He Will Explain Everything

 

My father was witnessing to a couple of men who said they were Jehovah’s witnesses. I remember sidling up to the conversation and listening in as a boy.

And I remember my father’s final word to these men as they were about to leave. He said to them, “when your religion lets you down, come back here and I will tell you again about Jesus.”

My father was my greatest teacher. He often told his own story about how he trusted Christ. According to my Dad, Jesus himself was the answer to everything. He was the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

I wondered sometimes how the man from Galilee could truly be the answer to everything. He was fully man, this is true. But he was not merely man—he was the Son of God, the Word made flesh. And he was full of grace and truth, as shown here in his encounter with the woman at the well.

He Will Explain Everything:

"The woman said, 'I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.'" - John 4:25

We all want an explanation. We want to know why we exist, where we came from, and where we are going. More than anything, we want our lives to have meaning and purpose. This is the explanation we are looking for.

• We feel lost, somehow, turned loose on the planet and in the universe without a map telling us who we are and how to get to where we need to be.

• You can buy the book called The Theory of Everything by Stephen Hawking subtitled “The Origin and Fate of the Universe. Hawking is a brilliant physicist turned philosopher. You can also watch the movie called The Theory of Everything. It tells the story of Hawking’s first marriage to Jane.
• Even a brilliant scientist comes up short when trying to explain everything. As the reviews of his book indicate, Hawking only has some ideas, he confesses, no real explanations for the existence of this universe.
• Science cannot explain the meaning of your life. Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates had already lived and died before the woman at the well talked to Jesus. These seminal thinkers could not explain the meaning of her life, either.

“When he comes,” the woman says, “he will explain everything.” We say this a lot as followers of Jesus. “When we get to heaven, we will understand.” Or, “I have some questions I want to ask when I get to heaven.”

• We assume that one day everything will make sense in the light of what we learn at the coming of Jesus.

• This hope of a future explanation of everything is common mental territory for people. The teaching of a future heaven and hell revolves around completion. We are looking for the telos, “the completion of all things,” not the Latin finis, “an end without resolution.” We expect that in the end the mental questions will be answered and all injustice will be resolved.

THE MESSIAS (called CHRISTOS), the Anointed One.

I memorized PSALM 2 as a boy: Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against his anointed saying, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”

“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. “I will declare the decree,” the LORD has said unto me. “Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Be wise now, therefore, oh ye kings. Be instructed ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

• “Salvation is of the Jews,” Jesus told the woman.

• The Messiah is God’s explanation of everything to us just as he was to the woman at the well.

What is Your Substitute for Jesus?

You are having spiritual and religious conversations. You may be debating theology or doctrine. You may be talking about the inner life, the longing for peace and hope and joy.

• Sometimes we have these conversations with ease because such longings are common to all people.

• And we can continue to converse without ever getting to the explanation for everything. The explanation for everything is the Messiah himself. People understand that when you say the name of Jesus, you are putting this out there.

• John and Peter said, “It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed…Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” - Acts 4:10, 12.

What is your substitute?

• Are you using your own goodness and influence, hoping that your personal qualities will change the mind of the one to whom you witness?

• Are you pointing to a system of thought that you find to be very compelling? Do you think that system will save a soul?

• Are you arguing for a worldview that you have substituted for the Savior?

• Are you suggesting to people that your church is the answer to their need?

• Have you substituted the Bible for the Savior?

• Are you now focusing on the Holy Spirit instead of Jesus? The Spirit came to bear witness to the Christ!

 

Make Your Way Toward Him:

“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him." - John 4:29-30

The woman was focused on Jesus as Messiah. She had no other agenda. She had discovered a person, not a theory or a system or a structure. And she exalted this person. She talked about him.

The townspeople were intrigued by her story about Jesus. You will always find this to be true. As difficult and sometimes divisive as it may be to talk about Jesus, we have no alternative. We must get to Jesus as Savior. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Peter asked. “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).

• When we introduce Jesus into the conversation, we introduce the power of salvation and healing for the human heart. We bring up the One who can give living water. The angels gather when the name of Jesus is mentioned. The demons shake in fear. The Enemy himself is terrified.

• And the Power of God to save the soul is unleashed through his Holy Spirit.

We often quote 2 Timothy 1:7: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. It is a great verse. Do you know what the next line is? “So do not be ashamed about the testimony of our Lord.”

The testimony about Jesus is the Spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind (self-discipline). You are being loving, not unkind, when you speak his name. You are introducing power, not weakness, when you speak his name. You are doing what is rational and logical, not irrational, when you speak the name of Jesus into any conversation. His name brings love and power in all places at all times.

Make your way to Him. I invite you to come to Jesus Christ today.