Picture # 4: The Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well is a picture of a rational sinner who can come to Christ as a new creation.(John 4:1-42).
In this picture, we’re going to see that a skid row prostitute drug abuser can become a child of God, and then immediately become an evangelistic witness for Christ.
The Samaritan woman left her clay water pot at the well, as Jesus filled her life with living water.
The gift of God is salvation by faith (Ephesians 2:28).
“Three Common Lies About God”
A familiar passage in the Bible is John chapter 4 where Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman at a well.
Many sermons have been preached about Jesus gently dealing with the Samaritan woman.
But in the midst of his gentle conversation, Jesus distinguishes firmly between right and wrong.
Read John 4:1-42.
Jesus had to pass through Samaria because He is all knowing and He knew the woman would be at the well at the 6th hour(6 is the Bible’s number for man).
It was high noon near Jerusalem, and it was probably a very hot day!
This is a woman (part of the human race) and it is high noon in her life.
Across the parched earth, a woman was walking toward the water well located on the edge of town.
This is the same well that Jacob gave to his favorite son, Joseph, and even today this well still exists and is approximately 96 feet deep.
The Samaritan woman was alone.
The other, respectable women who lived in town, had been to the well early in the cool of the morning.
They had all filled their pots with water for their needs of the day.
This woman came to the well alone because she was considered an outcast in her village.
She had been married 5 times and was currently living with a man who wasn’t her husband.
Her reputation around the town was pretty low.
She wasn’t a respectable woman, that’s why she arrived at the well in the middle of the day; so she wouldn’t be harassed by the respectable women who lived in the area.
As she approached the well, she carried a heavy clay water pot toward the well, but she also carried a much heavier burden in her soul.
This story unravels three lies about God.
We want to consider each one.
I. The first lie about God that this story unravels is the lie that God is whatever we want Him to be.
Having been confronted by Jesus with her blemished history, the Samaritan woman concludes that Jesus is a prophet.
To gain a better understanding of this story, you have to know something about Old Testament history.
When Israel separated from Judah after the death of Solomon, the northern kings led the nation further and further away from God.
Then, during the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah’s time, Samaritan leaders established a worship center at Gerazim.
Obviously the Samaritan religious leaders could not let their people make the long journey to Jerusalem each year to worship.
So, in their minds, they needed a God for the Northern Kingdom.
So, the Samaritans used scripture to get what they wanted (Burger King Theology).
They used Deuteronomy chapter 27 as their authority for locating a new temple at Gerazim.
The temple the Samaritans built at Gerazim was a rival to the great temple at Jerusalem.
No wonder the Samaritan woman was surprised when Jesus talked to her, because the Samaritans were despised and hated by the Jews.
The Samaritans recognized only the parts of the Bible that suited their needs for the moment.
They made God fit for their own agenda.
They rationalized God in their lives to fit their own needs, therefore, they are the perfect picture of the rational sinner.
The Samaritans turned God into what ever they wanted Him to be, in this case, a deity they could conveniently worship at Gerazim, and so they wouldn’t have to make the long journey to Jerusalem.
Today, we can’t rationalize God into whatever we want Him to be.
II. The second lie about God that this story unravels is the lie that God is obligated to offer salvation to the followers of other religions.
Jesus clearly affirms God’s continued selection of the Jews as the source of the Messiah.
No other religions can confirm that truth because they don’t contain that truth.
But look how close the religion of the Samaritans was to the religion of the Jews.
The Samaritans believed in the first five books of the Bible, but they rejected the books of Joshua through the book of Malachi.
The Samaritans descended from Abraham but they intermarried and mixed with the Medes and the Persians.
The Samaritans lived in the Promised Land, but they centered their culture around the historic well dug by the Jewish patriarch, Jacob.
If there ever was a religion close to the truth, it had to be the religion of the Samaritans.
If God was obligated to save the followers of all the other religions of the world, then Jesus had the perfect opportunity to validate, and even embrace, some alternative religion.
But He didn’t do that.
Instead, He offered himself (a Jew), as the promised Messiah to both the Jews and the Samaritans, and to us today who would be considered gentiles.
Many of the other religions of the world today get some things right.
The Buddhists affirm a peaceful lifestyle, but history shows that many of their priests study martial arts and at times have led bloody revolutions.
The Hindu religion affirms respect for Mother Nature, but they neglect human suffering.
The Moslems affirm that Jesus is God’s prophet, even that Jesus was a sinless prophet, but they reject the prophecies of Jesus.
Each of the world religions gets some things right.
They get some things right in their attempt to rationalize God in their lives.
Unfortunately, all of them except Christianity fail to embrace the Truth.
Many of the other world religions teach garbled Christian truth mixed with false theology.
Jesus however, taught that salvation is of the Jews, through Himself as the Messiah, and then He, through the work done on the cross, extended salvation to all who will receive this great truth.
For reasons not known to us, but known only to God Himself, God chose in eternity past to save the world through the bloodline of the Jews.
So, everyone today has equal access to God through Christ, His Son.
Jesus rejected the Samaritan woman’s religion, which lays the groundwork for Jesus rejecting all other religions except Christianity.
III. The third common lie about God that this story unravels is the lie that many different paths lead to God’s presence.
If a path as close to the Jewish religion as the Samaritan’s religion didn’t lead to God, how could religions which deny the need for the atonement of sins, and religions that reject the need of a personal God be accepted?
The Samaritan religion was a false religion, a rationalization of religion.
Their temple was counterfeit.
Their priests were unauthorized by God.
Their scriptures were incomplete because they only believed in the first 5 books of the Old Testament.
Their worship was fake worship.
And within those facts there are great lessons for us today.
Any religion which fails to bow down to Jesus Christ and His teachings fails to approach God correctly.
We have an obligation today to do more than get close to the truth.
Worship and truth are inseparable with God.
Therefore what we believe about God has the ability to corrupt our worship of God.
Jesus, however, makes the same offer to us today that He made to the Samaritan woman.
He offers living water for thirsty souls.
The living water is the Word.(See John 7:37).
Jesus is the Living Word!
He offers himself as the Bible’s promised Messiah.
Will you join the One who sits beside Jacob’s well waiting for you?
Would you make a personal decision and commitment to Jesus Christ?
If you will, you’ll find that your personal decision for Christ will have the power to change your life in a very positive way!
Rev. Jimmy Davis
Bayview Baptist Church
5300 Two Notch Road
Columbia, SC 29204
Telephone: 803-754-8690
Email: BayviewBaptist@aol.com
