The Influence of Jesus.

 

 Jesus made a huge difference to the lives of certain people we read about in the Bible.

  

 

1. Simon Peter and Andrew.                                                       Matthew 4:  18- 22

     

2. Zaccheaus.                                                                                  Luke     19:  1- 9

     

3. The woman of Samaria.                                                            John       4:  1- 38

     

4. The thief on the cross.                                                              Luke     23: 39 - 43

    

 

For each of these people we can look at four things concerning them:-

 

 

1. Who was Jesus speaking to?

     

2. Where were they?

     

3. What did he say?

     

4. What difference it made?

     

God speaks to us just where we are, sometimes in strange places. Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee,  he had begun his ministry and had started to preach. It was a busy day – people were working.  Here he meets the first two people we are looking at.

 

 

1

Simon Peter and Andrew 

      

They were fishermen. They were in a boat casting their nets into the lake.

 

They heard a compelling voice a special person calling them.

  

Jesus said “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men”. 

 

Jesus had a great influence over the hearts and minds of those men. Complete obedience, they followed immediately. Jesus displayed his great power, he called two very ordinary, probably uneducated, men into his service. Two from the twelve disciples who he called to follow him. Through these disciples many people were brought to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

 

Jesus had entered Jericho  and was passing through.  Jericho was sometimes described as a little paradise – the streets lined with palm trees and rose gardens. Jesus meets with Zacchaeus.

 

 2

 

 

Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and very wealthy.

 

He was up a tree. A little man who wanted to see Jesus, he had run ahead and climbed a sycamore tree.

 

 

 

Jesus said “Zacchaeus come down immediately. I must stay at your house today”

 

Jesus’ loving concern for this man changed him, he said he would give half his possessions to the poor, and he would repay anyone he had cheated.

Jesus said “today salvation has come to this house. For the son of man came to seek and save what was lost.

 

Jesus left Judea and went back to Galilee, he had to pass through Samaria and being very tired and thirsty sat down at a well, where he meets a woman.

 

3

The woman of   S amaria

 

 

A Samaritan woman came to draw water in the afternoon

 

She was at the well.

  

 

Jesus said to her “Will you give me a drink”   She was surprised because she was a Samaritan and he was a Jew. He told her about the gift of God and the living water. If she had this living water she would never thirst again. Jesus knew all about this woman and told her truths about herself. Jesus said he was the Messiah.

  

She went back to the town and told people to come and see this man who had told her all about herself. Many of the Samaritans believed in Jesus because of this. They persuaded him to stay another two days and many more believed because of his words.

 

 

When Jesus was on the cross two thieves were hanging either side of him. The one thief hurled insults at him, but the other rebuked him saying "Don't you fear God" This thief admitted their guilt, and that they deserved their punishment.  He knew that Jesus had done no wrong.

   

4

The thief on the cross

 

On the cross next to Jesus the Holy Spirit working in his heart - he said “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom"

 

Jesus answered him “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise"  

 

Note :  the comfort of Jesus’ answer: - A promise and an assurance that it would be that day, in heaven. What a glorious promise utterly undeserved. This offer is available to all today.

 

Jesus had conducted himself impeccably amidst all the wicked taunts, the mockeries, and the pain he suffered. There was darkness for three hours, curtain torn, and earthquake, splitting of the rock, and opening of the graves.  Jesus saying in a loud voice – “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”  All this had a lasting affect on all who watched, the centurion praised God and said “surely this was a righteous man”

Do we realise just how much Jesus suffered bled and died for us! We need to come to the Saviour now, with his lasting affect on our lives.

 

 

 

  Bible Quotations Taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version © 1973,1978 by the International Bible Society.