THE WELL – A Place You Encounter the Savior of the World
John 4:39-42 April 17, 2022(Easter)
Introduction:
Have you ever had someone save your life? Or have you ever been involved in saving someone’s life?
My grandson Peyton was 2 years old when my daughter screamed “He’s not breathing...if you ever asked me the time I felt the most fear and uttered the quickest most fervent prayer...As I laid him on the bed and began CPR...and had Karissa call 911...“As I breathed life into his little lungs...I prayed for a response and that I wouldn’t hurt him...as the EMTs arrived, Peyton began to respond and I fell to the floor crying and thanking God.
I’ll never forget the day my father saved my life. I was 10 and had set fire to myself after spilling the contents of a rubbing alcohol lamp on myself. Dad heard me scream and put the flames out with his own hands and arms. 3rd degree burns over 50% of my body, but because of his intervention I’m still here.
Dad’s hands were scarred from that day on. His left little finger wouldn’t straighten out because of the scar tissue. When he died they opened the casket and they had his right hand on top of his left...trying to cover the scars...and I told them to change it...put the left one on top so the world could see how much he loved me.
People that have been “saved” from the flames want to tell the world about the one who saved them.
I’ve been part of the saving from both sides. So has the Samaritan woman at the well in John Chapter 4.
What does Jesus the Savior of the whole world do for those he’s saved?
I. HE TAKES AWAY THE SHAME OF OUR PAST
When you’re running back into the town filled with the same people you tried to avoid just hours before...something important just happened. In this case, someone important has happened.
That someone important person between noon at the well and running into town saying “Come see a man that told me everything about myself...could this be the Messiah?” was Jesus...and he clearly claimed that title “I Am He.”
Messiah (a Christ) (one Hebrew one Greek) means “The Promised One.”
In the amazing book, “Evidence That Demands of Verdict” Josh McDowell writes:
The Old Testament contains over 300 references to the Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus. What chance did Jesus or any other man have of fulfilling these prophecies? The mathematical laws of probability can give us a clue.
In his book Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell mentions the work of the mathematician, Peter Stoner, on just eight of the 300 prophecies: “We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in ten (to the seventeenth power). That would be one in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that we take ten (seventeenth power) silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that “This is the right one.
What a chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man.
It’s essential on this Easter Sunday morning to remember prophetic references like this:
ISAIAH 53:3-12
and
PSALM 22:1,7,8,18
King David and Isaiah write hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus is born, lived, died and rose again.
Not only did the Jews and Samaritans know that a Messiah was coming...but the Old Testament gives clear indication that this “promised one” would die, be buried, and rise again.
King David is quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost after the resurrection, “The Messiah’s body will not see decay.”
ACTS 2:25-37
This history lesson for the Israelites did exactly the same thing Jesus’ history lesson for the Samaritan woman did.
He didn’t tell her to go, call her husband for show or embarrassment. He revealed her past so she could see her need. “I know that Messiah is coming” reveals she understood who would meet that need.
Peter’s history lesson on Pentecost reveals what has been done... “You rejected, you crucified Jesus, who was both Lord and Messiah.”
The shame of my sin is just as real as the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well...and Peter’s “fellow Israelites” who are “cut to their hearts” because of their guilt.
Jesus takes away the shame of our past because of His sacrifice...it covers my past in cleansing and forgiveness...and my life changes as I repent “turn away” from my past towards God...and I receive the promised Holy Spirit from the Father, as I’m baptized into Christ...United with Him according to Romans 6 with His death burial and resurrection.
It’s at this well we encounter the Savior of the whole world, who knows us all by name.
The Savior of the world also:
II. GIVES US A NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR COMMUNITY
Remember John 4:6 tells us the Samaritan woman shows up to draw water at the well at about noon. It’s the hottest part of the day and there are very few reasons she would do this “heavy lifting” job at noon in the desert...other than to avoid all the other women who would have been there.
The well was a place of gathering, gossip, community, unless you were “not part of the respectable crowd” then it was a place you had to “sneak into to get water.”
The Church if it’s not careful in it’s purpose and mission can become a little like the well in Samaria.
Casting Crowns sings a song that starts out...
It’s crowded in worship today
As she slips in trying to fade into the faces
The girl’s teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know
But if we are the body
Why aren’t His arms reaching?
Why aren’t His hands healing?
Why aren’t His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren’t His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way
A traveler is far away from home
He sheds his coat and quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances
Tells him his chances are better out on the road
Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the body of Christ
Jesus is the way
When we claim to be restorers of the New Testament patter...I wonder do we focus on the fact that “people were being added to the Christian community daily according to Acts 2:46.
Why? Was it because of their commitment to the Apostle’s teaching, to prayer, to the Lord’s supper? Partly...but the fellowship was the glue that held them together and the magnet that pulled lost people in...Listen
ACTS 2:42-47
This unity was formed by a celebration of a resurrected Savior...A Risen Jesus. It caused them to sell their stuff, and to share life with each other daily with joy and sincerity. It affected the whole community. Christian and non-Christian - “the favor of all the people.”
We do some ministries here at Gardenside that don’t make sense to the outside world. So, inevitably we’re asked, “Why would you do this?” And our answer is...”Because we love God and want to love you.” “It’s that simple.”
People will never come to know the fellowship of the resurrected Lord because we just tell them what they’re missing and why they’re missing it.
They need to see the hands and feet of Jesus before they can connect with His body.
It’s what Jesus did at the well with a broken woman. It’s what imparted the early community with a unified power...and it’s what will revive dead churches today...the resurrected Christ flowing out of new lives daily.
Jon Weece says this in his book Jesus Prom (p. 82)
You fall into one of two camps with Jesus: you are either forgivable, or you are forgiven. Anyone who has been shamed by sin is forgivable. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are already forgiven. And to be forgiven means you are set free from the shame of your sin.
Like Jesus, we surround those who have been blistered and burned by their choices. The church was never meant to be a pristine showroom. It was meant to be a messy living room filled with people who have messed up. It isn’t a place for finger-pointing and rock throwing.
What flows out of the church is what flows out of Jesus – help, hope, and healing.
Imagine what it was like for that woman hearing the voice of Jesus say, “Neither do I condemn you.”
We don’t turn our backs on people. We turn toward people, and we help them turn toward God.
This five time divorced, living in sin, community avoiding woman meets the Savior of the world at a well. “He tells her everything about her shameful past, introduces himself as the Messiah, and as she turns to God...she returns to the community of faith.
“Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people. Come see a man.” (John 4:28-29)
My favorite people are people who have left their water jars and go back to the town and say, “Come see Jesus!”
[I’ve had some great ministry opportunities...some that fed my ego and some that have humbled me beyond measure, but without a doubt...the most painful for me was returning to Lafayette High School to finish my junior and senior year. This was my Sychar...my town...my opportunity to say, “Come see a man, He told me everything I ever did...could this be your savior? Because He is mine...it was hard to return to the community that knew me from my past...Administrators, teachers, other students. I know I was only allowed back because of grace and my mother. Thurmus Reynolds and others took a huge risk...and because they did I was allowed to give my feeble attempt at a resurrected life...44 years later...I am still allowed to give my feeble attempt at a resurrected life in this community once more.]
Our words...a Samaritan woman, Rick Burdette’s and yours are intended to be the open door for a community of grace and healing...new life...so I’m going to challenge you at the end of this Easter, resurrection service to take one of these “stupid” water bottles and use it as a prayer vessel...a cup of living water. Here’s what it says...Here’s the community challenge.
“This week sit down and read John 4:1-42 and then drink this bottle of water each time you take a drink pray specifically by name for people who need living water. Also pray for God to reveal to you specific opportunities to meet these individuals and even strangers at the well.
Let’s pray.
