DON’T HUNT WITH YOUR HEAD DOWN
John 4:1-42
INTRODUCTION
A. Jesus told the disciples to lift up their eyes to the fields that were white unto harvest (John 4:35-38). The fields being white unto harvest then does not mean that every field is white unto harvest now, simply because millions are unconverted. However, we will not see that for which we are not looking.
B. When I was a boy, my father bought me a shotgun and taught me how to squirrel hunt. He always killed more squirrels than did I. It was not because he was a better shot than I—although he was. It was because he saw more squirrels than I did. His eyes scanned the trees for squirrels. I looked at bugs, mother skunks and her troop of kits following single-file behind her, and other ground-bound creatures.
C. Let’s follow Jesus on a journey from Judea to Galilee to see what we can learn about seeing prospective converts where others may see none.
I. JESUS GOT OFF THE BEATEN PATH (VV. 1-6)
A. The disciples might have thought that Jesus was taking the shortest route because of fatigue.
B. Modern disciples might think it strange because he left success (vv. 1-2).
C. John says, “He needed to go through Samaria.” Merrill C. Tenney wrote:
The word “must” implies logical necessity rather than a personnel obligation. It is the term one would use in saying, “A triangle must have three sides.” Why should it be used here is not immediately clear, since there were other roads that Jesus could have taken to Galilee. In the light of the general tenor of the gospel, the word suggested that His reason was not geographical necessity nor social pressure, but the underlying compulsion of the Divine Will that sought out the lost Samaritan sheep. That little phrase, “He must…,” makes this interview to glow with the light of destiny (The Gospel of Belief. 1948. Eerdmans Pub. Co., pp.91-92).
D. Jesus also needed to go through Samaria to begin breaking down the barrier of racism and sexism, preparing for the future, when Philip would enjoy great success when he opened up Samaria to the Great Commission (Acts 8:4-6).
II. JESUS CHALLENGED HER COMFORT ZONE (vv. 7-12)
A. The woman is surprised by Jesus’ asking her for a drink because she was a Samaritan woman.” The prejudice between the two groups was deeply embedded in their history. She might have been familiar with the common prayer of the time, a prayer which is still prayed by many Jews today:
"Blessed are you, King of the Universe, for not having made me a Gentile."
"Blessed are you, King of the Universe, for not having made me a slave."
“Blessed are you, King of the Universe, for not having made me a woman."
B. Jesus pushed her even further out of her comfort zone by offering her something she had not asked for and didn’t know she needed (vv. 10-15). This woman was much like many in America who, while embracing certain moral teachings of the N.T. and laying claim to some of the promises of the gospel, have never really come face to face with Jesus and are therefore cultural Christians only.
C. Jesus challenged the carnal-mind barrier, but she thought that the living water would do away with her need for H2O.
III. JESUS CHALLENGED HER SINFUL LIFESTYLE (vv. 15-18)
A. Some people like to justify sinful lifestyles by referring to Jesus’ breaking with tradition on other occasions and eating with sinners, even allowing a sinful woman, perhaps a prostitute, to anoint his feet (Matt 9:9-11; Lk 7:37-39).
1. They ignore Jesus’ other words:
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt 9:11-13, ESV).
2. Jesus’ words to the woman taken in the act of adultery are those which must be spoken to every forgiven sinner: “Go and sin no more” (John 8:10).
B. In challenging prejudicial barriers, we cannot open the door to postmodernism’s acceptance of all lifestyles as equally valid.
1. In dealing with the barrier of sinful lifestyles, we must not demand preconditions to our presenting Christ to the lost. A local preacher had ask a visiting evangelist to talk to a couple with whom the local man had been trying to convert. The mission failed, and after the two left, the visiting evangelist said to the other: “I wish you had told me that they had been married and divorced, because I would not have wasted my time with them.” Assuming that the evangelist’s position on marriage, divorce, and remarriage were valid, he showed little confidence in the power of the gospel.
2. Had Paul and Apollos been afflicted with the same lack of faith at Corinth (1 Cor 3:6), God would never have been able to give the increase, for we read:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor 6:9-11, ESV).
IV. JESUS DEALT WITH HER ATTEMPT TO SHIFT THE CONVERSATION TO RELIGION (vv. 19-26)
A. When pressed for a decision, the woman sought to shift the focus to a question of religion.
1. Her question centered on an age-old dispute, in which they laid out a plausible proof-text argument for Gerizim’s being the place where Jehovah had placed his name (Gen 12:6ff; Deut 27:12; Joshua 8:30-36).
2. My-church-versus-your-church arguments are attempts to put God in a box and avoid dealing with “Do you know Jesus?” [This is not to suggest that all churches really preach the gospel of Christ. If they did, then our conversation would be sectarianism, not evangelism.]
B. Jesus elevated the discussion from the physical plane to the spiritual (vv. 11-24).
1. She began to see the light (v. 25).
2. She was rewarded with a plain truth most of the Jews were not privileged to hear (v. 26). Jesus did not often reveal himself so plainly, because to have done so would have increased opposition to him before his time.
C. The woman believed and did what every true believer always tries to do—bring friends and family to Christ (vv. 27-30; 39-42).
Conclusion
A. Tenney concluded:
In this one instance Jesus had to overcome the obstacles of the woman’s indifference, materialism, selfishness, moral turpitude, and religious prejudice, ignorance, and indefiniteness. Nevertheless in this sample conversation He led her straight to the beginning of an active faith. This interview was a superb example of His divine understanding and mastery of human nature.
B. Jesus finished his work, but his work is work is now ours, and we must hunt with our heads up and follow his method of overcome barriers to conversion (v. 34, 19:30; John 9:4; 14:12).
1. The “greater works” that believers do are an extension of his finished work, for on the night of his betrayal he said:
And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed (John 17:3-5).
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me (John 17:11-21).
2. We need only read the first few chapters of Acts of the Apostles to see Jesus’ words come true:
a. Following the first gospel sermon preached after Jesus had finished his work, 3,000 obeyed.
b. By Acts 4, the number of men came to about 5,000.
c. By Acts 6, Luke quits counting, saying, “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.”
3. Thus far the preaching was confined to Jerusalem and Judea, as Philip had not yet gone to Samaria and the doors had not yet been opened to us, the Gentiles.
C. The fields have been harvested and gleaned in America, but when we lift up our eyes, we see people, both secular and religious, who have never met Jesus face to face.
