Come And Experience His Welcome

Come and Experience His Welcome!

John 4:5-42

Introduction

This month we have been working with the theme COME AND SEE JESUS. We have talked about his power, his passion, love. Today: Come and Experience His Welcome! If Jesus is powerful, passionate, and loving but not welcoming, then we are left helpless! Maybe no story in the NT expresses His welcome more than the one for today: The Samaritan Woman at the Well.

John 4:5-8 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman is kind of like ‘what’s wrong with this picture’? (N. T. Wright) Jesus is a devout Jewish teacher. Jewish men would not have spent time alone with a woman, certainly not talking to her. The woman is Samaritan and Jews would have nothing to do with Samaritans - especially to share eating or drinking vessels with them. This woman has had some troubles: drawing water in the hottest part of the day, possibly avoid the other women who would have come in the cool morning time. Jesus already knows this, but chooses to engage in conversation anyway.

John 4:9-10 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.) 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.”

1. He Welcomes us to the Well (11-15)

We all feel a spiritual thirst, it’s built-in to the human heart. Our trouble is that we try to satisfy that thirst in so many ineffective ways. What we buy, accumulate, chase after. Whether it is sex, relationships, food, possessions, money, substance abuse, an endless list: all unsatisfying in the end. What well are you drawing from that is leaving you thirsty?

All the while, Jesus is nearby watching, waiting, welcoming.

John 7:37a-38 NLT …Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

Revelation 7:17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

How many tears have we cried, trying to find springs of living water? God wipes them all away. When Jesus welcomes the thirsty, He offers a well that… Satisfies the soul, Never runs dry, Wells up into eternal life, Open to everyone, Jesus welcomes the thirsty.

2. He Welcomes The Weary

(4:16-18 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.”)

Some have painted the woman as an immoral woman or even a prostitute, but the text doesn’t tell us her situation. Jesus doesn’t ask her to repent. What we can know, is that hers has been a life of brokenness and carrying heavy burdens.

Wright: “The woman has had a life composed of one emotional upheaval after another, with enough husbands coming and going to keep all the gossips in the village chattering . …But she knew her life was in a mess, and

she knew that Jesus knew.”

We can identify with weariness. Weary of living in a pandemic. Weary of division and rhetoric that inflames. Weary of our own failure to live up to our calling. Weary of the weight of our mistakes and trying to correct.

Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

3. He Welcomes the Wondering

(4:19-24 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”)