By Guo Jin
One morning in early summer, a fiery red sun rose from the east. After breakfast, Zhao Yu remembered that she had made an appointment with Sister Zhou Hui and Sister Fang Xia in their church that day; looking at the clock and realizing that she would be late, she hurried to the church. As soon as she came into the room, she heard Sister Zhou Hui and Sister Fang Xia discussing something.
After they had greeted each other, Zhao Yu asked smilingly, “What are you discussing?”
Fang Xia sighed and said, “We were just saying, now the state of the world is becoming ever more terrible, various disasters are occurring one after another, and the prophecies of the Bible’s Book of Revelation all have been realized one by one. Seeing this, any discerning person can tell that now the last days have arrived. We believers are all waiting eagerly for the day when the Lord Jesus returns. Recently, I’ve been thinking about a problem. According to the degree to which the prophecies of the Bible have been fulfilled, it stands to reason that the Lord has already returned. But why have we still not met Him? What is the real reason for this?”
Then, with a sad expression on her face, Zhou Hui said, “Yes. I’ve also been feeling confused about this. After especially reading the Old Testament, I discovered an important problem: The chief priests, the scribes and the Pharisees in those early days had believed in Jehovah God for generations, strictly abided by God’s laws and commandments, rendered pious service to God, and desperately longed for the coming of the Messiah. However, when the Messiah, namely the Lord Jesus, came, they didn’t know Him and even crucified Him. When pondering those verses once again, I felt badly shaken and meanwhile thought, ‘Although I have been a believer in the Lord for many years and done much work, if compared to the chief priests and the scribes who rendered pious service to Jehovah God, I feel inferior. However, when the Lord came to work, they were unable to recognize that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah foretold in the prophecies.’ Then I asked myself, ‘Can I really guarantee that, when the Lord returns I will certainly be able to recognize that He is the Lord Jesus?’ With this in my mind, I couldn’t help but worry about whether I will be able to welcome the Lord in the future.”
After hearing this, Fang Xia nodded thoughtfully with a grave expression.
Zhao Yu also nodded and said solemnly, “Right. That Sister Zhou has such worries is understandable. After all, welcoming the Lord’s coming is a big thing. It is directly related to our ending and destination. So we should take it very seriously. Actually, in the past, I had the same worries, and during that period I had always prayed and sought in this thing and consulted the Bible. Thanks to the Lord’s guidance, in the end I finally found the secret to recognizing the Lord Jesus and successfully receiving the Lord’s return.”
After listening to this, Zhou Hui and Fang Xia said gleefully, “Thank the Lord. Sister Zhao, please tell us!”
Smiling, Zhao Yu said, “I read in the Bible that the Samaritan woman recognized that the Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah. Just as the scriptures say, ‘There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water: … The woman said to Him, Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from where then have You that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come here to draw. Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I have no husband: For you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband: in that said you truly. The woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and you say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The woman said to Him, I know that Messias comes, which is called Christ: when He is come, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I that speak to you am He. … The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?’ (John 4:7, 11–26, 28–29)”
Zhao Yu continued, “From this conversation, we can see that, in the beginning the Samaritan woman didn’t know the Lord Jesus at all, but when the Lord Jesus spoke to her, she didn’t judge the Lord by His appearance, nor did she guard against or resist the Lord’s words, but rather she carefully pondered His words. The Lord Jesus said to her, ‘But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life’ (John 4:14). ‘For you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband: in that said you truly’ (John 4:18). At that time, she was shaken by these words, and from them she realized that no one except God dared to say that he could bestow upon people the eternal font of living water of life; moreover, when hearing the Lord said the things that she had done in the past, she felt that the Lord could observe everything that people did in secret and thus she said that the Lord Jesus was a prophet. Later, when the Lord Jesus told her, ‘I that speak to you am He’ (John 4;26), her attitude was not opposing or questioning that, but was seeking and believing, and thereby she received the enlightenment and leadership of the Holy Spirit and recognized that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah. From this, we can see that the reason why the Samaritan woman, who didn’t have much Bible knowledge or any status in the religious world, could recognize the Lord Jesus was because she could attentively listen to the Lord’s words, and then from them she knew the authority and power of God’s words. And thus she concluded that the Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah: Christ. On the contrary, those chief priests, scribes and Pharisees didn’t welcome the Lord. The root of their failure was that they didn’t seek or investigate, but refused to listen to the Lord Jesus’ words, even found fault with them, and condemned and slandered the Lord Jesus. Thus, they forever lost the Lord Jesus’ salvation, and were detested, rejected, and cursed by God. Therefore, with regards to welcoming the Messiah, who is clever, isn’t it obvious?”
Hearing Zhao Yu’s fellowship, Fang Xia said excitedly, “Thank the Lord! Your communion has made me understand that the reason that the Samaritan woman recognized the Lord Jesus is mainly because when hearing the Lord Jesus’ words, she could earnestly figure out and seek the truth within them and from them she realized that no human being could have spoken these words. As a result, she received the Lord Jesus’ salvation. Now I finally find the secret to welcoming the Lord’s coming. When the Lord returns, we should be wise people like the Samaritan woman, and listen carefully to the words uttered by the Lord, for only in this way can we have the chance to welcome the Lord’s return.”
Zhou Hui also said happily, “Right indeed! Your fellowship makes me think of the Lord Jesus’ words, ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come’ (John 16:12–13). These words clearly tell us that when the Lord Jesus comes He will utter many words, and reveal all mysteries that we don’t understand to let us understand and enter into them. So we should be like the Samaritan woman, have humble and seeking hearts, focus on listening to God’s voice, know God from the words of the returned Lord, and accept and follow Him.”
Zhao Yu went on to say, “Yes. There are two scriptural passages also saying, ‘And one of the elders said to me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof’ (Revelation 5:5). ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Revelation 3:22). From these verses we can see that when the Lord returns He will open the book and loose the seven seals, and the Holy Spirit will speak to the churches. So, now if we want to welcome the Lord Jesus, the key is to seek out the utterances of the Holy Spirit.”
Fang Xia kept nodding her head and said, “Yes. In welcoming the Lord’s return, we must learn from the Samaritan woman’s example, be the wise virgins, and not commit the same mistake as the Pharisees.”
Zhao Yu and Zhou Hui said with one accord, “Amen!”
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