For a better perspective on what Jesus had to say in the Sermon, it is helpful to consider two stories found in John, chapters 3 and 4, along with an excerpt from John 6, which make plain the need to be forgiven one's sins and to be born again as a new creation now united to God the Father and Jesus the Son. As we read through the Sermon, these other words of Jesus may come to mind to aid our comprehension.
One night after Jesus had been teaching during the day, an influential Pharisee named Nicodemus came to see him.
"Teacher, we know you are a teacher who has come from God," said Nicodemus. "No one could do the signs you do without God."
"Very seriously I tell you," said Jesus, "unless a person is born again [ff.1], he cannot see God's kingdom."
"What!? How can someone be born when he is older? Can he go back into his mother's womb for a second birth?"
Jesus replied, "Very seriously I tell you, unless a person is born of the Spirit [ff.2], he cannot enter God's kingdom. What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don't wonder about me telling you, you must be born again. The wind [ff.3] blows wherever it leans. You hear its voice but you don't know where it came from or where it is going. That's how it is for everyone born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus was perplexed. "That's very hard to understand."
"You are a teacher of Jews and you don't know this?" said Jesus. "We speak what we know and report what we have witnessed. And yet, you do not receive our testimony." Jesus added, "If I tell you about simple things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about higher things?" [ff.4]
John continues with important insights into who Jesus is:
No one had ascended to heaven [ff.5] except he who descended out of heaven – but who is still human. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up so that whoever trusts him may have eternal life. [ff.6]
God loved the world so much that he gave his precious firstborn son so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life. God did not send his son into the world to judge it, but to save the world through his son. This is how that works: He who trusts in the son has eternal life, but he who does not is under the judgment caused by failure to accept the son.
That is, the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light. When you keep doing wrong, you are dodging the light. You know that if you let the light shine into your mind, you will feel guilty about what you've been doing. But, if your heart is now true, you like the light and don't mind God seeing what you do, since it comes from God. [ff.7]
He that is of the earth talks about earthly things. But he who comes from heaven is above everything. He testifies about what he has seen and heard, and no one believes him. But he who has believed his testimony affirms this: God is true. The one sent by God speaks God's words; God gives him unlimited Spirit. The Father loves the son, and has put everything under his control. He who trusts the son has eternal life. He who won't do so will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
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Once, when Jesus was traveling the Samaria [ww.1] road between Jerusalem and Galilee, he arrived at Sychar, not far from the parcel of land Jacob had given his son Joseph. That's where Jacob's well is.
Weary from his journey, Jesus sat down by the well while his disciples went into town to purchase some food. At about the sixth hour [probably noon], a Samaritan woman came up to draw water from the well.
"Give me something to drink," Jesus said.
The woman was surprised. "You're a Jew and you're asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?"
Jews and Samaritans did not get along well in those days [ww.2].
"If you knew the gift of God, and who asked you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water," [ww.3] Jesus replied.
"What? You don't even have a jug. What are you talking about? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and provided water for himself, his family and all his cattle?"
Jesus replied, "Everyone who drinks that water will thirst again. But whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst again – this water will be like wellspring water, bubbling up forever."
"Sir," she said. "Give me that water so that I won't have to come all this way to draw it up."
Jesus replied, "Go call your husband and bring him here."
"I don't have a husband," she said.
"You said that right: I have no husband. You have actually had five husbands, and your current man is not your husband. So, you spoke the truth."
Startled, she said, "I can see that you are a prophet!" Immediately, she wondered about different religious practices. "Our fathers have always worshiped on this mountain [ww.4] but you Jews say Jerusalem is the right place."
Jesus said, "Woman, believe me, the time is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know – for salvation comes from the Jews. But the time is coming, and now is here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. These are the kind of worshipers the Father wants. God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
The woman replied, "I know that when Messiah comes, he will reveal everything to us."
"I am speaking with you," said Jesus [ww.5]. (This was a way of quietly saying, "The I Am speaks.)
At this point, his disciples returned and were amazed to find him speaking with a woman. Yet not one of them asked, "What are you doing? Why are you talking to her?"
The woman left her jug and hurried back to town, where she told everyone, "Come see a man who told me everything about my past! Is this the Messiah?"
The townspeople decided to have a look and came out to the well.
But in the meantime, his disciples urged him to have some food.
"I have food that you don't know about," Jesus answered.
The disciples were puzzled. Has anyone brought him something to eat? they wondered.
"My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work," said Jesus. "Don't you say, 'In four months it will be harvest time?' But I say, look around. The fields are right now ready for the harvest."
He added, "He who reaps is paid for the crop of eternal-life fruit. But the sower also enjoys this harvest. So here the saying applies, 'One reaps where another sows.' I send you to reap where you have done no work. But now you join in the labor of others."
When the Samaritans of Sychar came out to him, they urged him to spend some time with them. This he did, staying two days.
Many of the townspeople put their trust in him after hearing him teach. Some told the woman words to the effect: "At first, we believed this man is someone special because of what you told us. But now we believe he is the Messiah because we have heard him ourselves." [ww.6]
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At another point, Jesus surprised people with these words:"I am that bread of life.
"Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, and they are dead.
"But this bread comes down from heaven so that a person may eat it – and not die.
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
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