As I thought about what to preach on this morning I found myself all night thinking about the movie most of us went to see last night. Imagine if we were there and not just watching it on a screen we still couldn’t have done anything about it. It would have not been for the soldiers, who would keep us from doing anything, if we had enough people we could have over powered them.
No we couldn’t have done anything to help Him because He wouldn’t have allowed it. Peter tried to stop it, and He told him, “Put your sword away, I can pray to My Father and He would provide me with 12 legions of angels”. Then in Matthew 26:54 How then could the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus? It had to happen. We could not do anything about it then, but as I told my nephew, we can do something about it now. So now turn with me to John 4:27-38 so we can learn a way that we can do something in return for what He has done for us.
Background: To refresh you on the story, Jesus was on His way back to Jerusalem for the Passover when He sits down at a well to take a rest. The disciples went to go buy some food and while resting there. A Samaritan woman who was an outcast even by her own people came to draw from the well. Jesus asks the woman for a drink to her surprise due to the fact that the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus proceeds to tell her about the living water that only He can provide and also tells her about her past. She at first perceives Him to be a prophet but then when she tells Him about the coming of the Messiah, he replies in verse 26 Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. Now is where we pick up the story.
1. SHE HAD SIMPLE FAITH
John 4:25-26 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." [26] Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."
Jesus had come to His Own people and had demonstrated His power and His identity through many miracles and signs. He had perfectly fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah, and yet they had rejected Him. John 1:11.
John 1:11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Acts 2:22 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—
But, Here is a woman, a child of the hated race of the Samaritans. She hears the word of God and she believes. There are no miracles! No water is turned to wine. No demons are cast out. No multitudes are fed with a little bread and a few fish. No one walks on water. No one is raised from the dead. Jesus simply tells her the truth and she believes it and is saved! Her’s is a simple faith! (Heb 11:1,6)
Romans 10:9-10 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
This woman heard the Gospel and she has believed. She is saved by grace and is a new baby in Christ. Here is a woman who is freshly saved. Her faith has not had time to become jaded. Her faith hasn’t yet become tarnished. We have the opportunity to look at faith as it appears fresh from the womb of grace. The kind of faith this woman had in her life is the same kind of faith you and I need o have in our lives.
2. SHE HAD SINCERE FAITH
John 4:28 So the woman left her water jar
After she meets Jesus and believes in her heart that He is the Messiah. She forgets everything but Him! She drops her waterpot, v28. She had a change of values, a change in her interest. Paul the Apostle when confronted by the Risen Christ,his values and interest change
1 Tim. 1:12-17 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, [13] though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, [14] and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. [15] The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. [16] But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. [17] To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Acts 9:20-22 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God." [21] And all who heard him were amazed and said, "Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?" [22] But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
Acts 9:27-30 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. [28] So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. [29] And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. [30] And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
She heads back into the city to tell the others that He is here! This man Who moments before had meant absolutely nothing to her was now the focus of her thoughts and her actions. What an amazing transformation!
2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Think about all the things that changed for you when you received Jesus as your Savior! This woman left town that day a dirty, vile, hated sinner. The women hated her because she was an easy mark for the men. The men used her body, but didn’t care a thing about her. She left town a nobody, but she returned to town a new born child of God! Everything had changed in an instant! When simple faith is exercised in Jesus Christ, and a soul is saved, sincere faith quickly develops in the heart of the believer!
3. SHE HAD SHARING FAITH
John 4:28-29 went away into town and said to the people,
Something about this old girl was different when she came running back into town. I guarantee you they had never heard her talk about “religion” before. Now, here she is talking to them about the Lord and inviting them out to meet Him. The change in her life was plain to see! After she is saved the first thing this woman wants to do is go an tell somebody else. She ran back to town to the crowd who knew best and told them about Jesus, v. 28-29.
Not only did she tell them about Him, she invited them to come and meet Him for themselves. She said, “He’s still out there and what He did for me He will do for you if you will come to Him!”
Jeremiah 20:9-10 If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
1 Cor. 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 10:14-15 But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching? [15] And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"
Matthew 10:33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
It must have done some good too, because several of those men believed because of her witness and others came to know Jesus because of her invitation. Suffice it to say, this woman was responsible for a town turning to God, v. 39-42.
There’s just something about meeting Him that makes you want to tell others about Him! It’s hard to keep to yourself. It is comforting to know that as we attempt to witness to others, we have the promises of God in this matter
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
4. SHE HAD SHINING FAITH
John 4:29-30 "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" [30] They went out of the town and were coming to him.
When the Lord is truly in your life, it will get out on you! You won’t be able to keep Him a secret when He lives in your heart. I guess it’s the whole “light and candle” thing. When He puts His light within your heart, you will stand out from the darkness around you, Matt. 5:13-16. (Ill. John Pounds made shoes for over 500 hundred crippled children and lead every single on to Jesus!)
This woman had the kind of testimony we like to parade across the platform and show off. She had one of those spectacular testimonies of a life saved from the bottom. In this case, the Lord took one of the vilest citizens of that town and used her to bring many souls to Jesus. However, you do not have to go to the bottom to have a great testimony!
1Thes. 1:6-10 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, [7] so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. [8] For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. [9] For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, [10] and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
