Lesson’s from the Well
CCCAG March 25th, 2018
Scripture- John 4:1-26, 39-42
Opening Illustration-
When I was in the Army I was stationed near Montgomery Alabama. For those of you who lived through the 1960’s and 70’s, you remember this city because it was the birthplace of the civil rights movement. Montgomery was the place Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, and where Dr. Martin Luther King led some of his biggest marches to protest the racial injustice of his day.
One of the events that was sponsored by our morale officer was to take weekly bus trips into Montgomery to see the semi pro football team called the Alabama Seminoles. The first time I went there it was a lot of fun.
During the game, I went off to find a bathroom and came upon a roped off area with a display of two water fountains. One water fountain had a sign that said, “Whites only” and the other water fountain said, “Coloreds only”. A plaque on the wall stated that these were two real water fountains that existed through the early 1970’s. The city had decided to keep them as a display as a reminder of the racial segregation that existed in Alabama during that time.
I remember how I felt about that. I grew up in Wisconsin and did not see a lot of overt racism. The most I saw was occasionally hearing people refer to black people in profane ways, but really there wasn’t as overt as this example in the south. I didn’t really understand racism as I grew up in the poor area of Kenosha, so I had a lot of Hispanic and black friends. I even had a Japanese friend who had just moved over from Japan.
I had read in books about the racism and segregation in the south and seen it in movies and pictures of that era, but up until right then I never really seen firsthand an example of it.
I wasn’t even a Christian then and it made my heart ache at the unfairness those people had to endure from people with the same ancestry I have.
In the scripture we are going to read today, Jesus is going to be dealing with an extreme example of racism as chooses to talk to a Samaritan woman.
Some of you remember the history of the Samaritan people from our Sunday School lessons last year of the minor prophets but let’s do a quick review it for those who might not have heard it before.
In 1052 BC, a man named Saul becomes King over Israel. Before this, the tribes of Israel maintained a lose confederation but had no central government. Saul starts to pull the tribes together to form one kingdom under God. This works continues under King David, culminating with King Solomon in which Israel is the only superpower in the known world at the time.
In 931 BC Upon King Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam makes some foolish decisions and the Kingdom splits in half- 10 of the 12 tribes forming the nation of Israel, while 2 of the southern tribes form the Kingdom of Judea. Israel is separated from pure worship of God found the temple in Jerusalem and quickly falls into Idolatry and wickedness from which is never truly recovers. For over 200 years, God sends prophet after prophet after prophet to get them to repent but they ignore and often kill them leading to God’s judgement.
In 722 AD, The northern Kingdom of Israel is conquered by Assyria and it’s people killed, scattered or carried off into captivity. The few who remain are forced into intermarriage with their conquerors. This violates the law of Moses which states that Hebrews can only marry other Hebrews. That law was put in place to assure a pure bloodline for Messiah. Most of these people congregated in what today is central Israel. These were the Samaritan people.
Because of their sin and polluted bloodlines they could never again be full citizens in Israel, nor could they offer sacrifices at the temple.
The animosity between the pure-blooded Hebrews and the Samaritans was got even worse when Nehemiah and Ezra returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the city after suffering their own exile.
In 444 BC, A Samaritan leader named Sanballat offered Samaria’s help in the rebuilding the temple but was rejected by Nehemiah for not being a pure-blooded Hebrew. To our understanding, it sounds very racist and unloving, but Ezra and Nehemiah had just suffered a 100-year exile from their land for violating God’s law, so were being very strict with the law because they didn’t want a repeat.
Sanballat then formed an opposition to the rebuilding which ultimately failed and so he decided to build a separate temple in Samaria at Mt Gerizim and formed a religion that was an offshoot of Judaism, which further isolated them from the Hebrews and made the loathing and hatred grow.
Geographically, Samaria existed between Galilee in the north and Judea in the south. That hatred was so intense among the Jewish people, that when they needed to travel between Galilee and Judea they would rather walk 120 miles around the borders of Samaria instead of about 78 miles by taking the straightest path. In fact, a Jew who entered Samaria was often robbed, beaten, and sometimes killed so that area was generally avoided by most God-fearing Hebrew.
That’s the history of Samaria and it’s important to understanding today’s message and what Jesus was facing when He decided to have a sit down and talk with a woman who should have been his mortal enemy.
Scripture- John 4:1-26
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So 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 noon.
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.)
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.”
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 livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
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.”
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.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, 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 the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
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, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Prayer
Late last year when I was preparing to teach this series on the Gospel of John I found a few interesting critiques of the way John wrote his Gospel. Anyone who has read the 4 Gospels can see that John’s Gospel differs from Matthew, Mark, Luke in that there doesn’t appear to be a lot of structure in the way he wrote as compared to the other three.
I would disagree, I think the Holy Spirit used John to present Jesus in a very particular way. I also think God was very deliberate in the order that John wrote his Gospel, and the fact that this story of the Samaritan woman comes after Jesus describes the salvation plan of God in John 3, particularly verses 16 and 17 is very important.
In John 3:16 it says For God so loved the World, He gave his one and only Son, that WHOEVER believes in HIM will not perish but have everlasting life.
That’s the teaching that Christ came to this earth to impart to us to show us the way home to God our Father.
John Chapter 3 gives us the principle.
Here in John chapter 4, we see the teaching demonstrated.
I see this as a deliberate work of the Holy Spirit to teach us the principle, and then demonstrate it in action.
I am going to spend the rest of the message showing several points that we can learn from what Jesus did here in the application of John 3.
Let’s jump in
In John 4, verse 1-3 it says that Jesus was getting sick of dealing with the religious crowd. Let me be very clear- he is not talking about church people, but people who use the church to make themselves look special, spiritual, or important. These were the Pharisee’s.
Jesus is frustrated, He is probably at the end of his human ability to tolerate them, and before he calls upon John and James to pray down some fire he decides to just walk away. He decides to go the one place these Pharisee’s would never go- into Samaria.
What is the lesson for you and I?
The underlying principle is this- Sometimes a spiritual frustration is necessary for Kingdom growth. Let me illustrate this a little.
Around the time I was called into the ministry I sat down to talk with a missionary to Africa that was visiting my church. I asked him why did you go to Africa when there are so many needs here? He said “I was a pastor here in the states with a growing church, great salary with full benefits, and great future ahead of me. I was being pointed to as an example in my district, and was thinking of writing a book on church growth.
But underneath all the success, I was miserable. I felt I was propping up this institution we call the American church, but most of my day was spend putting out little personality driven fires within the congregation instead of actually growing disciples. Every Monday morning, I woke up wanting to quit the ministry. Eventually, God opened the door to go to Africa as a missionary, and since then I have never been more fulfilled, more used, and seeing more genuine conversions than I have in Uganda.”
Right or wrong, it took a sense of frustration in him to get him to move away from comfort, from wealth, from prestige and position and into where God really wanted him and boom!- Kingdom growth happened.
The application for us-
Too many times when a Christian is in a season of despair or feeling like God is absent or that their current situation is impossible, we are too quick to speak. We come up with the pat answers, kind of like Job’s friends-
You are under spiritual attack
Your flesh is getting in the way
You aren’t praying enough
You aren’t in the Word enough
Maybe you need a sabbatical
Within the culture of the church that is what we do- we try to fix the problem with spiritual sounding solutions.
What we miss is that our Father God will send these seasons into our lives to make us uncomfortable. Sometimes God wants us squirming a bit so that all we can do is cry out to HIM, so that we can hear His voice and direction.
This is the key- God cannot, nor will not allow His children to experience the fullness of his presence, provision, power, or prosperity until we are exactly where we are supposed to be within HIS plan.
What would have happened if Jesus had stubbornly obeyed the cultural expectations of his time instead of doing the uncomfortable?
For Jesus it was expect that-
Don’t set one foot in Samaria
Never associate with a Samaritan.
Never speak to a woman, especially alone.
Never speak to a sinful person
Don’t risk your reputation to reach a person with the Gospel.
If Jesus had followed the “Rules”-
You and I wouldn’t be sitting here today. The Gospel would never have spread past Israel, and probably would have died when Rome demolished Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Remember Acts 1:8?- Jesus said- you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Without this demonstration in John 4 of Jesus ministering to this woman, The disciples would have heard Jerusalem and Judea and would have stopped there.
Jesus never tells us to do something HE has not already showed us to do.
Another thing I want to point out here- Prior to meeting this woman, Jesus sent even his disciples away.
Why does that matter?
Sometimes your closest friends and even family can be the biggest hindrances to seeing God work in your life. When God gives you a vision of what HE wants you to do, I guarantee those closest to you will not understand it, agree with it, or support it.
Family reaction when I was called to the ministry. (brief)
Dad, mom, brother, grandparents
I have discovered this truth both in the bible, and through personal experience- When Jesus gives us a Word or a mission, you should keep it to yourself for a time until the details about it emerge. God usually won’t give you the whole thing at once because it would be too much for us to handle. I would caution us from sharing it with others because most will not understand it, agree with it, and some will try to talk you out of it.
Treat others with the same care- because too often we dismiss God’s revelation to a person because of our expectations of what they should do when God is telling them to do something radically different.
Another point for us to consider this morning-
Jesus goes and meets her where she was
Let’s quickly review who Jesus was meeting-
A Samaritan- according to Jesus’ religion this person is not worthy in God’s sight. This person is so bad that even speaking to would spiritually contaminate Him.
A woman- again not worth a holy man’s time to talk to, and if he was seen talking to her alone, it would ruin him in the eyes of the religious crowd
Not just any woman, but a woman who was considered to be so bad by even the Samaritans that the only time she could come and get water is in the heat of the day. In that time and culture, going to the well was done early in the morning, when all the women in town would walk together to gather the water they needed for the day.
This woman was such an outcast no one wanted her around because of her sinful past and present.
I imagine as she is trudging through the blistering heat of the day, carrying jugs to get water for a man who was only using her for one thing, knowing that anyone she happened to meet would avoid her, even walking off the road with their heads down and avoiding even eye contact with her.
Then she sees a Hebrew man sitting by the well.
I don’t know if you have ever felt severe rejection in your life. The type of rejection where the entire city thinks you are scum. Your reputation gets trashed, and you walk into a room and everyone leaves. You see people on the street and they look away, and you can’t even leave the house without feeling the oppression of people’s scorn for you.
That’s how this woman feels seeing Jesus.
I have no doubt She is thinking, “One more person to tell me how awful I am. One more nail in my heart to prove my worthlessness. One more scornful look to prove to me I am nothing.”
So Her shields are up as she comes toward the well, and Jesus knocks immediately knocks those shields down with a question
“Will you give me a drink?”
She’s stunned- waiting for the punch line…expecting the insult to come next. Jesus just looks at her expectantly, which leads to her to remind this Hebrew that they should not even be talking or even in the same area together.
Watch this-
Jesus than applied John 3:16-17- (the whoever will believe...)“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is talking to you, you would ask me for living water”
Jesus met her, then Jesus brushed aside her defenses and humbled himself by asking her for something- making him the beggar of something that she could provide.
Jesus did that to earn the right to speak to her greatest need- Spiritual rebirth and nourishment.
The take away for us is this- sometimes you need to earn the right to speak. Most People, particularly the ones most jaded and most hostile to the faith because of what life has done to them need to see the Gospel working in your life before they will believe you telling them about it.
One of the failings of the modern church is that we have a tendency to treat those who do not know Jesus like they are projects and not people. We are called to make disciples and Discipleship means lovingly sharing your life with those who God wants you to reach.
That means you have to be willing to be friends with sinners
It means you can’t criticize every bad habit
You might have to overlook colorful language
You might have to not deal with some glaring sins at first, but let the Holy Spirit do the cleaning.
In other words, you need to follow Jesus example here in John 4-
He talks to her, he treats her like a person.
He draws out a need, and uses that need to tell her what her real problem is, the very thing that is causing all the pain, all the ostracism from her neighbors, and all the loneliness that has kept her in the chains of spiritual oppression for years-
She has sought love and intimacy through sex instead of following God’s plan for her.
Right off the top of our heads most of us could rattle off a dozen names of woman who have done exactly that.
Any of us could rattle of scores of men who have done and are still doing the same thing.
Jesus shows her that only HE could give her what she needed-
Rebirth
A new beginning
And a new spirit
Her reply asking where she should worship has made some people think it was her attempt to distract Jesus from digging too far into her spirit. I don’t believe that for a second.
She immediately sees her spiritual need tries to meet it the only way she knows. Seeing Jesus is a prophet and a Hebrew, she asks a very good question- Should she go to Jerusalem to the temple and offer sacrifice, or to her local temple that the Samaritans have built for worship?
It’s wonderful- Her spirit is open for the big truth that Jesus speaks into her heart, and into our hearts this morning.
This is the goal of John chapter 3-
Verse 21 in John 4- “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, 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 the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Paraphrase for our 21st century ears-
Ma’am, you will never find what you need in a religion. You will only find what you so desperately desire in an intimate relationship with God our Father.
Her reaction- she believed, and was born again.
The goal of John chapter 3.
What did this reborn woman go and do?
She told everyone she knew. What did she tell them?
For God so loved the World, He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in HIM will not perish, but have everlasting life.
How did they react?
John 4:39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 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.”
Let’s all stand-
John Chapter 4 is all about Applying the Kingdom Principles found in John chapter 3. If we do that, it brings about Kingdom growth.
It does it in a person
It does it in a family
It does it in a neighborhood
It does it in a job
And it can do it to a country
If we believe.
Palm Sunday mention-Jesus coming into Jerusalem for passion week. It’s time that we really allow Jesus to fill us with HIS mission, HIS Plan, and HIS purpose so that we can indeed see HIS Kingdom Come.
Prayer that Jesus will enter into our hearts and take complete control once again. Altar Call. Prayer for fellowship meal.
