John 4:4-26 (p. 741) May 18, 2014
Introduction:
[Brennan Manning tells a story in “Lion and Lamb” of a recent convert to Jesus who was approached by an unbelieving friend. His friend’s first statement: “So you’ve been converted to Christ?”
“Yes.”
“Then you must know a great deal about Him?”
“Tell me, what country was He born in?
“I don’t know”
“What was His age when He died?”
“I don’t know.”
“How many sermons did He preach?”
“I don’t know.”
“You certainly know very little for a man who claims to be converted to Christ.”
“You’re right. I am ashamed of how little I know about Him. But I know this: 3 years ago I was a drunk. I was in debt. My family was falling to pieces: they dreaded the sight of me. But now I have quit drinking. We’re out of debt. Our home is happy. And my children and wife look forward to me coming home each evening. Jesus did all this for me. I know this much about Christ!”
Warren Webster was a missionary to Pakistan for 15 years and when he addressed the National Missionary Convention several years back he said, “If I had my life to live all over again I would live it to change the lives of people, because you have not changed anything until you have changed the lives of people!”
Changing this world requires changing the lives of people...That’s the mission of the church...and yet, Church can become a place we go, a series of meetings we have, an agenda to get done.
And we can forget this powerful truth – Jesus came here to change people’s lives...and He’s commissioned His church to do the same.
Bill Gaither wrote one of the first pieces of music I heard after my conversion. Gary Nelson used it at Hill N Dale. It was called “Hallelujah, A Praise Gathering for Believers.”
And it begins with the narrator reading these words: “Well down through history changing lives has been his business. He’s changed the rich...He’s changed the poor...He’s changed the high and mighty, and He’s changed the meek. He’s changed my life, and maybe He’s changed yours. But if He hasn’t, it can happen for you right now...Today...and then a song began:
(Sing) Something Beautiful, something good...all my confusion He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife...but He made something beautiful of my life.”
That’s the message the Church is called to offer to the world. It’s our mission statement and it’s not optional...it’s essential...It’s what makes ministry the most rewarding job in the world. Jesus still offers hope to lives that are hopeless messes.
In John’s gospel we find the story of a life that has been hopelessly messed up. It’s not the story of a kid that made a bad decision or two...It’s the story of a woman who has a lifetime of bad decisions. She has continually looked for love and security in relationships...and instead she’s found emptiness and loneliness. It’s the story of a woman who in her private moments feels overwhelmed with pain, because she never imagined her life reaching this place of desperation. Hardness has crept in to cover the shame and hurt. She doesn’t trust people because she can’t afford to. She tries to ignore the whispers and looks of judgment, but on many nights her pillow is soaked with tears because she believes no one cares or ever will. Is there any hope for her life to be different?
There is when God has
I. A DIVINE APPOINTMENT WITH HER
Our text begins, “Now Jesus had to go through Samaria.” (v. 4)
Really? Why’d we have to go through Samaria? Most Jews didn’t, they went around Samaria, avoided it like the plague. The Samaritans were half-breeds...hated by Jews, at least as much as the Israelites and Palestinians hate each other today! Getting Samaritan dirt on your feet was like walking through pig manure for most Jews.
So, why did Jesus have to go through Samaria?
Because there was a divine appointment to keep...and appointment that will show the importance of people no one else will value.
Mike Yaconelli in Messy Spirituality writes...”Her life was parched, wilted and dry. She had 5 marriages and divorces. Each of these relationships began with the hope...“This is the one for me.” He’ll give me security...he’ll give me value. And one by one that hope vanished. One might have left her for another woman, one just got tired of all the fighting, maybe one abused her and she ran for her life. Even though the excuses were different, the results were the same...loneliness, failure, pain – These drove her to move in with the 6th guy without even making it legal. At this point who really cares?
I’ll tell you who...Jesus did.
It’s noon in the middle east...the hottest part of the day. It’s not the normal time to bring a heavy water jar to the town well. But there would be very few people around. As she approaches she sees a single individual...a man...a Jew.
Jesus is at the well alone because all the other disciples have headed into Sychar for food, and as this woman approaches to draw water Jesus asks her...“Will you give me a drink?”
A divine appointment has begun...and I wonder if we ever consider how many of these appointments God has planned for us.
[I remember the very first time I shared my testimony at a Christian women’s club youth meeting in Lexington...I sat next to a guy my age named David. David was the special music. We’d never met...and David said, “What are you doing here?” And I was so nervous I told him my whole story...and mid-way through he started crying...He said, “man, that’s me...do you think Jesus could do that for me?” And I said, “without a doubt.” They introduced him to play his trumpet and he was crying so hard he couldn’t...he just said, “Guys...you all need to listen to this dude!” And I got up and shared my story, having experienced one of my first divine appointments.]
If you are a follower of Christ you must live out 1 Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts rever Christ as LORD. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
That is a diving appointment challenge from God’s Word.
The only way you can do this is:
II. TREAT PEOPLE WITH VALUE (All People)
This world has a way of judging people’s value, and most church people fall into this same trap.
This person in our text is a woman (1st century value made her much less important than a man). She is a Samaritan (another huge strike). She is a divorcee 5 times over (-10). She’s living with a guy outside of marriage (-15). On a scale of 1 to 10 in value, she’s a negative 27.
What does Jesus do? He begins by giving her value...“Would you give me a drink?”
People need to be needed...Jesus could have gotten his own drink (He’s God!!!) He could have ignored her like everyone else, after all can you imagine the ammunition he gives his critics by talking to this woman...alone.
She even says, “You are a Jew...I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” John even gives his commentary in parenthesis – (“Jews do not associate with Samaritans!”)
I have a question...If we never engage with messed up people how do we allow God to speak hope through us? The outside world views Christians as “judgmental, stuck up, intolerant.”
As if we do not care behind our sanctified walls...and sometimes rightly so.
What I pray we are doing, and will do even more effectively here at Gardenside is say to lost and hurting people...“You matter, you’re important, you’re valuable to God, and there’s hope.
We must be intentional about it like Jesus. What if we invited a friend to help us on a mission build, or help with the game we’re doing at Trunk or Treat, or to go with us when we’re delivering sandwiches. It’s comfortable to hang around the 99 sheep. It’s safe, but it’s the one lost sheep that needs rescue and letting them know they’re needed, even if it’s for a drink of water...changes things.
It gives us the chance to deal with the deeper thirst...the real need in their lives.
III. LOST PEOPLE ARE THIRSTING FOR LIVING WATER
Jesus tells 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.” (v. 10)
They discuss this living water for a while. But like Nicodemus and the new birth, she doesn’t understand the spiritual implications. She wants real water so she doesn’t have to lug this heavy jar to the well...and put up with people’s stuff.
So Jesus says, “Go call your husband and come back.”
She must think (uh-oh!) but recovers with a half-truth, “I have no husband.”
And then Jesus reads her soul...the depth of her pain, loneliness, and thirst.
“You’re right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you’ve had 5 husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is quite true.” And now the woman senses the divine appointment. “Sir, I can see that you’re a prophet.”
Jesus has primed the pump...He has opened the door to the real issues...She tries to change the subject, and even then “worship will be a great thing to argue over...a great rabbit trail of distraction...What do you think Jesus...traditional? contemporary? Samaritan? Jewish?
Nope, “The Father seeks true worshippers who worship Him in Spirit and in truth.”
But Jesus knows there is a deep spiritual need, a deeper thirst. One she has been trying to fill with relationships with men her whole life.
It’s a God-shaped hole. It’s a diving relationship she needs, not a physical one. She is thirsty, but all the world has given her was those energy drinks, that leave you with a 5 hour buzz and dead tired afterwards.
Jesus says, “There’s something better!”
And even she knows it now... “I know that a Messiah is coming and when He comes He’ll explain everything to us.”
Jesus does something he rarely does...to Caiphas he would...to Pilot...He states plainly “I, the one speaking to you, am He.”
Conclusion: The Power of a Changed Life
After meeting Jesus this woman leaves her old water jar at the well and runs into town...It’s been less than a day, but she wants to share the Messiah with those she had wanted to avoid. “Come see a man that told me everything about myself. Could this be the Christ?” Her witness wasn’t, “He really let me know all my failures so I could clean up my act!” Her witness was, “He knew all about me and loved and valued me anyway. He offered hope to a hopeless mess.”
[I remember after my conversion asking an Elder if he would write a letter of reference for me to attend Johnson Bible College. It was in June or July and I’d only been a Christian about 6 months. I’d answered all the questions honestly on the application. Have you ever used drugs...if yes explain on another sheet. Have you ever been arrested...if yes explain on another sheet. Have you ever...? I had more other sheets than application. And this first leader looked at me and said, “I can’t write a letter for you because I can’t recommend you!” I felt the judgment and condemnation. I felt worthless, but I still knew I wasn’t the same and still needed the letter so I asked Bill Bachannan, my dad’s boss, president of KU, also an Elder if he would write my letter. He said, “It would be and honor...and (I’d like you to read it). It was so honest, so loving, so filled with grace and hope. It helped me leave my old water jar and head into ministry.]
