Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to John 4:1-26
John 4:1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had
heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in
fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and
went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a
town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his
son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the
journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus
said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the
town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and
I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not
associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God
and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would
have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw
with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you
greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself,
as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never
thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water
welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so
that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you
have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you
now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a
prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that
the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is
coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we
do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now
come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in
truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit,
and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called
Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I
am he.”
-- in the
book, "Dinner with a Perfect Stranger," the main character Nick
Cominsky receives a dinner invitation in his office mailbox -- ordinarily, he
would have just tossed it, but this one captured his attention -- written in
calligraphy on formal paper was the notice, "You are invited to a dinner
with Jesus of Nazareth, Milano's Restaurant, Tuesday, March 24th, Eight o'clock"
-- he
stared at it for a while, wondering if it was a joke or another outreach
attempt by the church down the street -- he knew it couldn't be real, but
still, he was intrigued -- so on March 24th, he made his way to Milano's
Restaurant for his dinner with Jesus
-- and as
the story develops, we learn this is not a joke or an outreach by the church,
but is truly an encounter with the Divine -- Jesus Himself had invited Nick to
dinner to talk with him about his faith and his fears and his future in answer
to a prayer Nick had prayed at the time of his father's death -- and even
though Nick was not truly a person of faith and did not attend church, Jesus
had taken time to perform a miracle and appear in person to him in this way
-- while
this is a fiction book, it does make a very poignant observation -- in the
gospels, we repeatedly see Jesus engaged in encounters of the Divine just as in
this fictional account
-- despite having the weight of the
world on His shoulders, Jesus would take time from His schedule to stop for a
word with an outcast leper -- to comfort a father whose daughter had just died
-- and to show compassion to a woman whose outpouring of blood caused her to be
rejected by her community
-- He met
with Nicodemus around His fire at night -- He called Zacchaeus to come down
from the tree and sup with Him that night -- and He took time to cross cultural
and societal boundaries to speak to a Samaritan woman at the well
-- this
morning, I want us to take a moment to look at the encounter with the Divine we
see here in John Chapter 4 in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well --
for it is here we see the true nature of Christ displayed and a lesson for us
in what is important in life
II. Scripture Lesson
-- so, if
you would, please join me again here in John Chapter 4 starting in verse 1-4
John 4:1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had
heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in
fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and
went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria.
-- this
story, as in so many of the gospel stories, begins with conflict -- even here
at the start of His earthly ministry, Jesus finds Himself at odds with the
Pharisees simply because He is not fitting their mold
-- He is not doing
"church" the way they think it should be done -- He is not exalting
the law of Moses to idol status, but instead is focusing on relationships – on the
hearts and needs of the people of Israel -- even if that means healing them on
the Sabbath or baptizing them in the Jordan River
-- but at
this point in His ministry, Jesus is seeking to avoid direct confrontation with
the Jewish leaders -- so He decides to leave the region of Judea and travel
home to Galilee -- the problem is the region of Samaria, which lies right in
the middle of Jesus' most direct path between Judea and Galilee
-- the
problem with Samaria was this -- the Jews hated the Samaritans and the
Samaritans hated the Jews – it all goes back to the time when the nation of
Israel was split into two separate kingdoms – the northern kingdom of Israel
was made up of 10 tribes of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah was made
up of the other two – Judah and Benjamin
-- the northern kingdom of Israel
turned away from God and began to worship idols – and their leaders and the
people became corrupt and wicked in the eyes of the Lord
-- so, God allowed the Assyrians to
conquer the northern kingdom and take the people of Israel captive – but when
they did so, the land of Israel was mostly empty – and so the Assyrians
repopulated the land with captives from other lands and their own people
-- there were still a few Jews left
in Israel – the poor – the farmers – those tied to the land – and this remnant
of Jews began marrying the foreigners who were now in their land – resulting in
a mixed race of people who were not fully Jew or fully Gentile
-- and this intermarriage between
the Jews and these Gentile foreigners also resulted in a mixing of religion –
as the foreigners introduced their gods and their practices into their families
– the end result was that the people of northern Israel began adopting
religious practices that were part Jewish and part pagan and totally not
acceptable to the Lord or to the Jewish people
-- over time, as the Jewish people
came back into the ancestral land of Israel, these mixed people were
concentrated into one area – the region of Samaria – and they were known as
Samaritans
-- so, the true Jews looked down on
the descendants of these people – the Samaritans -- and considered them tainted
– with corrupt bloodlines and corrupt religion
-- they hated these people with a
passion -- they looked down on them and considered them unclean -- they hated
them so much, they would not set foot in Samaria – they would never consider
entering the boundary of the region of Samaria, but would go around it if their
travels demanded them to go from Judea to Galilee
-- this is
what good Jewish people did in Jesus’ day -- this is what was expected -- but
Jesus never did what was expected
-- in verse
4 we read, "He had to go through Samaria" -- geographically, it would
make sense for Jesus to just cut right through the center of Samaria en route
to Galilee, but I don't think that is what John means by this phrase
-- when
John says Jesus had to go through Samaria, I think this means Jesus had a
divine appointment in Samaria -- there was someone who needed Him there, and
Jesus was going to break all the rules to be in the right place at the right
time to meet them
-- Jesus
still does that for us today -- He still meets with us when we need Him most --
and while He may not appear to us in person, He moves heaven and earth to meet
us at the point of our need -- He sends other people to find us and speak His
love to us -- He changes circumstances -- He does whatever He needs to to catch
our attention and speak to our hearts
-- verse 5-9
John 4:5 So he came to a town in Samaria called
Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s
well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the
well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus
said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the
town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and
I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not
associate with Samaritans.)
-- it is
high noon in Samaria -- Jesus and His disciples have made their way to the town
of Sychar, and He has sent them into the town to buy food -- that in itself is
curious
-- why
would all of His disciples need to go to buy food? -- and if the reason they
were there in
-- for at
that moment -- after the disciples had left and at a time when women did not
normally come to draw water -- Jesus had arranged a meeting between Himself and
this woman
-- this is
one of those passages where we can clearly see the humanity of Jesus on display
-- John tells us Jesus was tired -- He was obviously thirsty, as we can see
because He asks this woman for water – and He was hungry, which is why the
disciples went to buy food
-- it had been a long journey for
Jesus – not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually -- you know
the weight of rejection by the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders had to be
weighing on His soul – here He has come as the long-awaited Messiah, but the
very people that He came for were rejecting Him and threatening His very life
-- but despite all that He was
going through – despite His weariness and hunger and emotional rejection and
hurt, Jesus still took time to reach out to this woman and speak to her – even
though this went against the norm – even though His speaking to her was not an
accepted practice for Jews, who refused to associate with Samaritans in any way
-- there's
a lesson there for us -- ministry does not always present itself when we are physically
and emotionally ready – many times, the call to minister and the need to speak
to someone or reach out to them in Jesus’ name comes when we’re tired and worn
out and just feel like we can’t go on – but it’s at times like that, when we
can’t do it on our own or in our own strength, that God gives us His strength
and His power to do what He is calling us to do
-- as Paul told Timothy, we need to
be ready in season and out of season to preach the word and minister to others
-- not just when we have outreaches and programs and events planned – not just
those times when the date has been circled on our calendars for months -- but also
when we're tired and don't really feel like it -- when we're hungry or thirsty
or in need ourselves
-- when God
places someone in our path like this woman, we must respond like Jesus – we
have to reach out to them where they are and when they are, regardless of our
personal state of being
-- verse 10-15
John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of
God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he
would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw
with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you
greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself,
as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never
thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water
welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so
that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
-- when
Jesus asks this woman for a drink, she rebukes Him for asking -- He is a Jew --
why would He ask her for water and why should she give Him any, given the way
her people had been treated by the Jews?
-- now we
see the reason for this divine appointment -- this woman has been hurt -- her
soul has been damaged through judgment and scorn -- both by the townspeople,
who judged her for her lifestyle -- and by the Jews, who judged her because of
her skin color and lack of true faith – this is a woman rejected by everyone
-- and this
is probably the reason why she came alone to the well at noon rather than in
the early hours of the day with the other women -- not only was she avoiding
the whispers and stares of the other women, but she had a need which water
could never fill
-- the same
is true with all of us and with all of those we meet -- how often do we pass
people and ask, "How are you doing?" and get back the same answer we
give, "I'm doing good -- how about you?" – we’re just like this woman
at the well
– we have needs in our lives –
we’re going through difficulties -- but we never mention our hurts or our needs
or how we're really doing because we don’t think anyone really cares – and we
don’t engage other people and listen to their stories for the same reason – and
so, we all just meet and say, “we’re doing good,” and we walk away without ever
having our real needs heard and met
-- remember
this -- in every encounter you have with someone else, there is a need that is
not being expressed and that will not be expressed until we truly ask from the
heart – until we stop them from just saying, “I’m doing good,” and ask them,
“No. Really. How are you?”
-- as John Maxwell said, “People
don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” -- people will
open up to you if you will simply show them how much you truly care about them
-- Jesus
responded to the woman's rebuke by offering her the gift of living water --
Jesus wasn't offering her stale water from a well or stagnant water from a
cistern that could only temporarily satisfy her thirst -- He was offering her
what she truly needed -- He was offering her the source of life -- He was
offering her Himself – He looked into her heart and saw her need and her thirst
and said, “I can give you the water you truly need that will take away all the
hurts that you are dealing with”
-- and we
see in her response the admission of her need -- "Sir, give me this living
water -- give me this life"
-- you all
know how many times we get calls here asking for help -- people needing their
light bills paid or food on their table or gas for their cars -- and you know
how often we have tried to help and how frustrated we sometimes get that we
just can't do more or that what we do doesn’t seem to help in the long run --
that we can only temporarily help those in need and can't really meet all the
requests that come our way
-- but we
have to be reminded that we do have something to offer that is eternal --
something that may not meet their physical needs at the moment, but that will
meet their heart needs for eternity -- we can do just like Jesus in these
verses and offer them the living water that we ourselves have found -- and give
them the joy and the hope that goes along with it -- and more often than not,
this is what they are really seeking – this is what they are really looking
for, even if they can’t express it
-- verse 16-19
John 4:16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come
back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you
have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you
now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a
prophet.
-- Jesus
knew full well this woman didn't have a husband -- he knew she had been married
multiple times and he knew she was living with a man out of wedlock -- so why
did He ask her to bring her husband to the well?
-- it's
because grace is free, but it's not cheap -- the grace of salvation came at a
high price -- it cost God His only Son and it cost Jesus suffering and agony on
the cross and enduring the penalty for all our sins
-- the
grace of the cross is freely offered by God to us, but it requires more than
just mouthing the words of a sinner's prayer to be effective -- it requires a
response from the heart -- it requires a change
-- as Henry
Blackaby points out, you can't stay where you are and go with God -- and for
this woman to receive the living water offered by Jesus, she couldn't continue
to live an immoral lifestyle
-- Jesus'
command to her to call her husband to the well was an invitation to confession
and repentance -- it was an invitation to leave the past behind -- to turn away
from that which had put a barrier between her and God -- and to turn from her
sins to the loving arms of a gracious Savior
-- we have
to be careful that we are not offering cheap grace to those we meet -- grace
without repentance -- grace without holiness -- Jesus didn't just die to
forgive our sins -- He died to break the power of sin within -- to allow us to
live holy lives through His presence and power that only comes through
confession and repentance -- a new life -- a changed life -- an abundant and
full life with Him
-- in these
verses we see the true need of this Samaritan woman portrayed for us -- why did
she have so many men in her life? -- what was it she was seeking?
-- she had
a desire within to be loved by a perfect love -- her problem was she didn't
realize this need within could not be met by man -- in trying to meet this
need, she had been looking for love in all the wrong places -- and it had
caused her nothing but heartbreak and rejection – but, as Jesus makes clear in
His offer of living water, only God can meet our needs and fulfill our desires
to love and be loved
-- as
Augustine said, "Thou has formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are
restless till they find rest in Thee"
-- verse 20-26
John 4:20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,
but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is
coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we
do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now
come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in
truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit,
and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called
Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I
am he.”
-- only a
couple of questions remain -- how do I worship? -- Who do I worship?
-- as I
said, the religion of the Samaritans had been tainted through the mixing of
pagan worship with Jewish tradition -- they had been separated from the temple
and had begun practicing their religion where they were – by worshiping and
offering sacrifices on that very mountain where Jesus and this woman were at – so,
she wanted to know, was this what she should continue to do or should she
worship in Jerusalem as the Jews?
-- Jesus'
response seems to indicate that not only was the Samaritan worship tainted, but
also that of the Jews -- their worship was no longer real and from the heart
but driven by man-made laws and time-bound tradition
-- true
worshipers, He says, worship in spirit and truth -- they are not bound by
geography or race or religion, for once they have been freed from the chains of
sin and death and given the living water of grace, they will worship freely
wherever they are
-- worship
should flow out of our redeemed spirits, and worship should happen in the
everyday moments of life, as well as when we gather as a community to share in
corporate worship
-- Jesus is
looking ahead to the moment when He would die on the cross -- when the veil
separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple would be torn, making
a way for all to enter into the presence of God freely and without restriction
-- from
that moment on, it didn't matter whether you worshiped on the mountains of
Samaria or in the temple at Jerusalem, God would be found by those who
earnestly sought Him – and we could worship and praise God with our whole
lives, no matter where we found ourselves
-- but how
could the woman know this to be true? -- who was Jesus to tell her where to
worship? -- "we are waiting for the Messiah," she says, "He will
tell us all things and we should wait until He comes to discuss such
matters" -- to which Jesus simply responds, "I am He – I am the
Messiah – I am the Way and the Truth and the Life – do what I say – drink deep
of Me – and you will experience new life"
III. Closing
-- I heard
a story about a group of women who had gathered in a home for a time of
intercessory prayer -- as they bowed their heads and began to pray, they were
interrupted by the sound of items being moved on the coffee table
-- one
woman opened her eyes and noticed their host busily straightening up the living
room -- picking up papers and putting magazines and books away
--
"How dare she clean while we are in the midst of praying?" the woman
thought
-- the host
glanced up and saw the woman's look of concern with her actions and explained,
"As we started praying and inviting the Lord Jesus to come, it occurred to
me I should make my home presentable since the King was coming to visit"
-- I think
that's something we should all remember -- divine encounters occur every day
and God wants to use us to share His message of hope and love with others
-- in order
to recognize these divine encounters, we need to get ready -- we need to ask
God to open our eyes to moments of grace -- to ask Him to help us get past the
surface and see the true needs in other's lives -- we have to be ready to share
His love with others
-- and when
we do this, we will begin to see living miracles every day -- People will show
up on your doorstep or at the table next to you -- They'll start asking you
about spiritual matters, and they'll wait for your reply -- looking for answers
to questions they can't even phrase.
-- And we
are going to have to rely on God to work through us, by using our gifts and
talents that He has given us. We are going to have to be like John and Paul and
not worry about what we will say, but trust in the Holy Spirit to put the words
in our mouth that the world needs at that moment.
-- We might
be led into areas vastly different from where we want to go or where we think
we should be going -- but, when we ask God to use us, we have to be prepared
for Him to do just that
-- Let me close
by giving you an example of what happens when you ask God to use you in divine
appointments -- a few years ago, I did an experiment -- I prayed for God to use
me -- I didn't tell Him how I wanted to be used -- I just prayed for God to use
me.
-- And all that week, people just
started showing up in my office -- they'd come in there and they'd make small
talk and all of a sudden they were spilling their guts over some issue in their
life that they needed help with -- I couldn't do much more than listen, but I
feel sure that this was what they needed and I feel sure that this is what God
wanted me to do
-- These were divine appointments
just like the one at the well in
-- one thing I learned: when you pray for God to use you -- when you
pray for a divine appointment -- God will always answer this prayer
-- but maybe that’s not why you’re
here this morning -- maybe you’re not here to minister to others -- maybe
you’re here seeking a moment with the divine -- a moment with Jesus
-- maybe you are here because Jesus
drew you here -- maybe you’re here because you have a need for healing and for
a drink from the living water -- if that’s the case, then as we close in
prayer, follow the path of the Samaritan woman -- confess and repent in your
heart to Jesus -- bring your needs before Him -- ask Him to fill you -- to
renew you -- to restore you -- to make you whole again
-- He’s here, offering the living
water to all of us -- let it flow over you -- let it wash away all your hurt
and your pain and your sin -- and feel His love and His presence today
-- let's pray
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