Reading John 4:1-24 Text 4:24.
Introduction
Good evening to you all it is a privilege to be sharing the word of God together,
For where there is unity their God commands the blessing.
I would like us to take a journey through these scriptures together, even though these are well known passages, I trust that the Lord will speak to us where ever we find ourselves.
The Journey that is laid out in scripture is one of significant importance. when we consider that just the distance alone would be around 65 – 70 Miles add to this the baking heat and we are looking at an overall journey of between 2-3 days on the most direct route (through Samaria)
No we are told in scripture about the animosity that exist between the Jews and the Samaritans so much so that most of the Pharisees and Jews would rather walk a longer route than pass through that territory also it was fraught with danger.
Jesus having been in Judea, speaking with nicodemus announces to the disciples that he JESUS had to go through Samaria. HAD TO, there was an imperative (work to be done) that needed to be completed, the disciples didn’t know the plan, the woman didn’t know, The Alpha & Omega
can you imagine the private discussion that may have taken place between the disciples (O No its bad enough we have to walk to Galilee but he wants us to go through Samaria, can’t we go the same way as we normally go as at least we can be safe?
What is the point what possible good can come of it?? Do we ever find ourselves with this frame of mind that we are questioning the directives of the almighty? If we do we find we are in good company Jonah, 1 Kings 9:13 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, but GOD was with him,
We may have a Samaria that we need to journey through where we need to be met by Jesus. So we pick up the journey about mid-day, Jesus has arrived before the disciples
Mount Gerizim on the one side and mount Ebal on the other This place is first mentioned in Gen 12 :6 it was at this place that Jacob meet with his estranged brother Esau.
Shechem was named after a person
It was in Shechem that Jacob buried his foreign Gods and committed himself fully to the true and living God It Was here in Shechem That Joseph was sold in to slavery
It was between the two mountains that Moses commanded the Israelites once they had entered the promise land to pronounce the blessings of God for Obedience and the
curses for disobedience
Joshua Gathered the tribes together here, Josephs bones are buried here,
This was a central gathering place for the nation
Jesus passing through to galilee
For the father is seeking such people (worshipers in spirit and truth)
In the life of this lady, whose reputation was well known and not in a good way, had little left to loose, she was at possibly the lowest ebb of her life, life itself had lost its joy, she was shunned by all those around and possibly deserved !! but this had become an established pattern, & as far as she knew it would continue to be, she may have been at this well a thousand times before and left with only the rudiments of her thirst quenched.
The anxiety of her journey to the well I Hope that I am a lone
There was no expectation for her, there was no way out, she was a prisoner of her past and would continue to be one till her death. (but Jesus had other plans)
So often in the word of God we see the Lord breaking in to the lives of people in the strangest and weirdest of ways which is totally unexpected. (usually before a commissioning)
Judges 6:12
11Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. 12The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior." 13Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian."…
Exodus 3:2 the account of the Lord appearing to Moses in the burning bush and the commissioning for the deliverance of Israel. (the burning bush would have been a common sight however a bush that burned yet was not consumed!)
Gideon was met by the Lord at the wine press, Moses in the desert, The women at the well,
We see that Jesus alone is present with this lady and requests a drink,
Jesus can meet us in the office in the Pew, in the garage, in the ward !!
It is no accident that we are here today, Jesus meeting with the woman, Broke the rules of culture , Class, and in some way the established religion. He was a man like no other she had ever met , (( in my opinion this is one of the greatest demonstrations of the love of God towards a sin full world ,that he the price of peace , Mighty God ,everlasting farther should reveal himself to this lady. he spoke truths to her that facilitated a spiritual response and an acknowledgment of her past ways.
There was hope NOT A HOPE SO HOPE, but an eternal hope that was being birthed in the depths of this Samaritan woman that life would and could be different. O the joys that this day has brought. this man knows all about me but has not judged me. He is different. she starts to begin to understand the spiritual principle of the living water as Jesus reveals more of who he is to this Samaritan woman.
Jesus explains that the established order of either worship in Jerusalem or on mount Gerizim is no more as he states that the true worshipers will worship in Spirit and in truth.
This passage is so well known it is easy to lose the miracles that happened in this place with the meeting of Jesus with a very questionable character, this woman is so filled by the revelation of the spirit that she leaves her water jar and goes to the people around (those self-same people that can’t stand her and shouts the great news of God.) she than goes on to evangelise the area. The disciples and Jesus spend two days in the area, later in Acts 8 we see that the Apostles were back in Samaria and that large sections of the Samaritans came to Christ.
Where ever we find ourselves, no matter how monotonous our situation may appear, let us not pass the opportunity that Christ presents. little did this lady know that the turn of events would change not only her life but her nation.
Let us be men of God who in these dark times are never ashamed to stand in the light, to be open to the moving of the spirit of God in any and all of our situations.
Reflections
Can we identify a time or times in your / our lives where God has moved in such a profound way that we could have missed it and where we are glad that we went out on a limb for God?
When was the last time this happened?
As men let us pray that we would be sensitive enough in spirit that we would not ignore the challenge that Christ might meet us with, but be elated and renewed in spirit leaving behind all those other things …
Let us seek first the Kingdom of God.
Amen.
