How To Have A Spiritual Conversation

How To Have A Spiritual Conversation

Aug 14, 2011 John 4:1-42

Intro:

This morning I want to dive right in to John 4. Go ahead, grab your Bible and look it up and keep it open, it’s a long story and I want you to have it open so you can follow along and then look back as we walk through it. We’ve been studying Jesus in the Gospel of John together through the summer, seeing Him as far more than a “nice guy” who is tame and polite and safe; certainly someone who does not fit the somewhat pathetic image that many people have of a person of love as someone who is inoffensive and quiet and a doormat.

Today we are going to see Jesus in a rather remarkable conversation. In John 3, which Pastor Sue preached out of two Sundays ago, we saw Jesus in a remarkable conversation with Nicodemus – a Jew, a man, a religious leader, a man of strict morality, a person of wealth and power. In John 4, Jesus is in another remarkable conversation with someone just about the complete opposite of Nicodemus – a Samaritan, a woman, with dubious morality, a person without wealth and power. It is a conversation I love…

John 4:1-42 (NLT):

Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). 3 So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.

4 He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, Please give me a drink. 8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.

9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?

10 Jesus replied, If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.

11 But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket, she said, and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?

13 Jesus replied, Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.

15 Please, sir, the woman said, give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.

16 Go and get your husband, Jesus told her.

17 I don’t have a husband, the woman replied.

Jesus said, You’re right! You don’t have a husband—18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!

19 Sir, the woman said, you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?

21 Jesus replied, Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

25 The woman said, I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.

26 Then Jesus told her, I Am the Messiah!

27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, What do you want with her? or Why are you talking to her? 28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah? 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him.