His name beholding Him (because of) the signs which He was doing” (literal). And then John adds the strangest statement. He says, “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men.” Then he reinforces that statement by saying, “because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man (humankind), for He Himself knew what was in man.”

Sometimes Jesus tells us things we can’t understand, at least not yet. Someday we will. Someday we will look back, and it will all fit together. But not now. Now, frankly, what He said doesn’t make any sense at all. This raises an obvious question: Why would Jesus tell us something we’re not capable of understanding? Why wouldn’t He wait until we’ve matured sufficiently? Yet we need only read through the gospels and watch for examples of Jesus telling people things that made no sense to them, to see how often He did it. This is clearly one of the ways He deals with people. He will tell us deep things long before we’re able to understand them. In fact, it seems most of us spend a lifetime trying to understand even the most basic truths we were taught as children or new believers.