Within these chapters are some pretty famous Bible teachings if you grew up around any sort of Christian influence. You have God's message of love in John 3.16. You have the powerful word on worship in John 4.23-24. And you have an incredible warning to those who are religious but not relational in John 5.39. It's all incredible stuff and just as deep as you'd ever want to go.
But as we've been doing in the sermon series, let's zoom the camera out a little bit and take a larger look at the encounters in John 3 and 4.
In John 3 it's the religious Nicodemus. In John 4 it's the immoral woman from Samaria. Here's the part I want to point out: Jesus was perfectly comfortable and precisely confrontational with both. He didn't mind talking to either of them, the upstanding citizen or the scorned just-short-of-prostitute. But He also didn't mince words with either of them. He confronted them both with their sin and lack of understanding of how things really are and how they really work.
You think it's your Jewish lineage that makes you so great? You must be born again.
You think you can get a drink that satisfies? I have living water.
Whether we encounter those who are religious or completely irreligious, Jesus has a Word for them. And probably for us too...
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