Steps along Life’s Journey
A Step into Hope - Sermon 1
John 4:4-29, 39-42
Intro
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I just had my birthday this past week. I turned 46. Not to be morbid, but as I look ahead, I realize that most likely I am more than half way through my earthly life.
Birthdays for me are times when I take a step back and try to grasp a better perspective of my life as a whole. As I look back I can see points in time that were crossroads in my life. Some of them I knew at the time would change my life, while others, I did not realize, would have the major effects.
But it is all of those steps in my journey that have brought me to where I am today.
I am not unique. We all have a journey we are on in this life. And it is the individual steps that we take that lead us to where we will end up.
New Series Intro
Today, we are beginning a new series called “Steps along Life’s Journey.”
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We will be looking at some different steps that each of us will face during this life and it is my hope that this series will be an encouragement and help to you for your Life’s Journey.
Sermon Intro
This morning we are going begin by looking at someone who was facing a life of disappointments, of loneliness, and of bitterness, but in the midst of her life, she came face to face with Jesus and took a step into hope.
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Turn with me to John 4
We are going to learn about a woman that Jesus met journeying through Samaria and how the step she took changed her direction from one of hopelessness to one of hope.
So let’s begin in John 4:1-8
1 The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 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.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
Let’s pause here and pray
Now I want us to consider a couple of interesting facts that we see right away in this story.
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Take a look at this map. Jesus was in the Judean countryside (John 3:22) baptizing when he decides to go to Galilee.
Now Jews and Samaritans did not get along. Samaritans were of mixed origin; part Jew and part Assyrian (primarily), they were not only half breeds according to the Jews, but they did not practice pure Judaism, but a mixture of Judaism among other religions.
So, because the Jews and Samaritans did not get along, the Jews would normally go around Samaria
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When they went from Jerusalem to Galilee and back.
It was not the most direct route, but it kept them away from becoming contaminated by the Samaritans, so they thought.
But in our text today, it tells us that Jesus “had to go through Samaria”
Now it was the more direct route, but it was not the normal route at all.
Slide
But since the Scripture tells us he had to go through Samaria, he must have had to go for some other reason other than that being the only way to get there.
I believe that he had to go through Samaria, because there was someone who was ready to take a step of hope and He was ready to meet her wherever she was.
Second interesting fact
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Another interesting thing we learn in this section is that this woman is coming to get water “about the 6th hour.” That would be about noon. This would be at the very height of the sun and the very hottest part of the day. This is not the normal time that women went to get the water. Normally they would do that in the early morning hours, when it was cooler.
Why is this woman getting water at this time?
I want us to get a glimpse of what may be going on with this woman and what she may be feeling and experiencing as we consider some of the customs and manners of the time.
The story begins…
Imagine for a moment that this woman is in her room. She picks up her clay jar and opens the door and the heat of the day hits her face. Taken back for a moment, she peaks her head out the door and looks up and down the dusty street.
It is hot, but it is quiet. Not the best time to be fetching water. In fact, not a good time to be outside at all. The sun is at its peak and it is beating down on her.
She could have gone earlier, when it is cooler, but that would mean facing the other women there and she certainly did not want to do that.
That’s why she is going now, now at this hot and uncomfortable hour. She doesn’t want to face the other women there.
She is the town “bad girl.” She is sleeping with a guy whom she is not married to. In fact, she has already been married 5 times and none of those relationships worked out.
She does not have much hope for life getting better. She has hoped for a better life before, in fact, during each of her 5 marriages, she entered with hope for a better life, but it never seemed to work out and she found herself back in the same place; divorced and bitter.
She had given up on marriage, she had given up on really living.
She was lonely and she felt hopeless.
She was only existing from one day to the next.
She was really only living a shadow of a life, not real life, not real living.
Living Life without Hope is only a Shadow of a Life
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David in 1 Chronicles 29:15 says exactly that when he equates a life without hope to a life that is only a shadow saying “Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.”
Our shadow’s exist, but they don’t live.
Are you living life on earth like a shadow?
Are you living life without hope, only existing?
You go from day to day doing what you need to do, trying not to dwell on the past hurts and bad choices.
Why did I start smoking or drinking or using drugs?
Now I’m addicted.
Why did I give into peer pressure to have sex?
Now I’m pregnant or have a disease I do not want
Why didn’t I go to college?
Why did I get divorced?
Why, Why, Why?
The past is too painful. Don’t think about it. Just move forward.
But the sad part is that even though you move forward, you don’t think much about the future. Because if you think about that, that can be painful too, because you don’t think there is really much of a future for you.
Instead, you just exist.
You get up and
work another day
do another load of laundry.
Make another dinner
Make another sales call.
Don’t think about the past and don’t think about the future.
Just go and do what you need to do to get through the day.
That’s the life this woman is living, a shadow of a life, existing without really living.
Transition
She heads out of town on the path to where the well is.
But as she nears the well, she notices someone there. It is a Man, a Jew.
Whew, she thinks. He won’t speak to her.
Men don’t speak to women and Jews certainly don’t speak to Samaritans.
In fact, nobody ever really speaks to her.
They may talk about her.
They may even talk at her, usually calling her a name, but
nobody really talks to her anymore.
Her sins and her lifestyle have made her an outcast.
The only ones who speak to her are guys who want something from her.
As she is having this thought, she is jarred back to reality by a voice.
The Man asks her for a drink, but He asks in a pleasant way.
It has been years since someone has asked her a question in a nice way.
For a second she lets herself begin to hope.
Hope to be able to have conversation with people.
Hope for a different life.
Hope for a future.
Hope for a new beginning.
She stops herself. Don’t hope. To hope means to be disappointed again.
“Who is this Man, anyway,” she thinks. “Does he need to be reminded of the situation?”
Slide John 4:9-10
9 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.)
10 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."
Living Water? What is this Man talking about?
Slide John 4:11-14
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 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?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 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."
“Eternal life? I would like to have any life.”
What is this water He is talking about?
I would love not to come to this well anymore.
I wouldn’t have to risk seeing others here.”
Hope begins to surface again.
Slide - John 4:15-16
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." 16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
His command brings her back to the reality of her situation.
She doesn’t have a husband and she is sleeping with a man who is not her husband.
Her life is a mess and she knows it, but there is no need to tell this Stranger everything.
Just tell part of the truth.
Slide John 4:17-18
17 "I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 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."
“Who is this Man?”
While just a few moments ago, she was beginning to hope, now the pain of her choices and her sins begins to hit her smack in the face again. Don’t Hope!
It is too scary to hope.
You see, While living life without hope is only a shadow of living,
Living life with Hope can be Scary
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It can be scary because if we hope and we are wrong, we can be disappointed.
So many times we are disappointed in life.
We are disappointed by people
We are disappointed with circumstances.
We are disappointed with ourselves.
Nobody likes to be disappointed. So to avoid disappointment, we avoid hope.
We think it will be better not to hope
We think it will make life easier to live.
But as we live a hopeless life, we don’t really live.
We only exist. We only live a shadow of a life without hope.
Continuing…
So the woman thinks to herself, change the subject.
Get off of me and on to something else.
Slide John 4:19-28
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
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25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town …
Rushing back to the town, so many thoughts are rushing through her head, she thinks,
Could He really be the long awaited Messiah?
Her blood was coursing through her body now.
She felt her heart beating.
Her palms were sweaty but not from the heat.
She was scared but excited.
She was feeling alive.
If this was the Messiah, If this was God, then God was willing to speak
to her, to a sinner like her,
to someone who made the choices she had made, who lived as she lived.
Did this mean that there was hope? Hope for someone even like her?
And was she willing to take a step into this hope?
This did not seem to be a hope like she had in the past.
In the past, she just hoped that her circumstances would change.
But this was not a hope that would just be a change in her circumstance.
This was a hope that would change her!
A Hope to really live and not just exist.
Hope was coming alive in her.
She was beginning to experience it already.
Now, while living life without hope, as she had done for these years was only existing, and while living life with hope can be scary,
Living Life with Hope is Real Living
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Paul tells us about this kind of hope in
Romans 5:5 - And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
She was starting to really live because she believed that this Man, Jesus, really was the Messiah, the Christ, the One who is God and is Savior and she took a step into hope.
Not just any hope
Now, understand that it is not just “hope” that leads to real living.
What we hope in matters greatly.
When we hope in the wrong things we get disappointed.
When we have our hope in others, they let us down.
When we have our hope in circumstances, they fail us.
But when we put our hope in the Living God who loved us and sent His Son to die for us to save us from our sins, we will not be disappointed and we will truly start to live.
Jesus tells us in
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John 10:10 that he has “come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Real life now and real life for eternity!
The story Continues…
The woman makes it back to the town.
No longer thinking of what people are thinking of her or afraid of them speaking at her.
No longer mad at the people of this town who for so long treated her as an outcast.
She had taken a step into hope and while she still has a past with 5 different husbands and a future that was uncertain, she was really living now because her hope was in Christ, who came to meet her right where she was at in her hopelessness and to offer her a step into hope.
She believed and told the towns people.
Slide - John 4:29-30, 39
29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him…39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."
He knew my past, He knew my present, And He spoke to me anyway.
There is hope no matter what your past, no matter what is going on right now.
God offers a way for you to step into hope. Because of this woman, others took a step into hope as well.
Slide - John 4:40-42
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
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
Do you have hope today?
Do you want to live a life of hope?
Are you ready to take a step into hope?
While all of us want to hope, you need to understand that
Living Life with Hope (real hope) means Living Life with God
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It means entering into a relationship with him and following Him.
It means believing in Jesus Christ as your Savior, means putting your hope in Him,
the One who is God in the flesh,
the One who loved you enough to pay a price with His own death that you could never pay for your sins,
the One who is powerful enough to resurrect Himself from the dead and
the One who is powerful enough to give you real hope for living real life.
Have you taken that step into that hope?
The woman at the well’s day started like any other day she had.
The difference is Jesus met her where she was at.
Notice that Jesus did not change her circumstances.
She still had a past.
No, it is not our circumstance that needs changing, it is us.
Jesus changed her and he can change you!
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17
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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Maybe your day started like most days, hopeless or at least with very little hope.
Jesus wants to give you hope today by making you a new creation.
Are you ready to take a step into hope?
It is my prayer today that you heard Jesus speak to you and that you are recognizing Him as the Messiah, the Christ, God in the flesh.
If you do, then won’t you step into that hope by receiving Him as your Savior?
The Bible tells us in
John 1:12 - Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
We receive Him confessing our belief about Him.
Romans 10:9 - if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Won’t you take a step into hope on your Life’s Journey today by receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior and begin to experience the hope of real life and real living that is only available in Him.
If you do, then I am going to lead in a prayer of confession, and if this is your heart and your belief, then just pray along with me and confess your belief to Him.
Let’s pray.
Parts of the story line of this message are based upon a message by Rocco Naude – A New Beginning (http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=43085&Sermon%20A%20New%20Beginning%20by%20Rocco%20Naudé)
