John 4:1-45
Intro – The Search for Love
No topic has received as much attention as love. Philosophers, poets, and songwriters have all tried to define it.
Shakespeare once said, “Love asks me no questions.”
Plato wrote, “At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.”
Tennyson said, “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
And Lennon and McCartney sang, “All you need is love.”
But another voice, not as famous in the world’s eyes, spoke more deeply about love than all of them. Not a poet, not a philosopher, not a songwriter — but a fisherman. His name was John.
John walked with Jesus Christ for about three years. He wasn’t speculating about love. He lived with Love Himself. And John tells us that love isn’t just a feeling. Love is a Person.
But here’s the problem: if God is love, why do so many of us live with shame? Why do so many of us feel unworthy, guilty, disqualified, unclean?
That’s what this message is about. Today’s sermon is titled “No Shame on You.” Because when Jesus meets you at your well — the place of hiding, the place of shame — His purpose is not to condemn you, but to free you.
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Point 1 – Shame is Universal
Shame is the painful shadow of guilt. Sometimes it’s guilt from sin. Sometimes it’s from weakness. Sometimes it’s from failure. But whatever the source, shame weighs heavy on the soul.
We’ve all felt it.
Think about a little boy who breaks a lamp in the living room. What does he do? He hides under the bed. Mom still knows. The lamp is still broken. But shame whispers, “Don’t let them see who you really are. Hide.”
And we carry that into adulthood, don’t we? You bump into someone from your past, and you suddenly want to duck into another grocery aisle. Or you avoid certain conversations because you don’t want people to know the whole story.
That’s shame. And it’s universal. But here’s the good news: in Christ, there’s no shame on you.
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Point 2 – Three Responses to Shame
Most people respond in one of three ways.
First, religion.
Religion says: “You’re in debt to God. You’ve sinned. You’ve failed. You owe Him.” And so you work harder. You pray longer. You serve more. You try to pile up enough good deeds to balance the scale.
But friend, the debt is too much. You can’t pay it off. And the harder you try, the more exhausted you get. Religion can’t erase shame.
Picture it like this: a man racks up $100,000 in credit card debt. “Religion” says, “Work overtime, pay it off. Maybe in 200 years, you’ll break even.” But you’ll never catch up.
Second, irreligion.
Irreligion takes God out of the picture. It says: “Forget the guilt. Ignore it. Escape it.” Some people lose themselves in hours of television or scrolling endlessly on their phones. Others medicate with alcohol, drugs, pornography. It numbs for a while. But when the high wears off, the shame comes back — often worse than before.
It’s like ignoring a serious medical symptom. You feel chest pain but decide, “I’ll just push through. Maybe it’ll go away.” Ignoring it doesn’t heal you. It only makes things worse.
Third, there’s Christ.
Christ doesn’t say “work harder” or “pretend it doesn’t exist.” He says, “Bring it to Me. I’ll take it. I’ll set you free.”
So we’ve got three responses: Religion = debt. Irreligion = denial. Christ = deliverance.
And deliverance means this: in Christ, there’s no shame on you.
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Point 3 – The Woman at the Well is a Mirror of Us
Let’s step into the story.
Jesus is traveling from Judea back to Galilee — about 70 miles on foot. He stops in Samaria, in a town called Sychar, and sits down by Jacob’s well. He’s tired. He’s thirsty. His disciples have gone into town to buy food.
Verse 7: “A woman from Samaria came to draw water.”
Notice the detail: it was the sixth hour. That’s noon. Women didn’t go to the well at noon. They went in the cool of the morning, together, in groups. This woman comes alone, at the hottest time of day. Why? Because she was avoiding the whispers, the stares, the judgment. She was carrying shame.
And Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, speaks to her. That was unheard of. Rabbis didn’t talk to women, much less Samaritan women. But Jesus breaks the barrier. He asks her for a drink.
She’s shocked. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?”
But Jesus isn’t after water. He’s after her heart. He says, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
She says, “Sir, give me this water, so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here.”
Do you hear her real motive? “So I don’t have to come here anymore.”
She doesn’t want to face the shame. She doesn’t want to be seen.
Let me bring it into today. Have you ever known someone who shops at Walmart at two in the morning? Why? Because they don’t want to run into anyone. They’re avoiding being seen. That’s this woman.
And we’re just like her. We build our lives around avoiding shame. We dodge conversations, we hide habits, we bury secrets.
But when Jesus meets you at your well, He says the same thing He said to her: in Me, there’s no shame on you.
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Point 4 – True Cleansing is Not in Religion but in Christ
Now Jesus turns the conversation. Verse 16: “Go, call your husband, and come back.”
She replies, “I have no husband.”
Technically true — but also hiding the truth.
Jesus answers, “You’re right. You’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.”
He exposed her shame. But notice: He didn’t do it to humiliate her. He did it to heal her.
When the truth comes out, she does what most of us do: she changes the subject. “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim we must worship in Jerusalem.”
And Jesus answers: “Neither. The hour is coming — and is now here — when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”
The temple in Jerusalem? Just a shadow. The temple in Samaria? Just a counterfeit. The real temple was standing right in front of her — Jesus Himself.
Here’s the gospel: you don’t need to climb a mountain or enter a building to be cleansed. The Presence of God has come to you. The true Temple is Jesus Christ.
And when you come to Him as the Temple, the final word over your life is this: no shame on you.
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Point 5 – Shame Can Become Testimony
What happens next is stunning. Verse 28: “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’”
She left her jar. That jar was the symbol of her shame. She had carried it day after day to avoid others, to hide her past. And she dropped it at the feet of Jesus.
Then she ran back to town with the very story she once tried to hide. And many believed in Jesus because of her testimony.
Friend, do you see it? What once defined her in shame became her testimony of grace. That’s what Jesus does. He doesn’t just remove shame — He redeems it. He turns your greatest wound into your greatest witness.
It’s like a scar. At first you hide it. You don’t want people to see. But later, that scar becomes proof: “This is where I was healed. This is where I survived.”
Her testimony was simply this: “Come, see a man who knows everything I ever did — and still loves me.” That’s the heart of the gospel: Jesus knows the worst about you, but still says, “No shame on you.”
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Conclusion / Appeal
So let’s bring this home.
Religion says, “Work off your debt.”
Irreligion says, “Deny it and hide it.”
Christ says, “Bring it to Me. I’ll take it. I’ll set you free.”
The Samaritan woman walked to that well burdened by shame. She walked back free. She walked back with living water.
And you can too.
[Gesture toward the jar/prop] — “What jar are you carrying? What shame weighs you down? Will you leave it with Jesus today?”
He already knows. He already loves you. He already died to remove it.
So drink from the living water.
Come, see a man who knows everything you ever did — and still calls you His own.
No shame on you. Not in Christ.
