Water, Worship, Work – Part One (Gospel of John Part 13)
Text: John 4:1 – 26
Just to remind everyone, before the Easter Holidays, we were going through the Gospel of John. We took a break from that, over the last two weeks and had our Palm Sunday Sermons and Resurrection Sunday Sermon. So that means… we’re back in John’s Gospel this morning. And we’re going to be looking at chapter 4:1 – 26. So let’s go ahead and open our Bibles to John 4 and let’s read the passage and see what the Lord has for us this morning (READ TEXT).
Now the first part of this passage starts off with John telling us about Jesus deciding to take a trip northward to Galilee. And he tells us why that is… it’s because Jesus has heard that the Pharisees were becoming interested in the fact that His disciples were baptizing more people than John the Baptist was. And we talked about this in our Palm Sunday sermon a couple of weeks ago. If you remember… we talked about how Jesus had a set time in which He was to go to the cross and die for our sins, and until that time came, He had to make sure to stay under the Pharisee’s radar so to speak. And so, He’s starting to be a “blip” on the Pharisee’s radar, and He’s like – “Time to pack up and go up to Galilee for a while.”
Now Galilee was north of Judea, but Samaria was in-between the two regions, and at this time, no self-respecting Jew would travel through Samaria. In-fact; John points this out in verse 9 where he writes as a footnote, “(For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans)”. So what the Jewish people would typically do if they were traveling from Galilee to Judea, or from Judea to Galilee was… they would cross over the Jordan River to the east, and travel to the other region, bypassing Samaria. That would sort of be like you or me saying, “Instead of taking the shorter route through Moreland to go to Enid, I’m going to take the longer route through Fairview.” And if you know your Old Testament you know the reason for this. You see; the OT tells us that both the Jews and the Samaritans originally came from Jacob. They were both part of the 12 tribes of Israel. And when King Saul, and King David, and Solomon reigned over Israel they were all one nation. But then Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king, and he was wicked and cruel, so 10 of the 12 tribes separated from the other 2, and they became their own nation… They were actually called Israel at the time, and the southern nation was called Judah. In the northern kingdom of Israel, there was one wicked king after the other, and they fell into idol worship and paganism. Finally; around 722 B.C. the Assyrians came in and conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. And what the Assyrians did was brought their own people in, and started having mixed marriages in order to breed the Jews of the northern kingdom out. So they were no longer a pure line from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They basically became an entirely new people group, who were called Samaritans. In the southern kingdom of Judah, though they kept their bloodlines pure.
Now what’s so interesting about all of this, is that our text says… in verse 4 that Jesus “HAD” to go through Samaria. Not because it’s the only way to Galilee… but because Jesus is going to have this providential meeting with this woman.
And as John’s writing this, he’s doing it in a way that parallels chapter 3. He’s almost contrasting the meeting with Nicodemus with the meeting with the woman at the well. Think about it for a second… Nicodemus was a Jewish man… He was a Pharisee. He’s one of the respected, orthodox leaders of Israel. He was religious. He was honorable and well known. But here in chapter 4 it’s a woman… not a Jewish woman, but a Samaritan woman. We don’t even know what her name was. And not only that… she’s not a moral person. She’s had 5 husbands, and the guy she was with at this particular time isn’t her husband… and actually; the implication here is that he’s someone else’s husband, but he’s shacking up with this lady. So she’s an obvious sinner. Nicodemus was a sinner too, but he probably wasn’t thought of in that way. With this lady, there’s no doubt. And so she comes to the well to get water. It’s probably something she did every single day. It was part of her routine. But this time, it’s going to change her world. Because this is why Jesus HAD to pass through Samaria.
So she gets to the well and Jesus is there… and I bet she’s a little bit surprised. First of all, He’s Jewish… Remember the Jews didn’t typically pass through Samaria… but even more surprised because He engages in a conversation with her.
So let’s look at this… verses 7 through 11 (READ).
This lady was at the well getting water, it was something she had to do every day. It was necessary, because every day she used up what she had. It was limited, and it could only satisfy her needs for a short while. But now this Jewish stranger is talking to her about some kind of water that never runs out. And really what Jesus is going to do here is challenge this lady to recognize His greatness, and her need. But it’s interesting… because just like Nicodemus in chapter 3, she initially doesn’t get it. She’s thinking about physical, temporary needs, instead of spiritual needs. That’s why she says what she says in verse 15, “Give me this water so I’ll never be thirsty, and so I’ll never have to come to this well again.” And that’s when Jesus drops the bomb on her… He says, “Go call your husband, and come here.”
Now let’s think about what’s going on here. This woman has had 5 husbands, and the man she’s with now, isn’t her husband. Jesus has been talking to her about never thirsting… of course He’s talking in the spiritual sense… but the point of this is that she’s obviously been looking for some kind of fulfilment in her life… some kind of satisfaction and contentment… but she hasn’t found it yet. She’s not finding it in the water from the well, and she’s not finding it in relationships. And this applies to you and me today as well. There can be all kinds of things that we look to in hopes that it will bring satisfaction, and contentment, and fulfill our longings. For some folks it can be work… their jobs or careers. They find their identity and self-worth in what they do for a living. For others it might be achievement… in other words, they don’t feel like a success in life unless they’ve achieved some goal… whether that’s a financial goal, a career goal, an educational goal, a relationship goal, or whatever. Or… it might be the success of their children. I’ve been helping coach an 8 and under youth baseball team, and I’ve got to tell you, parents can be lunatics. They think their kid is going to be the next George Brett, or Cal Ripkin, or Sammy Sosa… let me just tell you – He’s not. He’s an 8-year-old who gets distracted by bugs in the grass. It’s taking everything I’ve got just to teach him how to pay attention, because he’s been raised by a cell phone, where everything comes on a blue lit screen in 5 minute increments, and his mom’s over here screaming like a banshee because she thinks he should be throwing out a double play. The point is… we all can be tempted to try to find satisfaction and fulfillment in the things of this world… but what we actually find is that the things of this world never satisfy us like we think they will. They only offer a kind of temporary satisfaction at best. For this woman is was five marriages and now a relationship that she really doesn’t want to talk about.
But now… she’s met Jesus!
Now I’m going to flip the script on you here just a little bit… because we all know that this woman is a sinner, and we all know that she’s looking for some kind of fulfillment and satisfaction in the world… but she’s also broken. Think about this with me for a second. In this time period and in this culture, it was a very… and I mean EXTREMELY rare thing that a woman could instigate a divorce… It was a very patriarchal system… and women were second class citizens… there wasn’t any #MeToo Movement in Samaria, Judea, or Israel at the time. And even if the women wanted there to be one, it would’ve never happened. And so when divorce happened, it was usually instigated by the husband. Now the Israelites – the Jews… they had very strict laws about divorce. Moses; in the OT basically said, because people are hard hearted, and are unwilling to forgive, he was going to permit divorce to take place, but only on the grounds of adultery. But the Samaritans didn’t follow the Law of Moses quite so strictly as the Jews. They divorced for any and every reason. But it was still the man who had to call for it, or instigate it. And we don’t know why this lady has had five husbands… maybe all of her previous husbands died. The text doesn’t seem to be leading in that direction… It’s actually implied that she’s been divorced 5 times. We don’t know if she’s committed adultery on each of those husbands.
That may be the case as well. What we do know here is that this lady has been rejected, and given up on over and over again. But also guys kept hooking up with her. For every husband that was unwilling to forgive her, and that rejected her, there was another guy waiting in the wings. Listen to me Church, the idea from the text here is that basically this woman… she’s been used, and then after the new wore off, she was rejected and tossed aside. She’s not innocent – she keeps making the same mistakes over and over again… but neither are the guys who have used her. She’s driven by this longing for fulfillment and satisfaction, but she’s looking for it in all the wrong places… (There’s a country song in there somewhere).
And that’s what sin does… it leads to brokenness, and ruined lives, and ruined relationships, and ruined hopes and dreams. But like I said a while ago… it’s all about to change because now SHE’S MET JESUS! And Jesus isn’t like all those other guys who have used her and tossed her aside. Jesus knows her better than she knows herself. Jesus knows her past. He knows what she’s done. But He’s not rejecting her.
Now catch what Jesus has done here… He started talking to her about “living water”… that’s the Bible’s way of talking about heavenly gifts, specifically the gift of salvation… she didn’t get it. She’s worldly – just like Nicodemus didn’t get the spiritual idea of being born again… this lady thinks Jesus is talking about literal, physical water. So she doesn’t understand the offer of grace and mercy that’s being laid out before her… so Jesus changes gears. He has to make her aware of her need. You see the Bible teaches that we need to have an awareness of our sin, before we’ll ever seek the Savior… in-fact; the Apostle Paul tells us that’s the whole purpose of the OT Law. It shows us how far we fall short of God’s righteous requirements, and how we desperately need someone to fulfill the Law on our behalf.
So Jesus calls her out. He’s like, “You’ve had 5 husbands… and the guy you’re living with now isn’t your husband at all.” And it changes her whole demeanor… she’s like, “Uh oh! This isn’t an ordinary man.” She thinks He might be a prophet… and isn’t it interesting how her conversation shifts to spiritual things. It shifts to worship. You know what Church; we should never be afraid to engage non-believer in spiritual conversations. We might be surprised at how willing they are to talk to us about spiritual things. And yes… usually they’re going to be off target, and sometimes they’re going to be totally wacky and off the wall… but that’s why we as Christians need to talk with them. We have the truth. And that’s what Jesus does. He tells her the truth. He says to her, “Listen, it’s not about being a Samaritan, it’s not about being Jewish… It’s not about worshiping at Mount Gerizim near Sychar, or the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. God is interested in people who will worship in Spirit and in Truth.” God wants your heart.
Now we’ll finish this section up next Sunday (Lord willing), but today let me ask you something: Has the need of your soul been met? Have you spent your life, your time, your money pursuing the things of this world, only to find that they don’t bring lasting satisfaction? Or maybe you’re still pursuing them… maybe you haven’t yet realized that sin is only fun for a season. And I could tell you; that sin will destroy you. It will ruin you. It will ravage you. It will lead you down a road of brokenness and sorrow. But I don’t want to JUST tell you that. I want to tell you about Jesus… I want to tell you that He alone can give you real and lasting satisfaction in life… I want to tell you that He alone can forgive you of your sin, and give you eternal - EVERLASTING - life
I want to tell you how if you will receive Him by faith, and trust in Him and His finished work, God will save you, and will begin to change you, and make you a new creation in Christ.
We’re all like this woman at the well. We’ve tried to find things in life that would bring us satisfaction and completeness, but it can only be found in Jesus Christ.
CLOSING
