Christianity 101

CHRISTIANITY 101
(John Chapters 3 & 4)
The entire Christian experience,
the totality of the Gospel and 
the essence of the coming 
of Jesus can be summed up 
in John Chapters 3 & 4. 
In these chapters, Jesus had 
one-on-one meetings with 2 different people: 
A Pharisee and a Samaritan
woman. 
It is important to note that 
Jesus taught deeper stuff in 
these one-on-one meetings. 
He teaches general stuff 
when with the crowd, where 
He just talks and people 
listen, like the average pastor 
in the average church today. 
There is no opportunity for dialogue, there is no 
opportunity to ask questions. 
But when He is talking to just 
ONE person, such 
opportunities arise.
The Pharisee said, “We know 
you are from God- nobody 
can do the miracles you 
except God is with him.” 
Jesus responded; “Truly I 
tell you, unless a man is 
Born Again, he cannot see 
the Kingdom of God.” 
The Pharisee asked what 
He meant and Jesus 
explained to him: He that is 
born of the flesh is flesh, 
he that is born of the Spirit 
is spirit. 
We are all born of the flesh,
in that we were given birth 
to by our mothers. 
But to be Born Again, we have 
to be born the 2nd time- this 
time, by the SPIRIT. 
Your spirit has to be born of 
the Spirit of God BEFORE you 
can see the Kingdom of God. 
It’s not about works 
of righteousness, it’s not 
about observing religious 
rules and regulations. 
It’s like a man who wants 
to have a relationship with 
a bank: the 1st thing to do 
is to OPEN AN ACCOUNT 
with the bank. 
If he doesn’t do that, he has 
no record in the bank as 
a customer, no matter how 
many times he visits the 
bank or how many of the 
staff are his friends. 
What brings recognition as 
a customer is the account 
opening. 
Even if he brings a billion 
dollars to the bank, he still 
has no relationship with it if 
he has no account. 
When the names of the 
bank’s customers are drawn 
up, his won’t be there. 
Being Born Again is the 
opening of an account with 
the bank (God).
_________________

The woman at the well 
perceived Jesus was a 
prophet. 
She entered the quarrel 
mode: 
“Our fathers worshipped 
God on this mountain, but 
you people say it is only 
in Jerusalem that God should 
be worshipped!” 
She was a Samaritan, they 
had issues with the Jews 
because of their style of 
worship. 
The Jews insist that any 
worship not done in the 
temple in Jerusalem is null 
and void. 
The Samaritans do not go 
to Jerusalem for that, so 
the Jews condemn them: 
their style of worship is 
invalid! 
Sounds familiar? 
But Jesus brought a new 
angle to it: 
He told the woman, 
“A time is coming when 
you won’t need to go to 
Jerusalem or any mountain 
to worship the Father”. 
A time is coming when 
worship will not be defined 
by time or space. 
A time is coming when 
worship will not be limited 
by religion, by location, 
by clothes, by physical appearance. Why? 
Because GOD IS A SPIRIT! 
AND THOSE WHO WORSHIP 
HIM MUST DO SO IN 
SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. 
In other words, whoever 
wants to worship God does 
so with his/her spirit, not 
with the body. 
Worship is no more a
 physical act, but a spiritual 
one. 
Worship is no more by 
killing animals and spilling 
their blood. 
Worship is no more 
burning incense and sprinkling 
holy water. 
These things were the norm 
under Judaism, but with 
the death and resurrection 
of Jesus, a new method and 
style of worship was 
birthed.
Jesus did away with the 
old order- that was what 
he explained to the Samaritan woman. 
And when she learnt this, 
she went back to the town 
and told people what she 
just heard. 
The people came to meet 
Jesus and asked him to 
stay with them for a while. 
They wanted to learn more 
from Him directly, not base 
their faith on what the 
woman told them. 
Jesus obliged them and 
stayed 2 days. 
They later told the woman, 
“Now we believe- not 
because of what you said, 
but because we have 
HEARD him ourselves and 
KNOW that this is indeed 
the Christ.”
These folks had no idea 
about Jesus until 
someone mentioned Him 
to them. 
But they did not take her 
word for it: they decided 
to develop a PERSONAL
 RELATIONSHIP with Him. 
Imagine if they never met 
Jesus? 
They would have been 
referring to Him as 
“The Jesus whom the 
Samaritan woman talked 
about.” 
Like the 7 sons of Sceva in 
the Book of Acts who tried 
to exorcise a demon from 
a man in Ephesus. 
They said, “In the Name of 
Jesus who Paul preaches…” 
The demon replied, 
“Jesus I know, Paul I know: 
who are you?” 
Your knowledge of Him 
must be FIRSTHAND. 
You cannot live on a 
borrowed knowledge 
or relationship.
Today unfortunately, we 
have too many people on 
borrowed knowledge 
and borrowed relationship 
with God; and that 
borrowed knowledge is 
from their pastors. 
So we hear lots of 
“My pastor said…” these days. 
We also hear lots of 
“In the name of the God of…” 
and they insert their pastors’ names. 
They justify such prayers 
with “God is called the God 
of Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob in the Bible!” 
They do not understand 
that there is a difference 
between the relationship 
those Patriarchs had with 
God and us. 
They do not understand 
that there is a difference 
between Judaism and 
Christianity. 
If your faith and knowledge 
of God is hinged on what 
your pastor says and 
teaches or you pray in the 
name of the God of your 
pastor, you are walking a 
slippery slope. 
You need to do like the 
men who the Samaritan 
woman told about Jesus 
but rather than take her 
word for it (as you take 
your pastors’), they came 
to know Jesus for 
themselves.
____________
This is the whole essence 
of Christianity:
You get born again: your 
spirit comes alive, your spirit 
is born new, The Holy Spirit 
works on the inside of you 
to transform you into the 
person God created you 
to be: there are no 
shortcuts.
You worship God as He 
wants to be worshipped: 
in Spirit and in Truth. 
You get to understand that 
worship is a spiritual act, 
not a physical one and is not limited by time or space. 
You get to understand that 
God is omnipresent and 
His presence is not 
consecrated anywhere. 
He is as present in your 
toilet as He is in a Church 
building. 
You don’t need to travel 
on a pilgrimage or go to a 
camp to meet with Him. 
He is ubiquitous- there is 
no need for any religious 
drama to meet with Him.

You need to KNOW Him 
yourself: do not put your 
on any man, no matter 
the religious title he carries. 
God has no grandchildren- 
you cannot be a child of a 
child of God. 
You have equal access to 
Him as any other person 
on this planet. 
Don’t belittle yourself. 
Don’t arrogate any special 
privilege to any man and 
think he is closer to God 
than you, or you need any 
man’s assistance or 
validation to know God. 
God is YOUR Father just 
as much as He is mine 
and everybody else’s!

Shalom
Haruna Daniels.