February 2, 2020
“To be godly is to rightly relate to God the Father.
To be Christian is to rightly relate to Jesus Christ.
To be spiritual is to rightly relate to the Spirit of God.”
—
When you think about the trinity, what do you think about? When you think about your communion, what do you think about? We kick off a new series this week, and Ben Stuart walks us through what it looks like to receive the grace that is offered to us through the person of Jesus.
Scripture References
3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.
8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
1Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.
2He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3Jesus replied,
“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
”
4“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5Jesus answered,
“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
6
Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit
gives birth to spirit.
7
You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You
must be born again.’
8
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10
“You are Israel’s teacher,”
said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?
11
Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
12
I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
13
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
14
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15
that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
1Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—
2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.
3So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4Now he had to go through Samaria.
5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her,
“Will you give me a drink?”
8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10Jesus answered her,
“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13Jesus answered,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14
but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16He told her,
“Go, call your husband and come back.”
17“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her,
“You are right when you say you have no husband.
18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
18
The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.
20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21
“Woman,”
Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22
You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
24
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26Then Jesus declared,
“I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Ben Stuart
Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.