Scripture: John 4:13-42
Introduction
- Our story of the Samaritan woman at the well picks up after the initial conversation.
- By now, Jesus has told her about the “living water” that only He can provide.
- Apart from the air we breathe, WATER is the next most important thing in life.
- Humans can only go 3-4 days without water even though they can go 30-40 days without food.
- The scene is Jacob’s well and Jesus is alone with a Samaritan woman.
- Again, this is wrong on so many levels in the historical context.
- Jesus is alone with an unmarried woman who has been married 5 times and is currently living with a man, unmarried, and she is a Samaritan.
- This is enough to get tongues wagging even today.
- Only the Gospel of John records this incident, but like most of John, it is indicative of the heart and openness of Jesus for all people – even the lowest of the low.
- John presents us with three things about Jesus and his time with the Samaritan woman:
- He reached out to her
- He told her everything she had done
- Many more believed
1. He reached out to her
- Up until this point in Jesus’ ministry, His focus had been entirely on the Jews.
- Even when He was confronted by a Gentile, a Caananite women, Jesus said in Matthew 15:24: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
- Jesus was impressed by her faith and had mercy on her and healed her daughter anyway.
- This was an exception though, because He mostly confined His ministry to the Jews.
- But in this meeting with the Samaritan woman, Jesus is moving outside of His circle.
- He is reaching out to a new group of people through this woman.
- This is a group of people that the Jews detested, the Samaritans.
- Why did the Jews hate the Samaritans? According to the website Bible.org:
Hatred between Jews and Samaritans was fierce and long-standing. In some ways, it dated all the way back to the days of the patriarchs. Jacob (or Israel) had twelve sons, whose descendants became twelve tribes. Joseph, his favorite, was despised by the other brothers (Gen. 37:3-4), and they attempted to do away with him.
But God intervened and not only preserved Joseph’s life, but used him to preserve the lives of the entire clan. Before his death, Jacob gave Joseph a blessing in which he called him a “fruitful bough by a well” (Gen. 49:22). The blessing was fulfilled, as the territory allotted to the tribes of Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim (“doubly fruitful”) and Manasseh, was the fertile land that eventually became Samaria.
- You might think that this particular form of racism is kind of silly since they have so much in common.
- But why then is the 11:00 hour on Sunday mornings the most segregated hour in Christianity?
- Jesus did not discriminate, but yet somehow we think we can?
- This point in the story is where Jesus sets the example for everyone.
- It’s Jesus saying “enough is enough! These people are OUR people too!”
- Thank you Jesus for the welcoming spirit and openness that You bless this church with.
- This world has gone crazy with racism and hatred and divisiveness.
- This world needs to change – it needs a before it gets any worse.
- Jesus gave us the answer and its right here in front of us plain as day.
- A simple act of kindness: a drink of water from a well for a thirsty traveller.
- No grand theological program or great inspirational sermon.
- Just two people having a drink of water.
- Not just any two people, but two people who had no business talking to each other.
- Jesus made it His business to reach out to this woman with the simplest of gestures.
- As we face new people in our ministries, we should keep these two things in mind:
- The simplest acts of kindness could be the beginning of something great
- People we will come into contact may be people that are undesirable.
- We are hearing stories all around the country of new revivals and dramatic outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
- According to her recent article in Baptist News Global online, Laura Levens writes,
I visited the revival at Asbury University on Tuesday, Feb. 14. I arrived mid-morning, and when I entered Hughes Chapel, the entire crowd was bathed in soft, golden light. Two-story, buttery yellow stained-glass windows cast everything and everyone with a serene glow like an eternal sunset.
Everything on stage was an intentionally low-fi production during my two-and-a-half-hour stay. Three people were on stage, singing and playing music. They gently rocked and sang softly as they played guitar and piano. A large drum kit and the stately organ pipes went unused. A few art pieces dotted the stage. The projector screens were closed up; no words to the music were provided. Two crosses made with plain wooden boards and posts were displayed. Worship leaders changed places seamlessly.
On the floor and in the balcony, there were all ages of people. Seniors in college sitting in front of senior citizens. Families with multiple children, rows of teenagers, babies, men in their early thirties, college athletes — and so many of these people were singing. They sang widely used praise and worship songs, as old as Jesus Culture and as recent as Hillsong, with a few hymns important to the Asbury students mixed in.
People streamed in and out at all times. Circles of people gathered just outside in hallways and on the steps in whispered prayer. If there can be both a hush and great sound at the same time, they were there, intermingling among the crowds. Audible signals of the push and pull of habit and change, of breaking of norms and renewing and reinforcing of old ways once forgotten or disdained.
QR codes were distributed for sharing testimony. Dry erase boards were covered with brightly colored prayer requests. People prayed for the sick, for the salvation of Kentucky and other regions of the world, against spiritual warfare. They prayed over trauma, body issues, broken relationships, inclusion of marginalized students. There are hints of struggle with purity culture and body image on the boards.
- Ms Levens goes on to point out the effect of revivals such as this one:
In a revival, these cultural norms are in flux because of the wider insistence upon breaking social norms and habits that inhibit access to the Spirit. It is much harder to channel the revival energy happening on a social level in order to reshape institutions and denominations.
- The world needs a revival now more than ever and maybe this is the beginning of a great revival.
2. He told her everything she had done
- I don’t mind telling you that it creeps me out that God knows everything I have done.
- You would think that knowing God is watching would be sufficient reason to behave.
- Unfortunately, I don’t always think about God until AFTER I’ve messed up.
- But here is where the story becomes interesting because this knowledge was the key.
- You see, it is in the act of both acceptance and knowledge that Jesus reaches her.
- He turns what might have been a liability for her into a powerful witness that saves many.
- Jesus told the woman that He was the Messiah after she expressed faith He was coming.
- After His revelation of all she had done, the woman was convinced and in verses 28-29:
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
- What a miracle it is that Jesus died on the cross for ME knowing all I have ever done.
- Whenever you feel there is no hope and that you are too broken, remember this story.
- Jesus meets us where we are and we need to be prepared to do the same thing.
- Romans 8:6-8: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
3. Many more believed
- Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
- So it all started with that; Jesus took an awkward situation and used it positively .
- Kenneth Copeland Ministries.com writes:
Many Christians are refusing the gifts Jesus Christ has made available to them through His shed blood because they think of themselves as unworthy. Because of their past sins and mistakes, and the past sins and mistakes of others, they do not feel good enough to receive from a holy God.
- The fear is real – but Jesus is demonstrating that He does not consider ANYBODY unworthy of His love and His saving grace.
- The woman convinced the Samaritans to go see Jesus and see for themselves.
- Because her testimony was so powerful, she reached many people.
- There is no greater tool that we have as Christian witnesses than our testimony.
- The best that we can hope for is to convince others to at least CONSIDER Christ.
- So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
- Again we see Jesus spending time with people that the Jews considered unclean.
- Jesus ignored the social constraints and spent time with people that the Jews avoided.
- And because of his words many more became believers.
- The woman introduced Jesus to the Samaritans, but it was Jesus who reached them.
- They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
- We can only introduce people to Jesus through our testimony and our behavior.
- Don’t let anything you have ever done hold you back.
- Jesus knows everything you have ever done and He loves you and wants to us you to bring others to him.