“He’s Still Waiting At The Well”
Joke: There was football team who never won a game so one day before practice the coach decided to have a talk with them. He told them, "Men our offense is bad, or defense is horrible, and our special teams are the worst I have ever seen, so today we are going back to the basics and start over." He reached over picked up a football and said, "This is a football." Before he could say anything else one of his players spoke up and said, "Coach slow down you're going too fast."
Did you ever wish that you could go back to a certain point in your life and start over?
Maybe you made a bad investment, or got married at the wrong time, maybe even had kids at the wrong time in your life.
I’m certain we all would change a few things if we could go back in time.
Mistakes almost always have consequences that go along with them that can usually be remedied but not always.
Examples:
• When GM tried to introduce the Chevy Nova into South America, they neglected to notice that in Spanish “No va” means “No go.”
• Needless to say, sales were poor for a car that wouldn’t go.
• The National Dairy Association had great success in this country with their “Got Milk?” Campaign.
• But when they took this slogan into Mexico they were informed that their Spanish translation read, “Are you lactating?”
• Pepsi had an awful time advertising in China with their slogan, “Come alive with the Pepsi generation”’ In Chinese it meant, “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.”
So we all make mistakes, it’s just that some are more costly than others. If you miss your turnoff you can simply turn around and go back but if you miss your turn you might have an accident.
This could almost be a flawless world if we could do that especially if we could do it with the knowledge we have now. BUT WE CAN’T!
God knows that we are going to make mistakes but He also wants us to learn from our mistakes so He allows us another chance to see if we have learned.
In other words we can’t go back but we can start over.
In the fourth chapter of the gospel of John he tells us of an instance where Jesus did just that.
John 4:1-26 (Read 1-8)
Now there are a couple of things to note as we read this story.
First, of all Jesus did not have to go through Samaria to get to Galilee, He could have gone around because that is what most Jews did.
They did not get along with Samaritans, so they avoided them at all cost.
So why does verse four state that He had to? Because He had a reason, He was on a mission.
He knew that He would run into a Samaritan that needed guidance.
Now the time of day we are told was about the sixth hour, or around noon. This normally wouldn’t be the time that the women, who carried the water, would go to the well to get it because that was during the hottest part of the day.
Usually they went early morning or in the evening so why would the woman be going at this time?
She was looked down upon by the other women because of her sin. She was living with a man that wasn’t her husband and she previously had been married five times.
Here was a perfect example of someone who tried to start over. I’m sure each time she married she hoped that it would be the one that last.
I’ve never known anyone who gets married with the hope that it will fail and end in divorce.
Each time she vowed that the next marriage would be different and life would be good but it never was.
So now she had given up on marriage, she had given up on being happy, which meant she had given up on hope.
We see more and more of that today. People get divorced and they get into another relationship and decide that marriage don’t work so they decide to just live together.
Some couples make this decision before they even get married. Maybe their parents were divorced and they don’t want that, so they live together to try it out first, but most of the time it is because our society has accepted this as perfectly all right.
Now the Samaritan woman was just existing from day to day. Living the Life of a Shadow.
Maybe you know someone who is living life without hope because they live in the shadows.
They are afraid to associate with others because of some sin they are living in or something that is in their past.
The saddest part in living like this is they don’t think much about their future. They have let their past control every moment of their lives.
And that is the situation that this woman was in. A pretty grim way to be isn’t it.
So to avoid embarrassment and ridicule she chooses a time to go to the well when she assumed no one would be there.
But she faced several surprises that day, and the first was running into Jesus.
Now she could have turned around and went back home when she saw Him at the well but she didn’t, Why?
Because she didn’t know this man, He wasn’t from around here, He didn’t know her or her lifestyle. She could walk right up and get the water without any problem.
I know people like that in their Christian life. When they are in their home surroundings they convey a Christian like lifestyle, but when go somewhere where no one knows them Christianity goes out the window.
Read verses 9-15
Now the woman’s second surprise came when Jesus asks her for a drink. She couldn’t believe her ears, Jews don’t talk to Samaritans!
Illustration: Did you ever know someone who you come in regular contact with that never speaks to you? Then one day out of the blue they do and you can't believe your ears.
So Jesus proceeds to tell this woman about living water and she becomes very intrigued about it because Jesus tells her she won’t be thirsty again.
Now Jesus is talking about a different type of water but the woman thinks He is still referring to the well water.
The reason she is so interested is she thinks that if Jesus will give her this water she won’t ever have to come to the well again.
She won’t have to face the embarrassment or ridicule of the people ever again.
Now her third surprise comes when Jesus reveals to her that He is aware of her past.
(read verses 16-26)
Jesus explains to her that He is the living water and He is offering her a second chance to live a lifestyle out of the shadows.
He tells her that there will be a day that she and all Samaritans will worship Him.
Paul writes in his letter to the church at Philippi that everyone who ever lives will worship Christ.
Philippians 2:9-11
We are all going to bow down to Christ either in this life or when we stand in judgment.
The wonderful things is Jesus offers us that opportunity now, that second chance to come and worship Him now before it is too late.
Jesus died for us so we can have a clean slate in our sinful lives.
There is no need to go back in time and start over because “He’s Still Waiting At The Well.”
