Many years ago in St. Louis, a lawyer visited a Christian to transact some business. Just before the two parted, his client said to him, “I’ve often wanted to ask you a question, but I’ve been afraid to do so.” “What do you want to know?” asked the lawyer. The man replied, “I’ve wondered why you’re not a Christian.” The man hung his head and said, “Doesn’t the Bible say something to the effect about drunkards having no place in heaven?” "You’re avoiding my question,” continued the believer. “Well, truthfully, I can’t recall anyone ever explaining how to become a Christian.” Picking up a Bible, the client read some passages showing that all are under condemnation but that Christ came to save the lost by dying on the cross for their sins. “By receiving Him as your Substitute and Redeemer, you can be forgiven. If you're willing to receive Jesus. Would you pray with me to receive Christ?” The lawyer agreed, and when it was his turn he exclaimed, “Jesus, I am a slave to drink. One of your servants has shown me how to be saved. O God, forgive my sins and help me overcome the power of this terrible habit in my life.” Right there, he was converted. That lawyer was C.I. Scofield, who would later edit a reference Bible that bears his name.1
The 40-Day Challenge is a series of sermons designed for your growth. It’s designed to motivate you to grow spiritually by forming 7 habits that Christians have used for centuries to grow in their faith.
Please put this in front of you for the next few minutes.
I want you to take a 40-day challenge with me.
40 days of Bible reading.
40 days of prayer.
40 days of serving.
40 days of giving.
I want to challenge you specifically by encouraging you to make a personal commitment to sharing the gospel this year. In a recent survey, Christians were asked how many times they shared the gospel with someone. Around one of every two believers had not shared the gospel in the past six months.2
The survey shows we are more likely to share the gospel with friends and family than a stranger. If this is you, I want to challenge and encourage you to change this. There is no greater honor in life than sharing the life-saving message of the gospel.
I invite you to turn to John 4 with me.
If I were to go to a thousand churches this morning and say the words “Jesus and the Woman at the Well,” nearly every one of them would know immediately the story I’m talking about. Today, Jesus meets a social, moral, and religious outsider.3
Here is a simple conversation about something as basic as getting a drink by an ancient well. Yet, it turned into one of the most memorable events in this lady’s life and a conversation for the ages. We just don’t have as many evangelistic conversations as we know we should. The message that has gripped our hearts and formed the centerpiece of our lives remains unspoken.
1. This Woman
“The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” (John 4:17-18).
She was startled when a Jewish man asked for a drink. In the minutes to come, she expressed her dislike of Jewish people. And she was flippant about religion.
1.1 Jesus at the Well
Jesus is traveling with His disciples through Samaria, which is outside of Judea. When He gets to the town, His disciples leave to get something to eat. Jesus is very weary and thirsty. And at the sixth hour, which is noon, in the heat of the day, Jesus goes to a well. He has no way of getting water out of the well because He does not have a water jar. So, He asks the lady for a drink. Jesus took advantage of a simple opportunity to make an eternal impact on this lady’s life.
1.2 Samaritans
Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies. Centuries before our conversation, most of the Jews were exiled to Babylon by their conquerors. Some of the Jews who stayed behind intermarried with other Canaanites and essentially formed a new tribe, the Samaritans. The Jews who came back to their homeland after a long time away didn’t intermarry. The Samaritans took parts of the Jewish religion and parts of the Canaanite religion and created a syncretistic religion. In time, the rejection was so strong that the Samaritans built their own temple. They didn’t accept all the Old Testament, but just the first five books or the Pentateuch. So, the Jews considered the Samaritans racially inferior and heretics.
A popular prayer in those days said, “And Lord, do not remember the Samaritans in the resurrection.”4
No reason she’s shocked that a Jewish man would speak to a Samaritan.
1.3 She Was a Woman
“The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)” (John 4:9).
In that patriarchal society, men did not speak to women in public, at least if they didn’t know the women. Strict rabbis forbade other rabbis to greet women in public. There were even Pharisees who were called “the bruised and bleeding Pharisees” because when they saw a woman in public, they would cover their eyes, and so bump into walls and houses as they walked about!5 No reason she’s shocked that a Jewish man would speak to a Samaritan woman.
1.4 She Came at Noon
Nathanial Hawthorn wrote The Scarlet Letter nearly two centuries ago. Hester Prynne was a young lady who had a child out of wedlock. As punishment for her adultery, she was forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her dress. The Women by the Well didn’t wear such a letter, but she might as well have.
The Samaritan lady came to draw water at noon. Biblical scholars like to point out that this is not when women ordinarily came to draw water. They usually came early in the day when it wasn’t hot yet so they could have water for the housekeeping chores for the entire day.
Why was she there alone in the middle of the day? The answer is that she was not only a racial outcast, but she was also a moral outcast. She is a complete outsider.
1.4.1 Five Husbands
“The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” (John 4:17-18).
Her life was a miserable chain of unfulfilling relationships.
1.4.2 Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
In 1999 Rosaria Champagne Butterfield was a tenured professor of English at Syracuse University. She said, “As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.”6
When I was 28 years old, I boldly declared myself lesbian. I was at the finish of a PhD in English Literature and Cultural Studies. I was a teaching associate in one of the first and strongest Women’s Studies Departments in the nation. I was being recruited by universities to take on faculty and administrative roles in advancing radical leftist ideologies. I genuinely believed that I was helping to make the world a better place. At the age of 36, I was one of the few tenured women at a large research university, a rising administrator, and a community activist. I had become one of the “tenured radicals.” By all standards, I had made it. That same year, Christ claimed me for himself ….”7
She said her conversion felt like both a train wreck and an alien abduction.8 Rosaria details how this train wreck happened:
I began researching the Religious Right and their politics of hatred against queers like me. To do this, I would need to read the one book that had, in my estimation, gotten so many people off track: the Bible. While on the lookout for some Bible scholar to aid me in my research, I launched my first attack on the unholy trinity of Jesus, Republican politics, and patriarchy, in the form of an article in the local newspaper about Promise Keepers. It was 1997.
I was a broken mess. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world.
The article generated many rejoinders, so many that I kept a Xerox box on each side of my desk: one for hate mail, one for fan mail. But one letter I received defied my filing system. It was from the pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. It was a kind and inquiring letter … I didn’t know how to respond to it, so I threw it away.
Later that night, I fished it out of the recycling bin and put it back on my desk, where it stared at me for a week, confronting me with the worldview divide that demanded a response…
With the letter, [Pastor] Ken initiated two years of bringing the church to me, a heathen. Oh, I had seen my share of Bible verses on placards at Gay Pride marches. That Christians who mocked me on Gay Pride Day were happy that I and everyone I loved were going to hell was clear as blue sky. That is not what Ken did. He did not mock. He engaged. So when his letter invited me to get together for dinner, I accepted. My motives at the time were straightforward: Surely this will be good for my research.
Something else happened. Ken and his wife, Floy, and I became friends. They entered my world. They met my friends. We did book exchanges. We talked openly about sexuality and politics. They did not act as if such conversations were polluting them. They did not treat me like a blank slate. When we ate together, Ken prayed in a way I had never heard before. His prayers were intimate. Vulnerable. He repented of his sin in front of me. He thanked God for all things. Ken's God was holy and firm, yet full of mercy. And because Ken and Floy did not invite me to church, I knew it was safe to be friends.9
Today, Rosaria is a mother of four, a homemaker, and the wife of a Presbyterian pastor in Durham, North Carolina. Some of you here feel your sexual mistakes of their past mean that God would never have any interest in them again. You are too damaged. You are too far gone. There is hope for you.
1. This Woman
2. This Man
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ They went out of the town and were coming to him (John 4:29-30). Just what did Jesus say to this woman that caused her to invite the whole town to see Him?
2.1 He Speaks to an Outsider
To everyone’s shock, Jesus speaks to this lady. He reaches over the racial and moral boundaries to talk with her. He is clearly open and warm with her. Jesus crosses barriers.
2.2 He’s Tired
The Bible says Jesus is tired, so He stops by the well. Jesus is 100% God, and He’s 100% human. He was tired. I’m so glad Jesus proceeded forward with the Samaritan Woman even though He was tired. He’s teaching us that just because we are tired doesn’t mean we have to stop.
Tired volunteers may teach a great Bible study. Tired missionaries succeed when they engage lost people groups. And even tired children’s workers run a great VBS!10 No, you don’t have to stop just because you’re tired.
2.3 He’s Intentional
Jesus is seeking this woman’s salvation, knowing everything about her. Jesus is pursuing this unacceptable relationship. God is pursuing this woman. He means to have her in heaven. This is graciously relational. Everything is intentional. He broke a centuries-old taboo. He sought to be alone in Samaria.
He sat on the well. He spoke and did not remain silent. He spoke to a Samaritan. He spoke to a woman. He spoke to an adulteress. He asked for a drink.
2.4 He’s the Temple
“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father” (John 4:20-21).
Jesus sees himself as the ultimate meeting place between God and his people. That’s what the temple stood for. He says, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it in three days.” Jesus’ death and resurrection are our temple now.
2.4.1 He’s the Truth
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6).
Jesus says, “I am truth.” He didn’t say, “I point to the truth.”
2.4.2 He’s the Resurrection
Do you remember the story of Lazarus and his death? Martha’s brother says to Jesus, “You know, if you were here, he wouldn’t have died, but he’ll be raised in the resurrection of the dead in the last day.” What does Jesus say in return? He doesn’t say … “I don’t point to the resurrection,” instead, hear Him say, “I’m the resurrection.”
2.4.3 He’s the Sabbath
Over in Mark 2, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. Well, the leaders come together and say, “You shouldn’t be working on the Sabbath.” What does Jesus say? He doesn’t say, “I don’t point to the Sabbath.” Instead, He says, “I’m the Lord of the Sabbath.” “I am the source and author of the eternal Sabbath rest.” Remember what Jesus said to the woman?
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10b).
Jesus is much more than a man. And Jesus takes all of the power of His deity to use to fix us. Remember His last words on the cross were not “Go fix yourself” but “It is finished.” He has accomplished salvation for us to fix what really troubles us.
1. This Woman
2. This Man
3. A Life-Changing Conversation
“Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life’” (John 4:13-14).
Nothing will ever satisfy our longings and dissatisfactions except for a long and continuous drink of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus is speaking quenching what our souls are really thirsting for. Most of what this world offers is seawater for thirsty people. When you are dehydrated at sea, you have this incredible desire to guzzle seawater. Seawater may satisfy you for just a moment, but a split second later, it leaves you thirstier.
3.1 He Was Warm
We don’t know how long this conversation took place – maybe minutes or maybe hours. We do know that this woman wanted more of Jesus. She went into town to tell everybody who would listen, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (John 4:29). Little children were attracted to Jesus. They ran up to Him. He had this magnetic personality.
3.1.1 Be Warm and Engaging
We need to be magnets for the gospel. God wants us to engage others with warmth and love. Every person we meet is an opportunity to have a life-changing conversation. Be warm as you do your errands. Be warm and inviting as you invite others to eat with you.
Pick up the check. Get rid of your “Go to Hell” personality. Jesus doesn’t need more jerks. Everything about Jesus in this story was “convictionally” gracious.
3.1.2 Ask Questions
It’s uncanny how often our Lord answered a question with a question. Jesus doesn’t do this in this encounter with the Woman by the Well. The Rich Young Ruler asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” That question was a great setup for a clear, concise gospel presentation. I can almost hear a disciple whispering in Jesus’ ear, “Take out the tract right now.” But how did He respond? He posed a question, “Why do you call me good?” Jesus loved to ask questions.
3.1.2.1 Hell
Someone asks you after engaging a little in a discussion about Jesus and religion, “So, I suppose you think all those sincere followers of other religions are going to hell!” What if you responded by asking, “Do you believe in hell?”
3.1.2.2 Evil
Someone challenges you, “How can a good God allow so much evil in this life?” What if you responded by asking, “Why do you think terrible things happen in this life?” Answering a question with a question, then, often has significant advantages over using direct answers. It brings to the surface the questioner’s assumptions.11 Responding with a well-thought-out question might cause our friend to consider a concept they have never given any brain cells toward.
3.2 Getting Started
How Do You Get Started?
3.2.1 Ask God for a divine appointment.
I love verse 4 though we didn’t read it earlier: “And he had to pass through Samaria” (John 4:4).
Then, open your eyes and your mouth and take advantage of the opportunities around you. Drinking coffee… Getting a haircut… Be Prepared. Having friends or neighbors over to your home for coffee with the purpose of sharing your faith.
3.2.2 Do you know the Gospel?
Let me show you how you might share the Gospel by using just one verse. A conversation in and around a college class… You might ask, “What do you think makes a person a Christian?”
3.2.3 Opportunity Costs
Economists have a concept called opportunity cost.11 Opportunity cost is the forgone benefit that would have been derived from an option other than the one that was chosen. Let me give you a rather famous example of opportunity costs.
The people at Xerox developed the Xerox Alto computer and it’s considered to be one of the first personal computers. Xerox was slow to realize the value of the technology that had been developed at PARC. Xerox was reluctant to get into the computer business. Byte magazine stated in 1981, “It is unlikely that a person outside of the computer-science research community will ever be able to buy an Alto. They are not intended for commercial sale, but rather as development tools for Xerox, and so will not be mass-produced.”12
Around this time, Steve Jobs even came to examine what Xerox did and incorporated some of their elements into his Apple computers. But that’s simply money; let’s talk about opportunity costs for eternity. What is the lost opportunity cost of not touching the Bible over Christmas break? What’s the lost opportunity cost for wasting your teen years?
What’s the lost opportunity cost of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars only on your comfort? In light of YOUR eternity, what is God’s opportunity cost for your personal life and the resources He has shared with you? I want to challenge you specifically by encouraging you to make a personal commitment to sharing the gospel this year.
EndNotes
1 https://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bscofield2.html; accessed January 28, 2024.
2 https://research.lifeway.com/2022/05/24/christians-say-theyre-seeking-but-not-having-evangelistic-conversations/; accessed January 28, 2024.
3 Timothy Keller, Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions (New York: Penguin Group, 2013), 21.
4 R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 101
5 Hughes, 101.
6 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/my-train-wreck-conversion.html; accessed on January 28, 2024.
7 Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith (Pittsburgh, PA: Crown & Covenant Publications, 2012).
8 Ibid.
9 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/my-train-wreck-conversion.html; accessed on January 28, 2024.
10 Hughes, 99.
11 Randy Newman, Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did. (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2004).
12 Thanks to Stuart Pendell for this concept.
13 https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1981-09/page/n59/mode/2up?view=theater; accessed on January 7, 2023.
Today’s Scripture
“A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.’ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.’
Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he.’
Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you seek?’ or, ‘Why are you talking with her?’ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ They went out of the town and were coming to him (John 4:7-30).
