Intro: Today I want to talk to you about going to the well alone. The steps from a sinner to a saint.
I. Outcast!
A. From the text we are introduced to a Samaritan woman whose heritage is less than one to be desired.
1. By that statement let us look into the past of the Samaritans. During the exile of the Jews which happened in three phases expanding over a period of 19 years from 605 B.C. to 586 B.C. The Jews were deported from their homeland by the Babylonians under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon, where they remained for 70 years before being liberated by the Medes and Persians under the reign of King Cyrus who let them go home and rebuild there lives as well as the homeland.
2. But during the exile the Jews broke another one of God’s ordinance on marriage by intermarrying with pagans. As was outlined in the books of the law or Torah.
3. So during the 70 years in exile a new set of people were being born from the intermarrying of the Jews to the Assyrians, Babylonians, and other pagans that resulted in what is now called the Samaritans.
4. They were a despised people because they were “half breeds” if you please, unaccepted by the Jews because they were half of another culture that represented and reminded them of a dark time in history for the Jews not only because of the destruction of there homeland but it was also the destruction of the Temple. Also the people of there other halves would have nothing to do with them because of there ties to the Jews.
5. So in all these people had no belonging what so ever they were outcast.
B. Not only was this woman an outcast from her heritage, but also from her own people because of her less than desired life style.
1. She was in all respects a full-blown sinner; she was a well-known adulteress and harlot. Were as most women were looking forward to having a husband she had already had 5 and the 6th wasn’t even her husband. She was garbage and filth by all respects of the time; she was not pure in heritage or lifestyle.
C. Which given all this may explain why she came to the well alone. By Jewish tradition your older single woman would go to the well it was also to our modern water cooler where one could catch up with current events and share stories with one another. For these women I could see them laughing and conversing over how great it will be to be married and raise up a family; even speaking of how romantic it would be to find there true love waiting for them there at Jacob’s Well as Rachael had found Jacob at a well. Just the thoughts of the similarities took them to giggles and sighs of the true romance they hoped to find.
1. This task of going to the well was one that was done at the beginning and end of the day. For the Samaritan women she chooses to go at the sixth hour or midday which was the hottest point of the day; one that was spent in the cool of the shade until the blistering heat would subside a few degrees where one could continue there daily chore. But I believe she chose this inconvenient hour because of the lack of those that would be working especially in the task of gathering water. She probably wanted to stay as far away as she could from others in fear of the stares and whispers she would get from the other women a reminder of her life style and who she was in that town as the local harlot.
II. But in spite of who she was, she like the rest of them needed a drink.
A. I can see her now making her way to the well, with her water pot upon her head in hopes to shield the heat and light of a midday blaze. As she gets closer to the well she notices a silhouette of a man through the glare of the heat sitting by the well.
1. Her mind begins to wonder at the sight, who is this man by the well? He shouldn’t be here, he doesn’t even have a water pot, and he shouldn’t even at be at here in this heat.
2. Then an apprehensive fear takes over, this man knows my reputation and probably knows I come to this well the same time every day. He’s not looking for water (You got that right sister), but for me!
3. It seems like all these men want these days is to gratify themselves at my expense, but on the other hand maybe this one is different, great now I sound like those silly girls that come here in hopes of finding a man, oh well it is true that I’m tired of the guy I’m with now. Who knows maybe number 7 is the one? Maybe even with this one I’ll leave this disreputable lifestyle and clean up.
B. And now as gets closer the sun moves behind her and the once darkened image of a silhouette begins to take on color and form.
1. Quickly by his looks and dress she notices that he is by far no Samaritan, but a Jew!
2. I can imagine the disappointment she would have, to know that the right one was a Jew; she knew that one look at her he would know immediately that she was Samaritan and have nothing to do with her.
3. Unaware that this Jew went out of His way to see her.
C. As she begins the task of drawing water, she avoids any contact or communication with the Jew, ashamed now of her she was now wishing she was some one else or that she had never came in the first place. When all of a sudden her thoughts are interrupted with a voice.
1. … Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (This of course was a huge shock to her.)
2. John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. (11) The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? (12) Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
III. Drawing from the well.
A. John 4:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:(14) But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (15) The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. (16) Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. (17) The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: (18) For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
1. She was right number 7 the number of perfection the number of completion was the right man the one she had been looking for.
2. Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
3. John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
4. 1 Timothy 2:5 For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
5. Hebrews 9:15 ¶ And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions [that were] under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
6. 1 John 2:1 ¶ My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
7. The eternal word that took away the sin of the world with his precious blood. He left heaven took on the form of a man that He may pay the price we couldn’t afford to restore us back to the Father. He is Jesus Christ the one that Isaiah 53:5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
8. John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.
Conclusion: Today the Lord is looking for some outcast so that He may give them a place not on the outside but in the inside.
