Please open your Bibles to John chapter 4. We have a very interesting story here before us this morning, a story of Jesus speaking with a Samaritan woman at a well. This story is interesting because the Jews did not speak with Samaritans. Samaritans were called “half-breeds.” You see when Assyria captured the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC they deported the Israelites from the capital, which was Samaria, and replaced them with idol-worshipping people across their own empire. These idol worshippers eventually adopted a hybrid form of Judaism which allowed them to worship idols and serve the Living God. They were indeed “half breeds.” So the Jews had no dealing with Samaritans.
In fact, the Jews had a saying when they would travel around from place to place, and that saying was, “we must go around Samaria.” As they would plan their trips out ahead of time they were careful to say to one another, “we must go around Samaria”. And I think John here in his gospel picks up on that very saying when he says in verse 4, “now He had to go through Samaria.” While the Jews had to go around Samaria, Jesus had to go through Samaria, because He was on a mission to an outcast Samaritan woman.
Furthermore, in this culture, men did not speak to women publicly, devout Jews would not even address their wives publicly, believing that women were inferior to men, and not to be addressed directly. You could talk about them, but never to them. But not so with Jesus. This Jew speaks kindly with the Samaritan. This Man talks directly to the woman, thereby elevating, and respecting and loving her. Because Jesus crosses cultural boundaries, and breaks down gender barriers, because that’s who He is.
Listen to Ephesians 2:14: 14 “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, Ephesians 2:14. That’s what you see Jesus doing right here, destroying cultural barriers, knocking down walls that divide people. And that is what He would do right up to and including His death. Through His death He would completely destroy every dividing wall that man ever put up. In Christ, there is no Jew and Gentile, no male or female, no black or white, no old or young, no Goth or yuppies, but we are all one in Jesus.
We are going to look at John 4:4-30, and notice three specific points. Here we have:
#1: an apparent sinner
#2: an amazing Savior
#3: an absolute salvation
An apparent sinner. This Samaritan woman was
…living immorally, Look at verse 18: “18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.” I mean, she has gone from one man to another to another, and what is left behind broken hearts and shattered lives. She is living immorally.
…thirsting spiritually. In fact, she’s living immorally because she is thirsting spiritually. And right now, I would like to give you THE key to understanding this entire passage. If you understand this point, you get all of John 4. The key to this whole passage is to connect verse 13 with verse 18. Verse 13 says 13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again” and verse 18 says 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband."
In verse 13, Jesus is not merely making a statement about the physical water in the well, saying that if anyone drinks of it he will thirst again. That would be an overly obvious and unnecessary statement. Instead, Jesus is connecting physical thirst with spiritual thirst, which can be seen by comparing verses 13 and 18. This woman is going from one man to another, always hoping the next man will “satisfy her thirst,” meet her needs, satisfy her longings, but each time she is “thirsty again.”
See this story is not just about a woman at a well, it’s about a man at his workplace, a woman in her home, or a child growing up. Because we all thirst. Thirst is a universal need. You and I are the woman at the well. When I was young I had a video game called Atari. I know that makes me really old. But I loved the game called Frogger, and I would play it by the hour. Man you got to get that little frog across the highway, over the logs, and out of the mouths of alligators and home to safety. It was fun. But then after about 2 million hours I got tired of it. I started squishing the frogs on the highway just for fun. But then out came my all time favorite, Donkey Kong. This game had levels. It was fun, but I soon tired of it, which is a good thing because out came Pac Man, the number 1 video game of all. But that was when I was a kid.
You see a man may not go from one video game to another, but will go from one porn image to another, or one bottle to another, or one casino to another. Why do we do these things? Answer: because our satisfaction in these things is only temporary, and soon we are “thirsting again.” All these things are like salt-water which only causes more thirst, so that we must keep coming back for more. We get the high, the excitement, the newness, we feel the calm, but its temporary and we have to keep coming back for more.
This lifestyle is encouraged in young ladies who read romance novels. Young ladies please don’t read romance novels, you have the best romance novel you need right here. Because romance novels will fill your mind with thoughts of your prince coming to you to sweep you up off your feet and you live happily ever after. Only problem is when you marry this prince he turns into a toad, and now you have to look for another prince.
You can picture this woman at the well had been doing. You can picture her, “oh this guys it, he’s perfect for me.” But he isn’t so she looks for another, someone who can really love her, someone who will treat her kind, and she marries another, and then another and another and another, until finally she gives up hope. She won’t even marry the last guy, she knows its all temporary, it won’t last. So here she is, drinking of the water of relationships 6 times, yet she is still thirsty.
An amazing Savior. Jesus is shown here to be an amazing Savior because he…
…Seeks the lost. Jesus said he had to go through Samaria; He went to where she was. He initiated the discussion about thirsting, He brought up her issues with men, and He offered her living water. Christianity is the only religion where the Leader seeks out the sinful, the disobedient, and the rebellious, and offers them forgiveness, peace with God, and eternal life. And that’s what He does with this woman. He is amazing.
…Quenches thirst, (satisfies her heart, fulfills her longings, etc.) Jesus promised, “Whoever drinks the water I give him, will never thirst.” Jesus came to this woman, offering to meet her needs and fulfill her desires. Psalm 107:9 says, “He satisfies the thirsty, and fills the hungry with good things.” He is an amazing Savior!
…Turns from sin. The way Jesus turns us from sin is much like He did with the woman at the well. He offers us something much better. He compared two water sources: you drink of one and you’ll thirst again. You drink of the other and you will never thirst. In other words, ‘lady, you keep drinking from the water of relationships you’ll still be thirsty, but if you come to me and drink of my forgiveness and my truth and my life you will never thirst.” He quenches spiritual thirst so that we can leave our old life of sin behind, much like the woman at the well, who began drinking of Jesus and left her old water pot behind. He is an amazing Savior!
…Makes useful. This woman, who had previously been so ashamed that she went to the well when the rest of the town was not there, was now proclaiming Jesus Christ to the whole town. Her message was, “Come see a Man…” Oh, how true it is that when a man begins drinking living water he not only has enough for himself, but plenty to share with others, as well. This woman is now being useful, her words carry influence, she makes an impact on her neighbors in the town. You know one of the greatest things about Jesus? He takes people who have been thrown on the ash heap of humanity, who have ruined their lives, and He puts ‘em into service. Demoniacs go to the Decapolis and witness. Dead people are raised to life and begin serving. Jesus is an amazing Savior.
An absolute salvation. She experienced an absolute salvation, which is evidenced by these facts. She…
…left her water pot behind. Verse 28. We don’t want to make too much of this, as it is entirely possible that she was simply in a hurry to tell others of Jesus the Messiah, and she surely did need to continue drinking physical water again. But what we can say is that when anyone begins truly drinking the living water, they will inevitably leave something behind.
…brought others to Christ. verses 29- 30. She said, “Come see a man” which is the equivalent of “come have a drink.” The whole town listened to her and went out to see Jesus. Possibly they could tell this woman was different, she was satisfied, her thirst was quenched. A person who is content with Christ is a powerful witness for Christ. Wow, what a change has come into the life of this woman. Six men could not satisfy, the seventh Man quenched her thirst, met her needs, loved her heart.
So when you see people leaving things behind, things they formerly found satisfaction in, because they have had an encounter with Jesus, and when you see them now telling people about Jesus, and when you see others coming to Christ because of them, well this is “absolute salvation.”
Applications:
#1: Having an encounter with the living Christ changes our lives. Where this woman was previously an outcast, now she is right there in the town, ministering, drawing people to Christ. Her life was changed. This is the great need of the church today, for men and women and children to encounter Jesus and to have their lives changed.
#2: Having an encounter with Christ will enable us to leave sin behind. Specifically, what we were previously finding satisfaction in needs to be left behind, and this is accomplished when we encounter Christ. What is your water jar? What have you been turning to in order to quench your thirst? Maybe its time to leave it, and replace it with Christ.
#3: Having an encounter with Christ will move us into our community. Jesus crossed social and gender barriers. He was gracious to a societal outcast. He went where she was, and spoke words of grace, words of forgiveness and life to her. He loved her, even though He was a man and she was a woman, even though He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan, even though He was holy and she was a despised sinner. And if we are followers of Jesus we will reach out to our community: to those who don’t look like us, who don’t dress like us, who don’t live like us. I keep praying for those Goth people to show up, and if they do I expect every one of us here to walk up to them and stick out our hand and give them a warm greeting. Listen our younger people here need to be taught to reach out to the older people, to spend time with them, to love them. Older people need to open their homes to the younger ones, just like the Smiths did this past week to our kids. And listen to me, pray with people when you have them over or when you go over. But the point is, Jesus’ heart was to love those who were not like Him, which was pretty much everybody.
#4: Having an encounter with Christ will give us direction in ministry. After this woman encountered Christ she knew right what to do, where to go and who to talk to. Some here today are going to be called to specific ministries as they grow up. And they are going to wrestle with thoughts such as “hey should I be a pastor, or a missionary, or an evangelist?” and they aren’t sure which direction to take. You know how to determine the direction we go in ministry? Simply having an encounter with Jesus, like this Samaritan woman did. Having an encounter with Jesus will fill us with direction and purpose, and you will have vision on how to reach people. This woman became an evangelist because she had an encounter with Christ.
#5: Having an encounter with Christ will give us fruitfulness in ministry. This woman actually was successful in reaching people, because Jesus Christ reached her first. Our first role is to be with Jesus in secret before we are ever with people in public. “See to it that we pray more than we preach and we will never preach ourselves out. Stay with God in the secret place longer than we are with people in the public place and the fountain of our wisdom will never dry up. Keep our hearts open to the inflowing Spirit and we will not become exhausted by the outflow. Cultivate the acquaintance of God more than the friendship of men and we will always have abundance of bread to give to the hungry. Our first responsibility is not to the public but to God and our own souls.”--Tozer
