INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Today we are going to take another look at a story that is familiar to many. We have examined this narrative in the recent past, but today, we are going to examine this story of the Woman at the Well through a different lens.
• One of the things that seem to have happened in our society is that a significant number of people do not take the time or make an effort to think at a deeper level.
• It is so easy to think at or a little below the surface.
• I am not sure why this has happened, I think it has a bit to do with our sound-bite driven media which in turn has spilled over into our society.
• It seems like if the media says something or some celebrity says something, many will just accept it.
• If a professor tells something, or a politician tells us something, many just believe it.
• I also think that from a political standpoint the divisions have grown so deep over the past 20 years that we put barriers up that keeps us from thinking on a deeper level.
• Biblical illiteracy on the part of the church has made it more difficult for folks to engage society on a deeper level.
• To win the battle for the soul, we need to win the battle for the mind.
• The Word of God is a powerful tool in our arsenal. The Word can change the destiny of anyone.
• SLIDE #2
• 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (CSB) — 3 For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
• We are called to take every thought captive to Jesus! That requires us to think on a deeper level than normal or that society is comfortable with us doing.
• As we examine the story of the Woman at the Well, we will glean some principles that will help us to be able to think at a deeper level and it will help us to invoke a deeper level of thinking to those whom we seek to share the gospel with.
• The encounter Jesus has with the woman at the well changed her life forever when Jesus was able to help her to be open to thinking on a much deeper level.
• Let’s turn to John 4 to see how Jesus helped invoke a deeper level on thinking for the woman at the well.
• SLIDE #3
• John 4:1–9 (CSB) — 1 When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), 3 he left Judea and went again to Galilee. 4 He had to travel through Samaria; 5 so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. 9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
• SLIDE #4
SERMON
Invoking deeper thinking requires:
I. Breaking down barriers. 1-9
• Barriers are one of the things that keep us from thinking on a deeper level.
• There are so many barriers that will keep us from questioning what we are told or will prevent us from challenging the conventional group-think of the day.
• Barriers are made to keep things out, we see some actual physical barriers on Highway 92 as we see all the road construction that is going happen.
• Those barriers are meant to keep drivers out of the areas where the work is taking place.
• When we have barriers of the mind, those barriers will keep out things and thoughts that run contrary to what we think we already know.
• There are a variety of barriers that stifle our ability to dive deep into the questions we face in life.
• There are political barriers, if I am a D I think a certain way, an R another, and I or an L yet another.
• Anything that comes to me that does not match with what I already believe gets summarily rejected without a thought given.
• I believe one the most significant differences in the education system today versus even twenty years ago, is back in the day, we were taught the process of thinking.
• We were taught the art of critical thinking, today we are taught WHAT to think.
• Science used to be one place where scientists could make a hypothesis, or develop a theory, then they would spend time trying to prove or disprove the theory.
• Today, if you do not subscribe to specific ways of thinking in things like global warming, I mean climate change, the scientific community seeks to ostracize or marginalize you.
• Evolution is another area. It amazes me that despite the odds, despite the lack of fossil record evidence, among other things, those who do not fall in line with the groupthink theology of evolution are made to be crackpots.
• You should see some of the Facebook threads on the subject.
• Barriers will lock our minds into a particular way of thinking that will keep us from asking the question and digging deeper into things we should dig deeper.
• God is not afraid for you to dig deep as you grow your faith.
• So, Jesus is resting by the well while His disciples go into town to get some food.
• Jesus is going to engage this woman in a conversation; however, the dialogue is not going to go in the direction the woman thinks it will.
• Before this woman will even listen to Jesus, there are a bunch of barriers that need to be torn down.
• The fact that Jesus is a Jew, she is a Samaritan. The fact He is a Jewish man and she is a woman. In their society, Jewish men would not even speak to their female family members in public many times.
• There were religious barriers, He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan, this affected how she saw the world.
• In verse 8, Jesus makes a simple request, give me a drink. From that simple request we will see a life-changing event take place.
• But before that can happen, barriers had to dismantled. In verse 9, the woman throws up the barriers and Jesus, by virtue of engaging in the conversation will destroy them.
• As you look over the text, Jesus does not answer her verse 9 question, He gets right to what He is trying to get her to think about.
• Let’s look at our next thought.
• SLIDE #5
Invoking deeper thinking requires:
II. A patient approach. 10-15
• When we a seeking to help someone think a little deeper about things, it will require a great deal of patience.
• In the exchange, Jesus tells the woman…
• SLIDE #6
• John 4:10 (CSB) — 10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”
• Now here is an example of surface thinking. The woman is fixated on the water in the well, she is fixated on the barrier of her immediate need for water.
• To back her barrier thinking, she goes into the Samaritan view of the history of the well in verses 12, and in verse 11, she seemingly scoffs by telling Jesus He did not even have a bucket that would reach the 100 plus foot deep well.
• Once again, Jesus does not answer the question about the bucket, He keeps driving His point home to her.
• SLIDE #7
• John 4:13–14 (CSB) — 13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”
• He is trying to get her to think outside of the box.
• She needs not to be constrained by barriers and circumstances, she needs to listen to what He is saying and think about it.
• Jesus could have said, HEY STUPID, QUIT THINKING ABOUT THIS STUPID WELL AND THE STUPID WATER AND LISTEN TO WHAT I AM SAYING AND THINK A LITTLE BIT!
• Jesus stays patient with her to this point.
• So, the woman’s response in verse 15 would have to drive most of us up the wall.
• SLIDE #8
• John 4:15 (CSB) — 15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”
• Argh! She still is stuck on the well, but now Jesus will do something to try to try to shake her world a little bit.
• This is not meant to demean the woman, but to get her to do something she needed to do.
• SLIDE #9
• John 4:16–19 (CSB) — 16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” 17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet.
• SLIDE #10
Invoking deeper thinking requires:
III. Allowing the light of truth to shine on one’s life. 15-24
• Jesus is trying to get this woman to think on a spiritual level, to go deeper into her thinking.
• So now He tries to get her to shine the light of truth on her own life. This was meant to get her thinking on a spiritual level, to get her to see her spiritual needs were more significant than her need for the water in the well.
• When Jesus asked her to get her husband, she said she did not have one, and Jesus stated she had had 5 and the man she now has is not he her husband.
• Now she that she has to take a look at her life, she drops the subject of water and tells Jesus that she perceives He is a prophet. Do you think? ?
• NOW, she goes on to ask Jesus a more spiritually oriented question concerning worship.
• His patience with her is starting to pay off. She will ask Jesus a reasonably profound question concerning worship.
• In verses, 21-24 Jesus gives her an answer to her question.
• He says there will come a day when the place does not matter. Worship has always been about the heart.
• SLIDE #11
• John 4:23–24 (CSB) — 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”
• When a person starts to question their own life, when they begin to examine their lives in the light of truth, this can help them to start thinking a bit deeper about eternity.
• This leads to a final thought in verses 25-26.
• SLIDE #12
• John 4:25–26 (CSB) — 25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
• SLIDE #13
Invoking deeper thinking requires:
IV. The courage to embrace the truth. 25-26
• Finally! The right question, a question about the coming Messiah!
• Jesus took her from worrying about water to talking to her about the living water, to getting her to think deep enough to ask about the coming Messiah!
• This woman's progression of thought concerning Jesus went from seeing Him as a Jew, to seeing Him as someone who could make her life more comfortable, to seeing Him as a Prophet, then to seeing Him as possibly the Messiah (v29), the seeing Him as the Savior of the world (v42)!
• Why didn’t everyone who heard and saw Jesus conclude He was the Messiah?
• They let too many things keep them from thinking on a deeper level!
• They allowed their barriers and religious ideas to help close their minds to the concept of Jesus being the Messiah even though He provided evidence throughout His ministry!
• Now, faced with the truth, now that the woman’s whole worldview has been shattered, what is she to do?
• She has to have the courage to embrace the truth!
CONCLUSION
• This woman could have simply walked away, yet in verse 28, this woman left her water jar and headed into town to share her testimony and to encourage others to open their minds to ponder who Jesus was.
• As a result, MANY in the city embraced the truth concerning Jesus!
• We have a difficult job, to get people to challenge what the world has taught them, to get them to think on a deeper level and to be willing to question what they have been taught!
• As Christians, one of the reasons we do not engage the world to think on a deeper level is because we do not know the Word well enough to do the same.
• We allow things to be said and taught without challenge because we are afraid that we will not have the answers.
• My challenge for you is to get the answers, to immerse yourself in the Word so you can think deeply and challenge others to do the same!
• God is not afraid of your questions, ask them, seek the answers and have the courage to embrace the truth of God!
