Souvenir. It’s from French, for “memory.” It’s an object a traveler brings home for the memories associated with it. Something you keep to help you remember where you were.
In my office, I found I have several: a rock that is a fossil from our place in Hillsboro; Mickey Mouse clock from Disneyworld; some currency from India; a plastic space shuttle from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago; a mug from Lambert’s, one of my favorite places to eat.
Souvenirs, and pictures, help to cement important events so that we won’t forget. You visit someplace, and you leave with something as a reminder.
I like to go places I’ve never been and to see things that are new to me. Sometimes, we’ll even return to a place, to see it again, to remember, to see something we didn’t notice before.
I have a real interest in seeing places where significant people lived, and where important events took place. I also have a real interest in scenes where people go from being lost and hopeless to forever changed and on their way to heaven. I have a real interest in whatever it is that makes that difference – enough of an interest that I want to visit a place like that, and when I do, I’d like to be able to take something with me so I can remember that place.
You can leave here this morning with a used cup from the Lord’s Supper, or, if you’re a guest, with a cookbook, or you can have a T-shirt made: “I went to VHCC and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!” Or, you and I can walk out with something that’s useful and will help us remember where we were.
We’re going to walk into Jn 4 this morning, and pick up some souvenirs as we go. We were here not too long ago. Maybe we’ll see a part of it we didn’t notice before. Once we look into this part of Jn, there’s plenty we can take with us when we leave here this morning.
John 4:1-14
The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. 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 the sixth hour. 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.) 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." "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
First, notice and pick up this souvenir:
I. Jesus’ Heart for the Lost
If there’s one thing that I would ask for this congregation, and myself, one passion that I think I need and we as a congregation need more than anything else, it’s this. Go ahead and forget the other 2 points this morning, don’t miss this one: Let’s walk out those doors with a heart that cares about lost people! Look at Jesus’ heart for the lost...
A. He’s tired, but He’s doing the Father’s business
Jesus is taking a break here. It’s been a long walk. It’s hot. The disciples have run into Sychar to get some falafel burgers, so Jesus, “tired as He was from the journey, (v6)” sits down for a break. Sometimes, being our best for the Father means taking a break to refresh ourselves. Remember that – seems to me there are more homes ruined with overwork than with underwork.
Yet, even in the midst of a break, Jesus hasn’t taken a break from caring about the lost!
I don’t know what you do to “take a break.” Maybe you go somewhere. Maybe you engage in something relaxing, a hobby or something. Maybe you enjoy sports and exercise. Maybe you’re thinking about vacation right now. Vacation doesn’t mean we separate ourselves from our heart for the lost. There are some things to put aside and not pick up while you take a break, but caring about peoples’ eternal future isn’t one of them.
We need to keep our eyes open for opportunities all along the way this summer. No matter where you go or what you end up doing, there will be people around who need to hear about Jesus – even if you’re tired or if you’re on a break. Though He was tired, Jesus was doing the Father’s business. That’s His heart for the Lost.
B. He’s unhindered by social barriers
750 years before this, the Assyrians overran 10 tribes of Israel. People from other nations were moved in. They and the Jews formed a kind of ½ Jewish, ½ pagan nation, known as the Samaritans. There was ongoing hostility between these 2 races. Among other things, a Jew would never share a Samaritan’s drinking cup - kind of like kids worrying about “cooties,” only the Jews and Samaritans were more adult about it - they actually hated each other.
Jesus wasn’t phased by that. His heart for the lost looked at this woman and didn’t see a hated foreigner. He saw a impoverished soul. It didn’t matter that she was a hated race, a woman, an outcast. She was lost; she was searching. That’s what mattered.
Jesus reached out and touched a leper, He healed on the Sabbath, He went to a tax collector’s house, He accepted worship from a woman with a bad reputation. He’s unhindered by social barriers.
We need to take some serious inventory of where we’re at. How often do we look at someone’s outside and formulate an opinion and a plan of action without considering that inside is a soul Jesus died for? How often do we let a person’s color, or social status, or education, you name it - keep us from caring about a soul the way we should? We need Jesus’ heart for the lost!
C. He loves enough to speak the truth
John 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."
Jesus said some fairly uncomfortable things to this woman. Some people thrive on that! Ill - Hanes underwear commercial years ago: Man gets on elevator, “I feel good all under! I’m wearing my Hanes underwear this morning, and they’re great...” people around him are looking away, shifting their collars, TMI! (too much info)
I don’t thrive on that. We’re taught, at a young age, that you don’t do things like that. You don’t embarrass people. You don’t say certain things to strangers. You don’t talk about certain subjects. Today, we’re taught at a young age that one thing you don’t do is talk about Jesus on a personal level in school or at work. It might make someone feel uncomfortable.
Strange, on a daily basis, there’s a lot of opinion sharing that hits my eyes and ears that makes me feel uncomfortable too. Why isn’t that a problem?
There are times when speaking what someone needs to hear is really uncomfortable. Jesus made this woman pretty uncomfortable, to a point where she was changing the subject, but He kept at it. He knew what she needed to hear.
A true heart for lost people is going to take us past the fear of embarrassment or rejection. I want to care enough about peoples’ souls that I’m not worried about hecklers or weird looks. Do you? Do you love enough to speak the truth?
D. He encouraged those around Him to look at the possibilities for others to be saved
John 4:28-38
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 Christ?" They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ’Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ’One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
Ill - 2 salesmen were sent to an area in New Guinea. One wired back: “Make arrangements for me to return home. No one here wears shoes.” The other wired back: “Quick! Send more salesmen! No one here wears shoes!”
Jesus looked up and saw the people streaming out of the town toward them. “Look! It’s harvest time!” Someone with a heart for the lost is careful to urge others to join Him. There’s too much work for one person to do it alone. We need people like that 2nd salesman around us. We need people who will open our eyes to the field of souls. Did you notice at the beginning of the chapter that it was the disciples, not Jesus, who were doing all the baptizing? 12 of them could baptize more people than Jesus could have on His own.
WE NEED A HEART FOR THE LOST like Jesus has. Someone has suggested our job as Christians is to break men’s hearts at the sight of the broken heart of God. Get a fresh taste of it. You can’t present yourself as the Messiah, but with the heart of the Messiah you can present the Messiah’s heart to those who need it most.
Another souvenir we can walk out with is:
II. Understanding of God’s Desire for Worshippers
In her effort to Get Jesus off the uncomfortable subject of her train wreck of a personal life, this woman brought up the main theological debate between the Jews and Samaritans: Where are we supposed to worship, Jerusalem, or Mt. Gerizim? It starts in v19.
(A. Location is irrelevant)
To answer her question, Jesus went much deeper than just where we ought to worship: God is spirit. God isn’t limited to location. So the place of worship isn’t an issue.
-Ill - Isn’t it odd how we get this backwards?!
We live the week like God doesn’t know it, but we know that come Sunday we’re going to be at this location for worship.
We rush around with life all week, neglecting our one-on-one time with God, but knowing we’ll be coming to this place on Sunday.
We find ourselves in some places where we know Jesus wouldn’t be, but that’s OK, we know He’ll be in His usual spot when we go to Church on Sunday.
We come with our minds all preoccupied and our hearts somewhere else, but we get here and we take some comfort in knowing that we’re in the right place, even though our minds may be a million miles from here. And we get the idea that being location is what matters the most!
Jesus told this woman that’s backwards. Location isn’t the key. What’s going on in this location (our hearts) is the key. God’s not confined to a building or a box.
B. Worship must have 2 qualities:
v24 - spirit & truth. That’s a whole other sermon! Let it be enough to say we need lives of worship that are based on truth and that come from the heart. Worship without truth isn’t right. Worship that doesn’t come from the heart isn’t right. Worshipers who worship in spirit and truth have it together. These are the “true worshipers” - “the kinds of worshipers the Father seeks.”
When we walk away from here this morning, we need to realize we’re not walking away from worship - oh, corporate worship yes - but not from worship as God seeks it. Let’s leave with a better understanding of God’s desire for worshipers.
III. Insight Concerning Peoples’ Reaction to the Gospel
A final souvenir we can walk away with is an understanding of how people respond to the Gospel.
John 4:28-29
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 Christ?"
When people hear about Jesus it sets in motion an interesting progression. If we’ll be in tune with it, we’ll do better at bringing every person to completion in Christ:
A. She could accept a somewhat difficult message
Ill - A cultured woman found herself among people of a different language and race with many strange customs. While there, she became a close friend of a devoted missionary. She wrote "I was troubled by an experience with those quarreling, difficult people, and I related my grievances to my missionary friend. ’They are so self interested,’ I complained. ’So self absorbed, so soft on themselves, so violent with others, so unreasoning, so totally difficult,’ and when I had finished rehearsing their faults as I saw them my friend smiled a little and said something I have never forgotten. ’That’s why they need us.’"
Why do we assume that people won’t be receptive? Even though this woman still had doubts, she listened enough, believed enough, and cared enough to suggest that there was something to this man. If nothing else, we can take from this Scripture this insight: some of whom we call the most unlikely people are people who are ready to hear about Jesus.
B. Others believed because of her testimony
John 4:39
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."
What if this woman had said, “Oh, I doubt anyone’s going to believe me.” Instead, she took off. She left her water jar and ran into town.
I think it’s time that we quit holding back our testimony because we’re afraid people won’t believe. Look at some of the stuff people are believing nowadays?! If someone is gullible enough to pay money to buy a National Enquirer and read about the ½ human - ½ alligator that was discovered in FL, surely people can accept that there’s a God Who created them and loves them and Who sent His Son to die for them! There’s another part to this:
C. At some point, belief becomes personal
That’s what happened to the people of Sychar. First, they believed because of this woman’s testimony, but after that they heard it for themselves. They believed in Jesus too. v41 "And because of His words, many more became believers".
Young people, at some point in your life, your faith has to become your own. At some point, it can no longer be because your mom and dad told you so. Somewhere along the line your belief will become personal. The sooner it happens, the better for you, because it’s going to be tested. You need to be ready, or it will blow your doors off. At some point, you’re going to act the way you do because you believe it’s right, not just because someone told you to. Are you there yet? Why do you believe? When a teacher or a professor or a friend challenges what you believe, will your reasons be able to stand? Sometime soon, that belief needs to become your own. If you’re not there yet, start digging. That’s what happened in Sychar…
John 4:42
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."
Conclusion: Rose Crawford had been blind for 50 years. After recovering from a delicate surgery in an Ontario hospital, the doctor lifted the bandages from her eyes. She gasped, "I just can’t believe it!" She wept for joy. For the first time in her life a dazzling and beautiful world of form and color greeted eyes that now were able to see. The amazing thing about her story, however, is that 20 years of her blindness had been unnecessary. She didn’t know that surgical techniques had been developed, and that an operation could have restored her vision at the age of 30. The doctor said, "She just figured there was nothing that could be done about her condition. Much of her life could have been different."
That’s exactly where a bunch of non-believers are this morning. They aren’t all satisfied with where they’re at, but they assume there’s nothing that can be done about their condition. They need someone to tell them there’s a cure.
When you walk away from here this morning, I hope we walk away with a heart for people that need the Savior - a heart like Jesus Himself had. I hope that we walk away with a better understanding of God’s desire for worshipers.
Most of all, I hope that you who have never accepted Jesus walk away from here with a new life, a new hope, as a new creation. What Jesus means to us compels us to tell you: You need Savior, today.
